Key:

Black Pupil: Defensive
White Pupil: Offensive

Blue Iris: Early Game
Green Iris: Mid Game
Purple Iris: Late Game

Key:

Black Pupil: Defensive
White Pupil: Offensive

Red Iris: Early Game
Orange Iris: Mid Game
Grey Iris: Late Game

The two warding locations I recommend for vision of the Rosh pit.

Radiant Rosh Pit Ward



This Radiant Observer Ward can be placed safely, providing both vision of the Rosh Pit entrance and rune. The Ward is also not as vulnerable to de-warding, as it is outside the range of commonly placed sentry wards designed counter Rune and Rosh wards.


Dire Rosh Pit Ward



The Ward for the Dire Side can also be placed on the Ward Rock safely, providing a slightly better view of entrance to Rosh, while still retaining Rune vision. However, this ward is also more vulnerable to counter warding as it is located in a fairly common spot.

Uber Wards

The two wards pictured below are referred to as "Uber Wards", as they provide full 360 degrees of 1600 ranged vision. They are also very strategic locations and should be placed in both locations by both Radiant and Dire teams.

These are ward placements for the Radiant team, not to counter the Radiant.




1. Dire Antipull Ward
This ward is very helpful for the Radiant Team. The ward blocks the camp from spawning, preventing the Dire team from pulling creeps and pushing the lane toward the Dire tower. The slight vision behind the tower and the jungle vision is also helpful to stage Radiant ganks on a Dire Jungler.



2. Dire Large Antipull Ward
Having the potential to be used by both Radiant and Dire teams, this ward prevents the large pullable camp from spawning. The vision is useful more useful for Dire, as it protects a Dire solo from ganks, but also boosts a defensive top lane Radiant. By cutting or eating the tree northwest of the ward provides better jungle vision as well.


Cut Vision



3. Dire Antipull Jungle Ward
This ward has a few benefits that #1. ward does not posses. The ward is harder to counter ward, as the other is more common of a spot if Dire notices the pull camp is being blocked. The ward provides Radiant with vision of the large camp and more of the river. The ward must be placed as closely to the torch and tree-line as possible or the camp will not be blocked.



4. Dire Antijungle Ward
While not blocking any neutral camps, this is useful early game for a gank-oriented Radiant team, providing clear vision of both the small and medium camps. It can also be used as an antigank ward for Dire if the top tier 1 tower is destroyed while mid tier 1 tower is up. Place right on the top of the stairs to provide the best vision.



5. Radiant Ancient Ward
While somewhat useful for the Radiant early game, this ward is overly defensive. It provides vision of the high-ground and rune, but should be used in later phases as the Radiant Jungle begins to farm the Ancient camp.



6. Radiant Anitgank Ward
The vision of this ward is invaluable for guarding against Dire ganks. It provides good vision of the river and three common gank paths. By hacking a few trees, the vision can be expanded further. If the Dire team is even slightly gank oriented, this ward is a must for protecting either a jungler or vulnerable bottom hero.



Cut Vision



7. Dire Ancient Ward
This ward is used as a defensive ward for the Dire early game, but an offensive ward for Radiant mid-late game. The ward is useful for tower diving from the back when pushing bottom tier 2 tower, as well as shutting down the Dire Ancient camp. Place the ward right on top of the stairs.

The ward placements shown below are used for the Dire Team, not to counter the Dire.


1. Dire Large Antipull Ward
Refer to the same ward (#2) above in the Radiant Section for pictures. This ward prevents the large pullable camp from spawning, as both the Dire and Radiant teams can pull this camp. The vision is useful for Dire, as it protects a Dire solo from ganks. By cutting or eating the tree northwest of the ward provides better jungle vision as well.

2. Dire Antijungle Ward
Refer to the same ward (#4) above in the Radiant Section for pictures. This ward can be used as an antigank ward for Dire if the top tier 1 tower is destroyed while mid tier 1 tower is up. Place right on the top of the stairs to provide the best vision.

3. Radiant Ancient Ward
Refer to the same ward (#5) above in the Radiant Section for pictures. This ward is an offensive Dire ward useful from mid to late game more so than the early game. The Ward allows the Dire team to stage ganks on a Radiant hero once they begin to farm the ancient creeps.

4. Dire Ancient Ward
Refer to the same ward (#4) above in the Radiant Section for pictures. This ward is very defensive for the Dire team and should be used when a Dire hero begins to farm the Ancient camp when worried about a Radiant gank.

5. Radiant Medium Block
This is a useful ward for countering a Radiant Jungler, as it shuts down farm from the Medium camp while also providing some Rune vision.

