Dota 2 Map Warding:
The Ultimate Guide

Mastering Vision
Dota 2 Warding Guide Book

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What’s inside?
Placing wards and sentries in Dota 2 is a challenging task. In this detailed guide, you learn how to place wards efficiently to win more matches!

Chapter 1: Basics about Vision and Warding

Let’s start! 😀

Before jumping into the details of placing wards, let’s specify the basics.

Who is responsible for wards placement and are wards relevant to win games at all?

Dota 2 Wards

Are Vision and Warding that important?

Of course, my friend! Did you think those yellow and blue things with eyes just decorated the map? Having vision every time a team fight is about to start, or knowing where the enemy carry is farming, might help you to win the whole game. In this Dota 2 Map Warding Guide, you’ll master the art of warding and keeping an excellent vision for your mates!

So, let’s start from the very beginning to understand the real importance of having vision:

Dota 2 Wards: What are those?

A ward is an item that is really related to the Support Role, but, let’s be honest, anyone can get them since they’re completely free now. These useful artifacts are invisible to the enemy and if you place them correctly, it might be hard for them to detect. They not only help with giving vision but also you can block neutral camps with them! We’ll discuss this later. 😉

Dota 2 Map Warding Guide

There are 2 types of wards:

Observer Wards:

If you play the support role, let me tell ya that these yellow friends will become your best buddies for life. But, be careful because they can be destroyed by the enemy team. I will tell you how below.

These wards will grant you vision in a 1600 radius and will last for 6 minutes. So, be aware of the timing and keep buying wards. Don’t let Observer Wards stocked in the shop!

Sentry Wards:

Remember I told you that Observer Wards could be destroyed? Well, here I would like to introduce their slayers! Sentry Wards are invisible watchers to the opponents that grant true sight. They can see invisible enemies and Observer Wards within a 1000 radius and last for 8 minutes. Currently, in this 7.24b patch, we have a limited stock of these blue buddies, so place them wisely because we’re sure you don’t want to run out of sentries in a team fight.

Warding and Dewarding: Who’s in charge of this?

Supports are here to save the warding day! These characters have the important Dota 2 role of placing the Observer Wards and Sentry Wards around the map. “But, I’m the Hard Carry of the team and I want to ward as well!”, you might be thinking. We would like to remind you that each role has its own duties. If you’re the Hard Carry, then your job is to farm as fast as possible. This means that you won’t have time to wander around the map and place the wards.
Dota 2 Map Warding Guide LichOn the other hand, Supports have plenty of time to focus on the job of warding and dewarding. They can detect if an enemy has placed a ward and immediately go to that area and deward it. Of course, if you are near to an enemy ward and your Support can’t reach it because it’s probably too risky or too far away, then you can deward it if there’s a sentry around it. 😉

Do wards really have an impact on the game?

Absolutely! Even the bests like Notail or Miracle need some wards to start making big plays. Just imagine you’re roshing. Your whole team is inside the Rosh Pit and this huge boss is about to die and give away the Aegis of the Immortal, but suddenly… The other team surprised you with a wombo combo ultimate, you all die and they steal the aegis! You never saw this coming because you probably didn’t have any ward nor sentry around that area.

Now, let’s imagine the ideal situation when your supports ward and place sentries around the Rosh Pit and you have the full vision of that area. Now you can probably see invisible heroes coming and the rest of the enemy team approaching.

At this point, your team knows exactly what’s about to happen and now they are prepared to counter-initiate. You win the team fight, probably force the Supports’ buybacks and get the Aegis! Here, I am going to show you some amazing spots to ward Roshan:

Radiant / Dire Roshan Pit Wards:

This ward is perfect when you’re going for Roshan. It gives the necessary vision to know what’s happening outside the Rosh Pit. If you place it exactly in that position, it will give plenty of vision, but if you put it to close to the Rosh Pit, then the sight area will be reduced, so put it in front. 😉

Roshan ward 1With the help of this ward, you can prevent a gank to Roshan and have full vision of the enemies’ intentions.

Roshan ward 2This ward is really good against heroes like Bat Rider, Snapfire or Storm Spirit because they will try to strategically position themselves in order to snatch the Aegis!

Roshan ward 3Same here, if you’re Dire playing against Radiant, this ward might help you a lot avoiding these initiators.

Roshan ward 4This is the classic ward to give vision around the Rosh Pit, just be careful, because if the enemy support puts a sentry in the middle, it might get dewarded.

