Hey guys, so we all know that good warding is a huge deal when you're playing support.
The game feels different when the support on your team doesn't know what they're doing
and the map is just dark.
Vision is the foundation that your team uses to make plays, so getting it right is very
important.
In order to solve this vision problem, we need to address how you should ward in the
early stages of the game.
I'll break down 3 crucial points of the early game that require you to ward correctly to
help your team succeed.
In this video we'll not only go over good warding spots, but the reasons behind why
the standard wards are so efficient.
On top of that, we will have to address the differences between red side and blue side
every step of the way.
And as a reward for sticking with me, I'll show you guys all of the little tips and tricks
I've learned over the years to help you get to the next level.
For the sake of organization, I'm going to split the video into three distinct sections,
like i mentioned earlier.
Hopefully it will make it easier for you guys to digest the information and be able to think
about this while in your games.
We'll start off with the first phase, which is all about where you should place your first
trinket ward's in the early lane.
Then we'll transition that into the second phase which focuses on where you should ward
after your first recall.
Which brings us to phase 3, what to do once you finally finish your sightstone quest.
So let's get right into phase 1.
This phase is almost entirely dependent on what the enemy jungler is.
It's not the only factor though, as your lane matchup also matters, but before we get into
why, let's go over the most standard early ward that you can place.
This shallow spot in the river is the most efficient ward you can place at the beginning
of the game for bot lane.
Funnily enough the ward is great regardless of what side you're on.
It gives an early warning when you're about to be ganked on either blue or red side from
the most likely gank path at two different times in the early game.
I highly recommend waiting til around 1:25 or 1:30 to place the ward, or even as you
walk to lane after leashing.
The reason why you wait so long is because early trinkets last for about a minute and
a half.
This means if you place the ward at 1:30 it will last until 3 minutes into the game.
And by that point junglers are already level 3 and preparing to gank a lane.
Before I explain any further, it is always good to place this ward, no matter what.
Try your best to think about why you want to place it, but if you're ever uncertain
about it, it is much better to be safe than sorry.
Now that we know this, we can get into a bit of the finer details about when you should
and shouldn't want to place this ward.
Let me get one thing straight, placing the ward should be your default action.
However, there will be good reasons not to place it.
Can you think of any?
*slight pause for question* Well the most important reason, which I've
already mentioned is the enemy jungler.
If they are playing a more farming oriented champion, like Karthus, Shyvana, Master Yi,
and plenty of others, they will likely not gank within the first 3 minutes of the game,
so the ward would end up not seeing anything and be generally worthless.
Obviously we can't say for certain that they wouldn't ever gank.
Especially in solo queue we really never know what these psychopath players will do, but
we can make an educated guess that most people will tend to make the more efficient decisions
for their champions.
This scenario will also happen more and more with the jungle changes in patch 10.8.
Farming the jungle gives more experience and kills from ganking in the early game give
less experience.
So make sure to be on the lookout for these farming playstyle junglers, and don't waste
your ward here if you don't have to.
With that being said, this playstyle is generally not super fun and in solo queue we all know
junglers won't stop picking champs like lee sin, reksai, and J4 just because they probably
don't read the patch notes.
I tend to categorize junglers into 3 different groups.
The farming ones, like I just mentioned, the level 2 gankers, and all the rest that generally
need level 3 before they become a real gank threat.
This ward is 100% necessary against the level 2 gankers like J4, Pantheon, or Xinzhao, because
it will notify you of a potential level 2 gank, but also see a potential level 3 gank
as well.
Like I said before, the ward lasts until about 3 minutes and by that time a jungler can easily
do 3 camps to hit level 3 and gank bot.
So this ward is doubly efficient against those level 2 ganker type champions.
Aside from those, the general jungle pool typically wants to hit level 3 before their
ganks are really effective.
These junglers include elise, reksai, sejuani, and plenty of others.
This ward isn't quite as effective against those types, as they typically don't attempt
level 2 ganks, but sometimes they do and it really sucks.
So, we place the ward for these junglers as well just because it spots the level 3 gank,
and it also helps if they happen to lose their mind and level 2 gank us.
Alright, so we know the enemy jungler is the biggest factor for whether we want to place
this ward.
The other thing we need to consider is our bot lane matchup.
If the enemy support is playing an engager with heavy CC like alistar, nautilus, thresh,
and plenty others, then there is always a possibility the enemy jungler will come bot.
These engager champions just attract junglers, so in the event that they have heavy CC to
set up ganks, warding is just the better option.
So let's try and think of a bot and jungle combination that we could be certain wouldn't
gank us early.
*pause for question* My answer would probably be Ezreal+Yuumi bot
lane with a shyvana jungle.
Which is funny to me because all of these champs are actually quite popular right now
and it wouldn't be unusual to actually see this combination in a real game.
