AP Teemo: The Mushroom Build and How to Play Against It

AP Teemo has been terrorising solo queue since 2013, and the reason hasn't changed once in all that time.

Here's what the build actually does, what the mushrooms are really worth, and how you're supposed to deal with them now that half the counterplay from back then doesn't exist.

Teemomere concept art by givemeapiggy

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

AP TEEMO

UPDATED FOR PATCH 26.15 · AUGUST 2026

AP Teemo has been terrorising solo queue since 2013, and the reason hasn't changed once in all that time.

Here's what the build actually does, what the mushrooms are really worth, and how you're supposed to deal with them now that half the counterplay from back then doesn't exist.

This page has two halves. The first is the current explanation, with every number checked against the live game. The second is the original 2013 write-up that started it, kept word for word, with a note listing exactly which of its recommendations the game has since deleted. It turns out the build advice survived thirteen years and the counterplay advice didn't, which is a funnier result than we expected when we started checking.

Why AP Teemo works at all

Two of Teemo's abilities scale with ability power, and they're the two he uses whether you're in the lane with him or not.

Toxic Shot [E]

Every basic attack Teemo throws applies bonus magic damage on hit and a poison that keeps ticking for four seconds afterwards. Both halves grow with ability power. That's why he doesn't feel like a mage even when he's built as one: the damage arrives through his auto attacks, so his poke pattern is the same as it always was and the numbers behind it are simply larger.

Noxious Trap [R]

The mushrooms scale with ability power too, and they're the reason the build is a solo queue problem rather than a lane problem. Teemo doesn't need to be anywhere near the damage he's dealing. He plants, walks away, and gets paid five minutes later when somebody in a different part of the map steps on it.

Blinding Dart [Q]

The blind is what makes him miserable to lane against and it doesn't care what he built. Any champion whose damage comes out of basic attacks simply stops doing damage for the duration, and the duration doubles against minions and monsters, which is also why he clears so comfortably.

Guerrilla Warfare [Passive]

Stand still for a moment and Teemo turns invisible, and inside brush he stays invisible while moving. Breaking the stealth hands him an attack speed burst for five seconds. It's a small thing that decides a lot of fights near a bush, and it's noticeably stronger than the version that existed when this post was written.

The build the original post recommended, Liandry's Torment plus Nashor's Tooth, is still buyable and still does the same two jobs: burn damage that scales against durable targets, and attack speed with on hit magic damage to make Toxic Shot [E] fire more often. Thirteen years is a long time for a build recommendation to hold up.

What the mushrooms actually do

Most of the arguing about Teemo happens without either side knowing the real numbers, so here they are.

They last five minutes

A mushroom arms one second after it lands and then sits there, stealthed, for up to five minutes, giving Teemo vision of its surroundings the whole time. Half his map control is just the vision.

He carries several at once

Noxious Trap [R] stocks charges rather than sitting on a cooldown, up to three at rank one and five at rank three, recharging every 35 seconds down to 25. He throws them 600 units at rank one and 900 at rank three.

They bounce

Land a mushroom on top of one that's already planted and it bounces forward from that spot, repeatedly if there's another one waiting. That's how a Teemo who has been left alone gets mushrooms into places he never walked to.

They have six health

A mushroom can only be damaged by champion basic attacks, and it takes 2 damage from a ranged attack and 3 from a melee one. So three ranged autos or two melee ones kill it, which is far cheaper than most people assume and the single most underused answer to him.

The slow is the real damage

Stepping on one slows you 30% at rank one and 50% at rank three for four seconds, poisons you over the same four seconds, and reveals you. In a chase or a retreat, the slow decides more games than the poison does.

They stack in one spot

Nothing stops him putting several in the same choke, which is exactly what the original post was complaining about. Baron, dragon and the entrance to your own jungle are all one step wide when there are three mushrooms in them.

How to play against him now

This is the part the 2013 post can't help you with, because two of the three things it recommends no longer exist. Here's the current version.

Control Wards, not pink wards

The pink ward became the Control Ward in patch 6.22. It costs 75 gold, you buy it from the shop rather than upgrading a trinket into it, and you can carry two while only having one on the ground at a time. It reveals mushrooms in its radius, which is the important half. Since patch 7.4 it does not disable traps, so revealing one is an invitation to shoot it, not a substitute for doing so.

Oracle Lens is the trinket answer

Oracle Lens is what the "upgrade your trinket" advice turned into. It reveals enemy wards and traps around you for eight seconds, holds two charges, and is free. Somebody on your team should be carrying it before you walk into a fight over an objective, and that somebody is usually not the support.

Shoot the mushroom

Six health, two or three basic attacks. Once it's revealed, killing it costs you a couple of seconds and no gold at all. Teams reveal mushrooms constantly and then walk around them, which leaves the mushroom alive for the next four minutes.

Gank him before six

This part of the original advice is still exactly right. Teemo wins early against melee laners because of the blind, and he gets much harder to punish the moment Noxious Trap [R] comes online. If your jungler is going to visit that lane at all, the visit needs to happen before level six.

