Introduction
This will be a series of articles covering a very, very broad topic in DOTA2 - how to be a better player. I didn't really want to talk about this topic (as there are a million and one guides online) but I now see this as more of a "brain dumping" exercise where I can store some basic knowledge off-site in the cloud for new and intermediate players, so I don't have to explain myself to people and just link them to these posts.
Dual Purpose Ward Spots
It's a simple concept. You put a ward in the place you want to get vision. Yet we could probably write pages and pages of articles on warding strategies, best spots, how to counter ward, how to avoid being counter warded, etc
I'm going to keep this simple - here are the top 12 most important ward spots - 10 of them are notable because they perform dual functions very early in the game, and the last two are the well known "super ward" locations that give huge 360 degree vision useful in mid to late game.
Oh, this guide is presented by "Princess and the Frog".
1. Block Dire Pull + Tower Vision
The Radiant top lane will use this ward spot to block the Dire Pull. This ward also gives you vision behind their tower. This is an aggressive ward that will allow you to dive their tower more safely.
A common mistake is to place the ward too low (right inside the camp) so its vision gets blocked by trees and doesn't give useful vision of the back of the tower or either side of the camp.
2. Block Dire Pull + River Gank Vision
The Radiant top lane will use this ward spot to block the Dire Pull. This ward also gives you vision of the gank path coming from the river. This is a defensive ward that will allow you lane more safely, and also makes it safer to pull the hard camp to your lane creeps if you are gaining the advantage in lane. Additionally this is less likely to be de-warded, as not many players know how to place this ward consistently.
The ward placement on this has to be very precise so I have included two pictures. In the first picture you can see a patch of grass between two trees (to the left and slightly higher relative to the burning torch). You want to play the ward as far to the right as possible on that grass patch. You'll start by trying to place the ward right up against the tree on the right, getting a bunch of "invalid ward placement errors" and moving your mouse slowly to the left and continuing to try place it until it allows you to drop it.
The common mistake is in thinking you're trying to place the ward as far to the top, or top right as possible. You're actually trying to place the ward as far to the right as possible. I can do this consistently now and it may be worth your time setting up a bunch of custom lobbies to experiment getting it right.
3. Block Radiant Pull + Block Radiant Hard Camp
The Dire bot lane will use this spot to block the Radiant Pull (bottom right). Because it can be a bit tricky to place, I've included two pictures here - before and after. In the before picture, you can see that there is a bush next to the trees, in the after picture, you can see I've planted a ward directly on it.
This ward spot will also block the Radiant Hard Camp (top left) and provide huge useful vision.
Some players block the Radiant pull by putting the ward directly in front of the Radiant Pull camp (bottom right), similar to the Dire Pull camp ward I talked about earlier. However the tree placement here means that putting the ward in the camp doesn't give vision behind the tower, making it significantly less useful - but it can still give some vision of the jungle area around the pull camp if that's what you're after and the enemy has no jungler.
4. Bottom Rune + Block Radiant Medium Camp
The Dire bot lane uses this ward spot to get vision of the rune and gank path. This ward spot also blocks the Radiant Medium Camp.
5. Bottom Rune + Gank Protection
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This ward spot also reveals the entire area of the map beside the lane, protecting you from ganks.
6. Bottom Rune + Entry to Radiant Jungle
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This ward spot also reveals the two key entrances into the Radiant jungle, and may detect junglers moving from the hard camp below it to the easy camp off to the left.
7. Bottom Rune + Block Radiant Hard Camp
The Dire bot lane uses this ward spot to get vision of the rune and gank path. This ward spot also blocks the Radiant Hard Camp. This also gives vision of Radiant jungler movement and possible path for Radiant mid moving bot through the forest instead of river to gank. Not the most useful spot but it is also less likely to be de-warded as well.
8. Bottom Rune + Roshan + Radiant Medium Camp
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This will also give vision of both the Roshan entry point and the Radiant Medium Camp. A common mistake is to place the ward too high - placing it slightly lower, as shown here, will give vision of the medium camp as well without compromising vision of the Roshan entrance.
It's also common for players to place the rune watching ward on the high ground to the left of the rune. The 4 other bottom rune ward spots I have detailed here have more utility.
Note that the Dire can use this single ward spot to protect themselves as they kill Roshan, but the Radiant will need to spend two wards to protect themselves - there are two separate paths from the Dire side of the map that lead to Roshan.
9. Top Rune + Radiant ancient camp
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This will also give vision of the Radiant Ancient Camp.
10. Top Rune + Dire Medium Camp
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This will also give vision of the Dire Medium Camp.
A common mistake is to place the ward too low - placing it higher, as shown here, will also give you vision of the approach to the medium camp as well. This ward will also reveal movement between the medium camp and the left-most hard camp, exposing the enemy jungler to possible ganks.
11. Dire Super Ward Spot
Both sides use this spot to give them a commanding view of the Dire top lane approach and jungle, usually in mid to late game.
I wouldn't really call it a mistake, but players generally place the ward right in the center of the painted symbol - by placing it on the extreme left - as shown - the ward will also give you vision of the easy camp. It's a minor improvement, to be sure, but it costs you almost nothing to do.
