Teemo: The On-Hit-Wonder

OhHai

This build is largely focused on items that proc. (activate) on hit and making those items hit as often as humanly (or yordlely) possible. The build causes you to be about as squishy as any other carry, though will make even a tanky character's knees quiver. The general idea is to be a lethal assassin (preferably in your cottontail skin, for extra deadliness).

Scout the map, ward it well with your shrooms, cause major distractions at enemy towers, and avoid group confrontation, if possible. If enemy stragglers are cocky or stupid enough to confront you alone...Show 'em what you're made of. They will regret it.

EDIT: Now that I have much more experience than when I wrote this guide, I will say it does not really follow my usual play style. I like to incorporate far more survivability into runes, masteries, items, etc. As such, I rarely play anymore. This build still works, but it is very difficult to get to the "carry" status that is possible using this guide when you are playing against competent opponents. Keep this in mind and feel free to add your own personal mix of survivability into the build, if you wish. :) Another thing to note is that this build makes Teemo difficult to fit on a team in the current meta, as you will be either lacking a tank, be short on AD, or both. This is a very situational type of playstyle (On-Hit) that, when in the proper conditions, does amazingly well.

Keep in mind, the items are a guide; go read the item section for more information as to when and how you should be using what items. Also note, the runes are now incorrect; However, the runes I want to replace them with (Marks/Quints of Destruction) don't appear to be listed in the Mobafire database yet.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

(Albeit Short) Ranged Champion.
Difficult to counter with defensive items.
Great early harass.
Near impossible to lose a 1v1 fight.
Capable of consistent rates of very high damage.
Difficult to counter with defensive items.

Cons:

Very susceptible to CC effects.
Oracle's Elixir / Vision Wards can ruin your fun, though not the whole game.
The build takes a while to build up substantial damage (much like most other carries)
Very item dependent.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

NOTE: Marks/Quints of Destruction have not yet been added on Mobafire. I can say for sure they are definitely worth the investment for builds such as this one.

You'd be gaining 15 Ar. Pen and losing out on about 6 MPen by switching from Marks/Quints of Insight to Destruction. In my opinion, this is worth the trade, especially when you consider how much the Ar. Pen helps out with the early game where auto-attacks are a heavy source of damage.

Masteries

*Tree will come soon here, the page appears to not work correctly right now. As soon as it's patched up, I'll re-add it for reference. :)

I am curious if applies to item procs/summoner spells, but I do know it applies to your abilities as well as physical damage. This should allow your DoT to be slightly more effective at finishing off those opponents trying to sneak off with low health.

I ignored the AP boosting masteries (but not magic penetration!) because the AP is minimal and won't be as helpful later game (because this is not a an AP build; bursts from will be less potent later game where you'll be playing more like an AD carry (but doing mostly magic damage from item procs)). The physical damage will hit more often than your AP related abilities will (for obvious reasons) and should therefore do more overall.

I haven't really tested much between and , though it looks like both of the starter masteries in the utility tree got buffs. Actually, meditation just got moved (and buffed?), and a new mastery () took its old spot. Either way, they both look like great masteries so this is really up to you. 10% time off every death adds up, but the much needed mana added to you pool could allow you to stay in the field for longer.

I didn't bother with as it apparently does not work with 's and seems to be slightly underpowered anyway. Also, I ignored 's 1% spell vamp because not only is it negligible on this build but it doesn't work with your magic based item procs.

Summoner Spells

(could use a little formatting help, as you can probably see, to make the two side columns even, if possible)

Ignite

is great for early game ganks and harassment or snagging those runners before they flash away. It also works great with your 'over time' damage from (E) and (R). If there is a particular enemy you're having trouble handling 1v1, ignite can easily turn the tide of the battle if used early on. Finally, it can be used to set up a small combo with 's . See Abilities for details.

OhHai

Flash

is a fantastic ability for evasion, pursuing, mobility, and positioning. Teemo can make great use of it to jump a jungle wall and quickly run away or hide with either of his passive abilities.

