There are four different trinkets in the game along with pink wards that either deny or grant vision as of Patch 6.1. To optimize your team's vision control in the early game while denying the enemy vision, specific roles should take the proper trinkets along with pink wards to help ward the map and clear enemy wards at the same time. In order to decide when to take each trinket, let’s take a look at each one's usefulness.

1. Warding Totem 

The Warding Totem lasts only 60 seconds long at level 1 but scales with your level:

The Warding Totem took the place of the original green Vision Ward that lasted 3 minutes. Keep this in mind when warding because it may not last as long as you think. If you see jungler presence on the opposite side of the map it's best to save your ward until they disappear for some time. Otherwise, your ward might go to waste if you put it down right away and the jungler decides to back and then farm his own jungle before ganking again.

The Warding Totem stores charges that also scales with levels:

If you ward with only 1 charge there will be a certain amount of downtime before you have another ward to place. This grants the ability for every laner to have a ward up for only a certain amount of time. If you see your brush is not warded and you have no idea where the enemy jungler may be, it might be best to play a bit safer until you can ward the area.

2. Sweeping Lens 

The Sweeping Lens grants the ability to reveal and disable wards or traps in a radius that scales based on your level:

The cast range for the Sweeping Lens scales with levels as well:

To increase your sweep accuracy, try to check places you would normally ward yourself. Sweeping neutral objectives is always useful to prevent the enemy from collapsing on you.

The Sweeping Lens disabling invisible traps and wards is often overlooked. Disabling means that for the duration when the Sweeping Lens is cast all wards and traps do not work. This is really important for junglers when ganking. If a lane is in the middle of a skirmish and you walk right past a ward to get as quickly into the fight as possible, chances are the enemy is going to see and burn their Summoners, gap closers or ultimates to get away. While that may be still worth it, your overall goal is to get the kill for you or your team. Sweeping the brush you are entering will buy you the element of surprise during the skirmish and leave less time for the enemy to react.

Note: This only lasts for 6 seconds at all levels, sweeping and then waiting in the brush for longer will reveal your position. Wards that are swept are disabled until the duration is over or the ward is hit.

The cooldowns for this trinket scale every level and come up in almost half the time as the Warding Totem, this makes it incredibly useful at denying vision in the early game because Warding Totem cooldowns are relatively long.

3. Oracle Alteration 

The Oracle Alteration is the upgraded Sweeping Lens and alters its effect. One alteration is that instead of deploying it in the cast range the Oracles Alteration scans around you, letting you move freely while detecting anything in stealth, fog, or in a brush. Lasting for 10 seconds it also disables wards and traps within a radius scaling with your level:

It's important that at least one of your teammates has this upgrade because it makes clearing the enemy jungle or either side of the river quick and easy when you are not alone. The radius after level 14 becomes quite large, taking 3 shots to take a ward down may stall you long enough to not reach all of the wards that your trinket saw, so it's best to get help clearing that way you can take down wards quicker and cover more ground.

I want to point out that just because you upgraded to the Oracle Alteration doesn't mean you should facecheck brushes or roam the jungle in search of wards. Although 700+ range is pretty big, if your trinket spots someone in the brush, you are most likely close enough for them to reach you. This may not end in your favor if you aren't cautious when sweeping.

The cooldowns for this trinket scale slowly with levels but at level 18 you are at a flat 1 minute cooldown:

4. Farsight Totem 

The Farsight Totem is the upgraded Warding Totem and is the most effective trinket in the game. With a cast range of 4000 units, the Farsight Totem is super safe and can spot out the enemy team before they can go through with their plans. They can be seen by the enemy team and only take one hit to get destroyed. However, the most important thing about this ward is that it lasts forever while being on a relatively short cooldown and it does not count towards your 3 ward limit. The Farsight Totem can be placed as many times as possible with the disadvantage of it being destroyed by one hit. This upgrade allows setting up wards all over the map to be much safer because you can pretty much begin placing wards down while you are in lane. Offensive wards may not last long but the knowledge gained from learning the presence of any player on the other team is useful for the players on the opposite side of the map.

The cooldowns for this trinket are relatively short given its usefulness. If at least 3 of your teammates have this upgrade, then setting up wards all throughout the map can be incredibly powerful. It can spot a gank before it happens, prevent a roam from an enemy laner, or completely deter the enemy team from a neutral objective. All of these instances will stop your opponent from snowballing and give you the time your team needs to effectively execute a play.

