Teemo has a problem. Kennen & Gnar.

Hello:

First of all, my profile: http://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=santojoe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVUUxJxJyOWlWL8O8TfZUw

I'm one of those who likes playing Teemo, sorry, it's one of my favourite champions. But, he has no place in the current game.

Looking at other yordles/champions, there is nothing he can do effectively in order to be picked instead of other champions.

What is Teemo's job? I think it's making top lane hard for some melee in the early game (despite what people think, Teemo can't counter Nasus/Garen/Darius/etc in the mid-late game) and help the team with awesome map control using his ulti, or use it to push/def a lane.

It sounds really cool, it's like "you can counter some champs in the early game, and, even if you are not very good at teamfights, you can help a lot with your ulti for map control and for pushing lanes you are not in".

But in the game, in particular, at "high elo", that Teemo is usually, useless.

AA range: 500, almost every gap closer that most meta champions have has more range than 500, so it's hard to even counter the early game of those champs.

Q: really strong, 680 range, enough for harrasing enemy laner but too risky for trying to blind the enemy adc during teamfights. Almost no counterplay.

W: No real scape, and the cd on his "scape/chase ability" is too long, 17 seconds cd.

E: It's not a bad design, I think it should be reworked, it should have stacks. Due to the low AA range and no sustain/scape/survival skills, Teemo is better at building "mage" than AS+AP. In my experience, I have seen that is better, in teamfights or even in lane, attacking the enemy with AA+Q and run away with W, than building AS+AP and staying at 500 range for more AAs, it's too risky, and it doesn't really rewards you (30% AP on hit, and 40% DoT poison damage that doesn't stack).

R: Amazing spell. It's why I like Teemo (well, one of the reasons). But it has 2 main problems:

1- If the enemy is "new to the game" or he doens't know there are some objects like Banshee's Veil, or Vision lens, he will see how OP this ulti is, and in fact, it's too powerfull if you don't know how to counter it. It can deal easily 40-60% hp to a squishy, depending on how fed Teemo is, and on Liandry's Torment (the item has amazing synergy with the ulti). Which is, in my opinion, OverPowered, and not fun to play against.

2- Once you learn that there are some items like Zhonyas/Banshee's Veil/pink wards/Vision Lens/etc. You realize how easy is to counter this ulti. And, if you are a tank with a lot of MR, you can easily "eat" some mushrooms if you have banshee's Veil or lens on cd without taking too much damage, countering the "map-control" Teemo has. Which is, in my opinion, NERFED, and not fun to play with.

As we can see, it's strong versus lack of knowledge and too useless versus experienced players. How to solve it?.

Make the mushrooms totally invisibles, even if you use vision lens, you won't see them.

But this is too op dude, stop dreaming.

Of course, change the damage they can deal. For example:

Noxious Trap Teemo places a trap which stealths and arms in 1 second. It detonates if an enemy steps on it, dealing 14% /17% /20% (+0,75% per 100 ability power) target maximum health as magic damage and poisoning nearby enemies, slowing them by 30% / 40% / 50% for 4 seconds. The traps last 10 minutes. Teemo will store one every 35 / 31 / 27 seconds, and can have a maximum of three stocked up. Each cast requires and uses a trap. After death, you respawn with 2 mushrooms.

Numbers are subject to changes of course, it's just an example of how it would work in order to avoid OP situations (a LB is walking and suddenly his HP drops from 100% to 40% and she doesn't know why), but at the same time, enemy team has to be careful about Teemo's map control, it would be a strong ultimate on champion who is supposed to be good at taking control of objectives and warding key places. At the moment, it's just "Oh, they have a Teemo, build Vision lens and pink wards, and let the tank be the first".** I'm ok with Vision Lens as long as it doesn't counter so hard the only strong point of a champion ** because Teemo is not strong in teamfighst clearly, and his laning phase depends on what the enemy team choose (it's not like Maokai/Irelia/Hecarim/etc).

Why did I mention Kennen and Gnar?

Because at the moment, there is no reason you pick Teemo in a game in which Kennen and Gnar are not banned. They do the same as Teemo does in lane (make it hard for some champion) but in a better way, they don't use mana, they have better sustain, they have gap closer-scape, they have cc, Kennen has 550 just with AAs, the rest of the skills has more range. MiniGnar has low AA range but it's compensated by a long poking tool on Q and an amazing scape skill on E.

And in top of that, they are extremely strong during teamfights, Gnar is just a stun-beast during tfs, and kennen with his ulti can change the whole game.

Then, what is Teemo's difference with Kennen and Gnar?, they have better laning phase, they are much better at tfs, they don't need mana.

MAP CONTROL, Teemo can offer map control, the problem is that it's easily 100%-countered by some items and with the new SR, the monster that is walking on the river.

I'm fine with Kennen and Gnar, I play them sometimes, but Teemo needs some changes, in particular, with the ulti, and how it interacts with some items.

I would like to buy the legendary skin that is gonna be out on the next patch, but I don't want to buy something for a champion that I can't use versus experienced players, because it doesn't depend on how good I'm using the ulti, it depends on when enemy team buy pinkwards/banshee's veil/vision lens.

Not fun.