[Teemo]

Gravity shuts down armed.
Sand shuts down armed.
Explosion shuts down armed.
Shadow shuts down armed.
Ice can also shut down armed.
Nature's vines and spore-flowers can make getting in close be punishing.
Energy has two knockbacks.
Cosmic has two knock backs.
Sound has a knockback and an AOE that is large and reduces AP.
Water has flood which is HUGE and wterbeam. Oh and mistform and cleanse.

There are many ways to get around armed. It's fine were it is. It beats some builds pretty hard. But other builds make meleers wanna roll on the floor and cry.

As someone who has played an armed character--- yes the burst is nice. But there are so many ways to punish you if your burst isn't high enough.

Gravity shuts down everything, it's a disruption tree for kite mages. Admittedly, kite mages do counter melee so I agree with this.

Sand is more match up dependant than anything. You can pstrike out of their roots and you should have a defensive to block out sandstorm damage if you do manage to get caught without it up. If anything, it's more so earth bomb countering melees.

Explosion really doesn't counter armed. Sure, slows slow movement but most of your gap closing ability is in dash strike and space dash which are both slow immune now. Garuda also exists which is the stance most melees choose before buying an elemental stance if they choose to. You will always have access to switch to it if you're against someone with slows.

Again, shadow depends on what other trees they have. If they're a kite magi with shadow you have a problem. If you're against an unarmed shadow then it's more of a dps race, which you usually win. It's hard to shadow walk anything significant in armed except phantom strikes. If you have good reaction time you'll block 2 out of the 3 ticks of it because the first one is instant. Then you're stuck out of it for 30 seconds which is plenty of time for armed to cycle spells on you.

Armed users beat ice simply for how much damage you do compare to them. Escaping blizzard is incredibly easy and it's as simple as running away after they pop it.

Nature magi are typically sustain, which melee has always beat, simply because you apply constant pressure and out damage their heals. You don't give them time to breath for them to be able to use ingrain because it has a self root. Using ingrain when a melee is close to you just makes you take more damage.

Energy burst's damage is too low to even consider. If you dash into it you'll be pushed away and take at most 1-2k damage with no wasted cds. Baiting beams has always been the way to counter them. Fake an approach, wait for them to panic and punish after they self stun themselves. Then wail on them while it's on cd.

Cosmic has less aoe up time and range than occult/holy. Dash out of stair rain and reengage after it's gone. Bait out beams and you're golden. It's hard because if cosmic hits you, they hit hard. The tree itself is kinda bull shit for anybody.

Sound is in an incredibly weak spot. Melodic Repose's heal is almost unnoticeable. The 10% AP isn't much to worry about. It reduces your damage half the amount of benediction would, has a smaller range and does no damage. It can basically be ignored entirely. Sound really doesn't have many options except hope that the enemy approaches you stupidly.

Flood doesn't have double initial ticks as cosmic, holy and occult do. Run out when you see it being cast, take at most a few ticks and just wait it out. Water beam is a problem but again, you bait it. Mistform doesn't do much and it can be countered like all the barriers can. If they use it during your pstrikes? Run along with them as they float and wait for them to pop out before dropping an ability on them.