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Other Spells:

Ghost goes great with Teemo's Move Quick (W) ability, both for escaping and chasing enemies. It is a good substitution if one cannot or does not want to use Flash.

Exhaust is a decent alternative to Ignite. While it doesn't do the extra damage, it can easily incapacitate an enemy carry for several seconds in a fight or slow a champion enough for you and/or your teammates to finish him/her off.

I don't really have enough experience with the spell to say whether it's viable on Teemo or not, but Cleanse could be worth considering to remove that almost always fatal CC hampering your getaways.

Teleport is fantastic for map mobility, especially on a character who should be all over the place. In addition, you can use your mushrooms as teleport anchors. By taking this, you'll possibly be missing out on a lot of kills due to lack of ignite and/or flash (for chasing...also escaping). It's a great ability, but I don't think it will mesh as well as some of the others. As with Ghost, however, consider it if you don't have flash yet.

Surge seems like a fantastic ability for these on-hit builds. It provides both Attack Speed for more item procs, Ability Power (for Blinding Dart and possibly Noxious Trap) for a rather long time. I still prefer Ignite, personally, but I'd definitely take this spell into consideration.

Abilities

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

camouflage

Camouflage

This is very key to Teemo's gameplay. All sorts of tricks can be played with this ability. It is excellent for zoning and/or ambushing early game, without the need for bushes. Be careful for AoE abilities (including !), as they will knock you out of camouflage

may not be a good candidate for backdooring turrets, but he excels at split pushing a lane by himself. The key is to know when your opponent(s) is/are coming after you; map awareness is absolutely necessary. Good thing has built in wards with his ability! If you see a group of opponents heading your way, you can either stealth and wait until they leave (thus providing a fantastic distraction while your team pushes another lane) or simply return to your base. Each has its own risks, so be sure to know if the team is packing s or oracle's elixers.

Going into stealth while in a bush is rarely beneficial. Oftentimes, the opponent will suspect someone is hiding there and send a skillshot your way. Stealth or no stealth, that's going to hit you. Instead, try to stealth when your opponents are preoccupied or out of vision range. While they may know you are there somewhere, they likely won't have a clue as to where...and that is a scary prospect for just about anyone.

Blinding Dart

is good for taking an enemy champion out of a fight for a short time, as well as some burst damage. In fact, is one of those fun little abilities that can be used *immediately* after an auto-attack, allowing for a short and sweet combo. Add in there for some surprising burst damage that the opponent cannot immediately recover from.

Another important use for is to blind an enemy champion, so all of their autoattacks will miss for a short period of time. After this ability is maxed, the blind lasts for a full 2.5 seconds! That is more than enough time to kill or nearly kill an enemy AD champion while taking no damage from their auto-attacks. This is especially important in team fights, though it can be hard to pull off without getting targeted heavily. You are, after all, a huge threat.

Be sure not to spam this too much, as it will drain your mana rather quickly; you need that mana for .

Move Quick

gives a little bit of a speedy advantage over other enemy champions. Until is hit by another champion or turret, he will have a passive movement speed bonus. If does get hit and needs this bonus move speed for whatever reason, just activate the ability for a quick burst of speed equal to double the passive bonus; this cannot be removed, unlike the passive.

Toxic Shot

accounts for a huge amount of your damage, for free too! It doesn't cost any mana to use, as it is a passive ability. You don't have to spend gold or anything...After being maxed, (and after getting Malady) it does 48.5 base damage on-hit and starts a 4-second effect dealing a total of 134 damage (33.5 per second). Hitting the same opponent only refreshes the timer, rather than stacking damage. For this reason, it is beneficial to spread your attacks between minions when trying to push a lane.

Teemo has an advantage over other "on-hit" carries because of this ability. It's like an extra item in itself and therefore works very well with the other on-hit stacks.

Also note, the poison effect from will net you gold if it is the last hit on an enemy!

