Teemo Build Guide by Sgt. EpicFail

Introduction

Hello! and Welcome to my first guide!
I choose to make this guide because there are many Teemo guides out there which are almost all outdated or AP.
But playing Teemo is viable in many ways, so I'll try to do my best and help YOU become a master anti-everything On Hit effect Teemo!

In this guide I will discuss does and don'ts when playing Teemo solo top.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE!

I will try to sort out and eliminate most mistakes, but some typo's will be made!
If so, you may kindly point them out in the comments :)

I hope you'll enjoy this Teemo guide, and good luck making your enemies weep!

Pros and Cons

Masteries explained

I chose for a 21 - 8 - 1 mastery tree, because of the extra damage in the offense tree (wich you can't get from runes only) and the extra defensive measures, since Teemo has kind of a weak base defence.
Since you'll mostly be facing bruisers and/or assassins when playing solo top, some early game defence will just be enough to keep you up and farming, but with the build discussed in the guide, you won't be needing an all out defensive masteries setup, since you'll buy your own defense.
early game you will not play extremely agressive, so your expectations are just to not be caught and by the time you start to skirmish, you will have enough defense.

The single utility point in Summoner's Insight is because of the reduced Flash cooldown and the reduced channel time on Teleport, which will be explained later on in the guide.

Runes

I chose:
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, because it goes really well with Teemo's Move Quick, his W ability. since the passive gives you 26% (at level 5) of your movement speed as a bonus, and doubles it once activated. this gives you the chase/escape power to take down dem AD carries! You'll also be able to keep moving in lane, with quick pokes and fast retreats.

Greater Mark of Desolation, because we are talking about AD Teemo, so some armor penetration will allways come in handy. its enough for the early AND lategame armor pen, and will just do that extra bit of damage to poke the living hell out of any who dare to oppose you!

Greater Seal of Vitality, Because Teemo's base health is just too low. this will give you that extra health througout the game, and at level 18 it will be good for a Ruby Crystal, without having to buy it!

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, because there are a lot of champions with good poking abilities which rely on magic damage ( Malphite's Seismic Shard for example).
these glyphs will help you stay in lane longer and keep on farming without taking too much damage or burning all your health potions in too little time.

Summoner Spells

Skill Sequence and Explanation

CamouflageIf Teemo stands still and takes no actions for 3 seconds, he becomes stealthed indefinitely. After leaving stealth, Teemo gains the Element of Surprise, increasing his attack speed by 40% for 3 seconds.

This is one of the things why Teemo is so much fun to play. imagine seeing the entire enemy team coming for you (lets say they don't have Lee Sin), and you don't have anything to escape them. panic? naah. just go somewhere in a centre spot, stand still, become invisible and laugh your *** off when they can't find you!
just be carefull. movement abilities like Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab or Orianna's Command: Shockwave will cancel your stealth.
silences will NOT cancel your stealth.
Also, any Area of effect spell like Malzahar's Null Zone or Leona's Solar Flare will damage you just like they would when visible!


Obscures an enemy's vision with a powerful venom, dealing damage to the target unit and causing all attacks to miss for the duration. Deals 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.8 AP) magic damage and causes the target to miss all of their attacks for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds.

Great anti-AD carry tool, since they will find themselves unable to hit you for up to 2,5 seconds. secondly. Blinding Dart will reset your attack timer, so when poking or farming its Auto attack --> Blinding Dart --> Auto attack for maximum damage output in minimum time. (it also scales really well with AP, but since we don't like AP we don't care, and max it last).


Passive: Teemo's Movement Speed is increased by 10/14/18/22/26% unless he has been damaged by an enemy champion or turret in the last 5 seconds. Active: Teemo sprints, gaining twice his normal bonus for 3 seconds. This bonus is not lost when struck.

Awesome skill. One does not simply catch Teemo just because of this skill. the movement speed bonus is insane (especially with the runes) and with a Frozen Mallet, chasing never was this easy. this is why we max this second, because its a good getaway and a nice chasing ability. it also is a great help when helping your jungler counter jungle or your mid when he/she's in trouble.


Teemo's basic attacks poison their target, dealing 10/20/30/40/50 (+0.4 AP) magical damage upon impact and 6/12/18/24/30 (+0.10 AP) magical damage each second for 4 seconds.

This skill is what makes farming, poking and killing someone easy. since it does mixed damage (AD on hit and MD over time), it does damage anyway when you hit someone. when someone builds full armor you'll have your runed Armor Penetration and the over time magic damage to still deal damage, and with someone building full Magic Resist you'll hit like a train, since we're building AD. also adds up to your relatively low base AD. so max that sh!t immediately!



Uses a stored mushroom to place a trap that detonates if an enemy steps on it, spreading poison to nearby enemies that slows movement speed by 30/40/50% and deals 200/400/600 (+0.8 AP) magic damage over 4 seconds. Traps last 10 minutes, Teemo can store a maximum of 3 traps on his at once.


