Victory is in Sight- A Simple Guide to Vision in League of Legends
An introductory guide to warding for each position in League of Legends.
An important aspect to the game of League of Legends is vision. A common misconception is the idea that handling vision is the support’s job, while the rest of the team needs to focus on farming minions, killing enemy champions, and taking down towers. However, if a team relies only on the support to manage vision, they will soon find that a lot of the map remains in darkness. Because of this, the following guide will take a simple approach to how players can better their vision from each lane. Of course, there are often different ideas on best vision placement, but hopefully, this guide can serve as a starting place for those who find themselves unsure about their vision placement.
Top Lane
When it comes to the top lane, laners are often isolated from the rest of the map, focusing their early game on their farm numbers and usually turning a blind eye to the rest of the map. Although this can sometimes lead to an uneventful laning phase, it can also lead to players in the top lane susceptible to ganks from the jungler. With this in mind, it is important to know prime positions to place your wards while you are laning. Using your Warding Totem early on and buying Control Wards throughout the laning phase can be critical in keeping safe, especially when extending past the river as you push your wave towards the enemy tower.
On the blue side, if the laning phase is going even or if you are ahead, you will likely have the opportunity to ward the river bush. By doing so, you give your chance to safely push up past the river and apply pressure to the enemy’s tower while also having the time to retreat to safety in case you see other members of the enemy team closing in to provide assistance. In addition to warding here, when you have the wave pushing in your favor, slipping a ward into the enemy’s tri-bush is also useful, as it will help track the junglers movements, informing you of when you need to back off. If you have the time and positioning, placing a ward in the Rift Herald/Baron pit can also be incredibly useful because it will provide useful information to your entire team about whether or not the enemy is planning to take an objective. If you find yourself in a disadvantaged lane and are pushed into tower, the locations of where you need to ward also change. Placing a ward in the tri-bush behind your tower can alert you to attempts at two-on-one dives. Also, placing a ward in the lane bush closest to tower can help you position in a way that will help keep yourself safe from the sneaky antics of your lane opponent or potential lane ganks from the jungler. You can also get vision into the river bush by dropping a ward over the wall to provide additional safety.
On the red side, you will also find yourself aiming to get vision in the river bush when you are ahead, as once again it will warn you of incoming threats from the river if you find yourself pushed up. Similarly, you will also want to try and getting vision in the Rift Herald/Baron pit as well. If you find yourself pushed up in lane, you will want to place a ward in the tri-bush behind you to give yourself warning if the enemy is trying to collapse on you from multiple sides. When you’re on the defensive, placing a ward in the bush behind the tower and the river will help you help avoid dives, as well as the lane bush closest to you, to help avoid getting caught by surprise crowd control and damage.
For more detail, the images below demonstrate locations for where to place marked in red.
Warding from Blue Side
Warding from Red Side
Jungle
As a jungler, knowing where to secure vision can be quite tricky because you are constantly on the move. Things to consider when warding are what areas you can ward to keep your laners safe, such as placing wards that will catch out the enemy jungler that your laner can’t get vision for themselves safely. When jungling, keeping an eye out for neutral objectives is also important, and because you have more freedom to move across the map, you also have more of an opportunity to maintain consistent vision in these heavily contested locations as well as in enemy territory. Furthermore, dropping wards throughout the jungle allows for the execution of safer ganks, and also enables your laners to roam across the map and make plays happen. By using the Warding Totem, the Oracle Lens, and Control Wards, you can ensure you have vision control and that your enemy is left blind.
Key locations for dropping wards are the pixel bushes located in the middle of the river. These areas are heavy in traffic throughout the entirety of the game, so by having vision in these spots, you can help provide additional information to your entire team. Additionally, warding the bushes behind the Red Buff pits can provide vision of potential ganks for both top and bottom lane, depending on what side you are playing from. By having vision in these locations, you also provide safety for your team when attempting neutral objectives such as the Rift Herald, Dragon, or Baron because it allows you to see if the enemy is planning on jumping over the back wall to attempt a steal on the objective. If you’re feeling confident in your ability to fight the enemy jungler if you run into them, or if you have the support of one of your laners, you can also place wards on enemy buffs and camps to track the opposing jungler and steal their camps when you know they aren’t taking them. In the image below you will see key vision locations circled in red, to help give an idea of where you should place your wards and check to see if enemy wards might need to be cleared.