12. Radiant Super Ward Spot
Both sides use this spot to give them a commanding view of the Radiant bottom lane approach and jungle, usually in mid to late game.
Asymmetrical map - Radiant or Dire advantage?
As you will have noticed, the map is very different on both sides. There are many apparent advantages for the Dire from a warding perspective - their ancient camp is difficult to ward so it's safer for them to stack and farm, it's safer for them to kill Roshan and they can block the Radiant jungle camps much more effectively. In fact, Dire can even secretly access Roshan without revealing themselves to river wards by using mobility skills and items to hop over the cliff on their side of the map. In competitive games, Dire consistently scores 50% more Roshan kills than the Radiant, netting them a large advantage.
Yet on average both Dire and Radiant have almost the same win rate. To compensate for the Dire advantages, Radiant have other laning advantages - their jungle layout allows their jungler to gank more aggressively, their pull camp also allows a secondary pull into the medium camp, and their jungle, midlane and safelane are considered more secure. But this will be the subject of another blog post.
Warding in a nutshell
Don't blindly place wards just because it's a "good spot". Wards are precious - always place them to achieve a specific goal.
Place wards where you anticipate the fight is going to be. If your team is being aggressive - a gank or push oriented lineup - then placing aggressive wards is a good idea - putting them in the enemy jungle, behind their towers. This will greatly assist your team's pushes and ganks by giving you critical vision over the battleground and preventing counter-ganks. If your team is being defensive - a turtle line up, with late game hard carries - then you need to place wards defensively, to create safe spaces for your carries to farm.
If you're not aware of the state of the game, you could waste wards providing vision in areas no one intends to visit! For example if your team was playing defensively, having a ward in the enemy jungle doesn't do any good - in the first place, the enemy wouldn't be spending time jungling, they would be trying to push your towers and gank you instead - and even if your ward spotted an enemy, your team is presumably too weak to even consider going across and invading their jungle.
Besides these 12 spots, there are about 40 more "common" ward spots - they basically boil down to deciding that you need vision at a particular spot, and planting a ward there to achieve it, making sure it's out of range of enemy tower detection. They're all very single minded in use, and not particularly interesting to talk about, but important nonetheless. Don't be afraid to buy wards, regardless of what hero or role you're playing - they cost very little, provide a lot of benefit, and as the person who places them, it allows you to personally control the flow the game, creating safe zones for yourself or exposing enemy territory to attack.
This will be a series of articles covering a very, very broad topic in DOTA2 - how to be a better player. I didn't really want to talk about this topic (as there are a million and one guides online) but I now see this as more of a "brain dumping" exercise where I can store some basic knowledge off-site in the cloud for new and intermediate players, so I don't have to explain myself to people and just link them to these posts.
Dual Purpose Ward Spots
It's a simple concept. You put a ward in the place you want to get vision. Yet we could probably write pages and pages of articles on warding strategies, best spots, how to counter ward, how to avoid being counter warded, etc
I'm going to keep this simple - here are the top 12 most important ward spots - 10 of them are notable because they perform dual functions very early in the game, and the last two are the well known "super ward" locations that give huge 360 degree vision useful in mid to late game.
Oh, this guide is presented by "Princess and the Frog".
1. Block Dire Pull + Tower Vision
The Radiant top lane will use this ward spot to block the Dire Pull. This ward also gives you vision behind their tower. This is an aggressive ward that will allow you to dive their tower more safely.
A common mistake is to place the ward too low (right inside the camp) so its vision gets blocked by trees and doesn't give useful vision of the back of the tower or either side of the camp.
2. Block Dire Pull + River Gank Vision
The Radiant top lane will use this ward spot to block the Dire Pull. This ward also gives you vision of the gank path coming from the river. This is a defensive ward that will allow you lane more safely, and also makes it safer to pull the hard camp to your lane creeps if you are gaining the advantage in lane. Additionally this is less likely to be de-warded, as not many players know how to place this ward consistently.
The ward placement on this has to be very precise so I have included two pictures. In the first picture you can see a patch of grass between two trees (to the left and slightly higher relative to the burning torch). You want to play the ward as far to the right as possible on that grass patch. You'll start by trying to place the ward right up against the tree on the right, getting a bunch of "invalid ward placement errors" and moving your mouse slowly to the left and continuing to try place it until it allows you to drop it.
The common mistake is in thinking you're trying to place the ward as far to the top, or top right as possible. You're actually trying to place the ward as far to the right as possible. I can do this consistently now and it may be worth your time setting up a bunch of custom lobbies to experiment getting it right.
3. Block Radiant Pull + Block Radiant Hard Camp
The Dire bot lane will use this spot to block the Radiant Pull (bottom right). Because it can be a bit tricky to place, I've included two pictures here - before and after. In the before picture, you can see that there is a bush next to the trees, in the after picture, you can see I've planted a ward directly on it.
This ward spot will also block the Radiant Hard Camp (top left) and provide huge useful vision.
