Why is Warding important?

Ïnsidious·11/30/2016, 2:53:36 PM·2 votes·430 views

Now that I've baited you... the topic:

Why is support obligated to buy warding items besides control wards? Bot lane has access to double the wards as any other lane, and the jungler is at bot more often than any other lane... so why does support specifically need to buy sightstone? If it's for lategame, why not have the toplaner take it? Why not the jungler?

(I know the answer, it's because it builds exclusively from gold/time items)

Is this a good thing? Should it be limited to the support? If other vision items were added to the game, would you take them over what you currently have? Am I stupid?

Edit 1: Holy shit, am I getting dumpstered or what?

Edit 2: I'm more asking if it is a good idea to make vision more available, and thus free up supports to build different items than only sightstone

8 Comments

Jo0o11/30/2016, 3:01:41 PM5 votes

Several reasons come to mind.

Support, by definition, is not a carry role. Sure, they carry sometimes, but they aren't the member of the team designed to blow up the enemy team and secure victory. they're SUPPORTING the player(s) that do. So, while other roles need to aggressively pursue higher stats to achieve the plays they're meant for, the support player suffers the least for buying something that isn't strictly about the stats.
Support doesn't farm! So, roaming around a bit to set up wards costs them the least. Requiring the ADC to constantly ward costs them CS and puts them in danger.
Supports typically get the least gold on the team. While this can be used as an argument for somebody with more gold to get a sightstone, it also means that the support is the least likely team member to reach full build, so using one of six available item slots for vision rarely hurts them. A toplaner or jungler is much more likely to need that extra item slot in a longer game.
The team as a whole benefits from having more wards. Defending the bot lane against ganks is one thing, but warding also keeps vision on the dragon, deep-wards the enemy jungle to set up invades for your jungler, helps to chase down enemies as they duck into bushes, sets up teleport ganks, etc. Trinket wards are a bare-minimum solution to these issues.

Vekkna11/30/2016, 5:44:08 PM1 votes

Pretty sure you can't smite enemy champs with item 3711 , otherwise we'd see a lot more of it. Would be nice if they would add that, but with reduced damage and granting a few seconds of true sight.

But to answer your question, building sightstone in non-support roles puts you at a gold disadvantage against your enemy laner. Assume you have a mirror matchup of Dr. Mundos in top lane. Both base with 800 gold. One buys a sightstone and returns with +200 hp. The other buys two ruby crystals and returns with +300 hp. Barring any other factors, the Mundo with +300 hp will have a noticeable advantage in duels.

The gap is even bigger between pure dps where one buys a sightstone at the expense of damage, while the other returns with more damage/mana/move speed or whatever else.