What is a viable build for Teemo vs. Teemo?

Question

I recently had trouble against an opposing Teemo. What build would work best to counter another Teemo?

Answer 1

Well, to actually answer your question...

In a Teemo vs Teemo matchup, you MUST build AP. AD will come out ahead in a fight for the first couple of levels but after that AP is far superior (I'm talking this particular matchup).

Build high flat AP items asap. You can't rely on autos with blinding dart. You mainly focus on poking with higher damage from your blind and don't directly fight unless you will win the longer battle for sure.

If you are vs an AP teemo, start of Chalice so you can spam your Q quicker. If you are vs an AD teemo, you can start of Zhonya's and/or chalice since teemo still does sufficient magic damage. At some point from here you will want to get a Lliandry's and Rabadon's. Also, somewhere in there mix in Sorc boots.

From this point on, you should focus your build mostly around what you need for the rest of the enemy team.

Answer 2

When it comes to a mirror matchup between two Teemos, the biggest problem is that you cannot know what the enemy Teemo plays in champion select (and unless you are playing a custom game you won't even know that there is an enemy Teemo). So you have to start with the runes.

Teemo is a rather aggressive laner and you should also try to play aggressive against an enemy Teemo. Since you usually don't know that you play against another Teemo you should take a mix of early aggression runes and a little bit of defense just to be safe in general. I recommend Hybrid-Penetration red (Good for early aggression and you don't drop off late), Armor yellow (almost always take these), Magic resist blue (Teemo does mainly magic damage) and AP Quints (For more damage) of which all are non-scaling. With these runes you are safe for a general matchup and against a Teemo, but if you know that you are playing against a Teemo you can also switch the armor for health. Note that these runes are for AP/Hybrid Teemo only. For masteries just go for a standard 21/9/0 skill tree. You can also play AD Teemo with a standard AD Carry rune page but I don't recommend playing it since Teemo scales too well with AP to be played as AD. Also you will most likely lose to an AP Teemo as AD Teemo.

When it comes to the Item build you should stick to your current playstyle (AP or AD). Just go a normal starting item either Dorans Blade if you are playing ad or Dorans Ring/Boots if you are playing AP. Boots can be really helpful since it makes chasing a lot easier if the enemy doesn't buy them first and you also will get 4 Healing potions which help a lot versus an harrassing lane opponent.

What you build next depends entirely on who dominates the lane. If you can dominate try to keep it up and go for an aggressive build. Buy a Haunting Guise next if you are AP, a Bilgewater Cutlass if you are AD or a Wits End if you are hybrid. Note however that you will have to keep the pressure up if you buy the aggressive Items.

If you are behind however you should focus on a more passive playstyle and you have to try to get back in the game through farm (if needed under the turret). You will need to buy damage (you will be useless otherwise) but you will also have to keep an eye on defensive stats. That means go for a Hexdrinker if you are AD, for a Chalice/Abyssal Scepter if you are AP or again for a Wits end if you are Hybrid. You can basically always build magic resistance against a Teemo since his strength lies in his early base damage which is purely AP. Once you lose to an AD teemo due to a lack of armor you definitely have lost your lane and it will be hard to regain an advantage over him without the help of your teammates or without him doing something incredibly stupid.

Answer 3

Runes

Starting off with the runes I would suggest you:

• Greater Glyph of Ability Power x9 - As an AP carry, glyphs offer the best boost to Ability Power. I choose the flat AP glyphs as I believe that both runes and masteries offer the best advantage in early game and lose their efficiency in late game.

or

• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power x9 - If you'd like to build for a late game, I would recommend these instead. They become as effective as the Glyph of Potency at level 6 so you wont be sacrificing all that much.

or

• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9 - For more survivability against heavy AP teams or mid lane.

