Hello. Welcome to this Teemo guide. This is my first guide so it might not be well developed enough.

I just want to share my experience to you. I have played Teemo from when I first started league, but was hesitant on playing him on Ranked because of things people say about him. Recently I tried playing him in Ranked, and found that he is extremely useful to team and especially to those enemy teams that don't buy sweepers.

If you think there is something I can improve upon, please point them out to me so I can correct myself.

I would really appreciate any feedback for my guide so I can improve it better, whether it is positive or negative.

Why AP Teemo not on hit or AD? Some ask.
So here is the reason I chose AP Teemo.

PROS Insane amounts of poke Can still provide map control by mushrooms when behind High movement speed built for kiting Blind that trolls enemy ADC hard High Movement speed to dodge skillshots Harder to itemize than AD ranged

CONS Isn't durable compared to on hit build or other champions Easy to kill for enemy assassins Lackluster late game Short range Global Taunt (Really, Teemo cannot defend well against junglers pre 6)

A little video to get you into the mood of playing Teemo by Sp4zie

Magic Penetration is extremely useful for Teemo. It increases your damage output by a lot and is pretty much a standard for most AP carries.

Flat Armor seals is useful because ALL champions deal physical damage with AAs. Even though it is nerfed, it still provides a decent amount of armor for early game. It also reduces the damage taken due to minions significantly.
An Alternative will be Scaling Health seals , though I would not recommend it.

Flat MR against AP casters, and Scaling MR against AD enemy. Though if you cannot afford both and 2 rune pages, buy Scaling MR. It provides a lot of defence for lategame. If you play Teemo well, you won't even get hit in the laning phase.
If you can afford it, use against AP top laners.

The reason is used is because it allows you to chase better.

The main point of Movement speed quintessence is for the Early game power, where Teemo can easily gap closed due to W only giving 10% speed. Having movement speed quint will improve your mobility by a lot, whereas it isn't that useful lategame.

But if you are sure that you do not need the kiting power from Movement speed quint, you can use Greater Quintessence of Ability Power. It will make CSing a bit easier and pokes a bit harder.

Double-Edged Sword because it makes you even easier to kill. It is only good for melee.

I did not take Veteran Scars/Juggernaut because it is just 36hp, not that much useful and Juggernaut is only good for tanks. For a teemo, if you get caught you are pretty much toasted. Teemo is squishy and nothing can change it.

Fleet of Foot in the utility tree because it helps you kite. The Move Speed provided is equal to a Movement Speed Quint. Mediation because the increased mana regen is always better. The other options are just 12 health, increased warding range or decreased recall. Mana regen allows you to get more mushrooms out without having to back.

MaxR whenever you can because it is your ult. The use of Mushrooms will be mentioned in later chapters.

Max E first. It helps you CS/poke constantly.

Max W or Q second depending on matchup. For example, when against champions without skillshots/relies on AA (Akali, Tryndamere, Ryze,Pantheon), Max Q for increased damage output.

But against champions that are skillshot reliant (Gragas), max W for improved kiting and skillshot dodging.

Also max Q whenever you think you can/have to bully someone hard or movement speed doesn't matter.For example, against Nasus, your W is almost useless as Nasus can slow you down extremely. You also need Q for increased damage output and CS denying.

Camouflage CAMOUFLAGE



Blinding Dart BLINDING DART


Move Quick MOVE QUICK


Toxic Shot TOXIC SHOT



Noxious Trap NOXIOUS TARP

Ignite Because of increased kill potential in laning phase. Teemo is a lane bully and Ignite will help Teemo a lot. I use this usually when I think I can kill the enemy and the enemy is half health as it will reduce the amount enemy heals assuming both of you pops a .

Flash As Teemo has no escape abilities except a mediocre movement speed increase, Flash is the ideal spell for Teemo. It can in used for offensive (Flash Q AA) or defensively (Flashing to safety)


SITUATIONAL SPELLS

Teleport Teemo has a much worse late game compared to other top laners. Surviving the laning phase is not enough for Teemo. Teemo needs to WIN it. But take this when you are against lanes you can't bully as they will rely on snowballing even more than you.

