This is nothing terrible new, but I’ve had a lot of success with it, going from low 1000s to 1250+ now. (This plus Teemo, but Teemo is just OP atm)

Basically at sub-1200 ELO having a jungler is not 100%. It can be if you play one, and that alone increases your chance of winning. I find WW to be the best non-banned rare-picked jungler, and the build I use for him now is not something I’ve seen used extensively.

I run HP quints (thinking of switching them out for AS or HP/lvl), armor pen reds, dodge yellow, MR/lvl blue. 21/0/9 (skip the crit damage boost in offense, xp boost, 1 point in buff duration). Smite + Ghost. I don’t like flash on WW as I feel Ghost gets me out of more situations, and has a shorter CD.

Start cloth + 2 HP pots (you will have 125 gold left over, that’s fine). Blue buff, ask your team to cover, smite the golem right away to start the cooldown, pop a pot, pop your W, should finish the golem at around 50% HP (depending on crits/dodge). Go wolves, then red buff (smite should be up, use it asap on lizard), two golems, etc. You should be using smite whenever it is up. Don’t save it for bigger stuff, just use it asap on whatever. That 5 bonus gold adds up.

My general build is merc treads, wriggles, spirit visage, madreds, then either hexdrinker if they are magic-burst heavy, cleaver if they are armor heavy, or bloodthurster if you need more sustained dps. GA works if you need to be more tanky and your dps is fine ( say vs an all squishy team with a sick ap/ad burst mix)

Why the build works: with just merc treads (buy boots+madreds first trip back, finish mercs after wriggles)) wriggles, visage and madreds (buy the bow and pick first, then finish the whole thing) you have around 120 Armor and MR, decent HPs, decent CDR, decent lifesteal, a free ward, CC duration reduction, the 500 damage creep proc, the %HP damage proc, and the %HP lifesteal boost. Every single piece is key for WW, and all of it stays helpful the entire game (the 500 damage proc is great for fast kills on dragon and baron, or just to speed-clear the jungle or a creep wave, plus with lifesteal you regen HP like crazy. Without wriggles, you don’t have this late-game when you upgrade madreds).

Jungle to 6, but don’t miss an earlier chance to gank if your 1v2 lane is getting pushed hard and they are low. Soon as you hit 6 you should be ganking heavily. If you don’t at least attempt 2-3 ganks before lvl 10 you are doing it wrong. Even if the gank just sends the enemy back to base, that’s still a XP/gold advantage for your team, and it makes them more cautious to push when they come back. Try to get the last hit on a champ as a feed WW can carry a game hard, in part because the better you are doing, the faster you can clear the jungle/dragon, which kinda snowballs you. Saving Q for last-hits is a good way to do this. Just don’t abuse it, especially if you KS from a hard-carry.

Don’t initiate with your ult. This is the single biggest WW mistake IMO. Run up to people and hit them with Q, pop W, and have E running. Use your ult to either interrupt a key enemy ult, regen HP when you are at 25% or lower, or to stop someone from running away (ulting people who have just flashed is a good move for instance, as WW’s ult has great range).

You don’t want to be the first in a fight, but you also don’t want to be the last. You have great lifesteal between Q and your auto-attacks, and with this build you are very tanky as well. During a fight obviously focus on the dps, but use your Q on whichever enemy has the highest base HP, as this will lifesteal the most HP for you. (Against someone with 3k+ HP, Q heals you for almost 50% in one swing)

If they send in their tank early, don’t be afraid to engage him and auto-attack+Q. Mana should be a non-issue for you late and you do some considerable damage to tanks, plus you lifesteal far more HP than they dish out. Just be sure to switch off them when the enemy dps moves in.