League of Legends: How to carry with Warwick on Patch 9.21

League of Legends players are waking up to Patch 9.21 today, complete with a couple of buffs to Warwick! Here are our tips and tricks to carry your solo queue games with the champion.

With season 9 coming to a close shortly, the League of Legends balance team has gifted jungle mains one final buff to aid their push to a higher ranked division. Patch 9.21 hit live servers on Wednesday, and with it came an interesting change for one of the current meta’s highest win rate junglers – Warwick.

On the final day of Patch 9.20, Warwick boasted a strong 50.77% win rate, a figure which would normally prompt the balance team to keep track of a champion and potentially target some nerfs in their direction. However, on this occasion, the Riot staff have taken a completely different approach and instead thrown the werewolf a bone in the form of two buffs to his Q – Jaws of the Beast and W – Blood Hunt.

Here are the two changes directly from the Patch 9.21 Notes:

"Q – Jaws of the BeastDamage Ratio: 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of the target’s maximum health –> 6/7/8/9/10% of the target’s maximum healthW – Blood HuntBonus Attack Speed: 50/65/80/95/110% upon attacking a Blood Hunted target or an enemy unit below 50% of their maximum health –> 70/80/90/100/110% upon attacking a Blood Hunted target or an enemy unit below 50% of their maximum health"

At first, they may seem like relatively small buffs, but when you consider that Warwick’s win rate has been sitting comfortably above 50% for the last five patches, then it becomes a different story. Therefore, it’s highly likely that these changes will be the catalyst required to propel Warwick from a C tier jungler to an S tier jungler on Patch 9.21.

So, if you’re looking to gain some LP before the season ends, or just want to carry a few games from the jungle, here’s our quick Warwick guide:

Runes

From the Precision tree, start with Press the Attack for increased early game damage from skirmishes and trades with the enemy jungler. Then, Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, and Coup de Grace for increased attack speed and damage to low health targets.

As for the secondary tree, there are two main options. Either go for Domination, then take Sudden Impact/Taste of Blood as well as Ravenous Hunter for combat buffs. Or you could opt for Sorcery, taking Celerity and Waterwalking for a massive movement speed boost when setting up ganks or chasing down low health targets.

Skill Priority

Start with Q, then W, then E in the first three levels. Then proceed to max W, then Q, then E. Putting points in R whenever possible!

Item Build

Step one is the starting items, obviously. Hunter’s Machete and Rejuvenation Bead will get you through an early jungle clear unscathed. From there, immediately build a Tiamat for an improved jungle clear speed. Afterwards, finish building a Stalker’s Blade, then upgrade it into a Cinderhulk.

The next step is boots. As with any jungler, there are only two real options: Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads, depending on the enemy team. Upgrade your Tiamat into a Titanic Hydra, then the next bit is up to you!

If you’re ahead, feel free to build a Trinity Force and attempt to snowball your lead. If not, stick to tanky items for your last three, such as a Spirit Visage, Dead Man’s Plate, or Randuin’s Omen. Other options include Sterak’s Gage, Wit’s End, Thornmail, and Frozen Heart, but these are all situational items so ideally stick to two of the three tanky choices from earlier.

Gameplay

First Jungle Path
Now for the important bit. Whether you’re on blue side or red side, ask for a pull from your bottom lane and start on the corresponding buff. Then, path towards the top side buff, taking Gromp and Wolves along the way. After this, you should be healthy enough to patrol the top river, looking for gank opportunities, or the enemy jungler. If neither option is available, simply take top Scuttle Crab, then path towards the bot side and clear camps.

Early Game
Usually, a jungler’s task is to farm camps and look for safe gank opportunities away from the enemy jungler. In Warwick’s case on Patch 9.21, the Rift is his to rule, with excellent skirmishing power and a strong clear speed.

With 70% bonus attack speed against low health targets at rank 1, Warwick’s W – Blood Hunt is an ability to be feared in the jungle on Patch 9.21. Throughout the early game, you should be looking to fight the opposing jungler, forcing him away from Scuttle Crabs, or counter ganking for 2v2 or 3v3 fight wins.

As for your own gank choices, target those with limited escape tools, utilizing your E – Primal Howl, to fear enemy laners into your team-mates to secure an easy kill or burnt summoner spell. Ideally, you’ll have pulled off two or three successful ganks before fifteen minutes, securing tower plates and dragons with your laners, as well as map priority.

Mid to Late Game
These two stages of the game can be sandwiched together due to the fact that they are extremely similar to the play style of any other jungler in the current meta. Warwick’s job for the rest of the game is to be present in team fights and alive for major objectives.

With Tiamat, farming is incredibly quick and easy, so grab nearby camps before grouping up with your team and forcing a fight, tower, or epic monster. In team fights, your job is simple, try your best to lock down enemy carries with a well-timed R – Infinite Duress for your team-mates to finish off, then soak up as much damage as possible while outputting PDS with high attack speed and multiple uses of Q – Jaws of the Beast. It’s a bonus if you can cause multiple enemy champions to be feared for 1 second using Primal Howl during the team fight, as this disruption could be the difference between a won and lost fight.

And most importantly, don’t miss your Smite.

Will you be trying out the recently buffed Warwick on Patch 9.21? What is your favorite item build for the Wrath of Zaun? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter!