Boards›General Discussion

What really happened to warwick pre-rework

rtbf48419282·6/29/2018, 2:58:40 PM·1 votes·1,831 views

Pre-rework warwick was one of my favorite champions. It was not one of the strongest champions in the game either. Even during the feral flare season, whenever I picked warwick jungle, everyone thought I was trolling. Still, I had pretty high winrate with him and got to mid plat. What does that mean? If every single person thinks warwick is a troll pick and I still won so many games, that means I've done something right with warwick that everyone else couldn't, whether it be a build path, play style, game knowledge, etc.

But here's what happened to warwick pre-rework. It had faced the biggest (literally) nerf in league of legends history. He became absolutely unplayable and literally became a troll pick. That was when the bloodrazor replaced the feral flare and it is also one of those cases riot comes up with ridiculous patches and instead shift the blame on something else entirely.

Here's what was the problem with the bloodrazor. It applied on-hit effect twice when you've farmed sufficiently. It also gave additional true dmg on-hit with smite. It surely does sound op on on-hit champions, but is warwick the only on-hit champion in the game? What about the feral flare then? It's also an on-hit item. How in the world did a troll pick become a nerfable champ with a slight item change? And why did warwick get nerfed while everyone else like xin Zhao and master yi stayed the same? It's because riot made a mistake with the jungle item, but refused to admit it and rather shifted the blame on something else like a champion like warwick which people assume that it's supposed to be a troll pick and then gets angered when warwick, which seems like an easy champ because of his lack of mobility and skillshot, ends up doing little more than a so-called troll pick. That's why riot nerfed warwick to the ground immediately without reverting back the jungle item.

Guess what happened then? Xin Zhao who had one of the strongest early game in the game got slight buff early game, and became monstrous late game. Master yi also became broken in that meta. Jax, shivana, udyr, etc were all broken in that meta. Did they get any nerfs? Nope. In fact, riot thought it's not fair how they have to farm up to get the new passive on the bloodrazor, so they introduced guinsoo's rageblade, (not like the current one) which applies on-hit effect every two attacks without stacking up. Champs like Yi and xin became more broken then ever, and finally then riot realized that they need to subtly revert back the item change through new items and new passives. What happened to warwick? Nothing. Didn't get reverted back. Left in the gutter until the rework came in months later. Just like that, one of my favorite champ, gone. And I abused xin Zhao to get back to plat after years of not playing league, with so few games. That's how broken xin Zhao was.

I think the current blood razor is more balanced. What riot should've done is make the bloodrazor as it is now (do more testing before applying patches seriously) and reduced the amount of additional true dmg the item deals with smite, period. No nerfs or rework on warwick was necessary.

12 Comments

Rouwhorst6/29/2018, 5:23:25 PM1 votes

You are scrambling all the names and effects. Feral flare, added in 4.5 as extension of Wriggle's Lantern on 30 stacks, got removed, along with Spirit of the elder lizard/wraith/golem in patch 4.20. The replacement items were Poachers Knife, Trailblazer, Skirmishers Sabre and Stalkers Blade which could all be augmented with either one of the four enchantments called Warrior, Magus, Juggernaut and Devourer. In 5.13 Sated devourer could be obtained by gaining 30 stacks. In 6.9 Devourer was removed and replaced with Bloordrazor.

Let's look at the noteworthy things of the jungle items. Wriggle's: ---Stats: Attack speed and damage. ---Passives: Flat bonus magic damage and flat healing against monster on hit. ---(later added)-Transforms into Feral Flare at 30 stacks.

Feral Flare: ---Stats: Same as Wriggle's ---Passives: Bonus magic damage (+1 per stack) and flat healing on hit, damage tripled against monsters and minions. (infinite stacks)

[Enchantment] Devourer: ---Stats: Attack speed and on-hit magic damage ---Passives: Extra on-hit magic damage per stack. (infinite stacks) ---(later added)-Transforms into Sated Devourer at 30 stacks. (stops stacking at 30, damage is added to Sated Devourer)

[Enchantment] Sated Devourer: ---Stats: Same as Devourer ---Passives: Every second basic attack applies on-hit effects twice.

[Enchantment] Bloodrazor: ---Stats: Attack speed ---Passives: % max health physical damage on hit.

The true damage and the on-hit damage items are two separate items, they are bought separately at least.

Patch 4.20: Retirement of Wirggle's and Feral Flame, introduction of Devourer enchantment. Jungle change. (more gold, longer respawn timers, stronger monsters, smite buffs) Warwicks ult cd: +20 sec rank 1, +10 rank 2, +0 rank 3.

Warwicks winrate skyrockets from 54% to 58% (gold+), 53% to 57% (diamond+) Popularity from 10% to 24% (gold+), 6% to 13% (diamond+) Banrate from 2% to 68% (both gold+ and diamond+)

Patch 4.21: Devourer on-hit damage 40->25 Jungle gold income lowered. (still higher than pre 4.20) Jungle component item cost increased (finished unchanged) Warwick ult damage reduced to 150 / 250 / 350 from 250 / 325 / 420, W duration 10->6.

Warwicks winrate drops from 58% to 50% (gold+), 57% to 47...50% (diamond+) Popularity from 24% to ~8...4.5% (gold+), 13% to 2.5% (diamond+) Banrate from 68% to ...2% (both gold+ and diamond+)

Yi Winrate at under 50% and didn't really change until late season 5 Shyv and Xin got notably higher winrate halfway season 5, probably sated devourer. (40% banrate on shyv)

In my opinion the nerfs were reasonably justified, but perhaps a little too much. His play rate significantly dropped and (kept declining) but his win rate managed to come back up with sated devourer. Old Warwick could probably have done decent with the new jungle item. He might struggle however quite a bit (more) with the new meta. (scuttle, gank heavy, even more kite) But the reason for his rework wasn't only fuelled by his mediocre performance. His kit was very simple, pretty much only his ult needed thought. His character and thematic weren't very great either nor were his visuals. And in my opinion Riot managed to do his rework quite well, both kit and thematic/lore wise, although his play style moved a bit away from on-hit.

Sources: League of Legends Wiki, League of Graphs

DearPear7/6/2018, 3:39:32 AM1 votes

I liked AP pre-rework Warwick. It was damn stupid and I loved that.