Teemo/Strategy

		"Some things must remain buried." Strategy is highly subjective and may become outdated without any notice. Because of this, the League of Legends Wiki has decided to retire strategy pages and would recommend using other platforms (such as YouTube) to find guides. For more information visit this thread. This page continues to exist for archive purposes.

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Tips

Playing As Teemo

• Teemo's mushrooms can be used to farm creep waves very effectively.
• Place your mushrooms at key locations on the map, such as by the Dragon or Baron Nashor, to reveal when your enemies might be attempting to kill them.

Playing Against Teemo

• Teemo's Toxic Shot punishes who get hit and back out, so stay at a safe range until you're ready to commit.
• It can be valuable to use Oracle Lens to destroy mushrooms around key locations.

Tricks

Ability Usage

• Sometimes it is better to stand still and go into Guerrilla Warfare for an escape mechanism than to use Move Quick or Recall.
• Unlike other stealth abilities, Teemo loses Guerrilla Warfare if knocked up.
• When playing Teemo not in mid lane, an easy way to get First Blood is to use Guerrilla Warfare just out of range of their turrets' sight or at the edge of the bush closest to their turret, and wait for the enemy champion to start farming. When they move about right next to you, Ignite and kill them with the help of the mid lane champion if necessary. Exhaust would be useful with this . 
• Blinding Dart can be used to harass effectively and can help Teemo kill physical champions in fights.
  • Blinding Dart with Exhaust can destroy a champion who relies heavily on physical attacks like Tryndamere or Caitlyn. Apply blind first then apply Exhaust after the blind has worn off. This will allow your blind CD to refresh while your enemy is exhausted, minimizing their DPS. If you use both at the same time, the blind will override the attack damage/ability power reduction. Similarly, you can use these two abilities on two champions, effectively taking them out of the battle for a few seconds.
• Blinding Dart can be used as an autoattack timer reset. This is extremely important to learn how to use throughout the game. Opening with a normal attack, immediately using Blinding Dart, then proceeding to autoattack will apply great burst damage, even during laning. Try mastering this combo to use it on the fly and you'll increase your ability power/attack speed damage tremendously.
• If Blinding Dart is used on Warwick's Infinite Duress it will stop the damage from the attacks but the on-hit affects will still apply, this will dramatically decrease the damage taken.
• Use Move Quick to get back to lane quicker.
• Move Quick can also be used to get from lane to lane very quickly, allowing you to help out in fights all over the map.
• Using Ignite with your poison can ensure kills on fleeing enemies.
• One is to place some Noxious Trap in your lane and wait for the enemy to push. After this, go into Guerrilla Warfare. Then, after the enemy runs into a couple of Noxious Traps, use Blinding Dart and auto attacks to finish them.
• Placing a Noxious Trap or two behind the first turret and before the 2nd near the paths to the jungle but not in the minions' path can turn an almost kill into an easy kill.
• Teemo's Noxious Trap can be used to farm creep waves very effectively; it is best to keep your mushrooms spread out and not too close to each other. If a lane has enemy minions stacking on each other (especially the ranged minions), pop a Noxious Trap down in the middle of them and watch them all die in just a few seconds. Use this only if you need to stop a wave immediately or stop future waves, because it is necessary to maximize potential damage by increasing the number of active shrooms on the map to win. More shrooms = more chances of hitting them = more net damage.
• Put a Noxious Trap at key locations on the map, such as by Dragon or Baron Nashor to reveal when your enemies might be attempting to kill them or to prevent ganking and make counter ganks. This is similar to a Warding Totem but the range that Noxious Trap reveals is much smaller.
  • Tip: Place two, one near the opening and one behind the monster. The front one will explode after an enemy steps on it, thwarting them from starting Baron Nashor or Dragon, while the back one will allow you to see the health of the monster and whether it is being attacked.
  • Depending on the enemy teams melee/range makeup, you can put a  Noxious Trap to the side of  Baron Nashor to reveal 1-2 enemy melee champions, or you can place them a little behind the side of the baron if there are 3 or more. This will usually reveal enemy melee champions currently attempting to slay  Baron Nashor.
  • Make sure to place the Noxious Trap out of the path of the Rift Scuttler or kill it in advance, since it will trigger shrooms.
• Put a Noxious Trap inside brushes and entrances to your lanes or your team's side of the map to ensure maximum safety.
• When fighting against a Twisted Fate, be careful because if he uses Destiny any Noxious Traps near any ally will be revealed.
• When laying down Noxious Traps in the jungle, keep in mind that the champion movement pathing often hugs the terrain as they take the shortest route to the selected location. Laying traps against walls at turning points will increase the chance enemies will run into them on their way to/from lanes. Placing down shrooms in the center will allow for a more permanent ward (sometimes).
• Also, when laying traps in a lane, remember that minions travel through the middle, and if the front minion runs into it only he and one minion behind him will be hit. Placing them on the sides can increase the chances of hitting a champion.
• Placing two to three Noxious Traps by the enemy red or blue buff is generally a good idea considering you might just get lucky and steal it from them while slowing their farming down.
• It's sometimes a good idea to place a few Noxious Traps behind you before entering a teamfight, that way if you begin to lose, your team can run off and lead the enemy right into a minefield.
• If planting mushrooms at Dragon or Baron Nashor, they will provide vision if placed off to the side.
• Don't forget that Noxious Trap can be placed down in team fights and only has a short time to arm. Doing this could secure a kill or slow down an enemy when he/she is trying to escape.
• If you are suspecting a possible towerdive from an opposing champion, place Noxious Traps behind and in front of your turret in order to slow and deal damage to the enemy.
• If an enemy is engaging you at melee range, Noxious Traps can be used to peel them off you by placing one underneath you and stepping backwards.
• Teemo can be used to split push; Noxious Trap gives him advanced warning and often weakens enemy champions coming to stop him, Move Quick allows him to escape, and Guerrilla Warfare makes him even harder to find.
• Teleport can be used on his Noxious Traps. With good placement, this gives his team the widest range of teleport options possible.

Rune Usage

• Ultimate Hunter is good on him, as it will improve the recharge time of Noxious Traps, especially as he gets more Bounty Hunter stacks. Reducing the cooldown of shrooms is impactful as it allows for shrooms to be charged faster; enabling it to be planted more continuously.
• Arcane Comet can add damage to Noxious Traps; as the comet appears to have a delay rather than a travel time it could hit targets far away about as easily as in close range. Noxious Trap allows him to often trigger the rune even if he is pushing on the other side of the map, maximizing its efficiency.

Item Usage

• Noxious Trap's recharge time is greatly improved with cooldown reduction.
  • Nashor's Tooth is excellent for this purpose.
• One build route for Teemo is the physical damage route; this route takes advantage of Teemo's innately fast attack speed and quick attack animation along with the attack speed boost his innate ability provides. This involves getting items which boost attack damage and attack speed, such as; Blade of the Ruined King, The Black Cleaver, Wit's End, Infinity Edge and The Bloodthirster.
• Note that items like The Black Cleaver increase physical damage, while Nashor's Tooth increases magical damage. Building on-hit effects with physical damage items will reduce damage output if you opt to buy those shred items. Nashor's Tooth, for example, will not increase the damage that Infinity Edge gives, while The Black Cleaver will not increase the damage that Wit's End deals. Additionally, on-hit effects cannot critically strike or proc life steal. Keep this in mind when buying items like Phantom Dancer.
• A second route is the ability power route; this route focuses on Teemo's ability to deal damage via Blinding Dart, Toxic Shot and Noxious Trap. This involves getting items which boost AP and/or grant magic penetration, such as Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Sorcerer's Shoes and Rod of Ages.
• Magic penetration will apply to already existing traps. Buying items such as Void Staff or Oblivion Orb will greatly increase their damage, even if they are bought while you are dead.
• Teemo can build ability power and attack speed with items that proc on-hit effects, like Wit's End or Nashor's Tooth. These combos work well with his poison's on-hit effect.
• Building a Lich Bane on ability power Teemo can lead to huge bursts of damage.
• Nashor's Tooth benefits  Teemo's on-hit damage, due to its passive. It is often considered the core item on AP Teemo.
  • The cooldown reduction gives more opportunities to cast Blinding Dart and Noxious Trap, which provides much utility.
  • The on hit damage, attack speed and AP allows Teemo to push much more effectively using only basic attacks, allowing him to save Blinding Dart for fights (as well as conserving mana for Noxious Trap; he could feasibly get away with not building any mana items in this case).
• Blade of the Ruined King gives Teemo an additional on-hit effect while providing life steal in one item.
• With Runaan's Hurricane, Toxic Shots can proc on up to 2 additional enemies. However, the crit chance is not used very well.
• Liandry's Torment combined with Noxious Trap for a decent maximum health burn. The base amount is 1.5%, increased to 2.5% when the movement is impaired. The health burn will refresh every poison tick, which occurs every one second. This means the total burn will equal 13% (4 seconds of increased damage totaling 10% and 2 seconds of normal damage continuing after the poison expires totaling 3%)
  • Toxic Shot does not trigger Liandry's Torment's passive because it is an on-hit effect.
• Although  Teemo has a slow basic movement speed,  Move Quick significantly increases this out of combat. Combined with  Boots of Mobility and  Lich Bane  Teemo can move between lanes and get back to lane very quickly.
  • However, if an enemy runs into one of your traps, you will be in combat. This means the bonus movement speed from  Boots of Mobility will be removed.
• Guinsoo's Rageblade is an item that works well with on-hit effect builds. It gives Teemo additional attack speed and ability power both of which work well with his  Toxic Shot. A build that uses  Nashor's Tooth,  Wit's End and Guinsoo's Rageblade can do significant damage.
• Building a Frozen Mallet can be very beneficial to kite and land more auto-attacks by slowing the target. Note that building a Rylai's Crystal Scepter isn't very useful despite the stats. The full slow will only apply on Blinding Dart .
• Luden's Echo is a good AP item on Teemo because it procs when an enemy steps on your mushrooms giving your mushrooms even more damage.