Noxious Trap

Gotta love those shroooommsss maaaaann. These things need to be abused. However, just randomly laying them down isn't going to do the team much good. There are several uses for these things.

1) Scouting:

"Scout" shrooms should be placed in order to gain map awareness. The trick with these, is that you don't want people to be stepping all over them; that busts the ward! So, try to place them extremely close to walls of often-traveled paths or junctions. Also, Baron/Dragon should be warded with 'scout' shrooms so it is obvious when the enemy team is attacking either one. Crest camps (Lizards/Blue Golems) are lesser priority scout shroom locations.

With each of these minions (Baron/Dragon included!), be sure to place the shrooms within sight range of them. This can be tricky to do because they're more likely to be stepped on, but it's worth doing anyway.

Try to keep these out of bushes (unless you need awareness of a specific bush, such as in the laning phase), as that is where people tend to walk through while moving around the map. You want to see them coming from miles away with your scout shrooms and have to replace them as little as possible.

2) Common Routes:

These are placed in areas where people commonly run through. This is good for your own escapes and is detrimental to the opponents'. On top of that, they're likely to run into these often, weakening them for future ganks/team fights. They should be placed in bushes or junctions. Also, entry/exits to the lanes; this is key for controlling a lane. Shrooms should not generally be in the lane, as minions will step on them more often than champions (Obviously this does not apply if trying to push a lane).

Also note, if someone steps on a shroom, they're likely to know your entire team is now aware of their whereabouts. This could discourage them from following through with a gank, stealing a crest from your jungle, or whatever other nasty things they may have been planning.

3) Personal Escape:

When running from an enemy, (if there is enough distance between you and the enemy) place a shroom *in front* of where you're running. The enemy will either have to run around it, or just barrel straight through. Either way, this discourages a chase.

4) Farming:

Mushrooms do quite a bit of damage when set off. If you're trying to clear a wave (or waves, if things are going badly on your end), don't be afraid to lay a shroom under the bulk of the minions. It's a very quick way to clear lots of them at once.

It's also worth noting that when you die, there is a teeny-tiny benefit (unless your death timer is 60+ seconds, in which case this benefit is negligible)...you'll respawn with two s ready to go.

Here are some suggested locations to place your mushrooms:

Items

Cookie Cutter Items: Order and Explanations

I realize I included 7 "cookie cutter" items in the build. This is because they are all honorable mentions for the build, meaning you'll have to choose which one to sacrifice. It's hard to choose what order to buy them in but the most generic is listed.

are a given; these are going to be pretty necessary unless you decide to max your early for some reason.

is fantastic for lowering opponents' MRes for your abilities and other on-hit items; not to mention it provides decent early-game damage.

Go with a if you are having issues with casters in the early game (which you probably will). It provides a great amount of early/middle game damage and gives you quite a bit of MRes allowing you to withstand early game bursts.

Early will give you the sustain (and damage...) you need as . Later when you have more AD, it'll allow you to 1v1 other auto-attackers with ease (if you can blind them) if the need arises. Once you have this, it's time to start having some fun.

combined with Malady means you are absolutely shredding peoples' armor and magic resist allowing your own (and allies') attacks to wreak absolute havoc on whoever you are targeting.

is another fantastic item for on-hit . Keep in mind that it is very expensive, so unless there is a tanky character who is giving you serious trouble, it may be better to use the gold and slot for another item.

...need I say more? You die less and will be focused less often. It gives your team a huge advantage if the enemies nuke you with everything they've got just for you to respawn moments later.

A bit more info on each item below:

OhHai

are a standard item for many carries. They're cheap, can be built from decent starter items, and offer fantastic bonuses which will work in really well with the rest of this build. Mercury Treads *can* be substituted mid/late game, though if you get hit with any bit of CC, you're pretty much a dead in most cases anyway.

OhHai

Rush for the magic reduction against opponents; easy to build from mostly useful components. Good damage early game damage and MRes removal is still helpful later game.

