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Thoughts on warding (gold 1 support)

Rothj·11/26/2014, 9:11:31 PM·2 votes·1,245 views

Tbh, I hate to buy wards early game. I feel like buying an individual ward rarely pays off. I tend to just use my trinket and try to pressure my lane hard and try to make ganks not work as well in lane phase, then I rush a sightstone or chalice depending on whatever I need. I feel like if you buy pinks sometimes they will last a while but not really give you vision of anything important, or you will have to back or your adc backs and they kill your pink 20 seconds after its placed. So usually I just don't. I buy probably 0 normal wards a game and like 1-2 pinks.

Second is even after I get a sightstone, I feel like early game if you roam to place wards its pretty bad. Usually I will try to get 3 wards in bot side river but id say fairly often during this time my adc is picked off or loses a lot of hp. I feel like it's not really worth it in the first 6-8 levels to heavily ward the river even with sightstone just because the other botlane will punish you for it.

Third, I really hate to ward in irrelevant spots that are out of the way. In this case Im mostly thinking of baron. I feel like the vast majority of the time you should heavily ward areas where a fight is about to happen or your team is gonna try to press an objective. 90% of the time the enemy team will not be able to rush an unnoticed baron that you could have contested. So warding baron usually doesn't create any picks or give good information. I mostly prefer to just ward wherever I feel like the ward will maximize the information given, and I tend to heavily replace wards in an area were working on. I feel like ruby sightstone can be a bit underrated because it lets you ward more before backing.

Lastly, I think once you get mobi boots it's really good to just constantly be warding and backing when nothing is really going on. I like to just drop a lot of temp wards in an important area then back and then run out and go to wherever my team is now and then ward that area afterwards. I think people are too cautious with their sightstone charges and don't create enough value.

Anyone have an opinion?

4 Comments

LucidLunatic11/26/2014, 10:55:22 PM1 votes

Disclaimer: I don't play ranked (yet), so that may explain my difference in opinion. As a support main, I strongly disagree with your approach, particularly to the early game. I always start with a green and a trinket ward. I generally place the trinket in a lane bush either immediately upon arriving in lane, or at level 2, depending on the champions involved. If I want to be poking both support and adc, or am particularly wary of their poke or cc from bush at level 1, then I'll do it immediately, or if my adc pushes lane quickly. This is to maximize the amount of useful time I get out of that trinket. If I don't care about where their support is in the bush, I don't need to be using it. I'll note, sometimes a pre-lane trinket use also effects when I can use it (such as if I warded the enemy buff).

I place my green in the river at level 3 or 4, but this can vary depending on the enemy jungle. If the enemy jungle is Warwick, then I generally don't expect a gank until he hits six. This can also depend on how mid lane is going. If lane isn't going terribly, I can usually afford Sightstone before that green goes down. Usually I can afford/will wait for Sightstone and a pink, as well as switching to red trinket.

Once I have Sightstone, I try to keep tribush, river, and the far lane bush warded at all times, though some of this varies depending on which side I am on, and how much leeway I have to place wards. If I can get away with it, I'll ward near Drake instead of river bush. However, this may change now that we have scuttle crabs. This way I know when a gank is coming. Sometimes this will not only save my adc and I from a successful gank, but we can sometimes kill the unsuspecting jungle this way, as well. When possible, during the laning phase, either tribush or river will be a pink ward, whichever location it is better for my jungle to gank from and I can maintain some control over. Having a pink ward nearly guarantees that the enemy does not have visibility, which sends a clear signal to a good jungle.

TheFallenShaw11/26/2014, 11:43:44 PM1 votes

Pinks should be invis, or not limited