Our Teemo counters guide covers the champion side of this in full, meaning who actually beats him in lane rather than which item to buy. If you want the wider version of the vision argument, we wrote up when to change your trinket and a list of ward spots worth taking.

What changed since 2013

The post below is preserved exactly as it was published on Christmas Day 2013, in the middle of that year's preseason. Five of the things it relies on have since been changed or deleted outright, and all five are checkable rather than remembered:

• Aegis of the Legion died twice. Its magic resistance aura, which is the entire reason the post recommends it, was removed in patch 6.22. The item itself was removed from the game in patch 26.01. Spreading magic resistance around your team is still the right idea and that is no longer the way to do it.
• Pink wards are Control Wards. Renamed in patch 6.22, bought from the shop for 75 gold rather than upgraded from a trinket, capped at two carried and one placed. They stopped disabling traps in patch 7.4, so the "just place pinks near Baron" plan needs somebody to shoot the mushroom afterwards.
• Frozen Mallet was removed in patch 10.23, which retires the AD Teemo build named in the second paragraph. Blade of the Ruined King is still here.
• Cooldown reduction stopped being a stat in that same patch, 10.23, and became ability haste. Any "enough cooldown" reasoning from this era is written in an old currency.
• Elo became LP. The ladder the last line is joking about doesn't use that word any more, though the joke survives the translation.

What didn't change: Liandry's Torment, Nashor's Tooth, the mushrooms, the blind, and the fact that nobody buys the counterplay until after they lose to it. For where Teemo sits today, the solo queue tier list is the page that gets updated every patch, not this one.

The original 2013 post

The State of Preseason Teemo

With the removal of Oracle and the limitation on pink wards to 1 per player, the growth of Teemo has expanded beyond our wildest imaginations.

Why Is Teemo OP?

While AD Teemo with a regular old Blade of the Ruined King/Frozen Mallet is still very strong as a tanky duelist, it's really AP Teemo that has everyone running for cover.

With a simple Liandry's Torment and Nashor's Tooth, Teemo has enough damage and cooldown to completely surround objectives and make it impossible for the enemy team to make any plays. It's because of this that support Teemo is now a viable pick for solo queue.

His win rate is hovering around 53%, which lands him at the top 10% of all champions. Fortunately, his pick rate isn't quite at the top yet so if you want a chance to earn some free (preseason) elo, here's a good time to abuse the rat before he starts being banned as much as Evelynn.

How to Counter Teemo

There's really no easy way to counter Teemo by yourself, which is why he's extraordinarily strong in solo queue. However, if you can organize your team enough to get them to upgrade their ward trinket into the PINK ward version, you can easily have a enough pink wards in any one location (like near Baron). This is usually enough to prevent the entire team from getting chunked before any teamfight even begins.

Another key item is to get an Aegis of the Legion, which has fallen out of favor since supports are generally building AP or large tanky items like Randuins. However, spreading enough magic resist amongst your teammates is key if you don't want your squishies getting 2 shot by mushrooms.

One last tip on countering Teemo is that most top lane Teemo players are very aggressive early due to their natural ability to counter melee laners. If you want to win against Teemo, gank him before level 6 or else it'll be nearly impossible to catch the little critter.

Meanwhile, since nobody actually buys enough pink wards in solo queue and Aegis of the Legion is almost never seen...

All aboard the Teemo Free-elo Train!

CHOO CHOO

AP Teemo questions

Is AP Teemo actually good, or is it a troll pick?

It's a real build. The two abilities that carry a game, Toxic Shot [E] and Noxious Trap [R], both scale with ability power, so building it isn't a joke the way most off-meta damage conversions are. Whether it's the best thing he can do in a given patch moves around, and that's what the solo queue tier list is for. He also earned his spot on our list of troll picks in LoL, which tells you something about the company he keeps.

What do you build on AP Teemo?

Liandry's Torment and Nashor's Tooth are still the two the original post named and they still do the work: burn that scales into durable targets, and attack speed with on hit magic damage so Toxic Shot [E] applies more often. Everything after those two is a read on the game rather than a rule.

How do you get rid of Teemo's mushrooms?

Reveal it, then shoot it. A mushroom has six health and only champion basic attacks damage it, at 2 per ranged attack and 3 per melee one, so it dies to three autos from a marksman. Control Wards reveal them, Oracle Lens reveals them, and neither one destroys them, which is the step teams keep skipping.

Do Control Wards still disable traps?

No. They reveal wards, traps and camouflaged champions, but the disabling behaviour was removed in patch 7.4. That's a real change from the pink ward era and it's why the counterplay advice in the 2013 half of this page doesn't work as written.

Why is Teemo so annoying to play against?

Because his damage doesn't need him to be there, his blind turns off a whole category of champion, and he can leave a five minute problem in a corridor you have to walk down. He's a fixture on our list of the most annoying champions in LoL for exactly those three reasons.

Does Teemo work anywhere other than top lane?

Yes, and we've written up both of the usual detours: support Teemo, which the post below was arguing for in 2013, and AD tank Teemo, which is the opposite build entirely.

What do you guys think? Had any crazy run-ins with the critter? Have your own way to deal with the rodent problem? Comment below!