OhHai

gives you a nice bit of MRes as well as a hefty damage bonus for mid game fights. If the enemy is heavy on casters, feel free to opt for this item before the .

OhHai

will give you the sustain you need as Teemo as well as a hefty amount of AD to match it. I previously included Force of Nature here due to the health regen, seeing as spell vamp does not activate from item abilities and this build did not build enough AD for life-steal to be useful here. The movespeed and magic resist were a huge help as well...It was a decent item for the slot, but I think the will be better in this case. Even though you won't have crazy high AD and lots of crits like many other builds, the insane AS of around 2.4/sec (end game) easily makes up for it.

OhHai

can be a good alternative if the opponents are building lots of MRes. Not only does it give a nice damage bonus and MORE attack speed for your item procs, but also reduces the opponents' armor ratings by as much as 45 if you land 3 autoattacks on them (which is easy to do when you're attacking more than twice per second)...This can take opponents' armor ratings into the negatives allowing your AD carry if you have one to annihilate them, or you yourself take them down a few pegs (and likely kill them 1v1 by the end of this build...beware of casters, however; you don't have a blind for that!).

This also adds more AD for life steal as well as taking turrets down when split pushing (or with allies).

OhHai

is great against opponents building HP. This build creates a substantial amount of both magic and physical damage while simultaneously shredding the opponents' defenses. How can someone possibly counter that? While it may not be the most effective, the best counter (aside from killing you) is to build HP. solves that problem quite nicely.

OhHai

can be extremely helpful for split pushing, as well as escaping a team-fight gone bad. Many games your enemies will notice the crazy damage you are doing and do their best to take you out; you are a primary target. They will be less inclined, however, to focus you if you have the Guardian Angel hovering around you. Even if they do manage to take you out, they'll likely have to lose a member or two to do so if your team-mates stay in the fight.

Alternatives

OhHai

can be good if the enemy is stacking a lot of CC. You get a much needed health bonus along with MRes and a well appreciated addition to your mana pool. The biggest part, of course, is the spell negation. This item is rather situational as you mostly want to be on the offensive side of things and it does cost quite a bit of gold. However, if you find yourself being targeted a lot, I would highly recommend you pick this up, possibly in place of the Wit's End. Note, buying it that early will mean you have very little damage on auto-attacks...coming only from the Malady and your base AD (which is not high at all).

OhHai

I seem to see / on quite often. I think both are unnecessary for the cost. If you're playing him as a tanky DPS(Frozen Mallet)/AP (Rylai's), it's another story. For carry-type builds such as this one, however, I feel the slot can be better used by other items. It can work, but I feel there are better options for the slot and gold. If I had to pick one to put on this build, however, I'd go with Frozen Mallet for sure.

Laning

Teemo is able to lane in any of the 3 lanes depending on his own team composition and the enemy's team composition. He excels against melee characters and groans when paired against long-ranged bursters and CC. He generally does best in the top lane, due to the type of champions (melee) who go up there, but this build makes difficult to place on a team anyway.

Top Lane Pros:

Counterpicks many 'top champions' in the current meta.
Level 6+ almost impossible to gank allowing you to farm/roam with ease.

Top Lane Cons:

Easy to be ganked before level 6.
If out-harassed, most top laners can out-sustain Teemo with ease.

Top lane can be played more aggressively, poking and harassing the enemy as much as possible. After level 6, be sure to use to your advantage in order to protect yourself and help out your jungler by warding your own and/or the enemies' jungle.

Middle Lane Pros:

Fantastic for roaming/shrooming for map awareness.
Great gank prevention (from level 6+).
Doesn't need bush cover as much, due to camouflage
Can burst with auto-attack + Blinding Dart (and sometimes Ignite) after baiting the enemy for a gank.
Plenty of mana until level 6, usually.
Short distance from both Dragon and Baron Nashor allowing you to 'ward' them with shrooms easily.

