How to gain ELO: Warding Tips

Warding is one of the most important aspects of the game that can go severely underrated in Solo Queue. Vision can make the difference in winning or losing a game, especially if it is close.

To put what wards do simply:

- Increase control of the map through vision.
- Keep a lock down on objectives to stop them from being taken without your knowledge (Baron, Dragon and the Jungle).
- Stops ganks and allows for counter ganks.

Where should I place my wards?

This is not a simple question to answer, there is no perfect spot for warding at all times. This is because of how teams rotate around the map. If you think the enemy team may go for dragon soon or you would like to go for dragon yourself, the wards placed in your topside jungle aren’t going to help, at all. One of the most integral parts of warding is to be moving them to the necessary places even if you already have 3 out. Another important point about warding (especially for supports) is that you want to stay near your team if you are deep warding to prevent being caught out and killed by the enemy team.

Pink wards:

Make sure you have a pink ward out on the map! Not only are they good for denying vision to the other team, but because they last forever if you place them in a good spot and they don’t get killed they give you critical information throughout the game, helping you to win it!

Where can wards be most effective

Wards are most effective in chokepoints, this is because it gives information about where the enemy will be approaching.

The image below shows where good warding placements are while pushing bottom lane. These warding positions are great because they cover all lanes the enemy would reliably collapse upon you, giving you the information you need to know about the enemy team movements if they are in the area. This is a general rule you want to use while warding.

Notice the places marked on the map are all bushes, this is because bushes are usually in or near chokepoints so are great places to ward. Warding in bushes is also a good idea simply just to stop the other team from stacking inside one bush and catching you or your team out.

Trinkets:

Upgrading your trinkets as soon as you can after hitting level 9 is huge for increasing vision control, the yellow trinket has now become a mini Sightstone for laners and is massively gold efficient. Just buy it, trust me. When you are support, make sure you swap to red trinket after buying Sightstone so your yellow trinket doesn’t become useless.

Side Notes:

Check the wards you have placed after every few CS in lane, wards are useless if you don’t check the mini-map. Train yourself to check the map every time you hear the money sound after killing a minion and with proper warding you’ll never get caught out!

I also created some warding maps about good places to ward in certain situations (Baron and Dragon warding placements are in there) they can be found here.

Upgrading your trinkets as soon as you can after hitting level 9 is huge for increasing vision control, the yellow trinket has now become a mini Sightstone for laners and is massively gold efficient. Just buy it, trust me. When you are support, make sure you swap to red trinket after buying Sightstone so your yellow trinket doesn’t become useless.