League Warding 101: An Overview

“Where's the MIA?” “Nice MIA!” “Call MIAs please.”

Any League of Legends player is bound to hear a variation of these phrases when playing, especially in normal games/lower ELO ranked games where map awareness is not an aspect of gameplay many people have refined. So as a normal-queue player making the transition to competitive League of Legends, it is a bit of a mind leap when suddenly wards are being bought, strategically placed, and used in ranked games. Seemingly every angle from which you could gank someone farming in their lane has been covered. So what about those wards?

Facechecking bushes are usually a bad idea late-game.

Map awareness is usually among the most important skills required of players in League of Legends. While last hitting, using champion abilities, and items builds are all important mechanical skills involved in winning games, map awareness is a more cognitive skill that separates a good player from a great one. Understanding where the enemy may be coming from and where the enemy is at all times requires a certain amount of playtime experience, and of course, a bit of assistance in the form of wards.

Wards: An Overview

In League of Legends, wards are consumable items that allow a team to reveal an area around where the ward is placed. Champions with the utility skill teleport, or champions possessing certain abilities (such as Jax, Katarina or Lee Sin) can teleport/move directly to these wards, making them useful in keeping pressure on an enemy or escaping a losing teamfight.

Wards are broken down into two (technically 3) categories. Your most basic ward is a sight ward, a green ward that costs 75 gold and lasts 3 minutes. Relatively cheap, it is the most common ward you'll see being bought and placed by champions in bushes, by Baron Nashor, and any other highly-contested spots on the map.

The second ward is the vision ward, a purple ward that costs 125 gold that lasts 3 minutes. Often referred to as the “invisi-ward”, it serves the same purpose as the sight ward. However, it is more expensive because it can also detect invisible or cloaked units, including champions and even other sight wards. The most common use of this ward is to reveal other wards or placed to discourage lane ganks by stealth-reliant champions such as Eve, Twitch, or Shaco.

The final category are champion/item activated wards. While items such as Wriggle's Lantern give your champion a free green ward to place when activated, certain champion skills also double as unofficial map wards. Skills such as Teemo mushrooms, Nidalee and Caitlyn traps, and Shaco boxes double as ways to reveal enemies approaching or hiding in particular areas, and are useful in gaining and maintaining map control throughout a game.



Sight ward, Vision ward, and Shaco boxes.

Wards: Strategy

Now you may be asking, where do I ward? The goal in warding is two-fold: denying map control and preventing the enemy from executing proper ganks. Breaking down Summoner's Rift, there are few places that you know will be contested. Baron Nashor, red and blue camps, and Dragon are the big three to keep in mind. These are areas you will want to know are available or not, and therefore, it is critical to ward these areas to deny them from your opponents. The second aspect, denying ganks, involves analyzing the areas on the map in which enemies are possible. Certain bushes in particular, as the triangle bushes near bottom lane and top lane or the bushes flanking middle lane, are prime spots for setting up ganks. Additionally, there are intersections on the map where you know the enemy must cross over if they want to prepare a gank. Knowing when your enemy is planning an attack from these places is the difference between a successful escape or giving up first blood.

I've broken down warding in Summoner's Rift in this map overview, showing one basic way to maximize camp control while denying enemies the ability to execute proper ganks on particular lanes. Of course there are variants on this strategy and these ward placements depending on the situation, but after numerous games a combination of wards in these key places seem to work quite effectively.

Just because you've placed wards on the map, this still does not mean that your team may pay close attention to the minimap. I have found that it still does not hurt to call MIAs out of lane or ping the map for teammates who may be more focused on farming creep than the jungle Rammus coming to initiate a gank. Remember, it takes more than one person to win a game in League of Legends. With proper communication, along with preparation in the form of map awareness, leading your team to victory on the Fields of Justice is almost a guarantee!