Teemo can be built in a number of ways; over numerous games, I experimented and discovered what build works best for me, and is my favorite. He is AP/Magic Pen/Mobility oriented.

THIS IS NOT A TRADITIONAL AD CARRY BUILD*****


Overview
Teemo begins in a lane, preferably top or bottom, using harrassment. Once he hits 6 (ULT) and gets a he has more options available to him, like making ganks much more feasible or protecting his lane in order to push and overextend with less risk. In the Mid to late phases of the game, he becomes a huge team player, able to control large portions of the map, and helping create beneficial team fight sites, as well as coordinate successful ambushes. I will delve into more detail on each area of him below.

X9 Mark of Insight = ~9 Magic Pen
X9 Seal of Force = 19 AP@LV18
X9 Glyph of Insight = ~6 Magic Pen
X3 Quintessence of Potency = 15 AP Flat

WHY?
Every damaging skill Teemo uses translates to magic damage, and that is the major basis for the rune build.

Why magic pen? Why Flat AP opposed to @18 Quints?
The combo of Marks and Glyphs for magic penetration gives the same quantity of magic pen as Marks and Quintessences, while Flat Ap Quintessence Runes dish out 6 more AP (15) than Glyphs (9) do. So that is the reason for magic pen glyphs and Flat AP Quints. I prefer flat AP runes because every single item (minus boots) I grab has AP, 2nd, I use 21/0/9 in masteries, and most importantly, I prefer early game damage power to set me up for late game success, as opposed to counting on AP I don't have yet . Each of his damaging skills have decent AP ratios,but none reach 1:1. So, while AP is a good stat to have it shouldn't be the only damage enhancer you utilize (especially if you are laning at top).

Why AP@18 Seals? (THEY SUCK)

Yeah, they are pretty weak runes but to maximize the magic damage output per poison tick via , or , as well as blinding dart it was either this or flat ap, and the benefits of flat AP seals are so minimal that I just switched to @18 runes. An alternative could be Attack Speed runes, for a more frequent , but its not beneficial to his other skills.

Masteries are 21/0/9 to give maximum magic damage output with a small amount of utility. Teemo is very squishy like stated above, which is why early game mobility is ideal. with the only activate-able skill before 6 being move quick, utility tree mana regen is more than enough.

TOP CHOICES
Ghost is my top pick because a key ingredient to the playstyle is baiting. When you are sitting at the front of a 5 shroom path trying to get people to follow you, this + is a way to convince them, but still outrun them. If you flash over a wall, people are often less likely to take the bait. The key is making them think they can catch you, so they hit multiple shrooms, regret it, and you "turn and burn"

when there is too much dps on you,when CC is too frequent for ghost, when you need 2 more hits on an opponent, when you are baiting near shrooms, clutch escape, etc., etc.

Solid Alternatives: These 4 options are more useful for invisible ambushes, but generally the teemo build (if fed well enough) does enough dps to finish the job quickly. Picking one of these skills means youre giving up escapes too.


Ghost and flash are my choices to help keep teemo alive or secure a kill. Both can be used offensively or defensively and they both contribute to mobility. Since runes and masteries are very damage oriented I use these two skills to help him stay alive throughout game. If you like higher risk but more damage output, ignite, exhaust,heal or dare I say, surge can help.

1. , 3X

Mobility/harass
Pots for sustain

2. , (optional), more pots as necessary

Cooldown for Shrooming/manaregen
AP for more punch in general
Elixir provides more cd/ap for additional shrooming and punch

3.

Completed item
More CD
Attack Speed
More AP

**After this point I list full items but I will pick up pieces if that is all I can get when I "b" to nexus. I will also pick up wards, oracles, and continual Elixir of Brilliance at this point onward if I have extra or see the need for it.

4.

Decent AP (70)
Anti Tank MPEN (40%)
Inexpensive complete Item(2295) /Costs opponents much more to counter
Magic Pen and AP effect all of teemo's damaging skills

5.

Slight mobility boost
useful mpen for soft targets

* A good alternative would be to move around the map much faster for ambushes, especially if void staff does the trick for magic pen. At no point will you move slower than in sorc boots, even in combat.

6.