Here are the cooldowns:

At level 9, right as the upgrade is available, you can cast one Farsight Alteration every 92 seconds. If at least 3 of your teammates acquired this upgrade, your team could place 6 defensive wards near the jungle and river in about 3 minutes. This allows you to cover all the entrances, gain vision on neutral objectives, slow down their gank pressure and give you the knowledge necessary to follow through with your teams next objective. There is a lot to gain from instant vision every minute or so, so taking advantage of this will allow you to transition into mid game with better understanding of the map and can keep you out of trouble.

Note: Although this trinket is incredibly useful in itself, there are some occasions (e.g. split pushing) that the Warding Totem might play a better role in. It's not entirely necessary to upgrade a trinket just because you've past level 9.

Early Game

At the start of the game each role is suggested to take the Warding Totem, because if you take the Sweeping Lens you would be sacrificing your own ward to counter theirs and that may not be effective since they only have one ward to place and you only have one shot at sweeping that ward. Switching to the Sweeping Lens after your first or second back may be more useful for certain junglers and supports but remember switching trinkets will put them on a 120 second cooldown.

If your team decides not to invade at the start of the game, your team can properly position themselves alongside all of the entrances to your jungle as shown below. This is the "5-point stance" and is the most basic formation in the beginning of the game to gain total defensive vision.

This is at the very start of the TSM vs CLG game at the start of the 2016 NA Spring Split. Notice how CLG are in a 5-point stance blocking all entrances. When TSM decided to go top side with their entire team, Darshan was there to spot them.

This formation prevents the enemy from sneaking into your jungle without being seen and by standing at these positions you are not sacrificing your ward, which you can then use defensively or offensively once the game begins. A lot of times solo queue players just rush to their towers and wait for the minion waves while the jungler rushes to their camp and waits for their buff to spawn. Without this 5-point posture, the enemy team can land a deep ward and catch your jungler at low health clearing a camp, taking buffs and securing an easy first blood. This would set him back in terms of Devourer stacks and ganks while also making him more susceptible to another invade. Regardless the waves will clash and the buffs will spawn if you are near them or not, so taking these positions will lower the risk of an early game cheese from the enemy jungler and will guarantee that yours gets to a lane for a gank.

Early game warding will often times be defensive because losing the EXP and gold at such a crucial moment could cause you to lose lane.

Due to the wards being on a long cooldown during the early levels, laners should opt to place their wards defensively to spot the enemy jungler while using pink wards to deny the enemy vision for your jungler.

There are specific places laners can ward safely over walls on both blue and red side.

- Top laners on blue side will ward the river brush. On red side, depending on the position of the wave and their playstyle, they can choose to ward the tribrush or river brush.

- Junglers have a choice depending on their playstyle with some factors to take under consideration. A weak early game jungler should go for the Warding Totem to spot any counter-jungling before it happens, while the strong early game jungler could still take the Warding Totem if they decide to set up for counter-jungling or can take the Sweeping Lens if they decide to check if a brush is warded before committing to an early gank. Junglers can use defensive wards to watch their red and blue buffs and can offensively ward the opponents buffs, laners can assist in this if there is strong counter-jungling pressure due to the match-up between junglers.

- Mid laners can choose either side of the river depending on their jungler's presence or the enemy jungler's presence on the map. Playing closer towards your ward in lane will help buy you time to escape if an enemy ganks.

- Both bot laners should use their wards to get vision on either the tribrush, river brush, or the brushes in lane if supports such as Blitzcrank, Morgana, or Thresh pose a threat. Having a ward in the lane brush that is towards your opponents side is the perfect spot for a laner to use their teleport to when you are pushed towards your own tower.

Conclusion

It is without a doubt that vision is the most important resource in League of Legends next to gold. There is a very high level of mastery for vision placement and denial that the careless placement of trinkets and pink wards could amount to nothing. With the snowball heavy meta, long death timers, and cheaper itemization paths, the early game is the most crucial part of every match. Utilizing your trinkets can prevent deaths, create opportunities for your team and set up a more cautious, team-oriented environment for any solo queue player. Even so, fewer mistakes means the ones that are made have a heavier impact towards the outcome of the match.

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