This is where the fun begins. once level 6, you can build your personal minefield on top lane, which will deny allmost every gank no matter who, and, when placed right, will also deny escapes when chasing your opposing top laner. these free wards last 10 whole minutes and will reveal enemies when detonated, awesome for guarding buffs and High Value Targets.
its also really cool when you find yourself killed in a teamfight and while being useless and very dead, picking up kills on low HP enemies who ate one of your mushrooms.

Item build and explanation

Item Sequence:

Start off with Boots of Speed and three health Potions unless told otherwise by me when I will discuss possible Solo Top Opponents. they provide you with a nice bit of movement speed and the three health potions will keep you in lane long enough to farm at least 1600 gold for an Instant Wriggle's Lantern

This will give you early game Armor, lane sustain and Farming help, with some extra damage and, above all, a free ward! great for Counter jungling, farming and poking, the Wriggle's Lantern is a MUST HAVE early game!

These will give you the much needed Tenacity and MR. its a great item to get on Teemo since it gives early game survivability against both CC and AP casters. good for lane sustain and enemy Ability power powered moves.

Gives health and attack damage. in combination with the Wriggle's Lantern and the Mercury's Treads, it provides enough survivability to not die instantly. early and mid game these will only make you die when cought out of position or when focussed in teamfights.
Needless to say, with the possible slow it provides it is a great poking item, since most enemy champions will be pissed off about your poking and running from you as soon as you get close to them. now they are slowed for some more POKE!!


This is your second most important item early and mid game to have.
with an on hit effect that provides magic resist up to a cap, and some great attack speed, this is just wat you'll need against those pesky AP carrys like Diana or Karthus. adds up to your survivability and damage output, so BUY!


With loads of HP, a perma slow and some extra damage, its just the key to survive and kill every ad carry or actually every champion in the game. with your Move Quick and the attack speed from Madred's Bloodrazor its just impossible to escape Teemo, and it will make it a lot harder for enemies to nuke you down. just buy it. thats it.

Note: Consider Swapping the Sequence of Frozen Mallet and Wit's End depending on how your game develops, for example wether or not you are doing great or an enemy champion is fed or not.

you will start building this Item at the start of late game or, when really well farmed and/or fed, somewhere mid game. This item is the cherry on the cake, since you get loads of attack speed (toghether with Wit's End it will be about 1.7) and attack damage, and not to forget the great passive it provides you with.
You will start buying this item when enemies are most likely will have bought at least one or two Health Items like Giants Belt or something with a Ruby Crystal. Deals tons of damage to anyone, and again, even grants some armor!

Just Anivia's passive Rebirth in an item. they think they've taken you down? SUPRISE, MADDAFAKKA!, you're still around to kill them all. or just to run and don't die. your call.
must have to aid your team as long as possible or when you are recieving heavy focus.
Consider buying GA earlier on when you feel like you're getting focussed or dying too often.

it is getting really late game, you have farmed as much as possible, all your items have been forged, and you have spare cash? WRONG. when all of the items listed above are finished, you'll have to get one more item to compensate your damage. as you might have noticed, your Wriggle's Lantern has become kinda underpowered late game.
so you'll farm up to 1980 gold, sell the Wriggle's Lantern and buy The Bloodthirster in one go. DON'T SELL YOUR Wriggle's Lantern TO BUY A B.F. SWORD ONLY! Always just Insta-Buy The Bloodthirster, otherwise you will lack Lifesteal.

How to play: Solo Top Teemo

everyone done loading? all the smartphones and happy-meal pc's done? GREAT! lets go.
When you are in your lane, top, you try to get all the last hit's dont worry about poking jet.
Once you hit level 3 you can try to give out a couple hits to the enemy, but keep the focus on the last hits, YOU NEED THEM! Pre level 6 keep the minions on your side and dont try to push, since you dont have your minefield up. missing a creep is less of a problem than dying and end up feeding. Because you don't have the vision of your mushrooms jet you will probably need to buy a ward or 2 early.
Expect early ganks!
Since Teemo is almost ungankable after level 6, most junglers will place some early ganks to deny you and make you cry. Also, some enemy junglers will be pissed off at you after a failed gank because of your shrooms, and will buy an oracle's Elixer. Inform your team to try and catch him, so you won't lose shrooms and he threw away 400 gold.


About 15 minutes in game you should be pushing the 100-130 minion kills at least.
Your Wriggle's Lantern should be up and running by now along with your Phage and maybe even the Recurve Bow of your Wit's End. By now you might even have stacked a couple kills and might have dealt some serious damage to the enemy turret. The start of your minefield should be there by now and you shoul've placed some mushrooms in the enemy jungle (red/blue). Still be focused on them minion kills and try to push down the enemy turret. Remember, Teemo isn't the best ganker in the game. when you've aquired a Red Buff and you have your Phage, you can go mid once or twice, but only do so if you have an allied Malzahar or Orianna or something like that for the disable, otherwise you just missed farm, which isn't good.

