Preface: First and foremost I would like to thank and credit Nome for his Ward GuideMost of the spots shown here are from that post, however I felt there were some pretty important ones missing, and with his guide no longer being maintained I felt this was an area that needed a bit more coverage. So once again, thanks to Nome for his great work.
What are wards?
Ward(s) is shorthand for the Ward of Sight item, located in the Supplies section of your base shop. Wards cost 200g for 2. You can place the item on the ground by left clicking (or using the inventory hotkey) and targeting the area you wish to place it. When placed, they grant you and your team vision in a 1200 radius around the ward, obeying line of sight, and have a natural lifespan of 6 minutes, after which they expire and need to be replaced.
Wards are under most circumstances invisible to enemy players. The only way to see an opponent's ward is with Tower of Ward true sight. Tower true sight is a natural effect that reveals enemy units when they're close to your towers. Ward true sight comes from the Ward of Revelation item, also available in the Supplies section of your base shop. If an opponent can see your ward, they can attack and kill it. More information on this later (see Counter Warding section).
Why use wards?
Wards save the lives of your team and allow you to get kills on your opponents. Having vision of an area where nobody in your team is at, that your opponents don't know you have, lets you to see attempted ganks long before they happen, allowing you to retreat to safety. Additionally, it allows you to counter gank; That is sending your own team to surpise the enemy who thinks they're going unnoticed.
Using wards regularly can be costly, but think about it rationally: If a ward allows you to see and prevent one single gank then it has already paid for itself, two-fold or more, by preventing you from losing 200+g. If a ward allows you to see an enemy who thinks he isn't visible, it has already paid for itself. Wards win games.
Who should buy wards?
While wards do indeed eventually pay themselves off, wards aren't an ideal purchase for all heroes. Some heroes require a large amount of gold spent on items before they can contribute a lot to the team - mostly carries. They should try to avoid wards if at all possible. I'm not going to make a list of every hero that ideally should or shouldn't buy wards, but generally speaking if you're an item-independent non-carry hero, you're most likely a candidate for buying wards.
Counter warding
Counter warding is the act of using a Ward of Revelation to allow you to see and kill an opponent's Ward of Sight. Ward of Revelation is used exactly the same way as Ward of Sight; you left click (or use the inventory hotkey) for the Ward, and place it on the ground. Any nearby enemy wards will be revealed and you can kill them, giving you a map vision advantage over your opponent until they place another ward.
Basic mechanics of warding
Wards follow the same rules as player vision with fog of war:
* Sight is obstructed by trees.
* When placed on an elevated area, you can see areas below your Z axis. This is important! You should always keep this is mind; when executed properly, it allows you to multitask with your wards to see the largest area possible.
The important part (aka good ward placement spots)
Classic top rune
This ward gives you vision on the top rune, the majority of the river itself (a high traffic area for moving between lanes to gank), and a glimpse of the hellbourne jungle ramp. You can't really go wrong with this placement early-earlymid game.
Top Rune Hellbourne Creep Block
This ward once again gives vision of the top rune. It gives less vision of the river itself, but it gives more vision of the hellbourne jungle ramp. Most importantly, it prevents neutral creeps from spawning in the camp nearest the rune.
Hellbourne Mid Ramp
This ward gives you vision of the hellbourne middle ramp - which allows for easier nuking without being impeded by fog of war when below the ramp (but please don't try to auto attack up it!). It gives vision of the top rune, and limited vision on both sides of the river for ganks incoming to mid.
Classic bottom rune
This rune gives you vision of the bottom rune, hellbourne ancient ramp, two ganking entrances to the legion jungle, the path to Kongor, and a large portion of the river itself. Once again you can't really go wrong with this rune at any point in the game.
Legion jungle tri-path
This ward gives vision of the bottom rune and every realistic entry point to legion jungle for out-of-lane ganks on bottom.
Legion defensive
This ward gives vision of the bottom rune and jungle entry points for in-lane ganks. I'd personally avoid this unless you have a really tough lane, which even then you shouldn't since it's your pulling lane. It's still arguably a decent spot though, especially for preventing ganks from heavy disablers or heroes with position-intensive abilities (i.e. Behemoth's Fissure).
Legion / Hellbourne plateaus
By far my favorite spot to ward. Since it's highly elevated this gives full vision.
In Hellbourne it allows you to see the two safest (and highest traffic) neutral camps, and it allows you to see incoming enemies when pushing top and middle lane.
In Legion it's slightly less effective for vision of neutral camps, but it's just as effective defensively when pushing middle or bottom lane.
Legion / Hellbourne creep pull block
Without going into great detail, it's possible to pull neutral creeps from legion bottom and hellbourne top into your lane creep waves. In higher-tier games, it's common to place a Ward of Revelation in these spots to prevent creeps from spawning - this either forces a counterward or completely prevents that lane from taking advantage of the pulling.
It's possible to place a ward directly on top of where the creeps would spawn, but it's less commonly known that it's also possible to place the ward behind the spawn area. This allows you better vision and still prevents creep spawns.
The hellbourne spot is pretty finicky - it needs to be placed nearly exactly where it is in the screenshot to be most effective. There's some wiggle room for the legion one, but you can't move it any further north or else it won't properly prevent the creep spawn.
Hellbourne Bottom Plateau
Gives you vision of most attack points between mid and bottom lane for Legion pushing.
Base wards
These wards give you vision on the opponent base, allowing you to prevent surprises when pushing, and also allowing you to execute clean initiations rather than having a shaky stand-off.
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