• Greater Seal of Attack Speed x9 - Teemo and Attack Speed have both an on-screen and off-screen love affair. Both AD and AP Teemo benefit from attack speed in many ways. While AD Teemo benefits from faster auto-attack damange, AP Teemo benefits from faster on-hit due to our Toxic Shot.

or

• Greater Seal of Armor x9 - Teemo can play any lane decently. If you are running up top lane to take on that Darius, a bit of armor will make you feel a little more comfortable. Not recommended for mid lane.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9 - Marks offer the best magic/armour penetration. As an AP carry build, these are the best choice to nullify any early magic resist your opponents may have - like Teemo in our case.

or

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed x9 - Even more attack speed if you find that you don't need as much magic penetration.

• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed x3 - Teemo is one of the faster champs due to the passive his Move Quick gives. These quints will only help you in evading any skill shot, any gank, and out of any sticky situation you can imagine with proper awareness.

or

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x3 - If you find that our Move Quick offers enough movement speed for you, feel free to pick these babies up for a huge bonus in our early game presence.

Masteries

Offensive

• Summoner's Wrath : Ignite - Increase Ability Power and Attack Damang by 5 while on cooldown. We can be decently liberal with our summoner spells, and therefore Ignite should be on cooldown most of the game. While 5 AP isn't A LOT, it is really handy, especially in the early stages of the game. The added AD is also helpful once we purchase a Runaan's Hurricane.

• Fury : +1 / 2 / 3 / 4% Attack Speed This build is focuses heavily on attack speed. There isn't too much more to take at this tier.. if you like to spam your summoner spells, you can put a point into
  Summoner's Wrath instead of maxing this.

• Sorcery : +1 / 2 / 3% Cooldown Reduction CDR is pretty nice to keep harassing and dropping mushrooms on the map, however this doesn't offer very much CDR. Simply taken because the other choices in this tier are less beneficial.

• Blast : +0.25 / 0.50 / 0.75 / 1.00 Ability Power per level. Provides a very nice little chunk of AP into late game. Including Rabadon's Deathcap this nets up 23 additional AP!

• Arcane Knowledge : +8% Magic Penetration Magic Pen is a very helpful (and hard to come by) stat. It decreases the enemy's resistance to all our spells, increasing our damage. This paired with Sorcerer's Shoes, Void Staff, or Abyssal Scepter lets us do a lot more damage to the opponents, especially to tanks.

• Mental Force : +2 / 4 / 6 Ability Power Straight up additional ability power is a must take. Increases our early game damage quite a bit and is the one of the only AP choices at this tier.

• Spellsword : +5% of your Ability Power added to your Auto Attack This mastery was made for Teemo! It is identical to the way Nashor's Tooth works (a key item to this build). Since most of our damage comes from our auto attacks in combination with Toxic Shot, this is a must have mastery.

• Archmage : +1.25 / 2.50 / 3.75 / 5% Ability Power This is the best option for any ability power champion. Increases our AP by +5% which means it gets stronger the more AP you have!

• Executioner : +5% Damage to targets below 50% health Pretty self explanatory, you deal 5% more damage if the enemy is below 50% health. This is a very nice mastery for Teemo as our poison damage, shroom damage, and ignite can all be dealing additional damage while we run away laughing from a fight.

Utility

• Summoner's Insight : Reduces the cooldown of Flash by 15 seconds Flash is one of the most power escapes in the game, and one that you should always be using! Reducing the CD on this spell is very handy to escape tight situations.

• Wanderer : + 0.66 / 1.33 / 2% movement increase when out of combat Teemo is one of the fastest champions. Increasing his movement speed is the most beneficial choices out of both the Utility and Defensive Trees.

• Improved Recall : Reduces the cast time of Recall by 1 second This point is most added because the other option is to increase mana regen which is mostly useless for Teemo. Ever hid in a bush and started Recalling while an enemy starts marching towards you? Its a scary place to be, but this can up your chances of survival!

• Mastermind : Reduces the cooldown of Summoner Spells by 4 / 7 / 10% Allows us to use both Flash and Ignite more frequently which is extremely handy.

