Is it too late?

[trias_e]

Noob tears incoming (these thoughts are after ~120 games):

Wow, I'm so terrible at this game.  It would be really nice if there were replays so you could try to improve your play through analysis.  As it is I just sort of queue, suck badly, don't really know how to improve, repeat.  And the worst thing is I feel quite badly for my teammates when I'm the weakest link.  I can handle sucking at 1v1 games just fine, or sucking at FPS's, but this is a much different story.  

I almost feel like alot of this is natural talent, similar to FPS games, especially playing with friends who haven't played much more than me but are much, much better.  I just constantly make poor snap-decisions that are instantly punished.  It's kind of funny, I switched to this from SC2 to have some fun, and while this game is much less mentally exhausting on a constant basis, it's far more punitive of making poor decisions in the heat of battle and always leaves me feeling worse after having a poor game.  In SC2 I almost always feel like the path of improvement is clear, while here it is entirely clouded to me.  I would like to get better, but I don't really see the way forward.

[Kail]

I almost feel like alot of this is natural talent, similar to FPS games

Heh, I was thinking the same thing, except about SC2.  At least in LoL I don't need to obsess about getting headshots a quarter second faster than the other guy, or keeping up 300 APM so that my Stalkers don't get torn apart.  Probably the most important skills in LoL are item knowledge (what to buy and when to buy it, which is largely a learnable skill outside the game) and positioning (where to stand in a fight, when to charge or retreat, where to charge or retreat to).  Positioning is what it sounds like you're having problems with, but I think it'll get better if you keep at it.  It just requires thinking of things a different way than something like an FPS or RTS, not complete rewiring of your nervous system.

I would like to see replays, too... generally I find it helpful to spend the respawn timer thinking about what I did that caused me to die, and how I'm going to avoid it next time.  Sometimes that means hanging back more until I get my next item (my default "oops, just died to something I shouldn't have" reaction), or buying a counter item, or saying "if this idiot wants to tower dive again, I'm not backing him up this time".  But as long as you can figure out the mistakes you're making, at least you're making progress.  The rest comes with practice, I think.

I don't know who you're playing as, but if you're constantly having catastrophic high pressure decisions cause your death, it sounds like melee (tanks especially suffer from "AHA FEEL THE WRATH OF MY MIGHwaitwheredidmyteamgo").  If you want to take a more cautious, methodical approach, ranged characters (especially ones with CC) make it a lot easier to get away from a fight gone bad and are generally great at skewing the risk/reward in your favor until you start getting a handle on when to exercise the better part of valor.

[Slayerik]

trias, I'd keep looking for a guy that fits you. Try to be aware of the map. If you are alone in a lane, and don't see bad guys on the map they are stalking you. RUN.

If being in the heat of combat isn't your forte, maybe look at running a support champ and hang back some. What guys do you like playing? Maybe some of the vets around here can give you general pointers....

[Typhon]

I'm not good, but I think I have something of a clue about what I'm supposed to be doing so I'm going to toss this out here 1) to try to help, 2) to get feedback on anything that I might be doing wrong (or not doing and I really should be doing).  Sorry for the book.

I agree with Kail that a great deal of this game is knowing ahead of time what you'd like to do with the Champ you are playing in any particular game.  This is independent of your ability to twitch, anticipate or control the map.

Out of game

Fundamentals

1) know how you want to skill up your champ's talents
2) know what your "ideal" items that you want to buy, and what your gold "return points" are.
2.1) know your "offensive ideal" items.  Example: you're doing well, so you might rush a "big gun" weapon sooner.
2.2.) know your "defensive ideal" items.  Example: you're getting raped and they have a heavy mix of AP/AD so you switch your buying order and focus on a heavy MR/Armor item

Advanced/Teamplay

putting together champs that work well together.  Yeah, I'm pretty weak here, sorry.

In game

Fundamentals

1) Try really, really really hard not to die.  Because you know you aren't good, play very defensively early on.  Yes, it's boring.  Yes, you level/get gold more slowly.  Focus on harassing (need a ranged champ).  REALLY important to not die.  More important than feeling like, "wow, I'm a pussy".  (I'm project here, because playing defensively makes me feel like a pussy, so I'm just tossing that out there).
2) Practice combo's that make sense to your champ to build muscle memory.  I assume that you aren't mouse-clicking your abilities.  If you are, you need to not be mouse-clicking your abilities (QWER).
3) How long has it been since you glanced at the mini-map?  It should not have been too long ago.  What is the minimap telling you?  Missing champs = danger!  Mid/jungler coming your way may be an opportunity to gank.

