[Discussion] What do you do when your champion pool becomes FotM?

Hey Everyone,

So I wanted to talk about how y'all adjust to the meta as it changes, namely what happens when your champions become super popular to the point where they're constantly being picked or banned against you. On one hand, you know these champions well, which helps you play against them to a certain extent, but it becomes difficult (for me, at least), when you're forced onto a third or fourth string pick, who you can't play particularly well, and can't beat your opponent because of limitations on your own skill with the champion you're playing, even though you generally know how to beat your main champions. Just wondering how y'all approach this problem; do you pick up another, similar champion? Do you just practice with your other champions? What if those champions are weak at the moment, or require a high skill cap that you can't quite adapt to fast enough? The next section is going to discuss my situation in particular, and will discuss the ADC role specifically.

For me, I've started playing some ranked team 5s in the ADC role, mostly because it was open but also since ADC is one of my stronger if not strongest role right now (in large part due to the fact that my two ADCs, Tristana and Jinx, are really powerful in the current meta). My struggle right now is exactly that; both my ADCs are sort of FotM picks, which means having them picked away from me or banned out is somewhat common.

What I want is a good third or second string ADC (mostly since I'm not comfortable playing Jinx into Tristana). I've never really played ADC too much in the past until somewhat recently (when I learned to CS better), so my ADC champion pool is pretty slim (aside from these two, it's just Ashe, Sivir, Draven, then oddball picks like Teemo or Twisted Fate, who I'm not going to play ADC). I've played some Sivir with mixed success, where her mana costs, low range, and lack of hyper-carry ability generally make her difficult to play currently. I've had fun playing Ashe, but I can only orb-walk so well and the lack of good escape or a team that can/will peel for you is really hard on her, in my experience. Draven is the only other traditional ADC I own, and my axe-catching mechanics aren't quite up to par (I can CS okay while moving, but fighting is rough; I'm still practicing good positioning in team fights, adding the axe mechanic is a bit much for my level of experience at the moment). Ashe and Sivir aren't particularly strong at the moment, and neither of them have strong mobility/escape (Sivir can block one spell, and her ult is on such a long cooldown it's easy to punish; Ashe may be able to kite an opponent or two, maybe stun and slow a group of enemies, but can't exactly run away for long). Draven is still strong, though I'm not good enough at catching axes for him to be fun (I don't like how little room for error there is for you to animation cancel to guide your axes, I will probably play him more once I get better at orb-walking, until then, it's frustrating to drop axes).

As far as champions I'm looking at:

: Another hypercarry sort of champion, similar to Tristana or Jinx, who's heavily auto attack dependent (oddly enough something I've really liked in ADCs). My main concern is that his nerfs hit him hard, but he is a champion that I've had fun playing in the past. I also wonder how he would fare against Tristana, since that's probably the main match up I would pull him out against.

: Yet another hypercarry, pretty underused and isn't likely to get banned. However, he lacks a real escape, as well as having a pretty short AA range without W, and is getting a few swats with the nerf bat lately. He's also pretty vulnerable without team support, which is probably why he isn't played in solo Q as much as he is in professional play. He can make up for the lack of mobility with the super long range, though, and once you get Phage you become a lot more mobile.

: Sort of an iffy champion for me, since I like the safety of a hypercarry (ie. if you get behind early, you can get back into the game easier; if you get ahead early, you snowball like crazy). He is fun to play though, and is very safe.

: Similar to Ezreal, but specific to Caitlyn, I like her ability to really take control of a lane, though her mid game is a bit lack-luster and I dislike the need to crush your lane in order to be really impactful in the later game. She also lacks an attack speed steroid, which is something I think has really prevented me from getting her in the past.

: Similar to Caitlyn, he seems to rely on crushing his lane in order to be strong later in the game. The CDR build on him is a lot of fun; his short range isn't too bad when his dash is free and comes up every two seconds. He also costs more IP than I would like, since I'm saving in case I want to get Gnar.

: Graves has always been a champion that I would like on paper, but for some reason I've never felt super impactful when I've tried him out. His being fairly tanky (esp for an ADC) has always been pretty cool, his dash is fairly inexpensive, has some built in CDR, and is also an attack speed steroid (something I value a lot on ADCs), and that he's bursty like Tristana can be is really cool, I just feel like his range is much shorter than it is when I play him, for some reason.

Mostly I'm wondering about a champion that can be played comfortably into Tristana, since I haven't been having too much success against her as Jinx. Twitch is probably the leading candidate at the moment; I really like the assassination potential that he and Tristana have, but I get the feeling the only reason he's still being played professionally is because he works really well in certain team compositions (ie. Lulu Zilean). Kog'Maw is another great champion, but I'm hesitant about getting on board when he seems to be on the down slope (he's seeing some nerfs lately).

Thanks!

Edit: I wouldn't buy Gnar to play adc, just he's so darn cute :3