Thanks to Jebus McAzn for his Amumu guide... figured I needed to pick a better jungle as it was. Just happened to be the first one my buddy found for me.
Also about all the comments pertaining to ELO Hell. I consider myself perhaps a 1400 player, perhaps more if I'm being generous, but I have been stuck in 1200-1300 for since as long as I can remember. I don't really say this to be elitist because in events like ESL and other team tournaments I have consistently matched with 1500 players and not lost outright, and even won. However, whenever I break 1300 again, I lose like 4 games in a row. However, you can always learn something. I have a buddy whose been to 1950+ and his response is "carry harder". It took me a while until just recently I learned what he meant. I mean, previous I'd looked and he mains Anivia - a wonderful carry- although he can play other champions nicely as well. So I took this the wrong way and picked up Sion to carry my team. This works - I have a good KDA as Sion, but I was still stuck in the wrong mindset and thus could never advance.
What my buddy meant by "carry harder" is not that you should pick up a carry and demand to solo every game, and nor is it that you constantly bitch at your team to stop failing. You have to
lead your team. If you truly are the better player you will make good leadership calls -- when to engage, when to back, when to Baron, where not to engage, do you fight at level 1? and so on and so forth. I make tons of errors, but I am constantly critiquing my game with my duo queue partner after every attempt (and vice versa). Sure, I played a 12-3-10 Sion. What did I do wrong, though? Did I not listen to my teammates on the drafting stage? Did I make a bad call? Did I brush someone off and alienate them because I thought they were useless? There's always
something. Even in high tier matches when CLG plays they do not play flawless games, but they have excellent team synergy and great individual play. That doesn't mean they're perfect.
So, if you want to get out of ELO Hell, listen to your team and lead them. Avoid "what the fuck did you do that" and change with "If we meet up as a team we can take them" or other positive comments when someone gets ganked.
The trap that I fell in to is the same one a lot of you guys (TheValkyries, I believe, is arguing about this) are falling in to. Don't just assume you're the best player there and every loss is their fault. If you aren't leading your team well, making helpful hints, and keeping your team's morale positive IN ADDITION TO PLAYING AS CLOSE TO FLAWLESS AS YOU CAN YOURSELF you are going to lose a lot of games. Hell. Since my buddy and I tried our new attitude I call all the ingame shots with our teams and we've won like 7-1 or so. He's about to break 1400 and I'm almost 1300 again, but we've won considerably more games with "bad allies" that I know we'd have lost in our previous mindset. Sure, we had a brutal Mordekaiser, but I talked him out of feeding when the team was harping on him and I got him involved in some team pushes and by the end he was playing better because he wasn't frustrated and/or pissed the fuck off at us.
Anyway, hope it helps. Although if anyone has any burn heal to apply after Jebus' in house friends raped my the other day it'd be nice. Life Regen Irelia build vs. Sion top is not fun. :(
Edit 2: Also in with the above point. League of Legends is a team game. You cannot win by yourself. If you do not have 5 coordinated people you won't win. The most coordinated team will likely win late game. If you have no one calling the shots in game you are going to lose. If you guys follow the ESL tournaments this is why Team SoloMid was failing so hard earlier. They were all great individual players, but they had both Reginald and Chaox calling shots and arguing with each other and they tanked vs "lesser" teams. Lesser being in quotations because the other teams had the synergy right. Since then Team SoloMid has changed their attitudes, let one person call the shots, either Reginald or Chaox while they are trying to find something that feels right, and they've done considerably better.
This doesn't also mean that you should always be the one calling shots and ordering your team around. There was a game I played where I let a TF do it because he started it earlier and was helping everyone with team comp selections in the drafting stage. There were a few times I stepped in to avoid us from doing an extremely risky (read: retarded) Baron, but since it was the only time I had said anything forcefully he realized it was a bad call, and we backed away and he continued. So, don't fall into the trap on the reserve where everything you say is gospel and you have to be the one in control.