Some players block the Radiant pull by putting the ward directly in front of the Radiant Pull camp (bottom right), similar to the Dire Pull camp ward I talked about earlier. However the tree placement here means that putting the ward in the camp doesn't give vision behind the tower, making it significantly less useful - but it can still give some vision of the jungle area around the pull camp if that's what you're after and the enemy has no jungler.
4. Bottom Rune + Block Radiant Medium Camp
The Dire bot lane uses this ward spot to get vision of the rune and gank path. This ward spot also blocks the Radiant Medium Camp.
5. Bottom Rune + Gank Protection
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This ward spot also reveals the entire area of the map beside the lane, protecting you from ganks.
6. Bottom Rune + Entry to Radiant Jungle
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This ward spot also reveals the two key entrances into the Radiant jungle, and may detect junglers moving from the hard camp below it to the easy camp off to the left.
7. Bottom Rune + Block Radiant Hard Camp
The Dire bot lane uses this ward spot to get vision of the rune and gank path. This ward spot also blocks the Radiant Hard Camp. This also gives vision of Radiant jungler movement and possible path for Radiant mid moving bot through the forest instead of river to gank. Not the most useful spot but it is also less likely to be de-warded as well.
8. Bottom Rune + Roshan + Radiant Medium Camp
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This will also give vision of both the Roshan entry point and the Radiant Medium Camp. A common mistake is to place the ward too high - placing it slightly lower, as shown here, will give vision of the medium camp as well without compromising vision of the Roshan entrance.
It's also common for players to place the rune watching ward on the high ground to the left of the rune. The 4 other bottom rune ward spots I have detailed here have more utility.
Note that the Dire can use this single ward spot to protect themselves as they kill Roshan, but the Radiant will need to spend two wards to protect themselves - there are two separate paths from the Dire side of the map that lead to Roshan.
9. Top Rune + Radiant ancient camp
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This will also give vision of the Radiant Ancient Camp.
10. Top Rune + Dire Medium Camp
Both sides can use this spot to get vision of the rune. This will also give vision of the Dire Medium Camp.
A common mistake is to place the ward too low - placing it higher, as shown here, will also give you vision of the approach to the medium camp as well. This ward will also reveal movement between the medium camp and the left-most hard camp, exposing the enemy jungler to possible ganks.
11. Dire Super Ward Spot
Both sides use this spot to give them a commanding view of the Dire top lane approach and jungle, usually in mid to late game.
I wouldn't really call it a mistake, but players generally place the ward right in the center of the painted symbol - by placing it on the extreme left - as shown - the ward will also give you vision of the easy camp. It's a minor improvement, to be sure, but it costs you almost nothing to do.
12. Radiant Super Ward Spot
Both sides use this spot to give them a commanding view of the Radiant bottom lane approach and jungle, usually in mid to late game.
Asymmetrical map - Radiant or Dire advantage?
As you will have noticed, the map is very different on both sides. There are many apparent advantages for the Dire from a warding perspective - their ancient camp is difficult to ward so it's safer for them to stack and farm, it's safer for them to kill Roshan and they can block the Radiant jungle camps much more effectively. In fact, Dire can even secretly access Roshan without revealing themselves to river wards by using mobility skills and items to hop over the cliff on their side of the map. In competitive games, Dire consistently scores 50% more Roshan kills than the Radiant, netting them a large advantage.
Yet on average both Dire and Radiant have almost the same win rate. To compensate for the Dire advantages, Radiant have other laning advantages - their jungle layout allows their jungler to gank more aggressively, their pull camp also allows a secondary pull into the medium camp, and their jungle, midlane and safelane are considered more secure. But this will be the subject of another blog post.
Warding in a nutshell
Don't blindly place wards just because it's a "good spot". Wards are precious - always place them to achieve a specific goal.
Place wards where you anticipate the fight is going to be. If your team is being aggressive - a gank or push oriented lineup - then placing aggressive wards is a good idea - putting them in the enemy jungle, behind their towers. This will greatly assist your team's pushes and ganks by giving you critical vision over the battleground and preventing counter-ganks. If your team is being defensive - a turtle line up, with late game hard carries - then you need to place wards defensively, to create safe spaces for your carries to farm.
If you're not aware of the state of the game, you could waste wards providing vision in areas no one intends to visit! For example if your team was playing defensively, having a ward in the enemy jungle doesn't do any good - in the first place, the enemy wouldn't be spending time jungling, they would be trying to push your towers and gank you instead - and even if your ward spotted an enemy, your team is presumably too weak to even consider going across and invading their jungle.
Besides these 12 spots, there are about 40 more "common" ward spots - they basically boil down to deciding that you need vision at a particular spot, and planting a ward there to achieve it, making sure it's out of range of enemy tower detection. They're all very single minded in use, and not particularly interesting to talk about, but important nonetheless. Don't be afraid to buy wards, regardless of what hero or role you're playing - they cost very little, provide a lot of benefit, and as the person who places them, it allows you to personally control the flow the game, creating safe zones for yourself or exposing enemy territory to attack.
