A quick fore-note, this is not a small guide, this is a very large and comprehensive guide to the Ability power Teemo the way I play him as well as comparable choices and options for the ability power Teemo, the writing style itself was because I felt it’d be more fun to write than a plain guide. This guide also assumes the player knows basics about the game etc.

The scout’s handbook, a comprehensive guide to captaining the Bantam City Scouts;
Champion guide to Captain Teemo, the Swift Scout; 1st Edition: Ability Power
Written by JayceJa 

Chapter one; a Prelude to a Champion:

Reading this handbook, you have decided to take up the honorable role as the captain of the Bantam City Scouts; herein this chapter is a quick summary of the capabilities and responsibilities of this prestigious role, and the role that the captain will play in the combat of the league of legends at the institute of war.

Like all scouts, the captain of the Bantam City Scouts is no exception. The swift scout is extremely versatile and able to adapt to many different situations, having several roles to play in the combat of the institute of war, the captain can become a carrying force in an allied team, a vicious and speedy assassin, or a supporting player, setting up traps throughout the field, however regardless of the role you wish to play as the swift scout, the captain will always be a pestilent force for opposition teams. 
The swift scout is also a sort of oddity, from a glance it would seem that it would be powerful built with physical damage, however as this edition will focus on revealing, the swift scout plays extremely powerfully as an ability power champion
The swift scout draws on his abilities for his versatility, he is able to blind and shut down enemy physical champions, move with great quickness to aid in chasing, ganking, and setting up traps behind enemy lines, the captain also poisons his darts, giving him one of the very few means of transforming ability power into sustained damage. And as a member of the bantam scouts, he is greatly capable in the act of booby traps, the famous Bantam trap is able to severely damage and slow many enemies at a time with great execution.
With the explanation of these abilities comes chapter two.

Chapter two part one; Skills of the Captain:
As the captain of the Bantam Scouts, the swift scout has access to 5 special abilities, which will be listed here.



Trailblazer is the ability for the swift scout to leave a trail wherever he treads, granting him vision of the area he has been. The trail of the swift scout also grants allies of the Captain enhanced quickness while traveling in the path.
Lasts 6/8/10/12/14/16 seconds

The Blinding darttechnique is the ability for the captain to fire off a single powerful dart filled with blinding chemicals, upon hitting the target, it causes large amounts of damage to it, as well as causing them to miss all physical attacks for a short duration.
Deals 60/120/180/240/300 damage to a single target with an ability power ratio of 1, blinding them for 1.5/2.25/3/3.75/4.5 seconds, Mana cost of 70/85/110/125/140, Cooldown of 12 seconds

Move Quick is the ability for the swift scout to move at a rapid pace, increasing his quickness by great amounts, the drawback to this is that upon taking damage the swift scouts focus is lost, losing the enhanced quickness and putting the ability into cooldown.
Grants 20/25/30/35/40% Movement speed, 40 mana cost, 8 second cooldown

Toxic shot is the ability for the swift scout to fill his blow darts with toxic concoctions, dealing damage over time to enemies that are hit by them.

Deals 7/14/21/28/35 damage per second with an ability power ratio of .14

The famed Bantam Trap is the name of the booby trap used by the Bantam Scouts, the captain being no exception, it is a toxic trap that upon being stepped on releases a cloud of toxic gas, dealing great damage and slowing all nearby enemies over 5 seconds.
Deals 350/500/650 damage with an ability power ratio of .8, slows by 30/40/50%, mana cost of 75/100/125 cooldown of 20, Bantam traps are invisible, have 100 health and 1 armor, takes 2.5 seconds to fade, while invisible traps are immune to ability damage and gain 150 armor, traps last 10 minutes or until activated.

Chapter two part two; Skill Acquisitions:

As the swift scout, you are limited in your ability to master all your skills, so you must choose in which order you will choose to master your abilities.
As a standard, toxic shot should always be taken as the first ability you initially learn, from there it is useful to learn blinding dart in order to gain a burst damage ability for early game killing and ganking. While powerful for chasing, move quick usually will taken only after the former two abilities are mastered, however a single level of the ability can be taken earlier for a little versatility at the cost of a small damage from your toxic shot.
For level 3 the favoring of blinding dart or toxic shot is optional, more aggressive play for an early kill means that blinding darts extra 60 damage would beat the 35 damage over 5 seconds from toxic shot, however more passive play for harassing and farming would mean the costless toxic shot would win, however in either case blinding dart should usually be the first ability you master afterwards. Bantam trap should be learned at the first opportunity and mastered as soon as possible too.


