The difference between off-meta builds, bizarre experimentation and trolling
I experiment. I'm curious. I don't make builds based on what Lolking or op.gg says. I look at each individual champion and figure out what works with them, what doesn't, and what MIGHT work.
My latest experimentation is Titanic Hydra on Cho'gath.
Long story short, it works.
Cho'gath already has an attack that attacks in a cone, and the Titanic Hydra syncs up perfectly with both it and the fact that Cho'gath can stack HP like nobody's business, further improving its power. It makes him a beast for pushing and defending lanes (one TH active almost destroys an entire minion wave in one hit by mid game) and gives him a powerful burst attack (combined with his E, almost 500 AOE damage!) on the active during fights with enemy champions. As a buffer, I use a Wit's End to increase his attack speed and magic resist. Since Cho'gath deals magic damage and the Wit's End strips what little magic resist most champions usually have, it works like a dream when combined with his AOE attacks and gives him something to do between cooldowns.
And I make weird experiments like this all the time.
The problem is other people are so used to building what metas tell them to build and have had curiosity both figuratively and literally beaten out of them, they see Cho'gath march in with a Titanic Hydra and they immediately call me a troll. And that's the case with just about everything. Nami has a Lich Bane? Troll. Morgana has a Liandry's Torment? Troll. Jinx with Runaan's Hurricane? Troll. Machinegun Lulu (something I did long before it was a thing)? Troll.
People don't know the difference between bizarre builds and straight up trolling. An AP Vayne is trolling. A guy who autotilts and runs endlessly into the enemy's axe is trolling. Someone who enters a game just to AFK after calling everyone a c$!kf@$king n#@!# d$((@! f%%#&t is trolling.
But you want to know the best part? The things that work only enter the meta once a professional player does it. Even if it was considered heresy that makes players autotilt the week before, it becomes a religion after a professional has proven it works. These things don't just evolve in a vacuum or by a professional or Riot's decree. They have to be discovered, and as long as you act as linear and binary as an Adeptus Mechanicus, new build ideas will continue to remain undiscovered.
