Had a quick look at your map and I must say, that it looks lovely. It seems that you understand what you are doing since creeps and drops were ok as well as travel distances between the players. (I am not the greatest melee player thought )

Now here are few suggestions:
- your map isn't set to "Melee (latest patch)"
- usually creeps near goldmines use 500 agro range to prevent players from building expo before killing the creeps
- try to use raise/lower tool on those ramps leading to murlocs, -a.k.a. try smoothing them
- be careful about your tree placement. I have spoted some space between the trees which NE could abuse and hide thier wisps there (you can easily spot them, when you turn on pathing view "press P")

That's about it Don't get discouraged, it is nice to have a new melee map maker in the community. I see that you have taken your time with decoration which is great, it will allow you to create even better maps in the future. Remember, only practice makes master.

This is very good first map. It doesnt have anything special yet, but that's exactly why I like it. Playability should always come first, and this map os perfectly playable. The visuals look also very Reign-Of-Chaos-like, which I like.

Now as seem to know what you are doing in general, I will be very nitpicking about some small aspects; not because I think that these are important "mistakes", but because I think that would just slightly improve gameplay in the sense that they will make some details more like on other maps.
- @Mr.Henci has already pointed out some key aspects which I agree you should change.
-The map description contains spellling mistakes. If my english is correct, it should be "Since this island was abandoned, all sorts of creatures settled in this place and made the island a dangerous place to visit."
-Several creepspots will attack unit that only try to walk by. It is particularly annoying for ensnare creeps.
-Normally any creepspot that drops a lvl 3 or higher item also drops some sort of powerup.
-I would also a powerup to the murloc spot, as you usually have a lvl 2 item drop from a 8-10 spot, and lvl 11 spots are normally lvl2 item+ lvl 1 powerup.
-Overall too many lvl 2 charged items, available from "weak" creepspots. The problem here is that these can be wand of lightning shields, which can be devastating against humans if the try to expand or dont wall their base (which often has some other downsides). Most competitive 1v1 simply dont have lvl 2charged item, or only have them drop from spots stronger creeps (TS, AZ shops for example) or explicitly remove lightning shield from the item table (LR).
-A lvl 2 permanent item for the expansion spot is too weak for the lvl 17 spot. It should be a lvl3 item (+lvl1 powerup, see above).
-At the merc camp, the lvl 3 gnoll drops a lvl2 powerup, potentially a tome of experience. This creep can easily be killed just for the item, and if it is a tome of experience, it is a huge luckbased factor in the earlygame. I suggest to have the tome dropped by the dragon.
-The 4-3-3 troll spot only drops a lvl 1 permanent item. This is actually a very dangerous spot, due to the double ensnare. It should at least drop lvl 1 powerup in addition.

@Mr.Henci @mafe , thanks for your feedback. i updated the map in consideration of those points as well as some enviromental updates. Changelog in the description.

So I like many of these changes. The watcher wards look to be in a good position, not too strong but not useless either. Still, I would do a few thinigs different:
-Still not "melee (latest patch)". This shoul be fixed, to avoid any risks of the map behaving weirdly, i.e. not using the latest patch data (for an example of unexpected consequences, see below).
-Abour murlocs, I would not add the tome to the same creep that drops the item. As that lvl 3 murloc dies relatively fast, I imagine most blademasters go the for itemcreeping. The item itself is already more than enough for that; they dont need to get a tome for free. So I'd give to powerup to a different murloc.
-This is purely aesthetic: I try to avoid mixing too many different creeps races like you do at the expansions now. In fact for whatever reason, gnolls almost never appear in combination with non-gnoll creeps. As the lvl3 gnoll has (iirc) exactly the same stats as the lvl 3 ogres, you could consider replacing them. But on the other, it is something unusual about the map which does not impact gameplay, so that would be a reason to keep it.
-You have replaced the lightning shield with a invisibility potion. It is a nice idea, but there is one small downside: If you decide to not use the invis potion, it sells for a different gold value than the other items (50 vs 75). 25 gold is acceptable I think. However, as a consequence of the map not being "melee (latest patch)", the replenishment potion that also drops there sells for 200 gold.
-The trees dont have weird paths, which is good, but there is a different issue:

At each of the circled locations (and there are countless more all over the map), nightelfs can place a wisp and melee units cant attack it (him?). This makes wisp harass very difficult, which is a tactic you see quite often. So this would be a buff for nightelves. To change this, you would have to rework all forest.... I would recommend that for future maps, you dont create forest by using the square tool, but to use the circle tool of size 2 (i.e. your cursor will be 7 trees), and place the trees in such a way that one of the "new" tress is located exactly over an already existing tree (this is made easier if you have the pathing view activated). This way, it takes more time, but the forests will be without paths and such edges should not appear

Also as you say you were inspired by the map contest, it might interest you that neo and remo have mentioned that they intend to have a second edition of the map contest in the next months.

Thanks for the response!

- The "latest patch" thing: Its weird i thought i updated it... However i will look into that, will be fixed until the weekend
- Murloc spots: yeah thats true i will move it to one of the huntsmen.
- The Gnolls: its funny i thought about it and you are right, they almost never come with other species ... maybe i'll adjust that.
- Invis-pot: i don't know if i keep that or just stick to three possible items. I don't think that 25 gold makes a lot of difference, i might even change the category to something else, though i don't want to many permanents ... we'll see...
- The Trees: you're absolutely right with that (btw thanks for the tip with the brush-size!), i will see if i have the time in the next one or two weeks to redo the trees. Don't know why i did not see that in the first place , but ok.

Yes i heard them talk about a possible second contest in march or so. If i have the time i will try to participate, but without that rookie-mistakes .

vara said:

Thanks for the response!

- The "latest patch" thing: Its weird i thought i updated it... However i will look into that, will be fixed until the weekend
- Murloc spots: yeah thats true i will move it to one of the huntsmen.
- The Gnolls: its funny i thought about it and you are right, they almost never come with other species ... maybe i'll adjust that.
- Invis-pot: i don't know if i keep that or just stick to three possible items. I don't think that 25 gold makes a lot of difference, i might even change the category to something else, though i don't want to many permanents ... we'll see...
- The Trees: you're absolutely right with that (btw thanks for the tip with the brush-size!), i will see if i have the time in the next one or two weeks to redo the trees. Don't know why i did not see that in the first place , but ok.

Yes i heard them talk about a possible second contest in march or so. If i have the time i will try to participate, but without that rookie-mistakes .

Click to expand...

"- The "latest patch" thing: Its weird i thought i updated it... However i will look into that, will be fixed until the weekend"

it doesn´t matter if you are using the 1.21 v or the 1.28 v of the game, what mafe means is you have to go to map properties
in the last slot game data set (below water tinting color) you have to put melee last patch, every time you create a new map it will be in default,

thanks for the response. Yes i was aware of that but i thought i adjusted it previously... (for some reason it did not save or something...) however i will look into that and maybe the tree issue this weekend and update the map (i'm pretty pressured on time because of study issues)
I guess a sort of "final" upload will happen saturday or sonday.

greetings, vara

I found time to do the tree changes and fixed the "latest patch" issue (did somehow not save during the last edit, should work now), as well as some changes regarding some creepspots.
However, feedback and criticism is still appreciated.

greetings, vara

Approved based on trustworthy user reviews.

Good melee map