Dota 2 Situational Warding Guide

Dota 2 Situational Warding Guide by RubxQub

As someone who just about exclusively supports, I wanted to give a little perspective on warding that I feel most folks are missing, even at high levels (5K+).

Warding isn’t just about knowing where “good” ward spots are. There are dozens of maps and videos you can watch that will show you where all the spots are that give you optimal vision of various things…I won’t be covering that Common examples included below. THIS is an exhaustive list, however.

Instead, I want to highlight WHY you should choose a specific ward position based on what’s going on in the game. I’ll break these down into specific ward categories: Rosh Ward,Objective Ward (Offensive/Defensive), Jungle Ward (Offensive/Defensive), Lane Ward andMid Ward. Even these aren’t ALL the reasons you’d want to ward, but it should give you a really solid foundation to build upon if you’re still the person who just wards the runes for 30 minutes and maybe the designated ward spots when you have the appropriate map control.

Rosh Ward

First things first, your Rosh ward should just about always give you rune vision, so this is a high priority ward location. There are really only 4 spots to ward that give this vision appropriately (2 on Dire, 2 on Radiant) so dewarding is fairly straightforward. If they have a ward there, a pair of sentries WILL find them.

Radiant Side 2: Here and here. One sentry can hit both of these.

Dire Side 2: Here and here. One sentry can hit both of these.

There are secondary locations that can scout Rosh, but they are rarely used (even at high levels). Here and here. This last ward of course is used all the time…just not to scout Rosh, and usually not past 15 minutes.

Good times for this ward:

• Enemy has an early Rosh hero (8-12 minutes for folks like Troll/Ursa/Lycan)
• When you know Rosh is spawning, you want a ward here

…in general this is a very high priority ward spot. If you’re completely unsure of where to ward, this is always a safe bet.

Mid Ward

This ward is meant to be placed uphill on the enemy side of the river (ideally) to give you better vision on the mid. You can place this either immediately uphill in the middle of the lane, or just on the uphill outside edges of mid that still give you vision of mid. Like this or like this (opposite for other side).

This same ward is also a good objective ward for mid tower, but I’ll cover that in a sec.

Good times for this ward:

• When you need uphill vision to establish if it’s safe to gank, or allow a gank setup (SB charge, execute, Axe blink, etc etc).
• When your mid is constantly getting rotated on by the other team’s jungler or supports through mid.

Objective Warding

These wards are meant to give you an advantage when your team is pressing an objective (Tower/Rax). Instead of blindly pushing a tower and rolling the dice on who’s around to defend, you can spend a ward to give you a much better chance to knock that objective down. You’ll be placing these wards in spots that at least give you vision of any potential TPs to that tower. Generally this is behind the Bot/Top T1s (like this) or some high ground location at the T2s (like this or like this). You may also want to ward the path TO that tower if you’re more worried about roaming rotations vs. TPs.

These are more typically mid-game wards vs. early game.

Unsure if it’s well known (it should be), but you can ward inside the enemy base from the outside like this.

Good times for this ward:

• If you’re not sure where the enemy is and it’s a risky tower push
• If you think there is going to be a teamfight, to help setup initiation or scout enemy initiators
• Everytime you’re pushing rax and know a teamfight will breakout

This applies both offensively and defensively. If you’re getting pushed and you want to prioritize keeping that objective, you’ll want to do these same wards, for the opposite reasons (seeing who’s pushing, scouting initiation).

Lane Ward

This ward is placed between objectives, but most commonly refers to a ward placed between your T1 and the enemy T1 towers, close to their T1 where you could see rotations/TPs.

This is basically your safety net for your safelane carry to ensure they can farm safely if you aren’t there or quickly flee if they see a rotation coming. It looks like this or like this

Good times for this ward:

• Your lane is “won” for the carry (they can farm safely without you) and you’re now roaming full time.
• Your lane is heavily contested and you need to scout TP rotations

Jungle Ward

Defensively, these are your “get map control back” wards. Offensively these are your “gank setup” or “where the hell is that jungle farming hero” ward.

This isn’t the “block camps” type of ward that I’m talking about. This is placing a ward in the jungle at a chokepoint somewhere where you’ll be able to see if the enemy is farming their jungle or rotating through it.

Main Dire Spots: Here and Here

Main Radiant Spots: Here and Here

Good times for this ward:

• (Defensive) You need to establish map control of your own jungle to safely farm it
• (Offensive) You want to setup ganks and know when it’s safe to roam through their jungle to do it

Quick Note on Dewarding

I’ll just quickly say that dewarding is just as much art as it is science. You need to figure out what kind of support you’re dealing with on the other side. You also need to be able to read enemy movements to determine if they’re reacting “funny” to what you’re doing.

• Are they very basic in where they place them?
• Do they ward like someone who could have written this guide?

If you can easily deward the enemy, do it. If you’re constantly getting dewarded, immediately get more creative with your ward positioning. It’s better to have SOME vision in less ideal places than no vision because you’re constantly dewarded.

Wrap-Up

In general, your priorities at different points in the game would be:

• Early Game: Rune Ward, Mid Ward, Lane Ward
• Mid/Late Game: Rosh Ward, Objective Ward, Jungle Ward

Again, not fully exhaustive of all the reasons/ways you should be warding, but I wanted to at least attempt to give people a more situational philosophy of warding.

Even if you don’t fully understand or don’t see all the reasons you’d expect for the wards I call out…the main point I’m making here is that your wards shouldn’t be used casually or carelessly. They should be placed with a very specific purpose in mind, as they are a limited asset.

Hopefully this helps someone, or starts a good dialogue.

Cheers!