User blog:Aterons/AP Teemo, player guide

1. Introduction Hi, I am AnjouShin, a player since closed beta, and Teemo is my main. I have played Teemo for over 500 games now (I was at 201 games before Season 1 started 127 wins 74 losses) and I rarely grow tired of playing him due to his unique playstyle and my ability to play him rather well (as others tell me). Please believe me that I know what I am talking about when I suggest something. This is a guide for Summoners Rift. It will not work for Twisted Treeline although AP Teemo is possible there as well (the radically changed build is not the topic of this guide). You will need a lot of practice and you need to know the game so this is not a beginners guide. You need to know every champion in the game, their disable cooldowns and their effective durations along with high damage nukes. Solo-Queue also proves to be hard at times so I recommend you play with at least one friend. Once you master him you know why AP Teemo is the way Teemo has to be played.

If you are looking for Hybrid and DPS builds there is a quick overview on the bottom. Keep in mid they are just quick overviews and that I do not advise using Teemo this way. They are only for fun and maybe learning the game and are not viable in games with highly skilled enemies.

So have fun while trying him. You will most likely not succeed when you are new to Teemo since he really takes a lot of skill to be played AP correctly. (Remembering to use your Deathfire Grasp alone takes a lot of time ;-P )

So here is my Guide for AP Teemo.

2. Abilities

Camouflage This is a nice passive and helps you sometimes to hide from enemies or to initiate fights. It is by far not as useful as real stealth champions and really helps you only about one time every 4-5 games.

Blinding Dart This is your main damage nuke and a very good counter to DPS carries with the blind and the good scaling. Its also your main way of triggering your Lich Bane late game.

Move Quick A very helpful skill that makes you stay alive and chase people with unmatched speed while being a passive. With basic boots you are almost as fast as a melee champion with improved boots. With improved boots you can outrun someone with improved boots and ghost. The active component adds some survivability and should not be underestimated.

Cannot trigger your Lich Bane.

Toxic Shot This skill is mainly used for farming creeps and harassing champions to the point where they call for their jungler. It makes towerdiving hard and should not be applied when you want to suppress someone and get a few shots at the tower. Late game it deals a large amount of damage. Stacking attackspeed is a bad idea since only the in-build burst is added each hit and every second of poison scales equally.

e.g. Lvl 5 posion deals 45(+100) magic damage on hit and 30(+100) damage each second for 4 seconds. That means stacking attackspeed only leads to an increase of 15 magic damage on hit.

Noxious Trap Some people say this is the skill that makes AP Teemo viable. While it is a great mine that deals a lot of damage it still can be countered and you cannot use it teamfights like an instant damage nuke like so many others can. Without the mushrooms Teemo is still 70-80% combat effective.

Your secondary way of triggering your Lich Bane late game.

3. What you need to know Okay this guide just keeps growing and I don't expect anyone to read everything. There are just some sections that are important.

So this is what you need to read:

Summoner Abilities Runes and Masteries Skilling Order Items

When you have questions about items and using them:

Item and Build analysis Game Example

If you have questions concerning the laning phase:

Advanced solo-mid tactics list (alphabetically sorted) Side Lane tactics 4. Summoner Abilities My advice for Teemo's Summoner Abilities is:

Exhaust Flash

"Wait? Exhaust? Why? He has a blind already! Why would you need a damage reducing spell as well?" Exhaust is one of the most versatile Summoner spell in the game. It reduces the enemy damage and slows for 3 seconds. If you go for Cripple it increased the duration by 0,5 seconds as well as lower the armor and magic resist by 10. (see also: Runes and Masteries). It can be used to reduce caster damage as well (Karth, Nunu, Vlad)

Flash is a pretty straightforward skill. It helps you to get away from our enemies as well as being a great repositioning tool during fights whatever their scale is. Should you get chased down you can Flash and Move Quick out of most situations. They can't stun you when you are out of range =)

if you hate flash (or its being removed) you can go for Exhaust Ghost keep in mind that the Move Quick active is a little ghost for 4 seconds that should provide more survivability in combination with flash then ghost with the active. Don't use ghost and move quick at the same time but move quick first and then ghost. Otherwise you will get only 50% for both abilities due to a 50% reduction after hitting a certain movespeed value. If you use move quick first there is a good chance you can save your ghost or if you need ghost still you have ghost 4s longer than your enemy.

I do not advise going for:

Ignite You have a DOT with your autoattack that hits harder, the heal reduction is missed at times (especially against some corporation employees and several barbarian kings) but there is always someone with ignite on your team to do the job. Know when to engage and how to kill and you will never need ignite to finish somebody off. "Get ignite for first blood!" Congratulations, you just gimped you for the entire game so you MIGHT get 100 gold extra.

Teleport you move around the map fast enough with move quick. Teleport to mushrooms is overrated the cooldown is too long and it brings no utility or damage for teamfights. The benefits is brings are easily canceled out by the damage you deal to your own teamfight capabilities.

Clarity with the runes and masteries you should have close to no mana problems. It is also a waste of a summoner spell after level 9 (or after you got your P-Stone see items).

Clairvoyance good spell on certain characters but a bad choice on Teemo. Your mushrooms should provide enough vision to reveal incoming ganks. If they simply evade every single mushroom's LOS (line of sight) you are better of with a damage reduction/slow or a repositioning tool than a vision spell. Its better suited for support champions than on AP scout assassins. If the side lanes don't buy wards for only 37.5g per player it is not your fault should they overextend and be ganked. If you see they have a jungler/mia and your lanes are overextended tell them something like: "care top ww!"

the other summoner spells should not even be considered.

5. Runes and Masteries There is no special trick or awesomeness in the runes and masteries you need.

Runes:

Greater Mark of Insight x 9 Greater Seal of Clarity x 9 Greater Glyph of Shielding x 9 (updated recently!!!) Greater Quintessence of Insight x 3

this should give you 14.22 Magic Penetration 2.106 Mana/s at level 18 (10.53 MP5) 24 Magic resistance at level 18 (1.33 MR / lvl)

Masteries:

a basic 9/0/21 mastery tree

with improved exhaust, the cooldown masteries and some extra cooldown item (see Items) you should be able to permanently disable one champion for up to 8.5 seconds. (you can use exhaust on any champion that might deal a lot of damage to you e.g. chogath before he feasts, ashe, miss fortune ultimate, nunu ultimate, xin zhao, ezreal, vlad, annie... anyone)

the 3M/5s mastery, improved buff duration and 5% experience are also very important.

if you go for ghost and improved ghost add the extra free point to Greed (0,5g / 5s). It's a wasted point anyway.

With this setup you should have almost no mana problems. You regenerate enough mana to place mushrooms every time they come off cooldown.

the magic penetration should allow you to deal 5 damage per tick with if you do 6 damage with your poison. (sorcerers shoes make you deal almost true damage to low MR opponents, see Items)

The magic resistance/lvl will give you an increasing defense against casters each level. In early levels your magic resistance will increase by about 0.65%/lvl which is not much but at level 18 your MR will be at about 35% compared to the 23% without the runes. That gives you about 351 additional effective HP if an enemy has 19.35 magic pen runes and 20 magic pen sorcerers shoes (it won't help much against magic pen things like Spell Flux, Dread or Malady though. Its still better to have a little rest magic resist than being dealt true damage because the low the MR gets the higher the resistance one point of MR provides). It gives you about 578 effective HP more if the enemy has no magic pen. 6. Skilling Order The skilling order greatly depends on who you face. Fighting a mage or a high HP/high regen tank(cho'gath, mundo, garen, mordekaiser) go for Toxic Shot as your level 1 ability. (also if you go for a 2v1 or 2v2 lane)

when fighting a DPS you need Blinding Dart as your first ability. that way you have a good nuke with a blind that might save you live should you fail and overextend too early.

upgrade both abilities roughly to the same degree. even if you don't need to blind veigar mid you can still be ganked so get a few points in your dart. if you level up blinding dart too fast you will run out of mana.