Advanced/Teamplay

Another area where I'm weak.  Need someone else to chime in. 

My contribution:

3.1) are you/have you clicked on the minimap to see how the enemy is faring against your teammates?  In general this means - could mid use my help in ganking?
3.2) someone pinged the map!  Am I in range to assist?  What is the nature of the ping?  Am I playing with a ping-happy tool?

Post-laning phase:

When not in vent (with people I know), I generally try to figure out who is the strongest player and (after the laning phase) do my best to follow him/her around and play my champ's role.  If you play a tank that means initiating, so probably the easiest role to start to get good at playing is support.

Janna is a great champ to play to get better at the nuance of the game.
 
1) She has a single damaging ability that will teach you to (try to) anticipate - this is something that you'll need to work on, she'll be frustrating to play at first because of this.  It is also a great FU (harass) ability in the early game and a good "oh shit! need to run!" ability throughout the game because of it's knock-up.  It hits (comparatively) hard in the early game. 
2) She is very hard to pin down (has an inherent ghosty ability and speed boost). 
3) Her buff is appreciated by AD champs.  Your teammates will give you less shit because you are playing a support char.
4) Her ultimate is a fantastic "back off!" ability + team heal.  The better players will be trying very hard to lock you down and kill you.  You help your team by keeping them from doing that (also known as, "run around like a chicken while my team kills my pursuers").

[trias_e]

Thanks for the replies!  

So on the plus side, I'm already good at looking at the minimap constantly.  This is a function of both playing Shen as my main and playing SC2 (and recently gangplank although I don't think he's very good TBH).  I usually don't get solo ganked in a lane and have gotten better about that.  And I usually don't feed early game, so that's good.  I am good at hotkeys (again SC2).  I generally perform skill combos just fine...its the matter of when you perform them, where you perform them, and who you perform them on that I'm totally clueless on.

I've played a good amount of characters, and I just don't think ranged dps is it for me.  I really don't enjoy playing trist/ashe at all, it's just not my style.

The problem arrives when it comes to mid-late game battles generally speaking.  I just fail in all sorts of ways with any given character.  With Shen in particular:  Sometimes I do the walk back and forth thing where I can't decide whether to attack or not, changing my mind like 4 times over the course of as many seconds, and then by that time either option becomes wrong and I just get ran down and die. I'll think "I can hold em off with a taunt at my tower" when I can't, but maybe that next time I could have and now I'm too scared to try.  I'll attack egg anivia thinking I can kill her before she pops...nope.  I won't notice my guy getting attacked because I'm looking at other characters trying to decide whether to use my ult.    I'll use my ultimate on somebody and we'll both just die or he had the situation well under control (although I will say using my ult is the thing I am by far best at with Shen).  I don't really know what I'm doing in any team fight.  I just use my dash on an enemy squishy and hope for the best.  Sometimes I dash in to taunt their squishy, and just go splat.  Or I play defensively and get yelled at for not being part of the fight.

Anyways, the errors boil down to:  Whether to help your teammates or not, to engage or not, and what to actually do when you are in a fight.  I.E. how do I use my pool as Vladimir?  Do I ult and then run in and snare their whole team (probably dying when I come out of pool but maybe helping my team out enough to make it worth it), or do I only use pool defensively?  I have no fucking idea, I just do things blindly and it usually results in my death without doing too much.  I am almost always the first to die in a team with practically any character unless I play like a giant pussy, and then my team hates me even more.

Cliff notes:  Shen and Vladimir are by far my favorite characters to play so far, but I die too much with them to be effective.  Straight up ranged DPS is really not my style.  Even when I played a mage in WoW, I played him as an in-your-face character with monster close range AE damage, and this made me happy.

I've already got Janna on my heroes to try list so I will check her out sometime soon.  I think I'm also going to try Rammus because he seems like he can actually do ok with the kamikaze style of play which I enjoy.  Or maybe Poppy?  Her ult seems quite forgiving.

[Slayerik]

Yeah, I'd maybe shelf Shen for a bit - people expect you to save their asses and he is an amazing character but he has a dimension of tank/savior that can be a lot to live up to.

You could look at Sivir, she is a nice support/pusher character. Don't make my mistake  hang in the middle of your peeps, harass with blade and ult when the shit goes off. Anyway, I think you just need to find the right guy. Once I found Singed I've never looked back and only occasionally care to play anyone else. True <3

[Typhon]

I think I'm also going to try Rammus because he seems like he can actually do ok with the kamikaze style of play which I enjoy.  

