Guide to Warding 6.72b

[Slayzer]

1.1 What are wards?


Observer ward is an item that grants you vision of wide area once you place it somewhere. One pack costs 200gold and it consists of 2 wards, each is placed separately.

1.2 Why should I use them?

Unlike most people think wards can have multiple use, primary one is to grant vision of critical area for your team, hence you can see enemy heroes leaving/coming to your lane. You can find yourself asked "Why would I need wards when I can report miss"? Well the answer is quite simple, wards cost 200gold = 4 creeps= 1 wave=30 seconds. Average time that hero needs to come from mid to side lane is 15 to 20 seconds without boots.
Example: Lets say opponent team has tinker on mid lane, suddenly he disappear, your ally that is playing mid lane reports missing hero. Without wards you can't know where did tinker go, he might have gone for a gank at top lane or bottom lane, or maybe he went for a rune and is going back to mid. Lets say that he went for a rune, he was missing for 1 minute, for that time 4 heroes in your team stood near tower, 2 waves of creeps have passed you killed none, opponent team got 16 creeps=800gold which is the 4 time more than the wards cost. Also you lost a lot of experience for the gank that haven't even occurred. Also its very important to have rune control, especially if your mid heroes is gank oriented such as tinker or qop etc. Finally you can block neutrals spawns in forest.

1.3 Who should buy wards?

Generally support heroes do that, although any other hero that doesn't need some specific items in order to deal great damage can do it, in a word non-farming heroes.

1.4 When should I buy wards?

Shop cooldown of wards is 6 minutes, at the beginning 2 packs are in shop, so be careful when and where you place wards since placing wards on the same place would make it easier for enemy to counter ward it(usually done by sentry wards, rarely with gem). Smart placement of wards is more important than massing wards!

This is a detailed guide done by Luminous from [url]www.dotacommentaries.com[/url]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ2rp9Sw-2U&feature=player_embedded"]part 1[/URL]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vNTyW-IoX8&feature=related"]part 2[/URL]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8xe25Li_pY&feature=related"]part 3[/URL]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaXFYFsXWKs&feature=related"]part 4[/URL]
Although it was done on previous version it still up to date since map terrain haven't changed.

In case you prefer picture guide here is the old one done by mugen89 & Shorttail from dota-allstars.com

Hidden Text click here to show

Skills, Items, and Roshan

Just below Roshan, at the entrance, and to the right of the entrance, there are invisible doodads called sight blockers. As the name suggests, they mess with what is normally life of sight. This is an Observer placed on the cliff to the right of the entrance.



It's able to do absolutely nothing. Sentry True Sight works, but all normal sight is blocked, with a few exceptions. Inside Roshan's lair there is full vision, however, a ward placed there will perish immediately. This is a balance issue to make it harder to control Roshan and intercept when the other team engages him.

In a recent version, Rexxar's Wild Axes would destroy doodads, including sight blockers, and a single cast in that area would making warding a lot easier. But when it was recoded not to destroy Sprout, the ability to kill various doodads was also removed. However, other methods still work when it comes to vision of that area.

Except for placing a summoned unit at the entrance, the following skills help scouting Roshan: Techies' Mines, Stasis Trap, and Remote Mines, Rooftrellen's Eyes of the Forest, Lanaya's Psionic Trap, Weaver's Watchers, and Broodmother's Web. Mines have low visibility (64) and Stasis Trap less duration and vision (600) than Remote Mines (900), and since Roshan is rarely killed before Techies reach level 6, only Remote Mines is recommended here.
Psionic Trap, Remote Mine, and Web provide full vision of Roshan's lair, while showing nothing outside the area.



Using Eyes of the Forest is different, and in a sense much better. The skills is based on Night Elf's Huntress's Sentinel, which sends an owl to scout and provide true sight in a tree. The way it's coded is very unlike the units with vision (wards), as their sight is not blocked by obstackles like trees, and more importantly, sight blockers. They're visible, however, so use a Flying Courier to provide vision of the tree, and place the Eye. It has 2000 casting range, and placing it in trees not visible from the outside will make it near undetectable. The Eye has 690 range in level 4.

To sum up, Psionic Trap has 400 vision, long casting range, unlimited duration, and is best placed for scouting in Roshan's lair and at rune spots (on top of the rune). The limited vision makes it less attractive as a ward substitute, but the great range, low cooldown, and manacost make it very useful for scouting fast.

Web has 550 vision, somewhat long cooldown, and only 8 can be placed at level 4. When more are placed, the oldest is removed, making it slightly less useful for keeping a constant eye on Roshan. It will allow Brood to stay invisible and steal the kill or Aegis, however, a Sentry will prevent that and the enemy will be able to see the Web and know you have vision. Since the vision is rather limited, place it at narrow key spots all over the map. It will allow you to turn invisible fast, plus the movespeed bonus lets you run away before they can set up Sentries. Another techique is to place it all alone mid lane, giving Broodmother immense power in that area. Web is probably most annoying to the enemy because it cannot be killed in any way.

