IMO, the game is way, WAY too dependent on successful early game farm. The possibility of successfully last-hitting is not only random because your own minions sometimes decide to all pile the same enemy minion and KS, but some laning opponents are basically hard counters that prevent you from getting much gold at all.

Darius gets shut down hard against Kayle, and switching lanes puts your team behind by ~500 gold.

Morgana who is dependent on farming has a hard time with natural pushers like Heimerdinger and Malzahar, and some AP/AD carries who outrange her can harass so much that at 10 minutes they have 80 CS and you have 20 (This puts them ahead >1k gold even without any kills; this is absolutely huge midgame because it translates to massively better items for their AP). Evening out this pretty much requires successful ganks, but after playing a couple of high elo games with friends, I found out that pretty much every bush is warded, shutting down that possibility.

If the other team isn't retarded (and they typically aren't in higher elo games), they won't feed you midgame and teamfights go in their favor from their carry having better items.

Not entirely. Even if you're behind in cs, you can make it up through team fights. Getting a few kills/assists will really help you if you've fallen behind in gold. Also, the jungle can help a lot (if your jungler doesn't mind) since the wolves and golems give a decent amount of gold.

That's just circumstantial. All champs have hard counters, such as Fiddle being able to shut down Tryndamere with his drain. If you're laning against your counter, that's just bad luck for you. Alternatively, you could do a draft pick in which you ban champs and then see who the opposite team picks, so you can pick your champ around that. I'm not sure if you can do that a low level, though.

I don't have enough champions to draft pick (and if I do they're probably going to ban Morgana, leaving me with champions that I suck at).

Quote from Aristocrat

IMO, the game is way, WAY too dependent on successful early game farm. The possibility of successfully last-hitting is not only random because your own minions sometimes decide to all pile the same enemy minion and KS, but some laning opponents are basically hard counters that prevent you from getting much gold at all.

The targeting method of the creep is actually fairly simple, and if you know how they acquire targets. So it's actually not random, just somewhat complicated:

1. If an allied player is being attacked, they attack the attacker if in aggro range
   If the above is satisfied, the minions will switch targets unless the player is under attack by a tower. This is the only way, other than the target dying, that minions switch targets. Feared minions reacquire targets when the fear ends.
   
2. If the minion itself is under attack, it attacks its attacker
   
3. If neither of the above are true, the minion attacks the nearest enemy target or advances its position in the lane

If you're talking about the support/AD carry bottom lane, that's the general idea. It's generally understood that the bruiser goes top, AP mid, and support/AD carry bottom with a jungler. It's all I see and it's annoying as shit considering it's always one of the same three or four combos bottom. Hence why I quit playing normal/ranked.

Quote from Aristocrat

Darius gets shut down hard against Kayle, and switching lanes puts your team behind by ~500 gold.

As Demon mentioned, there are always hard counters. Switching lanes and taking that 500 gold hit should be more important than staying in the lane and getting underfed and/or feeding, imo.

Quote from Aristocrat

Morgana who is dependent on farming has a hard time with natural pushers like Heimerdinger and Malzahar, and some AP/AD carries who outrange her can harass so much that at 10 minutes they have 80 CS and you have 20 (This puts them ahead >1k gold even without any kills; this is absolutely huge midgame because it translates to massively better items for their AP). Evening out this pretty much requires successful ganks, but after playing a couple of high elo games with friends, I found out that pretty much every bush is warded, shutting down that possibility.

There are always bushes that aren't warded. One trick is to come behind them in the lane -- typically they don't expect people to gank from the bush right next to the tower. And good that every bush is warded, that means you aren't playing against complete trash anymore. Take it as an unintended compliment. Also, if you're getting outranged as Morgana, you might want to use your snare. Her snare has some nice range, does fairly good damage, and if you're getting harrassed and they find themselves in your pool and snare you're getting health and they're losing it, they're probably gonna back off a tad.

Quote from Aristocrat

If the other team isn't retarded (and they typically aren't in higher elo games), they won't feed you midgame and teamfights go in their favor from their carry having better items.

You should plan on them not feeding you as opposed to them feeding you. It's not normal for you to constantly be fed.

Quote from Aristocrat

I don't have enough champions to draft pick (and if I do they're probably going to ban Morgana, leaving me with champions that I suck at).

Play ARAM. You'll get familiarized with far more champions than you otherwise would, and it's a fast-paced game so if you get a bullshit team on the other side (Teemo and Heimer on the same team -- can't push because of the shrooms, get pushed because of the turrets) it's over relatively quickly. Then again, it does kinda slow level progression. It'll take far more ARAM games to get to 30 (where most hosts won't ban you outright unless they want a friend) than it would normal games.

Also, it does help with general game mechanics. I rarely play ranged AD (typically bruiser or a few casters), and I've noticed I've gotten much better with positioning. Yesterday I ended an ARAM 24/8/27 as Ashe, when normally I'd be something like 8/27/24. And if the enemy has an all flash team, you can laugh at them, because flash is far less useful on ARAM than SR.

Just curious poison, why is it that you hate Flash so much, and why don't you use it on Flash-dependent champions Such as Nautilous or Alistar?

The issue with flash is because they accidentally made it a FORCED mobility skill that its almost like you're always supposed to have. After the flash cd nerf in Season 3, I think we're finally going to see less of its existence.

They should just make flash an item ability like they are doing with promote, so you are forced to use up an item slot if you want it, then they can balance its cost and stats (if any) to make it so it isn't useful on just anyone. They could even potentially afford to buff flash if they go this route.

I'm inclined to agree with the itemized flash. I don't use it on flash "dependent" champs because I don't typically play them. Though you could argue all champs are flash dependent, because who doesn't gain from an instant jump from A to B?

DotA and HoN have the blink dagger and port key, which only have the item ability and no stats, IIRC, and there are heroes that make good use of it, and it isn't an item that just everyone gets.

Everyone does, ofc.

But item space is a resource so you can't get everything that helps you. You have to get the items your hero has best synergy with.
Also gold. Buying blink is expensive and certain hereos benefit greatly from it while others could only use it to increase movement speed.
Also keep in mind that Dota and Hon's implementation gives the item a small cooldown if you take damage from player controlled units which makes it useless for escaping when things went bad.

That WOULD be interesting to see added to Flash in LoL

Quote from NudeRaider

Quote from poison_us

who doesn't gain from an instant jump from A to B?

Everyone does, ofc.

That was the point I was attempting to make without explicitly stating it, thank you

Quote from NudeRaider

But item space is a resource so you can't get everything that helps you. You have to get the items your hero has best synergy with.
Also gold. Buying blink is expensive and certain hereos benefit greatly from it while others could only use it to increase movement speed.
Also keep in mind that Dota and Hon's implementation gives the item a small cooldown if you take damage from player controlled units which makes it useless for escaping when things went bad.

Again, I like itemized Flash. It won't be done because then it's copying (because everything in MOBAs are totally unique) and it would be a drastic change to something so many people abuse.