Warding
Darkwood Vale 3v3
Solo mid! Hey, wait a second...
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on your opinion, because Heroes of Newerth is balanced for 5v5 gameplay, Darkwood Vale will most likely never see competitive play. That doesn't mean that Wards are ineffective though. The small scale to the map, and the heavily forested areas make them more difficult to place, and narrow down the variety of great placements. However, a well warded map will still be very helpful to ensure of well earned victory.
Lane, or Towerwards are not covered here because there are no land markings to help tell how close they can be placed, so screenshots wouldn't mean a thing.Runes
Unfortunately the bottom, or left rune is almost impossible to see without cutting down trees. But luckily, runes can be controlled effectively by keeping the other rune warded.
Sees the rune as well as the nearby neutral spawn.
Jungle
All the trees look very discouraging, but there are some decent Ward-placements hidden in the mass of trees and narrow paths. For the most part though, it is easier to ward the Hellbourne side of the jungle than the Legion side because it has one extra good Ward-placement.
Sees what seems like half of the Hellbourne jungle. There is no equivalent placement on the Legion side.
Anywhere on this plateau sees the two closest neutral camps, and can see the nearby rune if the trees are cut down.
Sees the two nearby neutral camps, and if placed south of the statue a Ward can see the nearby rune as well.
Sees Kongor and a small area extending from the nearby secret shop.
Bases
The bases on this map add an element missing from other maps; "Sight blockers". They are the invisible things that block line of sight without anything actually being there to block it. They are why you cannot see into Kongor on Forests of Caldavar, and in Darkwood Vale they are present along the fence line bordering the bases. This means when you place a Ward of Sight inside a base, it has to be past the fence by a small distance so that it does not spawn inside one of the "sight blockers."
This is as close as the Ward can be to the fence without having its vision blocked.
This is as close as the Ward can be to the fence without having its vision blocked. As you can see, the vision is blocked from further away from the fence on the Legion side, than it is at the Hellbourne base.
And in the End
TLDR; wards are good.
Now we covered if not all, then almost all Ward placement positions on all three maps that are available in Heroes of Newerth. Since you learned where and how to place Wards and also how important they are for winning, you shouldn't have any excuse for not buying them. If a team asks for a Ward, never say:
I will buy them just after I get…, the Wards are more important than your items, especially if you are a hero that isn't item-dependent to be effective in team fights. One nicely placed Ward can save a whole team; one item in your inventory can only save you! So go forth, buy Wards and always remember; sexy people buy Wards.