Been trying out vayne today.  Was impressed with someone so much in one of my earlier matches that I decided to pick her up with RP.  Anyway, been having fun with her.  Not so great just yet ofc.  Met a new player that I dig a lot.  Goes by Zainissa in game.  Love her sorka.  Getting to lane with her was a treat.  Always topped off on mana/hp, freeing me up to get very aggressive with my q e combo.  Good stuff!

Well in a lane with you as Galio last game we played worked out well but its hard to gauge as they were pretty noob. Still ganking seemed much easier with his range as a tank

It's just math - if you are strong consistently as gal (vs 1 or 2), then that's a safe bet.  I'm about 90% solid with gal at holding my lane if alone and even better if paired up.  I think finding any character that you can do that consistently is where to start.

The only question is can you play X character ranked (by that, i mean, can you choose him before someone else does or  does he get banned).  And with gal, I'd say yes you can.  So if you have like 90% solid stats landing (early mid) and 80% or so late, then that's what you need to practice (or rather, if you have those numbers, you really don't). 

Vayne is my favorite AD Carry, which is to say that she is my favorite champion in general.  There are some good videos of EGWestrice, a pro-LoL player, giving lessons, tutorials, and just general gameplay of Vayne in solo queue.  I think that's what got me into Vayne...that or the fact that when I first looked through the champions I decided that I needed to get a 6300 IP Champ ASAP, and Vayne happened to be the first damage dealer on the list.

Random off topic interrupt:  give it 2-3 pages:  http://fuckyeahstruttingleo.tumblr.com/

linky linky if you get a chance.  Thanks!

While I haven't posted much in here, I didn't know the thread existed until tonight (I zipped through the thread in about a half hour), I do play LoL quite a lot and I don't disagree with your preference.  I too find team games, or certain kinds of team games, to be very frustrating.  Particularly MOBAs (DOTA type games) tend to be one of the most egregious offenders to my levelheadedness.  It's not that the game in and of itself is bad, it's that the environment that it fosters tends to bring out the worst in people.

It's a game you really can't achieve success by yourself, you have to rely on team mates and your team mates have to rely on you.  If a team is doing poorly almost no individual, no one who is outspoken anyway, will assume it's because of his own deficiencies.  It's always everyone else's fault, and thus rage ensues.  Sometimes the individual is correct, and it is everyone else's fault, but that is additionally problematic because it results in a situation where you never want to be the best player on your team, because if you are, you'll always be disappointed by your team.

Furthermore, it only takes 1 player deliberately griefing to ruin a match.  Given that there are 10 players per match, then if only 3% of the player base were griefers, then nearly one third of the matches would be ruined. 

Also the game is difficult to play casually or "just for fun."  If during the day, at work, I've been toying with ideas in my head for what I can do with my favorite AD carry build, I'm going to be pretty annoyed if, after getting home a queuing up, I can't play my AD carry because we already have one (or two) on the team already -- or my team mates will get annoyed at me if I ignore that fact and go with an AD carry anyway.  This is a huge drawback to this style of game in general for me, because I am the type of person that wants to pick a champion and stick with it.  To play to win you sometimes can't play the way you originally hoped when you started your queue.  Well, you can try, but then people will get mad at you if what you're trying to doesn't fit well with the team.  Players also aren't always very receptive to individuals experimenting around, even if it's a non-ranked game.

I'll admit though that most of these problems that I have stems from playing in pick up groups.  Organized teams of friends generally don't have these same problem, at least not to the same extent.  For me though, I don't have 4 other friends interested in playing a MOBA.

This is why I generally enjoy 1v1 competitive games a great deal more.  If I lose I can only blame myself, chances of a griefer screwing my game up is lower, and I can do whatever build/strategy/etc. I want without worrying about anyone being upset at my choice. 

For team games, I generally like them where one can achieve success independent of your team, or even be able to take pride in being the most significant part of your team.  The kinds of games where there is a competition amongst the team mates to outdo one another.  In such games it doesn't feel as bad to have newbie team mates, it gives you a chance to show off.

