Should I Take a Ranked Vacation?

That's more or less the plan. Have level 5 mastery with Garen and Nautilus now. Next up are Malzahar and Amumu. I'm trying to do that thing I talked about in other comments where each day is a different position, but I give myself room to deviate from that a decent amount if I really want to practice a particular champ. I have yet to go on 5+ win streaks with Nautilus, but I think I'm doing about as well as can be expected considering what I've had to work with some matches. I'm certainly better supporting with Nautilus than I ever was with Sona. Like Garen, he just fits me perfectly.

Also, following Mr. AP Jinx Support's example to a small extent, I'm finding myself looking for picks that should catch people a little by surprise, bettering my chances that tiny bit more. Anything to get an edge. Naut has seen some play since popping up in the LCS recently, for example, yet I've only had a couple run-ins with fellow Naut supports, and actually seen more Naut junglers. I can see Galio supp performing a similar function once I get around to buying him, as Galio is virtually nonexistent, especially in ranked. His ult is Amumu-level good, and the troubles I had CSing with him when I tested him out during free week shouldn't be an issue if I'm supporting.

I've also toyed with Ekko in custom matches in PBE, since I know it's doubtful I get to play him otherwise, and I can see myself taking him top, jungle, mid, and maybe even support, which means, if all goes according to plan, that I'll have someone I'm comfortable with available practically anywhere I go, and that I can avoid being counterpicked by telling the others in champ select that I can switch and go whichever spot's best. That's a big if, but I love Ekko so much I'm going to work my butt off to make it a reality. He's like all the things I love most combined into one champion. Safe, ranged poke and wave clear with his Q, which has a slow on top of it. A shield with his W that can zone enemies, make him into a temporary turret-immune tank late game if you use it preemptively before a turret dive, and stun multiple targets (plus a passive which causes you to deal bonus damage to low health targets). An escape/gap closer/steroid with his E. An ult that's sort of like Zed's, only more versatile. For instance, if you're sitting on a pile of money you've been too busy to spend, you can recall, buy an item or two, and ult back to lane. Conversely, if you run teleport, and there's a kill opportunity within range of a ward, you could teleport in, pick that person off, then ult back to base before any other enemies in the area have time to react. Then there's the potential for jukes, surprise ults if you use the bushes, etc. Oh, and a passive which gives bonus damage, slows, and movement speed buffs as you stack it. I don't know that Riot could put out a champion that would get me more excited.

Anywho, thanks for the well wishes! :)

Not if you take the approach I've started taking. I spam my best/favorite champions in normals until I know them well enough that I can make the jump to ranked. Did it with Amumu and went 8-2 my first 10 (3.85 KDA). Did it with Nautilus, went 0/8/23 and won my first match supporting with him. Did it with Malzahar, and went 21/5/2 in a match when every other lane lost heavily. Even tons of co-op with a particular champion can help, as knowing that champion's combos, last hitting, and how much they can both take and dish out, and knowing it well can really help you down the line. My first Lux match, in normals, I went 8/6/8 against a Katarina with top being a wreck (3/9/2) and our jungler being mostly a non-factor (5/8/5). Trynd went 13/1/3, getting fed off that top laner, and as Lux I stood zero chance against that. But still, I like to think I did quite well for a first time normal, all things considered, and having a half dozen or so co-ops with her under my belt helped.

Nothing beats experience. It's why I lose lane with Garen maybe 1 out of every 20 times, even with facing my "counters" most matches in ranked. I've played him in co-op, ranked, 3v3, team builder, blind pick, draft pick, etc. I know him inside and out and I benefit immensely from that. Which is why I'm now trying to get to the same point with other champions like Naut (supp) and Malzahar now. Just playing them a lot, even if you don't do the best, can be more help than you'd imagine.

I wish I had spammed Vi more before taking her to ranked. I probably would've fared better than 0-2 with a 1.37 KDA. Experience can't solve everything, as I was 0-5, 1.69 KDA with Janna in ranked back when I supported with her in ranked and normals exclusively. But it does help a lot.

Unless I have to cover my team's butt by constantly roaming to shut down the people they feed, or I win in lane to such a degree that I spend the rest of the match trying to snowball further and help my teammates snowball, I manage 5+ CS per minute, with 6+ happening pretty often. That's in top lane, by far my best position. 5 CS per minute (150 at 30 min.) is like my baseline, even mid and ADC, which I'm not nearly as good at.

A lot of my losses it comes down to the fact that, like you said, tankier champs are more there to boost an already good team. My 10 matches with Amumu are the perfect example. 8-2. 8 matches where I was able to act as an amplifier for my team, 2 where they were too outclassed for a team-dependent jungler to be of much help. If I jungle Amumu, and every lane is losing by a kill or two before I hit 6, my chances of winning are really low.

With Wukong I could possibly turn that around if I get fed enough, but not with Amumu. Likewise, if I don't win lane hard with Garen and make it so I can leave top alone the rest of the match, barring an epic carry on my part, I'm not of much use. I have carry type champions I could play. Darius and Wukong for instance. But my comfort level on Garen is a 10 whereas it's maybe 7-8 with them. I can win against any lane opponent with Garen, even my counters, so despite him offering my team less overall, and my win rate with Wukong being identical (in fewer matches), I find it hard not to choose him when I get top.

When I started, back during pre-season, I landed in either B3 or B2 after my provisionals. I then proceeded to go 2-15 because, like I said, I started way too early. This season, in every respect, from stats to wins, I'm leaps and bounds better, and performed better in my provisionals, yet got slotted into B5. I improved even more from there, winning 60+% of my matches for a month or two and getting promoted to B4 like 5 times, with the one time being when 6 wins in a row only netted me 9 LP per victory because of my MMR still somehow not being high enough for it to just get me to promos like it would for someone else.