When playing with Teleport:
Try to look at the map or comunicate with your team for possible ganks with this awsome skill, and keep an eye on dragon and enemy buffs all the time. If your direct enemy has been killed (by you) or has recalled to shop, feel free to roam and put a shroom here and there, more shrooms = more possible teleport kills!

Around 25-30 minutes in the game your Mercury's Treads, Wriggle's Lantern, Wit's End and maybe even Frozen Mallet should be finished and given you a kill or 10. (: Consider starting off your Madred's Bloodrazor before you finish your Frozen Mallet.
Teamfights might be starting up by now or already have. Your minefield should've been moved around enemy blue or red depending which side you play, to keep pushing the second turret also place some mushrooms on key location such as dragon and baron and key passages. Still keep farming as much as possible and ask for wards placement to maybe teleport in. push turrets where ever you can, try to find enemy champions out of position to severely wound them or kill them, place shrooms EVERYWHERE across the map, and inform your team you will start roaming as soon as you've taken your turret down. Finish your build as soon as possible!
when you are done with a game, it depends on how well you did to say wether or not you have farmed well. if your score is 11 - 3 - 9 for example, you did well enough to have about
250 - 300 minionkills. but when your score is more of a 3 - 7 - 8, your farm should be more in between 300 - 350. when you've really fed the enemy, the game is lost anyway so it doesn't really matter that much anymore.

POSITIONING!

Your job as the op Teemo is to zone out or catch one target. If the enemy AD carry is the biggest problem, focus him! same story with AP carry or tank. The best way to win teamfights with a Teemo is to catch someone in their jungle and take him out before the teamfight breaks out.
For Example: You and your team are Circling baron, taunting the enemy to come around and face you. everyone stays close to eachother, but not Teemo. Teemo is moving away into the direction Teemo expects the enemy team to come from. he stands still, becomes invisible, and waits. once the enemy team has passed by, and your team is fighting them 4 vs 5, Teemo shows up BEHIND the enemy team, and since this is most probably the place where the enemy AD Carry is firing, immediately takes out one of the High Value Targets of the enemy team. since the enemy support is probably trying to defend his/her Ad Carry, she'll be another free kill by the time the enemy team notices that they've just lost the teamfight.

Dont play as a tank, do not engage!

It is not your task to take all the damage, even though you are pretty tanky. Try not to allow them to focus you, in my opinion impossible task for the enemy... Focus Teemo? Yeah right...
The whole point of Zoning is that you deny your direct opponent any farm and, when lucky and done great, even XP.
since Teemo is one of the few ranged commonly seen solo top champions, zoning with Teemo won't be that hard, since the enemy almost allways can't poke you back. stay in between enemy caster minions and enemy melee minions, and last hit as good as you can, but Don't stand there auto-attacking!!. don't push your lane, because you will be much more suspicable for enemy ganks in your lane, and you will allow the enemy champion to farm under the cover of their turret, where u cant really do anything. Only if you notice your opponent is an idiot and can't farm under his turret you can push, but be carefull of ganking.


Mushrooms can really help you and your team in a lot of ways. the Noxious Trap is probably one of the most viable non-targeted ultimates in the game. providing a little bit of free vision around them, slowing and dealing damage on detonation, they are viable in ways of defending your lane and yourself, counterjungling, protecting your own jungle and helping other lanes with anti-gank measures as well.
because of the amount you should be able to put down in one game, your support doesn't have to buy exessive loads of wards to keep up the map view. just some well placed shrooms near for example Baron and Dragon can save your support 150 x3 (wards last 3 mins, shrooms 10) = 450 gold every ten minutes, along with other key locations this can help your support and other champions save money for other items.

where do I put my shrooms?!
here are some pictures to help you out:

Special thanks to:

MrHiddeS, WHo helped me make this guide, with some really nice hints and very much help on the items and gameplay, because we both love Teemo! :)


jhoijhoi for making the guide on making a guide. How to make a guide, by jhoijhoi.

noiree and his Teemo AP yordle of Doom guide for all the extra info and names of skills and items which we somehow managed to forget.

Change Log

28/10/2012 (eu) - 10/28/2012 (us):
- changed Item sequence and added Nashor's Tooth, Infinity Edge, Ionic Spark and Boots of Mobility to Occasional Items.

- Added the Entire normal playstile Item Sequence and changed "Core Items" to "Item Sequence".

- added "Tips and Tricks" to the "skill explanation" section.

- Added the "Zoning and Shrooming" section in the "How to play: Teemo Solo Top.

Coming Up:

- Who to expect to see solo top and how to kick Arse.
- Most feared champions for Teemo
- best team setups for playing with a Teemo

We hope you've enjoyed this guide, and learned a lot. please leave a comment when something is missing. just be nice and we might add it on the guide!

and guys...

VOTE UP DAT SHIZZLE!!!