Teemo Build Guide by xMrSchmidtx

Introduction

This build is not finished. It is a work in progress. Please leave helpful hints and criticisms if you so wish. Please, refrain from trolling :)

AP Teemo IS viable, I have played veeeeery many games with him... against a variety of enemies. I have not had much chances to play him in ranked, but only because my team freaks out and dodges whenever I try.

If you look me up you'll notice I'm not a pro, nor the best player in the League. I am a sub-par player with most characters. I just find myself doing exceedingly well with a small number, Teemo being one. So please take this into consideration before judging.

As always, have fun Summoners! :)

Get Ready to Downvote...

...Because this is a guide on the only way to successfully place Teemo on a team, as AP mid carry. BUT! DON'T VOTE YET! Hope is not lost, because I am here to teach you how amazing he performs in mid, how many games I HAVE COMPLETELY CARRIED as Teemo, and how CONSISTENTLY these games are carried.

This is my second MobaFire guide, and also my second Teemo guide. In my first guide, I espoused my belief that Teemo should be played as an AP/AS hybrid, with items such as Wit's End, Malady and Madred's Bloodrazor. Since then, I moved to playing Teemo more as a support champion with Bloodrazor/Mallet and items like Zeke's Herald and Shurelyia's Reverie, and that was good and all, but he just doesn't perform adequately in those roles (although I'd still average a +4 or +5 K/D). I have even tinkered with an AD split pushing champ, but, against competent team compositions, that build too fails hard (although you can still melt faces when fed).

Before you read the whole thing, I want you to know that Teemo is an overall strong champion, and versatile champ, able to fill almost any role (except as a dedicated jungler, which I HAVE tried without success) :3

Why Teemo?

Pros:

High damage champion
Has no real bad match-ups in mid lane
Can be built almost any possible way
Can recover from being shut out rather easily
Infuriates the other team when they fail to kill you
Infuriates the other team when your mushroom kills them
Global Taunt

Cons:

Very team dependent
A "secretly OP" champion, many will queue dodge/call you a troll
Very hard to master
Global Taunt

WARNING: I WILL NOT BE BABYING YOU WITH LITTLE EXPLANATIONS YOU CAN LOOK UP ON WIKIPEDIA. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HIS ABILITIES DO, WHAT THE ITEMS I LIST DO, OR HOW TO USE A SUMMONER SPELL, LOOK IT UP. THANKS.

Captain Trollmo, on duty!

At the moment, Teemo is extremely underrated.

I have been through the MobaFire guides, and each one designates Teemo to the role "bruiser" or "top-lane counter," perhaps as "ad carry" or "support." Teemo can indeed play all of these positions well to a degree, but he is out-shined by very many other champions.

Because of this, coupled by a tendency for new Teemo players to play him badly and no spot in the current meta, the community has designated Teemo as a "useless" and "trolling" character.

However..

Teemo has one of THE STRONGEST early and mid game denials in the entire League, which is amazing when you consider he has no active CC, very short abiliy and attack ranges, and no ability to combo.

As Teemo, I can and have successfully countered almost every AP mid out there, Brand Cassiopeia Lux Malzahar Sion Katarina Kassadin Annie Karthus Twisted Fate Mordekaiser Gragas Vladamir and on and on.

But xMrSchmidtx, this is such a large claim for you to make! How can you possibly accomplish mid lane denial so easily, it must be incredibly difficult for you!

AA+Q+AA will win every lane match-up imaginable, with notable exceptions being Xerath, whom I have found no strategy to overcome, and, interestingly enough, Wukong, who has the ability to COME OUT EVEN with Teemo, and kill him if Teemo is not wary enough (until level 6, when Wukong's gap closer becomes ineffective.) [EDIT: at level 6, if not denied, Wukong's ability to kill Teemo with his ult becomes almost certain. Tested in custom]

Because of his denial, Teemo will often come out 2 or 3 levels ahead of his opponent, with 20+ CS gain, severely crippling their carry. It may sound like I'm exaggerating, but I'm actually being conservative, assuming Teemo hasn't actually completely dominated mid as he should.

How, then, do I play games in which I'm fed 17/3, 15/1, 30/8? Is it because I steal kills? Face noobs? Hack?

