League of Legends - How To Ward The Enemy Jungle Guide

Hello lads! Today our LoL Elo boosting team and I will be talking about warding and how to do it successfully Before I get into the article, I want to say that most of it are going to be based on the Blue side of the map, but you can easily mirror it for the Red side. One of the only big differences between the sides is that the bot lane now has the very risky invade because their opponent’s bot laners can collapse on them through the tri-bush and cut them off.

Level 1

In Solo Queue, there are not that many plays you can make level 1, but there are a few champions who are able to drop an early ward in the heart of the enemy jungle, which can be extremely beneficial for your team. If you find that your team is much worse than you and simply doesn’t understand how to invade, consider getting an Elo Boost to get into the division you deserve.

Some things that you need to remember are that early game junglers that are high on the LoL Tier List like Nidalee love to have knowledge of which buff their opponent’s jungler is starting at so they can gank them at another camp in a couple of minutes, pick them off, and secure both buffs plus the kill. If you have a champion like Lee Sin on your team, I'm sure that they would love it if you warded Gromp on the bot side if you're a support, so he can see if the enemy is starting at their Blue, helping bot lane with Gromp, or if the enemy started at their red side so your Lee Sin can go to him at the Blue Buff to get the kill.

There are many other instances of early game junglers loving early wards in the other jungle before the first minion wave. A non jungle support that is also godlike on the LoL Tier List would be Blitzcrank. If you have on your team or are against a Blitzcrank, you need to always be ready for an invade. To prepare against a Blitzcrank, have your laners to use their wards on the jungle entrances.

These two warding locations are my personal favorites to use during a LoL Boost in the early few levels, even though they are extremely risky to place if the enemy team has multiple gap closers or some hard CC waiting at these camps. Be especially careful when you are warding the red buff at level 1 because the top laner can very easily collapse on you through the top lane tri bush and their mid can come upwards from behind the red buff, while warding their blue has a direct escape route right behind you and a low chance of anyone roaming up or down to kill you.

Levels 2-6

There are not that many warding opportunities to be done in these early levels other than the occasional ward in the river to ensure you don't get ganked by their jungler. If you notice that your lane is being camped quite a bit by their team, buy wards to always keep the river and tri bush warded. Invading by yourself as a support can be scary the first few times, so you should ask your jungler to help you get deep vision at this point in time and tell your ADC to play defensive for some time. As I have experienced many times during LoL Boosting sessions, most junglers who aren’t heavily underleveled can easily 1v1 a support, especially all of the meta picks right now.

Normally by this point in the game, you will not have your Sightstone, so you have to buy your own wards and place them so they will cover the most ground possible so you get the most value out of them. A little trick that I use during LoL Boost sessions is to is take the button that your ward is on-off quick cast. If the target indicator of the ward is green, then it's in the bush, if it is blue then that means it is out of the bush and you will miss. You can use the trick to your advantage so you can get your ward to the very edge of any bush and making that ward more worthwhile it then just carelessly throwing it in the middle of a bush.

There are a couple of good warding places for the support to quickly utilize to get a large amount of information about their opponents other than the ones I have shown in the pictures above. If you strongly value map awareness you can ward the jungle exit near the dragon and stop any ganks the enemy jungler will try to bring to your lane. Just make sure to ping your team if you see the enemy jungler on any wards, as people miss some things on the map even if they are constantly checking it.

If you spot the enemy jungler on your minimap far away from your lane (maybe ganking top) you should try to create a trade if your ADC is confident. This is the absolute best chance to go for an all-in on their team, which is why you must always be attentive to where the enemy jungler is on the map. Another way to utilize the deep wards you placed is by taking objectives. If the jungler is ganking top, it could mean that your team gets a very easy dragon, or you can try to use dragon as a bait to get a couple of kills, or your jungler can go to a different lane to apply pressure or dive/take a mid lane tower and punish the enemy jungler heavily for showing himself.

A lot of warding battles in this game are about this. Junglers making wrong moves and trying to make counter moves to punish each other. As laners, getting deep vision inside the enemy jungle is amazing information for your team and jungler to utilize even if your jungler is not that good.

Levels 6-13

This part of the game is extremely important for warding. It is known as the midgame, a period of time before turning into the late game. This is where you need to try to build up a wall of wards, and push them as deep into the enemy jungle as possible. If you are supporting, try to place consistent wards down everywhere where you have noticed the enemies have moved a lot. Once laning phase is over, warding becomes more dynamic as you are not just defending your lane but you are also defending your team’s jungle and map as if you are grouping.