Why not try an off tank instead?  Any of these are good: Garen, Sion, Xin Zhao, Olaf (ordered from least to most complex - to me).   I love Xin Zhao's mobility which would allow you to play on the fringes until the tank engages and then let you pounce.  Garen and Sion are more naturally 'tanky'.  Olaf is naturally tanky when his ult is available (although he is very durable at all times once you get a handle on how his abilities work together).

Build enough damage to kill, build enough defense to survive, with defense getting more focus.  After the tank engages, move in to control (Sion and Xin) and/or kill high-threat targets.

[Chimpy]

Garen+Bush = pentakill!

[Dtrain]

I've had some great fun lately using Nasus as a tank. I think he's MUCH more enriching than Shen for a newbie for a number of reasons:

1) His mini-game to last hit with siphoning strike will train you to last hit ALWAYS.
2) He can turn on a hard lane push when needed (though the trick is finding the balance between "This is a good time to hang back, farm and build up siphoning strike + gold + exp," and "OMG, Kill tower NOOOOW." Just know that you should be commited to one or the other, not dabbling at both.)
3) He's got the best slow in the game (and don't forget it slows attack speed.) You know how when Shen's 1 second taunt wears off, and Teemo runs off screaming into the jungle? Not anymore!
4) His ult requires a lot less micromanagement, and it provides a more tangible attack oriented benefit for your character (when you can't always count on Yi not to run all the way back to your well while Shen's ult is on him.)
5) You have the abilities to effortlessly hold a lane 1v2 - or even jungle very well.

The one thing I will say that is tricky is to find the perfect balance to keep your mana constant in your runes and masteries - and also through judicious use of your abilities. Shen may have spoiled you a bit in this regard. Chalice of Harmony can help pick up the slack.

[Krushchev]

It would be really nice if there were replays so you could try to improve your play through analysis.

I'm not sure if this has been said before or not, but the closest thing to replays in this game at the moment are the live and recorded streams.

Here are some of my favorite places to watch games:
Live - http://clgaming.net/index.php?page=livestream
Recordings - http://www.own3d.tv/user/clgame

[Strazos]

Any random suggestions for a newb? I just started playing this over the weekend, dumped a few bucks in so I have:

Miss Fortune
Kayle
Poppy
Soraka
Pantheon
Sona
(+whoever is free that week)

Any general suggestions for not getting roflepwned? I can win sometimes, however at times I die and I have no idea what happened. Also, I have no sense of what items I should be getting besides the "suggested" ones.

[Astorax]

Any random suggestions for a newb? I just started playing this over the weekend, dumped a few bucks in so I have:

Miss Fortune
Kayle
Poppy
Soraka
Pantheon
Sona
(+whoever is free that week)

Any general suggestions for not getting roflepwned? I can win sometimes, however at times I die and I have no idea what happened. Also, I have no sense of what items I should be getting besides the "suggested" ones.

Most of this thread will sort of help out...of those characters, I'd suggest starting with Kayle or Poppy honestly...not because they're the "best" or "top tier" of those choices, but moreso because they're the least squishy.  Sona got nerfed to hell and back, so she's mostly useless these days, and while Soraka is still good, she gets focused HARD in team fights, so you don't wanna be that guy just yet.  Pantheon CAN be really solid, but he needs to snowball (you need to consistently get kills and farm while not dying) and he's very squishy.  MF (Miss Fortune) is good, and a lot of fun, but is also pretty squishy and has gotten a bit harder to play since her "I win" button got nerfed a bit (her ult's cone is a lot harder to land properly now).

For items, honestly, the recommended aren't bad to start out.  They're mostly good for stock builds of the champions, and will at least allow you to be useful in the game without too much fiddling around.  And they'll start to give you an idea of what effect the different items have on your character, and from there it's just a natural step to trying out similar items that are along those lines to build how you feel works.  It takes some time to get that familiarity, so don'' stress overly much about it.

The hardest part of LoL, IMO, is positioning.  Making sure not only you're in positions for team fights (front and center for tanks, periphery for carries, etc etc) but position map-wise.  You want/need to always be aware of where your team is on the map, and when you can, where the enemy is. Being able to see an enemy champ leaving lane when they shouldn't really have to (they have full health/mana) is generally a BIG clue that someone is about to get ganked.  Being aware of it coming means it'll fail 99% of the time.  That's why wards and such are so important.  Having map control (taking the buffs, dragon, and knowing where all your opponents are) is the biggest advantage you can have.

