Players should respect stealth champions and buy wards

Stealth is one of the most hated, most frustrating mechanics in all of League of Legends. In celebration of Evelynn’s rework launching this week, it seems appropriate that we should talk about it.

When you are up against a stealth champion you have to play differently. You are gonna spend all game looking over your shoulder and you should. You know why? Because the moment you look away, BOOM. Ya just got Rengar-ed. If you are a mid laner, you should be the most paranoid player that has every played League. Be safe, be afraid, because if you don’t respect the stealth you will get eaten over and over again.

The secret to stealth champions is that all you have to do is respect them. That’s it. If you think they are there, play safe and play smart. Rengar, Twitch and Evelynn all rely on getting kills and hording their gold. If you starve them by just playing a boring ass game of League of Legends, you just cancelled their win condition. But this is easier said than done.

League players aren’t really well known for their self control. Holding back an aggressive play because you don’t know where their stealth kid is sucks, but it will win you games. Playing against stealth forces you to assess the information you have and act accordingly. It’s actually an excellent teaching opportunity.

Riot Games

This is where we get into the importance of wards. Wards exist to give you vision, which is important why? Is it to save your life from a gank? Sure, that’s nice. Is it to make sure they aren’t taking Baron? Absolutely. Is it to catch someone walking through your jungle alone. Yup. All of these things are true but they don’t hit the big picture. Vision shows you where your enemies are, which means you also know where they aren’t.

Consider this scenario:

Forty minutes into an even game your team is pushing mid together. Their ADC shows in the bottom lane, pushing it out to grab some extra farm. What does everyone do? They start pinging Baron like this is their last moment on earth. Everyone rush Baron. Baron. Baron. Go Go Go Go GO. So you force a fight they can’t win or you get a uncontested Baron because they know they can’t fight.

But why? Because you know where their ADC is, which is far enough away that they could never make it to Baron in time. If this seems really obvious, it is. But understanding fully what makes vision so good is how you combat stealth.

Why is ganking top risky after 10 minutes? Because the bottom team and their jungler can see you, know you can’t contest and grab a Drake. The same principle applies. If you know where their jungler is you can either retreat when needed or press hard as hell. Fighting a stealth champion is about knowing where they are at all times. Buy control wards so you can see through their stealth. Place wards in their jungle so you can see where they are farming. Invest in vision and it will save your life.

If you are facing a good stealth player, they will be watching their allies health, knowing when you want to dive them. If you’re within killing range of your laner, consider if you know where the Eve is before you all-in. Did she just show bottom? If you’re mid, you might be good. If you haven’t seen her on map in a few minutes though, chances are she is right next to you and ready to take advantage of your greed.

The worst thing a stealth champion can do is show you where they are. When you see them, they lose all of their power. The fear of ambush and the forgetfulness of laners is what makes these champions strong. Show where they are and all that fear goes away.

In short, if you are playing against any champion with stealth you need to buy control wards and use your trinkets liberally. Place a ward, save a life.