If you see it all, you can do it all

Dota, like any strategy game, is based on moves/plays that should help you beat your opponent. But, Is it that easy to move and act on such a big map within so many enemies, creatures, and terrains? Well, this is where wards come pretty handy for players who want to improve their ability.

Have you ever felt the fear of going to the dark woods by yourself when all enemies are missing? Or not being able to give your best in a fight because your enemies were better positioned than you? Wards provide vision, and vision is key to taking advantage of your enemy. These little totems help you playing safe, making fast and wise decisions, and especially coordinating as a team in circumstances in which everything is just chaos.

The best part of “buying” wards is that they are free. Be careful though, they are limited and will spawn after a certain time. Warding is usually a support player´s job during games, however, it is important for everybody to know which places are worth warding. For this reason, we are sharing with you the top 15 Dota 2 best ward spots that will help you win your games.

1. Radiant Neutral Camp (safe lane)

Randiante Bottom Woods, nexto to first tower in lane

If you are in the Dire team this aggressive ward will help you to take advantage of the very early stage of the game. Having vision in this area will let you know of any incoming gank from other lanes. Additionally, placing a ward in the neutral camp will not allow your enemies to pull creeps if they need to. It is recommended to place this ward as soon as the game starts, and without any enemy noticing. Doing this correctly will allow you to win the lane and playing in either a defensive or aggressive mood.

Advantages:

• No neutral creeps for enemy pulls
• Vision of any incoming gank from other lane
• Vision of a rather annoying enemy support in the lane to be aware of
• Vision of the 10-minute bounty rune that will spawn
• Opportunity to play aggressive if necessary

2. Over the Dire secret shop in the woods

Dire bottom woods, next to secret shop

Whether you are playing Dire or Radiant, this ward will provide vision if the enemy hero is determined to destroy all your possible wards. This is a point usually “blind” for any sentry ward (which reveals your ward). It won´t give you much high-ground vision and trees are usually covering it, but it covers the 2 main entrances to that zone. A very useful spot if you think the enemy might quickly go looking for your wards.

Advantages:

• Hard to find thanks to position
• Show main entrances from the radiant side of the map
• Show entrance from the dire side of the map
• Easy to get there in any stage of the game

3. Radiant off-lane, next to the first tower

Dire bottom woods, highground next to first tower

Again a nice spot for the early stages of the game, this position allows us to use the full vision of the ward. It can be a very aggressive ward if you are in the Radiant team and very defensive if you are in the Dire team since it covers the safe zone of the Dire tower, secret shop, and river (entrance for other heroes). It may be a typical zone for doing this, so be careful, it´s an area of many deaths especially for supports.

Advantages:

• Vision of the Dire tower
• Vision of the Dire secret shop
• Vision of the river
• Vision of the 10 minutes bounty rune

4. Dire woods (right side next to the second tower)

Dire bottom woods, next to second mid-lane tower

This is a very dangerous ward for both teams since its purpose is mainly to prevent violent encounters. No matter what stage of the game we are in, this ward shows one the most important areas for the Dire team, it´s one of the first gold sources they can found, and this spot is a high-ground for their tower, which means they have no vision there. Playing with this ward can help you to decide how aggressive or defensive you should be.

Advantages:

• Vision of Dire second middle tower
• Vision of the neutral camps in that zone
• Vision of Dire base entrance
• Opportunity to black one neutral camp area

5. Radiant Woods (right side)

Randiant bottom woods, centre

This is one of the most important spots for warding thanks to the constant movement of heroes in such a big area. The only problem with this place is that it has too many high-ground spots that are always watched to prevent unwanted enemy vision. So, what makes good this point is that it is placed just in the blind spot between two high-ground towers and a neutral camp, making it hard to think that anybody may have thought about placing a ward there.

Advantages:

• Vision of a big area in the woods
• Hard to find
• Covers entrances and exits to the Radiant Woods
• Shows you two neutral creeps camps (source of gold)

6. Radiant woods (left side)

Radiant top woods, next to Roshan´s Cave entrance

This spot is especially recommendable for mid to late game stages, once the game is already getting out of the lanes, and heroes moving with the intention to kill. Being part of the Radiant woods, it shows you a great part of the neutral camps in the area, plus a high-ground view of the river and Roshan cave´s entrances. Due to all these, this spot becomes really important for both teams, making it also dangerous to ward, so always try to go with allies. 

Advantages:

• Vision of Roshan´s cave entrance
• Vision of Radiant´s woods
• Vision of neutral creeps camps
• Vision of bounty rune in the woods

7. Dire Woods (Left side, next to outpost)

Dire top woods, next to second top-lane tower

Again the woods being one of the most important points to look after and not easy to ward. This spot is quite peculiar because it´s not the best. Thanks to this, the main advantage of it is that it´s hard to find, and even so, it may provide vision of a lot of important movements when trying to farm or gank in this area, and making this area a war zone. Have you ever got killed instantly when arriving in the woods? It might be because these kinds of wards are waiting for you.

