Lesson 1 of 6 · 6 min
Where the Ward Actually Goes
Foundations told you what vision is for in each phase. This is the map: the exact spots, the question each one answers, and why a 
you cannot name a question for is decoration.
// What you will be able to do
- State the question a ward is answering before you place it
- Place the early-game, objective-setup and late-game ward in the right spot without thinking
- Choose a spot by what you are about to do, not by what happens to be nearby
Most players below Platinum already know vision matters. They have been told, they believe it, and their vision score is still 18 at thirty minutes. Knowing that vision matters and knowing where to put a are different skills, and only the second one shows up on the scoreboard. This track is the second one.
Yellow trinket
Two charges that refill on their own, and the only vision most players ever place. Free, invisible, ninety seconds, it exists to be spent, not saved.
Control ward
75 gold, permanent until killed, and the only
that also deletes theirs. This is the one that decides whether an objective is contestable, and the one nobody buys.
Sweeper
Trades your own vision for taking theirs away. Swap to it when the map has stopped being about whether you get ganked and started being about whether you can walk somewhere.
Blue trinket
Places from a screen away and is killed in one hit. It is not safety, it is a question asked from behind cover: is the
pit occupied right now.
that carry the game| When | Where | The question |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00–10:00 | River bush on the side the enemy jungler started | Is he coming for me in the next fifteen seconds? |
| Before an objective | The enemy's walking route into the pit, not the pit | Are they setting up for this, and from which side? |
| 20:00+ | The chokepoint between your team and where it wants to stand | Can five of us walk here without getting caught one at a time? |
Read the middle row again, because it is the one almost nobody gets right. A inside the 
pit tells you the is still there, which you already knew, because there is a timer on your screen. A on their approach tells you five people are walking toward it right now, which is the only thing you could have acted on. Vision is about the walk, not the destination.
You are at your tri-bush, safe, up. You the tri-bush. Nothing that happens in that bush can hurt you, because you can see it with your eyes, you are standing there.
The fix the place you are about to walk to, or the place danger comes from. If you can already see it, the is worth nothing. The correct feeling is mild discomfort: a good is usually one step further forward than you want to walk.
The early-game has a timing as well as a place. Level 2 and level 3 ganks come between 3:00 and 4:30 on the side the jungler started; the second wave of pressure comes after their first clear, around 5:30 to 6:30. Those are the two windows where the river pays. Between them, if you are not pushing past the middle of the lane, the can wait, and holding a charge for the moment you actually commit is worth more than spending it on schedule.
: which river mouth depends on where their jungler started- 1
Topside river mouth - If their jungler started on their own top side, this is where he comes out. The
answers the only early question worth asking: is he on me in the next fifteen seconds. - 2
Botside river mouth - The mirror of it. You do not need both, you need the one on the side he started, which the first camp he cleared already told you.
- 3
Deep in their jungle at 3:30 - The brave
. It shows you a jungler who has already left the camp, a full screen from your lane, and you cannot act on any of it. Depth is not information.
- Am I about to walk somewhere I could be caught? the approach first
- Is an objective coming up in the next minute? their route to it, not the pit
- Is the I placed still alive? If not, the map is dark again, behave accordingly
- If I cannot spare the four seconds to , I cannot spare the twenty seconds the death costs
15:00. spawns in forty seconds and your team is coming bottom for it. You are the first one there with a up. Click where the goes.
4 spots are live on the map. Pick one.
Late game the job changes again, and the change is easy to miss because the looks the same. From twenty minutes on, vision is permission. Your team is grouped, and the question is not 'is someone coming for me' but 'can we stand here'. Those go on the chokepoints between you and the thing you want, they go down before the team walks, and they are the reason good teams take without a fight while yours dies one at a time trying to see it.
You place a river at 6:00 and it expires at 7:30 without ever showing you anything. Was it a wasted ?