Knowledge is power in the Summoner’s Rift… Knowing where your opponents are will help you survive ganks, secure objectives, and win team fights.

When people think of the climax of League of Legends, they often think of the flashy outplays, but a big part of the game is controlling the map. And to do that, you need good vision. After our map guides, we’ll try to help you keep a better eye on the rest of the rift.

Warding Basics

Wards give your team vision over a small portion of the map around where they are deployed. As with a Champion, a Ward’s “vision” is blocked by terrain and they can only see into a bush when they are inside it. The most accessible source of Wards is the Warding Token Trinket. In the beginning, you have one of these and it generates a new Trinket every 240 seconds. You can have up to two. The duration of the Wards increases from 90 to 120 seconds, depending on the level of the champion.

The second option is to have an enhanced support item. This item can hold three (four after the second upgrade) Wards. When you use up your Wards and go back to the well, you refill your three (or four) Wards. Or you can automatically replenish one Ward every 150 seconds. Both types of Wards become immiscible shortly after use. You can teleport to a Ward (making the Ward visible but not targetable), and a champion can only have three such Wards on the map.

At level 9, a champion can exchange his Wardin token for a long-range modifier. This Ward has a larger radius than other Wards. Unfortunately, these Wards are not cloaked, die on a single hit, and cannot be used for teleports.

The Lens of the Oracle, the final trinket, does not allow you to build a Ward but instead reveals cloaked Wards and enemies near you. It even disables Wards that it reveals to you. It can be very important to block the enemy’s view. Much cooler, however, is this: Disabling a Ward can allow you to complete a gank without letting the enemy know. So if you were to do that, don’t attack the Ward – the enemy team will see it being attacked.

Finally, control wards are purchased from the store – and a champion can only use one of them at a time. They are not cloaked, do not expire on their own, and reveal and disable every other type of Ward in their radius. They even reveal cloaked champions or traps – but not champions with true invisibility like Akali or Shaco.

Ward Placements

Since our Wards are limited, it’s important to use them in places where enemies will be coming at us from. A lot of people playing on a sideline will be fighting off the next bush in a river, but that doesn’t always give you time to act on ganks. Instead, it often pays to Warden the “Tribus” near the tower and a little further away – the small “Pixel Bush” near the midline and in front of the ramp leading from the blue Buff to the Dragon or Baron Pit. If the enemy jungler can pass through walls –like Shaco, Kayn, or Sejuani– it may be good for the warden on the other side of the wall instead.

As the game progresses, teams often fight near-neutral targets like the Rift Herald, Dragons, and Baron. In these cases, you’ll want to place Wards at the entrance of the pit and one behind it, where there is often a Blastcone. Keep looking at the areas where there may be fighting. While doing this, protect yourself from the enemy bachelors. When you have the advantage, you can then start the fight. But one thing is important – always try to make sure you have a Ward near a big target just before it spawns!

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