High Elo Warwick Jungle Path – The Best Jungle Routes for Warwick in Season 12

Winrate: 52.1% Pick rate: 6.7% Ban rate:3.9%

Warwick has seen a decent amount of play these last few patches having him at the eleventh most played jungler at the moment and considered by many as an S+ pick.

Since the rift scuttle XP and hp changes were dropped, the jungle meta has shifted a decent amount; Warwick is a great all-rounder champion with an enormous dueling potential and many ways to gank, some of which I will cover in the jungle clear part of the article. Warwick can stay relevant throughout the whole game, which makes him a great asset, and that’s why I will be covering him.

Summoner spells

In most cases, you should go flash and smite.

Best Runes for Warwick Jungle 

These runes are perfect for dueling and for chasing down your prey.

The Last Stand rune works really well with his passive:

The lower his hp gets, the more he heals, which you can really take advantage of if you can save your E since it lowers the damage you take.

The Best Items for Warwick Jungle

You should always start Emberknife for red smite to help you in duels since it increases the damage they take and reduces the damage you take from them and a Refillable Potion.

The first item to always rush as Warwick should be Tiamat because it drastically increases your clear speed and 2v1 / 2v2 potential.

The Mythic item to go in the current meta is Divine Sunderer because of its Spellblade effect and the raw stats as well.

For your core items, you should work on completing your Titanic Hydra, Sterak’s Gage, Thornmail, and Spirit Visage.

The boots you take will mostly depend on the enemy comp; if they have a lot of AD champions or auto attackers, take Plated Steelcaps; if they have a lot of crowd control, take Mercury’s Treads. 

An example of a full build Warwick should look something like this:

Skill Leveling

Q>W>E

Q is your bread and butter ability that is used not only for sustain, but it is a great gap closer and the ability that holds the most outplay potential; if timed right, you can follow pretty much any dash or blink in the game.

W is the chase skill that allows you to punish enemies for being under half hp and hunt them down; you upgrade it second since it increases your movement speed, attack speed on low-health enemies and, most importantly, reduces the overall cooldown.

E is the ganking setup ability that will fear your enemies and is paired really well with your q when you hold it down to get behind them.

Jungle Pathing

Now for one of the most important parts of the guide, the pathing. Usually, going for the buff that bot lane can leash is the fastest for the clear and a possible invade or counter-gank, but we will look at all of them and their pros and cons.

Blue Side, Red Buff Start

You start on red buff with your bot-lane since they can give you a better leash compared to your top laner (unless it’s maybe Shen). 

You should look at where the enemy jungler started his clear, which is usually indicated by how the enemy lakers go to lane; if one of them is in the lane since the minion waves crash, you know the jungler started at the opposite side. 

You should use your smite for the Blue buff to clear it a bit faster. If the enemy jungler is not at the scuttle crab to contest it, you shouldn’t waste smite on it but save it for krugs on your second clear.

When you know where the enemy jungler started, you can decide which lane you want to gank or counter-gank, if you and your laner can 2v2 the enemies.

 I wouldn’t recommend invading with a bot lane leash since your enemy will probably do the same, but if you see the enemy jungler started with a top lane leash and is someone you can 1v1 on level two like Evelynn or Fiddlesticks, go for it.

Blue Side, Blue Buff Start

This is a really good start when the enemy bot-lane has two immobile champs like an Ashe Taric since you can run them down if your bot-lane does the slightest thing to assist your gank. 

The way you clear this side is by starting with blue and going for gromp and wolves since they give you a faster level 3, which is a big spike for Warwick since he can use his E to fight off an enemy junglers invade and or kill him.

And it’s also a good place to find yourself after clearing that scuttle crab; if the enemy jungler is going for a full clear, you can easily go in and disrupt if not even kill him since you have the red buff on you, which does true damage and slows down the enemy.

Midlane is also a good option for you to counter-gank if the enemy jungler decides to gank it. The main reason you aren’t clearing your Raptors camp is that you don’t have any aoe till you get your Tiamat.

Red Side, Blue Buff Start

This start’s clear is pretty much the same as the blue clear on the blue side. 

1. Clear blue with your bot lane
2. Clear gromp
3. Clear wolves 
4. Clear and smite red buff
5. Clear for the scuttle crab

But the main difference is the toplane accessibility with this pathing; depending on the situation on the toplane, you can do a lane gank.

This type of ganking only works if your laner has pushed the minion wave; you go through tri-bush into the lane bushes and maybe use the Alcove to surprise the enemy laner if they overextend or prepare a counter-gank.

It is still really important to know where the enemy jungler is no matter where you start your clear since he will also be affecting how you gank.

Red Side Red Buff Start

This start’s clear is the same as the blue side red buff clear

1. Clear Red buff
2. Clear Wolves
3. Clear and smite Blue buff
4. Clear Gromp 
5. Clear Scuttle Crab

But the gank path functions the same as the blue buff blue start, which is very good if you are against an immobile bot-lane to gank possible uncontested by the enemy jungler.

Again if you are facing an enemy jungler that is weak in the early game, you could opt-out for an invade, and instead of going for Wolves after Red buff, you can go immediately for the enemy Blue buff and possibly fight the enemy jungler for it.

If they don’t show up, take the gromp too for lvl 3 and gank top lane while the enemy is still lvl 2.

Conclusion

Warwick is a very beginner-friendly champion with a very low skill requirement but still has a decent amount of outplay potential. Timing is crucial when playing as Warwick since it can mean life or death for both yourself and the enemy. 

He has always been a strong pick in the meta and his sustain and survivability in a fight are easily overlooked and underestimated, so be prepared to use that knowledge to your advantage. Since the Lethal Tempo rune has been reworked in the last patch, we are still testing out new Rune and Item combinations for The Uncaged Wrath of Zaun.

If you enjoyed this guide and are looking forward to more, leave some feedback, share your experiences with the champion and what you have learned from the guide. It really helps us understand what you want to see more of. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our website for more League of Legends-related content, the guides, lists, and articles are waiting for you. Thanks for reading!

P.S. If you’re not a fan of Warwick, check out our Kha’Zix Jungle Path guide!