Views: 968 Warding, a rant by CloudCarry
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Disclaimer: I originally made this rant in response to a reddit thread, but thought it would be useful here, as well. While this blog may contain useful information for play below silver, this rant is directed at gold level play and up.
Every time someone dies at bottom lane, I look at the mini map. Yup, no vision except one lonely ward (which is not nearly enough for bottom lane) and the support ALWAYS has two wards in their inventory, but doesn't ever place them.
I see a lack of vision in a lot of my games and yet the support doesn't seem to know what they're doing. Surely some of that is their lack of appreciation for the role, but I realized the other part of it must be because of misinformation and what is generally accepted as "good enough."
Now, there is a way to properly ward and in fact, it's pretty simple: you just take the season 2 support mentality to the next level and use sightstone, if that's your thing. The thing people don't understand about support is that items don't matter as much as long as you have good vision. I stray away from sightstone, because noone has good enough ward management to keep up on those wards except pro players. (even then, they do so with a lack of vision for the benefit of the gold efficiency)
I would leave the sightstone buy for the support mains and use green wards and aegis/philo rush if you are more of a carry player, forced to support.
You only really need 2 wards at bottom lane during laning phase (but should carry 3 or 4 and maybe a pink or two). If you're purple side you need one in the river bush and the enemy bush and if they pink their own bush, you simply ward YOUR OWN bush and fall back as needed so as to not die to the enemy amumu that could be in THEIR BUSH.
If you are blue side you just ward tri and enemy lane bush (or if mid has the wraiths/red bush warded properly, you can afford to throw that ward on dragon or some ****).
The point is that you need 2 points of vision on bot lane at all times or else your ad carry will get camped or outlaned for free. You lose a lot of laning presence by not having vision on the enemy support/gank squad.
Where it once was a decision/calculated risk for the ad carry to go for farm, you now have doomed him to uselessness and a loss for yourself by not having good vision. He can't choose to not cs while he's in danger, because he doesn't know he's in danger. ALWAYS, keep the dude potential presence in the back of your mind.
Also if they are pushing up to your tower, you HAVE to ward your bush or you are not going to have any lane control whatsoever. If they pink that bush, you have to play passive and not give up any kills because you CAN come back from a 30 cs deficit, but you CAN'T come back from 30 cs deficit +4 kills on their ad. Just ask for help from your jungler and if you lose that game, you probably would've lost anyway and you can hold your head high knowing that you did your best.
It's so easy and yet I see the support complaining every game about how bored they are and either saying "I don't have wards," or not placing them. *****, if you don't have ****ing wards, then tell your ad you have to go to base and tell that mofo not to die!
Conversely, if noone is warding mid game (solo laners), that is probably the biggest issue.
Somehow these mid laners think that they are supposed to just farm all game and then somehow they will get 10 kills and end the game every time.
It doesn't always work out like that, so they need to pick up a ward every once in a while, so that your jungler can effectively ward everything the mid laner hasn't.
The end result of a mid laner not warding is always GG. The only exception is when they both aren't warding or if you already won your lane hard enough to not die to the gank (in which case you should still buy wards, cuz you can't own people by casting into and from fog of war without wards).
I really don't know why wards aren't more popular, you get to kill some dude with him thinking he's entirely safe.
Even if the ward feels wasted, it probably isn't because it gives people information and if you don't got **** to do on support, why wouldn't you ping out the enemy jungler's location?
It's just common sense. Think of the support as the command center. You are a pretty ****ty command center if there is no information flowing. Even small things like "we're fine bot, focus mid and top" or "hey we need help bottom, please be in range to countergank" is all you are expected to do. You're going to lose some games regardless, so it's your job to minimize your negative impact.
Conclusion
Now I will be the first guy to tell you not to support in lower elo and to just play double ad or aggressive supports, but that's only if you can secure a better late game. You do noone any favors by double ad-ing and feeding their bot lane out of their minds. Right around gold elo, is when i suggest people actually play support seriously, because this is where it will have the biggest impact.
