A Rework for Teemo.
Okay okay I know, it's Satan blah blah blah. Hear me out. Despite being perhaps one of the most infamous champions in League. With, at the time, good reason, Teemo is a champion that has for a long time, been rather lackluster, his kit is quite bare bones and simply doesn't allow him to keep up with other champions who fulfill much of his current role and do significantly better at it, mechanically Teemo is a champion that utilizes High burst, mobility, stealth and a moderate range. he excels at single target execution, map awareness, and map control, but is often useless in team fights due to his limited ability to deal with more than one champion and his inherent squishyness. That is as it should be, however there are champions who flat out do his job better in virtually every way, are more tanky AND have strong team-fight ability (I'm looking at you Gnar and Kennen >.>) As it stands there is simply little to no reason to pick Teemo outside of a few situational scenarios.
Teemo is Thematically amazing but I feel his kit isn't hitting all the marks it should be for the champion to actually be effective, or even decent, I've been trying to work out ways to improve the champion, making him viable while keeping him from becoming OP, or downright toxic, at least not more so than say Shaco. Bear in mind I am NOT good with the numbers aspect, all values would be subject to change if these changes, or similar ones, were ever applied or tested. number tweaking is the easy part. I'll be going over why I feel each change is needed, and why I feel it fits the champion, feel free to argue any points or suggest alternatives. comments like "teemo sucks" or others related to his meme of being cancerous, will be ignored, at least by me. He flat out isn't good enough to be cancer, save it for the yasuo threads. (having a high skill floor is NOT a counter-balance for such high outplay potential)
Largely these changes are designed to move Teemo's poison over to his passive, allow him to utilize his stealth both more effectively, and in a more engaging manner, while still allowing him to locate and execute lone targets, but also giving him more ability to support to his team with hit and run tactics, traps, and a bit more crowd control, while still ensuring that if caught, he will die quickly. I also want to keep in line with what I believe is Riot's intended direction for the champion, and keep his skill floor relatively low, while raising his skill ceiling by a bit. If nothing else I hope to make this an interesting read. Let's get into it.
Passive: Guerrilla warfare (Rework): Passive: when out of combat for 8 seconds, Teemo enters Camouflage, Teemo enters Camouflage twice as fast while in brush, Camouflage ends upon entering combat or using an ability, but not on being seen by enemy champions. Teemo's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply a deadly poison, dealing magic damage over 4 seconds (still scaling With AP). Subsequent attacks refresh the poison's duration.
Moving Teemo's poison over to his passive allows another ability to be moved over to his E, allowing it to be reworked into something both more effective, and more engaging, furthermore having the poison on his passive allows his damage to scale more Consistently and in a more controlled manner. Due to the proposed changes to W I would suggest sliding more of the damage over to the DoT effect for better balance. At the same time this allows Teemo more options and versatility, allowing him to choose how much to focus on, Damage (Q), Mobility (W), or Stealth (E).
Q- Blinding dart (partial rework): ACTIVE: Teemo shoots an specialized dart at the target enemy's face, exploding in a toxic mist on impact and dealing 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+ 80% AP) magic damage and applying nearsight for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds.
The damage on Teemo's current Q is pretty phenomenal when ahead, however vs non squishy, or spell reliant opponents such as Ryze Syndra or any mage with high burst and better crowd control, the ability offers little more than the damage it does, and even that is very reliant on you being far ahead, if the blind worked like Quinn's blind however, it would have a lot more use, and would lend to Teemo's kit much more effectively, you blind them, burst them as much as you can then either finish them or escape.
W- Move Quickly (partial rework): PASSIVE: Teemo gains 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26% bonus movement speed if he hasn't taken damage from enemy champions or turrets for 5 seconds. ACTIVE: Teemo doubles his bonus movement speed for 3 seconds and prevents it from being disabled by damage, in addition he gains 10/20/30/40/50% bonus attack speed for 3 seconds. Does not break Camouflage.
Placing the AS steroid on Teemo's W (albeit at a reduced rate) allows Teemo to utilize his W more tactically, either for a full on retreat, to maximize his kiting effectiveness temporarily, both against champions and jungle camps, or to simply do as much damage as possible in a short window. this will encourage more frequent use of W and will allow the enemy to use it against Teemo more frequently as well. Ganking him in top lane play directly after baiting a W could leave him very vulnerable for a brief window if well executed, forcing Teemo players to adjust and learn when and how to apply it. Furthermore it gives him a more solid jungle clear, helping him become viable there.
E- Tactical re-positioning (NEW) (30/28/26/24/22 sec cooldown): Active: Teemo throws down a smoke grenade, entering camouflage after a .5 second delay, and reducing the cooldown on his W by 2/3/4/5/6 seconds.
This ability is designed to allow Teemo to do what he does best. Hit fast and hard then disappear without a trace, it provides synergy to the rest of his kit, and while the ability is almost pure utility, save for the more frequent AS boost, I feel this is necessary considering how much damage his passive, Q, and R will do. with this and W Teemo will still be able to Juke opponents, especially in the jungle, but will have to be more careful about it, no more sitting invisible in a bush till the enemy champion leaves, Teemo's camouflage will generally keep him safe from enemies placing standard wards in the brush he's hiding in, so much of his old tactics are still there. but it will force Teemo players to be more active, play more carefully, and ultimately be more effective.
R- (unchanged)
With this kit the shrooms are fine as is, between the massive nerf they got in duration way back, the scuttlecrab facechecks for days, and their overall decent damage, combined with their weaknesses to scans and purple wards, they're fine as is for map control/awareness but terrible for laning phase against anyone decent. The slow, vision, and damage provide enough utility. he needs more power in his kit, but not here.
Weaknesses- Teemo is currently and would remain very vulnerable to, scans, control wards, high burst, knock-ups, gap closers, Roots, stuns, taunts, and large AoE effects. Good counters would be still be Ryze, Syndra, Poppy, Pantheon, Malphite, Karma, Annie, Jayce, and Lee sin.
I feel these changes would make Teemo become a truly viable champion in league without sacrificing his unique identity and would in fact help push his kit to match where he was meant to be, a highly methodical killer with advanced training in special reconnaissance and guerrilla tactics, these changes would allow him to be a much more effective jungler as well, an environment that is highly suited to his Identity but not his current kit.
I had fun writing this so if it never happens oh well. For the record Teemo is one of my favorite champions... okay I'm lying he is my very favorite. (It would be Yasuo or Aatrox but much as I love them thematically their kits are Cancer and trash respectively. Aatrox also need a rework.)
