League of Legends

[[Insert Fail]]

Focus the minions and not the champ. Also if you're against a champion that's just your plain better in terms of kit, focus on farming. Honestly, if you're going to lose your lane, just don't die and farm up, because your place in teamfights will still be important. Better to lose a tower than both a tower and your life. There's also the matter of your builds - what specifically are you building? You mention pure damage, but imo with those top lane champs you shouldn't be building "pure damage" - Jax might be the exception, depends on your playstyle.

Also-also I apologize for not clarifying, but the flats vs. scaling argument was my preference for AD carries specifically, and I even said I had scaling CD blues and might interchange with scaling MR, since there is not much burst damage bot lane early game. Scaling AP will always be superior for a generic caster page in my mind simply because of Rabadon's passive.

[Ablu2]

Focus the minions and not the champ. Also if you're against a champion that's just your plain better in terms of kit, focus on farming. Honestly, if you're going to lose your lane, just don't die and farm up, because your place in teamfights will still be important. Better to lose a tower than both a tower and your life. There's also the matter of your builds - what specifically are you building? You mention pure damage, but imo with those top lane champs you shouldn't be building "pure damage" - Jax might be the exception, depends on your playstyle.

Also-also I apologize for not clarifying, but the flats vs. scaling argument was my preference for AD carries specifically, and I even said I had scaling CD blues and might interchange with scaling MR, since there is not much burst damage bot lane early game. Scaling AP will always be superior for a generic caster page in my mind simply because of Rabadon's passive.

I build hextech, guinsoos, and triforce with two tank items on Jax, my other champions I build mostly tanky. And if I try to farm against volibear or someone, they just flip me and maul me before I can react.

And like I said, I main top, so my AD runepage is mainly for AD tops, not AD carries. But I still use it for AD carries.

Edit: Just finished my AP runepage, yay! Time to buy more champions.

[Cottarsby]

I seem to have real trouble with AD carries. I farm up, I buy items, I have a pimped out Rune page and I just don't seem to do damage.

[SaintCrazy]

Might just be your build, or maybe just your playstyle.

I started out with mages, so the idea of just autoattacking to do most of my damage is still weird to me. I tried to build, like, hybrid caster or AD caster Varus, and it just didn't work, at all. It might work in theory but I'd have to actually be really really good at Varus to make it work, and I wasn't (I'm still not).

I'm only just now starting to open with a Doran's Blade like you're actually supposed to, because I'm terrible and always opened with a Philosopher's Stone; I "didn't have enough sustain" (I actually just spammed my E and took too much damage in lane...). But yeah I've been getting better, it just takes until I get an Infinity Edge up to actually become a serious threat. Plus I'm slowly getting better at last-hitting minions, so that helps.
Unfortunately once I get behind in a game as Varus there isn't much chance of getting back, and then if my teammates are jerks they report me for feeding.

Sorry that everyone focuses the AD carry

[Nancymaker]

Technically you should under most circumstances buy boots to begin with.

[Cottarsby]

It might just be my playstyle. I have oodles of fun with Fizz, Orianna, and Kassadin.

[Ablu2]

It might just be my playstyle. I have oodles of fun with Fizz, Orianna, and Kassadin.

That reminds me, last night I wrecked a Fizz while playing Orianna. She seems to beat melee mids quite hard with her ball.

Orianna is probably my next purchase, now that I'm done with runes for now. I just love how much harass and utility she has, also she isn't half bad on mana once you get a dorans ring or two and/or a catalyst. However, I'm not quite sure what items to buy for her. Thinking maybe archangels is a good idea since she can fill it up.

[Tatzel]

Playing on roomie's account since he's only lvl 25, wanted to give Shyvana another try after my horrible experience with her the first time I played her. I still can't quite believe we won, my team was pretty tardy and no one really knew what to do.
If it wasn't for this one stupid death, I would've had the best score in this game haha
Just after I exchanged my Wriggler's they surrendered with 5:0, I wanted to have some fun since they loved 2 or even 3vs1 me - and I beat them up pretty much every time.

[Savagery]

Okay so one SUPER IMPORTANT thing to note as an AD carry player is that focusing the tank is okay. Reason why this is acceptable is because it's hard to just simply go in the back to kill the opposing team's carries as you end up compromising your own position and will most likely get yourself killed in the process. Ranged carries have the damage to kill tanks quickly with enough farm and as a carry you should be aiming for at least 200 CS by the 25-30minute mark. Armor pen reds are very good to take on ranged carries as armor pen will deal more damage than actual AD against enemies that are building armor which is basically something you see later on in the game so not all runes are tailored to winning earlygame. Ideally I run armor pen reds, AD quints, armor yellows, mana regen blues on all my carries including Ezreal and still have no troubles in lane. Don't get me wrong, though. AD reds+AD quints are still very good on ranged carries as it helps you dominate earlygame which can make the transition to lategame much smoother.

[Ganelon]

To build off what he's saying, flat AD runes and a level 1 Doran's Blade let you last-hit easier. Armor penetration runes will never overcome a champion's base armor past the first few levels of the game, but they are far more valuable compared to AD point-for-point. Armor penetration marks and flat AD quints is usually the way to go, but you can stack one or the other depending on what you're doing.

Also, base the amount of crit, AD, and attack speed you build early-game off the champion you're playing. If you have an ability that gives you attack speed, you probably don't need a Zeal before your BF Sword. If you have multiple moves with good AD scaling, crit or AS won't help with those at all and you might think about getting a Bloodthirster so you can always be at full health. If almost all of your damage comes from auto attacks, crits are going to make those a lot more fearsome and you should do the usual Infinity Edge/Phantom Dancer as your first two big items.

