Hello everyone, DaSticks here! I am the best Teemo in Oceania with a peak rank of 460LP Challenger and managed to end Season 7 in Master Tier playing mostly Teemo. I Stream alot and am on a journey to become the best Teemo in the world!







Today I'm gonna show YOU how to play Teemo at a highly competitive level and decimate your Solo Queue opponents!

Teemo is a versatile and unique champion who is very rewarding to play. One of the big things that drew me to Teemo was because it gave me the freedom to theory-craft and do what I like with the champion. This is unlike how most champions operate as most champions have very little rune/item diversity and generally have a definitive strongest path. Teemo on the other hand has synergies with an insane amount of stats/passives and this combined with that fact that there are very few that play him at the higher ELOs makes Teemo a very unsolved champion and I enjoy trying to do my best with the champion.

Also he fast AF

For Summoner spells in top-lane you want to take ignite in lanes where you can play very agressive sometimes TP in lanes where you have to play REALLY defensive.

Honestly what you want to take is preference as both can work especially at lower elo brackets, however I prefer to take ignite as it is much more aggressive and toxic.

Electrocute

Electrocute: This rune functions really well with Teemos kit as it can proc off of auto - Q auto. The rune doesn't do as much sustained damage as aery but allow Teemo to do more burst especially out of stealth!

Aery	Summon Aery: This rune deals the most consistent damage of any keystone and getting manaflow means you will rarely go oom for shrooms. Very all round rune page without overwhelming strengths.

Grasp

Grasp of the Undying: This rune may not deal as much damage as aery does but will make Teemo much harder to kill. Due to the sustain/hp growth from constantly proccing grasp your lane opponent will have reduced kill pressure and you will be able to play more aggressively. Boneplating and Overgrowth make you very tanky. Every grasp proc gives you 8 gold worth of health!

Teemos Ultimate Noxious Trap is by far the most iconic part of Teemos kit but also the most difficult to master. There are many factors to take into account when using your mushrooms and for the sake of this guide I will categorise some of the types of shrooms. *note that not all shrooms will fit into these categories and shrooms may also fit into multiple categories.

Lane Shrooms:
Lane shrooms are the shrooms that you will place during the laning phase. You will want to place shrooms that will defend you from ganks as well as all-ins from the enemy laner. Most of your shrooms you want to place in positions where they are unlikely to get hit by enemy minions (I say unlikely because sometimes minion AI will path unpredictably), however placing shrooms directly in line of enemy minion pathing can be an effective way to zone your enemy away from the creep wave (vs melee laners).

Vision Shrooms:
Vision shrooms are shrooms that are mostly used for the vision they provide. They are mostly used to see where the enemy Jungler is or where enemies are rotating. You generally won't want enemies hitting these shrooms early in their lifespan as that will reveal tha you know of the enemies location and you will also lose the vision provided.

Anti-Retreat Shrooms:
These shrooms are used to block the exits of where enmies will path when trying to retreat. You will place these so that they are unlikely to get hit as an enemies enter an area but will be likely to get hit while the enemies are retreating. This also means the shrooms are less likely to get hit by the enemy frontline (the champions who are going to be facechecking the area) and more likely to hit priority targets who will be the first to retreat.















Placing mushrooms that enemies can see vs placing mushrooms in the fog:
There are alot of mindgames in how you place shrooms and it is important to be aware of how your enemies percieve the shrooms you have in lane. There are both positives and negatives of whether or not your opposing laner sees you placing mushrooms and you should be using both of these to decieve your lane opponent.
For example if the enemy only sees you placing mushrooms in the top brushes then they will assume that most of your shrooms are located there, however you may be placing most of your shrooms in the lower side of the lane whilst in the fog. This will cause your opponent to fear the top brushes and hug the lower (more shroom populated) region of the lane.
You can also pretend to have shrooms in area where you do not and this may cause the enemy to not take good trades and allow you to play more aggressively if they do not call your bluff.




Never have max (3/4/5) mushroom stacks:
Any time that you have max mushroom stacks you are not generating mushrooms and are effectively reducing the amount of shrooms you will have on the map within the next 5 minutes. Make sure to place mushrooms down before recalling/dying so that you won't hit max stacks of mushrooms or won't be sitting on 3 stacks for as long. If you have max stacks while in base you should consider placing a fairly inefficient mushroom down when walking to lane as you would have generated that mushroom back by the time you reach an area where you can place good mushrooms. TLDR: Use your damn mushrooms!


