Is poppy a better top laner or jungler?

Wasabo·Aug 16, 2014·1 votes·579 views

I've been playing Poppy jungle for a while and had lots of success. I haven't tried her top much, is she good top or better jungle?

5 Comments

Linna ExcelAug 16, 20141 votes

Jungle.

It's not that she can't top lane, it's just that she has more bad matchups there as well as more mana issues.

ploki122Aug 16, 20141 votes

Like Linna said, she's much better as a jungler.

The first issue with Poppy is the fact that banning Olaf/Darius/Cho'Gath is stupid. Banning Irelia or Udyr is a bit better but still far from respectable. Then you have the "simply hard" matchups like Teemo, Gnar, Ryze, Riven, Alistar, Lucian, Vayne, Lulu... Nearly 20% of the roster will give a really rough time to Poppy, and roughl 5% of the roster will making laning flat out impossible.

Next, you have the issue of "windows of opportunity". In nest to all cases, your jungler won't gank before getting his 2 buffs, and in most cases it will take another 1-2 camps for him to perform his first gank. By the time he come top, your "bully period" may have already ended depending on the matchup (level 1-3 or 1-4 in most cases). Once you hit level 6, you have very little impact on the game, your main goal becomes farming and keeping the enemy laner top (since his ultimate is better than your in most non-laning cases).

Lastly, Poppy is pretty punishable if focused, and it's much easier to camp a lane than it is to camp a jungle (since getting counterganked is rough, but getting collapsed on in the jungler is really harsh).

Personally, I'd say that Jungle>Support>ADC>Top>Mid

67chromeAug 16, 20141 votes

Jungler.

Her early game is generally awful, which can be circumvented to a respectable degree by just running her in the jungle. Especially seeing as a lot of her cons are covered fairly well within the jungle - blue buff erases a lot of her serious mana issues, %HP dishes out some serious pain against those 2k HPs buff monsters, you don't have to worry about getting poked out of lane and denied CS, and Poppy is pretty scary in isolated 1v1 situations regardless of the game time - especially when there's plenty of walls and no angry mob of minions around. Her wall smash also isn't exactly awful concerning gank potential, and her tower-dive potential is just about the best in the game for those extended chase ganks.

That said - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If you can get top-lane Poppy down to an art form you'd be a significantly scarier player to run into, and I'd imagine knowing exactly how to deal with each top-lane match-up is going to take a lot more practice and preparation to get down, where if you figure out top lane transitioning to jungle Poppy shouldn't take to much effort. If you play her top you'll probably be able to play her as a top or jungler, if you play her jungle you'll probably only be able to play her as a jungler.

Baron von JigglyAug 17, 20141 votes

To be honest i depends on the role you main.

people may say she is better as a jungle but i feel she is better at top laning. most people feel she has a bad laning phase while that may be true for new poppy players. i on the other hand have gotten used to playing with poppy and actyually have found a way to farm and also destroy the people who most say counter her in the laning phase. if you like poppy enough to want to play her alot than i reccomend just keep trying with her and eventually. you will be making champs like tryn, jax, darius, and most others your play things.

only time to fear the top lane with her really is against kayle( so much burst damdge and hurt ), cho'gath ( DAT PASSIVE SUSTAIN IS ACTUALLY A BITCH ), & ryze ( not really hard the stun is annoying just wait for him to use up most his mana and you can wreck him before he gets 2 bad )

your truly #1 super poppy fan Poppy