When it comes to providing vision for your team with wards and sentry wards, the support usually has to do most of the work, especially in lower level games. In some cases, this can cause your support to fall behind in items. The best thing you can do for your support is to buy wards as a team, allowing your support to put more of his/her gold towards items and become the effective front line player your team needs during team fights. This article will address the most effective ways to ward as a mid laner specifically.

When to Buy Mid Lane Wards

As a mid laner, the first realistic time for you to buy wards is after your first trip back to base, usually just before or after you have hit level 5. You don’t have to buy wards at this time, but you may find that it suits your play style or that having some extra vision will help you get through the laning phase. If you don’t buy one on your first time back to base, you can assume it’s a good idea to get one on your second back, especially since at this point the Gold Fury will start to become the primary objective focus.

After the laning phase, you can buy wards whenever your team needs them. Usually that is pretty clear when looking at the map, but also make sure to check to see if any of your teammates have wards in their inventory. If they don't have any, you should probably buy some before you leave the base. If you are unsure of when to buy wards, a good habit to get into is to buy one ward almost every time you go back to base. That way if you feel your team needs one in a specific location, you always have one ready to place. Another good habit is to buy one regular ward and one sentry ward when you have enough gold, since both wards are valuable, and you can only have two wards placed at a time.

A regular ward costs 50 gold while a sentry ward costs 120. A player can only place two wards at one time.

Defensive Laning Phase Wards

If you are getting pressured and pushed under tower, the best spots to place early wards are just to the left and right of your tower, below the mid harpies. This won’t stop a god with strong wave clear like Isis from pushing you under tower, but it will allow you to step forward when no one is around to clear a wave without having to worry about the enemy jungler ganking from behind you. These wards are very defensive, so you might not always need them unless the opposing team has strong mid pressure.

The other advantage to these wards is the ability to see when the opposing jungler and mid laner might be invading your red or speed buffs. You and your jungler can decide if you want to contest the buff, or if you call out the invade to your team, your duo lane or solo laner may be able to rotate and force a fight, allowing you to get a few early kills and change the momentum of the game in your team's favor.

Aggressive Mid Lane Wards

The opposite location of the previous wards will be to the left and right of the enemy tower, above the mid harpies on the map. These two wards are extremely useful and serve a bit of a dual purpose. First off, they allow you to push up in the lane with a bit more safety. If you and your jungler have strong mid pressure, you can bully the opposing mid and jungler and force them to lose gold and experience by pushing minions under their tower.

These wards also make it easy to see when the enemy team is rotating to mid harpies, allowing you to make smart decisions about when to contest, push the wave under their tower, or aggressively gank them. The last benefit of these wards is to see when the jungler and mid laner rotate, even when you are not in lane to see them. If you know which way the enemy goes, you can inform either your duo lane or solo laner that a gank may be on the way.

Red dots - Aggressive Wards, Green dots - Defensive Wards, Yellow - Full Mid Camp Vision (Very Situational)

Direct Mid Lane Ward

Last, but not least, is a more controversial ward spot: directly in the mid lane, just in front of the enemy tower. While it seems like a waste of a ward sometimes, this ward can provide a lot of information. In the laning phase, this ward can help you see when the enemy mid laner and jungler rotate or leave lane allowing you to make calls to your team to warn them of potential ganks. It also allows you and your jungler to make invades on the enemy speed and red buff since you can see when the enemy mid laner is currently in lane. The best part about this ward is no one on the other team is going to counter ward it. In order to get rid of your ward, the enemy must place a sentry in the same spot, but for the enemy, warding this spot provides little to no benefit, so they are forced to allow you to have that vision.

Warding Objectives

Later in the game, the Gold Fury and Fire Giant will be very important objectives to manage. While your support will most likely be placing wards in these areas, it is important to pay attention to when the support may not be able to ward them. It is always a good idea to use a sentry ward when warding Gold Fury and Fire Giant, which allows you to see and destroy the enemy team’s existing wards in the area. Not only does this give you vision of the objective, but it guarantees that the enemy team does not, allowing you the opportunity to sneak the objective, or bait the other team into a team fight in your favor. Gold Fury and Fire Giant are the most contested locations when it comes to warding, so make sure to always pay attention to whether or not your team has vision of these locations. If you don't have vision, and the enemy team isn't in lane or visible on the map, there is a good chance they are either trying to take the Gold Fury or Fire Giant.

The Gold Fury will be the primary objective focus earlier in the game, from around 5 - 20 minutes into the game. Most of the warding will be taking place on this side of the map during that time. After that the Gold Fury is not nearly as valuable, and the objective focus will switch to the Fire Giant, a powerful late game team buff. Fire Giant is most relevant from 20 minutes and later, but some teams may try to take the Fire Giant a few minutes earlier, perhaps after a strong team fight, to allow them to take a few towers and push their lead. In the later stages of the game, it is crucial to have vision around the Fire Giant to give your team the advantage in forcing a fight over the objective.

With all of these wards, you can provide very important map vision for your team throughout all stages of the game. Not only will your support thank you for helping them out, but your team will benefit greatly from the vision you are able to provide, allowing for a smooth path to victory. Good Luck!

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