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caspian

Imperator Posts: 2447 Joined: 27 Mar 2007 gold

Wards and Observers Walkthrough

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:03 pm

Disclaimer: This guide is updated for version 6.56, note the bold words

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OBSERVER WARDS
SENTRY WARDS
EYES IN THE FOREST
REVENANTS
WATCHERS
WEBS
PSIONIC TRAPS
MISCELLANEOUS

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OBSERVER WARDS
Let’s check out some facts about the most common warding tool:

at day/night, has an area of sight (AoS) of 1600/1600.
costs 200 for 2 charges.
can be found at the Chimaera Roost/Graveyard initially containing 2 sets.
after exhausting 2 sets you must wait 6 minutes before you can buy it from the same shop.
countered by true sight: sentries, gem of true sight, etc.

The basic principles of planting an observer are:

This enables the observer to see as much as possible to abuse its large AoS. Below are some screenshots to illustrate the example.

On cliff & junctions – this is the most basic ward placement, allows you to see all the junctions there (very popular for backstabbing heroes) and the rune that spawns in the river. Look at the minimap to see its position on the map.
(click the image if you can’t see it properly)

Same as above, to see the rune and backstabbers.

At junctions – a viable place to ward for top lane heroes.

Open area – abusing the observers’ large AoS.

Junction – to observer bottom lane movement.

Open area – perfect warding spot for bottom lane and “jungling” heroes. As many backstabbers love waiting behind the forest in the fog of war, warding this place completely removes this advantage, and allows you to retreat safely.

Of course there are many other suitable spots to plant observers, so long as you remember the 3 basic principles above, you won’t go wrong. However in the 6.52 series (and above) you cannot buy wards from the enemy shop anymore!

PS: Extra note - I have also observed that some players are very smart to buy an observer set as soon as possible after the game starts, to trigger the 6 minute marker so that more observers will spawn. Some players use observers (for the mentioned reason) instead of sentry wards to ward neutral creep camps so that they cannot respawn, to remove certain enemy heroes' jungling advantages. You should also be aware of this fact.

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SENTRY WARDS

costs 200 for 2 charges.
can be found at the Chimaera Roost/Graveyard initially containing 3 sets.
unlike observer wards has a practically infinite supply.
has very little AoS by itself (200), but has a true sight range of 700.
countered by true sight: itself (enemy sentry wards), gem of true sight, etc.

Sentry wards are primarily used to remove the advantage of invisibility. That includes destroying observer wards, sentry wards, invisible observers (see below), etc. and to reveal invisible heroes. As of 6.54b they are also often used to prevent neutral creeps from respawning by placing them in the spawning spots itself. As mentioned they have very little AoS, but they do not need to be placed in open areas to provide true sight. Placing sentry wards in open areas often leave them vulnerable where heroes with true sight can destroy them easily. An article here has some pointers in which sentry wards can be better protected against enemies.
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EYES IN THE FOREST

at level 1/2/3/4, has 600/630/660/690 AoS.
costs 100/75/50/25 mana with 300/225/150/75 seconds cooldown.
has a 2000 cast range. Abuse this to your advantage!
requires sight of the tree in order to plant Eyes.
countered by felling Eyed trees, eg tangos, Wild Axes, Light Strike Array, etc.

If you use the old tree, you would try to save up for a Crow Courier. Although you can practically cast Eyes over 2 screens away, yet you must be able to see the tree, and the Crow solves that problem! Rooftrellen is a very good support hero, and support heroes are the best to buy Crow couriers, what more when they cost only 625 for a full upgrade (6.54b). Since enemies can see which trees you Eyed, you must make use of the fog of war by Eyeing trees that cannot be seen by your dratted foes.

In this scenario, Treant cannot cast Eyes when he can’t see the tree. But when Crow is there, he Eyes a tree which is behind those thick jungles, so that enemies cannot see it from outside (requiring some observers). Additionally level 4 Eyes gives Treant sight enough to see the rune at the river. Notice how far Treant is from the Eyed tree. Nearly a screen away!

Same as above, abusing Crow’s sight to Eye a tree on the cliff giving Treant sight of the rune and the nearby creep camp. I pressed “Del” to rotate the screen so you could see both tree and rune.

A very useful place to plant an Eye when you have a Techies aiming for killing streaks by mining the secret shop.

Sight of Roshan and the Scourge’s secret shop. Prepare for a backstab whenever some lone ranger solos the giant boss.

Basically the possibilities are endless when Treant comes with a Crow. Virtually any place in those forests can be Eyed, without risking enemies’ attention. The rest is up to your imagination.