At level 5 you get one point in Move Quick and upgrade it further after level 13 (once blind dart and toxic shot are at 5)

your level 6 should look like this

2x Blinding Dart 1x Move Quick 2x Toxic Shot 1x Noxious Trap

7. Items The right build is, as usual, the key to success or defeat.

Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion are your first items. They make you stay in lane for a very long time. (sometimes up to 15 minutes and about 2500 gold). next items are (in that order usually) Philosopher's Stone Boots of Speed Mejai's Soulstealer Malady starting with Dagger Rod of Ages starting with Ruby Crystal Sorcerer's Shoes Deathfire Grasp sell your Philosopher's Stone Rabadon's Deathcap starting with Needlessly Large Rod either keep your Malady(rare) or sell it and build Lich Bane(most likely) or Void Staff(very rare) (see also Game Example)

note: there is no CORE build for this Teemo since every item (excluding Mejai's Soulstealer) changes Teemos role in the game (see also 'Item and Build analysis / Rod of Ages' right below this section). While many other champions simply buff their abilities in one way or another, Teemo changes his role constantly according the the circumstances, requirements and challenges of the different game phases. (farming, ganking, fighting, nuking) 8. Item and Build analysis Okay here are some items analyzed on how to use them and why you want them. Some Items might be considered unfitting or simply bad items. Also the question on about CDR on Teemo and its uses is answered here(Nashor's Tooth).

Philosopher's Stone

Question: Are you mad? Why no Ruby Crystal... you have no HP!?! Why no Meki Pendant? Why no Doran's Ring?

Answer: The Regrowth Pendant gives you 15HP/5s which is 3 HP/s. A Ruby Crystal gives you 180HP. That means with a Regrowth pendant you regenerate one ruby crystal every 60 seconds. (3hp/s*60s=180HP) The regrowth pendant also enables you go buy a health potion which gives you 200 HP should you be low.

The Philosophers Stone provides even more HP regen (22.5hp/s) with enough manaregen to use blind dart and mushrooms as often as you need.

It costs 800g with a 400g sell value + 0,5g/s. So you can sell it after 13 minutes 20 seconds and are at +-0g. (0.5g/1s * 800s = 400g ; 800s = 13,3333 minutes)

I suggest you recall at about 13 minutes and buy it. I also state in the game example that you can buy your Rods of Ages at about 25-32 minutes.(13min + 13,33 minutes = 26,3333 minutes) I also advise you sell your Philosophers Stone once you buy your Rabadon's Deathcap. After the Rod of Ages you should get your Deathfire Grasp and Rabadon's Deathcap after that. All that combined leads to the point where you sell your Philosophers Stone long after the 13m.20s which means: theoretically free item + some extra gold + very good early lane staying power. You can outheal harassment but you are vulnerable to burst damage.

You do not need the Meki Pendant since you have enough manaregen with your runes and masteries.

You do not need a Doran's Ring. The Ring is an extremely strong item but it comes at a high price. You cannot buy an HP potion and have to leave mid too early which gives your enemy almost an entire level should you be able to buy boots and have one point in move quick. If you dont manage to buy boots you are more than one level apart. I have sent many Doran's Ring Teemos home too early so that I could reach lvl 6 before them thus gaining complete control over mid. Sure the 15 AP/100Hp are insanely good but in the long run you will lose.

Deathfire Grasp and Malady

Question: Do you use 4 shots with Malady before you use your Deathfire Grasp or do you use the Deathfire straight without the MR reduction?

Answer: I do not apply 4 hits before I use my deathfire for the following reason: (this are just rough values bent in favor of the 4 hits then deathfire tactic).

Let us assume a Cho'gath 3000 HP and 20% MR (should be about 30 inbuild MR + a small MR item like Mercury's Treads - all your magic pen from boots and runes)

deathfire deals 35% HP in magic damage with some AP. 4 shots of Malady get him down to 80-85% (lets assume its 85%) and reduce his MR down to 10-15% (assume 10%)

4x Shots then deathfire:

0.85 * 3000 * 0.35 * ( 1 - 0.1 ) = 803.25 damage in about 2 seconds

straight deathfire without hits:

1 * 3000 * 0.35 * ( 1 - 0.20) = 840 damage in less than 0,5 seconds

The damage is the about same but the time you need to do it is significantly shorter. this is the case when chogath is very low on MR and the magic reduction causes the biggest difference in damage possible.

should chogath have more MR an instant deathfire with 4 darts following deals even more damage than 4 darts and then deathfire (imgaine he had 500 MR, reducing it by 24 does not make much of a difference)

As you can see even if I calculate in favor of the "4x Malady, deathfire after that"-tactic the direct deathfire wins. Also you should keep in mind that you are not the only one attacking him which means the enemy is getting lower the longer the fight lasts without adding further magic resist reduction.

Exceptions: Shields

When you face enemies with shields (passive and active) the 4 hits with Malady then Deathfire works the best. (since you do not reduce their HP by hitting them, or reducing their HP by a very small percentage like 5%) Examples: Mordekaiser, Malphite, Morgana (she will only take your autoattack damage), Janna, Lux, Sion, Pantheon (only 1 shot though), Shen

Once the shield breaks hit them with Deathfire immediately even if not all 4 stacks of MR-reduction are applied.

Question: Deathfire Grasp Who to use it on?

Answer: The first and most important target always should be the one most vital to the enemy success be it Tank, DPS carry or Caster. The only rule that should interest you is: "He/She needs to be low on magic resistance and higher than 50% HP while the fight is still going". DPS carries: Most dps carries stack damage and/or attackspeed items of some sort while being fragile or at least low on magic resist. Should they go for MR and HP they lost the ability to deal large amounts of damage with their autoattacks thus making them not the most important target. Casters: Some mages in the game can support the enemy in a way where it might become impossible to simply kill an enemy team in a 5v5 situation. This can range from stuns over heals to revives. Again stacking magic resist and health might prove difficult for these characters. Be aware that certain items like Lich Bane and Abyssal Scepter provide at least some magic resist (best example: Fiddle stacking MR by buying mage items). Tanks: With tanks there is a problem when they get hit by very strong nukes. Usually DPS values matter the most for a tanks ability to tank. A good tank knows roughly how long he can tank certain things like an ashe hitting him continuously or how much damage a ryze combo can do to him, how many tower hits he can take before he has to back off etc. When you use your deathfire on a tank it can lead to the tank being disturbed in a very drastic manner since he loses a large amount of health even if he has 150 MR (that is the upper limit for tanks MR though, above that and you can only use your deathfire on him if hes the last man standing or the only enemy around). This results in the enemy tank backing off/dying earlier than expected turning the fight in your favor. Against some very tank damage champions like AP Cho or Vlad it Helps exceptionally well due to their tendency to favor AP/HP tank items rather than hard magic resist items.

Rod of Ages(ROA)

Question: Why that late in the game? ROA before 15 minutes or never.

Answer: If you want to go for ROA this early you have one problem. ROA just buffs Teemos HP, mana and AP that is all. When you get Soulstealer and Malady first you change your role slightly and deal a lot more damage with your autoattack and you can help in teamfights. Sure you miss out on HP and mana but it should be enough to get you through mid game with maybe 1 death or even 0 while giving you a few kills and assists. at the 30 minute mark late game starts and by then your ROA should be bought. It takes 10 minutes to fully grow. As I stated in the "pros/cons" section under cons the games take longer than usual. In general my games with Teemo last about 45-55 minutes (unless they get stomped = earlier ROA or they surrender = who cares about the ROA... you won!). Teemo can defend well with his mushrooms and blind so even when outmatched the game still takes quite long.

This build is focused around changing your role during the game by focusing on one area at a time.

