You don't have to play the same champion forever... remember I told you my chogath is the best but I don't use it much because I'm bored of using him... Lets see if my memory serves right... these have been my mains in ranked:
* = not using it anymore
Chogath
-- Galio *
-- Kayle *
Swain
Evelynn
-- Anivia *
Renek
Ryze
-- Nunu*
-- Veigar *
-- Tristana *
-- Annie *
Brand
-- Rammus *
Soraka
-- Trundle *

So I do have SEVEN mains as of now and NINE that I dont use anymore... I have been trying to get Caitlyn and Orianna'in ranked... but they are just not ready for ranked yet.

Here's the thing... I HAVE MORE THAN 2850 PLAYED GAMES!!!!!!! As you can see In average each of my main have at least 40 played games in ranked (and don't get me on counting my normal games on them). I also like playing Cassiopeia, but I can't do ranked with her. I tried getting really good with lux but I couldn't get good enough for ranked, same with Sona...

For example I have BIG problems with SONA and ASHE... most people consider them the EASIEST CHAMPIONS IN THE GAME... but I can't play them, and believe me I've tried

If you had my standards for "maining" champion in ranked you would only be able to play like 3-4 champions over your 160 games. Also notice that i have a lot of casters... why? BECAUSE I'M GOOD WITH CASTERS... Chogath and Galio have been my best tanks, and both of them are solo laners casters. Renek kinda works because he is a physical CASTER (like pantheon). Kayle is a "Caster DPS Hybrid Support"... that's why I could use him. Evelynn is just special (I love her)

Find your niche... and exploit it

Game #30 (Caitlyn / Defeat / 76W - 82L / 1124 -13)
http://i.imgur.com/60k9D.jpg

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhy do EVERY god**** times I get around 1150, I end up with derps that ruins the game ?! I just don't understand, my past two pages of the thread shows that I've been going up and down around this elo. Never NEVER one good game that I have lost. This is rather frustrating to be honest with you all. This Malzahar went 0-5 after 15m marks and finally understoods that MAYBE, just MAYBE he needed to play defensively against a team full of tower divers... On my side, I was having top lane solo vs Master Yi, everything went fine over there. Had no gank whatsover from WW even though Yi was at the tower the whole laning phase too. Went 3-1 until late game when my team was just underleveled and underfed and couldn't do anything.

sigh.

Game #31 ( Vayne / Victory / 77W - 82L / 1137 +13)
http://i.imgur.com/SQnU6.jpg

I was SO SURE this game would end up like the last one. This Rammus couldn't speak english to save his life and had questionable skills. He went ahead and died a couple of times and then disconnected. At this point, Brand who was around 1-4 at the time, started trolling saying he wouldn't play and that he was just playing ranked because normal was blind pick even though he wasn't trying to win and kept trying to pass a surrender vote. But me, Malzahar and Shaco kept our cool and defended the second tier towers like mad men. They couldn't push it and Shaco was making his best to push side lanes and even getting top lane to inhib... and then Rammus came back, which was the last nail to their coffin. At first he was really under-leveled, but as the game progressed and as we won team fights over and over he caught up and even outleveled some players of their team by the end of the game.

This was a very satisfying victory !

to add to what other people are saying i would pick up a tank or two just in case you find yourself with a team that has no tank they carry one of the biggest roles that too many tanks do wrong i.e deciding when a team fight occures, deciding who gets focuced via CC, keeping your carry alive via CC, while you cant carry your team to victory with a tank it certaintly pays to pick up a few

oooooor you could add me because i can play all of em

So I read through this...LONG thread...and had some thoughts. I've played over 1k matches and have gone from 1000 elo to 1386 over the past month, and this is what I tell my friends (while trying not to sound pretentious, just trying to help).

#1: Play a limited amount of heroes.

I play Vladimir, Singed, Amumu, Annie, and Ashe. I will not play any other champion in ranked. Why? Because I've played each of these heroes for about 50-100 matches each, I know beforehand EXACTLY what items I will get, what they are capable of/not capable of, etc. I really suggest focusing on 3-5 champions. Play each in normal 20 or so times as practice, and get really good with them. Then start playing ranked.

