User blog comment:LivesByProxy/Ward Variety & Sight Options/@comment-1330314-20160226160903/@comment-1330314-20160227004403

It's true that Snitch has a ton of mindgame potential, and I'm likely not visualizing it to full effect. On the flipside, even just setting off a Snitch for mindgame purposes would instantly provide a ton of information: a ping near top lane bush when all lanes are up against each other would give away the jungler's location, for example, and set the lane into defensive mode, in a similar manner to current wards. While Snitches would inherently provide less information than current standard wards in most cases, there's still a risk that the mindgame potential they provide wouldn't increase dramatically from its current state with green wards (though, admittedly, having a clear visual on the revealed enemy and their location definitely limits the amount of manipulation they can do at that point).

I didn't mention anything about Beacon being specific to terrain, though the idea sounds interesting in that it would give that ward its own unique and valuable style of vision (i.e. being able to see over walls). Perhaps it might cause issues if the ward's goal is to create point-capture battles, since you could end up with enemy champions awkwardly glaring at each other from opposite sides of a Beaconed wall or the like, but as a unique, valuable mechanic it gives that ward type a valid reason to be deployed and fought over.

As for the question of what wards are, or should be, my opinion is that they should be dynamic points of control on the map. Whenever you place a ward, you're laying a claim to a certain piece of territory, granting your team an information advantage over any opponent who steps there and thereby increasing both your own safety and the enemy's vulnerability. Thus, every ward placement is, or at least should be, an opportunity for both teams to contest that claimed terrain, either by targeting those wards directly or by playing around them in some form. In that context, mobile patroller wards would still fit within the overall paradigm of territorial control via information, but would also have unique strengths (larger and more complex potential area coverage) and weaknesses (directional vision, perhaps shorter range and more presence cues, etc.) that would engineer new approaches to vision and counter-vision. Overall, a patroller ward would still cover a static portion of terrain, but would be unique in that its location would change over time.

While I'm on the subject of stealing champion abilities, perhaps it might also be interesting to have "trap" wards that would offer little to no vision upon deployment, but that would come in many quickly-refilling charges that would reveal the first enemy champion to walk over them for the next few seconds. It would be a good fit for aggressive users of vision, particularly in the case of counterjunglers and invaders, while also providing some limited defensive opportunities (e.g. reveal an incoming gank if the jungler steps on a trap), and would trade off wide, persistent vision for better targeted sight. Revealed targets could also perhaps play mindgames by feigning a certain strategy while exposed, before completely switching gears once out of sight again, and could also counter-ward intuitively just by stepping on known trap locations, thereby destroying the wards via their consumption.

As for my post on vision, I'm honored that you used it as a reference, and it makes me incredibly happy to know that at least some part of my blogspace contributed positively somewhere. I really like well-structured and reasoned posts like yours here, too, and it's always a joy to discuss the subject in detail, and dig into it potential for expansion and improvement. I would be the last person to complain about anyone linking to my posts, and I thank you for having read my article on vision and integrated it into your work, building upon it in ways I would never have thought to explore on my own.