1.Early game: (regrowth pendant, later philosophers stone + boots + soulstealer) - lane staying - farming - holding mid - securing mid - helping to gank enemy junglers --> farming teemo

2.mid game:(soulstealer, malady, basic boots, catalyst, 20 minutes) - quick ganks - short teamfights with 4-6 players - defending or killing dragon - pushing towers over a longer period of time --> ganking teemo

3.early late game:(ROA finished, starting deathfire, 30 minutes) - longer larger teamfights - pushing towers violently - dragon control - holding towers --> fighting teemo

4.late game: (Rabadon's Deathcap, lichbane/void staff 40 minutes) - 5v5 teamfights - you get focused - baron control - fight for map control --> hit-and-run nuke Teemo

with the ROA very early its just: 1. farming teemo, 2. farming teemo, 3. fighting teemo, 4. hit and run teemo

and you miss all the experience, gold and stacks from mid game ganks and fights since there is not much you can do without malady and not much you can gain without soulstealer. The increase in combat efficiency that malady and Soulstealer give you also pay for your ROA since you can farm minions and champions easier.

If you die much or you simply have problems with your HP being at 200 and you are running out of mana get ROA earlier. Try to change your build once you got good with it to a later ROA. its not like the base stats from ROA are bad, they will be improved over time rather than ROA being viable after the 10 minutes only. It starts buffing you from the first minute you got it with an increased efficiency per minute.

Nashor's Tooth

Question: Why no Nashors? You need no CDR? You need no attackspeed? Are you a noob?

Answer: Many people go Nashors for the CDR and the attackspeed, but with 20 stacks Mejai's and a deathfire you are at 39% CDR (I do not assume everyone will get 20 stacks every game... a simple blue buff/blue potion works as well). With a malady you reduce MR and deal extra magic dmg on hit. Do not go nashors. never, ever.

"But mushrooms need CDR!"

I agree but focusing your entire build around an ability that can be countered by Oracles Elixir, Magic sight Wards or Banshees Veil is not the best idea. Many people "play the shroom" on Teemo and focus on planting as many mushrooms as possible. The problem with this is that they lack the ability to participate in teamfights or win 1v1 situations. Even if my build does not include huge CDR items it enables you to be a part of the team and not just the reason everyone in your team hates AP Teemos.

You can still plant a LOT of mushrooms with this build with your Deathfire Grasp and your 9% masteries alone.

Another thing is that Nashor's Tooth is more of a mid-late game item while Malady is a straight mid game item which also works late game. Narshos might be a bit too expensive to simply sell it once you cannot autoattack anymore. Keeping it for the pure CDR is a bad choice then. If you sell it for a different item you suddenly lack the CDR which is needed for "Shroom-Teemo". With Malady and Deathfire Grasp its different. Sell your Malady if necessary and keep the nice CDR from Deathfire along with a very strong nuke. Get a Lich bane and suddenly you can also nuke for a lot of physical damage that also applies a very strong poison (over 100 damage per tick even with one MR item).

Mejai's Soulstealer

Question: I can't keep the stacks. How can I replace it and when?

Answer: You can skip the soulstealer and continue with your build. You can also replace it with Kage's Lucky Pick. Once you bought the Rabadon's Deathcap you can buy one of the following depending on the enemy team:

Zhonya's Hourglass most likely the best choice. 130 AP (100 + 30% deathcap bonus), 45 armor and a very good active to avoid focus (and karthus ult, zilean bombs etc.)

Void Staff good against high MR opponents and cheap. pretty basic item.

Banshee's Veil If crowd control and/or casters kill you.

alternatively you can buy your Lich Bane and then replace the Malady with one of the above. Once you had a lot of practice with Teemo switch back to the build with Mejai's Soulstealer.

Mejai's is worth the 1235 gold after you got 5 stacks compared to an Amplifying Tome

Amplifying Tome:

435g/20ap=21.75g/ap

Mejai's Soulstealer:

(1235g/(21.75g/ap) - 20ap ) / (8ap/stack) = 4.5977 stack ==> 5 stacks

1235g/(20ap + 5 stack * 8 ap/stack) = 20.5833 g/ap

So if you can keep more than 5 stacks it's definitely worth it. Getting stacks as Teemo is quite easy due to your poison, your mushrooms and good survivability if you play accordingly.

Hextech Gunblade

Question: Why not? Spellvamp, slow, AD, AP, lifesteal?

Answer: Apart from the fact that its a nice nuke and has a slow and spellvamp it is still a hybrid item. Sacrificing an item just to add some extra physical damage on your autoattack is not necessary. The slow is nice but you don't need it (you are the quickest champ after all).

I never really needed spellvamp/lifesteal on Teemo (especially since toxic shot does not make use of it). Should you get hit too hard to continue, recall and speed back to the front. If you don't get hit hard you have enough HP. When low on HP I suggest running and not fighting. To go back into a fight when low on HP you need a lot of practice and you really need to know your limits very well.

If you don't like the Mejai's Soulstealer you can replace it with the Hextech Gunblade, remember that it increases the time you need for your Rod of Ages even more.

Should you need to sell your Malady it also reduces the effectiveness of your Hextech Gunblade and your Toxic shot in general. It also makes you worse in teamfights since you trade the ability to combat for a nuke and some spellvamp.

Replace the Lich Bane with the Hextech Gunblade and you have a different problem. Lich bane deals your AP as physical damage after using an ability. At the point where you have your Lich Bane you should have a LOT of AP (Rabadon's Deathcap, Rod of Ages almost fully stacked, Lich Bane and Deathfire Grasp give you about 500 AP, without the Mejai's Soulstealer). These 500 physical damage can be applied by Blinding Dart or Noxious Trap and one autoattack.

Hextech Gunblade: 300 magic damage nuke every 60 seconds and 60 physical damage on hit (without malady less than 1.2 attacks/second) equal 432 physical damage damage over 6 seconds if you manage to hit the enemy continuously.

that leads to (MD = magic dmg, PD = physical dmg)

(300MD / 60s + 60 PD * 1,2 / s) * 6s = 30MD + 432PD = 462 damage that means you can deal an average of 462 damage in a fight that takes 6 seconds. This is a highly theoretical value because the attackspeed is lower than that, you have to cast your blind dart and mushrooms and you have to move during the fight.

Lich Bane: at least 500 physical damage with only ONE hit every 4-6 seconds. Let us assume 6 seconds. that means you deal more than 500 damage with only one hit during a 6 second fight as opposed to the 7.2 hits you need with the Hextech Gunblade.

"But you said you play him as a Nuke Teemo and now you calculate with damage per second values!"

Yes that is true because a fight where you fight for 6 seconds and you don't have to move and you can do everything you want will never happen. I put the Hextec active as a dmg/s value due to one fact: It is on a 60 second cooldown. You will not have it every fight. You will not use it every fight since you cannot use it every fight. Simple.

Sure if you have 6 second fights where you are undisturbed every 60 seconds you deal more damage with a hextec gunblade should you be able to trigger your Lich bane only once per fight. The truth is different. Fights will occur at random. Fights will take longer than 6 seconds. You can trigger your Lich Bane every 4 seconds with blind dart and mushrooms due to your CDR and 2 stored mushrooms. now here is some math for a real fight. 10 seconds, hextech is off CD, you can get 5 autoattacks, you are able to trigger your lich bane 2 times. you have about 550 AP. (base damage, toxic shot damage, blind dart damage, MR and Armor are ignored)

Hextech Gunblade:

300 + 5 * 60 = 600 damage

Lich Bane:

550 * 2 = 1100 damage

So lich bane is a better choice for AP Teemo. You trade life steal, spellvamp and a slow for a significant increase in damage, a higher nuke potential, increased mobility (stand and fight hextec vs hit and run lich bane) and a little magic resist.

There is another problem with the Nuke combo (deathfire, dart, autoattack). Deathfire always should be your first damage(see Deathfire & Malady above). It works so well on Teemo since it has a slightly lower range than blinding dart. That means if you chase somebody you can simply press deathfire click on the enemy, press Q and wait to be in range to get both hits in about 0.2 seconds. The gunblade has an even smaller range than deathfire which means that you use your deathfire, have to run a little, then you can use your gunblade and then your blind dart. This little running time increases your attack by about 0.4 seconds, with the gunblade itself it takes about 0.7-0,8 seconds to pull of your combo. Thats enough for good players to react to you. (e.g. ashes arrow)

Guinsoo's Rageblade

Question: Tons of AP, AD, AS for only 2235g... why not?

Answer: Apart from the AP which is really high at full stacks (93) the item brings no benefits compared to a simple Malady.

Rageblade unstacked:

0% attackspeed, 45 AP = 6.3 magic damage on toxic shot per tick, 35 physical damage

Rageblade stacked:

32% attackspeed, 93AP = 13.02 magic damage on toxic shot per tick, 35 physical damage

Malady:

50% attackspeed, 25 AP = 3,5 magic damage on toxic shot per tick, 20 extra magic damage on hit, 6 MR reduction on hit

so how long does a fight with 8 autoattacks last level 10?

Rageblade(starting with 0 stacks ending with 8 stacks. however the attackspeed is always one behind which means after the 8th attack will the rageblade be fully stacked and the 9th attack will make use of the max attackspeed):

Σ [ 1s / (1.018 + 0,68*0.04*x), x, 0, 7] = 7.20914 seconds

Malady:

1s / (1.018 + 0,68*0,5) * 8 = 5.89102 seconds

so malady wins in regard of attackspeed but that was quite obvious since the 32% attackspeed from rageblade can never match the 50% of Malady. We just need the time for the DPS values later on.

now the damage you deal against a generic 100 armor 50 magic resist enemy with the items alone (19 magic pen runes,15% magic pen mastery, no sorcerers shoes, level 10 with 8 hits) in regard of physical damage, and toxic shot damage increase from the AP MD, PD, TD = Magic, Physical, True/Final/Effective damage

Rageblade without armor and MR:

8 * 35 PD + 8 * 0.14 * 45 + Σ ( 0,14 * 6 * x, x, 1, 8) = 280 PD + 80.64 MD

with armor and MR:

0.5 * 280PD + (100/(100 + (50 - 19) * ( 1 - 0.15)) * 80.64MD = 140TD + 63,8227 TD = 203.823 TD

Malady with armor and MR:

Σ[(20 MD + 0,14 MD*25)*(100/(100 + (50 - 19 - 6 * x)*0.85)),x,1,4]+4*(20 MD + 0.14 * 25)*(100/(100+(50-19-24)*0.85))

= 171,67 TD

So here come the DPS values for a fight with 8 autoattacks:

Guinsoo's Rageblade:

203.823 TD / 7.20914 s = 28.2728 TD/s (remember 63% of the damage comes from the physical side)

Malady:

171.67 TD / 5.89102 s = 29.1421 TD/s

this pretty much sums it up. Malady gives you a better DPS value than Rageblade in a fight that actually lasts long enough and you have the opportunity to stack the rageblade to 8 stacks. These fights almost never occur which means you won't be able to attack as often to deal the majority of the rageblade damage. With the Malady you need to hit only 4 times which is easier due to the higher attackspeed to make it fully efficient but you don't need to do that either since the malady is fully functional all the time.

When it comes to farming the Malady again triumphs. You can two-shot minions with both items but the malady gives you higher attackspeed so you can do it faster. The only difference are cannon and super minions but going for rageblade just because you can 4-shot cannon minions instead of 5-shot with malady doesn't mean you have to buy an item ;-P

Oh did I mention rageblade costs 390g extra and would set your Rod of Ages back even more? That also means Malady is more gold efficient than Rageblade.

9. Game Example Let us assume you have played a bunch of practice games and start to become good. you start your first real game.

the game starts so you buy a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion as your first items and run down mid humming cheerfully.

big bad Miss Fortune looks down upon you and says: "omg another noob teemo... go uninstall the game"

let us assume you have enough brains to no stand behind your minions and that you can dodge her shots pretty well. you also know MF just hit level 5 which means warwick is around the corner trying to eat you. "hmmm yummy yummy yordles". the game continues and you hit level 6. Both MF and Teemo have consumed their Health Potion as you start laying down your shrooms. MF steps on it gets blinded and 2 toxic shots. boom 600 hp gone. she has to recall while you stay in lane with your 200 hp. (please tell me you placed mushrooms in the grass next to you so you can see WW.).

the game continues utill you have about 1900 gold. (13 minutes-ish without kills).

recall buy Philosopher's Stone Boots of Speed Mejai's Soulstealer

This marks the end of your early game and mid game starts.

run back to the front. place more shrooms and start to gank people if necessary. 2 kills 7 stacks later you buy your Malady (you should not be 0/0/0 at this point. if you don't have an assist or kill by this mark you need more practice)

now you are pretty much a glass cannon. good you brought Rush your. (about 25 minutes if you killed stuff and farmed well, up to 32 minutes if you didn't. sell your philosophers stone if you have to to get it before 35 minutes) Sorcerer's Shoes soon follow.

This ends mid game for you and early late game starts.

If you made it that far with about 2-4 kills and maybe 1 death and 2-3 assists you can continue with your one of your most deadly weapons: Deathfire Grasp use it often and use it against enemies with low MR (e.g. chogaths, carries, 2 warmogs mundos etc., vlads usually have low MR as well) and not against high MR tanks like Galio. It is the first damage you deal when you enter a fight (direct damage, they can hit mushrooms first of course but rethink you options should they get too low and a deathfire on another champion might be a better idea). Do not use it on low HP enemies unless the fight is over and at least 2 enemies are down already - it is best to pick a full HP carry for it or a full HP tank even if the fight is still going. See also: Item build analysis, deathfire.

The Rabadon's Deathcap comes as you play. Start it with a Needlessly Large Rod (1200 gold + 400 gold from selling the Philosopher's Stone)

to decide what your last item is you need to ask yourself:

The enemy team is focusing me? Lich Bane

your nuke potential is increased massively but your teamfight value drops by about 30-40%. you simply blast your way to victory while running away from everything that tries to kill you.(watch out for )

The enemy has low MR (below 100) and I am not focused in teamfights? Malady

Keep your Malady. You can deal significant amounts of damage with your autoattack while dealing almost true damage with everything. also good against tanks.

The enemy has at least 3 banshees and has not surrendered yet? Void Staff

Pretty simple: average AP and 49% magic penetration. still the worst choice of the 3 but sometimes your only way to deal damage. This usually happens when you do not have enough DPS on your team (e.g. Morgana, Kennen, Mordekaiser, Teemo, Akali) so it can be avoided in champion select. If they are low on armor you can get your Lich Bane. Simply proc it by planting a mushroom and shoot it on an enemy 10. Advanced solo-mid tactics list (alphabetically sorted) So these are my experiences with a LOT of 1v1 fights. Some champions I never played against in mid after my hundreds of solo-mid AP-Teemo games are found here:(also incudes champions that are so easy to fight against that further explainations are a waste of time to write and read): Alistar, Amumu, Blitzcrank, Evelynn, Garen, Irelia, Janna, Jarvan IV, Jax, Kayle, Malphite, Maokai, Mundo, Yi, Nassus, Olaf, Poppy, Rammus, Shaco, Shen, Singed, Sona, Soraka, Taric, Teemo (once you play him a bit you know his weaknesses), Trundle, Tryndamere, Udyr, Warwick, Xin Zhao

Remember this is no direct 1v1 fight and no teamfight. Its just during the 1v1 lane phase. I base this on very few early-mid game items from Regrowth Pendant and Health Potion up to Philosopher's Stone, basic boots, Mejai's Soulstealer and maybe a Dagger.

use Ctrl+F to search for a champion you want to know about. Their names should not appear twice in this guide.

okay here are the ones that really need some thought (or can be found mid more than once ever 100 games).