Exhaust can be extremely effective against some assassins (Zed, Riven, Fizz). It can greatly improve the chance of Teemo's survival. Though it won't help the much needed Early game for Teemo. Teemo has to bully his enemy in order to be effective later on in the game.



NON VIABLE SPELLS

+ x4 is the normal start for me. It improves your ability to chase and kite. It also allows you to dodge skillshots easier. When you don't start this, sometimes you may just need that particular attack off the enemy to kill him, but you can't chase them fast enough.

I start this against hybrid pokers that you can't win against. For example, Nidalee can poke you hard, has insane potential to all in. Starting flask brings something unique to Teemo- Sustain. Sustain is always good. Other hybrid pokers: Gnar and Jayce

Only start + x5 against the Hell lanes. Start Cloth against Pantheon or Riven, those lanes that you can't win, only survive. You can't poke them hard enough and they can all in you easily enough to kill you. Farm and back when low. Rush

The only times you start with will be the times that you know you can bully someone hard. Starting this will delay your build and decrease your kiting power early, but in return it gives you AP, mana regen to spam . Start this against weaker laners

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Nashor's Tooth gives a decent amount of AP, Attack Speed and CDR. This makes it the ideal item for Teemo. The AP is pretty straightforward, it improves Teemo's damages. The Attack Speed of Nashor's Tooth increases the on hit effect of and procs 's own on hit effect. This increases Teemo's damage output drastically. The CDR allows more Shrooms to be placed in the field, giving more Map Control to Teemo's team as well.

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Liandry's Torment gives Magic Penetration and an awesome passive. The item's passive is the main reason it is so good on Teemo. As Teemo's shrooms have a built in slow and is a Damage-Over-Time ability, it burns for about 20% of current health just from the Liandry's passive. Liandry's burns for 4% current health per second if the target is movement impaired. The Maths of passive here: Let x be the health enemy has. Getting hit by a shroom with liandry's (excluding base damage and AP ratios) will deal for x*98%^(8)*99%^(6) =80%x (rounded off to nearest integer) just from the item passive, it deals 20% of current health

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Void Staff is pretty much a standard item for all AP carries. The MR penetration it gives is Irreplaceable. No other item gives so much damage for an AP carry. 35% Penetration of MR! It is just too good to be replaced by any other item.

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The order of getting Liandry's and Nashor's can be changed depending whether you are winning or losing lane. If you are winning, get Nashor's to bully even harder. When you are behind, get Liandry's to make your shrooms hit harder as the passive damage scales off ENEMY's health.


Teemo's base damage are decent. After you have completed these 3 items and Sorcerer's Shoes, you can build other items depending on the game. You should be able to deal out massive damage after these items.

Situational Items

Seeker's Armguard will increase your defense a lot during laning phase. I usually get this when the enemy laner's damages are full AD . Even if I started Boots or Flask, I would try to get it.

Zhonya's Hourglass is a useful item to save you in a bad situation. It gives a decent amount of AP and armor. I get this most of the time if I am not having a lot of trouble against any particular enemy.

Rabadon's Deathcap increases your damage output by a lot. Unless you are really focused hard, you should get it. The extra 30% AP makes you hit a lot harder.

Randuin's Omen This item is great against heavy AD teams, it also gives you an Area-of-Effect slow to kite enemies. Get this if you can't handle an enemy AD champion. This item also comes with an attack speed slow if others hit you, making ADC less effective against you.

Banshee's Veil Get this against Blitzcrank or Thresh. It will save you from ending up inside enemy team. A common arguement will be: Teemo can dodge easily! But with max CDR, Blitzcrank can grab once every 9seconds. You may be able to dodge most grabs, but fail once and you're done for. This item still provides good health regen and MR against burst assassins such as Katarina or Fizz.

Quicksilver Sash Get this if you have trouble against Malzahar, Warwick or against heavy cc teams. What this item does is irreplacable by any other item. For myself, I prefer this item over Mercury's Treads because of the instant cc removal. Mercury's treads reduce the duration, but it isn't enough. Half a second can get you killed. Upgrade it lategame into Mercurial Scimitar. The AD part isn't that useful but the movespeed can allow you to get out of sticky situation.

