EFFECTIVE SHROOMING
a basic guide to Teemo’s Noxious Trap (with pictures!) by Timmy the Spork
Last major edit December 23, 2009
WHY I AM WRITING THIS GUIDE
There are at least half a dozen Teemo guides out there, all of which are very well written. While they all make some comments on how to place Teemo’s traps effectively, all but a few of them only spend a few sentences or a paragraph. None of them, however, provide pictures of good shroom placement. The goal of this guide is to provide an overview of how to maximize the effectiveness of Teemo’s shrooms and to include pictures of examples. If you want general Teemo strategy with item and skill builds, check out the other Teemo guides on the comprehensive list of guides and discussions.
Teemo’s trap is an extremely versatile skill. It can be used to set up a gank, warn you of a gank, help you escape, slaughter minions, alter team fights and keep an eye on things. When I solo queue, however, most Teemos I run into do not use this skill to its maximum potential, often casting the trap exclusively to destroy minions or in places with no impact on the game.
GANKING / ESCAPING
This is what the majority of your shrooms should be used for early and mid game. Place shrooms in locations where your opponents are likely to go when running away. Place shrooms where you are likely to go when being chased (1, 2). Place shrooms in brush so that you know when your opponents have entered them (3). Place shrooms at places in the jungle where your opponents are likely to travel. Place shrooms in the river to get an early warning on incoming ganks (4). If an invisible enemy walks over a shroom, it still pops, so putting shrooms at all entrances to your lane is a great way to stop ganks even from the most annoying opponents.
Also, don’t forget to watch people. Even before you hit level six, watch where your opponents move. Where do they run to when they’re trying to harass you? Where do they run to when they’re being harassed? What path do they take when they flee the scene? That's where you want to drop a shroom. Most people respond to situations similarly. If Mundo always runs into the brush to try to get a cleaver at you, drop a shroom in the brush. If Yi charges directly to the tower along the outer wall, drop a shroom along the outer wall. I find that the locations marked in images (5, 6, 7, 8) tend to be locations where heroes run but minions do not.
Also also, don’t forget where you’ve put your shrooms. If you set up a line of shrooms in the jungle (9), use that as your escape route and remind your allies to use it as an escape route, too. There’s nothing stupider than dying because in your panic you failed to lead a chasing enemy over your shrooms.
MINIONING
This is the most obvious, but generally least useful, way to spend Teemo’s shrooms. Often I will see a Teemo plop a shroom down in the middle of a lane. The circumstances in which this will damage or slow an enemy hero are extremely rare. Nine times out of then, this will destroy the first melee minion to hit it and maybe two others if they were clumped together (10). Though there are times where this is what you need to do, most of the time there are much better places to put your shroom.
If you do need to kill minions with your shrooms, a much more effective way is to run in and drop a shroom just behind the melee minions (19). Depending on who you're laning against, this isn't always safe, but it is pretty efficient at taking down minions.
Early-mid game, only shroom for minions when laning against someone, such as Sivir, who is particularly effective at slaying minions. Late game, shroom for minions when there’s like five hundred of them in the lane that everyone’s been ignoring.
TOWER DEFENSE
The exception to the above is that it is often useful to put a shroom slightly in front of your turret (11). Often, minions will be more clumped by the time they reach your tower, meaning you’ll get more than a couple of them and occasionally you can get a melee hero when he or she attempts to tower dive. When shrooming to defend inhibitor or nexus turrets, don’t limit yourself to just one shroom, as enemy heroes will often charge at these towers from multiple directions. This is especially true of inhibitors when the nearby inhibitor turret is down.
MINING
Often, you want shrooms to be somewhat spread out, but occasionally you want a bunch of random shrooms just chillin’, hoping to hit anyone or anything. The idea behind this is to give you the slight edge in an upcoming teamfight or to protect the poop out of an inhibitor. Good mining can force squishy characters out of a teamfight before it begins or buy you the few seconds to run to an inhibitor in time to save it. When mining to protect an inhibitor, a mid-path shroom can be nice at destroying creeps, but most of the time you want your shrooms scattered off of the minion’s path so that you do the damage to heroes.
Mine midgame if you anticipate a teamfight to be in a particular location. This is often difficult to predict so if you do mine an area, tell your teammates to make sure to lead the teamfight to the minefield. Mine lategame in (12) or just outside (13) your base if your team has gone into turtle mode. If your opponent has gone into turtle mode, mine the lanes outside their base. If they ever get bold enough to chase you, they’ll be in for a surprise.
