How to Ward in LoL: A Comprehensive Guide

Warding in League of Legends can be a game-changer skill, and mastering it is easier than you think. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essentials of how to ward in LoL. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just starting out, these tips are designed to give you a competitive edge.

Learn the best spots for your wards, understand their impact, and start turning the tides of your games. Ready to light up the map and outsmart your opponents? Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of warding and take your play to the next level!

Learning Warding Basics

Wards are tools that grant vision in League of Legends, illuminating the fog of war – areas of the map hidden from your view. This visibility is crucial for making informed decisions, from avoiding ambushes to securing objectives.

There are several types of wards, including:

• Stealth Wards (yellow): These basic wards are invisible to enemies and provide vision for a set duration. They are fundamental to maintaining map awareness.
• Control Wards (red): More than just providing vision, these wards reveal and disable enemy Stealth Wards and invisible traps, offering offensive and defensive utility.
• Trinkets: The Warding Totem places Stealth Wards, while the Oracle Lens is used for detecting and clearing enemy wards, which is crucial for controlling vision.

Key Warding Terminology

• Vision: The area of the map that is visible to your team.
• Fog of War: Hidden map areas, potentially concealing enemy movements.
• Warding spot: Specific locations optimal for placing wards.

Strategic Placement and Warding Techniques

Let’s explore some strategic ward placements that can greatly impact your game. In League of Legends, knowing where and when to place wards can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Here, we’ll delve into advanced strategies for how to ward in LoL, giving you an edge in various game phases.

Early-game Warding

During the early game, your main goal is to stay safe in your lane. The best places to put wards are the river brushes and the tri-brush. These spots are crucial for spotting the enemy jungler coming to gank (surprise attack) your lane.

If you’re pushing your lane toward the enemy tower, placing wards a bit further out is wise. This gives you more time to see enemies coming and react.

In the early game of LoL, your focus should be on safety and gathering information. Along with warding river brushes and the tri-brush to spot enemy jungler ganks, consider extending your vision to enemy jungle entrances. This not only alerts you to potential ganks but also provides valuable intel on the enemy jungler’s path.

For solo laners, maintaining control of the side lane brush through warding can prevent ambushes. If your own jungler is planning an early gank, place wards to anticipate and counter enemy movements.

Deep wards in the enemy jungle, especially at buffs or camps, are a high-risk, high-reward strategy that can give your team a significant early advantage.

Mid-game Warding

As the game shifts into mid-game, your warding strategy should also change, focusing more on major objectives such as Dragon and Rift Herald.

You can start by keeping track of their spawn timers and aim to place wards around these areas well before they appear. This proactive approach not only helps in spotting the enemy team’s attempts to take these objectives but also provides crucial information for potential contests.

Warding at the entrances of the enemy jungle becomes vital during this phase. It alerts your team to enemy movements toward objectives and helps in preparing for fights or contests. Similarly, securing river control through Control Wards is key, as it offers a persistent vision for tracking enemy roams and securing objectives.

If your team is behind, defensive warding in your own jungle can safeguard against enemy invasions and catches, allowing safer farming and movement.

Also, when team fights around objectives are imminent, it’s important to ward off potential flank routes. This ensures you’re not caught off guard by enemy engagements, helping maintain an advantageous position during crucial mid-game skirmishes.

Late-game Warding

In the late game of League of Legends, warding takes on heightened importance, particularly around key objectives such as Elder Dragon and Baron Nashor. Effective warding in this phase involves not just placing wards at Baron but also in strategic locations that provide broader vision and control.

Wards placed in your own jungle are crucial for preventing enemy sneaks and ambushes, especially when your team’s focus is on other parts of the map. Equally important is placing wards in the enemy jungle. This can reveal if enemies are isolated and vulnerable, providing opportunities for picks that can lead to game-winning advantages.

Moreover, when your team is on the offensive and attacking enemy towers, warding the flanks is important. This not only protects your team from surprise counter-attacks but also gives you a clearer picture of the enemy team’s positioning and potential reinforcements.

Jungle Warding

For junglers, effective warding is about gaining territorial control and tracking the enemy jungler’s movements.

Beyond placing wards in river brushes, enemy jungle camps, and near buffs, consider extending your vision to paths leading to lane gank routes. This can alert your laners to potential dangers and also open up opportunities for you to counter-gank.

Warding the enemy jungle’s key pathways and intersections can give insights into their jungler’s route, helping you predict their next move and plan your counter-strategy. Also, placing wards at Dragon and Baron Nashor can give your team an advantage in securing these objectives.

It’s not just about keeping lanes safe but creating a vision network that provides your team with information dominance, allowing for smarter plays and objective control.

Advanced Warding Techniques

To improve your gameplay in League of Legends, mastering advanced warding techniques is key. These strategies go beyond basic ward placement, offering detailed approaches to map control and enemy tracking. Let’s delve into these advanced methods and understand how they can greatly impact your game.

Deep Warding

Deep warding is a high-risk, high-reward tactic in League of Legends. It provides invaluable insights into enemy movements and strategies, particularly in their jungle and near key objectives.