As for how to exploit people at this level of play: Gold level ad's play super aggressive (stupidly so, in fact), and you can punish this playstyle with proper warding and superb cs and trading discipline (meaning you only take favorable trades and punish them when they are out of position, but avoid trades when they are unfavorable.)
These gold players will think they are outlaning you and will claim to have "won lane" when they are up only a few cs or in fact they are behind a few cs because they place too much value on trading and lane control, when in fact they have no idea what they are doing right or wrong.
It's really easy to take a won trade and turn it into two kills if you have good vision. Not so much, if you are expecting their jungler to be there and then the moment is gone.
Suffice it to say, that it all comes down to common sense. Common sense is not so common if you aren't doing a good job of providing that information to your team in the first place.
Put your team in a position to win and they will come through for you at least half of the time.
If you do everything right and still get harassed by your team and lose the game, well at least you know you did fine and will continue to improve as a player while that 1-6 mid laner that "won his lane" is going to be in gold for a long time.
Thanks for reading
Every time someone dies at bottom lane, I look at the mini map. Yup, no vision except one lonely ward (which is not nearly enough for bottom lane) and the support ALWAYS has two wards in their inventory, but doesn't ever place them.
I see a lack of vision in a lot of my games and yet the support doesn't seem to know what they're doing. Surely some of that is their lack of appreciation for the role, but I realized the other part of it must be because of misinformation and what is generally accepted as "good enough."
Now, there is a way to properly ward and in fact, it's pretty simple: you just take the season 2 support mentality to the next level and use sightstone, if that's your thing. The thing people don't understand about support is that items don't matter as much as long as you have good vision. I stray away from sightstone, because noone has good enough ward management to keep up on those wards except pro players. (even then, they do so with a lack of vision for the benefit of the gold efficiency)
I would leave the sightstone buy for the support mains and use green wards and aegis/philo rush if you are more of a carry player, forced to support.
You only really need 2 wards at bottom lane during laning phase (but should carry 3 or 4 and maybe a pink or two). If you're purple side you need one in the river bush and the enemy bush and if they pink their own bush, you simply ward YOUR OWN bush and fall back as needed so as to not die to the enemy amumu that could be in THEIR BUSH.
If you are blue side you just ward tri and enemy lane bush (or if mid has the wraiths/red bush warded properly, you can afford to throw that ward on dragon or some ****).
The point is that you need 2 points of vision on bot lane at all times or else your ad carry will get camped or outlaned for free. You lose a lot of laning presence by not having vision on the enemy support/gank squad.
Where it once was a decision/calculated risk for the ad carry to go for farm, you now have doomed him to uselessness and a loss for yourself by not having good vision. He can't choose to not cs while he's in danger, because he doesn't know he's in danger. ALWAYS, keep the dude potential presence in the back of your mind.
Also if they are pushing up to your tower, you HAVE to ward your bush or you are not going to have any lane control whatsoever. If they pink that bush, you have to play passive and not give up any kills because you CAN come back from a 30 cs deficit, but you CAN'T come back from 30 cs deficit +4 kills on their ad. Just ask for help from your jungler and if you lose that game, you probably would've lost anyway and you can hold your head high knowing that you did your best.
It's so easy and yet I see the support complaining every game about how bored they are and either saying "I don't have wards," or not placing them. *****, if you don't have ****ing wards, then tell your ad you have to go to base and tell that mofo not to die!
Conversely, if noone is warding mid game (solo laners), that is probably the biggest issue.
Somehow these mid laners think that they are supposed to just farm all game and then somehow they will get 10 kills and end the game every time.
It doesn't always work out like that, so they need to pick up a ward every once in a while, so that your jungler can effectively ward everything the mid laner hasn't.
The end result of a mid laner not warding is always GG. The only exception is when they both aren't warding or if you already won your lane hard enough to not die to the gank (in which case you should still buy wards, cuz you can't own people by casting into and from fog of war without wards).