[Kail]

Any general suggestions for not getting roflepwned? I can win sometimes, however at times I die and I have no idea what happened. Also, I have no sense of what items I should be getting besides the "suggested" ones.

I'm not pro by any means, but two things I would mention:

1 - At low levels, just about any champ is viable if you're good at him.  Just play around and try to get a feel for what kind of things you're good at / enjoy and what kind of things you'd rather avoid in a champ.

2 - Don't overlook tank items even as a DPS character.  Getting an early Rod of Ages or Rylai's Crystal Scepter on a caster, or a Phage on a physical DPS , can make a ton of difference in your survivability.  No, you won't be able to nuke as well as you would with pure damage items, but you can survive WAY easier with them.  Everyone on the enemy team is going to be gunning for kills, so if they see you standing next to a teammate with half your HP, they'll dogpile your teammate, leaving you free to DPS while your teammate can't do much of anything.

edit: To be clear, I mean one or two tank items and the rest DPS.  You probably don't want to be wearing four Warmogs on Tristana or anything like that.

[Chimpy]

Any random suggestions for a newb? I just started playing this over the weekend, dumped a few bucks in so I have:

Miss Fortune
Kayle
Poppy
Soraka
Pantheon
Sona
(+whoever is free that week)

Any general suggestions for not getting roflepwned? I can win sometimes, however at times I die and I have no idea what happened. Also, I have no sense of what items I should be getting besides the "suggested" ones.

If you were spending cash, I would have recommended buying one of the champion packs (one you can get from Amazon or your local Best Buy for 20 bucks, the collectors pack) which gives you 10 or so champs and 10 bucks in riot points.

Tristana is free if you do the facebook fan thing.

On items there are 2 things:
1) NEVER neglect to buy some kind of boots. You may not need to buy a fully pimped out set of boots early, but you definitely need brown boots in your early item buys.
2) Doran's Shield/Ring/Sword are all items which you basically cannot go wrong with as a starter item on most characters. They all have a nice chunk of health and a decent bonus to damage or health/mana regen. If it is a recommended first item, it is usually a good buy.

[Der Helm]

Sona got nerfed to hell and back, so she's mostly useless these days, and while Soraka is still good, she gets focused HARD in team fights, so you don't wanna be that guy just yet.

And there I was, thinking it was the other way around. 

[Hoax]

We have a few newb threads, feel free to hit me up for specific questions in-game. Just keep trying champs until one "clicks" then start to worry about the nuances. If you want to win, start by not dying, then start keeping one eye on the map, then start paying attention to getting things like the neutral buffs and dragon.

[Der Helm]

Welcome back!

[Astorax]

Sona got nerfed to hell and back, so she's mostly useless these days, and while Soraka is still good, she gets focused HARD in team fights, so you don't wanna be that guy just yet.

And there I was, thinking it was the other way around. 

Soraka is still pretty nerfed in the grand scheme of things (I'd MUCH rather have a support like lux, or taric), but is leagues better than Sona right now...poor Sona got hit by the nerf bat so hard I haven't seen her in a real game since she got beaten.

[Typhon]

(sorry for the book, got carried away (again))

tl;dr: the summaries bold and links are good reference information

After you start to get a handle on the basics (not dying, awareness of lack of enemies on the mini map, last hitting), imo, your item builds (and associated leveling order) become the most important aspect.  Don't get me wrong, that "not dying" part is big as it includes learning every champ's "fuck you" ability(s) and how to avoid them - which will address the "I don't know why I'm dying" - a likely reason is that an enemy champ triggered some form of crowd control (stun, knock up, slow) in concert with their partner (or partners) triggering some high damage combo.

I'm bringing item builds up here because to do the item build part decently-well you need to spend some time learning the available items.  A good place to do this is in the item list (Riot's website, "Learning Center > Items").  Look at the various items and try to figure out how a particular category (filters at the top of the list) would work well with a champ that you like to play - this part is best done while you aren't actually playing (or playing a solo custom game), as staring at the store window will piss off your teammates.  

Example - Kayle's E is very powerful.  If you want your Kayle to have some teeth (you should), you'll want something to accelerate her attack speed.  Unfortunately, E sucks mana because it doesn't last very long so you re-apply it fairly often, so you also need something to boost mana and/or mana regen.  Nashor's Tooth boosts attack speed, mana regen, gives ability power (which boost some of Kayle's abilities) and also has a large ability cool down reduction which is also very nice for Kayle.  Unfortunately Nashor's Tooth is on the expensive side.  Fortunately, Nashor's tooth is made up of more readily purchasable (and useful) sub-components.  The trick becomes prioritizing when you buy the various pieces, along with getting boots, and some sort of defense (dictated by which enemies you are facing, and how they are building).