This kind of warding allows for better prediction of enemy ganks, objective control, and helps in setting up ambushes or countering enemy plays. To effectively deep ward, you must understand the enemy’s vision range, timing, and be aware of their position to avoid getting caught.

If you want to effectively deep ward in LoL, make sure to put your wards at the enemy’s base for teleporting and destroying the Nexus. You can also put your wards in the bushes that are near the entrances of your enemy’s base.

Defensive vs. Offensive Warding

Defensive warding in League of Legends focuses on safeguarding your territory from invasions and ganks, which is crucial for maintaining lane control and safety. It involves placing wards in key defensive positions such as jungle entrances, near buffs, and along pathways leading to your lanes.

On the other hand, offensive warding is a more aggressive strategy. It’s about gaining vision in the enemy’s territory, especially in their jungle and near objectives. This approach is vital for setting up ambushes, stealing resources, and tracking enemy movements.

Mastering the balance between defensive and offensive warding can significantly shift the game’s momentum in your favor.

Warding to Counter Specific Champions

Warding to counter specific champions in League of Legends requires a tactical approach tailored to their unique abilities. Against roaming champions, placing wards at jungle exits and river crossings can alert your team to their movements.

When facing champions with invisibility or stealth abilities, placing control wards in key areas, such as in-lane brushes or near objectives, is critical. This targeted warding strategy helps mitigate the strengths of these champions.

These strategies can reduce their impact on the game and allow your team to prepare and respond effectively to their actions.

Warding Tips for Different Roles

Here, I’ll provide you with insights on how to ward in LoL effectively, whether you’re supporting, jungling, or holding down a solo lane. Each role has unique responsibilities and opportunities for warding, impacting not just individual safety but also team-wide advantages.

• Supports: As a support, you’re the main person in charge of vision. Use Control Wards and the Oracle Lens to destroy the enemy’s vision. Your job is to keep wards around important objectives and places where fights happen often.
• Junglers: Junglers should use wards to keep track of the enemy jungler and to help secure objectives. Knowing where the enemy jungler is can tell you much about their plans.
• Solo lanes (Top and Mid): If you’re in a solo lane, you should place wards in the river brushes and at the entrances to your jungle. This helps keep you safe from ganks. Your warding should change depending on how your lane is going and where you think the enemy jungler might come from.
• ADCs: As an ADC, focus on warding your lane in the early game. Regarding team fights, smart warding can stop assassins or enemies who try to come at you from the sides or behind.

Common Warding Mistakes to Avoid in League of Legends

Warding in League of Legends is a skill that, when mastered, can greatly improve your gameplay. However, even experienced players can fall into certain traps that reduce the effectiveness of their warding.

Here are some common warding mistakes and how to avoid them, explained in more detail.

Overwarding a Single Area

Players often put their wards in one specific area or lane. While this might seem like a good idea to protect a particular point of interest, it can lead to a lack of vision elsewhere on the map.

League of Legends is a game of information. Over-focusing on one area might miss crucial enemy movements in other parts of the map. This tunnel vision can lead to missed opportunities for ganks and objective control or even leave other lanes vulnerable to enemy attacks.

So, balance is essential in warding. Spread your wards across critical areas, such as dragon/baron pits, jungle entrances, and river brushes. This broader vision allows for better decision-making and map control. Supports and junglers, in particular, should be mindful of distributing their wards evenly.

Neglecting Warding in Key Game Phases

Players often stick to a static warding strategy throughout the game, not considering how the warding needs to change as the game progresses.

Different stages of the game require different warding focuses. For example, early-game warding is more about lane safety and spotting the enemy jungler, while mid to late-game warding shifts towards objective control and deep jungle vision.

Neglecting these shifts can leave your team unprepared for crucial moments such as dragon/baron fights or late-game pushes.

Adapt your warding strategy to the game’s phase. In the early game, focus on lane and river vision. As the game moves to mid and late stages, shift your focus to primary objectives, potential ambush spots, and deeper enemy territory. Always be aware of the game’s timing and objectives coming up.

Mismanagement of Warding Resources

Players often use their wards inefficiently, placing them all too quickly without strategic thought or not using them when needed. This also includes not keeping track of the number of wards placed and available in their inventory.

Wards are a limited resource. Misusing them can leave you without vision at critical moments. Placing wards without strategic thought can waste them, while not putting them when necessary can leave you blind to enemy movements.

To avoid these issues, make sure to be strategic about your ward placement. Don’t just place wards because you have them. Put them where they will likely provide valuable information. Keep an eye on your ward count and cooldowns.

If you’re a support or jungler, consider buying a Sightstone or its upgrades for a more consistent ward supply. Also, make sure to regularly check the map to see where your vision is lacking and plan your warding accordingly.

Conclusion

Learning how to ward in LoL is an art form that requires practice, adaptability, and strategic thinking. By mastering this skill, you gain more than just vision. You gain the ability to anticipate and outmaneuver your opponents. In Summoner’s Rift, the power of sight is the key to victory.