Counter Guide

How to Beat Warwick

Matchup Guide · Patch 26.22 · 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.

Patches 26.21-26.22 Matchup Data

Who Beats Warwick: Jungle and Top Counters

Best Picks Into Warwick Jungle

Amumu627 games56.1%
Darius1,048 games · 26.2153.7%
Bel'Veth1,435 games · 26.2153.3%
Lillia880 games53.3%
Briar887 games53.0%

Picks Warwick Jungle Beats

Qiyana613 games42.2%
Nidalee943 games · 26.2144.0%
Rengar1,579 games · 26.2145.2%
Hecarim1,899 games · 26.2145.3%

Every Jungle matchup for Warwick →

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Warwick. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patches 26.21-26.22, Silver and above, 53,325 Warwick games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed. A row marked 26.21 is last patch's number for that matchup, kept until Patch 26.22 has as many games of it.

Best Picks Into Warwick Top

Sion481 games53.2%
Teemo750 games52.9%
Shen514 games52.1%
Malphite824 games51.8%
Volibear686 games51.7%

Picks Warwick Top Beats

Ambessa795 games41.0%
Yasuo444 games41.9%
Dr. Mundo767 games43.9%
Irelia960 games44.0%

Every Top matchup for Warwick →

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the top lane against Warwick. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patches 26.21-26.22, Silver and above, 30,704 Warwick games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

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 CounterAmumu

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

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 give him the wounded target it hunts for, 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.

Lillia Never Gets Low Enough

Blood Hunt [W] only switches on against targets below half health, and Lillia fights from far enough away to stay out of that range. The true damage on Blooming Blows [Q] lands at its outer edge, further out than Primal Howl [E] reaches (450 units against 375).

Every spell she lands stacks movement speed, so the chase Warwick wants turns into a long walk behind her. Lilting Lullaby [R] puts him to sleep once Dream-Laden Bough [Passive] has tagged him.

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.

Next step

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.