How To Ward Like a Pro
When done correctly, warding in League of Legends allows you to track enemy movements and predict tactics to help you and your team win the game.
It also allows you to increase your team’s visibility of objectives, making sure that they don't end up in the wrong hands. There are endless ways to use wards to your advantage, but if you’re starting out, you might not be quite sure where to start.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the ins and outs of warding in League of Legends whether you're playing top, mid, bot or jungle.
What are Stealth Wards?
Stealth Wards are the most common source of vision in League of Legends, as they are given to you automatically at the start of each game. They're invisible to opponents and can only be destroyed by enemies with Control Wards or Oracle Lenses. Starting at 90 seconds, the lifespan of your Stealth Wards increases as you continue to level up.
It is important to remember that each ward has 3 health points and can be used as a teleport beacon by allied champions. Each champion is also limited to the maximum amount of having 3 wards on the map at a time. This makes it important to plan where and when to place wards. This limit is also shared between totem wards and stealth wards.
Using Control Wards
Contrary to Stealth Wards, Control Wards don’t have a timed duration and stay active until destroyed by the enemy. They are also visible to the enemy team when near, and they allow you to reveal and disable enemy wards and hidden traps.
Only one Control Ward can be placed per champion, and unlike totem wards, you’ll have to actively buy them at your base for them to appear in your inventory.
Warding in the top lane
As the top lane, knowing when and where to ward, is your safety net, should you find yourself in need of a quick escape.
Depending on which side you're on, you'll need to ward differently to protect yourself optimally against ganks.
Where to ward on the red side
- You'll want to place your first Stealth Ward at the uppermost part of the river in the nearest brush. This is common practice and allows you to spot most junglers approaching from the river.
- Place your Control Ward in the brushes behind Red Brambleback. This lets you ward for both the top and mid lane, effectively making invades on both lanes nearly impossible for enemy junglers to dodge.
Placing your Control Ward closer to your lane often will give you too little time to escape rushing junglers and lessens the positive impact it will have on mid-lane vision.
Where to ward on the blue side
- Your lane is much more protected thanks to the layout of the map, meaning that you'll only really have to worry about warding the closest brushes at the top of the river.
Warding in the mid lane
As a mid-laner, it’s important to focus on controlling the river to prevent yourself from being ganked. The river connects to all parts of the map, so you want to make sure to have your lane warded at all times to know when the enemy jungler moves in position for an ambush.
Where to ward
- You should always prioritize placing wards in the brushes on each side of your lane.
This helps you get out of possible ganks and lets you know when you can focus on farming and push your lane without having to worry about being caught out.
Warding in bot lane
Warding the bot-lane is a job reserved for the support roles, as the AD-carry has to focus solely on farming minions at the beginning of the match.
Where to ward
- Whether you're on the red or blue side, you'll want to place your first ward in the middle of the river so as to cover both the pathway to the Blue Sentinel and the drake pit. Not only does this give great vision, it prevents enemy junglers from stealing the drake early while also letting your jungler know when the enemy takes the scuttle, allowing them to invade and steal monsters.
- Don't worry too much about warding the nearest brushes, as your AD-carry will be able to take care of those without risking losing out on farming minions.
Warding as a jungler
Playing as a jungler is all about making the right gambles. To be successful, you'll want to be invading the enemy jungle as much as possible while still making sure they aren't invading yours, and that they come up empty-handed if they do. This also means letting teammates take monsters to prevent the jungler from stealing them.
Where to ward
- Start the game with a Warding trinket to use on the Red Brambleback or Blue Sentinel to spot the enemy jungler before they get there. Immediately go back to Spawn and get your Arcane Sweeper.
- As the game progresses, use Vision Wards deep in the enemy jungle around monster spawns, in brushes and cross-ways to keep track of enemy movements. Whenever you're in your own jungle, use your Arcane Sweeper to take care of any enemy wards and limit their vision of you and your teammates.