Chapter Three; Allied Summoner’s Powers:

As the captain of the bantam scouts fighting allied with a summoner, the swift scout must ensure that the summoner’s own powers are correctly matched to augment and empower the captains own abilities.

Chapter three Part one: Summoner’s Spells:

A Summoner allied to the captain has several options for its spells, but it is restricted to only 2 spaces for its spells, so this handbook will list the better of the options for augmenting the captain’s strengths.

Exhaust:
Exhaust blinds and cripples an enemy champion, slowing it by 40% and causing it to miss all of its attacks for 3 seconds. Cooldown of ___
Ghost:
The champion ignores unit collision and moves 32% faster for 14 seconds. Cooldown of ___
Teleport:
After 4 seconds the Champion teleports to the target friendly minion or turret. Cooldown of ___

Flash:
Instantly teleports the champion a short distance. Cooldown of ___

Chapter three Part two: Summoner’s Masteries:

The summoner’s masteries must also be tuned to help augment the swift scout. Here there are many more options, especially with the choice between a more offensive swift scout and the more supportive one.
The Mastery tree is often mastered in either Offence or Utility until either Havoc or Presence of the Master is learned, then the remaining 9 points is usually invested in the defense tree or offense tree.
On the Offense Tree, not all the masteries are useful, however some of the less useful ones must still be taken to advance the tree. Archmage’s savvy increases ability power, so is a good choice, and the improvement to cripple is very powerful if cripple is one of your summoner spells of choice, while the critical chance is also not useless since though you are ability power based, you will still be attacking a lot with toxic shot, the upgrade to smite is useless as smite is not a summoner spell that augments the swift scout well. 
The cooldown reduction of sorcery is great for small reductions to allow more blinding darts and traps, while attack speed from alacrity is rather useless as your regular attacks extra damage usually comes from toxic shot, which does not benefit from attack speed at all. 
Archaic knowledge’s spell penetration is great for the swift scout, allowing the captain to deal even more damage from all of his abilities, while offensive mastery allows a little easier last hitting and farming early, sunders armor negation is rather useless as you are ability power based.
Brute force again allows easier last hitting, and promote is not used on the swift scout often, so demolisher is useless.
The same goes for improved rally, so lethality is chosen and opens up havoc.
Havoc is a definite choice if the offense tree is chosen, a 5% boost effects every one of his abilities as well as his regular attacks.

Now for the Utility tree, again, not all are useful, but some less useful ones must be taken to open the tree further. 
Good hands is useful for lowering re-spawn times since the swift scout is quite fragile, Spacial accuracy and haste should be learned if the corresponding summoner spells are used, if not then perseverance can be learned to open the tree further.
Awareness is helpful for earlier leveling to allow quicker access to bantam traps, however expanded mind helps for more mana to use them and blinding dart, but only 1 of the two should be chosen, or you can split between them. 
Utility mastery is great for extending blue sigil buffs for great cooldown reduction and mana regeneration for spamming traps, and red sigil buffs for an extra slow, and more damage over time on your attack that stacks with toxic shot, Meditation provides good mana regeneration for more traps and blinding darts.
Quickness provides more quickness, which is always welcome on the swift scout, and flash of an eye is great if flash is used as a summoner spell.
Intelligence is taken for the same reason as sorcery in the offense tree.
Presence of the master is a must if taking the utility tree.
With the 9 points left over, the offense tree can be chosen to get archmages savvy, cripple, sorcery and archaic knowledge. The defense tree can also be chosen to get a mix of the armor and magic resistance talents(4 between the two), evasion and nimbleness, nimbleness gives a 10% boost to your speed whenever you dodge an attack, which is a helpful ability.

