GIVE WARWICK A VISUAL UPGRADE

Leviathent·Apr 3, 2014·11 votes·6,007 views

Warwick is one of the oldest champions in the whole League of Legends and has never had a visual upgrade, I think it's unfair that he hasn't got a visual upgrade yet.

68 Comments

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 4, 201414 votes

We have a full relaunch slated for Warwick, but the question is indeed when. Currently our highest priority in terms of full relaunches is Sion; as for visual only stuff we're excited to bring you Twitch very very soon.

I'd love to say Warwick will happen at some point this year, but who knows. The landscape of what needs work most is ever-shifting. For what it's worth, I have a kit I fully believe in ready for further work.

Sir ArmaMalumApr 4, 20141 votes

My PBE account is ready! XD

Thanks for the info, can't wait to try it out. But I'll be patient, lol

If I may, I know there was some debate on him retaining his drain-tank nature, is that still a goal to keep with his re-launch from what you know?

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 4, 20144 votes

Absolutely! If anything he'll be more of a drain tank. He currently gains self-heal with bonus health, so if you want to drain tank you no longer build AP on him. He has a passive that stacks up on himself when he attacks stuff and his self-heal also increases with those stacks, so he needs to be in combat for a while before his drain tanking really comes online. It creates some pretty tense "can I live through the first 10 seconds of this and then become IMMORTAL DOG" situations.

exec3Apr 5, 20141 votes

The passive isn't like Fiora's is it? Mathematically hers is very yuck and I would hate to see another champ adopt it. :(

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 8, 20145 votes

Not like Fiora's at all. Here's the exact passive (and remember this can change still; especially the numbers)

Deals 2% of target maximum health as magic damage with each basic attack while healing for 5 (+XX) (half vs minions).

Each attack builds one stack of Eternal Thirst, which increases the healing from this effect by 11%.

Maximum stacks: 10 Damage capped against monsters to: YY

XX currently scales with level from 0.9% bonus health to 1.4% bonus health. Those numbers do look very low, but remember you have tools to multiproc the passive, you have the Eternal Thirst stacks that improve healing, and finally the Q itself has a multiplicative heal amp on it.

MinishmasterApr 8, 20141 votes

I hate it.

First, I assume that the 10 stack limit and the extremely low value of each individual stack means that he's not going to be losing stacks quickly, which means that he's going to have full stacks all the time, which means that once the Warwick player has full stacks, both sides can totally ignore that the stacks exist, because nothing they can do will change anything about them. One of the really cool things about laning with and against Warwick right now is trying to manage the stacks, for the enemy to make sure that they aren't letting Warwick get too many hits in a row off on them, and for Warwick to try to avoid switching targets. This is a constant struggle in the lane, and even if it doesn't really mean much in the long run, it is very satisfying to both sides.

In addition, the fact that the stacks have absolutely no effect on how Warwick damages the enemy is really unsatisfying. Passive healing effects are about the least interactive things that could ever exist. You might as well have it say "sometimes, while in battle, faeries fly down from the sky and heal you for an unknown amount of health", and Warwick would have exactly the same gameplay priorities.

exec3Apr 8, 20143 votes

No, what it means is that he hasn't been balanced yet so numbers are here, there, everywhere which isn't the point, the point right now is to make sure he has a good gameplay pattern and then balance later in the development cycle closer to release. Stoic's been very nice to share this passive so early on in development so it would also be nice if you didn't bite his head off for it.

Also just so you know Stoic has said in another thread that basically if you stop fighting as WW your stacks will all be gone within 4 seconds so needing to manage and keep up your stacks is still very much there.

TachiApr 8, 20142 votes

Four seconds per stack, falling off one-by-one I believe. So it could potentially take 40 seconds to lose all stacks.

exec3Apr 8, 20141 votes

A little confusing but I think I get it. Basically he heals on-hit scaling off his bonus health and his Eternal Thirst stacks act like a Spirit Visage. A little mathy behind the scenes but it seems interesting. Speaking of Spirit Visage how do you think that will interact with Eternal Thirst?

Also how do you feel about BotRK on this WW? That AS and the on-hit damage might violate your intentions of decoupling offense and defense if he picks up that and goes full tank for the rest of his items.

Firefang WarwickApr 8, 20143 votes

Does this mean he doesn't lose stacks when he switches targets (or it dies)? If that's the case I already like this passive more.

TachiApr 8, 20141 votes

I think he stated a while back that they'll stack like Jinx's minigun (without the aspd probably) and fall off one-by-one over time, so I am pretty sure they won't fall off by switching.

MackleDogeApr 8, 20141 votes

Umm, maybe it's just me but as soon as I read "2% of target maximum health as magic damage with each basic attack" I got real concerned that that is really powerful. I'm all for Warwick being viable, but that is a humongous amount of power isn't it? I get he is supposed to be a bit of a counter against tanks, but this gives him a lot of power over anyone in general. Maybe it's just the numbers that seem scary, but I've been getting a lot of "overtuned" vibe from all this stuff I've been reading about Warwick, and I don't want to see him get released with this and then nerfed hard because he was made to be too strong.

Firefang WarwickApr 8, 20141 votes

If it was slapped directly onto his current kit probably, but we don't know what's going on with the rest of his new kit number wise. Until more info is posted we can only make assumptions.

MackleDogeApr 8, 20141 votes

That's definitely true, which is why I was hoping for some clarification. Not surprised if I don't get any of course, they don't want to reveal too much until they are ready. It just sort of set off warning signs to me.