Countering

• Purchasing Doran's Shield can counter Teemo early game by restoring health over time while being autoattacked. This is especially useful for melee champions who will take occasional harass from Teemo in lane.
• If you're playing on Summoner's Rift, Control Ward in the strategic place where you think Teemo will place his Noxious Trap. You also can attempt to bait him into taking out your Control Ward in order to engage a fight.
  • Oracle Lens is a great counter to Teemo, revealing and disabling his traps whilst giving you true sight to sweep out even more mushrooms or see through his Guerrilla Warfare.
  • If you're playing Twisted Treeline, Arcane Sweeper will help you see his Noxious Trap or Teemo himself that is hidden with his Guerrilla Warfare.
• When facing Teemo as an auto-attack reliant champion, it is best advised to buy a Quicksilver Sash to remove the blind CC from his Blinding Dart.
• Use Spectre's Cowl when up against an AP Teemo, as it will mitigate a good portion of his damage output and restore you some health.
• Use a Health Potion when you are low on health and are affected by Toxic Shot, that way you can negate the poison damage from his Toxic Shot.
• Since most of Teemo's damage output comes from autoattacks with his Toxic Shot, consider building Randuin's Omen and Frozen Heart. More especially so with the former as it's passive and active can negate Move Quick.
  • Keep in note that Toxic Shot deals a lot of magic damage instead of physical damage and you still need some magic resistance along with attack speed reduction.
• When chasing an enemy Teemo that enters Guerrilla Warfare, area of effect and skillshot abilities can forcibly cause Teemo to break stealth and attempt to escape. Knockback and knockup effects will break Teemo's Guerrilla Warfare as well.
• When facing AP Teemo during early game, he will typically poke and run while letting his poison deal damage and lowering your health gradually, until he is able to burst you down. Be prepared to pull away if he approaches, and use Health Potions to keep your health high.
• Do not chase Teemo if he attacks once and then runs, particularly AP Teemo, as he is most likely luring you through a field of Noxious Traps.
• If you are using a champion whose damage output is either strongly or entirely based on their auto attacks (ex. Jax, Vayne, Kog'Maw, or even Teemo himself) you need to purchase items to mitigate Teemo's Blinding Dart.
  • Quicksilver Sash and items providing Tenacity are quite useful (ex. Mercury's Treads and Moonflair Spellblade).
• If you're using a long-ranged marksman champion such as Tristana, Caitlyn, Kog'Maw with Bio-Arcane Barrage activated or Jinx using Fishbones, take advantage of your extended range in order to stay away from his Blinding Dart.
• Teemo is often played top lane and very rarely mid lane because his Blinding Dart, his damage over time with his Toxic Shot and his kiting kit potential with his Move Quick and Noxious Traps can give most melee bruisers (i.e. Nasus, Renekton, Jax, Gangplank, Wukong, Tryndamere, Aatrox, Rengar, Olaf, Trundle, and Darius), assassins (i.e. Fizz, Akali, Master Yi, and Diana) an extremely hard time. However, keep in note that Blinding Dart only blocks auto-attacks and does not block damage and crowd-control effects from abilities. Because of this, AP mages with spells that can outrange and out-push him (i.e. Lux and Ziggs) or AD casters with spammable ranged abilities (i.e. Pantheon and Zed) can lane decently well against Teemo and zone him out.
• Most Teemo players disregard building defensive items and are therefore easy to kill. Look for opportunities to engage and burst him before he can retreat to his minefield.
• Noxious Traps grants Teemo strong map control by granting minor vision in addition to the strong slow and damage over time makes Teemo relatively difficult to gank after level 6. Coordinate with your jungler before level 6 to shut down his farming and bring Oracle Lens if necessary.
• In mid-late game, a Spell Shield ( Shroud of Darkness, Black Shield, or Banshee's Veil) can help with clearing Noxious Traps.