Chapter three Part three; Summoner’s Runes:

The summoner again must ensure that the runes placed in its rune books are chosen wisely to enhance the swift scout’s abilities and powers. 
For Seals, basic health regeneration gives more durability early allowing you to harass much more, while evasion allows you more durability while working well if you chose nimbleness as a summoner talent, however it can be a bit counterproductive against blinding from exhaust or blinding dart.
For marks critical chance or damage per level provides his attacks with a bit more burst-ness which is preferred over damage, attack speed or armor penetration. However you could also use cooldown reduction per level or hp regeneration despite the half bonuses.
For glyphs cooldown reduction per level is the best choice for many more traps and blinding darts late game. However basic mana regeneration is also a viable choice for more use of them earlier.
Quintessences can be chosen to give any of the aforementioned bonuses, or they can choose to use swiftness for more quickness, or avarice for more gold.

Chapter four; Equipment:

The equipment that a swift scout has is another of the keys to its success, so it must be carefully chosen to augment its abilities.
The initial items that the swift scout buys can vary, dorans blade provides gold per tick to help get more items faster, a small boost to hp, and more damage, and is a very good choice early, more hp means more durability for harassing in a lane, and the damage helps the harassment. However a dorans ring can also be chosen instead, it provides mana regeneration and mana over health, for more use of blinding darts early, and ability power boosts both this, as well as a small damage bonus to toxic shot.
However both of these can be skipped over in favor of a amplifying tome, it provides more ability power for toxic shot and blinding dart, however it doesn’t provide any mana or regeneration for use of blinding dart, nor does it provide health for durability, however the upside to it is that it builds into many of the core items in the swift scouts equipment build, including the two choices for the first item.

The next item the swift scout should acquire should be one of two choices, Mejai's Soulstealer should be acquired as soon as possible, the extra ability power per kill is quite significant, and the later you get it the more you can miss out on. However sorceress’s shoes gives great quickness for chasing, escaping, killing, and map maneuverability, and results in less time wasted running around, however you can compromise by buying boots of speed then soulstealer before upgrading to the sorceress’s shoes. 
The second item gotten after whichever one you choose to get first should be the other one, however the soulsteal can be dropped in support of a quicker rylai’s staff if playing more supportive.

After the first two items, the swift scout should get a Lich’s bane or Rylai’s staff; Lich’s bane it provides more quickness, ability power and mana which all help the captain, as well as adding its high ability power to its attack after every blinding dart or bantam trap cast, allowing it to gain another source of burst damage.
The order in which the Lich’s bane is built however can vary, you can choose to get both the ability power components before finishing sheen if you choose to for more damage but losing the sheens ability, and if needed the null magic mantel component can earlier to add survivability to enemy casters.

Rylai’s staff provides equal mana and ability power to the Lichs bane, but provides 500 health instead of more quickness and magic resistance, and it has a similar ability. However instead of extra burst damage to your next attack after casting skills, your next attack will slow the enemy, this is more useful for ganking with allies, for helping use bantam traps in battles, but can damage your ability to kill, and therefore build up your soulstealer. The building of Rylai’s staff should be as you need it, the blasting rods give more ability power, and the two crystals give health and mana. 
After either Rylai’s staff or the Lich’s Bane, you can either get the other one, or go for a Zhonya’s ring to give a much higher boost to the captain’s ability power without the other effects.
With the Zhonya’s ring, since both Lichs bane and Rylais staff give 500 mana, the sage’s ring component will be gotten last.
After the Zhonya’s ring, if you do not have both the Rylai’s staff and Lich’s bane, you should acquire the one you are missing. 

The last item to be acquired by the swift scout should be one to give health, at this point the swift scout will already have around about 550 ability, which should be plenty to kill enemies, however it then will still be quite fragile, so a frozen mallet can help this with 800 health as well as slowing on attack, the soul shroud can help to give 600 health and some more mana regeneration and reduce cooldowns, while if against plenty of physical attackers a frozen heart can be chosen instead of health, giving armor, cooldown reduction and reducing attack speed of nearby enemies, being more effective against physical attackers than health is.

Another option instead of the durability item can be the abysmal scepter, it provides more ability power while reducing nearby enemy champions spell resistance, this is helpful with a team with a good tanker and disablers where you will be taking less hits.

Chapter five; Strategies to combat:

The strategies in which the swift scout performs combat are a simple, but important aspect to learn.

