Lux with TP and Clarity @ mid wins games!

Masteries 24/6/0:

Mental Force * 4 (+4 AP)
Brute Force * 2 (+2 AD (last hitting))
Butcher * 2 (+4 DMG against minions (for last hitting))
Socery * 4 (-4 % Cooldowns) 
Arcane Knowledge * 1 (+10% Magic Pen)
Blast * 4 (+18 AP @ lvl 18)
Havoc * 2 (+1% Dmg output)
Archmage * 4 (+5% AP)
Executioner * 1 (+6% Dmg for targets below 40% HP)

Resistance * 3 (+6 Magic Resist)
Hardiness * 3 (+6 Armor) 

Runes:

Red: MAGIC PEN * 9
Yellow: FLAT ARMOR * 9
Blue: AP/LVL * 9
Purple: FLAP AP * 3

Build:

Dorans Ring > Magic Pen Boots > Lich Bane > Rabadon's Deathcap > Abyssal Scepter > Frozen Heart >
(Sell Dorans Ring) > Rylai Scepter/Void Staff (depends on their Magic Resist)

This build wins me 9/10 games with epic stats (15/1/x, 16/4/x, etc). Clarity gives you mana when you need it, Lux's abilities cost alot of mana. When you pop clarity, after 1/2 CD timer you can recall and TP back and not have lost any XP and you should not run out of mana.

Skills:

Level up Light Binding first together with Singularity and your ultimate, ofcourse. Lvl up the shield as a last ability (or lvl it up once before lvl 6 if you are vs. DoT opponents)  

I find Lux is pretty underrated, she's the most powerfull nuker IMO ingame: post LVL6 you can 1-combo someone in less than 2 seconds.

Use Light Binding followed directly by Singularity; Auto attack your opponent once so you get the bonus damage from her passive and explode the singularity followed by your ultimate, if he/she is not dead just auto attack again for the passive bonus damage. Boom, dead!

Hi

my name is Veigar

I can combo you in less than 0.5 seconds and I'm not as easily pushed out of lane as you

and my late game is far better because I can stun your entire team for over 2 seconds

HI

my name is Morgana

I sit behind my minions and farm an entire wave with a single button

what's that? You have a snare? I also have a button that fixes that problem

I found it so useful that I think that you should probably put it in the OP

That's a good idea - I'll see about doing a short write up on this tonight if possible.  And yeah - I didn't even know I could tweak the ui that way.  heh.

What we are talking about someone that is not a proficient player as a ranged AD carry.  Complete idiot is not getting cs and getting killed over and over.  Not proficient is mediocre and dying multiple times, but not always.  Proficient is getting ok cs and perhaps dying like once during the laning phase.  Expert is harassing as appropriate, solid cs count, and the rare fail getting killed. 

If the ad carry falls into the complete idiot or not proficient categories, Then, imo, the support role becomes useless.  If the best you can do is try to save an under farmed, ranged ad carry that keeps doing stupid things, then you are pretty much boned and the other teams ad carry is likely farmed and fed.  If we are talking about the proficient category, then that's a situation in which a solid support makes a huge difference and is invaluable.  And if its an expert ranged ad carry, then the lead is increased all the more by a solid support setting up solid zoning, granting vision, and enabling kills with a carry that responds to what the support is doing.

re: your math (strong support + weak carry = 1.5, weak support + 1 carry = 1) - I don't know about that.  I suppose I'd take a so so carry and a so so support over either option if it came down to it.  A strong support can provide zoning and assistance to a weak ranged ad carry, but if the goof is still getting killed, still missing cs, still taking hits he should not and getting low on hp, the support can only do so much to keep him safe and in the lane farming.  A strong support could make up for some of the mistakes, but certainly not all.  Either way, if both of them are dying off and feeding, well...

Well, that's true enough.  Though frankly, if you really want to play a specific role, just say so and you can of course.  I've been mostly obsessed with top lane (and being kinda smeh at that) to try to get my mechanics down, determine the right time to poke, working extra hard to get higher and higher cs, and sort out the jungle timing on when a gank is coming, etc.  I'm definitely not good, but am working at it.  That said, mayhaps I'll take a "I'd like top" stance going forward - but if you want to play any role, just say so.  I just get tunnel vision based on what I'm practicing on a given day.  That and I've been pretty much playing olaf every game against anyone period - eg I do get into crappy matchups and then try to make them work.  re: madred's 1st - olaf gets life steal + spell vamp with his w.  Pretty sure the crits on creeps from razor factor in to the healing ratio.  If that's the case, then a vamp scepter isn't as valuable as razors 1st on olaf imo.  If I'm wrong about the crits, then I can't argue. 