(Unkillable does NOT mean that he cannot be killed, it means that it is very hard to kill the champion on your own. it does not mean that he can kill you back as well)

Akali:(averagely dangerous after lvl 6, not dangerous before) - can be suppressed easily down to 4 minion kills at lvl 6 - after lvl 6 she can nuke you pretty hard, you need to be fast enough to blind her before she enters her cloud - keep an eye on her ultimate marks - Don't be afraid to drop a mushroom right in front of you so she CAN see it (she wont engage/jump you unless she is really high hp % and you are low)

Anivia:(quite dangerous) - dodging her stun is not hard without boots and move quick, try to stand next to your minions so she will have to make a decision between nuking and farming minions or trying to kill you - hiding behind you minions will encourage her to spam her frost ball "Even if I don't hit Teemo I can still hit minions, right?". it increases her chances of hitting you - after lvl 6 you cannot kill her unless she is OOM without clairity, call for your jungler or other teammates - once you make her use her egg drop a mushroom on top of it if you can --> the slow will last one or two seconds after she was reborn unless you place it immediately - should you try to engage her flash out of her ultimate so it becomes useless and keep hitting her as much as possible

Annie:(very dangerous) - try to harass her early to make her back off a little and get her underleveled, every level she gains makes her more dangerous so make sure you suppress her - even if you cant kill her a few seconds of shrrom placement can save you even when you are low on hp(below 300) - if she uses flash do it as well, it has the same cooldown for the both of you - confront her directly early so she is getting scared of you rather than you being scared of her - never autoattack minions except for last hits - call for jungler --> a misplaced tibbers can throw her off balance

Ashe:(quite dangerous) - hide behind your minions - look at her mana bar (150 mana = ult ready) - shift positions to make her teleport/arrow combo miss while attacking a tower - her volley can one shot fresh mushrooms - you cannot blind her first-hit-crit-shot, make her use it on a minion - when low on HP expect an arrow - she is easy to rout but can hit you very hard if you don't manage to blind her early enough or you retreat too late - she can outrange you so be aware of good ashes - hard to gank due to hawkshot

Caitlyn:(quite dangerous) - she can outrange and outharass you - get toxic shot first to make last hitting easier - she has to attack minions to get her passive to 8 stacks which means she will push your lane to your side ---> she is easily gankable due to overextending and you can focus on last hitting more - mushrooms cannot be killed by her skillshot unless they are freshly placed - run into a trap and you are almost dead from her abilities and autoattacks that follow - focus on gaining experience and farming - try to keep your distance - call for ganks from junglers and side lanes often since it will almost always work - hide behind minions so her skillshot deals reduced damage and she will push the lane even more

Cassiopeia:(quite dangerous) - she has to make the decision to either attack your minions or you --> stay away from minions to either make her underfarmed or no big threat - get move quick earlier (level 2) since blind dart is not as important as move quick against her poison - you might have to go home early (about 750g) to get your boots and philo stone - she is missing the strong burst but the damage over time should not be underestimated - if you get poisoned stay away from her - the higher you level up the more you can do against her - better play it safe and do not risk too much - once you reach level 6 the fight should be even --> mushrooms work very well against her and you can slowly claim mid for yourself - a direct approach is hard since you do not want to fall prey to her spamming her fangs - its better to focus on farming than on killing her - her escape mechanisms are few which makes ganks easy

Cho'Gath:(average and unkillable) - you won't be able to kill him easily unless he is very stupid or you are very lucky - high HP regen even makes most ganks unsuccessful due to his generally high current and max HP - will take a lot of poison hits before he reacts (making you get him lower easily) - dodging everything is mandatory (good you have a longer range, once you sidestepped his rupture) - early mushroom hits are not as effective but can lead to you being able to attack him with your autoattack making you deal more damage with that than you mushroom

Corki:(dangerous) - very annoying champ to lane against - blind dart, one toxic shot works well against him - strong harassment from both opponents usual - cannot reveal mushrooms - mushrooms can intercept rockets but the aoe still hits you - Corki as low HP so be sure to harass him frequently - only use move quick when you have a decent amount of mana (over 300), he will throw you out of it often

Ezreal:(not so dangerous) - hide behind your minions - essence flux cannot harass you well enough to make trouble - arcane shift can lock on mushrooms saving you - easy to harass due to his low HP

Fiddlesticks:(very dangerous) - high lifesteal and much CC can kill you quickly - drop 2-3 shrooms per bush to scout for him effectively and make him rethink his crowstorm - when he drains autoattack him so that he cannot heal as effectively and takes damage from your poison after he stopped (unless he drains you of course) - use exhaust when he jumps your with his ultimate since it reduces the damage by 35% (along with the possible drain that follows)

Galio:(averagely dangerous) - his ult can be easily avoided - dodging his abilities might become challenging - naturally high MR and HP - look out for flash - if he has MR runes and a few MR items consider going for malady and sorcerers shoes earlier

Gankplank:(dangerous) - his parrley cannot harass as good as toxic shot/dart - melee can be kept at range with move quick - in his ult try to run as long as you can with your move quick and flash once you get hit - him denying minions is extremely annoying and can shut you down pretty well - he usually reaches lvl 6 when you are at lvl 5.2 (you missed about 2 minion waves of experience by then) --> do not push too far since he can simply ult you and attack you while you are trying to run away - you cannot blind parrrley - you can outfarm gankplank gold-wise but never XP-wise

Gragas:(dangerous) - high HP regen - his ult can throw mushrooms(bug) - try to dodge his barrels as often as possible - cannot be harrassed easily, call for jungler if needed - you can outfarm him

Heimerdinger:(annoying but not dangerous) - his turrets have high MR so going for malady early is advised - focusing his turrets before even with blind dart might prove helpful since he will remain defenseless - call for jungler often since its almost always a free kill - watch out for your tower - his rockets hit the 3 nearest targets... make sure they are minions or even mushrooms

Karma:(quite dangerous) - keep an eye on her Mantra points - she can use her offensive ability to heal herself - the lower she gets the more dangerous she becomes due to her passive (AP gained according to HP missing) -> her shield blocks and deals more dmg and her heavenly wave deals more dmg -> heavenly wave heals a percentage of her hp thats missing increasing with AP along with the AP increasing with the HP missing --> even if she is at 200 HP she can still heal and shield herself for about 450 HP (watch her mana bar) - keep your distance to her minions, she can use her mantra and her shield to deal damage

Karthus:(quite dangerous) - he can outrange you - easily harassable with toxic shot - you usually cannot harass long enough for both toxic shot and blind dart unless karthus is retreating - keep running no matter what - change directions every second or faster - he can ourfarm you if you allow him - mushrooms hurt him significantly - call for jungler if needed since he is very gankable - you have a higher burst than him, but in fights longer than 1.5 seconds he gains the upper hand - loss of mana cripples him, try to trigger his lay waste where he cannot kill minions with it, once you know how well he can hit you with his lay waste

Kassadin:(very dangerous --> not dangerous) - he might seem like a strong opponent when you played as a squishy dps against him before but he isn't - do not harass with blind dart and focus on leveling toxic shot to 5 when your dart is at 3 - place mushrooms once he backs off a little - easily suppressed by toxic shots - he won't be able to jump much since he has to use null sphere to last hit - mushrooms shut him down even if you were really bad before - he has a strong nuke potential early so play accordingly --> watch out for force pulse's dark hard-to-see ring to know when its ready

Katarina:(lethal) - KATTY catfood, Riot Foods inc. - Contents: 90% Teemo, 10% Tears - no matter how good you are a non-fail Kat kills you 1v1 even if you play "Teemo and Turret BFF 4 ever!" - call for a lane change and go 2v1 or 2v2 (as a matter of fact I rarely lost mid. about 70% of these are to Katarina... I think I never clearly won mid vs kat during my last 250 games or so... some stalemates and very few minor victories)

Kennen:(very dangerous) - run like hell to dodge his Thundering Shuriken, hide behind minions - back off often to get rid of his marks - mushrooms and flash help a lot against him - Kennen will kill minions a lot so he will keep the lane pushed against your turret - often very gankable by junglers - last hit only - very squishy opponent will not engage when he is low

Kog'Maw:(dangerous) - due to his low HP containable - his slime ball can detonate mushrooms(bug) - reposition in fights to evade his artillery - his artillery cannot reveal mushrooms and hidden Teemos (even though the icon is above your head) - use a question mark like pattern to escape him (flash and run in a straight line, turn 90° and run a demi circle to evade his arty and sticky slime ball) - pretty much shut down when blinded