Advantages:

• Hard to find
• Vision of the Dire outpost
• Vision of Radiant entrances
• Vision of Dire entrances
• Vision of several Neutral camps

8. Radiant Off-lane

Top-Lane, Left side of the lane just where terrains divide

This ward is especially useful during your early game if you are in the Dire team and want to play aggressive. It is important to have vision of both the enemy tower and the river entrance since they are the most common paths enemies will take to gank you. Other than that, you will be able to watch your enemies from behind if they are playing aggressive, the ward show you complete vision of the lane. And the best part is that Radiant doesn't usually ward this area, as it's usually the opposite side of the lane (right side) that they look for.

Advantages:

• Vision of the whole lane
• Vision of aggressive enemy players
• Vision of incoming ganks
• Hard to find thanks to position

9. Between Radiant´s second and third tower

Mid-Lane, just before entering Radiant´s base highground

This ward is a really aggressive ward when you are pushing the game in the Dire team. If you have enough advantage to get to this position, it is useful to have vision of this area. This spot will show you the nearest entrance from the Radiant team to their woods, meaning you will watch a lot of them. Even better, this is where you can take advantage of killing the most desperate enemies when they try to get some gold defending while you are pushing the lane.

Advantages:

• Vision of the Second tower in Radiant´s mid-lane
• Vision of Radiant´s base entrance
• Trees near the ward will allow you to hide near enemies when they approach
• Higher opportunities to kill

10. Entrance to Radiant´s woods

Radiant top woods, next to top-lane second tower

This spot is for those situations in which warding is hard due to enemies that have a lot of vision control. This ward should be placed just at the end of the cliff of the high-ground entrance to the woods in the Radiant´s off-lane. It is a blind spot for the high-ground (even higher) tower near it and shows you part of the woods as well as part of the Radiant´s base entrance and second tower. It can be placed as a defensive or aggressive tactic and will take a while for the enemy to guess where it is.

Advantages:

• Vision of Radiant´s base entrance
• Vision of Radiant´s off-lane second tower
• Vision of par of Radiant´s woods (left side)
• Hard to find

11. Radiant´s Woods (Next to safe-lane second tower)

Radiant bottom woods, highground next to bottom-lane second tower

When the situation is becoming rather tight, it´s hard and risky for any hero to go and ward so fast, he can be easily killed. For this reason, this spot is a good option when you must gain vision quickly and efficiently. This place in the woods is free of obstacles, you can just run, ward, and go without raising suspicion. It also provides a good vision of the high-ground woods and Randiant´s second tower in the safe lane, so it can be very useful for both teams. Additionally, this spot is not in the range of other common sentry wards.

Advantages:

• Hard to find
• Vision of woods in high-ground
• Vision of Radiant´s safe-lane
• Vision of Radiant´s Second tower
• Vision of Radiant´s entrances and exits in the right side woods

12. Limit sides of the Map

Highground ward zone in the midel of each side of the map

These spots are kind of odd at the beginning, since they are not always useful, and due to the fact that they are literally at each of the side limits of the map. These wards are on total high-ground, thanks to this you will be able to have full vision over the area, but, What can you found interesting in an area where there are mostly trees? Well, it seems that these places are the most common for elusive heroes hard to kill as Treant protector, or Tinker, who annoys you because you cannot actually see through trees.

Advantages:

• Full vision over trees on the sides of the map
• Vision over the lane of that side of the map
• Possibility of killing elusive heroes who use this area

13. Enemy base ward

Warding highground from the outside of the enemy base

There are two reasons why sometimes it results hard to break into the enemy base: They are in high-ground (they have vision over you, and you do not) and they have a tower right in from of them. Whatever you do and how you do it may define if you lose your advantage or not, so How could you make it easier? If you are careful and clever, you will notice that you can actually place a ward in the enemy base even through the wall. Be aware that they can see you, so don´t be so obvious, or they could even pull you in and kill you.

Advantages:

• Vision of the enemy base and enemy heroes waiting for you
• A better chance to calculate your movements
• They don't know that you see them too

14. Roshan´s cave

In the river, facing Roshan´s Cave entrance

Due to the high danger that noble supports face, here´s a plan B for those who can´t get to the warding Radiant´s spot that lets you watch the entrance to Roshan´s cave. As said before, warding this area is truly important, for the team who kills Roshan will have a great advantage over the other. Even more, this spot will allow you to take a look at a great part of the river, a direct connection between top and middle lanes, detecting any threatening enemy movement.

Advantages:

• Vision of the River
• Vision of the entrance to Roshans cave
• Vision of the top rune in the river
• Vision of the entrances to Radiant´s and Dire´s Woods (left side)

15. Mid-Lane Ward

Middle-lane

Finally, one of the most important spots to ward, and sometimes one of the most underestimated. The mid-laner is one of the most important roles, it is he who will first unbalance the game, and it is his lane the most threatened. Since it´s right in the middle of the map, it has too many incoming paths for an enemy hero to gank. Due to this, it is very important to always support the mid-laner with a proper ward the can at least cover a couple of these entrances.

Advantages:

• Vision for your Mid-laner not to be ganked
• Vision of the enemy high-ground across the river
• Vision of one of the two runes in the river (advantage for the Mid-laner who gets it)

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