By melmels

melmels

Ward, Warding & Warded

Sat 7th Jul 2012 - 6:16pm Category: League of Legends

As someone who mains the role of a support, I have heard on more than one occasion the following statement: “Support, we need wards!” Obviously we need wards. You just died because you decided to run along the river while the outer turrets were down and there was no vision. Ergo, you are literally walking into your own death. Here is my response to you, my fellow summoner. Buy some wards yourself. Why must you spend your precious gold on wards? But it’s the support’s job to ward you say? Well then, here’s my take on why you should buy a few wards.

“Basic rule of ward placement – if you leave the fountain with free item slots, more than 75 gold, and no wards, you are doing it wrong.”

Just before laning phase begins, I buy 4 wards, 1 pot (mana or health) and a faerie charm. Once time hits 3 minutes and 30 seconds, I go up the river to go ward the outer tip of the tri-bush and right smack in front of dragon. This gives me and my team vision of the river and into the enemy jungle if I am on the purple team. This makes bot lane near impossible to gank. Once those wards die out, I re-ward and then resume laning. If I’m low on gold, I’ll sweetly ask my AD to buy a ward or two so that I’m not going back to base just to get wards.

Every time I have to go back to base just to get wards means less time I’m helping my AD. If there is a gank-happy/camping enemy jungler... Well, farewell AD! A good support will ward, a great support will ward and protect their AD.

Now when towers are going down and laning phase ends, this is when the fun begins. If mid tower is down, the enemy AP is probably heading bot to help their team out or gank. This is where the ward in front of dragon and in tri-bush does wonderful things such as give the entire team vision. Knowing where the enemy team is traveling to and fro is a vital part of League. If you have vision, you have an advantage and map awareness.

I can’t simply teleport everywhere to ward everything. I can travel through jungle, plant a ward here and there to give vision. However, remember that I am a support. Unless I am Taric or Leona, I’m pretty squishy. Therefore, if I get caught and have no escape or back up, there is a high possibility that I’m going to die right then and there.

I had a friend argue with me that supports were the only champions that are supposed to ward. He backed up his claim by saying, “if you watch high elo games, only supports buy ward. If you don’t like buying wards then you should play another role.” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t taken aback by his comment or a little peeved. I do watch high elo games (what do you think spectating is for?) and I also watch streams to kill time whenever I’m procrastinating.

Smart players buy wards, support or not. Sure, supports buy a good majority of them but it doesn’t mean that they buy all of them. Wards don’t just give vision to one player – wards give vision to the entire team.  I can't just ward the entire time.  During, team fights, I’m supposed to support the team. If you’re in trouble and I happen to be close, I’m supposed to support you and get you out of a sticky situation. If I wanted to be a walking ward, I’d simply play Evelynn. 

Save a life, buy a ward.

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