Teemo Build Guide by poinears

A Beginner's Guide to Teemo

Teemo is an incredibly squishy carry that excels at being incredibly versatile. He can range from a solo top to an AD carry played bottom lane with a support to a mid lane carry. Teemo's abilities scale off of Ability Power, but his attack-based and passive ability set make him viable as an Attack Damage carry as well.

Runes

My runes allow for plenty of armor and magic resist penetration, between the quintessences and the marks. In addition, the glyphs provide an extra touch of attack speed to start the game, allowing for better CSing. Finally, the seals give the extra in-lane sustainability that Teemo needs early on. (An extra 50-ish health really DOES make that much of a difference.)

Masteries

The masteries are a little tricker. Since I prefer offensive masteries on an offensive champion, I usually take the AD or AP side of the offensive mastery tree. However, since this Teemo is a hybrid, the masteries need to balance the two sides.

Summoner's Spells

I prefer to run Heal and Ignite on Teemo for a few reasons.

• He has an escape with his Move Quick
• He is very squishy early on
• Ignite prevents enemies from healing your poison
• Ignite provides an ADDITIONAL DOT (the Ignite debuff and Toxic Shot debuff stack)

Other useful summoner spells include:

• Flash
• Exhaust
• Teleport
• Surge
• Cleanse

Of these, I would recommend:

• Flash
• Teleport

Skill Levelling

Teemo has one of the trickiest ability sets in the game specifically because he has several viable options for levelling his abilities. Under the assumption that one was to take points in his Noxious Trap when possible, Teemo has several different ways to level his other three abilities. One can: Again, due to the fact that this is a HYBRID Teemo, the ability order is:
beforebefore

The Basics

Some people prefer to play an aggressive Teemo, particularly in the solo top lane. This build does not work well with an aggressive Teemo player due to the low sustainability and low damage output early on. With this Teemo build, one must wait and be patient. Just stay top and farm; help out with teamfights when you can so long as it does not cost you too much CS. Wait until you have completed your Berserker's Greaves and Hextech Gunblade before being aggressive in your lane. However, do not play too passively either; more specifically, you do not want to lose your lane without a fight. USE DEM SHROOMS!!! Teemo's Noxious Trap is one of the best abilities to avoid losing a lane.

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A duo bot lane can be a little bit trickier than a solo top lane specifically because the carries can usually harass each other more than can those on the solo top lane. Since Teemo is a very squishy carry, (more so than most others, if not all others) he needs a healer or defensive support on his lane. The following supports work well with Teemo.
In addition, there are other supports that, if played well, can synergize with Teemo, although not as well as those above. Alistar tends to play better to an aggressive carry, but his heal is potent and he prevents the lane from pushing to your tower. Also, Blitzcrank does well due to his high damage output and large amounts of crowd control. However, if their carry is already very aggressive and has a high damage output, Blitzcrank has no heal to help a Teemo in need.

Even with a lane partner and more harass, your focus should still be on CS. This Teemo has one of the most expensive builds in the game and needs all the farm he can get.

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I do not have much experience with this Teemo build being taken mid. However, due to his sustainable damage and higher mobility, he should dominate the lane. Avoiding a large burst damage nuke is difficult (i.e. a Brand combo) but if one can avoid any type of damage, Teemo should win a mid lane matchup handily.

Again, still focus on CS more than anything else.

Starting the Game

Open with Boots of Speed and three Health Potions. Move to your jungler's buff location and help to guard it. If it is the red buff, use the tribush. If it is blue, stand just above baron and allow your passive to hide you. When minions spawn, stay where you are until they are about two-thirds of the way down the lane, then proceed to your lane.

Early Game

Teemo needs CS, particularly early on. With a good CS count and a good level, any well-played Teemo can win a teamfight and, if the momentum stays, the game. However THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH FARM
Use the early CS to finish off your Berserker's Greaves and utilize the passive on Teemo's Move Quick to keep yourself out of trouble. Pick up a Hextech Revolver and a Vampiric Scepter to give yourself incredible lane sustain. Continue into the Hextech Gunblade. Unless a teamfight breaks out near your lane (i.e. buff conrol, counter jungler, etc.) do not leave lane except for health, mana, and items.

Mid Game

Here is where this Teemo begins to shine. After the Malady, your attack speed is high enough to be a large factor in teamfights. In addition, landing multiple shots on any enemy champion, particularly their AD carry, shreds their magic resist, causing your Toxic Shot to do even more damage.
The addition of The Black Cleaver allows you to shred not only magic resist, but also armor, increasing your damage and the damage dealt by your entire team. The Black Cleaver also adds additional attack speed, which is always useful.
When not in a teamfight, continue to find an open lane and farm. Be careful not to get ambushed by their team and always SHROOM UP!

Late Game

Have fun. Go ham. Win.
Keep building, pick up elixirs and items whenever possible without missing too much farm. At this stage of the game, be careful that you do not die immediately in teamfights. Use your abilities to proc Sheen or Trinity Force in teamfights.

Really Late Game

This is your last item pickup. If you make it this far you are:

• really farmed
  OR
• in a really long game
  OR
• any combination of the above

Teamfights

Before the game really gets going, make a list of priorities to use in teamfights. Since you are not usually the AD or AP carry, you do not need to stay behind everyone else. This leaves you free to roam about the teamfight more than your AD or AP carry. Use this to your advantage and prioritize your list. Your list should look like this:

Your list can also be:

If the opposing team has a team that looks like this:

then your priorities should be:

or


As previously stated, you are not usually the AD or AP carry. This means that you have increased mobility in teamfights and, with the increased mobility, you are allowed to utilize unconventional tactics to get to their carries. Try approaching through the middle of the teamfight, from the edges, from the side, and even from behind. On the flip side, be careful that you do not get killed before doing any damage. Find the balance.

Update List

• 10-10-2012 Original guide published

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I would love to hear feedback from those of you that agree (or disagree) with the ideas in my guide. Anything is useful to me.
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