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Can someone explain 'The Vision Game' to me? Elaborate please!

DrugsForRobots··1 votes·837 views

I get that warding is important. Warding provides us with information about the enemy's movements and possible incoming ganks. Wards also grant us quick access to places we wouldn't otherwise have vision (such as over walls and into brush).

But how does one go about playing around wards? The most common wards are invisible to us, and it is hard to avoid something that you can't see that also has an unknown position. Many times players must infer that a location is warded by carefully watching the enemy's movements, which is a skill in and of itself but it doesn't really feel like a game where two players (or teams) are pitting their wits against each other in a battle of tactical espionage.

item 3341 is only effective if you have reason to believe that a location is warded (or know for a fact that it is). Using the Sweeper to check to see if an area is warded is fine, but then you risk actually giving yourself away to the ward that you missed. Using the Oracle upgrade to discover wards is also fine, but it's not really exciting or meaningful gameplay, IMO. Just by using it you've given up information about yourself and relative position, the same goes for the Scryer's Bloom to an extent, although it is better as your position (and direction) in the jungle is still ambiguous.

item 3645 comes close to creating an actual vision game, as you can still retain ambiguity about your position even when using it due to it's extreme range. It lets you scout and serves as on-the-fly means of getting vision in brush and over terrain.

item 2055 The Control Ward and Oracle's Lens are suppose to be about limiting the amount of enemy vision in an area, but so often we see the enemy team just dropping wards down as soon as the Oracle's effect expires. Yes, their vision is still limited compared to what they would've had if they had set up shop and had the enemy blunder into the area without the appropriate anti-vision tools, but I don't really find it to be a fun game, or at least, I think it could be much more exciting.

Am I doing something wrong?

4 Comments

Oleandervine2 votes

Vision in and of itself isn't supposed to be an action packed event. Vision isn't even supposed to be a game, just something that adds to the strategy of know your enemies' movements and don't die from not knowing. Also, knowing typical warding areas also grants you knowledge of where to try to gank from. For instance, red side rarely wards the tribush above their bottom most tower - having your ADC bully the enemy down enough so that they flee is a prime way to sneak attack them while they're in low HP. You just need to come up with creative ways to exploit common vision practice.

DragonManSquid1 votes

tl;dr but you need to communicate. It is virtually impossible to know where your enemies place wards. You'll have a chance if you communicate though. When I see my lane opponent go into the river I let my jungler know it is warded. Communication about wards makes a massive difference in ganks, dragons, and other key objectives.

XinCrin1 votes

The vision game is about getting down wards in important areas that the enemy has to cross. By warding these areas, you make it virtually impossible to get ganked since you will see them and you can back off.

The red sweeper to get rid of wards, especially when baron or dragon is about to spawn so you can set up a pick when they come to wards these areas.

Blue trinket to get vision down. These blue trinkets don't expire so if you just spam it, you will get a lot of vision. Also, you this to not face check.

And then you have your standard wards!

Weathered1 votes

Vision isn't really a game like they say it is, although there is a lot of movement around it and information that results from it. The physical side of it is sweeping objectives to deny information on whether or not something is being done and placing control wards in areas depending on if you team is ahead or not and can defend it.

It's more of interpreting information and making assumptions. I'm just going to make a dirty list for it from my jungler's perspective:

  • If a laner briefly moves to one side of the lane, more than usual, they've warded.
  • If a laner is backing off lane to go back to base, but don't show up to lane till 10 seconds or so after they should, they walked into the jungle to deep ward.
  • If a laner is keeping to one side of the lane, that side is warded probably
  • If I have a deep ward in the enemy jungle (or I oracle), and the jungler passes it, even if I don't see their direction or actions I get an update on their cs count, and can work backwards on which camps they've cleared based on it and where they are going (this one is a bit more tricky).
  • Cool tip about oracle, if you want an enemy to face check a bush you are hiding in, oracle yourself and they will most likely walk in to clear the ward since they know it is there.
  • Lane wards are pretty important against teleport laners or lane ganks, which I deal with a lot as a Kha'Zix main.
  • Speaking of the bug, champions like him can use their kits (his passive specifically) to check if a brush is warded instead of having to read the laner.

It's mostly a mind game of what do you know and what do they know. If you know what they know (ie, what they can see on the minimap) you can coordinate ganks that they have no idea are coming (especially if they are done through the back of the tower or straight through lane bushes). Doubly so, if you have an idea of where they have warded you can capitalize on any false senses of security by playing around juuuust out of their vision in that area (like if they have bottom side of mid warded and are going to roam, but you are waiting in dot bush in river).

It gets much more complicated and important in higher ELO, which is why you hear a lot about "macro" and "micro" play. If you want some info I suggest watching LS.

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