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#2: Farm.

Your biggest enemy early game is NOT the opposing team's champions, its your minions and your turret. Every time your turret or minion finishes off a creep, they are stealing gold from you, so don't let them! If you are a solo lane, you should make it your goal to get 6/6 of each minion wave, and you should be kicking yourself if you missed even one minion kill. Never auto-attack, only last swing.

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#3: Wards win games.

If you are laning top or bottom, you MUST buy a ward on your first trip back to the shop. Now, the largest mistake I see in-game is ward placement. People tend to place wards in the bush located at the very end of the river...this is terrible! Instead, place the ward halfway between dragon and bush if you are bottom, or halfway between baron and bush if you are top. That way you will get more advanced warning for potential ganks, and will be able to see enemy jungles who are trying to grab blue buff.

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#4: Don't overextend.

Don't push your lane all the way to their tower if you don't intend to damage their tower. And NEVER go into their half of the map without your whole team grouped up. This seems like a no-brainer, but I've seen more carries who have been doing well get too headstrong, and feed in this fashion as a result.

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Good luck, hope some of this helps.

This is another trend I've noticed in this game, at least at this ELO is that alot of people playing tanks don't know how to or when to initiate, which often leads to 5 players running in circles watching another 5 players until someone decides to go in.

Hence why letting others get tanks like shen/jarvan/ram is awesome, because you just pick up an initiator such as ashe/ww/annie. The thing is, not all tanks in this game are good initiators, shen being the prime example. Sure he can taunt someone, but rarely will he be in a good spot at the start of a fight to taunt a good target so they can die. Rammus has the same problem. Ganks well, excelent CC and aoe damage, completely shut down by any kite/cc on the other team so he can't initiate. Galio much the same story. Hell, Janna can initiate better than shen with a good nado/slow or flash ult (not that its a great idea mind you, its just for comparison).

A good initiator has either 1) long CC 2) AOE disable 3) instakill burst. The last one is the one that people often forget. Sure you'll die 9/10 times as Annie as soon as you flash ult their vayne, but guess what: after your ult most of your damage is gone, by taking out vayne you've given your team the best advantage it can have, no dps on the other side (in other words you win the battle once you survive the initial burst).

A strong initiator is someone that you ALWAYS want on a team. Just remember, it doesn't always have to come in the form of a tank and you'll be that much better for it.



On a completely unrelated note, I remember you talking about a xin game where you were going to go warmogs/atmas after your triforce. Trade out your warmogs for a BV, still get atmas. You'll get more effective health, and your atmas will still give you a solid 40 damage based on your flat health alone. Honestly the biggest trap of atmas is that people think you need to stack health to make it work. Cheap armor/crit/damage....its like the zhonya's for ad champs without the active. Next time you're being rolled by a mostly ad team as an auto attacking champ, pick it up next item. I'll bet you'll be shocked by how much damage it gives just based on base health. Just don't rush it, it scales with your health, so pick it up at 18.

A bit of food for thought that is ^

Game #32 (Shen / Victory / 78W - 82L / 1151 +14)
http://i.imgur.com/rMIch.jpg

I'm getting there... a week ago, I had 15 losses below even... now I'm 4 away from breaking even. This game was fairly good, everyone was doing their part and well too. I died early game bot lane vs Akali & Cho'Gath as I miscalculated the damage I would receive, but proceeded to lead the charge with Olaf for a gank right after. All in all, perfect game, I turned the table a couple of times with my ult + taunt and we just proceeded to take their towers after towers until they surrendered.

I'd like to especially point out that Annie was using a 20 Armor pen rune page. What a baddie. GG Riot for not letting me change rune pages. =/

That's the thing though, most of the people don't understand that concept of kamikaze and try to avoid a death, looking for the perfect score sheet and looking for that perfect opportunity to strike, which then leads to a 5 minutes staredown at the tower as the defending side kills upcoming waves. This happens ALOT in my games.