Something that I do with Kayle when laning with another mana-using champ is to rush the Mana Manipulator (part of Soul Shroud - what can I say, I'm a whore for cool down reduction) because it's a mana regen aura.  Then build boots/Stinger (part of Nashor's Tooth).  Then take a check point and see if you finish Nashor's (not dying + wanting to bump it up a notch), Should Shroud (need more health), or go for a specific defensive item (armor, magic resist).  This is kind of an "aura build with teeth", rather than the "carry Kayle" build.  Until you get to the point where you are stomping people, you shouldn't try to build for carry (high dps) as a carry build can be squishier.  As Kael said, build defensively.  The biggest part of learning is playing, and not being dead = more time actually playing.  It also doesn't hurt to keep your team in mind when building - aura's help everyone on your team.  Usually Guinsoo's after that, then another defensive item (or swap those it if you are getting stomped).

Note that there are some omissions in the filter list (Dodge, Armor Penetration, Magic Penetration).  You'll need to work a bit harder to figure out which items provide those attributes.

Dodge (you'd only want to focus on this stat with Jax, as his stun depends upon him dodging): Ninja Tabi (boots), I think there is another item or two, but can't remember
Armor Penetration / Armor Reduction: Youmoo's Ghostblade (Brutalizer), Sword of the Devine (Active), Last Whisper(% based) / The Black Cleaver
Magic Penetration / Magic Resist Reduction: Sorc boots, Haunting Guise, Void Staff(% based) / Malady, Abyssal Scepter

The "reduction" items are theoretically better because they reduce armor/magic resistance for the entire team, not just you.

Here is another good thing to know - Champion Stats.  Especially:

Attack speed is capped at 2.5x
Cooldown reduction is capped at 40%  (so, say Nashors Tooth + Soul Shroud has you capped on cooldown reduction)
Movement speed is reduced after 415 speed, significantly reduced after 490 speed (level 2 boots typically take you somewhere in the vicinity of 400, depending upon the champ, your masteries and your runes)

You can see AD, AP, Attack Speed, Run Speed, Armor and Magic Resistance in the lower left hand corner of your screen (to the right of you champ portrait).  You can get a more in-depth look at your champs current stats by clicking on your champ portrait and choosing the correct tab.

Edit: completed "reduction" items sentence

[Hoax]

Really though you can use leaguecraft and mobafire for item and skill builds and some are terrible and some are good.  Realistically though learning match ups, identifying sound/visual cues for various skills and learning to use the map, read the game, herd cats, last hit and not feed will take you time and every time you think you've got it you will move up to another level of LoL where you are back to being a newb because you don't know ideal ward placements, jungler orders so you can counter jungle, the timers on creeps, how to determine when/how fast you can baron etc.

[Typhon]

I admit that I am biased toward screwing around with item builds because I find it interesting.

[Prospero]

My one suggestion would be if you solo queue try to pick a few champs to play that can fill multiple roles. One the hardest parts of solo queueing is getting a team that has some sort of logic to it. If you play flexible characters you can generally make up for the failings of your team comp. You can also more easily adapt when you find out one of your key teammates is fail. Nidalee, Kayle, Mundo, Udyr, Taric, and Kennen are champs that I have found to be very flexible.

[Muffled]

What are Taric and Kennan's secondary roles, from the above line-up?  I don't have much experience with them, and my brain isn't supplying any logical answers.

[Chimpy]

What are Taric and Kennan's secondary roles, from the above line-up?  I don't have much experience with them, and my brain isn't supplying any logical answers.

Taric can be an ok tank (though it is really hard to get a decent sized HP pool on him and still keep enough mana regen/cooldown reduction to make his skills usable), he can actually do some pretty ridiculous damage with Shatter if you go with AP items (Soulstealer, Rod of Ages, and Deathfire Grasp are the items I occasionally use). Taric's real problem with any build is his slow gold earning.

[Astorax]

What are Taric and Kennan's secondary roles, from the above line-up?  I don't have much experience with them, and my brain isn't supplying any logical answers.