Unviable Items

Morellonomicon I have often seen Teemo get this item against and other high sustain champions, but I won't recommend it, as after you get Nashors you will already have 25% CDR. Getting this will waste some stats. The AP is fine but not as good as ZHonyas or Deathcap. And the mana regen isn't exactly useful on Teemo. Most of the time you won't be using mana at all. If you can manage to get those champions to below 40% health, then you should have not much problem getting them to 0% health.

Runaan's Hurricane I won't recommend this. This AP build focuses a lot into Mushrooms. Getting this will only help your on hit effects. This item gives neither tankiness nor ability power. This item is still fine but not as effective as Zhonya's Hourglass or Rabadon's Deathcap in my opinion.

Mejai's Soulstealer This item provides lots of AP and CDR if stacked. So its a great item, right? NO! You should NEVER get this item on Teemo. Teemo is already squishy and easy to kill, getting killed is unavoidable if the game lasts long enough. You aren't one of those mages that can stay 99miles away from fight and still get kills, or those assassins that have a dash/escape every few seconds. You will get killed. Buying this will put a banner on you to tell the enemy team to target you even more. The slot for this item can be used for Zhonyas, it provides decent AP and survivability. This item does nothing of that sort and you already get enough CDR from Nashors.

or ?

The answer is quite simple for this build,

This build is AP focused. A lot of damage is dealt from Mushrooms as well. Using Berserker's Greaves won't help your mushroom. It is for the on hit build.

Sorcerer's Shoes is a great penetration item, along with Void Staff and Liandry's Torment, you can neglect the enemy's MR quite easily. The 15 mPen given by this item will increase your damage output by a huge amount.

Early on you should ALWAYS get Warding trinket. It is a free ward and enables protection against enemy jungler. Without it you will have to spend extra money on [stealth ward]. But later in the game, replace Stealth Ward with Sweeping Lens and upgrade it.

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Why Oracle's Lens?

Teemo gets a free miniward every 30 seconds that last up to 10minutes. With proper mushroom placements, it can replace the use of wards completely. By getting the red trinket, you can DENY your enemy their vision, which makes them prone to jungler ganks. You have miniwards while they have NO vision at all.

Later on you can use the lens to sweep the baron pit and areas around it, removing enemy wards. By doing this correctly, your team will have much more Map Control than the enemy.

NOTE: I did not mean that as that you can stop buying wards. You should still buy pink wards and stealth wards to place in your side of bush. Pink wards last FOREVER now. There isn't any reason you shouldn't buy them. 100g, its really cheap. For stealth wards, early on you need them to protect better against jungle as you will not have shrooms to protect yourself. Buying wards pre 6 is REALLY useful and its just 2 CS per ward. Having extra vision is ALWAYS good. After 6, buying Vision wards are still a good idea. They last FOREVER if they are not destroyed. Really cost efficient for such a small price (perma vision).

WARNING: WALL OF TEXT

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A-H

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I-P

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Q-Z

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Here are a list of champions that you should pay attention to, allied team or enemy team.

Adding more soon, because this section is new so there isn't much at the moment.

DON'T

Try Not pick Teemo if enemy team has one of the above. Notice a similarity? Targeted Burst is what Teemo hates the most. You will be non existent lategame if the enemy team has them. In every fight, they will kill you. You will die from them making it a 4v5 most of the time. Though the game can still be played if you play it smart and wait for their abilities to be used. Don't dodge just because the enemy team picked them after you picked.




These champions will destroy you. Their range is too high to use lategame and they can deal heavy damage to you from afar, disabling your passive so you can't catch up. Both of them comes with an escape and one with a mega peel. Don't go Teemo against them. Though still try to blind them if you are against them whenever you have a chance, but it will be much harder compared to the low range ADC (Graves, Miss fortune， Ezreal）

DO

Pick Teemo if your team has a Cassiopeia. Your poison works on her E making her deal much more damage as your poison resets the E cooldown. Your AA and shroom poison works for Cassiopeia, allowing her to spam E without hesitation. This improves her damage output by a lot as Cassiopeia doesn't have to rely on landing her Q and W that much.




Pick Teemo if your team has these. These champions are tanky enough and can provide peel for you to followup or gain distance. They have AoE disables to the enemy team allowing you to dish out massive damage. Having these champions as teammates means that your team will still have enough cc and hard engages, that can improve your team composition a lot.




