When should I transition new champs from Bot games to Normals?

I have been trying out assassin mid's for a few days (since I want to play Yasuo without sucking too bad) and I'm wondering how much practice I should get under me before I try my hand at a normal? I have, as far as I can tell, a very low ELO since I have been skidish about playing normals anyways.

Since I don't want to let my team down by playing a champion cold in a normal game with people, how good should I be or what should I make sure I work on before I take a mid champ to Normals to practice with? (Something like Fizz, Kat, or Yasuo)

Solution 1:

Use bot games to learn about a champion and how to play them efficiently, such as learning combos, trying out different builds, practicing mechanics and last-hitting (since all champs have different auto attacks to get used to) and also learning skillshot speeds/delays. Once you have the basics of the champion you are learning down, then move on to PvP games.

The problem with bots is they have set builds and don't play anything like a normal person would, which makes them very predictable. You can also easily shut them down just by hurting them enough to leave lane and they will soon be incredibly under-leveled and easier to kill.

Losing in a normals has no drawbacks compared to ranked games so use this mode to further improve your abilities. You only get better with practice anyways. Even if your first few games don't go well you should at least be learning how others are keeping you down. After any kill or death ask yourself how you were able to set the kill up, or what you could have done to prevent your death.

This is all coming from personal experience. When Yasuo first came out I played quite a few bot games as him. After a couple Penta kills and some 20+ - 2 games I thought I was ready for normals but quickly saw I was wrong. While a full damage build worked well against bots, I failed miserably trying that against other players which just goes to show that nothing helps learning a champion like playing against other people in PvP.