Deserves a necro bump as most people who replied are talking about either how most tanks do or about how tank teemo isn't a build. First issue is, tank teemo isn't on op.gg or anywhere because he'd simply DO NOTHING. Also the tank runes have taken out the ability to purposefully stack defenses without devoting all of his damage stats. [He doesn't scale with hp, armor, mr, ms, or anything like that.] Whereas an Ap build can at least have map presence and push a tower. Teemo the way he is doesn't defeat any tank in the game without ganks. So to say he can whittle them down is stupid as well. Also the meta has been changed and the game is pretty much over within 10 minutes of gameplay. This happens from ranks starting at gold and lower and the korean meta even quits at 15 most of the time. The game just progresses too quickly for Teemo to have an impact.
So obvious problems aside lets point out what is so useless about Teemo in general.
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Low range, so even though he is supposed to be a top laner he can't do anything without great risk. Even though he is listed as a marksman he isn't viable there either.
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Doing well as Teemo doesn't translate into a snowball. Most of Teemo's items are expensive as crap, and his ratios are horrible.
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"But his mushrooms...." which he can't get till level 6 which is about 7 mins in game. The game ends at 10mins typically. This is a very narrow window and with an ult as stupid as, "Please walk in my puddle." you basically need 45% cdr for his ult to be effective.
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Teemo's items also keep getting hit every season. Teemo used to use Lich bane, that got nerfed with tf. He used to use malady, item got straight removed from the game. Nashor's tooth is actually not the best for him, because attack speed won't allow him to kill anyone except people who are stupid enough to overstay so that his q can kill them anyways... Liandries got split into two items making him pay twice as much to obtain the same benefit as before. [They still want you to build it...]
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Is a marksman supposedly but has no attack damage or attack speed steroids that he can use in combat. His stealth is utterly pointless unless you are somehow actually able to bully your opponent. Which doesn't actually happen on Teemo. People who say it does are either bad or just dislike Teemo.
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Most of Teemo's lane foes have received reworks that favor them. Teemo did not. [Garen, Swain, Urgot, Sion, Maokai[though he received huge nerfs], Jarvan, Renekton got buffs, yorick. Also other characters added into the game make his life horrible as well. [Illaoi, Tahm] And even if pantheon suffers he's still Teemo's top counter. Nasus is no longer weak to Teemo at all because of itemization changes, he literally can just pick one level of q and max out his spirit fire which will chunk teemo and let him get run over with a w after.
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When Marksmans got updated, Teemo did not. When Mages got updated, Teemo did not. When Tanks got updated, Teemo did not. When Brusiers got updated, Teemo did not.
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Teemo has been around since Alpha, so he is older than most champions you can list that are in need of reworks.
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Rune changes nerfed Teemo. Old masteries and runes could be hybridized so that way if you go damage, you could actually have damage. Now runes are adaptive, meaning they only give one. Other champions that have suffered because of rune changes are Twisted Fate and Kayle who also have fairly simple kits, have no way of keeping up with targets that can gap close, have relatively low burst and have items changed or reworked against their favor.
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I really want to argue that his base defenses are horrible but that's just a perception error. His base damage is horrible and his itemization forces you to sacrifice being able to make decent trades for the ability to poke... except his range is lower than many champions listed as top laners so they outpoke him too.
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Blind is not a reliable cc, it's not even graves' or quinn's versions. Graves' is a blind and a slow and an area of effect and has better range. Quinns scales decently with damage and has better range and other parts of her kit are more deadly than Teemo's.
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The meta wants you to build Liandries but that only work in combination with his mushrooms which is not his main damage source. Also again cdr required. Aka it's 'required' or core on him but it's not his main damage dealer at all.
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W is a crappy version of MF sprint except hers also gives attack speed steroid.
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E is not interactive. With Varus said poison can be combo'd with a skill shot to achieve something.
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E does not apply spell effects and isn't classified as an ability but is taking up an ability slot.
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E tick damage can be outhealed by a potion early game if your foe has hp regen. [Any character in the game...]
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Because his kit is damage over time, building MR is incredibly effective. It's to the point that even having a lead won't do crap unless it's like 6k+ gold so you can build something to negate MR. Other champions are definitely not like this. Their damage is so upfront in comparison that if they have a 3 kill lead you are as good as dead, doesn't matter what you've built.
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DoT requires time to fully deal damage, time in which cooldowns on shields, heals, damage reductions, etc. have come back up, time in which they've been able to move to a friend with a support ability like those above, and often, time in which the enemy has retaliated, killing you. Even if they then die from your DoT, all that happened was you ensured the kill was mutual. An ability dealing equivalent damage as burst might have killed them before retaliation was possible. Lets add on that any summoner with Triumph becomes immune to Teemo's poison if say Teemo tries to trade them. Making even that option limited in viability.
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Teemo is Yi status. This means that people hate him a lot but the risk is not worth the reward of playing them. It's very normal when playing Teemo to get cussed out by your own allies or to be ignored in general or even have your lane ruined by allies. For all you need to do to make him even somewhat successful other champions do it better and there are simpler champions that are on this list.
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This character also gets a bad rap of players using it being called 'unskilled' even when they literally can out walk you to safety and negate any chance you have of winning. It means that teemo essentially reduces his lane to one where you farm and scale and where Teemo must run from his opponents and there is nothing on his kit to 'do' successfully to change that.
