League of Legends Warding

Warding is the process behind heightened map awareness by reducing the Fog of War. Map awareness via Warding ( ) is the key to preventing successful ganks, tracking the enemy jungler, and keeping strategic objectives (like Baron Nashor and Dragon) under lock and key.

The main role of the Ward is to reveal a small part of the map to your team, essentially providing vision which would otherwise be clouded by the "fog of war". Having map awareness, or map control via multiple wards, grants you and your allies the ability to observe enemy units, buildings, and champions. Having vision allows you to take objectives (if, for example, you notice the enemy is split up), force fights and many other favourable scenarios. In other words, wards can be placed strategically both offensively (catch an enemy player out of position) and defensively (warn of incoming ganks). Ward coverage enables further capitalization on enemy mistakes which can ultimately lead to winning the game.

Control Wards grant vision of camouflaged units. In essence, warding is not limited to providing vision in areas clouded by the fog of war. Control Wards can be used to detect champions or stealthed traps. For example, a Control Ward in one of the river bushes may reveal the camouflaged enemy Evelynn before she reaches your lane.

It is a common misconception at lower levels of play that the support should be the only person warding. During the early game, every position should be warding, perhaps with exception of the Marksman who is commonly teamed with a support who will be warding their lane. All players should attempt to buy a Control Ward or two when they recall or die. Even if you already have a Control Ward on the map, buying an extra one will allow you to deny enemy vision in a different location or in the event that your existing ward is destroyed.

In the lane phase each respective laner needs to use their Stealth Ward to reveal paths which an enemy may take when attempting a gank. Warding the enemy jungle can also be beneficial as it allows your team to track the enemy jungler's movements.

Key areas that need to be warded depend on the game. Choke points on the map are the places that can provide a huge advantage if warded, as tracking enemy movements can be the deciding factor of where a teamfight is held. In terms of absolute necessity of being warded all game, Dragon and Baron are of crucial importance to retain vision of. Secondary places are preferably spots in the enemy jungle to spot for any aggression. Remember, when warding, place wards in ways that maximize your vision of an area.

Note: Some areas require forethought before warding. Place a Control Ward at the entrance to the Dragon and Baron pits as there might be wards placed at the back or sides of the pit. However, when placing wards, it's better to place them a little away from the exit so that vision is granted of the enemy Blue Buff entrance.

Different enemy champions can necessitate alternate warding positions. Nearby river wards are of little use against a Rammus in Powerball, instead, deeper wards in the river and jungle are needed for adequate warning of incoming ganks. Junglers like Jarvan IV or Vi who can bypass common ward positions by jumping over walls also affect this. A purple team J4 can easily bypass a ward covering his Blue Buff entrance to gank bottom lane by jumping into the river bush, wards in the river bush are thus needed. This information also affects counter-warding; as the purple team bottom lane, leaving the enemy team with vision over the river but not the river bush can instil a sense of false security in less experienced foes if they are unfamiliar with J4's ability to jump into the river bush from the jungle.

Enemy behaviour may also influence warding positions. A jungle who frequently invades may gank mid from your own wraiths, which side bush or blue bush wards may not warn you of, in this situation it would be appropriate to ward in the ramp to wraiths. For example, Zac is capable of ganking mid from wraiths or bottom/top from within the jungle and can necessitate deep jungle wards.

Keeping the nearby jungle warded when pushing a lane against a Fiddlesticks is important to prevent being caught unaware by a Crowstorm from the jungle, this is similarly useful to prevent surprise initiations from Hecarim, Amumu and other junglers with large gap-closers.

Counter-warding constitutes placing Control Wards that grant sight of wards in a close vicinity of placement, or buying a Sweeping Lens and exploring areas where the enemies would usually ward in order to destroy their wards. Targeting a ward will give you a white health bar which represents how much longer a ward will stay up. By destroying their wards you deny the enemy team vision, gain some gold, and give your team an advantage. When clearing wards, make sure that you cannot get caught by people converging onto your position while warding; a prime example of this is a Blitzcrank bait-warding an area to Rocket Grab a victim.

On your team, the players who should be counter-warding/ward-clearing are most commonly the support and jungler due to the fact they don't need to rush their items (damage) as fast as the other three positions (Marksman, Mage and Fighter).

Lastly, when enemy wards are placed, you see the ward for a couple seconds before it vanishes. If you are playing a character with an autoattack reset (e.g. Leona's Shield of Daybreak), you can complete three auto-attacks and kill the ward in this time period.

When an enemy targets you they gain a yellow outline. If you're in a place clearly out of an enemy champion's vision range and they gain this glowing yellow outline, chances are that area is warded.

If you believe a bush is warded, attack a close-by minion and see if it follows you into the bush. If it resets after you enter the bush and returns to it's designated pathing, it means the brush isn't warded; if the minion follows you into the brush, it's warded.

As a jungler, standing on the ward will usually trigger a reaction by the enemy team, such as their champions backing away from the warded area immediately upon your arrival. Often you can also just ask your laners if they have an idea whether the place is warded or not; supports usually keep track of each other's wards in their inventory, and can give you a rough idea of when a ward may have been placed.