This guide will show you the strengths and weaknesses of Teemo, a swift, nimble scout looking for a new adventure to uptake. If there is anything missing, or if you have a suggestion, make sure to comment them down below (Thank you).

Traits:Mage, Support, Marksman Common roles: Toplane, Support. Summary: Teemo is a ranged mage focused around DoT (Damage over Time), he is quite strong against squishier targets and shines against champions that use auto-attacks due to his blind mechanic. Teemo is small and fast, has ranged auto-attacks and his kit is pretty easy to pick up on. Due to his versatile playstyles he can be played in a lot of different ways, mostly as a lane bully, either top or botlane as a support. Teemo mostly shines in the early/mid stages of the game.

FAQ

• - Why Grasp of the Undying?
  + Because it does a lot of damage when used correctly, more about it in it's section.
  ...
  
• - Why Glacial Augment?
  + The slows let you both engage and disengage, allow for easier trades early on too.
  ...
• - Is Nashor's Tooth good?
  + Yes, it is a good item, but not every single game. Don't rush it just cause, sometimes it isn't good.

Updates

Pros Mobile Small hitbox Versatile playstyle Straight forward kit Good split-pusher Great early/mid game

Cons Not tanky Weaker lategame No dash, hard crowd control Easily outranged by mages Difficult to fit into team compositions Relies on dodging

Teemo has a lot of potential rune choices, he does really benefit from a variety of Runes and he is able to be played in a lot of different ways. Mostly you want to change your runes depending on your playstyle/matchup. Which one should you pick? That will change and I would suggest trying out different things until you find the ones that you do good with against certain matchups, if you see you struggle against something. Try using something else.

Either way, below you will see which Runes do well against what type of matchup.

Tanks

Heavy tanks usually are easy for Teemo to kill early on but they will gain a lot more health and resistances later. Against these I would recommend either Press the Attack or Grasp of the Undying. Both these runes allow you to poke and deal extra damage. They also are flexible if you want to build either AP or AD. Another good choice could be Phase Rush if the opponent has good slows or gap closers.

Mages

Mages are tricky, usually they have more range or damage against Teemo. Dark Harvest and Electrocute are good to burst the enemy, not just against mages, but it works well against them so you can poke harder and not lose trades. Other choices could be Phase Rush or Fleet Footwork to avoid their skillshots and sustain in lane. Summon Aery is good in a lot of cases, it's a decently good damaging rune.

Gap Closers

Against people with gapclosers, usually you want to avoid getting hit by those abilities. But if possible Phase Rush lets you get away or avoid them easier. Glacial Augment lets you get closer to them or also run away easier, especially combined activation items. You could always choose to go Ghost as well and stick with another rune page.

Flash: Flash allows Teemo to get out of sticky situations, since he does not have a dash. There is also a useful trick with Flash that lets Teemo go between bushes while maintaining his stealth, while stealthed just flash from one bush to another. You can use this to trick enemies into thinking you flashed into another bush or even just escape without them knowing where you went.

Ignite: As a lanebully Teemo will most likely swap out Teleport for Ignite. It will scoop up a lot of kills due to it's lane pressure especially with Teemo's DoT on top of it. Considering Teemo shines more early and mid game, it is better to use Ignite over Teleport.

Teleport: It allows you to play more defensive in a lane where your opponent has the edge on you, it also lets you make certain cross-map plays. For example to assist a dragon play. Usually this is not needed as Teemo might prefer to just keep pressure top and push, but it can work if used correctly.

Can't touch this

Teemo is the "Swift" scout, therefore as his name implies, you need to be swift, avoid damage by dodging. His kit has slowing effects and also movement speed bonuses. Use these to manuever yourself through enemies and their skillshots. Try and avoid abilities that are point click since you cannot escape those. In lane you often will use mushrooms to keep enemies from reaching you and be able to outkite them.

Now you see me, now you don't

It is common knowledge that Teemo blinds his enemies, but on top of that just using your blind at every opportunity is not perfect. Use it to avoid certain enhanced auto attacks like Renekton's stun, Jax's empowered hit, Xin zhao's knockup, Garen's silence and so on. If you do so, you'll get a lot more value out of it and potentially safe your own life or an important trade. Sometimes it is more imporant to blind an enemy even if he is not your main target just to avoid his auto attacks.

Hey I'm warding

Warding and vision is important, Teemo can provide both vision and map pressure with one single ability, his ultimate. Enemies usually will buy extra sweepers just to clear mushrooms, on top of this you will be able to put your mushrooms near objectives or key positions to hinder enemies. Sometimes very useful is throwing mushrooms into the baron pit as the enemy tries and does it, it will chip away at their health and also provide vision for your team.

