P. much everybody on my friend list started playing ranked when they hit level 30. I remember someone saying to wait a bit if I didn't want to be stuck in "elo hell". I thought i'd wait until i'd have my full AP rune page "complete" before starting... Is this a wise choice?
Do you know how to play support?
No? Then you aren't ready. Unless it's changed recently, support was the role everyone hated to play, and as a result people were forced to play that role, and when you have someone who doesn't know how to play the spot versus someone who does, then it's pretty much a 4.5 v 5 AT BEST. This is not a hard role to learn, learn a couple of champions from it just in case your forced to play it.
Have you tried normal draft? Are you doing well there? If not, probably wouldn't start ranked.
Also get used to playing draft pick that way your used to its system over normals.
When you feel comfortable with league
My rule of thumb is that you should be competent at all 5 roles and have a couple of champ options for each one. Also, learn to be very patient. You won't get as many early kill opportunities against decent players.
The one thing that bothers me the most is someone in solo queue that is in 5th position and can't play the role that they get.
In all honesty, stick to Normals and ARAM. Ranked is not a pleasant experiance unless you're winning. The amount of negativity I have endured is to a point where I want to abandon League. There is no fun in Ranked nor nice players. You only get those if your team is going to obviously win.
gotta go ballz deep and try it for yourself Its more of mental readiness than actual skill tho
P. much everybody on my friend list started playing ranked when they hit level 30. I remember someone saying to wait a bit if I didn't want to be stuck in "elo hell". I thought i'd wait until i'd have my full AP rune page "complete" before starting... Is this a wise choice?
Before u start ranked, make sure u have complete rune pages for every role u intend to play. Runes are very important for laning phase.
P. much everybody on my friend list started playing ranked when they hit level 30. I remember someone saying to wait a bit if I didn't want to be stuck in "elo hell". I thought i'd wait until i'd have my full AP rune page "complete" before starting... Is this a wise choice?
You should have at least 4 rune pages. You need Ap with Armor, Ap with MR, AD with armor, AD with MR. As basic rune pages. You CAN do 2, 1 AP with MR/Armor and 1 AD with MR/Armor. I don't recommend this because in most matchups you will be at a disadvantage with wasted runes. Notmally a 5th page is recommended for jungling, especially in this new jungle.
Besides runes though nothing else really matters. You are as good as you are placed. You will get "Elo hell" no matter what. If you can climb out then you will. Good luck and have fun!
Wait until you get roughly 700 wins under your belt. Really focus on the basics. Learn meta champs
I'll pretty much re-state what has already been said, and add just a little personal advice. Just so you know, I've only ever played one ranked game (100% win rate, suckers), so take this with appropriate skepticism.
I certainly would not recommend playing ranked as soon as you are level thirty. Most people I play with in the late twenties and fresh thirties have decent mechanics with their favorite champions, but lack knowledge of broader strategy, and, more importantly, familiarity with the full champion pool. You may be the King of Top Lane with your Singed, but what are you going to do when some weird crab-dude with a Bane mask 
shows up and laughs at your pitiful attempts to farm? I would encourage you to play long enough to be familiar with some of the uncommon champs in each role. You needn't master Urgot, but you should at least know what he does and how to counter him. The same goes for Zac, Taric, and Mordekaiser. Try out free week champs you don't already know and play lots of ARAMs until you can confidently counter-pick in draft mode and survive unfavorable match-ups. There is nothing more embarrassing than losing lane because you didn't realize your poke won't work against the Master of Metal's 
passive shield. There really is no way to build this familiarity without committing a fair amount of time to the cause, so get comfortable with normals or accept the risks and dive into ranked like some poor, foolish Vayne main looking for their first pentakill.
As far as broader strategy goes, some big things to learn are: Wave management (when and how to push or freeze lanes, how to set up superwaves), the differences between objective-targeted and defensive warding, how to establish split-lane pressure to ease objective capture, and, my personal favorite, how to constantly ward throughout the game. Remember that warding is a team effort. If everyone on the team picks up and maintains a pink ward, it gives your team a lot more leeway to use sightstones and trinkets for objective control. Once you are pretty comfortable with each of these topics, and your support worships you for your amazing warding, you'll be ahead of most people who are trying out ranked for the first time.
You'll ping a lot more if you learn to use the ping hot keys: V-click for caution, G-click for general pings, and control-drag for the menu. Learn to weave communication into your play so you can better coordinate rotations and defenses, and don't be afraid to drop caution pings. You can't farm if you're dead, and neither can your carry.
Lastly, prepare yourself for dealing with other ranked players. At the end of the day, ranked play is a little different from what you are used to in normals, and ranked players are famously fond of berating anyone who makes a mistake or does something unusual, like playing an off-meta pick. Learn how to mute unpleasant players and develop a tough skin for dealing with criticism on your off-days. Being able to play every role confidently will help a lot with avoiding this toxicity, as will good sportsmanship. Get in the habit of issuing compliments on specific things your teammates and opponents do well, thank allies for helping you out, make unambiguous jokes when you can, and generally strive to be a pleasant person to play with, even if your team is losing. Remember, even if your name is on a scoreboard somewhere, it's just a game. Do your best to have fun and make the game enjoyable for those you play with. Happy farming!
learn each role and be able to play them. 700 normal wins might be a bit much, 300 or so should even be fine, it really depends on the player.
I don't see why people wait for ranked. Just play it, if it stops being fun, go back to normals.
Start playing ranked when you can comfortably play every role because you will have to fill a lot.
You definitely don't need 700+ games to play ranked, I only have 400 and I'm high silver
Hmmm... Well, I mean, I can play most roles... The only one I struggle not feeding is adc, for some reason. Will I really ever need to fill it? I have yet to see that happen in normals... As for victories, I'm at ±240... by the time I finish my AP rune page and maybe buy a "strong champ" I should be close to 300.
In all honesty, stick to Normals and ARAM. Ranked is not a pleasant experiance unless you're winning. The amount of negativity I have endured is to a point where I want to abandon League. There is no fun in Ranked nor nice players. You only get those if your team is going to obviously win.
But muh victorious skins and loading screen boarder swag ;~;
I don't see why people wait for ranked. Just play it, if it stops being fun, go back to normals.
I've read on the forums that waiting is better - maybe not when it's your first time, but if you want to be placed higher, it is. Reason behind that is, when the new season rolls in you'll be placed with "every ranks" whereas if you wait, diamond players will be in their appropriate ranks and you should have more fair matchups, or something like this.
