Reaching Diamond Step by Step: Warding Guide
Guides

13 Jun 15

Guides

RutLoL

Reaching Diamond Step by Step: Warding Guide

Ever thought about what you could be doing better while playing ranked? Well here is my guide to Warding, the Diamond way.

First, before you take any advice from a stranger, let me introduce myself. My name is Will "Rut" Nester, I am a Diamond 5 ADC main. I've been playing roughly since the beginning of Season 2, and yes, I have been in Bronze. As someone in Diamond I get asked almost everyday, "What did you do to get out of Bronze?". Well today I'll be talking about one driving factor that seperates lower elo's from higher elo's: warding. This is my guide to warding, see you on the Rift!

WARDING

We're going to start off with warding, which is a very crucial part of winning. Like most pro-players say "vision is key." One sentence that I hear enitrely too often when smurfing in lower elo or playing with my friends is "It's only the supports job to ward." This is WRONG, to climb out of lower elo you need to get rid of this thought. Whether you're the top laner, mid laner, jungler or ADC, you should be purchasing wards. Below will be a breakdown for each role explaning where to place your wards.

Top lane - When playing top lane, where you should ward will change depending on the side you're on. When on Blue Side you can either place a ward deep into the river brush or place it between the river brush and the tri-brush (see image below). On Red side you have a few more options. You can place a Pink Ward in your tri-brush and then a ward in the center of the river just below the river brush (See image below). This will allow you to be pushed up farther in lane without worry of a gank. The reason for the pink is if you're pushed, no one will be lurking around your top tri to kill it, so it's very cost efficient. Pairing these ward spots with Scuttle Crab allow for very good vision and reduced gank potential.

Jungle - When playing jungle, wards can be very situational depending on if you're winning/losing, counter jungling or playing passive. In lower elo's, almost no junglers will check the brush that wraps around to red buff. These brushes are a perfect place for a Pink Ward (See image below). The only river coverage the jungler needs to assist in is killing the Scuttle Crab. Your outer laners should be warding their respective sides of river and your mid laner both sides. If they aren't, you should already have a Sightstone, so help them out and place a ward in their respective river brush. If you're a jungle main in lower elo's you can control the entire tempo of the game by just placing wards!

Mid lane - When playing Mid lane in lower elo's there are two very good places for wards. These places can be used for both red, and blue side. When used with scuttle and the top lane/bot lane wards shown, you will have full vision of river on either side of you. I suggest buying two Pinks early for these spots because many lower elo junglers will not check them, or will walk right past them without watching. If these wards do get destroyed early I suggest buying normal green wards and warding the same place, lower elo's tend not to check the same spot twice!

Bot lane - Other than the usual spots the support will ward (your tri, river brush), the ADC should also be warding. As an ADC you should be using your trinket on the lane brush whenever it is up. When you eventually sell your trinket for the blue scrying orb, I suggest purchasing a green ward whenever you get the chance to back. This will not only help your support since they have limited wards, but it will also help you. Below are some good ward spots for ADC's. As an additional note I do not suggest buying pinks as an ADC unless you're really far ahead, or the enemy ADC bought one first. They are very expensive and can put you behind.

By just following this guide, Warding, I guarantee you'll be promoted a divison higher. Thank you for taking the time to read my guide on warding. I will be releasing a guide on something different every week. For these first five weeks (this one being the first) the guides will be about how to climb out of lower elo into Diamond! Afterwards, I will most likely make individual guides for roles, talking about itemization, positioning, and so on. Feel free to leave any comments below the guide in regard to how well I did covering the topic and anything I could do better. I'm open to all suggestions!

Next week's guide will be about positioning in solo queue, if you have any specific points you'd like me to include or touch on during the article, please leave it in the comments!

Related articles