Once upon a time, I would start the game with a lane plan. This was what I was going to do. I would cast this spell, and the enemy would do this, and then I would do this and everything would be rainbows and ponies... For me. They get blood and pain. But this had its problems. What if they did not respond as I expected, what if I couldn't get off the harass/initiation/whatever. Then I was just lost.

It was crutch for when I was unfamiliar with champions, but now I think I've progressed beyond it. I don't need to create convoluted plans to force my opponents into a situation I can kill them in; when they make the mistake, I pounce! And I can do that now because I am familiar enough with the champions to combo on the go rather than follow some sort of formula. That's not to say everything is all reactionary, there's plenty of scope for mind games. I have some on Cassiopeia, for example. But they key thing is I am no longer reliant on them.

That... Or it's just because I've been spamming Orianna. I really have no idea how to kill stuff on my own with her before I get farmed. Not that it doesn't happen... But if I'm farming champions it is because someone is just bad. Probably just a case of experience. I've been facing a lot of Ahri's lately for some reason and I keep blundering into charms. When that happens I just go HAM on them and chase them across the lane with my ball and Clockwork Windup, winning the trade pretty easily. I just need to do that when they're a little lower on health and without getting hit by charm :>

In other news... CSing is going soooo much better thanks to a change in mind-set, and it's related to the above. It used to be that I was actively looking to harass, to create openings. Nowadays I don't create openings, I predict them, allowing me to harass without missing CS \o/ (Also supports keep getting more kills than me :/ Please, 4/2/23 is great and all, but I'd like to see "Nayaad is Godlike" crop up a few times, gief kills).

I still make plans in champion select. What will I probably want to build? Ahri and Ez can juke my Command: Shockwave, watch their cooldowns (I hate you so much, stop being in my games please). But they're the basics, the things to keep in mind, not formula to follow, and it leads to more winning.