Don't be discouraged if we had different answers, after all almost any enchanter support and
farming jungle combination is a pretty good answer here.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we can think of a combination that would have an
insane likelihood of being ganked.
*pause for question* My answer would probably be something like
Nautilus+Kalista bot lane with a pantheon jungle.
My reasoning is that both pantheon and nautilus both have point and click CC's that are mostly
unavoidable, and Kalista just has so much mobility and damage to run someone down.
Playing against something like this would be pretty unbearable honestly.
And you guys hopefully can see the huge difference that the champion picks make.
With this second combination it'd be foolish to not place an early ward, but against the
first combination, the ward would be a complete waste.
I'm sure you can tell what i'm getting at here.
If there's even the slightest chance you could get ganked, just place the ward.
The best part of it is that there is really not much of a downside if you do place it.
In the very early game, there aren't many alternatives that are better.
If you saved the ward, it could always be used in a lane bush to help alleviate some
lane pressure and make your lane slightly easier to play.
Or you could hold it entirely for a higher value ward.
Either way, bot lane is pretty unique.
Since there are 2 laners, you have 2 trinkets to work with, so using one to ensure your
safety early game is never a bad thing.
Back to the 'higher value wards' I mentioned.
For each side it's different so let's start with blue side.
As blue side, if you hold your ward, you can save it until you shove a wave into the enemy
tower, this often can happen on the 2nd or 3rd minion waves.
What you want to do is walk into the enemy jungle and place a ward that sees both the
gromp and blue buff area.
Wards that see enemy jungle camps are usually pretty valuable because they will almost always
spot the enemy jungler, and that's valuable info for your team.
On red side, you can wait for the same opportunity, and you can ward one of two different places.
Either the tri-bush, or the enemy krug camp.
These wards aren't quite as good as the blue side one, but they're the best options you've
got.
To decide between the two, you generally will want to place it in the tri-bush as it covers
multiple paths for the jungler to gank your lane and grants you more general safety.
On the other hand, you can place the ward on krugs if you feel like you're safe enough
from ganks, or if the enemy jungler is one of the more farm-oriented champions we mentioned
earlier.
As you might have noticed, there really aren't great ward options if you're the bot lane
getting pushed in.
This is something we mention a lot at skillcapped, but it's just another reason why having lane
priority is so good.
Now that Phase1 is out of the way, let's get into Phase2.
What should you do after your first recall?
*pause for question* Well there is one specific part of the map
that a good support will always try to get control of, and that is in the dot bush next
to mid lane.
Regardless of blue or red side, your default pink ward placement should always be in the
bush.
The reason for this one is that it just sees everything.
It covers the entrances to both sides of the jungle, helps your mid laner to avoid ganks,
spots out roams from the enemy mid laner, and will often spot the enemy jungler and
support if they roam around botside.
This area decides which team has control of the river and it is definitely worth prioritizing.
So, honestly this phase is pretty straightforward compared to phase 1.
But there are still things to stay on the lookout for, and a couple of interesting variations
depending on the situation.
Most importantly, you need to be careful when walking into and warding this area.
Often times the enemy jungle and support will be nearby or even camping in the bush to kill
whoever walks by.
Try to spot the enemy jungle or support on the map, or use an ability to facecheck the
bush before blindly walking in.
On top of this, it never hurts to have your own jungler back you up in the area if you
think it's necessary.
For blue side, the slight variations you can make depend on how far ahead or behind you
are.
If your team is behind to the point that it just isn't a good idea to go into the river,
then you can pink ward the bush behind red buff to keep your jungle entrance safe.
Or if you want to be much more selfish in your own lane then you can pink your own tri-bush
to make sure no roams can come from behind.
But if you're ahead on blue side there are a couple of interesting ward spots past the
river that often go unnoticed by the enemy team and still get a lot of info for you.
These two bushes fly under peoples' radar quite often but are still in positions to
see both jungle entrances.
Deciding between the two, you can go for the one near gromp if you're playing more selfishly
for lane, or the other one near wolves if you want to help the rest of your team as
it's more likely to spot the enemy jungler as he does his camps.
For the red side, it's a similar situation.
If you're behind you want to ward these areas, as they protect your jungle entrances from
being invaded, and are less likely to be spotted than the river dot bush.
The one near gromp is actually really nice as it serves as an early warning signal if
you're going to be dove by the enemy jungle or mid.
If you're ahead on red side it can get a bit more fun.
I personally prefer these two spots for pinks, as the bush under krugs is actually one that
people miss a lot and it can spot the enemy jungler coming to your lane from a mile away.
Also the one past the red buff is a classic deep ward that can stay in that bush forever
and spot the enemy jungler every time they walk botside.
That's it for Phase 2, let's get on to Phase 3.
Where should you place your 3 wards right after you finish your support item quest?