Grouping mid is the classic strategy for most comps, if you lost your lane just head mid and tell people to group up! Seriously, you need to always have a strategy in mind about where you will be placing your wards at every stage in the game. There are multiple different ways you can place wards during the mid game. One strategy is to drop all your wards down in one concentrated area and gain a complete vision of a whole jungle side, another is to place your wards sparingly and to only use one at a time in key spots, or do create a line of wards to cover a couple of flanks, entrances, and jungle camps to try and anticipate the enemies once you notice their movement patterns.

With wards in these specific places, you will be able to see most of the common jungle paths, and that's just with the 3 standard wards from your Sightstone plus a Pink Ward. If you are getting assistance from your teammates you can easily cover a massive amount of the jungle and make it impossible for the enemy jungler and laners to make plans unnoticed.

Here is when you are able to do amazing things with your newly made vision to gain big advantages over your enemy team. For example, if you notice a couple champions roaming around bot lane with the blue trinket wards, you can quickly 5 man rush a Baron before they can respond to you. I will elaborate on this later.

Most of these deep warding tricks will be near impossible to complete if your team is behind on gold or levels, as you will simply get collapsed on while counterjungling the opposing team’s jungle. If the game is about even or you are ahead, this strategy will shine. There are countless ways to catch champions out in every elo, and all it takes is a few Pink Wards, a Sweeper, and solid team coordination (the hardest part of solo queue in League). Since you have probably figured out how to win when you are ahead, we will go over the case when your team is behind. The members of the enemy team will not be expecting your team to be in their jungle, so if you can try to coordinate and execute a 5 man gank using your Sweeper to clear out the bush you can pick off enemy junglers and laners alike.

If your bush gank is completed successful, and you catch someone off guard, you can instantly turn and pressure the main objectives including Dragon or Baron, or even try to 5 man push a turret and dive if the opportunity is there, completely turning a losing game around with only a single play. Although very hard to pull off, it is extremely rewarding and puts your team in a 5v4 position for about a minute. Remember to tell your team to buy pinks wards, as even if they end up in your side of the jungle it is still potential information as to where the enemy is not, or if they are counterjungling your team. Great locations to wait for group ganks in bushes are around standard jungle pathing areas. Try to prevent using the lane bushes unless someone is split pushing. Catching a jungler allows your team to secure uncontestable Barons and Dragons which is much more important than a kill on just a laner or a puny support.

Warding in the mid game can be a wonderful way to carry your team to a victory as a support. It allows you to be creative and potentially a bit risky. A couple of points that our LoL Elo Boosting experts say to keep in mind are to constantly ping enemies that you spot on your wards and ping any objectives you think that your team might be able to take uncontested. Remember to always have as many Pink Wards down as much as possible and remind your team at least a few times to buy pinks every back and keep a note of the enemy jungler paths if you are able to plan around it.

Levels 13-18

At this point in the game, most typical matches have already been decided and there really is not much that you can do to change things. Most of my games in an Elo Boost fall under one of three categories: you are far ahead and can easily maintain a constant vision of the enemy jungle which is yours to take for free, losing badly and have no chance to use any of your wards even in your own jungle, or rarely the game is still not yet decided and teamfights are going back and forth. You will most likely be the only warder in the late game because your teammates have no item slots for wards.

In the case of a stale late game like this, having only 3 green wards and a pink ward can only do so much for map pressure, so a jungler with Stalker's Blade may help, but you shouldn’t count on it every game. You want to keep your wards up as often as you can and make sure to be ready to change your patterns to what your team needs for warding. Just follow the tips that our LoL Boosting experts gave earlier in the article and you should be okay, if you just stay with your team then the game will come down to engaging teamfights or picking someone off in their jungle due to their lack of vision, another situation where you should be able to shine. Always make sure to be ready to take objectives like Dragon and Baron late game as your team will be able to take it down very quickly if there is a short lapse in enemy vision around the area or you see their jungler very far away.

Final Thoughts

Warding is extremely important and getting vision deep in the enemy team’s jungle is extremely crucial to success in a large majority of your games. Also, try to remember to not get greedy when you ward. Because you don’t know where the enemy jungler is while you are warding, it is not smart to invade by yourself just to get a ward placed because there is a very good chance you will pay for the ward with your life. Instead, just ask your jungler for some help, or ask him to invade their jungle by himself and then either counter jungle or just check if the camps are up because that can be all the information you need to tell which side of the jungle their jungler is on.