So, I've been trying to get into ranked, and I've been playing some more supportish tanky champs, mainly sSejuani and Mao' Kai and my win% is well, painful... I feel like it's not always my fault, I try and watch the map and tp when I can or gank if I feel its safe, but my team doesn't always follow up... I feel like these champs are too team reliant. Of coarse you haven't seen me play but do you think its bad to play these champs in low elo?
Not necessarily, but I think you have to pick your moments. YOU MUST HAVE PATIENCE.
Things like Sej and Mao scale very well and have game changing levels of tankiness and CC. But they rely on the team to do damage right?
A big solo Q myth is that you have to take fights to make a comeback. You have seen I'm sure the weird situation where you teammates are for some reason playing more aggressive the further behind they get. Do not buy into the idea that the only way to stage a comeback is by catching them off guard with aggression and taking a few lucky fights, this more often than not results in chain feeding. As someone who typically gravitates towards tank tops and control mages mid, let me give you my two cents on what to do.
Rely on your scaling: It's going to be tough for you to do much of anything alone early on because of your low damage and you won't be tanky yet. Don't make risky plays. Things like flashing aggressively, dueling someone until you both are below 25% HP, things like that. There's little payoff to that kind of stuff since you are not a damage source and more often than not it end's up just making you a juicy target for ganks. Just pressure your lane with wave control and MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR CS, if you get a gank, let the damage person take the kill if at all possible.
Stop the bleeding: so the thing that most people either don't understand or refuse to accept in solo Q is that in the vast majority of cases you have to stop losing before you can start winning. Stabilize the game. Sure, if they hand you a big comeback play by trying to Baron early or going for Drake after they got low from a team fight, capitalize on it. But those instances are rare and you SHOULD NOT FORCE THEM. If the enemy team jumps out to a 2k lead and then doesn't grow that lead for like 8 minutes, that is VERY VERY good for you. You can still be proactive; keep a sharp eye out for people roaming too far from their team or playing up without flash etc, and punish them for that. But don't blind check brush and force fights with fingers crossed. Your priority is NOT MAKING IT WORSE, then you can think about closing the gold gap.
CS is guaranteed money, fighting is not: I'm not saying that the second you get behind you should start turtling, but you have to weigh your options. If you know the enemy is much stronger than you, set up vision and make trades. Things like a late Ocean drake are not really worth dying over. The CS is probably worth more at that point. If they are pushing up a lane and you feel like the only way to save the tower is to take a very one sided fight, you should very seriously consider just giving up the tower. Look for low risk plays. High risk plays should not really be the plan until you get to the point where it's literally like "if they get this Baron, we lose 100%". Up until that point, focus on taking trades as much as you can and wait for the right team fight. DO NOT FOLLOW BAD TEAMATES. If they push up on your tower and you know there is no way in hell you are saving that tower, do not stay and die with your 1 player who decides to stay. Even if it is savable, if you see 3 of your 5 teammates backing off, do not count on them following your lead, you just back off too. Because losing 2 players and a tower is MUCH worse than losing 1 player and a tower, especially in the mid-late stages of the game.
TEAM FIGHTING: So tanks are very much geared at team fighting. This is a big team/item thing. Your proactive play is not likely going to come from skirmishes or picks as much unless they are really overextending. Usually you are better of just tanking and wave clearing until your carries get their items. Look for fights where you can jump on 3 or 4 people all at once with ults up. Try to time your team fighting around 3 items plus boots on your carries. Look at pealing a lot. Your carries might be behind, so try to just create as much disruption as possible. It's unlikely as a tank you will be able to burst their carries, so just focus on buying your carries the extra time they need to actually pump out relevant damage.
So since you are not a damage dealer, essentially you have to realize that if your team gets behind early, as a tank you are not going to solo carry the game. You need to just kind of stop the bleeding and wait until your teammates have the items where you can possibly take a 5v5 if you stack abilities and ults properly. Look for 3 item power spikes on carries, look for a couple big ticket support items like Locket and Ardent to come out.
Urge your team to not fight you control side waves. You are probably one of the only people who can afford to be off in a side lane alone, I'm not saying split push a bunch. But when ever you get a free moment, push a side lane out. This will cause them to send people off to their side lanes and buy you more time.
Play Nasus if you want to get out of low elo, he might not be fun but he is the most efficient.
It's not bad. But it might not be optimal.
I could give you some suggestions, based on what lane. Generally you want a self-sufficient champion that has good team impact (like Rammus, or Shen), for low tier play.
