in terms of map awareness i think, you just need to focus on your hero and your lane,and just check the mini map from time to time,dont overextend if 1 or 2 heroes are missing,especially if they have roaming supports,just stay high ground near your tower,and i think you must have atleast 50-60 last hit at the 10 min mark if youre mid,but it still depends on how hard your lane is,and i think mid nowadays dont need to roam,let your supp help you gank mid and win you your lane,but also you can always help other lanes if youre sure that it will be beneficial to you,and it wont waste your farming time,and i think the best time in harrassing the enemy midlaner is when he is trying to get his last hits,and if you want to harrass him,dont click on him yet if youre out of range or else the creeps will aggro to you,try and close the distance between you two first within striking range,then thats the time you click on his hero
map awareness means knowing where the enemy heroes are without any vision
that's what you actually need to learn
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Map awareness --
My map awareness is definitely struggling, at least when I'm playing a core roll and focusing on harrassing, last hitting, etc. Do you just look at the mini-map frequently? I find that difficult to do when I'm focusing on last hitting, denying, harrassing, trying to keep good creep equilibrium, and positioning. Then when I do look at the mini-map and an enemy isn't in vision, hard to tell if it's from FOW (like my team's creeps are pushing b/c enemy creeps all just died) or if it's because they're actually missing.
When playing a mid-laner (or any position for that matter), do you actually move your screen to another lane to see what's going on frequently as your means of map awareness?
Yes, I know, people should be calling out when their lanes are missing, but that's not a fool-proof plan for having map awareness.
Last hitting --
I think my last hitting is decent but it can definitely use some improvements, as I'm missing some last hits that are no-brainers (either attacking too early or too late). Other than just practicing, any tips on how to get better at last hitting? Might sound stupid, but I just sorta recently started to take notice of which enemy creep my range creep (or ranged creeps) is/are hitting to get the timing better on when to try to last hit. Should I be doing the same thing with melee creeps and seeing how many are attacking the one I'm about to last hit?
Side note 1, when you're in a sidelane, how do you keep your support from trying to compete with you for last hits? Same applies for later in game when rotating through the jungle. I end up getting 1 camp instead of 3 because my Dazzle is trying to get his BKB. Or am I wrong in thinking supports should give up jungle creeps and lane creeps to the core, at least supports that don't "need" extra items beyond their 1 or 2 core items?
Side note 2, how many last hits should you be getting by 10 min if you're in a good, average, or bad matchup (for safelane and midlane) by 10 minutes?
Harrassing --
For the life of me, I can't figure out how to harrass effectively, or at least as effectively as I'd like to. It seems I'm just messing with creep aggro if I'm right-click harrassing w/o orb walking and more often than I'd like or expect to, I'm on the losing end of the harrassment (if we start trading). Or perhaps that's just my perceived memory of it and I'm doing better than I'm thinking.
Also, I suspect the best time to harrass is when there is neither a last hit or deny to be had....is this correct? I heard the order of precedence should be last hitting > harrassing > denying....and I sorta try to follow by that guideline, but any other tips on when to harrass, how to do it effectively, etc.?
Rotating --
I'm not sure if I'm not rotating enough or if the people I'm playing with are stupid....although I suspect a bit of both (everyone else in dota is stupid, right?). Typically, I'll try to stay in the mid-lane for at least 10 minutes without making a rotation. My rationale is the extra creep in the lane (since 7.06?) makes staying in the lane that much better....and given that pulling off a successful gank can be a total nightmare unless you A. Get a good rune like invis or haste, B. creeps are near your team's tower in your ganking lane destination, AND C. teammates who use voice chat or at least text-chat to figure out you're about to gank in their lane....then you gotta be lucky and hope enemy mid didn't call missing and/or enemy side-lane isn't playing safely.
All things being equal in a normal situation, which lane is better to gank, or is it a toss up? Of course you're better off ganking the one that makes more sense -- either you're closer to it, allies are struggling, enemy is low, etc. etc. But should you give preference to ganking the enemy safelane or offlane? Or am I doing it right by just staying mid for the first 10 minutes (most of the time)?
Although, now that I'm thinking of it, it seems like my *****y map-awareness might be part of the reason I don't rotate too often.
My account: https://www.dotabuff.com/players/428541498
NOTE: This is different than the account linked to the forum (same name though). I got stuck in the Mexican bracket on the other one, so I made a new account. Recently it's been primarily English speakers, so I know I'm on the right track. Goal is to get to mostly high-skilled games before calibrating MMR. I don't think I'm "very high skill" bracket material, but I guess we'll see down the road. Right now it's mostly normal skill games with a few high skill sprinkled in, albeit rare.
Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post, hope to hear some good advice or ways I can improve.