6. Magic Bush



One of the most common Jungle wards, known as the Magic Bush ward. It actually blocks two camps, the Medium Pull Camp and the Large Camp. Due to the uniqueness of the ward, it is very susceptible to counter warding. The small brown bush, the namesake of the location, is a useful eyemarker for placement, but does not give optimal view. Place the ward slightly above the bush to provide more vision to the south of the jungle. In conjunction with the #5 ward, it can be very unforgiving for a Radiant jungler, making their only two options for jungling the ancient and easy Radiant camps. Due to changes in 6.79, the Radiant can still jungle one medium camp, as the pull camp is now easy. However, this ward is still very useful for shutting junglers down.


7. Radiant Anti-Jungle Ward


Useful for aggressive gank-oriented Dire teams, this ward shuts down a Radiant Jungler without blocking any camps. Instead of blocking camps and provoking counter wards, this ward gives the option of ganking the jungler to bring his or her farm to a halt, while tipping gold and experience income in your favor. The ward provides full vision of the large camp and enough vision to see if someone is farming the medium camp.

8. Radiant Antipull Ward



This ward blocks the pullable Radiant Medium camp, maintaining the balance of the creep line, but provides no lane vision without a bit of landscaping. By placing the ward almost directly above the solitary white tree, you can provide some vision behind the tier 1 tower.

Counter Warding is the most situational kind of warding in Dota 2. While some observer wards can be used in almost every game effectively, the placements and timing of counter warding are never constant. In response, this section of the guide will cover the most common spots for counter warding in Dota 2.

6.79 Patch Notes: Due to the changes in Sentry Wards, couriers and Observer Wards may not be needed when dewarding, as Sentry Wards provide 150 ground vision 30 seconds after being placed. Killing enemy observer wards also now give a 50 gold bounty, but sentry wards do not.

Why and How to Counter Ward

There are two main goals of counter warding: to deny opponent vision and to guarantee unseen movement. Placing a sentry ward and destroying an enemy observer ward in the process cripples the enemy by taking away critical knowledge and allowing your team to stage ganks and catch enemies off guard. However, placing a sentry ward is also a sure-fire way to know that your movements within the radius of the ward are not seen by anything. Even if a counter warding attempt results in no enemy observer wards being destroyed, you still guarantee that the enemy has no vision of that area. The easiest way to counter ward is to see an opponent plant his or her own wards. When a support hero abruptly stops running in the river or one of your own wards get killed, there is a pretty good chance a ward was placed in that location. To destroy opponents wards, either place a sentry where you think the ward is, or buy a Gem of True Sight.


Top Counter Ward



Placing a Sentry Ward in this location will help clear the most common rune wards for both sides, crippling the opposing team's potential by denying runes.



Although the Sentry gives true sight to the common wards, you must still have normal vision from the high ground to destroy the wards. By placing your own Observer Ward in the same location as above, you grant vision to destroy opponent's wards as well as some valuable rune vision. You can also bring a Flying Courier to grant vision as an alternative to placing your own ward.

Mid Counter Ward



A Sentry Ward here grants True Sight of a common Radiant offensive ward, as well as some Observers for rune vision.



A Observer Ward is unneeded to assist this Sentry as you can just walk onto the high ground on either side to see the wards you have uncovered.

Bottom Counter Ward



Perhaps the most useful Sentry Ward spot, this location helps clear many of the common rune Observer Ward placements, as well as a neutral-blocking ward (#5 in Dire Jungling Section) in the Radiant Medium camp. If trying to clear wards to kill Roshan safely, place the Sentry Ward above the rune spawn location to clear additional Observer Wards.



Again, your own Observer Ward or Flying Courier is needed to provide vision of the high ground and deny the opposing team Rune and valuable River vision.



This section provides placements for the Radiant Jungle only, as it is much easier to counter ward than the Dire jungle. The most important piece of knowledge to keep in mind when counter warding in the jungle is to notice which camps are being blocked and where the most common ward spots to block those camps are. Refer to the Jungle Wards Section above to see common neutral-blocking ward locations and place Sentry Wards that will grant true sight of those Observer Wards.

Radiant Pull Counter Ward

The goal of this Sentry Ward is to provide True Sight of almost every conceivable Observer Ward blocking this camp, as the Radiant Pull camp is very important in matches.



First, use a Quelling Blade on the tree pictured above, then place a Sentry Ward directly on the stump of the tree.



Placing the Sentry here will not block the camp, but will provide True Sight to almost all Observers, including the Magic Bush Ward, capable of blocking the neutral spawn.



To destroy wards, circle the camp to gain vision Observer Wards placed around the camp to block it. Keep in mind that motivated Dire players will place Observers in many different spots around the camp, so use your Quelling Blade to clear paths to potential hiding Wards.




If no opposing Observer Wards are found, consider placing a Sentry Ward in the location above, which will counter the #8 Ward described in the Jungling section above and any other sneaky Dire wards.