Middle Lane Cons:

Difficult to sustain if you play too offensively
Short range makes it hard to harass most opposing middle laners.
Very susceptible to ganks before level 6.
Level 6+, mana must be watched more carefully

Essentially what you want to do is play defensively, mostly focusing on last-hits. If you get a chance to safely throw an auto-attack + combo in, go for it, but don't trade hits with the enemy. When you hit level 6, attempt to push the lane forward a tad, so you can slink off to the river and place some s. While placing your shrooms, see if you can land some ganks if the enemies have been pushing a bit too far. Usually, you should be able to roam somewhat freely while maintaining mid-lane and having great map control.

Bottom Lane Pros:

camouflage works wonders and can catch enemies unaware if your partner is good at baiting.
You should control the lane and the bushes once you are able to place shrooms.
Very effective at harassing from the bushes.
Once again, gank prevention for not only yourself but your bottom/mid lane team-mates.
Within a decent distance from Dragon allowing you to shroom it up.

Bottom Lane Cons:

Easily out-ranged by many bottom lane champs (usually dependent on bush/tower cover).
Less opportunities to gank/roam.
Mana must be watched more carefully even from level 1.

In the bottom lane, you won't be able to gank as often, will have far less shroom coverage, and more ground to cover when returning to your turret from the shop (which you may have to do often, if the enemy is zoning/harassing you very aggressively).

The plus to laning with a partner as , however, is the ability to use camouflage to hide and let the enemies push closer to you. Have your partner lure them past you, then a kill is almost guaranteed. Combo your auto-attack with and and the kill is as good as yours (great early burst damage, can keep up with runners (flash if necessary) and / can keep doing damage even if they get into range of an enemy turret).

Mid/Late Game

During team fights, you are lethal, though squishy. The opposing team will likely try to focus on you, so having a skilled tank is beneficial.

It should go without saying, but here it is anyway: DO NOT INTIATE GROUP FIGHTS. has a very short range of 500 and VERY little to protect him. Your survivability, as , is based on your ability to get the hell out of there as fast as you can and hide. will decimate most opponents 1v1, but in team fights he will struggle if focused. One CC shot on you can easily be the end of your reign of terror.

Try to hang back and hide in the confusion, using your passive camouflage. Once the team fight is under way, jump in with your increased AS bonus, give them hell, and do your best not to get caught; remember your if an AD carry is in the fray!

If you know a team fight is about to happen, do your best to place shrooms along any possible escape routes. If your team wins the fight and stragglers are attempting to escape, a shroom can easily be their demise. Conversely, if your team loses the fight, you have safe routes to run through (shrooms will slow the opponents who step on them).

However, with this build, you should be able to easily split push a lane and kill off anyone coming to get you away from their turrets. If the whole enemy team chases you, all the better. Use your fantastic escape abilities to cause a distraction while your team pushes another lane. If the game goes on for too long, this is usually one of the better ways to finish it.

Above all else, punish those who are out of position!

Finishing up

Thanks for reading! I hope this guide will benefit you. If it does, feel free to report back with your scores and I'll consider adding a section for that! :)

Remember, if you're going to rate, ensure you've read the entire thing please. If you rate down, I'd love to hear constructive criticism as to why you feel this guide is not up to par.

Thanks for the support and good luck with your games!

wrote:

very nice build, worked great on the first try! Yes its a bit glass cannon but if you plan a good escape route and play well you end up with this ...

wrote:

most those assist got ks'd off me :L

first time good build with good escape route

wrote:

I just went 31-6-19 in a lvl 30 5v5. ive never scored that high as teemo. this build shut down a rammus and a sion no problem. This build took me from doing 4-6-10 to that with just a tiny bit of adjusting. GREAT BUILD

wrote:

got me 10 wins in a row, on a 3v3 map though, nice guide :D

Teemo: The On-Hit-Wonder

Teemo: The On-Hit-Wonder

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Ability Order

Guerrilla Warfare (PASSIVE)

Blinding Dart (Q)

Move Quick (W)

Toxic Shot (E)

Noxious Trap (R)