Increasing the value of mushrooms:
It is not always best to place mushrooms in locations where the enemies are most likely to step on them. This is because you have to value the vision that a shroom gives aswell as their potential damage. For example a mushroom that lasts 4 minutes before detonating will probably be more valuable then a mushroom that lasts 30 seconds before detonating as the 4 minute mushroom is granting vision in an area for a much longer time. It is also important to note that a mushroom that lasts longer will probably do more damage then a mushroom placed at the same time that lasts much shorter as damage is calculated when the mushroom is detonated and not when the mushroom is placed eg. If you place a mushroom at level 9 that detonates at level 10 then it will only deal level 1 shroom damage with whatever items you have at the time, however if the shroom lasts longer (until you have level 2 mushrooms and/or an item like liandries) then the shroom will do much more damage and thus will have a gained even more value.


The enemy comp will greatly determine where you should place shrooms:
Vs team comps with squishy targets and low sustain placing shrooms that directly hit enemies to deal damage at the beginning of fights will be very valuable where as vs teams where the tanks are likely to hit these shrooms, also vs champions like [sona] who can shield/sustain the shroom damage these shrooms will be fairly ineffective. Vs an aggressive Jungler like [Evelyn] shrooms that directly block their pathing in their jungle will be very effective at defending lanes.

With the addition of multi-bouncing:
Recently Teemo underwent some buffs which include being able to bounce shrooms multiple times off each-other. You can use this to bounce shrooms into the enemy jungle or unwarded brush to avoid having to face-check enemies. You can also use the extra bounces to bounce shrooms deep into enemy creep waves and catch your enemies by surprise!

The lane phase is extremely important and in alot of cases how lane plays out can win/lose you the game.

Harassing:
Harassing your opponent and taking good trades is an essential part of playing Teemo. In most lanes you want to punish the enemy where-ever you can and deal free damage when possible. This includes auto attacking/Qing when enemies last hit creeps or when their main abilities are on cooldown. It is important to stay healthy on Teemo as you don't have alot of defense against most ganks and the enemy laner probably has a higher lethal threshold than you. Also keep in mind that most enemies can get their combos off on you before you can retaliate alot of damage (as you deal DOT) so never fall to a HP where you are at risk of getting bursted (mostly by a champ like Riven). Make sure to keep track of how much minion damage you and the enemy will take if you go for a trade and remember to use the brushes and your range to break minion aggro where possible.

Freezing the wave:
Freezing the lane will give you alot of safety from ganks and will allow you to zone the enemy from farming. However their creepwave will be larger than yours and you have to be careful of them all inning you aswell as the damage you may take from creeps when harassing the enemy. Generally you want to keep the minion waves fairly close in size as Teemo doesn't have much waveclear (especially pre lvl 6) and if the enemy can clear your creep wave in a short amount of time there isn't going to be alot you can do to stop the wave crashing into your tower. Lanes where the enemy will harass you with AOE spells are going to be especially easy to setup a freeze as they will have to shove their wave to deal damage to you (maokai/sion etc.) but you will generally have to zone them (or play around their mana) to prevent them from shoving into your tower.
Harassing the enemy early game will shove your wave as the enemy minions will aggro to you and stop hitting your creeps so vs enemies that you want to freeze the wave on early (Riven comes to mind) try to let them shove your wave and avoid harassing them on the first wave (unless you can completely break aggro). You can even let them auto you so that their creep wave will push.



Shoving:
Shoving the wave is fairly difficult on Teemo due to his low waveclear especially pre 6 but it yields alot of benefits. Shoving the wave under tower will allow you to get damage onto the tower aswell as harass melee opponents when they go for caster minions. Many opponents have a hard time csing under tower as it is and when you combine that with your blind it is going to be a nightmare for them. The main issue with shoving under tower like this is that it makes you very susceptible to ganks so if you shove the wave into tower and you are not free to play agressively make sure to back away and use this time to get proper vision in river / their jungle and you can also collect the honeyfruit and any scrying orbs nearby. If the wave is big the enemy top will be forced to stay to collect the wave and if they leave to contest vision you can assume they have backup or else they are missing farm for free.