TEAM FIGHTS
The role of shrooms in teamfights can be difficult to predict. Whenever possible, try to make teamfights happen in places where you have already dropped a bunch of shrooms. Whether or not you are able to do this, you should be dropping fresh shrooms in fights, assuming you have enough mana that you can still cast blinding dart. Most of the time, drop a shroom wherever you are already standing, usually in the back of a team fight. This will be extremely useful if things turn out for the worse and you find yourself being chased. Occasionally, if everyone is focused on your tank, you can run into the fight, drop a shroom on the melee battle, and run out. This is, of course, extremely risky and should not be done unless you already have the upper hand and your opponent doesn’t have a lot of stuns/snares/slows/etc.
OBSERVATION
Though this has been nerfed with the December 17 patch, placing your shrooms in key locations as observation posts is essential. Always try to have a shroom on the Dragon. Midgame, it is often extremely useful to have at least one shroom in each river (4). Whenever convenient, placing a shroom near the golem or the lizard can be a great way to surprise an enemy.
Mid game you must always have a shroom on the baron and late game, you should have two or three depending on if you have teleport. Before the December 17 patch, a shroom that had blown up would give you vision near it for a stupid amount of time and a shroom at the cave entrance would allow you to see the baron long enough to steal his buff. Since that patch, you need a shroom next to the baron in addition to one by the cave entrance so that you still have vision of the baron after your first shroom has popped. In addition, you should have a shroom behind the baron’s cave that you or your teammates can tele in quickly (14).
TRANSPORTATION
Never underestimate the power of teleing to a shroom. Early to mid game, try to have shrooms in brush behind your opponents. Nothing surprises your enemies more than a hero they saw recall suddenly appearing in the bushes behind them. This synergizes especially well with Teemo’s Camouflage. Tele into a bush and stay invisible until an opportunity arises.
As said earlier, try to have a shroom on or near the baron for teleing purposes.
Lategame, try to have a shroom near the opponent’s base. If you have any heroes who are remotely good at backdooring and have taken tele, a well-placed shroom near the base can make backdooring that much easier (15). This is the one instance in which you want to place a shroom where it won’t be run over.
EMERGENCY SHROOMING
I’ve only seen this happen a couple of times, but it is worth mentioning. Because shrooms are visible for a short amount of time after you place them, it is possible to quickly place a shroom and block skillshots with them. At least twice I have seen Blitzcrank grab a shroom instead of Teemo. Screenshot coming soon.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not put your shrooms so close to a wall that no one will ever hit it ever (16). There is one exception listed earlier.
Do not drop a shroom in range of enemy tower. This should go without saying. Towers have stealth detect and the tower will target the shroom shortly after you place it (17).
Do not clump your shrooms. These things are not Heimerdinger’s turrets. The poison and the slow do not stack (18).
Leaving the lane earlygame to plant a shroom is usually okay, but do not leave a mid-lategame teamfight or a standoff to plant a shroom in a good location. If your shrooms watching the Baron wear off, do not run to replace them until there's a lull in the fighting. When you do run off to reshroom the Baron, tell your team so they know not to start any teamfights until you return.
STEALTH DETECTION
If your opponents have taken wards and elixirs, shroom placement becomes a lot trickier. If they have wards and you have a sense of where they have been placed, try to place shrooms outside of that radius. If your opponents have an oracle’s elixir, you generally need to restrict shroom placement to the edge of brush and near towers. If your shrooms are at the end of a patch of brush, your opponent won’t see them until he or she has walked into the brush. If your shrooms are near friendly towers, your opponent probably won’t be able to get close enough to the shroom without the tower attacking him or her.
If your opponent is Corki and he makes a habit of casting phosphorous bomb on a brush before entering it, change lanes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Don’t feel bad if your opponents don’t hit your shrooms frequently in the earlygame. I often have the max number of shrooms on the board for a while in the earlygame. It’s the midgame where the shrooms really shine. Good earlygame shroom placement will give your team the advantage in the mid- and late- games.
Cast this spell as often as possible. Cool down reduction and mana regeneration are very nice if there’s room in your build for them. If not, my advice is to stop using blinding dart in the from levels six to nine except when it is needed.
Have fun. There are few things more satisfying than a good shroom kill.
NOTES
Though this guide gives general advice for any map, the pictures should be evidence that it was clearly written with Summoner’s Rift in mind. Expect this guide to be updated when Twisted Treeline is added to normal play, and again with each further map.
I have not included any images for shroom placement in the bot lane. Please remember that the map is rotationally symmetric. Often what is good to set up escapes as blue is also good to prevent escapes as purple.