Taric can be an ok tank (though it is really hard to get a decent sized HP pool on him and still keep enough mana regen/cooldown reduction to make his skills usable), he can actually do some pretty ridiculous damage with Shatter if you go with AP items (Soulstealer, Rod of Ages, and Deathfire Grasp are the items I occasionally use). Taric's real problem with any build is his slow gold earning.

Not so!

Taric can also be a monster melee dps.  Remember he gains mana for dmg caused, so if you go dmg, he doesn't need mana items as he'll regen really fast when he starts hitting things.

Fun build I go sometimes if we have a solid support already:

Starks->nashor's tooth->infinite edge->tanky item of some sort

Hits like a truck, regains mana unbelievably fast, and is really hard to kill due to his ult and stun.

[Hoax]

What are Taric and Kennan's secondary roles, from the above line-up?  I don't have much experience with them, and my brain isn't supplying any logical answers.

Kennen can try to straight up carry or he can build more counter tanky and just wade into the fight for aoe stun setups.

[Chimpy]

Taric can be an ok tank (though it is really hard to get a decent sized HP pool on him and still keep enough mana regen/cooldown reduction to make his skills usable), he can actually do some pretty ridiculous damage with Shatter if you go with AP items (Soulstealer, Rod of Ages, and Deathfire Grasp are the items I occasionally use). Taric's real problem with any build is his slow gold earning.

Not so!

Taric can also be a monster melee dps.  Remember he gains mana for dmg caused, so if you go dmg, he doesn't need mana items as he'll regen really fast when he starts hitting things.

Fun build I go sometimes if we have a solid support already:

Starks->nashor's tooth->infinite edge->tanky item of some sort

Hits like a truck, regains mana unbelievably fast, and is really hard to kill due to his ult and stun.

What part of my post is "not so"? All your post did was add in a melee physical build (which I have not bothered with as I don't really like playing melee characters).

[Prospero]

Taric can farm fairly well if he levels shatter first.

Kennen can go mage, tank, or straight carry. He does the first two better than the last but he does have a weak steroid from his W and his abilities have pretty good base damage even without much AP.

[Astorax]

Taric can be an ok tank (though it is really hard to get a decent sized HP pool on him and still keep enough mana regen/cooldown reduction to make his skills usable), he can actually do some pretty ridiculous damage with Shatter if you go with AP items (Soulstealer, Rod of Ages, and Deathfire Grasp are the items I occasionally use). Taric's real problem with any build is his slow gold earning.

Not so!

Taric can also be a monster melee dps.  Remember he gains mana for dmg caused, so if you go dmg, he doesn't need mana items as he'll regen really fast when he starts hitting things.

Fun build I go sometimes if we have a solid support already:

Starks->nashor's tooth->infinite edge->tanky item of some sort

Hits like a truck, regains mana unbelievably fast, and is really hard to kill due to his ult and stun.

What part of my post is "not so"? All your post did was add in a melee physical build (which I have not bothered with as I don't really like playing melee characters).

Was a typo, was meant to read "not only so!"...

You listed a couple other ways to play Taric, but left off the one I see most often as an alternate build for him, that's all.

[Strazos]

So...at what point do I start to get teammates most consistently that are not brain-dead feeders? I'm no pro, but ffs I see some people do some moronic shit.

Also, I hate Ashe and her stupid auto-slow.

[Thrawn]

So...at what point do I start to get teammates most consistently that are not brain-dead feeders? I'm no pro, but ffs I see some people do some moronic shit.

Also, I hate Ashe and her stupid auto-slow.

It will be a while, as for Ashe, if you are talking early game and you are playing carry vs carry and she levels her slow first....just take the fight and wreck her face because you will out damage her if she doesn't have volley usually.

[Chimpy]

If ashe is using her slow all the time early, you should be able to stomp her as it burns through her mana really really fast.

[Strazos]

Mostly talking about later, at least mid game. I have not really figured out a way to get away from her if she's determined to get you.

[Thrawn]

Mostly talking about later, at least mid game. I have not really figured out a way to get away from her if she's determined to get you.

Depending on your character...you don't. 

Just don't get caught out alone where she can 1v1 and run you down.

[Strazos]

Ok, so the champions I own now are:

Garen
Kayle
Lux
Miss Fortune
Pantheon
Poppy
Sona
Soraka
Tristana
Zilean

For some reason it seems like I like support in this game, especially when it helps to gank. Anyway...which of those were a bad choice and why? Which of those is generally more appreciated. I just picked up Lux today, and while her skills can be hard to land, she seems like she would be powerful in the right hands. Thoughts?