When the enemy recall/are killed you will have the choice of what to do with the wave and whether or not to recall. Your decision is going to be based on how much farm you/your enemy misses aswell as how the wave will be setup once the enemy/you return. The value of staying is also going to be determined by the item difference of you and your opponent. What to do will be very specific to the game however shoving will become much more valuable if you can do it quickly (especially with the help of your jungler) where as recalling is generally going to be a better option if you want items and shoving will be too slow to deny your opponent. Also note that if you shove the wave and then recall you may disadvantage yourself if your opponent can return to lane and shove back into your tower before you can return to lane (unless maybe you need to shove for gold for an item). But once again I state that this is going to be game specific and there is no clear-cut rules to follow for how to control your lane, knowing what to do will come with experience and just try to do what will best your chances of winning the game.

This chapter will give you a quick rundown on the best ways I have found to vs the most common matchups. This should give an indication of the kinds of lanes I like to run my different builds, aswell as any slight changes that should be made to ensure you can beat your opponent.

I will be constantly working on this section and it will cover every matchup in the near future.



Camille is a pretty easy lane for the grasp build as you can out sustain her w poke damage and can blind her auto damage including her empowered Precision Protocol.

Recommended build: Grasp build (see above) w/ Ninja Tabi


Try to harass Camille as much as you can whilst staying fairly healthy and don't eat her Tactical Sweep for free. Ensure you have proper vision for the enemy jungler as Camille can recieve ganks extremely well if she either hits you with her E Hookshot or ults you. Also note that Camille may be quite hard to duel later in the game if she gets items like Mercury's Treads and Adaptive Helm.


TIPS VS CAMILLE

• Don't get baited into Camille ulting you under her tower, even if she dies you will still remain trapped in her ult.
• Camille may try to Hookshot you from brush to prevent you blinding her empowered Precision Protocol so make sure you have the top brush shroomed.
• Camille can also prevent you blinding her Precision Protocol by either dodging your blind with her ult or ulting so that you cant cast the blind during her untargetable, so make sure you play around this.
• Place shrooms along the walls that Camille will Hookshot to.
• Bait Camille into ulting ontop of a shroom.
• Sometimes the best way to dodge Tactical Sweep will be to run towards Camille.

Darius isn't a particularly difficult lane as he has no sustain and can be harassed down in lane. The main difficulty with Darius however is that he can still take quite strong trades if he manages to hook you which is fairly easy for him to do while you are autoing him (especially if he has movement speed from phage). So to minimize risk and lower Darius's kill potential in lane I recommend a Q max build.

Recommended build: Electrocute (see above) but consider maxing Q

Building high damage and maxing Q into Darius means you can poke him down from outside his pull range. You can also all in Darius and ignite him to lower his Q healing.


TIPS VS DARIUS

• Darius will try and hook you when you auto him so never take risky auto-attacks especially where you will take alot of creep agro.
• Sometimes it's best to walk towards Darius to dodge his Q.
• You can blind Darius's W.
• Be cautious of Darius gaining movement speed from phages movement speed passive after he kills a minion.

Gangplank is a fairly easy lane for Teemo as you you should be able to win most trades and can shut him down before he hits his spikes. You will also have a decent amount of kill pressure and can last hit his barrels from range.

Recommended build: Aery (see above)

Against gangplank you want to build a fairly high damage build going the Aery build path, however I would recommend running Scorch instead of Gathering Storm and maxing Q as most Gangplanks will run Grasp of the undying into you which inherently weakens trading consistently with auto-attacks.

There is also a cheese electrocute + ignite build which is quite effective vs Gangplank (aswell as some other matchups) that I will probably add to the guide at a later date, however it isn't necessary to beat Gangplank and I still recommend the Aery build path for this lane.


TIPS VS GANGPLANK

• Trade with Gangplank when he is autoing a minion or when his Q is on cooldown as he will be unable to trade back.
• If Gangplank has a barrel on the ground you can bait him into using it by faking trading with him or faking autoing a minion (or pretending you will hit his barrel) then walking out of the range of where he will place his 2nd barrel.
• Try and mentally track how many barrels Gangplank will have charged up so you know what kind of combos he can do so you can easily punish him. This is much easier to do if you have played gangplank.
• You can blind Gangplank to prevent him autoing his barrels but always remember that Gangplank can use his W to remove the blind.
• Play fairly aggressive early but if the lane goes south make sure to respect Gangplanks early power spikes (Sheen/Triforce).

