Teemo, the Swift Scout [Rework]
Ohhhhhh boy are we taking the devil by the horns today boys. Literally. Here is a champion who has been called the spawn of Satan, and with good reason. Depending on your matchups, he's either the most annoying little fuzzball to hit the rift, or he's the scrub who went 0/14 in the jungle. And while it's been a running joke in the community for a long time, let's be real here: it's time for his reign of terror to come to an end.
So let's get down to it: why does everyone hate Teemo so much?
A lot of it has to do with a phrase that League designers just love to use when talking about champion design: counter play. As of right now, Teemo's kit has little to no counter play to it. His Q is targeted, his E is a passive, and the only way to avoid stepping on his shrooms is to pink the whole Rift, and ain't no one got the gold fo' that. It creates an unhealthy state of play where the only way to not take damage from a Teemo is to stay away from him, and given that his mushrooms don't deactivate while he's not around like Heimer turrets (seriously Riot, that's one of the easiest changes you could make), even that doesn't work sometimes. Sieging is a nightmare, and just looking for a safe bush to hide in after a team fight can be a traumatic endeavor.
On the flip side of this, the stealth portion of his passive is fairly counter-intuitive, and for the most part, useless, and his W is easily negated by hard CC. So when Teemo gets behind, he has no outplay potential to save him. He just has to hope the enemy is greedy enough to chase, which often isn't the case if they're smart. But his lack of any real utility outside of a blind, which does nothing for him against ability-based champions, and a slow.
On top of all this, the conflict between the huge AP scaling on his Q, and the attack speed his passive gives him is quite the conundrum. Do you build him burst? Or sustain? It's unclear, though the consensus is AP/AS/Hybrid as far as I've seen.
So now the question is, how do we fix him? Here is what I propose.
We'll start with his passive, as it's essential to understanding the rest of his design.
Passive: Natural Camouflage
Each time Teemo uses an ability, he spawns a spore at his location. This spore will grow for a few seconds, during which time, it can be destroyed. Once it's finished growing, it becomes a mushroom that lasts 10 seconds, granting stealth to Teemo while he's near it. This stealth is broken when Teemo attacks, uses an ability, or takes damage.
Whenever Teemo attacks or uses a damaging ability while stealthed, it deals bonus magic damage and blinds the target, causing their next autoattack to miss. The blind will not apply to the same enemy more than once every 10 seconds.
Now, before you freak out, let me clarify a few things:
- This mushroom is fully visible to enemies and allies alike.
- This mushroom doesn't explode on contact, though it also can't be broken. It doesn't deal damage, doesn't slow, and can't be removed.
We good? Good. This passive will create an interesting lane dynamic for both players as it'll give the Teemo player something to think about in the timers on his mushrooms, while also giving the opponent the chance to keep the mushrooms from growing if they're willing to make a risky trade. In the worst case for Teemo, it'll either give the enemy something to attack that isn't him, or it'll give him an escape option.
The second clause is to add more clarity to his kit. Maybe he's played as an autoattacker right now, but I'm building him as a burst mage instead. If you disagree with that, you're welcome to click away and write up your own rework. In fact, I'd love to see it!
Now I'm sure you're wondering: But what about his ultimate? I'm getting to it. Don't worry.
Okay, with that out of the way, let's take a look at his new Q.
Q: Down To Size
Teemo slashes at target enemy, dealing magic damage and rooting them for 1 second.
Yep, you read that right. Slashes. While Teemo's signature weapon is the blowgun, if you look at Omega Squad Teemo's model, you can see him brandishing a knife. And what's a knife good for if you're not slashing anyone with it?
Teemo's old Q was particularly frustrating because it had lots of range, so it was all reward and no risk. Sure you had to step forward, but if the enemy wasn't primed to fully engage, they would just take lots of free damage and miss CS, which was incredibly frustrating. The new Q rewards Teemo for getting up close and personal, a range he's not usually comfortable with, and in case you don't feel like going in, the root can help punish those who wander to close, whether knowingly or not.
It's elegant in its simplicity, and a useful tool regardless of the damage it deals.
W: Tiptoe
Teemo creates a barrier that blocks the next enemy ability that hits him for the next 1.5 seconds. If Teemo blocks an ability, he gains a burst of movement speed and stealth.
As if the mushrooms weren't enough, this ability will help Teemo against ability users, and give him a lot of juke potential. It'll also help avoid getting hit by AoE abilities while he's in range of his mushrooms. But like many key abilities, it would have a long-ass cooldown, and thus must be used wisely. This would be especially useful if Teemo is having a hard time getting his mushrooms to stick.
E: Cultivate
The nearest spore to Teemo instantly becomes a mushroom.
Not much to say about this one. More tools to make sure his shrooms are around. This one would also have a decent cooldown, as it removes the inherent counterplay to his mushrooms.
And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for. His ultimate.
R: Noxious Blast
Teemo detonates all mushrooms around him, slowing all enemies near them and dealing magic damage over a few seconds.
So yeah, your mushrooms still explode! Only, they would do so on command, and require a bit of set up. All of the mushrooms are also visible, so enemies have more time to decide whether they want to make risky engagements.
I feel this kit is more thematically coherent than his current kit, and would be a ton of fun to play as and against if played right. The location of his shrooms being visible makes it easy to know where to place pinks, and though the stealth component of his kit is very prominent, he has plenty of utility to help him catch up if he falls behind. He has multiple ways to deal with different kinds of champions, but never in an inherently unfair way. His shield can be baited, and the blind component would be difficult to control timing-wise.
This has been a difficult one to think through, and is a lot more radical than the Urgot rework I previously proposed (which I would highly recommend you check out if you haven't already). But I think it succeeds at fixing many of the problems Teemo currently has, and gives him a more exciting playstyle.
Thanks for reading!