Good lifesaving measure for baiting; spell vamp
Additional AP for 1200 (40)

*If you have a desire to bait through shroom paths, this is a good survivability option. Even at 12%, shrooms dealing 800+dmg will heal near 100 hp, and the idea is to get people to hit multiples.
*Also, at this point I think it is easier to take your build in multiple directions, where you can switch around the order of the last 3 items. If you have no issues doing damage but opponents often escape you might want to opt for the gunblade first, with the active slow. Lichbane will increase your burst a lot and so will rabadons, but I would get lichbane to maximize burst and rabadons to maximize DoT more specifically.

7.

8.

9.




As I said in the introduction, mobility is my first item goal, so i get boots and 3 health pots. My skill sequence being e,w,e,w,e up to five puts my early game move speed above 400 without even activating move quick. This allows me to win the poke war in most cases, unless the opponent has very long range with cc. I usually end up returning to nexus in the level 5-7 range, where I will wait until I have enough cash to get a fiendish codex (2nd goal;cooldowns). If I have extra, I may get an elixir of brilliance for additional cooldowns, and pots or wards. Cooldowns and mana regen give me much more opportunity to drop shrooms, which is a large element to my playstyle (more on that later). The next nexus stop I make I will hopefully have a complete nashor's, completing my second goal of higher cooldowns. At this point I always buy an elixir of brilliance if I can afford it for the rest of the game. My third goal is magic pen, and nothing is more magic pen cost effective than the void staff. For approximately ~2300 gold I can kill tanks with much more ease(40%MPEN), and the 70 AP boost helps me kill everyone else who doesn't warrant that kind of magic pen. These 3 items complete my core build, and even with several consumable purchases you can get them for less than 6000 gold. The items after are just my preference based on my playstyle, but I have several variations that I use. The build I have listed is a burst build; lichbane greatly improves the blinding dart/autoattack combo with more movespeed and mana. Whats not to like? Gunblade is an excellent addition for jungle ambushes, sequence of events as follows: teemo hiding in bush with a shroom, enemy facechecks shroom, slowed/DoT'ed, teemo opens fire with blinding dart/ autoattack/ gunblade active for further dmg/slow, autoattack to kill, all the while teemo is receiving spell vamp and lifesteal in the event they have time to fight back. Rabadon's is an obvious choice in that it is not the most cost effective item in my opinion (teemo's ratios are not 1:1 or better) but it does help him pack a wallop.

The basis for my skill sequence is early game harrassment.

(3x) and (2x) are my traditional go-to skills before level 6 (with exception). While I know that has slightly more range than Teemo's autoattack and it would contribute to his harrassment dps, casting it causes a stop in movement, however brief. While this might seem miniscule, there are several instances in this game where the difference between kills and deaths can be attributed to reaction time, which is miniscule. This is relevant ESPECIALLY when skills like are constantly used, or your opponents are tanky skill users who have gap closers (top). At this point it becomes an assessment of risk versus reward against your opponent. On bottom lane, it is more dependent on if you are getting out harrassed, and the amount of cc available to your team and opponents. So, to disclaim, I am not opposed to 1 skill point of before level 6, if you can't avoid it. I am opposed to maxing into it until last.

PRE LVL 6
In early game laning, teemo would rely on his toxic shot and move quick to harass, ideally(read the skill sequence section for more detail). Since Teemo is a very squishy target he must rely on mobility to survive, as well as inflict damage. This is why mobility is important; it is dual purposed. If another character can zone you with range or aoe, I would suggest learning their skillset and using & on them when their skills are on cooldown. The whole build is oriented to give teemo the most magic damage per hit as well as get in and out quickly. Move Quick, poke, run away is a good/annoying way to deal with apponenets whether or not you use blinding dart.

As far as gaining CS, last hitting is probably the way to go. I don't use mushrooms to farm unless protecting a turret from a massive push.

SHROOMING IN ALL ITS GLORY

Let me first disclaim that can be used in far more contexts than I talk about below! Below is focused on a couple techniques that I never, or hardly ever catch other teemos using, and by all means they should no matter what build they are.

To understand this build, you have to understand the playstyle first and foremost. While teemo lanes early game, his role is much more trickery oriented at levels 6 and above. For example, trickery might mean laning top/bottom and placing 3+ shrooms at every jungle entrance to your lane and intentionally overextending to push turrets. If you can get your shroom coverage deep enough into the jungle you have an early warning system against potential gankers. If you have observant, helpful teammates they can wait on the your side of river and pounce on anyone who tries to gank you. You might not even need help if its a lone ganker and your damage is high enough. Don't underestimate Teemo's ability to burst! For this to work you have to recognize that it wont be as effective when in game against characters like tf, pantheon, shen, nocturne. They can just skip over the whole river trip. Intentional baiting can work throughout the entire game by overextending and pretending to backdoor. Shrooms last so long that the longer the game runs the greater the threat you are.