To the escape hatch

Teemo pushes a lot, usually because he is the more dominant laner. Just pushing without any control will get you killed, therefore it is always smart once you reach level 6 to think and make a potential escape route. I've found myself making paths of mushrooms to run along so that enemies have to either chase directly through it or try and navigate around it. This also includes putting mushrooms at entry points to make the life of the jungler more difficult. Just be careful of ganks before level 6 or champions that have a dash or cannot be slowed.

Teemo almost always has a way to get on top in a matchup, win and get ahead. Sometimes this seems unlikely but if you set your mind to it and avoid what needs to be avoided you'll be able to win any matchup eventually. Even so, Teemo has some easier and some more challenging matchups, so make sure to know your strenghts and weaknesses.

Aatrox

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Medium Try to win early on. Don't get hit by The Darkin Blade.

Akali

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Hard Win early on. Getting outpoked.

Camille

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Medium Avoid key abilities, outtrade her. Getting ganked, locked in.

Darius

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Easy Bully him early on. Don't get stacks on you or grabbed.

Fiora

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Hard Bully her early on. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Garen

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Easy Bully him early on. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Irelia

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Medium Get ahead early on. Avoid her resets.

Jax

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Medium He doesn't need a real weapon, you do. Losing lane and enabling his scale earlier.

Mordekaiser

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Hard Stay away if possible. Getting caught or hit.

Nasus

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Medium Stacks stacks stacks. Stacks stacks stacks.

Riven

Difficulty Advice Avoid

: : :

Medium Go for early game. Don't get hit by her combos

Guerrilla Warfare
A very easy to use but sometimes powerful ability. It allows Teemo to go invisible after being idle for 1.5s, although in bushes it is posible to move to gain stealth. This is very useful to surprise enemies or escape sticky situations.



Blinding dart
Teemo shoots out a dart that blinds the target for an amount of time that scales with it's level. While blinded enemy targets will miss their auto-attacks, this is very useful against auto attack based champions, usually AD based champions. This ability is best used to avoid damage when trading with enemies or to surpress a strong enemy from hitting your team.




Move quick
This ability is very basic, it's passive effect lets Teemo move quicker, and if activated it lets Teemo move even quicker, although it is notable that pasively Teemo will lose the bonus movement speed if hit, this does not occur when the ability is activated.

This is best used when running towards or away from enemies, it also helps in dodging skillshots or to kite enemies. Don't always activate when available as it consumes mana and it also has a decently long cooldown, you'll need it in some situations.


Toxic shot
This ability only has a passive effect, it adds a DoT poison effect to all of Teemo's auto attacks. This ability is very good for trading, as it will do damage even when you are not attacking enemies. It also keeps alive certain effects that work while damaging enemy champions.

Although early on the poison seems weak, it becomes especially strong when used in AP based builds. The damage will slowly add up when hitting enemies and when combined with Ignite can surprise enemies on how much damage you can do over time, helping you even secure kills after dying.

Noxious Trap
Teemo's signature ability, it grants him the ability to place a mushroom on the field, this mushroom upon activation will detonate in a poison cloud that slows and does DoT after the initial explosion.

If used correctly they do not just help in doing ridiculous amounts of damage, they can also deny enemy ganks, engages or even ward specific objectives. A mushroom lasts for 5 minutes and will show nearby enemies.

On top of that, if thrown on each other they bounce in the thrown direction. This can help to facecheck,you can throw them into the enemy team or towards objectives like baron or dragon to grant vision, get a possible steal with DoT or just provide vision.

Teemo can prioritize Blinding Dart over Toxic Shot in those matchups where you want to poke with your dart (Mostly because you cannot poke over time). But considering the mana cost and such, it is usually more effective to maximize your Toxic Shot first. Sometimes it is better to put 3 early points into Q to boost your poke damage (Against mages for example) or to put 3 early points into W if you need that extra movement speed.

League of legends has a lot of items, this guide will show you different items that work well with Teemo's kit. This doesn't mean other items don't work or won't work.

Liandry's torment One of Teemo's usual core items, as it provides a good tick damage bonus. It will mostly be useful with your ultimate as it grants you stacks which increase your damamge.

Hextech gunblade Grants some sustain out of your abilities, Hextech Revolver helps you do extra damage early on. This item usually is better in "on-hit" Teemo builds, but it can be useful in some other builds as well.