These supports can synergize well with you. Both of them provides peel for you and are tanky to make up for the lack of tankiness in the top laner. Their cc can peel for you easily. Alistar has an AoE knockup and a knockback, with the much needed sustain for you as well. Blitzcrank can grab enemies into your mushrooms adding even more kill potential to your team. With them in your team your ADC and you should be able to keep safe.




These champions have global ultimates that can cooperate with your shrooms. They can fire their ultimates after an enemy is chunked out by 1-2 shrooms, allowing random kills here and there. With the vision provided by mushrooms they can aim their ultimates easier too.




Her ultimate lategame will make you invulnerable for 3 seconds, making assassins useless against you. That helps to make up for Teemo's squishy nature and allows him to go deeper in teamfights to deal out maximum damage. Her speed boost also adds to your chasing/kiting power.




These can be used on your shrooms, making them even more useful. Your mushrooms increase the power of these two.




These champions have attack speed boosts that can be used on you increasing your damage output in teamfights by a lot. You will be able to deal much more single target damage with them in your team. hunter's call

During laning phase, your job is to poke the hell out of the opposite laner. It doesn't matter if you take damage, take minion aggro or whatever it is. Just make sure that the ENEMY laner takes more damage than you do.

You don't have to use your Q to poke. Your E poison alone is enough already. Teemo isn't about high burst damage, Teemo is about high sustained damage. Try to keep the poison on the enemy for at least 2/3 of the laning phase. You will find that the enemy will be taking a lot of damage. Just apply the poison once a few seconds.

Unlike most champions, Teemo can't really stand in mid a minion wave to zone the enemy laner. Teemo is too fragile to be hit by minions. To zone, you should be near the bushes. Auto attack the opponent whenever you have the chance then retreat back to the bushes. When your opponent is low enough, move 1 bush forward and continue the technique, don't let the opposite get near the minion wave.

A good time to poke the enemy laner will be when they go for CS themselves. When you see the enemy laner approach a dying friendly minion, ready yourself to throw in a couple of auto attacks. You can also go aggresive when the enemy's main damaging spell or gapcloser is off CD. E.g. 's , 's , 's

Also avoid hitting minions when it is not necessary. Try to keep the wave near your side so the enemy jungler will have a harder time ganking you.

Poking under turret

Poking under enemy turret is generally done by waiting for your friendly melee minions to be wiped out. When the enemy go for the caster minions, you can go a bit forward and hit them with AA + +AA to deny them the CS. Though be aware of the enemy's positioning. Unless they are at your allied Caster wave, you will get hit when you go for the second AA. By doing this you can normally get the enemy opponent low or make them miss out the entire caster wave. But be aware of enemy junglers and champions that can drag you back to their turret . As you are poking under enemy turret, you are extremely over extended.

TASKS FOR LANING PHASE -Have more CS than the enemy -Higher level than enemy -Make yourself as annoying as possible -Have mushrooms near the Jungler's path to provide vision for team

By now you should have Sorcerer shoes and Nashors. You should try to attack the enemy more often. Your damage output spikes up right after you buy Nashors. With the increased attack speed and on hit effect, you should be able to keep the enemy low health at all times.

Try to take out the enemy first turret if you haven't done that already. Destroying the turret will give your team a good amount of global gold and increase the map control of your team as you can roam farther and your minions push farther as well.

You should also shroom out the map. Usually, you can shroom near the obvious walking route of the enemy jungle. But don't put the shroom on the route. Put it NEAR the route. Why is this important? You may ask. Early on, before you get liandry's, your shrooms won't do much to the enemy jungler except to annoy them slightly. They will then sustain back the damage took by Spirit items. But if you put the Shroom near their walking spot, you will have vision of them and have mini-wards that stays for 10 Minutes. Mushroom spots will shown in the chapter Mushroom.



Or maybe things aren't going well for you, you lost a duel and is now behind.
If that is the case, just farm. Nothing will happen if you don't do much and make the lane a farm fest. But the situation will get worse if you try to 'outplay' your opponent and dies again. And again. And again.
Don't do that. Just farm.