All screenshots were taken in practice games and show an optimal setup. Shroom placement in a real game will generally not be able to replicate all the images shown.
a basic guide to Teemo’s Noxious Trap (with pictures!) by Timmy the Spork
Last major edit December 23, 2009
WHY I AM WRITING THIS GUIDE
There are at least half a dozen Teemo guides out there, all of which are very well written. While they all make some comments on how to place Teemo’s traps effectively, all but a few of them only spend a few sentences or a paragraph. None of them, however, provide pictures of good shroom placement. The goal of this guide is to provide an overview of how to maximize the effectiveness of Teemo’s shrooms and to include pictures of examples. If you want general Teemo strategy with item and skill builds, check out the other Teemo guides on the comprehensive list of guides and discussions.
Teemo’s trap is an extremely versatile skill. It can be used to set up a gank, warn you of a gank, help you escape, slaughter minions, alter team fights and keep an eye on things. When I solo queue, however, most Teemos I run into do not use this skill to its maximum potential, often casting the trap exclusively to destroy minions or in places with no impact on the game.
GANKING / ESCAPING
This is what the majority of your shrooms should be used for early and mid game. Place shrooms in locations where your opponents are likely to go when running away. Place shrooms where you are likely to go when being chased (1, 2). Place shrooms in brush so that you know when your opponents have entered them (3). Place shrooms at places in the jungle where your opponents are likely to travel. Place shrooms in the river to get an early warning on incoming ganks (4). If an invisible enemy walks over a shroom, it still pops, so putting shrooms at all entrances to your lane is a great way to stop ganks even from the most annoying opponents.
Also, don’t forget to watch people. Even before you hit level six, watch where your opponents move. Where do they run to when they’re trying to harass you? Where do they run to when they’re being harassed? What path do they take when they flee the scene? That's where you want to drop a shroom. Most people respond to situations similarly. If Mundo always runs into the brush to try to get a cleaver at you, drop a shroom in the brush. If Yi charges directly to the tower along the outer wall, drop a shroom along the outer wall. I find that the locations marked in images (5, 6, 7, 8) tend to be locations where heroes run but minions do not.
Also also, don’t forget where you’ve put your shrooms. If you set up a line of shrooms in the jungle (9), use that as your escape route and remind your allies to use it as an escape route, too. There’s nothing stupider than dying because in your panic you failed to lead a chasing enemy over your shrooms.
MINIONING
This is the most obvious, but generally least useful, way to spend Teemo’s shrooms. Often I will see a Teemo plop a shroom down in the middle of a lane. The circumstances in which this will damage or slow an enemy hero are extremely rare. Nine times out of then, this will destroy the first melee minion to hit it and maybe two others if they were clumped together (10). Though there are times where this is what you need to do, most of the time there are much better places to put your shroom.
If you do need to kill minions with your shrooms, a much more effective way is to run in and drop a shroom just behind the melee minions (19). Depending on who you're laning against, this isn't always safe, but it is pretty efficient at taking down minions.
Early-mid game, only shroom for minions when laning against someone, such as Sivir, who is particularly effective at slaying minions. Late game, shroom for minions when there’s like five hundred of them in the lane that everyone’s been ignoring.
TOWER DEFENSE
The exception to the above is that it is often useful to put a shroom slightly in front of your turret (11). Often, minions will be more clumped by the time they reach your tower, meaning you’ll get more than a couple of them and occasionally you can get a melee hero when he or she attempts to tower dive. When shrooming to defend inhibitor or nexus turrets, don’t limit yourself to just one shroom, as enemy heroes will often charge at these towers from multiple directions. This is especially true of inhibitors when the nearby inhibitor turret is down.
MINING
Often, you want shrooms to be somewhat spread out, but occasionally you want a bunch of random shrooms just chillin’, hoping to hit anyone or anything. The idea behind this is to give you the slight edge in an upcoming teamfight or to protect the poop out of an inhibitor. Good mining can force squishy characters out of a teamfight before it begins or buy you the few seconds to run to an inhibitor in time to save it. When mining to protect an inhibitor, a mid-path shroom can be nice at destroying creeps, but most of the time you want your shrooms scattered off of the minion’s path so that you do the damage to heroes.
Mine midgame if you anticipate a teamfight to be in a particular location. This is often difficult to predict so if you do mine an area, tell your teammates to make sure to lead the teamfight to the minefield. Mine lategame in (12) or just outside (13) your base if your team has gone into turtle mode. If your opponent has gone into turtle mode, mine the lanes outside their base. If they ever get bold enough to chase you, they’ll be in for a surprise.
