I've been playing for a few days now and am slowly getting the hang of the game. I do reasonably well with ranged champs and I can play a solid Ashe (but then again, who can't? ). However, my attempts to switch to some melee champs have failed miserably. It's not that I never win, I just don't feel like I'm contributing. Sure, I could just buy Ashe and a few other ranged champs, but I don't feel like playing ranged all the time.

I bought Master Yi after seeing one player work miracles with him in one game. And indeed, if I can level up, I'm a monster. However, he's so squishy that most of the time I end up feeding the other team, falling behind and then being useless for the rest of the match.

I then tried Kayle. Seemed like a decent blend of damage, tanking and support. However, I wound up feeling useless. My heals were tiny, my damage was weak and I wasn't all that durable. Also, I wasn't having much fun with the champ.

Now, I have my eye on Garen, since he seems fairly straightforward, simple and not too squishy. However, the ******* is over 3k IP, so it'll take me a while to accumulate that much (especially with the 1k I already wasted on Yi+Kayle).

The question is, is Garen a good choice as a starter melee? Also, which melee chars would you suggest for a new player? The main condition is that they aren't to squishy, since I'm not good enough at the game to compensate and I like a more relaxed playstyle. I also have my eye on Shen, since I've heard some good things about him, but he seems a bit more complicated to play...

Basically, I'm a bit apprehensive about spending my IP considering that the first two characters I bought didn't work out...

EDIT: I suppose this post can be disregarded at this point since I've decided to lay off the melee. Reason? I played a few games with Morgana and had more fun than in any 5 other games I played combined. It seems that I function better with casters. However, thanks to everyone who offered their help. Now I just have to start saving my IP for Ezra, Karthus or Morgana. ****, why are all the interesting chars so **** expensive...

The free available champions change each monday, in case you did not know that.

It's better to test for oneself which champions are enjoyable to play.

The only good melee champion is Jax, WW / Yi / Shaco are ok

Finding a champion that suits you is really hard, and the fact that you have to spend large amounts of IP before you can even try the champion isn't really helping What helped me spend my first IP was to look up youtube videos of several champions, and just see how they are played. This is how I fell in love with my Ezreal <3
Riot Games has its own youtube channel, check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RiotGamesInc#p/u
Browse through the 'Champion Spotlight' videos they made of several champions, and see what the maker of the video (Phreak I think) has to say about them.

I can only recommend you to check out videos of champions, I have never played Garen myself so I can't comment on that part of your question. In general I only like melee champions if they have some form of what I like to call 'gtfo-ability', something to get you out of tight situations. (Think Tryndamere's Spinning Slash, Shaco's Deceive or Shen's Shadow Dash)

I hope this is of any use to you, good luck spending your hard earned IP ^^

-Kool

Same situation for me now, I'm nearing 3k IP again and I have no idea what to spend it on... Can't make up my mind between Gangplank (because he's an awesome pirate, yarr) or Gragas (because I have never ever seen a Gragas in my whole LoL carreer. And his abilities seem like fun )

Katarina was already suggested, she's who I wanted to suggest as well. She's not too squishy and she's not solely melee and you can teleport to an enemy to hit him and teleport away (to friendly units) again, so you're a little more mobile than most other melee champs. Only thing she lacks is a disable or stun.

Maybe Nidalee might suit you as well, she's a nice hybrid of melee, ranged and even support since she got a heal.