Vision 102: How to WIN games with vision control
In this post I will give you some very basic macro plans to help with warding and use these plans to explain how vision control actually works.
The first two paragraphs are a preamble outlining the very basics of League of Legends macro/strategy. For actual tips and tricks, go to the third and fourth paragraphs for advice on regular wards and pinks/sweepers, respectively.
Again, there's a TL;DR with pointers at the bottom, and please point out anything I should add or change to this post. Also, sorry for the clickbait in the title, but I genuinely believe that this vision control thingy is a key element in any game of League, wether it's intentional or not.
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Now that we figured out what vision actually does and why it's good, we can reason out how we should be warding. There's a catch, though; As I stated in my previous post, to ward properly you need to have a plan. This can be as simple as not wanting to die to a gank.
Think back to the beginning of the game, before buffs spawn. You can walk around your jungle safely, but as soon as you try to go into the enemy jungle or river, you feel in danger. You don't know where the enemy is, and every move you make could be a false step into a death. This is because their jungle is their territory. You don't have information there, so you can't do anything. The reason your jungle is safe is because you have information about your own jungle this early in the game; nobody had the time to get in there, so it's safe.
This is why the very dumb plan of a level 1 invade can work AT ALL. The enemy doesn't see you invading and think's they're safe. Turns out, they are probably out numbered and will give up flashes or a few kills. This ONLY works if they don't see you. It's a game of information.
The SAME concept applies to taking baron. The reason you can't contest that baron, even though your teams are even, is because you don't know where they are. You lost the game of vision control and now baron isn't your territory. One false move and the game is over. This goes for every objective in the game. Be it dragon or taking turrets.
It ALSO goes into when there are no objectives on the map! Remember the early game; You couldn't walk into the enemy jungle because you had no information. Therefore, if you control vision of certain areas of the map, any enemy walking into them is susceptible to getting picked off. This is why your auto-fill support constantly dies while trying to get vision. He tries to take vision so you have more freedom, but to do this he or she has to walk into enemy territory.
These situations can and should be created by you and your team. Anyone in the game has a trinket and can buy pink wards. If you pushed your lane and there are no objectives on the map to work towards, go try and control vision. Think about your next move AND your opponent's next move. Ward to push your territory forward and use pinks/sweepers to push the enemy back. This alone is what enables you to move around the map and make plays.
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The next step is thinking about the actual "mini-game" of contesting vision. That baron situation: Before any fighting actually happens, there's a "low-key" game of who gets vision of what; teams go back and forth trying to place and secure pink wards in the river, pit or spot brush. Whomever gets this has a MAJOR advantage on the coming fight. This mini-game is made easier by getting to baron first, which is why quick-thinking and rotations are important.
This mini-game doesn't necessarily happen all at once, like it does during baron. In the middle game, the enemy supports and junglers are in a constant battle of removing wards down the river and trying to sneak in deep wards into the enemy jungle. Again, while they might not have a concrete plan, just having those wards severely expands your options, and removing the enemy's limits theirs.
The winner of these "battles" is determined by resources. Whomever actually gets a ward to stick, wins. This can be done by having more wards, simply having one extra person with you or making good use of sweepers/pinks. Sticky wards are important, as they are vastly more efficient than wards that get removed immediately.
Also important is the ward placement. A lot of wards can be left to rot and become useless, as they cover very little paths and thus provide you with no useful information. For your wards to be any good, you need for them to be sticky and useful.
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There's no secret to actually useful wards. Whatever wards you place are useful so long as they help you push your plan forward or stops the enemy from theirs. This can be done by warding behind pit, over turret wall to prevent engages, etc. These wards are the most important ones, as they are the ones that guarantee you information to get you kills or objectives. They are, more often than not, the wards that are worth 250+ gold.
These wards, in general, cover your enemies possible angles of attack. In League of Legends, there's a very limited amount of things any given team can do to stop your plans. The most prevalent of those things is just outright killing you, and they can only engage properly from specific angles, and generally from outside of vision. Rare are the situations where the enemy can just roll over you from outside of vision. You should recognize those and play appropriately.
Your plan can also be getting a pick off. This is done mostly by removing wards, but placing wards where the enemy is guaranteed to walk through and is lest likely to spot them are also very good. This can be right in front of base gates, krugs or tribush. Of course, wards in intersections are always good in these situations.
However, a lot of times you don't have an exact plan, so you ought to push your territory forward. This will give you options so you can eventually do something. Placing useful wards in these situations is trickier, and this is where those maps with ward spots are good for. Remember that these wards are NOT the most important. The actually important wards are the ones that definitely push your agenda.