Mid Lane
As a mid laner, you find yourself in the center of Summoners Rift, usually on a champion who has the potential to carry your team. Because of this, you find yourself to be a heavy target for ganks from the jungler and even roams from the side lanes. As the focus of so much attention, it is important to know where the enemy is by securing vision in your lane as quickly as possible by using your Warding Totem as well as early Control Wards.
Warding in this lane is nearly identical on when playing on either blue or red sides of the map. Whether you are on the blue or red side of the map, you will want to do your best to secure vision in the bushes on both sides of the lane. This is a common avenue for ganks and by having vision in these bushes, you can save yourself from unwanted visits to your lane. Furthermore, if you have wave control on either blue or red side, you will want to do your best to get deeper river vision by placing vision in the river pixel bushes. By doing so, you know when roams are happening earlier, making it so that you can remain safe even if the enemy ganker tries to surprise you with tricky pathing. For more defense, you will also want to place wards in the bush in the small alley between your team’s Blue Buff and the wall that borders the mid lane, as well as wards in the bush behind the Wolf camp. These wards will help you be wary of any tricky pathing that the enemy might try and take to catch you by surprise. The wards that would be great for defense on blue side would be good for offensive warding on red side and vice versa.
The image below has marked the mentioned warding hotspots to give you a better idea of where to focus your vision.
Bot Lane
The bot lane is often quite volatile, and where junglers and mid laners often like to roam down to. After all, most supports have some form of crowd control, which when layered upon by crowd control from a jungler or mid laner, can often secure a kill and sometimes even more. Because of this, it is important to secure vision as best as possible using Warding Totems, Oracle Lenses, Farsight Alteration, and Control Wards.
On the blue side using the combined warding prowess of both the bot lane carry and the support, getting vision in the tri-bush near your tower and the river bush is key. Doing so allows you to play more aggressively without having to worry about jungler intervention. Another ward that is also helpful to have on the blue side is the bush across from the Krug camp. Having vision here allows you to know if your jungle is being invaded and if the enemy is planning on executing a dive.
On red side, it is also important to gain vision on the river bush and the tri-bush behind your tower for similar reasons. The tri-bush ward is especially important on red side if you are pushed into tower, because it is commonplace for junglers and mid laners to roam to in order to initiate a dive.
Furthermore, regardless of what side you are playing on, warding the lane bushes also helps you keep an eye on the enemy support who might be trying to engage with crowd control. When warding the lane bushes, it is often best to ward the bush that lines up with where the two waves of minions are crashing against one another, because it is less likely for the enemy to try and take position in a bush past their minion wave as attempting to do so would involve them giving themselves away to the vision provided by your team’s minions. You will also want to gain vision in the river if possible, especially when it comes to securing vision on the Dragon pit. As a bot lane carry, it is recommended that you switch out your Warding Totem for the Farsight Alteration at level 9 so that you can place your vision from a far distance, keeping yourself safe and also providing quick vision in key locations without needing to have your support endanger themselves to get the vision. As a support, once you have completed the quest for your gold generation item and received your vision giving item, it is recommended that you switch your Warding Totem for the Oracle Lens as it will allow for you to keep key locations free from enemy vision. The below diagrams have the key locations for bot lane warding circled in red, the first image laying out vision for blue side and the second image demonstrating where to ward for red side.
Warding from Blue Side
Warding from Red Side
I hope that this guide helps as a starting point for those who struggle where to place their vision. As mentioned before, this is just one set of suggestions and there are certainly countless other strategies that can be implemented to secure vision for your team. Because of this, I encourage you all to find vision strategies that work best for you and your teams! I wish you the best of luck on the Rift. GLHF!
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