Since then, all my luck has dried up. I've been almost perpetually 5-7 wins away from a 50-50 record (110-117 currently), which means I've been averaging about 50% (at least) since my extremely poor start. I've been told that should be good enough to climb slowly, but it's getting me nowhere due in small part to the worst string of luck I've had since I've started. My last 8-10 attempts at matches, I've had to dodge to avoid a sure loss (ex. double jungle, no ADC) over half the time. In the matches I have played, I'm 3-2. The one loss everyone took the push-deep-with-no-wards approach to laning all match and acted surprised when the enemy jungler cleared house and I couldn't do much ganking wise. The other my entire team had 10+ kills each in a mere 35 minute match. I went 9/8/11 despite, for all intents and purposes, duo laning against GP and Voli. Whenever I went to try and help other lanes, those two were right back at my turret making it so sticking around elsewhere meant them taking out all my turrets.

When I top, I keep my CS at 5+ per minute, unless it's one of those matches where the laning phase is almost nonexistent due to other lanes losing, meaning I have to teamfight the remainder of the match or else they'll be helpless. This is happening with alarming frequency, and it's difficult to win in those scenarios. I'll blame myself when I know I was most certainly at fault, like my two attempts at Vi jungle not too long ago, but I'm hard pressed to think of what more I could possibly have done in some of my more recent matches and it's driving me mad.

So even if I just find myself in B2/3 like when I first started, that would be enough for me for now. I'm not saying I'm a silver level player. I'm not one anymore than that friend I mentioned is. Had you ever played ranked with him, or even normals, you'd agree. But I do believe I can at least play at a high bronze level and one day make it to silver. And the people in B4 and B3, from my experiences, are a cut above the B5s I've been stuck with recently, so the going shouldn't be quite as tough as it is now. I mean, when I was spending a lot of time in B4, things were so much better team wise. You wouldn't think one division would make that big a difference, but it does.

I have a S5 friend, and one who's been silver in the past and will probably be silver again soon (B2, 90 LP ATM), but they tend to get caught up playing duo together. Like last night, before that debacle that had me wishing death on all but my jungler, I invited both to duo with me. One declined and the other was doing something else at the time, so I gave up and played on my own. He thinks I overstate how much having a duo partner you can Skype with and rely on to not be a waste of space or a troll can help. He keeps saying I have to focus on improving myself, which I know is important. But it's hard to do that when I go into every match expecting to have to win all 3 lanes singlehandedly, no matter what spot I'm at. In normals he'll get mad when I don't fulfill a particular tank duty, such as go in to CC/meat shield to allow my teammates to escape, or to initiate a team fight. But the teams I've had in ranked, or even normals without him and my other friends, make it so anytime I do stuff like that it's a waste. Oh, I blew all my CC on the jungler who's trying to gank my ADC, and the two bot laners are also there? Forget escaping, I wanna fight. Oh, you initiated and nearly had 2 of them by yourself? We're gonna run instead of follow up. The more I play in bronze 5, the worse I feel I become in some respects because playing with the quality of teams I get is teaching me bad habits.

And I wasn't ignoring you. I was busy practicing my Nautilus support and, in those matches, busy trying not to flip out on my teammates, particularly my feeding, useless junglers. I tried using "/reply," but that only works if you get a message while in match. I don't know how to message a specific person while in match otherwise. For now I'm just going to continue practicing on my own and with that S4 and B2 friend.

See, my problem with that is I'm not exactly the "carrying" type. Sure, I'll sometimes have matches like the one in which I went 9/0/6 as Wukong top, outperforming Nasus to such an extent that he was 0/5 and had something like 1/4th my CS, and forcing a surrender... but there's a reason I often build "carry" types like Wukong or Darius on the tanky side. You could drop me into a match as, say, Katarina at level 18 with a full glass-cannon build and I'd crumble. I just feel so much more at home in the tank/support/fighter spot, despite being decent at multiple potential carries since I don't respond well to that sort of heightened pressure. Naut support, for instance, I can do stuff like I did last night, where I had next to no HP and could still duke it out with my opponents under their inhibitor turret like it was nothing for a good 10-15 seconds. I like that room for error. If I try to carry with a nearly full damage Wukong, it's so easy for everything to collapse, as evidenced by the match in which I got my first ever (and still only) quadra with him. I did all I could to carry, but a mistake here and a mistake there was all they needed to win. Tanks are so much more forgiving.

I'd be up for playing, sure. Just, for now, I'm going to be doing what the one guy said and spam my best champions until they're second nature to me, like Garen. Did it with Nautilus. Tonight I'm going to start doing it with Malzahar. The next 2-3 days Wukong (top and jungle). Friday Graves. Etc. Then, once I've reached that level of comfort with all my best champions in each spot, maybe... just maybe, I'll play ranked again.

And I can take losing. Even the occasional troll. It's when 3/4th the time I either have to dodge because of champ select trolls or lose because of crap/troll teammates, which has been the case lately, that I get discouraged. That and the trolliest, Leeroy Jenkins-est guy I play with somehow being Silver V despite feeding 10+ kills every match. He does all the wrong things, literally everything that people tell bronze players to avoid, and is a worse player than me in the opinion of my other friends and he's that much higher. When we were at least close to one another it was fine. But him being S5 makes me want to give the entire ranked system and the ranked gods a big middle finger. :/