LeBlanc:(very dangerous) - remember to count her cooldowns - always expect her ultimate to be up - her clone will have NO poison, blind, slow effect on her, aim for the other one - rapid movement is important - if you get snared unload your full arsenal on her - use mushrooms to catch snares - place mushrooms so she can see them and stand on them to make her rethink her strategy

Lux:(averagely dangerous) - you focus on dodging her snare, don't hide behind minions - let her waste her AOE on minions, she needs it in combination with her passive to farm - quick move saves you from a lot of situations - blind protects you from her passive - keep in mind that the ult is on a very low cooldown (about 25-30 seconds)

Malzahar:(quite dangerous) - his pet can throw you out of move quick - stay away from malefic visioned minions - run back and forth to make him waste his silence - watch out for flash and ult - play defensively - no escape mechanisms and aoe skills that make him push the lane to your side makes him highly gankable

Miss Fortune:(not so dangerous) - make it rain is easily dodged (run back and forth to trigger it) - double up has a low CD and it used differently from player to player --> it will hit you often early but later you will find out how to evade it - running forward will often make her miss her double up - flash to the side when she uses her ultimate to blind and AA her (when you are low flash away from her)

Mordekaiser: (averagely dangerous, unkillable) - one of the (if not the) hardest opponent to kill on your own - call your allies for ganks before lvl 6 - mace of spades cannot be triggered while blinded - I recommend using 2 toxic shots(for the shield), 1 blind dart(rest of the shield + some dmg) and then as many toxic shots as possible to harass him - even mushrooms cannot harm him much with full shield + buffed MR - if someone of your allies ganks him a 0-for-0 situation is better than a 1-for-1 situation - getting Mordekaiser below half health enables you to harass him to death (once had a rammus gank morde damaging him for about 55% of his HP. morde still had insane lane staying power but after seven minutes he was low enough for me to strike the killing blow) - one death really sets morde back to a point where he can become your toy and not your nightmare

Morgana:(very dangerous) - black shield protects her pretty well but it can be broken by 3-4 toxic shots and a following blind dart - getting snared results in almost unacceptable damage - use mushrooms to catch snares - try to avoid torment(her dark pool) for the sake of your move quick - after she used her snare you can hit her without endangering yourself too much - focus on leveling toxic shot recommended - flash out of her ultimate and then use move quick to run... she deals no damage while it channels so you won't drop out of it - harass her with blind dart so she has to level her shield before she levels her dark binding and torment

Nidalee:(dangerous) - she can outheal your harassment pretty well - do not get too close, her cougar form can nuke well and is not canceled 100% by blinding her - dodge her spear - do not use your mushrooms right in front of her because she will use her trap to reveal it - once a mushroom is revealed she will use great effort to kill it sometimes taking more damage from you than from a mushroom (1 blind dart + 3 toxic shots hit harder than 1x250 dmg mushroom) - nidalee can pounce over teemo so run into enemy minions and drop a mushroom there --> minions will pop it and nidalee will run(maybe even take damage, slow), flash back to safety if needed or keep hitting her - in general don't bother harassing her... the both of you cant kill each other and you are just sitting there farming (most of the times when i face nidalee its a mutual agreement that we cant kill each other, i harass a little with toxic, she kills my shrooms, i dodge her spear, pretty boring but you can prepare for the challenges that lie ahead, relax a litte and be happy that you farmed so well that you got you 2k gold at the 9:30 minute mark. now farm some more, dodge her spear some more and get your rod of ages very early)

Pantheon:(very dangerous) - your toxic shot applies through his shield - blind him before you get stunned - pretty easy to harass (spearshot deals less damage than 1 dart + toxic shot) - playing defensively still recommended due to his jump / spearshot/ heartseeker /spearshot being unblindable and doing an insane amount of damage (read 80% of your HP) - exhaust reduces the damage heartseeker strike, jump and spearshot deal so its a dangerous but legitimate way to start ganks by baiting the enemy to do his combo on you - easily gankable - engage when he is low on mana - be careful with improved revive/fort potion pantheons

Renekton:(averagely dangerous) - he gains more HP the more he can hit with cull the meek - the stun goes up to 1.5 seconds if he has more than 50 fury with large damage, try to avoid it - keep your distance to you minions he will want to use cull the meek to gain HP as well and champions give him healing worth 4 minions hit - he is easily harassed early when his HP and HP regeneration are still low - watch out for his ultimate since it heals him for 300 HP at lvl 6 which makes him appear weaker than he is, the CD is high at low levels though - mushrooms work pretty well against him - focus more on leveling Toxic Shot since you cannot blind his abilities (you will be stunned and take the base damage from ruthless predator) and leveling blind dart too high might cause mana problems

Ryze:(very dangerous) - look at the enemy AP, most go for flat AP runes (with dorans ring = 50 AP) dealing 75 dmg per spellflux hit at lvl 1, up to 3 hits common - pretty easy to harass, once spellflux is down, be carefull with his ult - try to get some distance between you and your minions - can nuke very hard - runs OOM easily so watch his mana bar (unless he went home early and bought a tear immediately with manaregen runes) - gankable due to his rune prison being able to snare only one person - his overload scales with 10% of his max mana so he can deal 20+52 dmg at lvl 1 with a sapphire crystal, it comes with high mana costs though (70) - make sure you have enough HP before you engage - his ultimate runs out pretty quickly (6s) so watch out for the sound of it and run back till its over - he gains spellvamp with his ultimate so expect that he has more hp than it seems

Sivir:(dangerous) - try to trigger her shield by simply using toxic shots on her --> use blind dart once the shield is on cooldown (about 18-12 seconds) - sometimes its best to stack 2 mushrooms on top of each other, one for the shield one for sivir --> place the first mushroom secretly and the second openly so she thinks there is only one --> she uses her shield to farm mana from mushrooms and gets a slow and damage as well - dodging her boomerang blade should not be hard when you keep your distance

Swain:(not so dangerous--> dangerous) - dodging his snare should not be a big problem (with basic boots and move quick you can pass the entire area before it triggers) - engage quickly and violently - should you fall prey to his combo unload all your damage and keep hitting him, you will take a lot of damage but you can even the fight by dealing the same amount of damage or even more --> it is more likely that you can make him retreat than you being able to outrun his slow (not when he has his ult though) - after he healed with his ultimate is the best time to engage since he cannot ult until 7 seconds later - hard to kill after lvl 6 due to his ultimate - ganks are very effective against him since he can only ult your ganker and you can attack him out of his ult range not healing him (try to catch him when no allied minions are around) - ask an ally with ignite to come help fight against him

Tristana:(dangerous) - her jump, buster shot combo can be countered by standing on top of mushrooms - blind her as often as possible (do not max blinding dart too high early) - in fights (usually very violent ones) against tristana you can become very low, she can jump, ult, ignite + explosive-shot-active you for about 80% of your HP --> after that she falls prey to teemos combo: blind(should be applied while she is in the air), 1 toxic shot, put mushroom below her feet, 1-2 autoattacks, exhaust when blind is expired, keep auto attacking, shortly before exhaust expires flash away if needed, run back in blind her, as many toxic shots as possible you will get trist either very low(35%), kill her(50%) or you can die (15%) ("Thank you 200 damage purple caster minions!") all this takes about 6-7 seconds - minions play an important role in both harassing and engagements due to explosive shot and the case stated above

Twisted Fate:(not dangerous) - you cannot blind gold card make him waste it on minions - when he ult he has a LARGE true vision on you which means he will see all the mushrooms next to you (can be good, can be bad) - if you have enough hp left (about 650-700) one mushroom stored, enough mana (350+), exhaust ready and TF is teleporting in drop a mushroom on his destination and hold exhaust ready, once tf teleports in he will stun, wildcard and ignite you ---> exhaust on sight, the mushroom will explode as soon as its ready, once you got out of the stun, blind and autoattack him ---> that leaves you with about 250-300 hp but the enemy TF will be blow half HP making him gankable and afraid of the mushroom field he just saw as he teleported in - he can be harassed easily but watch out for his wildcards and his stacked deck - keep your distance unless you want to deal damage to him - keep an eye on his stacked deck, usually he wants to use red/gold card with it