Roshan ward 5Here, we’d like to show you a hidden spot. You just have to cut some trees to get it.

Roshan secret wardHave you noticed how relevant it is to have vision in order to win a really important team fight and lead your team to victory? 😉

If you want to know more about Roshan, checkout the Roshan tips guide.

Chapter 2: Beginner Guide to
Place Wards in Dota 2

You’ll learn where to ward according to every lane.

The importance of the First Night.

How to use runes as baits! 😉

Dota 2 Warding Tips

Where are the best Warding Positions in Dota 2?

So, you’re all quite excited about warding and you can’t wait to enter a game and place your wards everywhere but wait a minute. Let’s first know the mechanics:
Did you know there are objective wards, defensive wards, and aggressive wards? That’s right! The art of warding is more complex than we thought.

In this Dota 2 map warding guide, I’ll teach you about the different stages and lanes in Dota 2 to allow a good warding performance. Moreover I’ll share the deepest secrets about granting vision. So, let’s get started!

Warding in the Early Game:

This is the stage where the first minutes of the game are developed and having good vision is crucial. You all start the game with 2 wards. One is usually for the offlaner and the last remaining is for the midlaner.

Warding on the Midlane:

Your midlaner is gonna need an amazing ward in order to have vision in both the power-up runes and high ground of the mid lane. Some supports often give a sentry to their midlaners to try to deward the enemy ward and have the advantage on this lane. Now, let me show you some amazing spots to ward this lane:

Radiant:Radiant mid 1

Dire:
Dire mid 1

Warding on the Offlane:

This lane is a little bit more complex to ward because you have more objectives in mind. You can block a camp, grant some vision for killing the couriers or have vision on the enemy support movements. If he is out of position at some point, you have the necessary vision to kill him and win the lane! 😉

Radiant:
This ward is perfect to have some vision and also block the neutral camp to avoid pulling.
Radiant offlane 1

If you keep killing the couriers, then the enemies are never gonna get their items and regen, which they need to maintain themselves in this lane.
Dota 2 Map Warding Guide Courier Vision

Dire:
This ward is gonna help you block the camp and also it’s gonna grant you vision of both couriers.
dota 2 map warding guide dire offlane 1

If you want to know the support’s movements or just avoid a gank without being dewarded, then this ward is perfect. 😉

Warding on the Safelane:

You can get a ward within the first minutes of the game in case you’re laning against some heros that benefits a lot from the Fog of War like Pudge or Mirana. With this ward, your safelane will be a happy place to farm for your hard carry.
Dota 2 map warding guide Fog of warAlso, if you know you’re leaving the lane soon to help your team, try to place some wards around your jungle, where your HC can farm easily. This will help him avoid ganks and getting caught.

Warding in the First Night:

This moment of the game is so important and the great majority don’t know!
At 5:00 minutes, bounty runes spawn and the environment gets darker, which means less vision. This is the perfect time to start making some rotations to get these awesome bounties and also start warding around these areas.

If you have enough vision, you can even get a kill or probably a double kill on the enemy support + core and you will get the bounty! Did you notice that vision can make a difference?

The enemy Hard Carry started Jungling:

This usually happens when you have an aggressive offlane and you force the enemy HC to go jungle to get some farm and exp, because he might be dying too much on lane. But as you’re a smart support, you’re gonna ward the entire jungle and keep being a headache for this poor guy! 

Also, if you do this, you’ll start creating pressure, making the enemy team rotate, which means space for your HC! You can even force some team fights with all the vision you have.

Ward the Runes and use them as Baits!

That’s right! If you have warded the rune areas and you know the enemy midlaner is going for one of them, then you can set up a trap and kill him! With all that vision, nothing can go wrong and you’ll get the advantage and the rune. 😉

Chapter 3: Advanced Warding
in High MMR Matches

How to predict the enemy support warding?

All tactical types of warding.

OpenDota: Much more than a Dota platform!

Dota 2 Vision Guide

Dota 2 Dewarding Guide:
How to know where to Deward?

I know it’s hard to get a deward, but when achieved, it becomes the most satisfying feeling for support players. You can see the frustration on the enemy support when he’s carrying 6 sentries and he can’t even deward one of your observers. 😉

The best advice I can give you is to always click on the support to know what he has in his inventory. If he had a ward bottom and when he was on his way mid, he doesn’t have it anymore, it means he placed it somewhere near the river probably. And now, you know what to do!

