Yesterday, Warwick was considered balanced. Today, there are people complaining about him.

YumaS2Astral·Feb 24, 2018·3 votes·821 views

Out of a sudden, people started creating threads about Warwick being overpowered. What happened?

14 Comments

Teridax68Feb 24, 20183 votes

Statistically, Warwick is, in fact, too strong right now. On op.gg, he's rocking a >55% win rate for a nearly 5% play rate, which is quite large, and on leagueofgraphs he has also has a >54% win rate for a >10% play rate, along with a 23.8% ban rate. He is largely considered quite healthy, but has become rather powerful after Runes Reforged worked a little too much in his favor. As such, he needs a tune down.

Personally, I think this simply boils down to a raw power problem, rather than a design problem, and I think reducing his base on-hit damage/healing at level 1 could be enough to make him feel a lot better (he currently deals 76 total base damage per attack at level 1, which is a little much). Personally, I would also support nerfing him even a little more, if it could mean resolving some residual clunkiness in his kit, namely his ult hitbox being a little too thin (there are times where he misses enemies even when he goes right through them), and his Q having a small, awkward delay when you hold it for its swing move: pressing Q should automatically make you dash to your target, holding it should make Warwick hold on and travel with his opponent, and continuing to hold it for long enough should make him swing around. Because addressing these issues would buff Warwick, I'd therefore support nerfing more of his raw strength as needed, including toning down his early passive but also his base AD.

AhristocatsFeb 24, 20182 votes

who said it was a design problem?

Teridax68Feb 25, 20181 votes

It's rarely said outright, but often implied, and I've seen far too many players on here confuse balance with design. Perhaps you may not think it, but there have been people on here who genuinely believe that Warwick's current win rate is an indication that his rework failed, and even that he needs another rework just to solve his problems. Some believe he is fundamentally unhealthy. Because of this, I want to make it absolutely clear that one can criticize a champion's balance issues without having to assume their kit has core design flaws, which is why something as basic as a flat reduction to Warwick's early autoattack power could likely fix his current issues just fine.

AuurunFeb 27, 20181 votes

IMO his design isn't really good honestly. He doesn't feel interactive at all. His Q is targeted dash that also pretty much guarantees that he fears his enemy and maybe his ult is a skillshot, but not a hard one and you cannot dodge when you're feared. His W may give you a warning, but if you're not capable of just killing him first or don't have anyone to help then it doesn't really matter, and it's just waiting for death which makes it way situational to be enough. Also since his W can only be activated out of fight it actually makes his fights more boring since he has less options in a duel which is for me quite bad design. There's also his E being typical "something happens around me" skill that are itself pretty stupid. You know where it's coming from, you have only one path to chose (away from him) so either you're fast enough to get away or not.

Honestly I've considered him a disappointment since first time I saw his new abilities.

MarshbouyFeb 24, 20182 votes

I've been thinking that WW is OP for a long time. Reddit, especially r/summonerschool, has been advocating for using WW for at least the past few weeks.

EDIT: oh yeah, and a patch happened. Things tend to change after a patch.

Death by GlamourFeb 24, 20182 votes

hes been rocking a high win and play rate for weeks now, I believe what people said that he was the most balanced of certainty's champions but that doesn't really mean much when the rest have been balance nightmares.

ww is good and too many things, hes not op hes just a very strong generalist with no real downsides

J EevoFeb 24, 20182 votes

Most likely?

AP item changes

Morello's grievous wounds is now a thing you have to spec into, and which used to be on almost every ap mid before. Now it's on an item most champions don't want to rush so WW gets to run rampant.

Also adding to that press the attack got buffed and suddenly he's 55% winrate without any direct buffs to the champion.

AhristocatsFeb 24, 20182 votes

pta buff when he was already fine they nerfed xin because he would be broken with pta, but didn't do that for warwick

BigBonedCartmanFeb 24, 20181 votes

pta buffs

KivolanFeb 24, 20181 votes

Warwick's KIT has been considered balanced (I don't think he needs damage reduction tied in to his fear, though, but that's just me). His numbers, however, are not. I knew he was going to be overpowered from his reworked release, but was downvoted to oblivion when I posted about it. Fast forward a few patches and his winrate has steadily climbed every single patch to its current state of 54-55% in Diamond+.

no to toxicFeb 24, 20181 votes

I tell you why. One good pick got nerfed and now Warwick is the best pick since his "rival" got nerfed. Thats how it works. Nerf Caitlyn and somebody else takes her place.