Knowing how to use League of Legends wards and which are the best warding locations is incredibly essential. Teams that have a better vision control and a higher vision score tend to win more games than the teams who don’t. All players need to learn how to ward, where to ward, and how to limit the vision of the opposite team. Warding is not a job only the Support should do; every laner needs to ward occasionally.
What are LoL wards?
Let’s start with the basics of warding for beginner players. If you are a player who knows what wards are and what wards can do, simply skip to the next part of this article.
In League of Legends, you can’t spot enemy champions that easily. The whole map is covered with fog so players can roam around the map. This helps players to hide their next move from their opponents. If an enemy champion appears in the visual range of you, your teammates, or your minions – they will be revealed. To have more vision on the enemy, we use wards around the map.
There are several wards in League you need to know of. When you start the game, you can choose whether to get another Warding Totem trinket or get an Oracle Lens. The Warding Totem is just a basic vision ward that will reveal everything around the ward – in a moderate radius. Enemy champions cannot easily spot this ward because it turns invisible, lasting for 2 minutes. You have two charges for the Warding Totem, and when you use them, the Totem will start to refill over time slowly – so you can use it again. When you get this Totem, don’t use it right away at the start; you should wait for 2 – 3 minutes. In the next part, you will learn where to use these wards.
The other trinket that you can get to start the game is the Oracle Lens. The Oracle Lens allows you to spot any hidden enemy traps, wards, and champions in bushes within a radius of yourself as you go around. Once you detect the enemy traps, you can destroy them to minimize their vision control. The best trinket to get in the starting phase is the Warding Totem. The Oracle Lens is mostly handy and used in the mid or late phase of the game. It is crucial to minimize the vision of the enemy team. So, for supports, Oracle Lens is best after they level up to level 6 and upgrade their support item. Remember, you can refill your support item’s warding totems when you go back to your fountain. And, placing a lot of wards will replace the new ones with the old ones.
When the Support upgrades his support item, the item gives him 4 Warding Totems so he can use it. When this is available to the Support, the Support should get an oracle lens to destroy enemy wards.
Apart from these trinkets, you can also get a Farsight Alteration after leveling up to level 9. This trinket allows you to put a farsight ward away from yourself. This is only useful when you want to spot an enemy champion that is hidden in the bush. Farsight Alteration is mostly used for that, and once you reveal the enemy champion, they can destroy your ward because it isn’t going invisible.
What’s a Control Ward?
Today, you can’t be a pro if you are not using Control Wards. Once the Control Ward is placed (mostly in a bush), it will reveal enemy champs, hidden traps (Teemo’s mushrooms or Nidalee’s traps), Warding Totems, and stealthy enemy champions like Evelyn. Control Wards can reveal stealth champs like Evelyn, but they can’t reveal Akali or Shaco when they go stealth mode. You are limited to the use of only one Control Ward at a time. Control Wards have an unlimited period of time and will stay wherever you put them unless someone destroys it.
Control Wards are very powerful, and you will need to buy them from the Store for 75 gold. If an enemy Warding Totem is placed in a bush and you place a Control Ward on the same bush, you will block the Warding Totem’s sight. This is best used when you and your team are taking Dragons.
Many beginner players think that Control Wards are not worth it. But that’s not true. If you learn where to place a Control Ward correctly, you will have a better chance of winning the game then the enemy.
League of Legends warding guide
This is the part where we talk about where to ward perfectly. These tips are great and will help you out a lot… But, they will not cover all potential scenarios of your game. Always try to be creative and outsmart your opponents. Take a good look at their movement patterns and put wards accordingly.
Warding guide during the Laning Phase
Warding on the first 1:30 minutes isn’t a good idea. At this time, players will be farming in their lanes. If you are concerned about getting invaded, then position your team on the entrances from the river. This way, you can protect your Jungle, prevent invasions, and you won’t waste your wards.
At 1:30, the jungler and the midlaner can ward both sides of the river bush. This will help the jungler and the midlaner spot an enemy jungler trying to attempt an early level 2 gank. Warding in that position is extremely important when you are playing against aggressive champions. You can steal Scuttle Crab when it spawns at 2 minutes from your enemy jungler and possibly kill him.
During the laning phase, try to think like a jungler. In the beginning, the jungler wants to clear his Jungle and do a quick gank. For this reason, almost every jungler takes the shortest path to victory. If you are better than your laner and you over pushed your minion wave – it is crucial to ward your nearest river bush (the red dots on the map).
All the players on the team should use wards, not only Support. In low ELO, they always blame the Support if there aren’t many wards on the map. The best thing to do is to ward your nearest river brush side. You can split the warding game between your teammates so you can ward more paths. For example, the Toplaner and Midlaner can both ward the top riverside and be secure from ganks. And, also make sure to ward dragons after the five-minute mark.
Warding guide during Mid and Late phase
When the Laning phase ends, all you need to do is put yourself in the place of your enemies and outsmart their next move. Just ward the paths that they are going to come from so you know when they are going to attack. And, remember always to ward dragons, herald, baron, 15 seconds before they spawn.
When the late game phase comes, it is essential to ward Dragon or Baron pits. But, also remember to ward the paths around the pits. This will help you out in two ways. The first way is when the enemy jungler goes to get drake, you will know because of the view control around it. And the second way it will help you out when you are trying to get Drake or Baron. This will allow you to see if the enemy is trying to steal the objective from you. Also, use control wards on the pits so you can block enemy Warding Totems.
If you want to farm during this phase, remember to ward the paths around you in the Jungle. This will protect you from getting ganked.
Keep track of the LoL vision score.
Riot has a tremendous metric system that measures and tells you what’s your vision score each game. The vision score increases every time you place a ward or destroy a ward. Your LoL vision score is measured 1 point per one minute of the lifetime of your ward. You are responsible for providing your team more vision and denying more vision on the enemy.
What’s considered a good ward score?
You are probably wondering what’s a good ward score. A good ward score comes above 40 points. Pro players make above 70 points, and you can too. With a little practice, you can learn to create more vision and deny more vision to your enemies. Make sure to take a look at your ward score now and then so you can keep track of your warding skills.
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