Twich:(absolutely not dangerous) - you can blind his autoattack and his ultimate - he is pretty vulnerable so a few shots with toxic shot after you blinded him might lead to a kill even if you didn't plan on killing him - simple harassment can kill him - mushrooms can be used to roughly reveal his position - pretend to be vulnerable and run so twitch hits a mushroom, use blind and a few toxic shots and he should be dead or severely injured

Urgot:(dangerous) - you have to dodge his lock-on spell or he will eat you due to your squishy nature - wait until you are lvl 6 to engage him - place mushrooms in front of you so he is not tempted to use his ultimate - try to stand on your mushrooms should he decide to ult you - should you have problems call for your jungler - the higher you level the more dangerous you become - get move quick early (level 2-3)

Veigar:(quite dangerous) - try not to hit the event horizon but stay in the middle of it and keep hitting him - try to flash away before he can use his ultimate - it sometimes is better to get hit by baleful strike than to give him AP early game (B-Strike lvl 1-3, champ level 5) - do not get too low and when harassing him

Vladimir:(not dangerous --> very dangerous, unkillable) - you should be able to kill him until he hits lvl 7 - after that you need your teammates to hunt him - at early levels make him use his transfusion on yourself so he doesn't get minion kills while he has to channel long enough for you to use blind dart + 1 toxic shot --> he will not deal much damage, heal himself for only 30 while you can hit him with 2-3 toxic shots getting him very low and all that with a very high cooldown - unkillable after lvl 9 since he will outheal everything - should vlad be above lvl 9 and at half HP you have about 7 seconds to assemble a gank force and 5 seconds to strike (WW is very good at this)

Zilean:(quite dangerous) - his bombs deal an extreme amount of damage compared to your HP - wait until he wasted one of his bombs and then engage(you can take one bomb as long as you deal even more dmg to him) - drop a mushroom right under him or one of his allies while they are being resurrected - one blind dart alone an make him back off from any fight granted he is not stacking HP - toxic shot can harass him pretty well - the higher he gets the more dangerous he is - slowly claim mid with mushrooms - bomb aoe keeps the lane pushed to your side if you last hit only which makes him overextend and gankable

11. Side Lane tactics So you have played a few games dominated mid over and over again and you want to do it again. You call "AP Teemo mid" in champ select don't log in and wait for the 80s to be over. The Vladimir switches to Ashe in the last 2 seconds. The game starts.

You buy your regrowth & H-potion and check if you really selected the right rune page. You run down mid.

1E37h4X0R(Ashe): im mid biatches! Boscogn(Teemo): i called mid in champ select 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): lol teemo mid 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): go home scrub! im a better dps than you 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): bro 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): bro 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): brO! Boscogn(Teemo): you didnt even buy any items 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): i need the gold for mah early bf sword IdrinkMilk(Poppy): let Teemo mid... he called it in champ select Boscogn(Teemo): yeh come on Boscogn(Teemo): dont be an idiot 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): /ignore team 1E37h4X0R(Ashe): bro

there is no way you're going to get mid from people like that. they rather go 2v1 mid than playing the game. Even if you have 3 friends with you supporting the awesome teemo mid... forget about it. maybe you can steal mid from him after he gave first blood or something. If someone insists on mid you might be able to convince them by simply sitting in mid till someone leaves(before you guys gimp each others exp though... never steal exp from the mid early!).

so you end up in a side lane. what do you do?

Get Toxic Shot first. it deals half of your blind dart as damage and considering you need about 2 minion waves + 1 minion to reach lvl 2 you can deal a lot more dmg with it, farm better and conserve mana.

Two stun combo enemies(and other heavy CC):

the most prominent combo is Taric-Sion here. Others are Morgana/Lux with maybe Renekton/Annie, Nunu with Ryze, Zilean + Xin Zhao. These is the most dangerous combo you can face in a 2v2 side lane (not to mention 2v1 top). You need to last hit only and you wont be able to do much till lvl 6 and you can place a mushroom in the bush to scout. Focus on leveling your Toxic Shot first and get move quick early. Sometimes you need to let them waste their stuns on you by running forward and the Move Quick back into your turret. The biggest problem of heavy CC is that it is extremely mana consuming especially early in the game. (Sion 100 mana cost in from a 240 mana pool). You need to shroom the bushes heavily. 3 per side bush and 1 in river bush should be enough(risk to be ganked very low cause you can't really leave the turret.)

Watch out for Clarity and Ignite.

Good thing is that if you last hit only can can keep up in exp and minion kills while making them overextended.

Your Teammate Mr. Coward:

This is frustrating but not that bad. He will towerhug and is too afraid to engage. He will start fighting once you reached lvl 6 and started to shroom a bit so he can be safe. Sometimes a "if you tank them I can kill Zilean" helps. Shroom balanced but place a few more shrooms near your turret. 2 per side bush and 2 for river bush and the area around it (risk to be ganked relatively low).

Sure a shen with 1200 HP running from a 900 Hp Sivir is weird to look at but at least he is not pushing like...

Your Teammate Mr. Irrational:

Those are the guys you hate. They run from a balanced fight just to jump back in once the battle is over. They will push like a mad idiot autoattacking everything they see without getting the last hits... sometimes with aoe spells.

You need to stay in the bushes and simply last hit everything you can. When there is a short break during the fight try to tell your ally what to do and why to do it.

They don't play bad because they want to play bad. They play bad because they don't know better. Try to go home early (once you got your Move Quick or about 800g) to buy the philo-stone and a vision ward (the green one for 75g) maybe even boots as well. Place the ward in the river next to your lane and prevent ganks in your overextended lane. Also tell your lane partner to buy a ward once he has to go home. Remember to be encouraging because criticism is just going to be ignored at times "Mundo feeds who he pleases!".

Shrooming gank and escape paths is more important than shrooming the bushes. Only 1 per side bush but 2-4 in the river bush and the surrounding area (risk to be ganked high due to overextension).

The shared lane (Gold and Experience):

The gold you lose can set you back massively. You really need to focus on farming and ignore the enemy sometimes. If you miss a minion kill to shoot at the enemy a little you have to watch that you did enough damage for it to be worth it. Coordinate with your lane partner so that no experience and no gold is wasted by recalling at the same time (sometimes your jungler can come and take over for a bit). Get your Malady before you get your Mejai's Soulstealer or at least a Dagger. Due to your superior speed ganking mid is also an option to get gold and experience (or simply relieving mid so he/she can go shop and heal). If you manage to place some shrooms in other lanes chances are good that you get free assists/kills across the map cause if Teemo is bottom who expects a shroom at top.

You might need to sell your Philosopher's Stone earlier to get your Rod of Ages early enough. You can start your Deathfire Grasp with Kage's Lucky Pick early to get some extra gold. (maybe even replace the soulstealer with the pick if you know the enemy is quite tanky and you won't be able get many stacks early. get the soulstealer after the Catalyst the Protector and before the Rod of Ages in this situation).

Still... don't use mushrooms to farm till they are at lvl 2.

Your lane is shroomed but teamfights happen in mid?:

Tell your solo carry to take over your lane as a solo. You and someone else from your team go mid and you start fortifying it. You can hold mid while your carry gets some more farm and exp while being relatively safe and he might be able to push your lane and kill the turret.

Even if you have 10 shrooms at bot which are never going to explode doesn't mean they are wasted shrooms. They provided vision and an invisible zone of control so you could do your part in your lane. Map awareness is not only knowing where everybody is but also knowing that nobody is at a certain location.

You died... what now?:

So you are 2 levels behind and you are still squishy and cant do much. You are under a constant threat of being towerdived.

What you need to do is focus on shrooming every passage an enemy can attack you. Even shroom behind your turret in the small bushes, nearby creep camps, enemy escape routes.