Maokai is by far one of the easiest lanes for Teemo as you can consistently hit him and he can't really get too much harass back. Also you can force him to last hit using his ranged abilities which are all AOE, which makes it easy to setup a freeze against him.

Recommended build: Grasp build (but you can run sorcery secondary if you want) (see above)

I recommend running grasp into Maokai as you can consistently proc it which ends up giving you a decent amount of free HP later in the game. Your build should be quite standard with nashors --> liandries --> void staff being built most games. Also consider merc treads especially if the enemy Jungler also deals magic damage.


TIPS VS MAOKAI

• Be careful of Maokai saplings that have been placed in brush. The bonus damage they deal is quite significant so try and bait them into exploding (into your creep wave if you want him to push)
• Be careful of Maokai ccing you while your taking creep damage.
• Proc grasp as much as possible. Maokai can't take many good trades with you so you should be able to consistently auto him.

Olaf is probably the hardest matchup for Teemo and is pretty anti-fun to vs. He will probably have complete lane control early (unless he is bad) and has extremely high kill potential. Try your best to freeze the wave and dodge axes as you do outscale him and are much more useful later in the game. Dont take risky fights as the lane will snowball out of control if you fall behind.

Recommended build: Electrocute (see above) w/ Ninja Tabi

Try your best to survive lane vs Olaf and stay healthy. He can run you down and kill you extremely early and if he freezes the wave you are pretty much screwed. Aslong as you don't feed him (which believe me it is hard) then he will become pretty irrelevant later into the game.


TIPS VS OLAF

• Try your best to stay healthy and soak XP. Honestly just try not to die.
• If your Blinding Dart comes off cooldown towards the end of Olafs Ult hit him with the dart after his ult expires.
• There may be small windows where you can trade with Olaf if he misses an axe, but be cautious as the cooldown is quite low even if he doesn't pick the axe up.
• Build ninja Tabi early. Zhonyas may also be useful if the game allows for it.
• Don't get too tilted if your getting dunked on, you will outscale him bro.

Priority Targets:
In team fights it is important to know who you should be autoing and who you should be blinding. Most fights you want to be using blind to try and deny the enemies doing damage to you or your carries. Targets like Jax and Camille who deal alot of auto damage and are fairly easy to kill should be either focused first or zoned out of the fight by you having blind up.

In many fights your priority target to blind will be the enemy adc. If you can kill them thats even better however most of the time they will have a support (or some sort of peel) there to protect them from you so just hitting the blind and backing off/going for safer targets will probably be better. Saving Blind for the enemy AD is extremely important vs fed hyper-carries such as Jinx or a Twitch using Spray and Pray as the damage you can deny is huge.

Shrooms:
It is important to place shrooms in locations that your teammates can utilise most notably on top of where your carries will be positioned. It is very hard for enemy melee heroes to stick to your carries through the shroom slow and they should be easy pickings.

You can also throw your shrooms in passageways to block off the enemy backline and to split the fights up. These same shrooms will stop enemy front liners from retreating and will create a dissonance in how the enemy team will want to play the fight.

This guide is a WIP and here are some of the things you can expect to see added in the future:

• Abilities section (Abusing stealth, blind interactions, using W and E efficiently etc.)
• All remaining matchups
• Cheese build paths (for very specific games)
• Skin Tierlist
• Champion synergies
• Runes tierlist
• Expanding each pre-existing section
• Video version of guide

9.24 Changes

• Nimbus cloak is now better then Manaflow band

9.20 Changes

• Updated guide heavily (Due to Teemo changes)
• Re-ordered Runes (I take mostly Aery Now)

8.24 Changes

• Updated guide heavily (changed stuff for preseason)
• Added Dark Harvest stuff
• Made Items set more simple / easier to understand

8.13 Changes

• I take scorch over gathering storm most matches now.
• Celerity is now better than absolute focus.
• I now recommend domination secondary on grasp build although sorcery second is still viable.
• Added Ryze/Pantheon to the matchups section.

I hope you guys enjoyed my Toplane Teemo guide. If this guide recieves positive feedback I'll make a Teemo mid and a Teemo Jungle guide in the future!

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