Frozen mallet Very useful as it grants health and utility. It used to be a lot better but can still be viable in certain situations. It allows you to slow your opponents and make it almost impossible to escape you once you start hitting them. In certain matchups this item isn't as valuable as you need more raw damage, so try and get a feel for what works at which times.

Iceborn Gauntlet Another armor option aside Zhonya's Hourglass, it provides some extra damage after auto-attacks and the slow could be useful to some extend. Although it is very situational.

Blade of the ruined king Really good against tank matchups, not as useful when playing an AP focused Teemo, but it might be a good starting item for AD based Teemo players (or On-hit).

Void staff Very good if your build is focused on bursting enemies, usually combined with other MP items to increase your damage, I'd recommend buying it if you consider going full AP.

Morellonomicon Useful against healing comps or champions, later on it might also help you kill certain champions if they are able to heal out your damage. If you want to build more AD you can buy Mortal Reminder as Executioner's Calling is a cheap way to counter healing champions in lane.

Wit's end With its rework it was one of the better items on Teemo but as it got nerfed it became useful but not broken anymore. It is very good in on-hit builds, especially against magic damage focused champions but also against tankier matchups, due to the healing.

Guinsoo's rageblade A very good item for on-hit Teemo builds or hybrid Teemo's. Guinsoo will apply extra damage from your initial Toxic Shot on hit magic damage, plus the added penetration can be beneficial for Teemo.

Lich bane I myself only find this item useful if you don't decide to build a lot of attack speed, it will grant your combo a bit more damage, but it won't be super effective with higher attack speed due to the item's cooldown.

Nashor's tooth Provides good stats Teemo can make use of, and it's passive grants extra DPS on your auto-attacks.

The Dark seal Starting with this in stead of Doran's Ring lets you scale better in lane when you get ahead, but also lets you sustain better if you get damaged, plus it lets you start with Refillable Potion and can be build into Mejai's Soulstealer if you are doing really well.

I'm kind of a bully, but a cute one!Usually early on Teemo is a lane bully, unless you got counter picked. If you were not try and poke the enemy champion as often as possible, make sure you win trades if you trade and don't forget to keep farming. The best possible outcome is when you can slowly push back the enemy laner to his tower, make him lower and lower to then finish him off with Blinding Dart Toxic Shot and Ignite, make sure you remember that towers will agro you if the enemy is still poisoned and you get into range. Something very important to keep in mind is the enemy jungler, usually they will try and gank you before level 6, as ganking Teemo becomes a lot harder after level 6, therefore make sure you have vision when you push forward. It is also handy to see how your enemy laner reacts to you, if this behaviour changes it is quite possible he/she is getting a gank. If you do get ganked, remember that the bushes can help you go invisible to stall for time but also help you escape sometimes. Lastly, once you get your mushrooms, make sure to use them to not just damage the enemy but also to give yourself escape or engage options. Especially to deny the enemy jungler from entering your lane.

Objectives or afk farming?Usually around the mid-game Teemo's game plan doesn't change too much, you can decide to either help your team more often, roam midlane or even roam for objectives like dragon. But if you are ahead, and your team is doing well too, you might consider just pushing further. This will also pressure the enemy team, they'll have to deal with you. If you do decide to push forward, keep in mind that if they come you'll most likely be alone, so always keep the enemy jungle and entries to your lane "warded" with mushrooms. Giving you more time to escape or potentially even kill those pesky invaders. If you want to help your team, you can also consider just leaving mushrooms around the map where it helps them, going invisible to catch people out of place or help them push. Teemo isn't the best in team fights, but he can do a lot of AoE damage with his mushrooms and he can enter the fight later if he goes invisible beforehand. This can help to catch their backline of guard.

"There's a mushroom out there with your name on it."So it's lategame, you usually want to win before the game goes on too much. If you have troubles beating the enemy team in teamfights. Stop fighting them together then, try and get picks by going invisible in the jungle, play on your turf, lure them into fields of mushrooms. Usually around this time more enemies do also pick up sweepers, this really denies your ultimate. Therefore it is always good to keep some extra mushrooms on you, it is still good to place them but just make sure to have some on you for specific fights. With the added bounce and extra throw distance you can just throw them into minion waves to hit enemies directly. If split pushing isn't an option and you have to fight, try and be the one to take out their marksman, as you can usually easily kill them head on, if their marksman is useless, you might want to try and burst their damage dealer instead then. Closing out the game can be difficult but if you play to your advantages it should go fine. Therefore the best thing to do is to catch people while they ward, clear jungle camps or while they rotate from a lane to another.