Just posted this over on the MC forums - duplicating here:

So, I've been noticing that my CS has been somewhat awful lately and decided to spend some time working on my mechanics.  To that end, I searched the net and came across a few things, but 1 in particular stuck out - a guide on reddit called "learn to cs like a challenger." (linked).  Worth a read imo. I'm going to highlight a few things from that post and talk about what I'm doing to improve via 5 minute drills.

1st - CS in league is really, really important.  You get more money, you get better items, you get higher kill potential, etc.  Here's a really good example:

"If we assume the average minion is worth roughly 20 gold, the maximum I could earn from minions by 30:00 is 7,100 gold. Instead, I earned 3,000 gold (with 150 CS at 30 min). This is a difference of 4,100 gold, which equates to 14 full value kills. This means that a 5/0/0 Akali with 100 CS by 20 minutes has earned the same amount of gold as a 0/0/0 Graves with 175 CS, and that's only if we ignore the diminishing returns for repeated kills on the same champion."

So, last hitting = good to be good at, eh.  The article goes on to suggest several drills.  I'm just going to walk you through 1 drill setup, the max CS possible at 5 minutes, and tell you how I did in my first few tests.

The 1st 5 Minute Drill

So, the setup:  use whatever champ you want, runes/masteries you'd normally use, same thing with items.  Create a custom game, don't add any AIs, start, and go to whatever lane you want to practice.  Top/Bottom lane can get a max of 38 cs at 5 minutes.  Mid lane can get a max of 44 cs.  I suggest using excel to keep track, but use w/e you want.  I also suggest using the same champ during the drills so you are comparing apples to apples. 

Round 1 - just go to lane and farm however you like - move around, w/e.  Track your results and also make note of why you missed some.  A tip though - look at your AD dmg output so you know how much dmg you do per hit.  Left click on one of the enemy minions so you can see its health bar stats and observe how quickly it drops, etc.

My stats (all games played as trist):

Goal 38 CS

25 CS, % of Goal =65.79%

Ugh...

Round 2 -  intentionally choose to stand still by pressing S (S keeps you standing still and keeps you from auto attacking).  Track your stats and note why you missed some.

Goal 38 CS

34 CS, % of Goal = 89.47%

notes - choose to stand still a bunch more

Rounds 3/4 - repeat

Goal 38 CS

33 CS, % of Goal =  86.84%

36 CS, % of Goal = 94.74%

Anyway, the link I provided covers various other drills.  I personally think its worth the time to develop your mechanical skills as that difference in gold income can mean a heck of a lot in game.

i dunno.

i'll agree with a few of the points:

1- CS is one of the mechanics that is easiest to practice (you can spend 15 minutes a day in a zero-stress environment).

2- CS is the easiest way to get money

3- There is a correlation between the ability to get high CS and your ability to play at higher levels

On the other hand, LoL really isn't a 40 minute farm fest like it was in Season 2, where midlaners just farmed wraiths and wolves, and botlane would lane for 20 minutes without even trying to take the tower:

- Every objective other than the three outer towers requires giving up CS.

- Roaming or taking towers early and then pressuring middle while the enemy freezes means that you give up CS for pressure and (hopefully) kills in other lanes.

- Having gold in your pocket doesn't do anything. It's the item thresholds. If you're trying to get NLR, BFS on your first base, yah, you better be good at CSing. But, if you just want a Chalice and the enemy laner wants a Catalyst, sometimes doing a fast push at level 3/4/5 to get a second dorans or a early Chalice and then dominating the lane and denying your enemy a bunch of CS works out really well because you get what you want and the enemy DOESNT.

This is especially true in the BotRK/TF v BFS item paths in the bot lane.

Getting really really good at last hitting for the first 10 minutes is one of those "Core Compentencies" that is really easy to improve since you can do it whenever you want. So if you want to improve your game, that is one of the lowest hanging fruits. (even though i do disagree with some of those suggestions - have you played against Jax bot? He'll go ham on you level 1/2 and blow both his summoners then go back to base. You aren't going to get perfect CS in those situations).

But it's not some "magic bullet" and having 300 CS at 30 minutes doesn't make you somehow "deserve" a win. Just like being 10/0/0 doesn't. There's 4 other people as well.

I'm only in silver, my first back as ADC is almost always BFS+.

No it isn't. People in the world championships aren't backing with BFS+ reliably.

Yes, it is...

Championship players probably suck ass a lot less and can actually lane against their opponent.  Silver players don't, they die a lot.  If I don't have some strangely suicidal support that does things like pull the CC tank of a support while standing behind me as Thresh, it's easy.  Bots are harder to kill than some of them.

I'm not some godlike player stuck in silver, I don't even play that often.  My mechanics are shit, 200 CS in 30 minutes is a game that went very well.  I find it to be little challenge to stay in lane ten minutes or better if my support at all has a clue.  All three of my ADC games this month(yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said I don't play that often) were first backs for BFS, I picked up a vamp scepter as well on two of them, boots on the third.  I run MF with a 22/5/3 mastery page, LS quints, damage marks, armor seals, and scaling resist glyps.

I've laned against admitted plats and diamonds smurfing the ghetto, it's not pretty.  I've had a competent support and still been unable to stay in lane at all.  The typical silver player is free kills till team fights though.

Yes it isn't... wait... what?

Well, I wouldn't say that there is a direct correlation between that 5 minute drill and your CS all game long, of course.  I do think this is something that I will personally do on a somewhat consistent basis to warm up as long as I'm feeling like my CS game is kind of smeh.  And by doing the 5 minute drill, I find that I'm very focused for at least a few games on trying to keep my cs up.  So, there is a strong correlation between the practice and your focus level once you get into game.  All in all, a good exercise for me and likely other folks as well. 