I do like LoL though, as I stated earlier.  It often can overcome its shortcomings, or my personal aversion to pick up group games.  Not sure if I will play DOTA II, as in my experience, HoN and DOTA had an even less forgiving community to people who didn't adhere strictly to the current metagame, to people who just want wanted to try stuff out and have fun experimenting.

I used to watch his stream when he solo-queued, and there are some archives here: http://www.own3d.tv/videos?search=Westrice%20Vayne of his Vayne play but doesn't seem to be complete nor does it have too much commentary, but none the less might be interesting for someone just starting out with Vayne.  I also happened to see him play a lot on other people's streams, like LoCicero, because they are all in the highest of ELO brackets so when they solo queue they are often in the same game.

A lot of guides I read, and even my own playing of Vayne, tend to emphasize prioritizing W, or sometimes Q, and swearing by attack speed upgrades for silver bolts to proc.  However when I watch top end players what really seems to separate them from everyone else is their amazing usage of condemn.  Between tumble, final hour, and condemn you can put out an extreme amount of burst damage in the early levels.  I have a hard time having the same level of success because I can't seem to land those perfect condemns with the same consistency.

Xtropy - you are welcome to play with me/us if you like.  I'll even let you play vayne   Just add pacov and I'll get you into some games with good folks. 

I know what you mean about pugs - I typically will default to playing a tank for the team as no one else will and we'll have like 4 AP carries or some such rot.  It would certainly be nice if folks in pugs were often willing to pick what's best for the team instead of dogmatically resolving to do whatever they want at any cost to the team.  Thankfully, not all pugs are like that, but most are.

Yeah - when I'm tanking a galio, there is no I in team.  I just play my part, but there is nothing flashy about it (well, outside of a flash + ult that is).  With characters like vayne and akali (moreso vayne), I really feel like its a good opportunity to show off and compete.  I find vayne to be very dangerous early game (perhaps one of the most dangerous with her q and e combo for early burst - plus its not that difficult to get get the bonus damage for slamming someone into a wall if you get position. 

Thanks for the link - I'll check that out later today.

After a break for the interwebs bought to me by Charter...

I have concluded in a level-headed fashion that Dominion is a Carry Champ players playground. I hindsight, I see my pure hatred of it being that I 99% usually a tank player. Given the natural 15 and 5% penetrations...tanks have a hard time just tanking. If you build your tank aggressivly they do alright.

I did find a champ that I feel kicks ass in Dominion, tanky wise. Had some great matches personaly, team still lost but I got the mental boost I needed to not be so ragey about Dominion.

Anyhow...just my updated view.

Please feel free to find a phrase in there to make fun of  LOL

That is my take as well.  Glad you found a tank that can do well.  I found I could use galio well enough in dominion (nice ult) and aoe, but I prefer playing with carries quite a bit more.  that said, still haven't played dominion outside of the 10 or so games I played after it was released.  Not a huge fan, but hopefully that will change.  As it stands I'm just playing the same 5v5 map over and over.  heh

I actually find the opposite. Dominion is all about tanky DPS, not your usual carries.  Most usual AP and AD carries get eaten up since they need a team to protect them.  Instead people use strong small sided champs that usually end up being tanky DPS (Garen, WW etc) although there are a few carry types that can be built effectively (tanky Gangplank seems to work, Akali works since she is a weird AP Carry).

Classic tanks work in Dominion, you just have to build them differently.  AP Amumu is actually quite good (build AP items that give you defensive stats too, like RoA and Zhonya's).  Singed is also good as is Malphite.

hmm... interesting. 

Ive really only seen alot of Carries or assassins played.

Ive seen just about every tank played, Ive played most of them on Dominion. Yes, they do work. But you can not build them pure tank like in SR. That was my point of my observation.

I found even tanks need to be built for DPS. Your point of Tanky DPS is good still stands. But you cant build tank and expect to survive. Its kinda counter intuitive.

I still stand though by my observation that its a Carry playground. If I played a carry or even a good heavy hitter, I be more excited about Dominion. B/c I could join a quick game, smash some faces in and feel awesome about my 1k Crit Strikes.