TEAM FIGHTS
The role of shrooms in teamfights can be difficult to predict. Whenever possible, try to make teamfights happen in places where you have already dropped a bunch of shrooms. Whether or not you are able to do this, you should be dropping fresh shrooms in fights, assuming you have enough mana that you can still cast blinding dart. Most of the time, drop a shroom wherever you are already standing, usually in the back of a team fight. This will be extremely useful if things turn out for the worse and you find yourself being chased. Occasionally, if everyone is focused on your tank, you can run into the fight, drop a shroom on the melee battle, and run out. This is, of course, extremely risky and should not be done unless you already have the upper hand and your opponent doesn’t have a lot of stuns/snares/slows/etc.
OBSERVATION
Though this has been nerfed with the December 17 patch, placing your shrooms in key locations as observation posts is essential. Always try to have a shroom on the Dragon. Midgame, it is often extremely useful to have at least one shroom in each river (4). Whenever convenient, placing a shroom near the golem or the lizard can be a great way to surprise an enemy.
Mid game you must always have a shroom on the baron and late game, you should have two or three depending on if you have teleport. Before the December 17 patch, a shroom that had blown up would give you vision near it for a stupid amount of time and a shroom at the cave entrance would allow you to see the baron long enough to steal his buff. Since that patch, you need a shroom next to the baron in addition to one by the cave entrance so that you still have vision of the baron after your first shroom has popped. In addition, you should have a shroom behind the baron’s cave that you or your teammates can tele in quickly (14).
TRANSPORTATION
Never underestimate the power of teleing to a shroom. Early to mid game, try to have shrooms in brush behind your opponents. Nothing surprises your enemies more than a hero they saw recall suddenly appearing in the bushes behind them. This synergizes especially well with Teemo’s Camouflage. Tele into a bush and stay invisible until an opportunity arises.
As said earlier, try to have a shroom on or near the baron for teleing purposes.
Lategame, try to have a shroom near the opponent’s base. If you have any heroes who are remotely good at backdooring and have taken tele, a well-placed shroom near the base can make backdooring that much easier (15). This is the one instance in which you want to place a shroom where it won’t be run over.
EMERGENCY SHROOMING
I’ve only seen this happen a couple of times, but it is worth mentioning. Because shrooms are visible for a short amount of time after you place them, it is possible to quickly place a shroom and block skillshots with them. At least twice I have seen Blitzcrank grab a shroom instead of Teemo. Screenshot coming soon.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not put your shrooms so close to a wall that no one will ever hit it ever (16). There is one exception listed earlier.
Do not drop a shroom in range of enemy tower. This should go without saying. Towers have stealth detect and the tower will target the shroom shortly after you place it (17).
Do not clump your shrooms. These things are not Heimerdinger’s turrets. The poison and the slow do not stack (18).
Leaving the lane earlygame to plant a shroom is usually okay, but do not leave a mid-lategame teamfight or a standoff to plant a shroom in a good location. If your shrooms watching the Baron wear off, do not run to replace them until there's a lull in the fighting. When you do run off to reshroom the Baron, tell your team so they know not to start any teamfights until you return.
STEALTH DETECTION
If your opponents have taken wards and elixirs, shroom placement becomes a lot trickier. If they have wards and you have a sense of where they have been placed, try to place shrooms outside of that radius. If your opponents have an oracle’s elixir, you generally need to restrict shroom placement to the edge of brush and near towers. If your shrooms are at the end of a patch of brush, your opponent won’t see them until he or she has walked into the brush. If your shrooms are near friendly towers, your opponent probably won’t be able to get close enough to the shroom without the tower attacking him or her.
If your opponent is Corki and he makes a habit of casting phosphorous bomb on a brush before entering it, change lanes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Don’t feel bad if your opponents don’t hit your shrooms frequently in the earlygame. I often have the max number of shrooms on the board for a while in the earlygame. It’s the midgame where the shrooms really shine. Good earlygame shroom placement will give your team the advantage in the mid- and late- games.
Cast this spell as often as possible. Cool down reduction and mana regeneration are very nice if there’s room in your build for them. If not, my advice is to stop using blinding dart in the from levels six to nine except when it is needed.
Have fun. There are few things more satisfying than a good shroom kill.
NOTES
Though this guide gives general advice for any map, the pictures should be evidence that it was clearly written with Summoner’s Rift in mind. Expect this guide to be updated when Twisted Treeline is added to normal play, and again with each further map.
I have not included any images for shroom placement in the bot lane. Please remember that the map is rotationally symmetric. Often what is good to set up escapes as blue is also good to prevent escapes as purple.
All screenshots were taken in practice games and show an optimal setup. Shroom placement in a real game will generally not be able to replicate all the images shown.
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