Anywho, play along if you like and give it a go and share your experience.  Folks certainly don't have to spend 20 minutes on this.  I was personally surprised to see how much more I was consistent when I simply stopped moving around as much.  Now, its a good idea to keep moving about ofc, but for the exercise, it was good for me to pick up that I'm currently less consistent when I'm doing the whole nonstop movement thing.

i'm a pretty large proponent of the "S" key. It really does make it a lot easier to last hit when you're in low-pressure situations.

It's especially nice in midlane with people like Anivia who have long range but low AD. Unfortunately, you can't really hit "S" much after level 4 or so in midlane or else you just get hit by CC and die. Which is where bluebuff comes into play

Kind of a really nice change for gold/silver:

Oh sweet. Now I really don't have to play ranked anymore this season.

Sion on PBE

Abilities

Glory in Death (Passive)
After being killed Sion will reanimate himself, but his Health rapidly decays while he is reanimated.

He can move and attack during this time. He gains 100% Lifesteal, attacks extremely fast and will deal an additional 10% of his target's maximum Health on hit. Max 75 bonus damage against monsters.

All of his abilities are replaced with Death Surge, which grants him a burst of Movement Speed.


Decimating Smash (Q)
"Sion charges a powerful swing in an area in front of himself that will deal damage to enemies when released. If he charges for enough time, enemies hit by the swing will also be knocked up and stunned.

Soul Furnace (W)
"Sion shields himself and can reactivate after 2 seconds to deal Magic Damage to enemies nearby.

Roar of the Slayer (E)
 "Sion fires a short range shockwave that damages and slows the first enemy hit. If the shockwave hits a minion or monster, it will be knocked back, damaging and slowing all enemies that it passes through."

 Unstoppable Onslaught (R)
"Sion charges in a direction, ramping up speed over time. He can steer his charge slightly with the mouse cursor location. When he collides with an enemy he deals damage and knocks them up based on the distance he has charged."

Wow - I'm pretty stoked to check out sion. 

lolz... seems like they are ddosing PBE... ah well.

edit - nvm - sion bug.  You attack wraiths, game crashes.  Ah well.  Feels really good as a jungler at any rate... as much as I could play him.

So - soraka feedback from folks that have played her post update?

I've quite a few thoughts - short version is strong early/mid - feels really weak late. 

kit changes - so healing had the biggest change.  1st - you can't heal yourself with your w.  You can only heal by hitting enemy champs with starcall (q).  Also, the heal range is really, really, small.  You have to be pretty much right next to your adc or whoever to heal them.  And as folks don't know the range right now, adcs don't naturally move towards her for a quick heal... so, hope you enjoy chasing your adc a bunch.  The passive mechanic is kind of cool.  You get a speed boost to run towards a teammate if they are below x health %. 

Now, here's where they make an excellent change imo that really makes you treat healing a bit different.  Anytime you heal, you lose like 10% of your hp and 20-30 mana or so.  But, you can heal much faster.  So, its really quick and easy to get a teammate back up to full strength - but you feel the pain for doing so and actually are at risk if you heal a ton.  So, my adc does bad.  I heal him back up, but now I'm at 50% hp and vulnerable.  Also, I can only get health back for myself by using my q. 

Starcall makes you feel like a boss.  You actually have pretty decent damage output and can cause the enemy team a ton of difficulty.  Range is huge and its relatively easy to hit (but not a guaranteed hit).  Pretty easy in laning to get a bunch of harass down with it. 

Her e is somewhat lackluster.  It's a damage and snare if they enemy team stands on it too long.  The downside - it takes WAY too long to proc that snare, so its primarily a zoning tool.  I'm hoping they tweak or change that.

Anyway, the way due to the damage output and range taking her q at level 1, I find her to be very strong as a support for early and mid game.  She lacks reliable cc, but does quite fine in laning.  The heal hurts her a ton, though.  You can still ult to heal everyone, but any in combat healing is a very risky as you literally need to run right up to whoever needs healing.  And most importantly, the healing you dish out takes 10% of your hp.  You spam that 5 times in a battle and you've seriously chunked yourself and will likely die.  I think they need to increase her healing range at least a little bit more, if only to provide her with more durability.  I'd also like to see a faster snare on her e. 

I think a soraka pick currently means that you really need to put the game away early or lose, though.  Sustain is not as valuable as hard cc imo - BUT - she could zone very well to help an adc power farm a bunch.  hmm

i think you are underestimating the silence of the E. You E a mobile champ like Lucian, Vayne or Trist and they are stuck. In theory, mobile champs do less damage than immobile ADCs like Kog/Twitch. (ha - ha - ha).

If they try to stutter-step their way out of the void zone, your ADC gets a lot of damage on them. If they stay there, they get snared.

It isn't as straightforward or impactful as a Thresh hook, Braum Q or Leona E. But it's also AoE and it's reasonably decent in gank situations against mobile ADCs. In teamfights though? Gonna be crazy.

Enemy assassin chunking your ADC? "Silence" your ADC just as the teamfight starts and it becomes a lot more difficult for the assassin to jump them.

Ah - actually, hedgie, I didn't even realize it was functioning as a silence and just thought it was a low dmg hit + snare if they stayed there long enough.

He's what it does - initial dmg when cast + silence for any in its aoe.  Then it does the same dmg when it disappears and also roots. 

Anyway, I think I'll be more successful now knowing how it actually works I'm still thinking the same thing re: strong early/mid, weak late though.