As you well know (or should) warding is as important as carrying or ganking. If the other team does his job properly there is no carry or ganker that can do his job without wards. There are 3 main reasons to ward:
- Avoid ganks (defensive wards);
- Gank (ofensive wards);
- Rune/Kongor/Ancients Control(mixed);
They are equally important, only your experience and game reading will allow you to know when to place each kind.
One of the worst problems when playing HoN public games is the lack of map vision. Either you got an awesome support thinking he is a carry, or your support does not now better and poorly places the wards.
My intention is to help with the second case.
I will try to illustrate the best warding spots, using prints to show you exactly what vision you gain from each spot so that you get the best outcome of each 100g!
I'm confident that the best warding spots are covered by this guide, but it will be upgraded if I discover new/better warding spots or S2 does any map changes. As for the map, this guide was developed with the new version of Forest of Cavaldar (larger Kongor area, 2 ramps of legion bottom rune side,..).
I will try to bring some knowledge of counter warding to this guide but i will touch the topic very lightly, since the next guide will be about counterwards. Making a guide like this is very timeconsuming so i'm sorry but it will take a while.
Why bring counterwarding to a warding guide? Well, although this guide is about the best place for overall vision (and i'm talking about placing the ward 1 pixel to the left or to the right ^^) ,those are generally the 1st places to be counter warded. So I will give you a few alternatives to make the opponent support mad. :)
"Lets go my dear Scout, there is a Job to be done!"
The Legion Side.
I will start with the
rune wards. Will state some advantages and disadvantages of each spot but at the end is up to you to read the situation and chose the best spot for that specific game.
Bottom Rune:
1-
This is an excellent ward in case you are being countered. If they place a counter in front of Kongor pit middle of the "lake" they will fail to see you ward, if they place the counter at the rune spot to check booth hills they will fail to see your ward, if they place it between the "bottom rune hill" and the hill of your neutral camp they will also fail to see you ward. The trick here is to place the ward on the right spot check it with a closer look.
This way you get:
- Rune Control ;
- Protection for the bottom lane from mid ganks;
- Protection for your mid lane from bottom ganks (coming from river);
- Protection for your jungler from all ganks incoming from the river ramps;
- On late game you still get control of incoming heroes from the river ramps, control of the rune and of the Kongor's pit entrance (although you don't see the actual pit).
There is no main disadvantage to this ward, but there are better options for late game since you don't actually see the Kongor, or have control over the ancient camp.
NOTE: There is a way to greatly improve the vision of this ward. If you cut down those 2 trees(either with a spell or with a Logger's Hatchet) you get clear vision of the inside pats going to the mid lane. Just remember that trees respawn every 10 min.
2-
This an easily countered ward, but one of the most common on public games. Of all the places that exact corner is the best place on the hill spot. Why? If you check the minimap you can see that it gives you sight to the path between the neutral camps and a bit of sight on the middle of the 3 neutral camps, allowing you to see any ganks coming from bottom lane that pass by that spot.
This way you get:
- Rune Control ;
- Protection for the bottom lane from mid ganks (unless he uses the 1st ramp goes trough the juke trees in front of the easy camp and does not take that "middle neutral camps" path ^^);
- Protection for your mid lane from bottom ganks (coming from river and passing by that path between the 3 neutral camps);
- Protection for your jungler from ganks incoming from the 2nd river ramp;
Main disadvantages:
- No Kongor control;
- No control over the 1st ramp;
- 90% sure it will be countered.
3-
This is one of my favorite warding spots. Although it is easy and most likely to be countered, the vision and powning potential it gives is amazing! His potential is bigger at mid/late game stages.
Note: For you to get all that vision in front of the ancients camp you need to cut the tree.(Who said Hatchet is for farming melee carrys?)
This way you get:
- Rune Control ;
- Protection for the bottom lane from mid ganks (unless he uses the
1st ramp goes trough the juke trees in front of the easy camp and does
not take that "middle neutral camps" path ^^);
- Protection for your mid lane from bottom ganks (coming from river and if they take the path between the hard and normal neutral camp);
- Protection for your jungler from ganks incoming from the 2nd river ramp;
- Vision upon the creeps on the neutral camp(very useful if you are playing Hellborn and want to get a early gank on a Warbeast or Predator);
- Vision upon the Ancients Camp. If you are able to get a hard carry that is cleaning a triple Ancient stack... It you add to the kill the neutrals is half way to gee gee ;)
- Control of Kongor's pit entrance (although you don't see the actual pit).
Main disadvantages:
- No control over the 1st ramp;
- Good chance it will be countered.
Work still in progress!