Summoner Spells

Preferred

• Flash : Provides an escape more beneficial than our Move Quick as it allows you to jump over walls and out of slows. I ALWAYS take this spell regardless of my 2nd choice.

• Ignite : Getting an enemy to low health is a pretty easy task, however most people will carry a Health Potion, Heal, or have an health regen ability. This spell allows your Toxic Shot to keep dwindling down their health without having to worry about them recovering.

• Exhaust : A nice way to defend yourself against a gank or to focus down an AD carry in a team fight, however with our Noxious Trap the slow isn't as useful as our other spell options.

• Heal : If you find yourself being the target of early harass or ganks, take this spell to ensure your survivabiltiy. Also ensure you use it in team fights to provide a heal for your entire team!

• Ghost : This, in combination with our Move Quick, will make you so fast that the enemy will be baffled. Can also be utilized to run across the entire map in just a few seconds to score a gank or to save a turret!

• Barrier : An excellent choice for new players or ARAM if you find yourself the focus in a team fight. Just pop this spell and continue owning the Field of Justice!

Items

Core Items - AP Teemo

• Doran's Blade While relying on this baby's on-hit HP regen to sustain us, this can be a nice change from the standard below. Adds quite a bit to our HP pool and makes our harassment stronger. Also it can be fun to watch the enemy stack armour only to find that our late game is AP.

• Boots of Speed + Health Potion x3 A standard starting build. Offers amazing mobility with your boots to escape from ganks or to keep up your pokes with Toxic Shot. Makes up for your low HP with health regen with your health potions.

• Mercury's Treads Pick these up next if you are against a heavy AP team or you have to deal with CC. I like to play mid so the magic resist is really useful, however pick your boots depending on who you are up against. If you are taking a lot of auto attack damage get Ninja Tabi instead, or if you are facing no harass and the other team is not providing a threat, take Sorcerer's Shoes for magic pen or Berserker's Greaves for extra attack speed. Always choose your boots depending on the makeup of the other team.

• Nashor's Tooth I absolutely adore this item! This gives your early/mid game a big boost with the attack speed it offers. Toxic Shot provides on-hit magic damage, so building a more attack speed on Teemo is never a bad idea for both AD or AP builds. The cool down reduction will also help with getting more shrooms out on the field. With the recent change to Nashor's Tooth to include the on-hit ability of Malady, this item has become Teemo's most dangerous weapon. Nashor's Tooth's on hit damage IS applies to three targets when paired with Runaan's Hurricane.

• Runaan's Hurricane This is the focus of the build. The passive of applying on-hit effects (such as Toxic Shot and Nashor's Tooth) to two additional targets makes you suddenly a very large threat in team fights, as well as an amazing farmer. Picking up a Doran's Blade first just gives this a little more kick to damage as well as providing 15 HP back instead of 5. The reason we rush this item is the insane farming potential. We will sacrifice early game damage, but its worth it in mid/late game when you can complete a full build much faster than anyone else.

• Rabadon's Deathcap The icing on the cake. Now that we have built a decent amount of AP, lets give it a massive boost! Most people like to take this item first, but as it scales with the amount of AP you have, I prefer to take it mid game when you can farm the gold within a few minion waves. This item speaks for itself and is a must for any champion who focus's AP.

• Liandry's Torment While this item does NOT proc from Toxic Shot, this will give your shrooms a MASSIVE punch as the the ticks will whittle down the poor enemy's HP much faster than usual due to the additional DoT and slow.

• Void Staff The other team has probably realized you are quite the threat and should be building up some magic resistance. Nab this beauty to make 35% of their magic resist useless >:) .

Thank you for taking the time to read all I had to say. I really hope that I helped you and best luck in the Fields of Justice!

Answer 4

CDR wins. Make sure you get 2 blinding darts off while he only gets off 1. If he isn't building CDR, you can win.