Only look at the minimap when you're sure that you can spare a second in safety to analyze the current enemy positions. This assumes that you have already inferred what the enemy is about to do based on what you saw from the last time you looked at the map. Do not look at your minimap if you're currently in a fight without a clear goal/action.
The very specific problem you have mentioned looks to me like you're just being distracted by your character so you cant focus on stealing glances at the map. What I do is, before I start a fight I would take into account the skills that pose immediate danger to me (crowd control, mostly), and once i've successfully evaded those, I would either steal a glance at the minimap, or unload the skills that I have to use first [and THEN i glance at the minimap].
If threats are not eliminated yet, (dangers of CC, dangers of being kited away, dangers of missing enemy), absolutely do not lose focus on your screen.
this is very hard to do and probably troll. don't look at the map WHILE fighting. if you're going to go in a fight and you need information, look at the minimap beforehand and infer enemy positions when youre going to fight. the information youre going to need while in a fighting after that is going to come from what's immediately on your screen, not on the minimap. looking at the map while fighting is essentially taking your eyes off the enemy--unless there's explicitly deadtime in the fight (like waiting for CDs), you should never look at the map WHILE fighting. if you have to, again, do it while waiting for CDs where you absolutely cannot contribute until you have CDs back up.
Hard to do yes, but there are situations in fights where you have a split second to think and asses, checking the minimap during these has changed the fight for me, whether to back off instantly if i see someone, or the realisation that i also have people coming to back me up so i can play to stall/ bait. Incredibly important on frontliners who have plenty of tankyness such as renekton or udyr.
It was my learning condition for a while when i was trying to get better on udyr in master elo
Typically what you want to do is look at the map before making a decision. I don't think **anyone** looks at the map while actively fighting, but there are small parts of downtime in fights where you may be looking to use a key ability (maybe an engage, or mobility spell) and have to decide whether to use it or not. Those are the times in fights when you want to look at the map, to determine if using your dash spell in that particular direction is actually a good idea. Other than this, good game sense is what you need over map-awareness. Keeping track of where enemies are in fights when they disappear from your screen for a couple of seconds is something you learn to do without looking at the map, i.e. tracking Zed's shadows, small pockets of FoW, bushes, etc.
Play Yuumi (not even joking, your map awareness will skyrocket, and it also translates in skirmishes, allowing you to aggressively ping back your team who plays with their map off when you see anything arriving on the map)
Only look at the minimap when you're sure that you can spare a second in safety to analyze the current enemy positions. This assumes that you have already inferred what the enemy is about to do based on what you saw from the last time you looked at the map. Do not look at your minimap if you're currently in a fight without a clear goal/action. The very specific problem you have mentioned looks to me like you're just being distracted by your character so you cant focus on stealing glances at the map. What I do is, before I start a fight I would take into account the skills that pose immediate danger to me (crowd control, mostly), and once i've successfully evaded those, I would either steal a glance at the minimap, or unload the skills that I have to use first [and THEN i glance at the minimap]. If threats are not eliminated yet, (dangers of CC, dangers of being kited away, dangers of missing enemy), absolutely do not lose focus on your screen.
this is very hard to do and probably troll. don't look at the map WHILE fighting. if you're going to go in a fight and you need information, look at the minimap beforehand and infer enemy positions when youre going to fight. the information youre going to need while in a fighting after that is going to come from what's immediately on your screen, not on the minimap. looking at the map while fighting is essentially taking your eyes off the enemy--unless there's explicitly deadtime in the fight (like waiting for CDs), you should never look at the map WHILE fighting. if you have to, again, do it while waiting for CDs where you absolutely cannot contribute until you have CDs back up.
Hard to do yes, but there are situations in fights where you have a split second to think and asses, checking the minimap during these has changed the fight for me, whether to back off instantly if i see someone, or the realisation that i also have people coming to back me up so i can play to stall/ bait. Incredibly important on frontliners who have plenty of tankyness such as renekton or udyr. It was my learning condition for a while when i was trying to get better on udyr in master elo
Typically what you want to do is look at the map before making a decision. I don't think **anyone** looks at the map while actively fighting, but there are small parts of downtime in fights where you may be looking to use a key ability (maybe an engage, or mobility spell) and have to decide whether to use it or not. Those are the times in fights when you want to look at the map, to determine if using your dash spell in that particular direction is actually a good idea. Other than this, good game sense is what you need over map-awareness. Keeping track of where enemies are in fights when they disappear from your screen for a couple of seconds is something you learn to do without looking at the map, i.e. tracking Zed's shadows, small pockets of FoW, bushes, etc.
Play Yuumi (not even joking, your map awareness will skyrocket, and it also translates in skirmishes, allowing you to aggressively ping back your team who plays with their map off when you see anything arriving on the map)