I really don't know why wards aren't more popular, you get to kill some dude with him thinking he's entirely safe.
Even if the ward feels wasted, it probably isn't because it gives people information and if you don't got **** to do on support, why wouldn't you ping out the enemy jungler's location?
It's just common sense. Think of the support as the command center. You are a pretty ****ty command center if there is no information flowing. Even small things like "we're fine bot, focus mid and top" or "hey we need help bottom, please be in range to countergank" is all you are expected to do. You're going to lose some games regardless, so it's your job to minimize your negative impact.
Conclusion
Now I will be the first guy to tell you not to support in lower elo and to just play double ad or aggressive supports, but that's only if you can secure a better late game. You do noone any favors by double ad-ing and feeding their bot lane out of their minds. Right around gold elo, is when i suggest people actually play support seriously, because this is where it will have the biggest impact.
As for how to exploit people at this level of play: Gold level ad's play super aggressive (stupidly so, in fact), and you can punish this playstyle with proper warding and superb cs and trading discipline (meaning you only take favorable trades and punish them when they are out of position, but avoid trades when they are unfavorable.)
These gold players will think they are outlaning you and will claim to have "won lane" when they are up only a few cs or in fact they are behind a few cs because they place too much value on trading and lane control, when in fact they have no idea what they are doing right or wrong.
It's really easy to take a won trade and turn it into two kills if you have good vision. Not so much, if you are expecting their jungler to be there and then the moment is gone.
Suffice it to say, that it all comes down to common sense. Common sense is not so common if you aren't doing a good job of providing that information to your team in the first place.
Put your team in a position to win and they will come through for you at least half of the time.
If you do everything right and still get harassed by your team and lose the game, well at least you know you did fine and will continue to improve as a player while that 1-6 mid laner that "won his lane" is going to be in gold for a long time.
Thanks for reading
If you aren't good at the game you don't get to have an opinion.
I'm not brazen enough to just say you are flat out wrong, you are entitled to your opinion.
If you don't agree with me that's fine, but I would implore you to do the same and "don't spread false information."
Obviously, I don't agree with you and if you want to share your opinions, why don't you do so on your OWN blog. Thanks for the response.
This coming from an ADc main who only thinks that lack of wards causes death, I must say that this is untrue. Coming from a support main, if you are overextended, it's usually too late when you spot the enemy jungle/midlane ganking you even with wards.
Embracing is both wrong and right. Right in the fact that the lack of wards is not the sole reason for deaths in lane and that map awareness is key, but wrong in the fact that you don't overspam your lane with wards. Every ward is important and the jungler can usually take multiple paths(3) to gank. In fact, warding tribrush, dragon area (near purple blue side), and one of the bushes of the lane.
Usually the support would not be so concentrated in things like last hit so the support should be warning the carry to back off when there is a need to. But a good AD carry does not need that warning.
lol? You don't need 2 spots warded 24/7
You don't overspam your lane with wards.
You buy pink wards and keep a steady amount of wards so you can balance income with expenses.
If a jungler kills you it means you overcommitted to a fight, overextended, or have simply no vision.
Most times when enemies are engaging at weird times and their jungler / mid / top is missing it's a sign that their jungler / mid / top is there.
Intuition + Warding is what keeps a lane safe.
Warding isn't the only thing.
Don't spread false information.
I'm not brazen enough to just say you are flat out wrong, you are entitled to your opinion.
If you don't agree with me that's fine, but I would implore you to do the same and "don't spread false information."
Obviously, I don't agree with you and if you want to share your opinions, why don't you do so on your OWN blog. Thanks for the response.
You don't overspam your lane with wards.
You buy pink wards and keep a steady amount of wards so you can balance income with expenses.
If a jungler kills you it means you overcommitted to a fight, overextended, or have simply no vision.
Most times when enemies are engaging at weird times and their jungler / mid / top is missing it's a sign that their jungler / mid / top is there.
Intuition + Warding is what keeps a lane safe.
Warding isn't the only thing.
Don't spread false information.