Counter Guide

How to Beat Warwick

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Warwick doesn't hunt the enemy team. He hunts a number, and the number is your health bar.

Most junglers pick a target because of who they are. He picks one because of what state they're in, and once you're in that state he can see you through walls, move faster toward you, and arrive with a button you cannot dodge. Everything below follows from that, including the counterplay, which starts a long way before the gank does.

Matchup Snapshot Warwick, the Uncaged Wrath of Zaun

Where You Meet HimJungle, sometimes Top

Damage TypeMixed, mostly magic

Why He Is FrustratingHis engage cannot be dodged

MobilityLow, unless you're hurt

Biggest ThreatInfinite Duress [R]

Hardest CounterLillia

What a Counter Needs

An answer to point-and-click crowd control, since dodging isn't on the table
The sustain or the health pool to stay out of the range where he starts tracking you
A way to win a fight that lasts, because his damage grows the longer he's attacking

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Warwick on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Warwick

Lillia1,602 games54.5%
Rammus1,668 games53.4%
Briar2,927 games53.3%
Jax1,645 games52.6%
Wukong2,332 games52.4%

Picks Warwick Beats

Rengar1,144 games41.9%
Kha'Zix1,389 games44.4%
Qiyana1,100 games44.5%
Diana1,046 games45.1%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Warwick. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 75,397 Warwick games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Warwick Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Infinite Duress [R] isn't a skillshot. There's no positioning, no reaction and no clever sidestep. If he's in range and you're the target, it lands.
He knows where the hurt people are. Dropping below half health hands him vision of you and speed toward you, which turns a normal gank into an ambush you couldn't have warded for.
He heals off attacking anything. Chip damage doesn't stick to him, so a poke lane and a slow jungle clear both fail to punish him.
He's an early jungler who never gets useless. The suppression stays relevant into the last teamfight of the game, whatever his items look like.
He punishes exactly the mistake everyone makes. Staying in lane at low health to catch one more wave is the most common habit in solo queue.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

You choose whether he can track you. Above the health threshold he's an ordinary jungler with low mobility, and that threshold is a decision you make every wave.
Everything runs through one ability. Block it, cleanse it, or bait it and he's a slow melee champion with nothing to open with for a long time.
He can be stopped mid-flight. Crowd control while he's traveling ends the whole thing, which is why holding your stun matters more than using it early.
He needs a target to be near. He does very little to a team that fights at range and doesn't chase.
His damage against a healthy target is unimpressive. He's built to finish, not to open, so an even fight at full health is one he'd rather not take.

Countering Warwick

Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Warwick comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:

Manage your own health bar as a defensive stat. For some reason, this is the counterplay nobody does. Recall at a health total (above half) rather than at a gold total, because the gank he was never going to catch is the one where he couldn't see you.
Carry the answer to point-and-click. A spell shield, a cleanse, or crowd control immunity turns his opener into a wasted cooldown, and there is no equivalent to dodging it.
Hold your crowd control for the flight. He's committed the moment he leaves the ground, and anything that interrupts him mid-air deletes the entire play.
Cut the healing. Almost his whole sustain comes from attacking, so anti-heal does more against him than an extra defensive item.

If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:

Playing a Bad Warwick Matchup

Treat half health as the edge of the map. Push the wave and go, or hold it and stand behind your turret, but don't do the thing where you farm three more minions at a third health because the wave is nearly dead.

Ward for the approach rather than for the entrance. He gets a movement speed bonus on the way in, so the ward that saves you is the deep one.

Fight him at full health if you have to fight him at all. He's much closer to a normal champion when nothing about you is triggering the rest of his kit.

Best Warwick Counters

Three ways to beat a champion built on one unavoidable button: be immune to it, never enter the state that invites it, or refuse the chase entirely. One counter each.

Olaf Immune To The One Button

The cleanest answer in the game. Olaf can simply turn off crowd control for a stretch, and a Warwick whose opener does nothing is a melee champion in a duel he was relying on winning for free.

He also wants the same fight Warwick wants, which is a long one at close range, and he wins that fight.

Dr. Mundo Never Enters The State

An enormous health bar that refills itself is a bit of a strange counter, and against this specific champion it's the right one. Mundo spends very little of the game in the condition Warwick is looking for, and he gets back out of it without going home.

Don't take the fight at even items and expect a kill. You win this matchup by not being catchable.

Ashe Refuses The Chase

Every basic attack she lands slows him, which attacks the part of his kit that gets him to you rather than the part that kills you. A Warwick who has to walk the whole distance arrives late or doesn't arrive at all.

She's also the reason the team gets a say. Her long-range crowd control can end his approach before he's close enough for the ability that matters, which is worth more here than any amount of personal damage.

Itemizing Against Warwick

Two of these are matchup items rather than good items, and against him that's the right trade:

Quicksilver Sash is the item that changes the matchup outright, because it answers the one thing (Infinite Duress [R]) you can't answer with positioning. Bramble Vest is aimed at his sustain (most of what makes him hard to kill in a long fight). Mercury's Treads covers everything else his team brings once he's caught you, and the Control Ward is for the approach he was planning to make through an unwatched entrance.