VarnocApr 5, 20142 votes

I did a rework of Warwick over on the Player Concept fourms, I understand if you don't want to use anything there, but maybe you'll find something. "Warwick Rework Concept"

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 8, 20142 votes

I commented over there, Varnoc. :)

h 2Apr 4, 20141 votes

Can you tell us if Hyena Warwick's special running animation while Blood Scent is speeding him up will remain unique, or will the other skins steal away the Hyena's claim to fame?

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 4, 20146 votes

That's a very good question! I do want special animations for all skins when he goes into Blood Scent, but I like that Hyena gets something special. Maybe the other skins will get somewhat more vanilla wolf running animations? That's a conversation I will need to have with my animator once the pod comes online (once we start working on the art).

TokamiApr 6, 20142 votes

Hoh my god, that was exactly what I was hoping you'd say! If the team makes him more wolf-like with his appearance and running/attacking animations that would be the absolute cherry on top. The hype for next year is asdfawjehglas someone invent time travel.

Egyptian FreedomApr 7, 20141 votes

Speaking of animations. I think this is a bet trivial and may be even become unpopular, but I believe wolves usually attack by "biting" in contrast to felines which attack by "swiping" or "striking".

May be it is only me, but I would love to see "hungering strike" become "hungering bite" because it is more fitting to what wolves usually do + it fits also the life steal part as in eats-a-piece-of-the-prey-and-gets-healed, it also better fits the "hunger" part.

Also, regarding his ult, I think a wolf jumping on you and starting to frantically bite you is much more fitting and exciting than a wolf jumping on you and scratching you with his claws.

See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V8_HNtyLXk

Notice how wolves never use their claws for striking even once!

NA DarklarikApr 9, 20141 votes

Dont you dare make it unique. I have Hyena Warwick and i want Regular warwick to be able to drop on all 4s and Start running like a real Wolf, like the way Twitch's Current Haste animation looks. DONT YOU DARE MAKE IT UNIQUE HURHRHUEHRUHURHR

FrayaceApr 4, 20141 votes

So Warwick is getting a full kit rework as well, like sion?

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 4, 20148 votes

Yup! Blood Scent stays (but receives a toggle) and Hungering Strike becomes Hungering Strikes (still with a very similar purpose), but other than that a lot of things will change.

HigeRApr 5, 20141 votes

O.o it's not like Blood scent isn't a toggle already O.o or do you mean an immediate toggle? as in having an enemy under 40% health is no longer a requisite?

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 8, 20141 votes

Oops, I'm bad at computers. I meant to say it receives an ACTIVE SKILL on top of it.

3mptylordApr 9, 20141 votes

OOh, please say it's going to be like Fenrir! "Warwick's next 3 attacks deal bonus damage and benefit from increased healing effects. Additionally, Warwick gains bonus attack range for the duration and his attacks will cause him to lunge into melee range if applicable."

Firefang WarwickApr 9, 20141 votes

Even If the Warwick rework only made him half as fun as Fenrir I would still consider it a success.

NA DarklarikApr 4, 20141 votes

Like Heimerdinger, id like if this kit came out asap before the VU.

RiotMorelloApr 4, 20144 votes

We got fortunate on Heimer, as we could "hack" together a lot of the art for the skill changes. One real challenge for changes is it's hard to do if it needs new art (IE; if you change the core functionality of any spell). This is a lot of why gameplay changes attempt to piggyback on VUs, it allows us to use the same resources on the art side to greater effect.

RiotZenonTheStoicApr 4, 20144 votes

Yup. We had the discussion on whether or not we can ship WW without art, but some of the things we're doing would just look very, very derpy without new art, so I'd rather wait. WW is at least a niche pick right now, unlike Heimer who was simply unpicked before the remake.

NA DarklarikApr 5, 20141 votes

:( Bummer. Hope the Wick is out as soon as possible. Werewolves OP

Salty WaifuApr 5, 20141 votes

Is there anything about Taric? i dont like pizza feet :c also please let Pink Taric be fabulous

bluefire492Apr 9, 20141 votes

ive been very very excited about the new Warwick rework! i think its a great step forward but the only thing is is that we haven't been getting too much information on what his new kit and rework is going to be like. is he still in an early stage at the moment?

AbiwonKenabiApr 3, 20147 votes

I don't think there's any question Warwick needs some polish, it's just a matter of "when?" There are many champions in need of a visual upgrade, and we can't expect them to rush out champions and not do them properly. These things take time. Besides, I believe I've seen some Rioters state that they want to tweak Warwick's kit, and kit reworks tend to make the VU take longer (they usually like to release them simultaneously)

Limakoko808Apr 4, 20143 votes

I think we can get Ironstylus to shed some light but it wont be easy. Ive already spread seeds into summoning circle emblazoned with his parrot emblem, but we need more worshippers...

milhommeApr 3, 20145 votes

Do you want to know who needs a visual up grade? , this guy Sion

daft inquisitorApr 5, 20143 votes

Yeah, he's first on the list. They LITERALLY said that. Open your eyes, bro.

RiotRiot ScruffyApr 5, 20144 votes

My biggest like about the warwick gameplay changes in progress are that they give him many more important decisions and high moments. He will actually be able to make "big plays," which is really great.

Firefang WarwickApr 5, 20142 votes

Oh man the tease is real. Too bad it seems so far away.