Light Up the Rift - A Guide to Vision Control
Tips and tricks to assist you in getting the most out of your wards.
Do you constantly find yourself wondering where the enemy team is? Well this guide aims to help you shine the spotlight on them to keep track of their every move. Warding, as many know, is a very important component of League of Legends and, when done properly, can give you quite a powerful edge over the opposing team. There is more to vision control than just warding the river, and this guide will assist you in providing optimal vision for you and your team the next time you are out on Summoner’s Rift.
We’ll look at the map and early game warding spots by roles from Top Lane to Bottom Lane, starting at the Top. Throughout the article, you will see the Summoner’s Map and each map will have red and white dots throughout. The red dots show the important spots to ward if you spawn on the Red Side, and the white dots show important spots to ward if you spawn on the Blue Side.
When playing top lane, depending on if you are pushing your opponent back, where you want to ward first may vary. If you are playing a lane bully and shoving your opponent under their tower, then you are going to want to look to place a ward in the opposing team’s jungle. It can be super valuable to get an early ward on the opposing team’s Blue or Red Buff respectively. This will provide your team with the knowledge of where the enemy Jungler is when they go for their buff. When your Jungler sees the enemy going for their buff they may look to possibly contest it or look to counter-jungle the opposing team’s bottom side of their jungle.
It is equally as important to look for early vision on Rift Herald. As the image above shows, there is a spot on the back side of Baron Pit that is perfect for a Control Ward. The reason to place a Control Ward here is this ward will likely not be destroyed until the enemy decides to go for the Buff. This ward will hide in the Fog of War unless your opponent also wards the pit or walks within ~150 units of the pit's entrance. This is not as big of a buffer as it seems at first. It is very likely the enemy Jungler will walk right by the pit without noticing you have vision of the objective. The trade-off here is that because they will likely not see this ward you will not see them either, but it does provide the security of knowing that when they do decide to go for the buff, you will know.
Now let's look at the jungle. The Jungler should be looking for an opportunity to counter-jungle their opponent, but this is risky to do without first having vision. After they have cleared their jungle, maybe all their lanes are pushed up and there is no real window of opportunity for a gank. The Jungler can look to get vision in the enemy’s jungle as well as clear vision the enemy may have in their jungle. All lanes should be looking to rid the enemy’s vision from Summoner’s Rift, but the Jungler, being the Jungler, will spend the most time in the jungle, and as such, will have more opportunity to look to clear the enemy’s vision from the map. A Sweeping Lens will be very beneficial when counter-jungling if your team is assisting in warding the enemy's jungle. With them placing wards in key places, you just have to worry about clearing vision. This way you will see them in their jungle but they will not see you.
Getting deep Control Wards in the opponent’s Jungle can be the key to successful counter-jungling. If you are a Champion that benefits more from Blue Buff look to get a Control Ward on the opponent’s Blue Buff. Maybe Red Buff is more beneficial for your Champion, look for a Control Ward on the bush across from Red Buff.
The reason placing a Control Ward here is more beneficial than in the bush next to the Buff, is your opponent may take the Red Buff into the bush bordering the camp and will notice your ward and clear it. With the bush across from the jungle camp, you will see the enemy start the camp and they will not notice your ward even if they go into the bush bordering the camp.
Moving on from the jungle we are going to look at the important warding spots for the Mid Lane. Many know to ward the sides of the river to keep a look out for ganks from the enemy Jungler, but there are other important spots to get vision of as well. If you are behind, defensive wards of the river are perfectly fine, but if you are pushing your opponent back under their tower you can get even more out of your wards.
Gaining vision of the enemy Jungler’s raptor camp is very beneficial both offensively and defensively. On the offensive side of things, you might look to make a play to contest the camp if you see they are low, or you are confident you can take them on by yourself. Another possibility is looking to make a counter-jungling play yourself on the other side of the jungle. You may also want to roam to the lane farthest from the raptor camp and assist your team that way. The Jungler will be far behind you and will likely not be able to counter gank in time should they try to do so. On the defensive side, now you know where the Jungler is and where they will try to come from should they attempt to gank you.
Last but most certainly not least - Bottom Lane. Keeping vision of the tri-bush is a powerful tool regardless of whether you are on Blue or Red side. That being said, Blue side will always have priority of this warding this area in the early game. If you are on the Red side, get a Control Ward in the tri-bush to deny Blue side’s vision for a time, cutting off an important vision spot for them. You could also use this window for your Jungler to come down through their tri-bush and catch them off-guard when they go to clear it, as they will not see your Jungler coming.
The Red side of Bottom Lane also has a powerful way to ward the river that allows them to ward the river bush without them having to walk up too far if they are being pushed back. As shown in the image above, if you stand right next to the dark green tree closest to the lane and place your ward on the bottom left of the triangular rock to the left of the waterfall, your ward will land right in the river bush. This spot takes a little bit of practice, but the Practice Tool is a great place to learn how to do this. After a bit of time there, you will be able to do this trick every time.
Another strong spot for a Control Ward in the Bottom Lane is in the Dragon Pit. This spot is the same idea as the “Back of the Baron Pit” spot. This Control Ward will likely not be noticed until the enemy goes for the Dragon. However, because of the camera angle in the game, in my experience this spot is more likely to be found out earlier than the spot in the Baron Pit. Beyond these spots, there are two more spots that will be good to know when going into your coming games.
These two spots can be very useful later in the game when your team is looking to make plays for Baron and Dragon. Dropping a Vision Ward to the left side of Baron pit might not provide vision of Baron Nashor itself, but it will show you if the enemy team is going for the objective. This spot is useful as a Control Ward placed by the enemy team within the Baron pit will not notice the Vision Ward outside of the pit. The same idea applies to the Dragon pit as well. This ward could be noticed by a Sweeping Lens, but if the enemy is relying only on a Control Ward to deny you vision then they will be sorely mistaken.
These are a lot of warding spots to keep in mind when thinking about Vision Control along with everything else one balances in their average League of Legends game. However, if you keep in mind the spots that pertain mostly to your role and you are sure to catch the enemy team off guard when they notice you seem to see and play around their every move.
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