Looking for Ward Purchase Strategy & Tips

[quote=Chawoora]What is your general ward purchase strategy? I get the general idea...wards are good and everybody should ward. As a support it seems pretty easy...get Sightstone and a pink ward now and then. What about other roles? I have been playing jungle more, and jungle seems like a role that should ward more than others. Two of the biggest issues I seem to hit are money and item slots. Stealth Ward versus Warding Totem (Trinket): The clear disadvantage of the trinket is that it is only up 50% of the time (pre level 9) and even at level 9 they expire in 2 minutes versus 3. Do you use the trinket for "real" warding or just for utility warding (like checking a bush)? Upgraded Warding Trinket: Does anybody upgrade their Warding Totem (Trinket)? That sure seems expensive (unless you are already at full build). The biggest advantage seems to be that it does not use an item slot. The pink upgrade seems much more useful than the green ward upgrade. Stealth Ward versus Vision (Pink) Ward: Pink wards are great. They could last the entire game for 100 gold! Or they could last for 4 seconds...boo! Do you tend to rely on one or the other or both? Item Slot Issues: How do you deal with the fact that wards take up one or two of your items slots? Even early on, slots are taken up by component for full build items. When approaching full build, it is hard to give up an item slot for a ward. How do you continue to ward late game? Do you ever buy Sightstone for non-supports? I sometimes buy a Sightstone for tanky junglers. 1600 for 400 health and a supply of wards seems like a pretty good deal. It takes up a slot just like a ward would but gives my champion some health. Plus I find that if I have a Sightstone I am more likely to ward since they are “free”. I guess I need to look closer at some of the games at Worlds because I often see a dozen wards out per team...and they are constantly getting cleared.[/quote]

[quote=Janitsu]Never keep [[warding totem]] too long. Change it to [[oracle's lens]] or to the blue trinket if you are ADC. [[vision wards]] are there to clear those wards and/or to cover your jungle for a long time. Use them when you are trying to take objectives such as baron or dragon. You usually have that one spare item space in your inventory for quite some time. I buy [[sightstone]] on some tops and on some junglers. [[lee sin]] for example can use it pretty well.[/quote]

[quote=Chawoora]Thanks for the tips. I have been forcing myself to buy (and use!) wards more often. I just played a game as Warwick jungle and picked up a Sightstone. Having 3 wards down in the enemy jungle really helped us finish off the game! I think I warded more than our support. I picked up a pink ward at the start of the game, warded the red camp, and it lasted the entire game. I would say that was worth 100 gold! [and I love that Warwick does not need health pots] As a jungler I usually either start with a sweeper trinket or swap out the first back. As support I swap it out when I get Sightstone. I am not sure I have ever purchased a Scrying Orb. P.S. Is there a guide somewhere that says how to insert the code for items/champions/etc into posts? I am new here, but it seems useful...plus looks cool.[/quote]

[quote=Janitsu]Usage: [[[[garen]]]] > [[garen]] [[[icon=garen size=64]]] > [icon=garen size=64][/quote]

[quote=Latest Legend]http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/wiki/mobafire/bbcode-guide[/quote]

[quote=Joxuu]Warding depends on the jungler you are playing also. The general idea is to have wards available at all times. I have just gotten interested about the jungle role myself too. I try to have 1 ward for top laner in case top lane doesn't have one, 1 ward for the enemy jungle and 1 pink ward for objectives or neutral area control. Strong junglers who should win the jungler match-up and prefer a little bit of tanky stats can buy [[sightstone]]. [[nunu]], [[lee sin]] and [[elise]] can all do a great amount of counter jungling and out of those [[nunu]] almost depends on screwing up the enemy jungler. Those junglers especially benefit from [[sightstone]] because they need the wards and [[lee sin]] can use them as a escape too so that's a bonus. The wards often go for offensive purposes towards the enemy jungle. Not only will you be able to see the jungler to decide to go for invade or even kill the enemy jungler. The second a jungler is spotted on a ward, all the pressure he/she gives is lost. Obviously if the enemy jungler is spotted at golems for example: Bot lane can go aggressive. Why do they need the wards? Counter-jungling is really risky but very high profit strategy. You are alone in the enemy terrority and you can't expect your ally team to follow the call in soloQ. The least you can do is tell you are counter-jungling but still: The enemy is most likely the first team to arrive there. This is why you need wards to not ge caught and know the limit of how deep you can go. For the pink wards: a scrub once advised after a teamranked: Get a pink ward if you have extra slot and 100 gold. That's what you can do as a jungler. Those usually go for objective control or river ward as they tend to give vision for great amount of time. --- Offensive junglers can/should switch or start with sweeper whereas defensive junglers can get the warding totem. If you're a defensive jungler like [[amumu]], you can even ward your own jungle as you propably won't be looking to go duel enemy offensive junglers. Warding routes to own buffs for example is advised as they give defensive vision and control of your own buff. These apply more or less. It depends on what is the knowledge of enemy jungler. In lower elos, the enemy jungler may not know if he/she can duel you for example. Warding becomes more immportant in higher elos but you can't ever underestimate the enemies. Wards are the most op items in the game as they only cost 75 gold and they can save you thousands of gold.[/quote]

[quote=Chawoora]I have been making wards a higher priority item, figuring that a couple [[stealth ward]]s are going to help me out more than that [[rejuvenation bead]]. It is amazing how much power wards have but how little people tend to ward. There is nothing worse than being pushed back to your base looking out on a black map...they doing Baron? Dragon? about to rush our base? When you are ahead, 4 wards down on the enemy side gives nearly complete vision of where the enemy champions are. I do wish there were better upgrade options for the [[warding totem]]. For 475 gold the [[Greater Stealth Totem]] and the [[Greater Vision Totem]] don't seem to have any advantages other than not taking up a slot. The [[Oracle's Lens]] upgrade does seem useful in many cases. Hey...look at those icons...thanks for the BBCode info.[/quote]

[quote=Chawoora][quote=Chawoora]I do wish there were better upgrade options for the [[warding totem]]. For 475 gold the [[Greater Stealth Totem]] and the [[Greater Vision Totem]] don't seem to have any advantages other than not taking up a slot. The [[Oracle's Lens]] upgrade does seem useful in many cases.[/quote] Hey...Riot listened to me!! For only 250 gold the upgraded [[Greater Stealth Totem]] is almost a [[Sightstone]]...no health but 3 min wards on a 60 second cooldown and you don't even have to return to base to refresh your supply. The [[Greater Vision Totem]] also seems pretty good for 250 gold. Have you been noticing people upgrading? Have you been upgrading? I have not played much on the recent patch. It sure seems like getting wards down should be a lot easier.[/quote]

[quote=Jovy]I've only seen one person upgrade [[warding totem]] in my past 10 games. I play support so I haven't tried it yet myself, as I get [[oracle's lens]]. I do hope people pick up on this though, 250 isn't that much cash and most people keep their [[warding totem]]s forever for no reason.[/quote]

[quote=Chawoora]I was thinking that one of the upgrades would be nice as a jungler...to replace the wards lost by the changes in the jungle items...but I find that I like having the [[Oracle's Lens]] too much for checking bushes. It might be a decent upgrade lategame after the ganking phase is over. In any case I like the changes.[/quote]