Besides, don’t forget to check your minimap in order to know the supports’ current position. If they’re showing somewhere, it’s because it might be warded.

Place Wards Smart and Trick your Enemies:

A simple pro tip is to place a sentry before you put a ward, especially in the most common warding areas like the hills with the marked eye.

Dota 2 Mindgames BookThis will help you to know if there is an enemy ward or not: If they see you placing a ward, before placing a sentry, it will not make sense since they know the ward position now.

But if you place your sentry before and get the deward, they will never know if you put a ward right after or you didn’t. Use this to confuse the enemy! 😉
View more Mindgame Tips

Example: When you’re playing against Tuskar, Clockwerk or any other hero that can gank easily, it’s a good idea to start warding near the river or near your mid tower. In this sense, we can have full vision of the possible gank and prevent a disaster for your midlaner.

Tactical Types of Warding in Dota 2:

As mentioned above, there are some types of warding depending on the current situation of a match.

Objective Warding:

You usually place this kind of wards when you want to reach a goal like getting a tower, controlling runes or killing a courier. If you know your whole team is gonna take down a tower, then you’ll need to save probably 2 wards in order to have vision around that area and see if the enemy is planning to defend or just leave the tower fall.

If you know there’s some hero like Huskar or Ursa in the enemy team that can go to roshan really soon, then probably getting a ward around the Rosh Pit might be a really good idea. In a nutshell, these are wards that have been placed for a specific duty.

Defensive Warding:

If you’re having a rough game and the enemy team is getting control of the map, then you’ll need to ward within your own territory like your jungle. You will need your HC to farm safely and get items as fast as he can. These wards are placed in order to prevent really bad team fights and pickoffs that can be bad for your team.
Dota 2 map warding guide jungle vision 1

Aggresive Warding:

On the other hand, when you’re having such a good game you don’t even believe it, then you need wards to start creating more pressure on the enemy map.
Remember, the key is to not let them farm anywhere. By doing this, they will feel really uncomfortable and be afraid to get out of their base, which means getting no items!

Besides, you can also gank with a smoke if you know the enemy team is around the area you warded. Sometimes, all you need is a good pickoff of a core to win the game and this type of warding can lead you to a faster victory if you already have the advantage.

In Dota 2 learn to place creative Wards:

Be creative, there are no limits! An endless amount of hidden ward positions exist. If you cut certain trees, these might give you a new spot to place your ward and the enemy support will never find it! Try to ward in unusual places.

If you’re repeating all over again the same spots for warding, then the enemy support might deward you, because during the match, you can become kind of predictable. So, try to innovate and don’t use the same spots over and over again!

OpenDota: This platform will help
you improve your Warding Skills

Dota 2 Map with WardsThe amazing web platformOpenDota gathers the information of every match you have and presents it with amazing charts and pictures for you to understand what happened in your game. You can see the performances, laning, farm, items, objectives, among many others, but here we want to focus on the vision. Read the full guide about OpenDota here.

Here, you can find a perfect example of how this platform shows the vision information. You can see how much you invested in detection and in which time exactly you placed your wards. If you want to get better, try to increase the vision area with every game. 😉

Chapter 4: Dota 2 Ward Map Updates

Map Changes and Wards

Dota 2 Map Changes and Ward Positions:

The map changes over time with every new patch. In this chapter you can find the actual Dota 2 map with warding positions. Every time the map is updated, even the position of trees changes in order to create new places to ward. You never know when a single tree can block the entire vision of your ward.

Some hills might be removed or just changed in terms of position, but don’t worry, you just have to study the map for a bit and probably create a custom lobby to start looking for some innovation when it comes to warding! 😉

Map Updates:

  • Dota Warding Map 7.24b:

    Dota Map Update 7.24b
    The lovely Dota 2 map has changed a lot in patch update 7.24b. The most important change was the addition of the 2 Outpost that grant true sight within 700 radius when captured. Keep this in mind. We’re sure you don’t want to place a ward near any of these buildings.

Final Words:

Now you have learned the basics about Warding in Dota 2!

Study the most important warding positions and use them over and over again. At the time you get success and also recommendations inside Dota 2 for your warding skills, you will love to do it perfectly and to trick your enemies!

For any feedback or questions comment below! 🙂

More Dota 2 Tips and Tricks:
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Eddiewallie
Eddiewallie
3 years ago

Great guide for new players!
How important is the hero composition in a game for warding? You mentioned Pudge and Mirana. Any other specifics e.g. anti jungling?