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REVENANTS

at day/night, has 1600/800 AoS at all levels.
costs 50 mana each.
like the Crow, can see over hills/cliffs.
limited at 5/6/7 revenants at level 1/2/3, but is virtually uncounterable since Visage can raise as many bats as he has mana, and they can only be destroyed by brute force. Truly one of the most powerful warding abilities available.

His bats’ sighting ability gives Visage an extra large AoS to the extent of being able to see those cliffs and forest beside his lane, making him extremely perceptible to enemy movements around him.

Have a bat or 2 sticking with Visage while sending some to be observers. This way you can have observing abilities both on Visage and on your other favorite spots.

Your bats must be on elevated terrain/inaccessible forests to have the AoS advantage and prevent enemies from outright killing it.

Bats’ positions:

Whenever you station a bat, press ‘H’ to make it hold position. That way it will not auto-acquire enemies thus straying from their observing position.

Sight of Roshan, secret shop and the forest on the left famous for juking and gangbangs.

A very powerful bat position, it allows large AoS of the forest and the junctions below. Virtually uncounterable if you pressed ‘H’ beforehand.

Sight of the Sentinel forests.

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WATCHERS

at day/night, has 1400/1400 AoS.
costs 20 mana. At level 1/2/3/4, allows 2/4/6/8 Watchers with 20/15/10/5 second cooldown.
countered by true sight, Radiance’s Immolation, Lightning Revenant’s Storm Seeker, other immolation-based abilities.

The principles of placing Watchers is making them patrol along traveling lanes favoured by backstabbers (that includes you!), in open areas, near neutral creep camps, etc. To have a Watcher patrol, press P then click the point you want him to go to. Then the Watcher will go back and forth between those two points, where he stood and where you told him to go.

Here is an excellent video (not by me) that shows powerful patrol lines for Watchers. I believe this is more than enough to understand Watchers’ patrolling positions.

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WEBS

Has a casting range of 600.
A trigger checks every 1.5 seconds if Broodmother is under a web. If she is, she's given Permanent Invisibility with a fade time of 2 seconds. If she is not, then she loses the invisibility.
Hidden In a Web aura provided by the web is 370 AoE.
Cannot be destroyed!

The following illustrate the use of Webs as observers:

This is our Talking Spider about to cast a web. It shows the approximate casting range of the web.

To watch for movements near that area.

To watch the top lane.

When laning the Talking Spider in the middle lane it is important to spin a web on the opposite ramp so that you can observe their movements.

The use of webs in 6.56 is merely to provide area of sight - no true sight to detect invisibility anymore! Sad

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PSIONIC TRAPS

Has an AoS of 300 (?)
Casting range of 2000 - abuse it!
Easily destroyed, either by enemies with true sight or Lanaya herself.

A new hero after 6.44 was introduced, Lanaya has an interesting ability, Psionic Traps, which is an immobile unit planted on the ground that slows enemies by 50% within a 400 AoE and is triggered manually. While its ambushing potential is uncontested (look at that casting range Laughing

), it is a poor man's version of the observer wards. Nevertheless, it is extremely spammable and can be destroyed at will (by Lanaya herself), so it does have some uses as observers. Having low AoS means you must place the trap very close to what you wish to see.

In the latest map 6.53, Psionic Traps no longer prevent neutrals from spawning again.

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MISCELLANEOUS
Other abilities that could double as observers are:

Techies' Remote Mines - AoS of 800, Techies can plant remotes from a distance, ie he can plant it on cliffs. Does not trigger by itself, is invisible and can be easily removed by detonating it. Good qualities for an observer.
Venomancer's Plague Wards - temporary sight of an area for 40 seconds unless destroyed first
Beastmaster's Hawk - has 200 HP, visible but has an active Invisibility that allows it to become invisible for 4 seconds and has a cooldown of 30 seconds. Compared to the previous version (1 HP and invisible) the new Hawk is comparably more powerful and harder to counter since like Visage's Revenants it can hover above trees without being detected by enemies. I will update the sight range when the information becomes available.
Enchantress' Enchant - convert any hostile creep to your service and have it patrol the surroundings like the Watcher video. Lasts for 2 minutes.
Clockwerk Goblin - Rocket Flare provides sight of an area for some time. Can be useful for last hits or helping allies see enemies in the fog of war.

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CONCLUSION

Extra reminder - click or open any images that you can't see properly in a new window.
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Last edited by caspian on Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:41 am; edited 17 times in total