Played vs. a Morgana a few games, with a good jungler this is easily solved + a few very well aimed bindings & singularities. And also, mid vs. Morgana is always harder as she farms like crazy.  

As for veigar, meh never had any problems whatsoever vs. him.

@AxelDude

I love Lux, but she is much more of a high risk, high reward playstyle. Her burst is weaker than most mid mages, she doesn't have any spammable spells, she farms ok (not great) and her combo is skillshot based. If you miss your binding, you are very vulnerable, especially to someone like Kass or Ahri or a jungler gank. Against a lot of matchups, getting blue is almost required.

Teleport is a good summoner for Lux, but I wouldn't go clarity. I feel like ignite/flash would be a better option. If Cassopeia flashes and bursts you to nothing, clarity isn't going to help you. You are also more susceptible to getting ganked mid. Taking mp/5 runes and the utility tree should compensate for not having clarity, plus you are up a offensive/defensive spell.

For items, I would rush Rabadon's over Lichbane for sure. Lichbane is a VERY expensive item and really more of a luxury item than a Luxury item (har har). I mean that I would only get it if I was absolutely crushing. I would rather have Zhonya's and throw my spells from max range. ROA would be a better alternative survivability if you wanted to rush that instead of Rabadon's if things aren't going well.

To take advantage of Lichbane, you would need to be in autoattack range and without vigilant peelers/cc, you will be focused and destroyed, without doing enough dmg in the teamfight. Solo Q is just god awful for being properly protected as a squishy. Even on a well coordinated team, focusing your AP over Lichbane adds more to overall dmg, plus increases your shield.

Just my opinion. If your build/playstyle works consistently for you, that's great! I just think if you ran into a strong mid opponent, your setup puts you at a lot of risk if you don't snowball early, not to mention if you get a tough gank.

pacov what you're forgetting to realize is that if you have a complete retard on your team in the sense that you mean "doesnt get cs, dies over and over" then you start to play carry support.  It doesn't matter what role that person was going to play in your game, they were going to fail.  It was a 4v5 to begin with, and ANY support can still carry (sup carry taric here np).  I've had brand's that had 6 cs 13 minutes into the game.  I've had graves' that had 11 cs 20 minutes into the game.  So you just pretend they aren't there and that it's a 4v5, which is still winnable if you're truly above the skill level of the enemy.  I've won a few in the 1300-1400 area np.. now usually not so much

Regardless, perhaps they are just soooo bad and sooo impossible to carry.  You're not guaranteed to win every game.  Some games you get 4 feeders... who could have thought it would be possible to play that badly?  Other games you stomp 5 feeders on the other team, same deal.  It's luck whether or not you get the stupidly bad team or not.  But realize that however bad your team is, the other team is more than likely just as bad.  At the end of the day, there is an equilibrium between both sides.  YOU make the difference in the battle between retards (even as support), and YOU are the common denominator in these games.

well... I do realize that... there's not really any other choice to give you a chance in hell.  That said - great, your teammate is useless and now you start to put together an ap heavy carry build - except you're quite a bit behind because of picking up all the wards (which you still kinda need to do).  Then you've got the terrible player starting to whine or perhaps quit as you start last hitting to get some cs (and then it because the supports fault that he's done so terrible).  If you are still going to let captain fail pants farm, then you aren't going to become all that useful a carry for some time.  Anyway, there's just a ton of potential for failure by intentionally choosing to go support if you don't know your ranged ad carry. 

edit - but fair point (referring to what you say in a moment) - most games have a reasonable possibility of having a crap ranged ad carry.

And as the common denominator, I'd prefer a role that is as independent as possible during the laning phase enabling me to have the greatest impact.  Not a role that I have to completely alter my build to a carry in the hopes of countering after spending my money on wards. That's pretty much deciding to become a prize fighter immediately after breaking your right hand (or something).   Granted, its what you HAVE to do in that situation... but then again, you aren't potentially in that situation unless you are a support, eh?  It's quite selfish, but if I'm solo queuing, well, I won't go support unless I'm at the bottom of the list or towards the bottom.  That puts me in the best possible position to carry for my team.  That said, if it was a ranked team game (eg we have a 5 man pre) - well I'd play whatever is best for the team period.  If I'm duo queuing, I'd gladly go support to help out someone I know work on their ranged ad carry though. 

Oh man Pacov... your example reminds me of this poor Zilean on an opposing team.  Three of the opponent put the loss squarely on his shoulders because he had 26 CS at the end of the game and had supposedly stolen way too much CS from his carry.  My opinion was he should have taken it all considering how bad his laning partner was.