Well, I'm actually not sure how I do as well as I do when I play Teemo. All I know is that when I feel having a definite win, I play Teemo, because it just feels like I don't lose games anymore when I play him. I don't ks (on purpose), my opponents are at least as good as I am, if not better, and I'm not even sure that League of Legends can be hacked at all.

I will back up these claims with videos and screen shots soon... Once I can figure out this whole converting video files thing xD

Runes and Masteries

Runes

This is the first part of the tour in which I impose my domineering opinion upon the masses! >:D

If you notice, I have no defensive runes or masteries for Teemo. I used to run flat Health Quints, but, after switching to flat AP, the results were so astonishing that I followed suit with Seals. Magic Pen red and AP blue are the two obvious choices for a caster, and it may seem like overkill to take the flat AP in Quints and yellow, but tbh it works, very well.

With this setup, you have about 30 ability power right out of the fountain, complemented by 9 magic pen. The magic pen is only useful for countering the MR most mid champions rune for. We don't rune for defense because we can outdamage our opponents by a lot, and therefore they do not want to trade with us.

If I were to change any of these runes, the ONLY change I would be happy with would be mana regen/5 in yellow or blue.

EDIT: I have experimented with HP/5 seals, and am pleasantly surprised at the amount of early sustain they bring. I think they're superior to Lifesteal or Spellvamp runes atm, and I wonder why no one else uses them.

Masteries

On AP Teemo, I take 21/0/9, which is a standard caster setup. The 9 in Utility is mainly aimed at obtaining Runic Affinity because both buffs are very strong on Teemo, after Swiftness for early game speed and Expanded Mind for more spam. Obviously take the Ability Power masteries from Offense, along with Executioner if you so wish. To be honest, Executioner might be left out if you wanted a point in Improved Recall or Scout , because the damage is not really noticeable, and the other two provide at least a little utility.

You could be justified in going 21/9/0 for a bit more survivability, and that's legit too if you're not very confident about your kiting abilities. If I was to put some points in the defense tree, I'd want Resistance over Hardiness , simply because in mid lane, most damage done to you will be magical. Aside from that it's personal choice.

Summoner Spells

Flash and Ignite are what I run with nowadays. They're the strongest early game spells for Teemo, but pretty much any spells are ok to take. I can't really think of one that would be terrible for Teemo, even Claivoyance or Clarity (although your support should take those). You probably shouldn't take Revive though.

I was at an impasse on whether to take Ignite or Exhaust. Exhaust is more versatile in that it can be used offensively or defensively as the situation calls for it, and also for the famous "Teemo triple-threat" blind/exhaust/blind shutdown for ad carries. What got me caught on Ignite was principally the improved mastery, which gives AP and AD for the duration of the cooldown, as opposed to Exhaust's mr/armor reduction which is given for the duration of the spell. Ignite secured its place next to Flash once I discovered how many first bloods I get with it, and that definitely contributes to outleveling your opponent.

Flash is not mandatory, but, as you will see in my videos, it's just too op to go without.

Abilities

Teemo's abilities are not standard caster fare.

For one, Teemo has no hard cc, in fact, no cc at all until level 6. He has only one damaging ability, and one passive that buffs his auto-attacks slightly. His Move Quick, while useful in our setup, does not fit a caster's kit.

Blinding Dart is an undisputed nuke. A spammable nuke, in fact. There are incredibly few instances in which I wouldn't take this ability as my first. Perhaps a reason I wouldn't want this first would be Toxic Shot for easier last-hitting or Move Quick for earlier kiting, but honestly it doesn't happen often.

Move Quick is usually my third skill, maxed last. This ability is useful for many things, kiting just one among them. An important note to remember, while the passive is lost upon being hit by a turret or champion, if you activate the ability the passive is active again after the ability ends, regardless of whether you were hit or not.

Toxic Shot would be my second skill. Early game, this skill is MOST USEFUL for last hitting, although you should always remember to auto-attack the enemy whenever possible. Toxic shot draws turret aggro, so if you're poking under a turret make sure to only Blinding Dart and back up.

Noxious Trap is the defining skill for any Teemo, and all that really changes with it is how to use it and how much damage it does. I will most likely devote a chapter to tha shrooms, so all I want to say right out is that Oracles IS NOT a direct counter to Teemo, it just stops the global rapeage that would ensue otherwise. Just for you naysayers out there.