Is on-hit Teemo outclassed by on-hit Lulu?
Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting people play Lulu on-hit rather than as a support. I'm simply wondering whether Lulu, when built in this alternative suboptimal way, outclasses Teemo when he's built even in his most optimal way.
If someone on your team really wants to play top-lane Teemo, what if instead they played on-hit Lulu? (Assuming your support player didn't want Lulu, and the top-lane player really wanted an on-hit yordle.)
Teemo can be built AP or AD, but the established orthodoxy is the "on-hit" build: Wit's End, Madred's Bloodrazer, Frozen Mallet, etc. One big reason this works is because Teemo's E synergizes well with it, applying on-hit poison. However, Teemo's poison is a DoT and doesn't apply all the damage at once, and the timer resets with every attack, so it doesn't get the full damage.
By contrast, Lulu's passive Pix attacks apply extra damage in one burst immediately, upon every attack. Considering Teemo's poison DoT attacks only apply the first tick of the poison damage (since the DoT timer resets every attack), Pix outdamages the poison many many times over (comparing both at level 18).
Aside from auto-attacks, consider their skill kit.
Teemo doesn't have a lot of teamfight presence apart from his auto-attacks. His one contribution is his Q Blind, which is great to apply to enemy auto-attackers.
However, contrast that with Lulu's teamfight presence and her skill kit. She can polymorph the enemy auto-attacker, performing the same function as Teemo's blind. But she also has her Q which slows enemy champions, trying to escape. She can give a 35% movement speed boost and AP boost to a teammate. If an enemy has stealth or is escaping, she can throw Pix on the target, granting vision of them, so her teammates can clean up. Finally, she has her fantastic ulti, which can be cast on your tank in the midst of the enemy team, providing AoE stuns and slows, in addition to the potential as a heal.
The only thing Teemo seems to have going for him is the shrooms. But since he's an on-hit build rather than AP, these aren't exactly consistent game-changers. (Although to be fair, Teemo has a fluffy bunny skin, a superman skin, and an astronaut skin.)
Apparently Guardsman Bob was playing on-hit Lulu and went on a 10+ game winning streak.
TL;DR -- It seems that Lulu's on-hit DPS is better than Teemo's (Pix vs. poison), and her kit contributes overwhelmingly more to teamfights than anything Teemo can do (Teemo's blind vs. Lulu's polymorph, slows, AoE ultimate stuns/slows, etc.).
I know "Lulu should be played support," etc. I agree, I'm not discussing that.
Thoughts?
Posted Mar 24, 2012, 8:38 PM UTC