Making the Meta, not Breaking it
I think there is a big difference between the two.
Breaking the Meta is what most people do. They say "oh this seems fun", make absolutely no theorycrafting and have little to no background thought behind it. They somehow think that with their sheer power of will they will make the Meta disappear and when they get shit on by said Meta champions, they proceed to cry about tryharding in all-chat. Especially in ranked, this is a no-go.
Making the Meta on the other hand is looking at what the Meta is and create something new that either counters it or fits in it. Things like Frozen Mallet Yasuo, Tank Ekko, AP Yi etc. didn't come out of nowhere - they have been around for some time before they got introduced and someone actually sat down, theorycrafted the build, tested it in a normal to then proceed to play it in Ranked, before it got popular.
I'm all for being creative and making your own stuff if you just truly think about what you're doing. I remember for example that Runeglaive Ezreal was made by the NA community and not the pros, so innovating is possible, you just have to do it right:
1. Look at the numbers. Compare ratios and scalings of your champion's kit with your intended build with the ratios and scalings of similar abilities in the game. And: actually use a calculator to measure things like DPS etc. Once you got a feeling for the numbers you don't need to do it as often anymore but I'd still do it. I still regret not calcing most of the DPS changes of the new Fervor for example on Yi and Irelia, which could've helped me out a lot. Also keep track of item changes and memorize whose kit scales with what, so you will instantly know who will be affected by the changes positively and negatively.
2. Look at the basic requirements. In laning this would be waveclear, dueling abilities, roaming abilities etc, in the jungle it's ganking potential, clear speed and clearing healthiness. On top of that there are a lot of finer nuances like how good someone can CS, trade, scale into lategame without getting punished etc,
3. Look at the Meta. Remember, you are making your build to either counter it or fit into it because no matter how hard you try, you won't "break" it. For example, there are several rock-paper-scissor kind of scenarios. Bursty fighters and toplane assassins for example always counter ranged matchups, for example Irelia was in the ranged Meta not because she was ranged herself but because she was good at diving ranged champs. Or, if you are in a tank toplane Meta, you can pick DPS bruisers like Jax or Nasus who will also abuse the little lane presence tanks have to farm up. Or, people are trying out all the new assassins top and it's time to bust out the Urgod again. You can also pick champions that fit well with the Meta - I was also playing Urgot in the ranged bully Meta that is kind of disappearing right now and it worked decently well, especially against Teemo, which I also found pretty hard to deal with with my other comfortable champions.
Take your time, follow these three steps and you can go ahead and pick something out of the ordinary. If you don't have the time or brain capacity to do it, just don't.
