However, this evening I had a bit of a revelation.
The current patch and meta has ever so sneakily shifted me away from all the heroes I am great at and has left me with the ones I'm only average with. When I look at a hero pool now I don't see my early/mid game favorites of
Lifestealer, 
Drow Ranger, 
Dragon Knight, and 
Huskar. No, I immediately go towards 
Troll Warlord(sorry), [[Juggernaut]}(really sorry), or some other late-blooming carry.Now it's not bad for my group of preferred heroes to change, I just can't expect to get the same results trying out a new build on Troll to the results I get with my Drow or DK of a few patches ago.
I suppose the point of this is to encourage others that may be having the same experience. Don't just blindly remember that Jugg is good, figure how a
Mask of Madness changes him and what you need to do differently to survive.The same thing for the next patch, wherever it may take us, think of all the good things you do with your favorite heroes of bygone eras and try to match those feats with your new hero, don't blindly wade into a game. Don't let the patch catch you off guard, study it just a little, think about what it means, and be ready to adapt as the game progresses.
I'm sorry to anyone that has had to play a game with me when I'm on
Troll Warlord in the past few weeks, I don't know who I'm trying to play him as but its not right or as helpful to the team as it could be.Now that I realize that, I know I can try to make myself a littttle better just in time to get confused by the next patch.
This has been my first blog post, thanks for reading!
R-Conqueror
as soon as it came in i found i jumped 2% in win rate :)
haha all the meta heroes fit my playstyle so well lol :P
Early/mid core heroes still have a place, they're just not the big bad anymore - you can make them effective if you use them right. I think sometimes we get too obsessed with "the meta" and "what's popular" and forget how effective some heroes can be in the right situations - in fact, when heroes are unpopular can be the best time to play them as people have forgotten how to counter them.
I think your main idea is the best - always be flexible, always try to think about what you're doing and why - good players remain good from patch to patch by adapting - inflexible ones have their moment in the sun and then fade away.