Which new Warwick ability is scariest?

The Rift Herald crew comes together to bring their individual thoughts on the all-new, bigger, badder, Warwick kit. After looking at those monstrous abilities, we all find ourselves asking, which of them looks the scariest to play against?

Ryan: Blood Hunt

The Q is scary, sure, as is that horrible suppression ult that somehow survived the new kit. But those are the easy choices, you gotta dig deeper here. My intial thought was to say the E. The idea of making Warwick harder to kill AND then giving him an AoE fear? Terrifying. However, after much deliberation, I have determined that his W, Blood Hunt, is his scariest new ability.

The ability to track a target with low health is spooky scary from a thematic perspective and a game play one. Think about all the times that you have recalled in a bush with sub 100 health as the enemy jungler walks past. That way that we all take a heavy breath when we see our champion pop back into the fountain, alive. No longer. A Warwick with Boots of Mobility running after a blood trail that will eventually lead him to you? His low health, juicy target? No thanks, I’ll take my luck with any other jungler thank you very much.

On top of that, consider that he gains extra attack speed against targets that he is Blood Hunting. As soon as his prey gets low, Warwick gets stronger. He is like a reverse Olaf. This bonus also applies to jungle creeps, meaning that his clear should be fairly quick, especially after his first item or so. No matter where you are, Warwick WILL find you and he WILL hit you faster than you thought possible. Warwick looks like he will still win the “Champion Most Likely to Reach Attack Speed Cap” in 2017’s League of Legend’s Yearbook, and this time he might not even have to build Wit’s End to do it.

In all seriousness, vision is extremely important in League. For solo que, Warwick’s W will provide him an opportunity to make catches extremely easily, and as we all know, catches win solo que games. Often times, players will take risks at low health, and get away because the enemy team doesn’t have good enough ward coverage. With Warwick, that is no longer an issue.

“Playing Safe” has never really been anyone’s solo que mantra, and that seems to be the best way to confuse a Warwick. After all, if your health never gets low you will never be Blood Hunted, right? Wrong. Did I forget to mention that this ability also has an active that just Blood Hunts the closest target to Warwick regardless of their health? Well, it does. So much for being able to protect your AD Carries. It was fun having you guys take all of my jungle farm while it lasted.

Julia: Infinite Duress

Warwick has multiple gap-closers, built in lifesteal and enough crowd-control to probably be able to at least 1-v-3. However, I’m not afraid of any of those little skills. I’m deathly afraid of his ultimate ability. As somebody who loves playing bot-lane (as either AD-carry or support,) I am not really fond of the idea of being jumped from afar.

I freak out enough when a Leblanc or Rengar jumps from a bush that I see them in. I don’t need to be making my way down the river as a squishy Soraka only to be eaten alive randomly from halfway across the jungle! It doesn’t seem so bad since it seems to hit the first target he runs into, so other champions can tank it, but when it comes to Solo Queue, how many tanks are going to jump into a Warwick ult to save their carry? None.

I hate current (or old) Warwick and I hate Malzahar. I don’t hate them for any other reason than the suppress. I think if I didn’t have to play against any champion that uses a suppress for the rest of my life, my skin would clear up and I’d be able to sleep peacefully at night.

I have not known peace since the first time I’ve been ulted by a Warwick. I will, apparently, never know peace now that he can jump me from a mile away.

Austen: Jaws of the Beast

At first glance this is easily the simplest looking of all Warwick’s new abilities. “Warwick jumps either in-front or behind his target and bites them.” That doesn’t seem so bad. Lots of champions that aren’t scary have bites, like Volibear. Volibear’s bite never hurts anyone — mostly because no one ever plays him.

So, why is this the ability I’m most concerned about? Because look at all the scaling information:

League of Legends Wiki

Who can this ability not kill? For tanks, it has percent of health, for AD Carries and Mages, it has 120%AD and 90% AP scaling as MAGIC DAMAGE(!!!), for Bruisers, it heals Warwick for up to 70% of damage dealt. The only hope anyone has is Crowd Control and this ability allows Warwick to decide which side of a target he jumps to.

I know that all sounds dramatic but, think of it this way. This one ability practically contains Vayne’s entire kit. It has the movement of Tumble with the increased damage of the Final Hour at the end, it has the percent of health of Silver Bolts. It even has life-steal which Vayne has to buy. That’s just one of new Warwick’s abilities, and it’s got a base cooldown of 6 seconds! How are we supposed to hide from this new terror?

Pete: Primal Howl

I appreciate each and every one of your picks — I do, they all look terrifying — but to me, nothing is quite as scary as Warwick’s E ability, Primal Howl. If you’re not familiar, it’s this one:

Primal Howl (E)

[RANGE]

40 Mana

15/14/13/12/11 sec Cooldown

Warwick gains 35/40/45/50/55% damage reduction for 2.5 seconds. At the end of the duration, or if activated again, Warwick howls, causing all nearby enemies to flee for 1 second.

Let’s read over that damage reduction again ... yep, that’s right, it eventually scales above 50 percent. More than 50 percent damage reduction for 2.5 seconds! With a fear attached at the end! For a champion that wants to literally jump into the back line and tank damage while assassinating a carry, that’s an absolute dream. For any champions on the receiving line of that jump, it’s a freaking nightmare.