That reminds me, last night I wrecked a Fizz while playing Orianna. She seems to beat melee mids quite hard with her ball.

Orianna is probably my next purchase, now that I'm done with runes for now. I just love how much harass and utility she has, also she isn't half bad on mana once you get a dorans ring or two and/or a catalyst. However, I'm not quite sure what items to buy for her. Thinking maybe archangels is a good idea since she can fill it up.

Archangel's is usually a waste of cheddar since mana costs become redundant late-game and it gives you nothing but offensive stats otherwise. Rod of Ages is almost always preferred since it gives you health, better sustain in the laning phase, and only costs about 200 gold more. Rabadon's is another obvious choice, but Lich Bane deserves special mention because not nearly enough people realize just how powerful it is, and it's especially viable on Orianna due to her low cooldowns and auto-attack buffing passive. Beyond that, why hasn't the game ended yet? Get a Void Staff or Rylai's or something.

Also, Fizz isn't a good example of a melee mid. I'd say, reserve your judgment until you go up against a Talon or Akali.

[[Insert Fail]]

I build hextech, guinsoos, and triforce with two tank items on Jax, my other champions I build mostly tanky. And if I try to farm against volibear or someone, they just flip me and maul me before I can react.

And like I said, I main top, so my AD runepage is mainly for AD tops, not AD carries. But I still use it for AD carries.

I talked with my friend who plays a lot of top laners, especially Jax. Going to try and relay everything he's telling me on Skype.

He does not have one build for any champion. All of his builds are based on the enemy team as a whole, not usually who he's laning against (this does depend). However, he's saying a standard start is one of two ways - Wriggle's and Gunblade for sustain, or Triforce. Gunblade and Triforce are basically Jax's core items. Triforce is a really solid item on its own, because it has a lot of fantastic stats for its price. Gunblade is what gives Jax sustain. He usually goes one or the other first, but games don't go long enough for him to pick up both in his builds. He would not build Guinsoo's - it's not a bad item, but too expensive and the gold would be better spent towards another item. He feels like you would get blown up before you could build up the stacks on it in a teamfight.

When going the sustain route, he typically picks up Hexdrinker or Wit's End before Triforce because of the MR, and the attack speed from Wit's End helps his passive a lot (this is also why Trinity Force is really good). The issue with a champion like Volibear is he has an execution ability, so you might want to go sustain against him because you also have to compete with Volibear's health regen passive - but you should still be able to beat him. One of the more difficult champions for Jax is someone like Malphite (he did say Irelia might be sketchy).

If you can't beat Volibear in lane, you are either not farming enough or you need to take another look at your masteries and runes. I went and showed him your pages - the only criticism he had for the runepage was the mix of scaling armor and flat armor, he suggests just going flat. He's also not a fan of mixing the armor pen marks with attack damage quints but he said that's more a preference than anything. He finds he does better with the flat attack damage.

NOW, masteries, this was where he had something to say. On the site I'm assuming you use that tank page for your top lane. You can make ANY NUMBER of mastery pages, man - make some champ-specific ones! I wasn't sure which of these you use for Jax, but he goes 21/9/0. You can look up "nudo" - I think it's his first mastery page.

Regarding the "no damage" and Cho vs. Lee Sin, Cho would just lose. Lee's kit is too good - he has a dash, he has an attack speed debuff, he has a shield to ignore damage. The only thing you could do is focus on wave clear after wave clear and farm up and wait for teamfights - because mid to late game you're more effective in teamfights than Lee Sin. If you're not doing any damage, you might need to re-evaluate your mastery pages again.

Idk this might be a lot to read and I might have transcribed some of what he said incorrectly. If you want I can just add you to our Skype calls and you can talk with him, he can teach you a lot. Could just throw ya'll into some customs together, too.

Also if you could, he wants to know what your skill leveling order is. (What you max first/last.)

I'm only just now starting to open with a Doran's Blade like you're actually supposed to, because I'm terrible and always opened with a Philosopher's Stone; I "didn't have enough sustain" (I actually just spammed my E and took too much damage in lane...). But yeah I've been getting better, it just takes until I get an Infinity Edge up to actually become a serious threat. Plus I'm slowly getting better at last-hitting minions, so that helps.

Going to agree with Nancy, I like going boots + three pots.

Also don't spam your abilities unless you're going for a kill or some solid harass - and even then, as an AD carry you don't even need to use abilities to harass your opponent, just poke 'em with autos. If you spam abilities you'll most likely end up pushing your lane by hitting creeps and open yourself to being ganked. Focus on last-hitting minions, and when you go back if you can't get your BF sword right away, you can easily get a pickaxe and either your tier 2 boots, or a pickaxe, more pots, and a ward. (Your support should be warding but I always like getting a ward or two if I can spare the gold. Never, ever hurts to buy wards.)

[Tatzel]

Bought Shyvana with RP, and then spent nearly 11k IP on an additional rune page and jungle runes. My account looks so meager with only 44IP left. and I still need to get 3 Quints. I'm lucky I got an Arm. Pen. Quint from earlier for now, but my other two Quints aren't exactly the best for this. Considering I'm aiming for the movement speed increase ones, that's going to be quite some farming again, holla.

[Shoolis]

has anyone tried the proving grounds yet? I want to try aram

[Ablu2]

has anyone tried the proving grounds yet? I want to try aram

It's a great map. All the matches i've played there have been great fun. Also just went 21/11/11 on the proving grounds. Didn't know what survivability to build since guardian angel isn't in it.

[Tatzel]

Played it yesterday with Sheila, Leoj and other people. It's a lot of fun, and layout wise it's actually not too bad either. Kinda want it to be available outside of custom games, I'd definitely do a lot of normal matches there.