Remote Mines have 900 vision, low cooldown, and high manacost. With a timed life of 6 minutes and the less vision than Observers (1600), but no shop cooldown, they can work effectively as ward. Do note that they can't block neutral camps, but since they can deal damage to either kill steal or kill the hero, they are useful in neutral camps.

Eyes of the Forest have 690 range, long cooldown, truesight, and require a tree, preferably one that cannot be seen (either behind other trees or on cliffs). They don't block neutral camps. Level 1 can give vision of top rune spot and level 4 of bottom and they are destroyed with a Tango. Eyes are weak wards, so use them as counter wards and place them at small spots where you know the enemy will be gankable, like in his neutral camps. At level 4 the cooldown is 75 seconds, so set them in trees at common ward spots when you have your warder along to kill the enemy wards (Rooftrellen can't because he's melee). Eyes placed in neutral camps have synergy with long range heroes like Zeus, Spectre, and Furion. Furion at level 11, when chosing his moment correctly, can do high damage with Wrath, possibly lethal, and additionally frag neutral units in the camp to deny the enemy experience and gold. Eyes are best against lineups who have nothing but Tangoes to destroy them.

Watchers have 1900/1800 range, low cooldown, low manacost, high movespeed, and limit on total amount. This is probably the most adaptable map control skill, with ridiculous vision in level 4. They can't block neutral camps, but they can make a round to all creep spawns in a short time when put on patrol, and can see Roshan and explore the area around as well. They're best used with shared control and some or all always on patrol in various parts of the map. They die from a single hit though, and Radience will eat them, however, they're easy to replace. Never let them stay on one position like a rune spot, make them use their 522 movespeed and high vision with a short or long patrol order. When a tower goes down, feel free to change the route. Also, always optimize. If one lane is getting ganked repeatedly, focus that area. When the enemy gets Radience or starts taking out Watchers in some other way, set the skill to auto cast to keep replenishing (no new Watchers will be summoned when max limit is reached). Since Weaver should not be warder, let the support heroes set the patrol routes, and remember to micro them when needed to give vision before a battle or a gank. Watchers have the Ghost ability and CANNOT block. Here's an example of Watcher routes. By no means the best or only, just an example. When setting the patrol, select Patrol, hold shift, and click the points in the desired order.

Hidden Text click here to show

Revenents have 1600/800, low cooldown, low manacost, are flying, and can attack. The ability to attack makes them useless when put on patrol, because they'll attack enemies and get killed. The upside is that they can hover over trees at various spots and are unaffected by sight blockers

Greater Hawk from Call of the Wild has 1600/1200 range, slow movespeed (280), invisibility, low HP, and is flying. It will be killed by one hit from Radience, moves so slow it can't scout a large area, but provides vision from above that makes juking impossible near trees. Since it's one of Rexxar's main assets, dedicating it to watching Roshan or runes permanently is a waste. Note that it has highest priority from towers, so leave it outside it's range when tower diving, preferably on the offensive side to be aware of incoming heroes.


Anti-warding

This is when it get's expensive and fruitless to ward. The best anti-warding measure in the game is Necronomicon 3. Since warding can be game breaking and lots of fights break out while attacking or protecting wards, removing wards without risking heroes is a strong tactic. The level 3 summons have 425 movespeed, the melee has truesight, and the ranged sufficient DPS to quickly kill wards. They cannot see uphill, but with a Flying Courier tagging along they can dispose of all wards. They're also useful for moving quickly into enemy ground and remove Sentries prior to an engagement.

Akasha, Rexxar, and Puck are probably the strongest anti-warders with Necronomicon 3. Akasha and Puck can move up to the ward spots themselves and dispose of wards, and have more than decent escape measures. Also, by the time they have the item, they have sufficient DPS to dispose of the wards so fast they are in no immediate danger. Rexxar is one of the only melee heroes who can kill wards on ledges, and even without putting himself in danger. With Necronomicon 3 summons and his own summons, he can get vision of ledges and dispose of wards.

Since Observers have 6 minute duration and 6 minute shop cooldown, losing them like this can quickly kill the supply. If both teams use this tactic, they have to rely on something other than wards for controlling the game (a very chaotic state), or use alternative ward spots. An alternative is anything that is hard to discover and has less use than optimal spots. If the enemy doesn't know where to search, it will make them uneasy or think you have given up on warding, something you must never do. As warder, you're Rick Astley, and you're never gonna give up your team.