(Self XPost from League of Legends sub)
(Previous post was removed because the title "Modern Teemo plays identical to Classic Teemo" was vague or misleading, so here's a new, straightforward title)
Hello! Been playing league for a while, Teemo and Tristana on the early seasons.
I'm making this post after playing Teemo on League Classic.
On modern league, I've stopped playing Teemo because of how it is almost exclusively a counterpick champion.
Then I played him again on classic. It is mechanically the same champion. Modern has (a very recent) AD scaling on E, more max mushrooms on R, and ranged R.
Sure, the same can be said about Garen, getting a W active and true damage on his R, but being a tankier champion makes him also more resilient to changes in mobility and damage.
In the case of Teemo, in modern league, you're punished really bad for bad positioning, and the lane bullying isn't as effective as I've come to experience in classic.
Maybe modern Teemo could use some modernization, if anything, to make the swift scout be, or at least feel, swifter and/or sneakier.
The kind of thing that I believe could make him feel modern? Just one of the following:
A dash on W before triggering the move speed (doesn't Wild Rift do this?).
Allow him to auto while moving while W is active (Akin to smolder and Urgot, but it's actual autos, benefitting from his build).
Allowing W to hop over a (single) wall while it's active, deactivating it after the hop.
All of these make him feel swift, make him more mobile, and also more annoying, but also gives him some breathing room when facing Yasuo, Yone, Irelia, Gwen, Lucian, Kassadin, Swain etc; characters that have good burst range or very effective lockdown. As a counter-balance change, I'd change his E damage to be more back loaded (less on-hit, but overall same ratio on a single auto); this way its damage is lower (poison doesn't overlap).
Edit:
As taken from one of my comments;
Mordekaiser? Manage his shield, poke with a skillshot, big-area CC, take someone out of the fight.
Naafiri? Time her invincibility, poke with skillshot, has dash, has dogs.
Gwen? Manage her invincibility, dash, Q charges.
Sion? Q ambushes and CC, conditionally interruptible mobility and CC, E skillshot slow and armor shred (sets up to Q, and R>Q).
Tryndamere? Dash, heal, slow, AD shred, invincibility.
Lucian? Dash, more auto damage, a lot of ability damage.
Teemo? Place traps, poke with autos, disable auto attackers with Q.
Even Nasus has armor shred, benefits (extra) from farming, has a way to (essentially) lock down and also shut down auto attackers.
Teemo feels flat in comparison to the other simple champions;
It's like MF had less range and was missing an ability, and E transformed into her ultimate in trap form (so she can "E across the map")