Your role in late game shifts a bit into more of an utility champion. Your main task should be providing vision and map control to your team. Although your Teemo's teamfight is not exactly the best, it is not the worst either.

By now you should have Nashors, Liandrys, Void staff and Deathcap. The triple penetration from sorc shoes, liandrys and void will ensure that your damage output is a force to be reckoned with.

Your tasks now should be:

Provide map control

Shroome out OBVIOUS spots like baron pit, dragon pit or jungle routes. Your shrooms shuld hit at least 700 damage to squishy targets and they will provide vision of enemies hit. This will be a huge advantage for your team. For example, if you see the enemy jungler being hit by a shroom near wight, ping dragon immediately and rush it down with your team, uncontested.

Stick with the team

Teemo is squishy and everybody knows it. If you get caught out then you're dead. A Fizz or Zed will chunk you near death by just 1 or 2 spells. So, stick to the protection of your team and group. If you think a teamfight will happen, put shrooms near the middle of the battlefield. Your shrooms hit for a lot and the slow will disable enemy engages effectively.

Put shrooms in front of turrets if the enemy has split pushers

like Tryndamere, Nasus. It will decrease the speed of their pushing as the melee minions will be wiped out.

In Teamfights, you should play like a marksman. What I mean by that is to kite. The steps and reasons for kiting is mentioned here.



Kiting allows you to get a lot more hits before the enemy closes on you, especially on Teemo. Teemo's Move Quick allows him to move faster than most champions, making it extremely hard to catch up with him.

In teamfights, you should attack the NEAREST target and keep the max range on enemies. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to go for enemy ADC or APC in every fight. Keeping your safety should be your main task. Getting to the enemy carries should be your jungle or support's work. Attack the nearest enemy champion and try to maintain poison on all closest enemy champions. The poison will tick for a lot of damage onto them.






Teemo is a marksman, its just that he scales off AP. Don't play him like a tank!! You will die easily if you do!



Place shrooms in the enemy's route to you, this will slow them and allow more kiting.




An alternate use of shrooms will be, place shrooms near your mid laner and ADC to prevent enemy bruisers to gapclose to them easily. This tactic is especially useful when you are behind and the mid laner/ADC are doing more damage than you are doing.

Coordinate with your teammates to teamfight in a mushroom field. It will increase the chances of your team winning the teamfight by a lot. Potential sites are near Baron, near Dragon, Mid lane and jungle. These are the easiest sites to lure enemy into.

Use your if the enemy ADC is in range of you. That will disable enemy ADC for a long time. It can win you teamfights. You can also use it on enemy engager if their CC is tied with Auto attacks. .


I will repeat it again, in teamfights your main goal as Teemo should be KEEPING YOURSELF ALIVE and DEALING OUT DAMAGE TO ENEMY CHAMPIONS NEAR YOU.

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The Early-Mid game wards

The reason for placing the shrooms such that it doesn't hit the jungler is because early on, yopur mushrooms hit for about 170-250damage after MR. That won't even scratch the jungler as they will heal up. And venturing deep into enemy jungle is DANGEROUS. You can't have those mini-wards destroyed once per 3 minutes.

DO NOT PLACE DEEP WARDS UNLESS YOU KNOW THE JUNGLER IS NOT NEARBY, ONLY PLACE DEEP WARDS IF YOU SEE THE ENEMY JUNGLER SOMEWHERE ELSE

I didn't fill the whole lane with shrooms because in a real game, you have to save up 1 or 2 shrooms on yourself for dueling. Putting too many shrooms that might NOT hit the enemy laner is just a waste of it. You only need to get vision of the enemy jungler as well, not hit them. Hitting them means that they might just turn away and leave. But knowing that they are there can allow a countergank that turns into your favor.


Late game ones

Utilise the Bush. Currently, the minion aggro is extremely high for AA dealt to enemy. By using the bush, you will remove the minion aggro completely, also making it harder for enemy to avoid you as they lose vision of you.

Sometimes, when you are ganked and you cannot get to safely (near enemy jungle). Just pick an unlikely spot and stop moving. If everything goes well, you will go invisible and the enemy will lose track of you. With luck your laner will walk back to lane and leaves you alone facing an underleveled jungler (junglers are usually 1 or 2 levels behind laners) and have the potential of killing him.