Chapter five part one;Early game:

To begin with, the swift scout should begin in one of the two side lanes; these provide the brush against the edges of the map, while brush in the middle lane is further away and much less useful. Being in a lane with an ally can help, having an ally with a disable or snare can easily help lead to an early kill. However the swift scout also has the ability to fight alone in a lane, which in turn allows him to level up faster and gain earlier access to Bantam traps. Brush control is a very important aspect to be aware of in the lane, being in the brush allows you to move back and forth without the opponent seeing you, meaning you can get close enough to harass much easier, and move back into the brush to lose minion aggressiveness towards the captain as a result of the harassing of the champion. Brush control becomes less useful if the enemy team uses clairvoyance to gain vision of the brush, however even if they do, it is still useful to have control over it so that they cannot use it. In a case where both your ally and enemy use clairvoyance to see the brush, then brush control becomes useless and you are better off in other positions.

In a lane you have 2 choices, you can attack minions only to last hit them and spend the rest of the time harassing, or you can be more aggressive towards the minions as well, attacking more helps the enemy minions to die earlier, meaning you can push further, and take out the tower earlier. Pushing has benefits of faster gold and experience from dieing, and leveling up slightly earlier each time, when the opponent’s wave of minions dies before yours, this small window can be used to gank and kill the opponent. However pushing more means you are further from your own tower, and closer to their forest, meaning you are easier to gank and kill. Pushing is generally discouraged in a lane without an ally, and especially if the swift scout is alone against two enemy champions, the best attacking pattern to push is to hit each minion once to apply toxic shot to each of them, then to kill them one at a time as they get lower health, hitting opponents whenever they enter attack range, but not chasing them to attack. If you are taking the pushing strategy then brush control is less useful as you will be out of position, and you can possibly be better off in the middle lane.

Chapter five part two;Mid game:

You should try to stay in a lane until you are level 6 at minimum, once here you learn Bantam traps, and have a few choices, if playing as a carrier, you will continue to remain in your lane, placing Bantam traps along the brush in the side lanes, as well as to the sides of the minion paths. The minion paths are the lines the minions walk along, which follow generally the middle of the lane, placing a Bantam trap here will most likely cause it to be triggered by a minion. If trying to harass a champion as well as stop enemy pushing too much with Bantam traps, they should be places slightly to the side of this, so that as the enemy champion walks alongside the minions, the champion will trigger it, and the area effect of the trap will also kill the minions.

Playing as a supporter or ganker, you may want to enter the forest and roam the map ganking, the forest is a labyrinth of narrow paths that are ideal for the placement of Bantam traps to hit enemies as they attempt to either gank from the forest, or flee into it. Neutral creeps in the forest can also easily be killed with bantam traps, noticeably the Sigil buff creeps, the blue sigil buff is a very significant buff to mana regeneration and cooldown reduction, which is ideal for the use of many Bantam traps around the forest.

The middle game should continue much the same after level 6. If carrying you can use the jungle creeps for more income, and pushing down towers while it is safe also gives money, if you use Bantam traps around the area you are farming, it is also possible for you to be tipped off by them when a gank is approaching, and with enough of them it is possible to trick them and fight back and kill them if it is a smaller gank. Supporters should continue to gank while also preparing for pushes by using Bantam traps along the lane to be pushed, by doing this you can take out dent defending champions and prevent ganks against the pushing team.

Chapter five part three;Late game:

When it comes to late game, carriers should generally be around the lane to be pushed, preparing Bantam traps or jungling nearby, taking the opportunity to attack enemies whenever they are alone or you have a ganker nearby. When it comes to team fights, you want to blind enemy physical champions as soon as possible, but not by rushing in too early and dying, hopefully the fight will be nearby several traps, where your team can converge near them and lure enemies to trigger them, you should try to always use this as the initiation to team fights, unless your team has a specific initiator. In team fights use move quick to get close and blind their physical champion. Try to place Bantam traps among the foes after the tank has gone in, in the confusion or because of disables, they will often not be destroyed, allowing them to go off for more damage.

In case of stealth detection:

In case of vision wards to detect traps, have a tank get an oracle elixir, or a supporter get more vision wards to kill them, you yourself can get wards if you are supporting, but as a carry you should leave it to your team, in case of oracles elixers, focus all gankers to killing the champion with it. Clairvoyance is uncounterable, but only the first 30 seconds, and it is visible where they are, so wait until the stealth detection is up, or place traps away from them.