Teemo, the Swift Scout (Rework ideas)

Settle in, this is gonna be a long one, and a bit of a doozy.

So I hear Riot wants to fix Teemo, but doesn't really know where to start. I thought we, as a community, could come together and try to create a way to make it happen. So I'll start this off by talking about , his kit, and where I think it should go. I will then make a conceptual kit for him. I will rationalize every decision so that you can understand my thought process. If you want to chime in, talk numbers (I'm bad with numbers), or what have you, feel free. Just please, keep it civil. And if you disagree, read anyway. Even if you don't end up agreeing with me, I hope you will at least come to understand why he's not considered "healthy" as far as the game is concerned.

First, let's look at why he needs a rework. We'll start with his kit:

• {Passive} Camouflage - If Teemo stands still and does nothing for a few seconds, he enters stealth. When he leaves stealth, he gets a 40% attack speed bonus for a short duration. ----Isn't this just an immobile Twitch stealth? I don't hate the idea of invisibility on a scout character, but this is kinda silly.

• {Q} Blinding Dart - Teemo fires a dart at a target, blinding it for a duration and dealing damage. ----The problem with this skill is not the blind or the damage, but with the fact that he doesn't have to work to land such a useful skill.

• {W} Move Quick - Teemo gains passive movespeed out of combat, and can activate this for a short burst of speed. ----This is a pain to deal with, and also where our pattern emerges. The Teemo player presses a button, and there's no chance for counter-play or further interaction. This will be the theme, if you weren't aware. It's the big problem I wish to address.

• {E} Toxic Shot- Teemo's auto-attacks passively apply a damage over time, every second for four seconds. ----It's back. We have another skill that doesn't have any sort of interaction. Worse, it doesn't have any sort of cost or drawback. I understand there were tech limits early on, but we can do better than this now.

• {R} Noxious Trap - Teemo passively gathers mushrooms over time, up to a max of three. Teemo can plant these mushrooms. If an enemy unit walks over a mushroom, it explodes, dealing damage in an area, slowing in an area, and applying a damage-over-time. ----I'm actually okay with this. It fits him thematically, is iconic, and has a noticeable effect on gameplay. And unlike his other skills, it has counter-measures that can be taken to deal with it, actual interaction regarding the skill between players.

  So, what does this kit result in? Individually, none of his skills are bad (other than his E), and many of the ideas are implemented in other champs. But altogether, and on one character, it makes trouble. We'll get to why in a minute.

Strengths of current kit: Good damage Decent CC Low risk High mobility Not resource-intensive

Weaknesses of current kit: Squishy Somewhat vulnerable to CC

All in all, that's not really a balanced list. Not that there should be an equal number of strengths and weaknesses, but his weak points aren't exactly uncommon. Not to mention the whole "low risk" part. Generally when a champion is low-risk they lose something to compensate for it. Teemo doesn't give anything up for being low-risk. He's also really low skill-cap. But unlike the other low-cap champs, he doesn't give up anything for being like this either (the other champ that does this is , and he's being looked at by Riot last I heard).

So what do we do? We take the parts of his kit that make the most sense to keep, and discard the parts that just don't work. Then we introduce elements of risk while trying to preserve his identity. My baseline for Teemo's identity (and following that, what parts of his kit are acceptable) is his lore. Teemo is a scout. That means he is responsible for reconnaissance and intelligence, and also for slowing and sabotaging the enemy as they move. Roughly. He should also be fairly mobile, as he needs to move between allied "lines" and enemy "lines" at a rapid pace. These are the goals I seek in the creation of a new kit.

So, things I like with his current kit (but maybe not as they are): --Stealth --Mobility --Ultimate

Things I am discarding entirely: --DoT on AA --Current Q

Why target those two skills for removal? While he suffers from a general lack of interactivity, Teemo's two damaging skills (non-ult) are the one's I can't really alter without changing his core identity as a scout. He would become a poisonous sort of assassin, and not really a scout. Plus, the assassin identity is really already in League in several forms.

Now we have an idea of who he is and what ideas to keep, we can modify his remaining skills and add new ones. I'm simply going to post the new kit, and talk about each skill as I present it. I'm not going to do damage numbers and such because I feel like I'd use the wrong ones.

• {Passive} Swift Steps - Teemo gains passive movement speed when out of sight range of enemy champions. ----Teemo should be swift, but he shouldn't have a free pass. This makes him much faster when moving to and from lanes, encouraging a roaming playstyle. You know, like how a scout would work to gather intelligence and harass his foes? It also means he's probably gonna get away if he's out of sight for too long, but not for sure until then. Perhaps the speed boost should take a second or two to kick in.

• {Q} Poison Shot - Teemo fires a poison-coated dart in target direction, damaging the first enemy hit and causing them to be feared for a short duration. ----I don't want to neuter him, and I feel like a hallucinogenic dart is better from a thematic standpoint (it's funny, okay?). It also differentiates him from other marksmen, if you play him that way (two have blinds, but none have fear). This is also a skillshot, which is not the most skill-intensive thing ever, but it does allow some sort of counterplay, at least.

• {W} One with the World - Teemo blends so well with his surroundings that he enters stealth after a short period and remains there, consuming an increasing amount of mana every second. His passive is active during this stealth. When he leaves stealth, his next autoattack will fire twice for a percentage of his physical damage. ----Somewhere between Twitch and Jayce, hopefully, is where this skill will end up numbers-wise. I wanted to add an element of pressure to stealthing, so he won't do it way far in advance and sit around waiting for an enemy to walk up.

• {E} Tripwire - Teemo sets a tripwire between two points. When an enemy walks through it, it breaks, dealing a small amount of damage and granting vision of them for a time. Limit: 2 wires set at a time. ----With a lot of his safety gone, I wanted to give players another tool to protect themselves if they pay attention. Used offensively, you could mark the enemy jungler or a specific camp (maybe your red keeps getting stolen and you want the timer back). It would be a click-and-drag skill, like Viktor and Rumble have.

• {R} Noxious Trap - I'm actually leaving this as-is. As stated above, I like it.

  So where does this leave us? I'm hoping this kit pushes him firmly towards the marksman role (he is technically one) and encourages a roam-heavier style that emphasizes early kills for a team lead and global presence, as opposed to a lane-focused champion who is just there for himself. I'm hoping the tripwires give him a bit of utility so he actually does stuff for his team. Numbers-wise, he should fall off some later (sorry, not looking for a hypercarry), but still be viable damage-wise in a teamfight setting. Ideally, he goes out and kites an enemy or two through his traps until they're too weak to do anything but die.

Leave any ideas, suggestions, and comments below.