Well - i did a tutorial for reggird.  Was going to record it and upload as I cover a bunch of diff things, but xsplit currently has a codec issue on their free version for recording.  You can stream, but there's no audio if you record it, so it would have been worthless.  Wish they sorted that.  Anyway, reggrid plays on the EU West servers, so I had to create an account there (eg none of us will likely play with him), but hopefully the things I jibba jabbered abt to him were useful.

Even after all my protests to rawrr (4nana), I decided to play a ranked tonight and was the number 2 slot.  Went support jana. We were up against an Ali and a graves.  My ash did fine when she was farming.  I zoned a bit and shield as appropriate and harassed the crap out of ali early while he was weak... and kept the wards up where they needed to be.  We had a WEAK ahri that was on the buffet menu.  And my ash did a BUNCH of crazy things (like wandering the jungle to try to attack a lee sin with an Ali behind her.  Anyway, ash was pretty stupid and Ahri was outright bad.  I, however, played pretty well and made like 1 mistake and opted to get additional gp/5 items to assist.  I ended 4/0/16 as janna.  The only thing I lacked was some wards for about a 1 minute period when i told ash to back off so I could get some and she pushed.  Beyond that, pretty solid game imo with good ults, great map awareness, and solid shields. 

replay if you care - http://www.box.com/s/dbe815455b6b349035f6

Anyway, all of that said, even if I sound dogmatic, I appreciate you fellas feedback and you can even trick me into playing support

Edit - I still maintain that if I'm in the top 1 or 2 spot, I will be telling folks what I'm doing instead of asking (told those fellas I was support janna) - except with my pals going forward anyway. 

side note - game 2 ranked I met the team that reminded me why I don't go support.  Fail mid, fail jungle, and fail ranged ad carry.  Fuck you LoL matchmaking. 

edit - I did everything I could that game anyway... ah well.  I was kind to our ranged ad carry twice asking him to lay off pushing the lane when it wasn't safe.  He ignored and fed.  More than a few times I spent heal + ult + summoner heal to try to keep the idiot alive as soraka.  All because he'd go ape shit for no reason.  In magical matchmaking world, you don't get a shit jungle, mid, and ranged ad carry.  In magical worlds its 2 soso...

and then i win next game with an ok team... the world of lol.. I played just as well in all 3 games.. last game 1/0/24

pacov goes to sleep at 1417.

I should actually play ranked. I just keep wanting to improve at all the different roles. Plus I feel like it would be a lot more fun with full premades. It's intimidating to think you aren't able to pull through with a few bad team mates. My ultimate goal would be to make it to gold someday. I consider myself more in the 1300-1400 range right now. I'll aim to play at least a few ranked games a week and continue to work on things. If people are up for any ranked feel free to msg me in game/let me know. (The Dude II) 

I also need to buy a proper mic. Does anyone have any recommendations?

That's exactly how I feel too.  With the exception of the support role, I'm always thinking about how to improve my play style and mechanics (like consistently being a champ with last hitting, harassing as needed, etc). 

Anyway, even if you duo queue ranked, you still have 3 potential roles players that might be rubbish or ok or amazing. And you really need to factor in your current elo along with whoever you are duoing with.  I think they way it works is that if your buddy is an 1800 and you are a 1300, you'll queue up against a team that are all pretty much in the 1800's unless there happens to be some other duo queue team in a similar situation.  That means 1 - you are the bottom of the list and last pick and 2 - you are going to have a tougher game than you are used to

re: playing a ranked as a team - I'm still down for this, but we never seem to have enough of us on at the same time to do a ranked like that.  I'll bring up the idea of doing a ranked game the next time we have 5 of us together anyway and see what folks think.

It's really a question of what your ideal setup is first.  Are you just looking for a mic and normally play music or sound through your speakers?  Would you prefer a headset?  I have both a wired headset (w/ speakers) and a bluetooth headset.  I prefer the bluetooth over the headset any day and enjoy still having music, etc, coming out of my speakers.  But perhaps you'd prefer a headset and having all of the sound going directly to your noggin. 

You can get a cheap bluetooth receiver on new egg (got mine for $5) and then a blue tooth headset (I have a jawbone which works great) for anywhere between $20-$80 depending on what you want.  There are lots of different brands out there.

If you want a wired headset, you can just get a cheap one for like $10 or dump some money into one and get something over the top.  All a matter of what's important to you (sound quality, etc).  I'd suggest going to new egg and reading some reviews.  You can get started over here:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=707&name=Headsets-Accessories

I don't even remember the name of my headset off the to of my head, but its a nice one... not that I use it often.