Alright i'm making this post mostly in the wake of about 3 games where I just got tooled up versus ranged players.
My usual band of misfits that I play is the Oak and Unclean Beast.
Generally I start out pretty good, but If I start playing versus aggressive Torchbearers or Regulus players I get screwed. TB will do this if I'm camping a flag lane:
He'll come in, fireball me (i'll try to interrupt with a Penitence but most of the time there's some walking distance before he gets it off) he comes in and drops a circle of fire which I get out of but he mostly does it to wipe out creeps and get xp and I can't catch up to him. He's run away to a tower and my creepwave is dead, so it'd be dumb to follow. Well 5 seconds later he comes in and does the same thing again. Fireball and Flame Circle.
At this point my health may be too low to be hanging around a tower I need to go back, do some cit upgrades/potions.
But generally their ranged tactic really keeps me at bay (Heaven forbid he gets fed and gets the Heart of Life early. When he gets that and some speed, I can't keep up and he runs while regening, then more damage /sigh). Regulus can be the worst offender however. Either they'll drop mines which make it stupid to cross, or he'll just snipewhore and pick off me (or worse, baddie teammates which feed him)
I mean it seems like a strategy that I should be working fine against, and I get the Boots of Speed and Speed Anklet early, but I just can't follow them to their towers; i'd take too much damage.
And then late game fireball/sniping just really keeps me even mroe at bay. It's like I've lost when the game started.