Keeping an Eye Out: A Guide to Early Game Warding as Support

Vision is perhaps the single most important aspect of League of Legends. In any game of imperfect information, getting your team as close to perfect information is the main goal of the game besides actually winning the game. In League of Legends, this struggle manifests largely in the vision game and it begins right as the base gates fall and the champions rush to the jungle. I'll be looking at early game warding from the perspective of a blue-side support player.

The early portion of the vision battle can be seen as either easy or difficult depending on your perspective. On one hand, the resources available are extremely limited, with nothing to work with but a Warding Totem per champion. On the other hand, the first few minutes of lower level games are generally very calm and early invades can be prevented with smart champion placement at the four jungle entrances.

Rather than discussing ward placement as a function of time, I believe it is more helpful to think about ward locations as a function of circumstance. Simply put, some games you can expect to get ganked at level two while in other games you may not get ganked at all. The labeled spots on the map below will be discussed in terms of the circumstances in which it is important to keep them warded and why.

Spot #1 (Tribush)

Standard procedure here is keep the tribush pink warded whenever you can. This is a great gank path for both junglers when opposing bot lane is pushed, but blue side has much safer access to it. The other main option arises because of how obvious of a pink ward location the tribush has become. You can also keep the tri green-warded and put your pink somewhere less obvious.

Spot #2 (Outer Bush of Red Buff)

This qualifies as "somewhere less obvious" as far as the early game is concerned. Pink warding here will take more time, but provide protection for your mid laner's right flank, your team's Crimson Raptor camp, and your jungler's gank paths for mid lane. Between this spot and Spot #1, the red side of your jungle will be safe from all invaders who can't jump the dragon wall.

Spot #3 (Wall opposite Dragon)

This ward is a frustrating compromise for the warding idealist. The dream scenario is being able to see the entirety of both enemy jungle entrances with one ward. After testing, I can say this isn't possible. The best ward I could place here had vision up to the bush on the left ramp and left a sliver of fog of war on the right ramp. On blue side, I think this ward is better used to fully cover the right ramp and the entrance to dragon while accompanied by a ward in Spot #5.

Spot #4 (Enemy Blue/Gromp)

This is a good place to ward if you have a lane in bot that can push in, allowing you to roam. Having a read on the enemy jungler is always important, but even more so if your jungler is playing a champion that wants to push into the enemy's jungle and look to kill them or just steal some camps.

Spot #5 (Pixel River Bush)

This ward never really feels great to place. The mid lane side brush blocks off a huge chunk of this ward's potential vision and it can't see the whole left entrance to the enemy jungle due to the bush there. Regardless, it is too important to control the river to not ward here as you move up your vision lines. Get spots #1 and #2 pink warded and move your green wards up to #3 and here.

Spot #6 (Bot Lane River Bush) 

I think of this as the "lazy" ward spot. The relative vision gain here is small, but also allows you to nearly eliminate the window in which your AD Carry can be zoned off the minion waves or harassed while you ward. The real tradeoff between this ward and a dragon-centric ward is defending against junglers that can jump the wall into the bush, such as the Jarvans, Rek'sais, and Lee Sins of the world. This is also an important bush to check for enemy pink wards when against a bot lane that is pushing your bot lane to tower.

Spot #7 (Bot Lane Wall Bushes) 

The obvious application of warding these bushes is keeping vision on the enemy support. Seeing the entire flight path of various skillshots (Dark Bindings, Death Sentences) makes it much easier to dodge them. The second concern with these bushes is preventing the enemy jungler from sneaking in for a lane gank or clearing vision with a pink ward or sweeper to allow your own jungler to do the same.

In general, you'll want to start by controlling Spots #1 and #2 for defensive purposes. As you get opportunities to ward and additional team pink wards, wrestle for control of Spots #3 and #5 to acquire a relatively safe laning phase for your mid and bot lanes. Your third ward and AD Carry's trinket ward (though not directly under your control) should cover some combination of Spots #4 to track the enemy jungler or play aggressively, #6 to have a ward without losing lane control, or #7 to control lane to begin with.

To wrap things up, I'll add a few general tips to keep in mind while warding early on. Good luck out there!

- Don't get baited trying to defend your own pink ward. Pink wards only cost 75 gold in season 6 and are absolutely not worth dying to defend. Conversely, you can use this common tendency to rabidly protect vision against your opponents and bait them in while they try to defend their own pink wards or take out yours.

- Keep track of the movement of both junglers. Don't try warding in your opponent's jungle unless your jungler is with you or you have very recent knowledge of the enemy jungler being on the opposite side of the map. From personal experience, I can say that trying to ward alone is a great way to die and subsequently give up a free dragon.

- Communicate any deep wards you place with any members on your team with Teleport. This will keep the idea of teleporting in for a flank in the back of their mind, whether they end up doing it or not.

- Ward a lot. Total warding success derives from two dimensions: quantity and quality. Ward uptime is just as important as having "great" wards out. Refill your Sightstone often, convince your teammates to put pink wards almost literally anywhere, and be ready to shift vision as objectives change.

- Upgrade to Ruby Sightstone early. 800 gold for 350 Health, 20% reduced item cooldowns, and an extra ward charge is incredible value and only becomes more valuable as you buy additional support items with active abilities later in the game.

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