*pause for question* Well the answer to that heavily depends on
the game state, which side of the map you're on, and plenty of other factors.
So to simplify it, let's start with blue side, and assume that it's around 10 minutes and
the laning phase hasn't ended yet.
I would place my wards in these positions if my team was even or ahead.
If you have wards in these spots you, cover both jungle entrances with wards that don't
get swept super often, and you get a super early warning if the enemy jungler is botside,
as the wards are fairly shoved into their jungle.
On top of that I'd make sure to keep a ward in the middle of river to keep an eye on dragon
and make sure no roams from the enemy midlaner go unseen.
Obviously there are some holes in vision with this placement and some redundancies.
Unfortunately you can never have perfect vision, so your goal is to get the most valuable vision
you can for your team.
These wards get vision on multiple jungle camps, jungle entrances, the dragon, and most
of river.
On top of this you have to consider where you and your team have left pink wards already,
and adjust based on that.
We won't go over warding if you're behind in phase 3 since we've already mentioned the
goal in Phase 2.
You basically just want to keep your jungle entrances warded to see if you're getting
invaded on the botside or dove under your tower.
At the end of the day aggressive, proactive vision is much more difficult to get a grasp
of than reactive vision anyways.
From red side the vision game is much more fun because there are really tricky spots
to get your wards in to avoid enemy pinks and still see everything.
These are my favorite spots in the game because the enemy team will very often place pink
wards in these bushes, just like we went over in phase 2.
If you place these 3 green wards, then none of them will be seen by standard pinks and
you will still see every jungle entrance, and know if the enemy jungler ever tries to
do dragon due to the ward behind the pit.
Another reason this setup is my personal favorite because it gives the enemy team a false sense
of security.
They assume since they have the standard pink wards down that they've denied all vision,
but I can't tell you the amount of times I've avoided jungle ganks and mid lane roams due
to these wards.
And if you thought it couldn't get any better, these wards are relatively safe to get since
all of them are fairly shallow within the enemy jungle so you don't have to overextend
to get them.
And that is it guys.
Everything you need to know about warding in the early game, and why.
As a fun recap, I want to review one of my own challenger solo queue games to see how
well I followed my own advice.
For phase 1, I didn't actually place the ward that I recommend at level 1.
I might be biased, but I think it was the right decision because the enemy jungler is
Eve, who has no chance of level 2 ganking, and tends to farm until 6 rather than gank.
On top of that the enemy support is Yuumi, so in this particular game I feel totally
not threatened by their bot lane and jungle combo.
So, since I saved my ward I was able to get the deep ward I mentioned after shoving in
the 3rd wave bot lane.
Once I placed it, we saw that Eve had farmed both camps.
That might initially seem like a let down, but this lack of information can help us imply
that the Eve is most likely pathing topside and will be back to farm her botside camps
at around the 4 and a half minute mark.
And just as luck would have it, a few seconds later, Eve shows up in the topside of the
map, just as we predicted with our ward.
For Phase 2, I ended up doing something a bit different.
I pathed towards mid, on the way to placing a pink in the dot bush, and I was even accompanied
by my jungler.
But I didn't place the pink ward.
Well, instead of placing the standard ward, I had a plan to use this pink in a much more
aggressive way to get some kills.
I noticed that the enemy bot lane was slowpushing towards our tower because they messed up their
wave control.
Knowing that MF had no flash, I wanted to sit in the river bush with my gragas and ambush
them for a quick double kill if they face-checked us.
Unfortunately, an old trinket that the placed much earlier barely spotted out the play.
So I didn't quite follow the standard ward mission, but that's ok.
If you see something and have an idea, you should go for it.
Being able to adapt a plan is necessary to winning in league.
I hope this shows that you shouldn't blindly follow my advice, but use it as a baseline
to start thinking for yourself, just like I did here.
And last but not least, Phase 3.
With my little bit of free time in the river I ended up warding these 2 spots and using
a pink ward in the bot lane river bush.
This isn't exactly what I have laid out in Phase 3, but there are good reasons why.
For one, I am playing against an Eve jungle, and she is unique in that wards aren't effective
unless you place wards directly on her jungle camps.
On top of that I was working with limited time.
I only placed these wards because I was trying to flank the enemy MF to dive her and these
were the best spots available.
If I had infinite time, the best spots would be to ward directly onto her wolf camp alongside
the ward I got on her gromp and blue buff, instead of the one in the river.
With that said, the wards I placed were all still very effective against Eve, and I was
able to make a funny play in the process.
In any case, this example should further show you guys that you shouldn't just blindly place
these wards I'm showing you.
Everything in this video is very standard and will be effective most of the time, but
over time you will learn to adapt and improve upon what this guide shows you based on the
context of each game you play.
Alright guys, that's going to bring us to the end of this video.
We hope you enjoyed, and thanks for watching!