Nubbe Centre

[Kaden]

If its evident that you can't do anything to stop them from taking the tower or if there's no chance you'll be able to get ANY farm or experience. Some good examples of that are Zilean or Xin Zhao. Zil you just need to keep pressure on so he can't dominate the lane with bombs. Xin Zhao starts slow, but reaches a point where he can walk up and kill people at will. Its something that you'll get more familiar with the more you play with/against champions.

There are also things you can do in lane to significantly mitigate the problems you'll have. A melee champ against Zil, for example. Yeah, the first 10 minutes are going to be ridiculously tough. Grab a Negtron Cloak and some health pots, though, and things get much, much easier.

Just try to gauge how you're trading against the enemy champions and think ahead to how that may/may not change as you gain levels. There are plenty of champions who change severely in-lane with level 6 (Mundo, Swain, Kog, etc.). I'd say its about 33% knowing the numbers and 66% having experience with champs. When in doubt, though, ask your team "hey, how do you guys think champion X lanes against champion Y?" Not only does that give you some feedback, but it puts in their heads that they might need to check on you every now and then.