Some basic Shrooming pointers

- Put shrooms at the points in bushes that people enter/exit. This renders the oracles less useful.
- use narrow corridors, or highly trafficked areas that only champions use
- create paths of shrooms so you have an exit / gank strategy (more below)
- pay attention to opponent behaviors near your shrooms, it will tell you how to respond, change your strat.
- When opponents become aware of your paths, move to another area and start new ambush sites.
- Never have a full shroom satchel, but try to keep at least 1 in at all times, especially in more dangerous areas.

A technique I find very useful with teemo is what I call shroom pathing. This is spacing shrooms apart in anticipation of enemy movement patterns. (Ideally)You don't want to place them too close together because it doesn't maximize damage potential and it might frustrate an opponent into leaving the way they came if they run into too many too fast. Ideally you want to spread the shrooms out so they hit for every tick but not so frequently that it discourages their movement along the path. At the same time you want the shrooms close enough together to provide a good site radius, kind of like warding. The ideal location for this is jungle spaces as they are narrow corridors and opponents passing through are more likely to hit the shrooms. This is just ideal in the strategy of killing versus zoning. If they hit too many, are frustrated, and are getting zoned, thats still a good thing. If you are able to fill a jungle space with shrooms, numerous opportunities are available to you; ambushes, more map control and awareness, baron/dragon control (dependent on where the shrooms are), backdooring lane turrets, enemy cs starving, etc., etc.

My favorite use of shroom pathing usually consists of sitting toward the front of my path and making myself very visible, while attempting to not seem intentional. This is where mobility is key; if I can convince an opponent to chase me he will have to run through several shrooms to catch up to me / kill me. If I can keep ahead of him enough to prevent most damage, to kite him through the shrooms, he will chase me long enough to realize he regrets what he's doing. At that point I will know because he is turning around, and i will press w, or use ghost or flash and instantly melt whatever is left of him with a good ole' turn and burn. Then I will smile.


These are just a few example of teemo's ability to control areas with his mushrooms and inflict enormous amounts of damage to opponents. If you have a team that is willing to work with you and start fights near your paths as a group, you have the potential to mop the floor in teamfights. The key is coming to agreement on how you want to use the shrooms and if you can trick/convince the enemy to walk through them.

KEEP IN MIND: none of this can happen if the opponents see invisibility. The best thing to do about this is to "gimp" someone by continually focusing them when they buy an oracles. If you are dealing with someone who vision wards, then I would suggest teemo getting an oracles elixir and being the one to remove them.

Teamwork with this teemo build just involves a lot of communication and coordination. Letting teammates know why you're pathing with shrooms is key, and encouraging them to overextend, bait, etc. safely near those is important.

One example of a coordinated team effort: You're blue team, teemo top, and youve taken down their turret. you have filled the enemy top jungle surrounding their 2nd turret and they do not know it yet. You tell your team to sit in the shroomed jungle while you "overextend" intentionally pushing 2nd top turret. Generally, they will try to respond, at least 1 or 2, and at most all of them. Between your several shrooms, your 4 teammates poised for an intelligent gank with a good focus order, and your ability to be mobile, the fight should already be yours as well as that turret.

If you can get team consensus and commitment (sometimes very hard to do, especially in pubs) will pay off when they see you winning every teamfight and engaging in successful ambushes.

I can honestly say that I have played hundreds of games with teemo, and this is my favorite style of play, because it is unique to his skills and in my opinion it has the highest potential for the most damage in the shortest time frame, while still is able (with the full build) to fight well in a sustained fight.
Teemo is very powerful by himself and a valuable team asset with mobility and an ability that no other character in the game can come close to. All other minion owners are much more limited in their total number of minions and the time that they can sit out. Like any character he has weaknesses also, but if you acknowledge, and play to minimize those weaknesses, teemo can be the difference between a win and a loss, or a win and a shutout.

I would love to hear comments, agree or disagree, positive or negative about my build.