You are now allowed to use shrooms on minions if you have a decent amount of shrooms near the turret (5-6). Not to kill them for gold but to kill them so the enemy cannot get too close. Call for someone stronger (like mid, jungler, one guy from the other side lane). carefully claim your lane with mushrooms. Watch for your mana bar (shrooms cost mana, too). There is nothing more frustrating than someone from your team ganking the enemy you run foward with move quick and you stand there without enough mana for blind dart.

In towerdive situations use blind dart one one guy and exhaust on the other. It should give you a few seconds of tower dmg. 12. Pros / Cons Pros:

easy to last hit during lane phase very fast movement speed (highest average movement speed in the game) good scout good nukes long blind free recon mines high resistance to junglers high nuke potential early and late game good damage output mid game

Cons:

low HP early and mid game oracles elixir can counter him to a certain degree the games might take a very long time (sometimes over 60 minutes) because the enemy is too afraid to go somewhere --> long sieges possible at the enemy inhibitor turrets you get focused a lot you cannot initiate well unless they hit a mushroom or you can pick off stragglers every time you see a fail Teemo in your team you want to cry 13. Creep Jungling You can get the blue buff but it's not necessary.(unless you want to create a shroom protection field for your team before you go baron mid game without CDR). Lizard is always welcome but not that important. You mainly get buffs by careless junglers that eat 2 mushrooms, retreat into another mushroom while you nuke them to death. 14. Working in the team You are not the first to enter the fight and you cannot act as a good bait. "Ah hell Teemo is gonna lure us into a mushroom anyway". If you have a good initiator you can pick off the enemy carries easily. Move Quicks active also allows you to run into a fight and drop one quick mushroom under one of your allies. most people do not have the overview to see whats going on and the mushroom will explode turning more than one teamfight to your favour.

you can also create an escape route with one or two mushrooms and save your buddies from big bad autoattacks. 15. Unique Skills I mentioned the Blind-Exhaust-Blind already so there is no need to talk much more about it. Its a 8.5s disable with 2 nukes and some auto attack in between. Pretty straight forward to use but still the end of most physical carries like tryndamere, yi or ashe.

There are so many uses to mushrooms its really funny here are some examples:

The enemy Rammus is powerballing behind one of your allies. drop a shroom right behind your ally and he will smash into it breaking his powerball out of range of your ally.

drop a shroom to for blitz to grab.

drop a shroom to intercept a skillshot. (not recommended for Ez' mystic shot or volley)

drop a shroom to slow pursuers.

blind somebody and drop a shroom under their feet. they can't AA it to death.

use them as wards, use them to kill, use them to slow.

AP Teemo is pretty much the destroyer of strategies.

Shroom placement is a very big part of Teemo but I cannot tell you how you do it. You will learn it by yourself - its pretty easy. Just remember that mushrooms have many different uses and that you can place: scout (buffs, baron, dragon, bushes, random kills), damage, anti-gank(bushes near your lane) and anti-towerdive (look where others walk to attack you under the tower and slow/damage them) mushrooms.

Mushrooms are not wards. Mushrooms are different. The enemy knows you saw them. The enemy took damage. The mushrooms cannot remain hidden and provide vision like a real ward.

remember the vision from mushrooms lasts very long after they exploded. 16. Farming, Jungling, It is easier to last hit with toxic shot so don't forget to level it up. Do not attack minions rapidly after lvl 1 (exactly 1 wave + 1 minion) so you don't overextend thus preventing ganks from the enemy.

Do not use mushrooms early to farm, never. They are too valuable and cannot kill caster minions at level 1 leaving them with about 60 HP. Later (after lvl 11) they can be used to farm creep waves effectively. (do not let your shrooms be killed by minions before they can explode).

You can solo dragon after you got your malady. The magic pen is maxed after 1 shot from malady (25-6=19 MR and you have 19 magic pen from runes). Remember that Dragon cannot be blinded. 17. Summary If you play him well enough you can kill almost any enemy you face on the battlefield. You have good damage output without mushrooms and are a nightmare for enemy dps squishy carries. You have free wards that deal AOE damage and a blind that shows you why Teemo is one of the best anti-carries in the game. Take your time to practice.

Have a nice game

AnjouShin 18. Hybrid and DPS builds quick overview so this is the section for fun. AD/AS Teemo is not viable. Hybrid is not great. AP is the way to go but if you are looking for quick fun in a practice game you can try one of these:

Hybrid:

Runes, Summoner abilities, Masteries:

Greater Mark of Insight x 9 Greater Seal of Clarity x 9 Greater Glyph of Shielding x 9 Greater Quintessence of Fortitude x 3 (survivability, manaregen, magic pen... all you need)

Exhaust Ghost

13/16/1 with improved exhaust and ghost, 0.6 ap/lvl, 15% magic pen, 6 armor pen, 60 HP, 2% dodge

Items:

Malady Sorcerer's Shoes Hextech Gunblade Frozen Mallet Guinsoo's Rageblade Madred's Bloodrazor

you will run out of mana if the fight takes too long but it should provide enough survivability to autoattack at least for a little while dealing lots of damage. Your abilities also will provide more than just utility and a little bit of damage.

DPS(physical damage per second):

Runes, Summoner abilites, Masteries:

Greater Mark of Desolation x 9 Greater Seal of Evasion x 9 Greater Glyph of Shielding x 9 Greater Quintessence of Fortitude x 3

Cleanse Ghost

21/8/1 6 armor pen, 2% crit chance, 10% crit damage, 5% damage, 2% dodge, improved ghost

Items:

Mercury's Treads Phantom Dancer The Bloodthirster Infinity Edge Frozen Mallet The Black Cleaver

pretty basic Mr. Right-click-a-lot build. High attackspeed and damage lets you shine 1v1 but makes you weak to any sort of focus (that's why you need cleanse). Move speed increase gives you good backdoor capabilities. Your abilities will hit for close to no damage and are nothing more than utility.

exchange items if you think you have better ones... It doesn't matter. Its not like you can do much wrong since going Hybrid or DPS on Teemo is wrong on its own.

I really would like to point out that these ways to build Teemo are not the most efficient way to build Teemo. If you look for a DPS/Hybrid build try this and alter it in any way you want. These are more like low-skill/learning-to-play builds for him.

If you want to build Teemo correctly use the build extensively described in every other section in this guide. 19. Change Log I update this guide almost daily. Few sentences here and there. I will only list the major changes or changes each patch caused in this section.

v1.0.0.113 - Buff to Teemo due to banshees nerf - no changes on Teemo directly

v1.0.0.112 - no changes on Teemo

2-23-11 - important minor update - changed glyphs from magic pen to MR/lvl

v1.0.0.111 - no changes on Teemo - changed Ryze to work-in-progress due to the rework

2-13-11 - big update: - added "Side Lane tactics" - added "What you need to know" - added Soulstealer in Item and Build analysis

1-26-11 - added the Hybrid and dps builds for Teemo not because they are good or worth mentioning but to make this guide a complete Teemo guide and not just AP Teemo.

v1.0.0.110 - changed the values for manaregen seals and masteries - changed move quick - have to add karma in the solo-mid tactics still but I have to fight as/against her before I do that - rabadons deathcap price increased by another 200 but that should not be noticeable that late in the game(2000g after the large rod) - added that Dragon cannot be blinded

v1.0.0.109 - no changes for Teemo and no changes in the build (deathcap extra 100g but thats 4 caster minions) - dragon is harder to solo after you got your malady (almost impossible before)

v1.0.0.108 - replaced Zhonya's Ring with Rabadon's Deathcap - exhaust now also works on casters but works less effective against DPS. still I'd say its the recommended Summoner ability - added Caitlyn in the solo-mid tactics - reworked exhaust

v1.0.0.107 - no changes on Teemo but it can be seen as a slight buff ---> banshees veil got nerfed but is still strong and still counters you well - wards do not last as long which means that scouting with mushrooms is even more important - flash not popping projectiles anymore has a very minor influence on AP Teemos playstyle - items in this guide are not affected - added Cassiopeia in advanced solo-mid tactics list