Play Teemo like a Marksman, not a tank. Often I see Teemo just standing there and AA enemies while they move toward him. Teemo has low range, without kiting, Teemo is practically useless as it will be easy for bruisers to kill him.

For some fights, you have to save up your Q when you are sure that you won't die and can kill your opponent. If the enemy sees their health drop by a chunk early in the fight because you used your Blinding Dart, they may flash away. But if you are sure that you can kill the enemy, save your Blinding Dart for the last bit of burst to finish the enemy off. Most people underestimate the nuking power of Blinding Dart.

Try to put out a shroom whenever you have all 3 stacked. The reason for that is if you save up shrooms even after it is at maximum capacity you will actually decrease the map control you are putting out. 30 seconds for 10minutes. For every second you hold on a mushroom, you remove 20seconds of a zone's vision. Though don't put shrooms in places that enemy will never walk through (your base).

If the enemy destroyed the turret and you need to freeze it, this can be a way. Though don't take too much damage from minions and ping when enemy goes MIA to roam.

General Tips here, ignore this part if you have already seen these before but some may not know about them.

Ignore what people say, Mute if it is needed. Don't rage, don't flame. Being toxic will just lower your chance of winning.

You cannot win EVERY game. Most players will only have 50%-55% win rate, losing is part of the game, like winning is. You will win some and lose some, same for the other team you are facing. Try to think about how you could have done better after each match. Like, sometimes I get that feeling that the enemy champion is in the bush, and I still facecheck it. Try to think about these mistakes after each match.

Learn to get Carried. You have to remember that your other 4 teammates should be around your same MMR and skill level. You can carry and so can them. If you lost your lane, don't be negative and keep creating surrender votes. Try not to feed and just CS so your enemy laner will have less of an impact on the game. Let your fed teammates carry you. If the enemy jungler keeps ganking top making you behind and your jungler doesn't come, don't blame it on him. Maybe your jungler has been helping other lanes. Just try to play safer. Assume that enemy jungler gets 3 kills on you = your jungler gets 3 kills or make enemy laners behind in other lanes.

Not all lanes are won by snowballing, lanes can be won by outscaling. Examples of this will be . Survivng the laning phase without giving them any kills while maintaining only 10-30CS behind will be the ideal situation. By not allowing them to snowball, you greatly cripple their impact onto the rest of the game as they are entirely early game based.

A game isn't over when enemy gets First Blood, Turret or Dragon. A game is only over when your nexus explodes. So don't give up.

Don't judge yourself by KDA. Judge it by win rate. Most people think KDA = Skill. This is not exactly true for all champions. For example, Teemo is squishy and lacks an escape so he tends to die often. But with shrooms and AA he deals massive poke damage out to enemy team. For Karthus, you have to be in middle of enemy team to deal out most damage and you tend to die often. After you die you can use passive too. So don't judge by KDA, judge by win rate.

>50%=Good

Some may ask
'BUT TEEMO ISN'T VIABLE'
'SO SQUISHY'
'TEETO IZ USELESS'
'WHY TEEMO? NOT OTHER TOP LANERS'

The thing is, EVERYTHING is viable.

When someone made it into diamond by playing AP Sejuani mid, you should have known already.

Don't just play what the pros say are viable, play what you like playing. It doesn't matter what others say, just have fun and play that champion. There are people that made it into diamond using Urgot, Quinn and other champions that aren't exactly popular.

EVERYTHING is viable.

Some real facts here:

The aim of Teemo is to be annoying as possible. After each match of Teemo, ask yourself, 'Am I annoying enough'?

Try thinking about how much CS did you deny the enemy, how many ganks have you spoiled with well placed mushrooms, how many ADC have you deleted? If you are satisfied with the results, then have you played well.

Now to the real part of summary:

~Farm well
~Shroom well
~Deny well
~Kill well

That is all to Teemo

My scores



If you have any scores you can share, please leave a comment down and with the imgur link so I can add it here.

This is my first guide. I hope you have learned something after reading this. Tell me if i have done something wrong please, because this is the first time I've made a guide. I have really spent a lot of effort on this.

Thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide!

Without that guide I won't have done this