As a rule of thumb, wards are generically useful when they cover lots of paths. This means warding intersections, and not necessarily bushes. Good ward spots are those where many paths converge. You can easily find these on the map. For example, the red-side river entrance near raptors has four paths going through it: From behind the dragon pit, from raptors, from lane and from river. A ward there is fantastic, irrespective of it being inside or outside a bush.
This knowledge gives you a great advantage, as you don't have to expose yourself to ward that spot. You can do it straight from the line brush in mid lane. Walking into the enemy jungle is not necessary at all! For a lot of ward spots, you don't have to expose yourself to get vision. This raptors' ward is such. Another example is a ward behind dragon/baron pit, which covers a solid three paths and can be put with pretty much zero risk. Think about regions where a ward would be good and how you can safely get in range of those regions. This will save you a lot of deaths.
This why a ward over the wall that separates gromp and blue is great. While it doesn't cover four paths (from base to blue, around gromp and from river to blue), it covers both blue buff and gromp. This ward can be safely placed, at least when compared to a ward inside the blue buff bush.
In the topic of blue buff, wards OUTSIDE of the bush are generally better than inside of it, as they will cover more paths. Wards inside the bush cover basically nothing of the paths besides the buff and can be easily avoided. Warding over the bush wall or outside of it, in the intersection, is generally better. These wards are very deep and therefore dangerous, so take care.
Figure out through experimentation what wards you can place from safe spots, and wards that you can place that avoid pink wards. Dumping a map onto you would be mostly useless, as you won't remember most of it and this is something I learn and figure every game where it's needed. You can (and should) try to do the same.
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The main way to defend your territory is a pink ward on a bush. They are placed on bushes in general because that makes them stickier. Harder to remove. To get rid of them, you'd need to face check, and by definition you'd be doing that in enemy territory, which is almost never a good decision. Think of nearby intersections where the enemy would want to have a ward; place pinks that cover these spots, and preferably in bushes.
Remember that pinks are expendable and on no cooldown. You can buy as many as you like. I often also use pinks to remove key enemy wards, such as wards down mid lane, wards in the blue intersection and around raptors. Then, I can just leave them there, as they are covering key warding spots. If those spots are no longer useful, it's easy to buy another one and relocate it.
You should use your sweepers sparingly, as they are on a long cooldown. Only use them if you're walking through important areas or when actively pushing back enemy territory. You should also try to cover an area as large as possible, and tend to use sweepers only in the middle of the jungle, not on the edges. This can be the difference between a ward sticking or not.
You should also try to aim for the enemies actual good wards. Removing a ward that's inside raptor camp is not as important as wards inside the blue/red intersections. Remember that the enemy also has plans and should also be warding to push their agenda forward. You should use your sweeper to stop them.
It's important to notice that a lot of good wards will be off the beaten path and not be caught by pink wards in brushes. For example, wards besides the blue wall, on the intersection, will not be caught by a pink on the bush. For spots with lots of walls, nooks and crannies, prioritize using your sweeper, and if needed, use your pinks in key spots outside of brushes to remove their key wards.
For example, a pink in the bush outside of dragon/baron pit, near raptors, is an excellent pink, as your enemy will lose sight of a major intersection and have to go deep to remove it. A pink in the blue buff bush is good, as it covers a lot of paths in front of the buff, but can often not be as good as it will not cover paths beyond the walls.
Lastly, remember that this is a game of resources. People can only have a number of pinks and sweepers. Try to play around this to know when a ward can stick properly.
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In general, there's an idea of the purpose of a ward. And every ward should have a purpose, otherwise it's a wasted ward. This goes for regular wards and pinks. As I said in the previous post, everything you do in league of legends should be thought out and planned for. This is specially true for wards.
TL;DR:
- Vision is the fundamental unit that gives you information, enabling you to make plays and win.
- To gain control of vision, players often engage in a game of resources, placing and removing wards.
- There are several tricks to making your wards stickier and more useful, and also to make the enemies easy to remove.
- You wards should first and foremost push your agenda, this being stopping enemy angles' of attack or rotation paths.
- Secondly, you can have generically good wards in intersections. You should also try to ward camps.
- Be mindful of where pinks could possibly be, and try to ward circunventing them, such as besides the blue buff wall with the bush.
- Use your sweeper in the middle of your jungle, to optimize it. Don't use it willy nilly as it's on a long cooldown.
- Use your pinks willy nilly, as they are expendable and replaceable.
- You don't have to pink bushes.
- So long as your pink has an active job or role, it's a good pink, no matter wether it's outside a bush.
- The same logic goes for EVERY ward. Think about the ward you're placing and what it's doing, to determine wether it's any good or not.
- ALWAYS think critically about what you're about to do. No matter how simple it is.
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