User blog comment:Chase999/Anew, The Vitalis Somnum/@comment-3391671-20160531075631/@comment-26378838-20160601231617

"I do not know what to say about your intentions of making it a skillshot AoE instead, but I will say that it will feel like and overlap with Q (current or not) as it is a skillshot AoE with disarm. I recommended the healing to make this ability more unique from the Q, or eventually the E."

From my understanding, the Q is akin to with the added bonus of passing through minions. What I was thinking for the W was more along the lines of and give Anew the possibility of choosing between hitting one enemy champion for decent damage (if the Q's  was higher) or multiple enemy champions for lower damage. This champion lacks secondary role, but to me it screams control mage with a more supportive role rather than damaging, so my criticisms have "Support/Mage" in mind.

I also agree with you that it's probably better to make the sleeping parts of the kit passives rather than toggles and give the awaken portion more hints of its passive behavior. In the case of W's awaken ability, it could include a small heal to all allied units hit by it and switch Q and E's sleeping effects to place the two mobility-related effects in the same ability slot and give more clarity to the basic abilities as a whole.