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RIOT’s Poppy rework in progress --- not a tank!

PROJECT Bear·5/1/2015, 5:12:38 PM·4 votes·2,034 views

I read time ago that the developer in charge of Poppy’s rework wants to turn her into a tank (presumably, the others Ritoers agree?). BUT Poppy is an assassin. You could turn her more into a fighter/bruiser OK, but not a tank. What’s next, turning Akali into a tank as well?

From the AMA with Soulcrashed here :

We are currently trying to transform Poppy into a tank instead of her current assassin role. If you want to make a tank inspired by Poppy's abilities I think it's a great idea, but several people love Poppy as a fun assassin with a deceptive passive, a big hammer, and an ult that lets you remove from a teamfight their carry or pesky support.
Poppy’s E, a tiny yordle smashing a giant champion to the wall is what makes her attractive. (when asked for what skill most represents Poppy) Her E is just a gap closer with a longish cd, only situationally when the hostiles are badly positioned can you stun them against the wall. Vayne also has a similar situational stun, I would not say that is the skill that is most representative of Vayne. Poppy's Q, passive and ult are more representative than E.
**Poppy's ult will change. ** I think I recall reading somewhere, maybe, that it's because it's not interactive. Well, is Warwick's suppression interactive? Poppy is just able to ignore the other hostiles for a few seconds, while bee lining for her target. it's fun and fits her 'in-your-face' playstyle. An alternative could be some variation of: Poppy’s damage is buffed and she has a strong reduction to incoming damage and CC for a few seconds. That way the enemy team can still ‘interact’.

Poppy is fun to play as she is. sure she could use some reworking...her early game is strong only if she is underestimated, and true damage/damage over time (Teemo) are not easy to deal with, but her playstyle is unique as an assassin, and if you start to come ahead by outwitting the enemy, the mid/late game is just fun to melt the hostiles' health with her hammer (nor should it be held against her, look at hypercarries).

20 Comments

Strawberrycocoa5/1/2015, 5:25:50 PM8 votes

Poppy wears heavy armor and carries a ginormous tower shield. Nothing about her look or abilities conveys "assassin".

Akali carries two wicked-sharp scythes and does the Anime Ninja Run everywhere. Her look skills and theme all scream "kills you quickly and quietly".

The point of focusing on Tank for a rework is to make her gameplay match her theme and look.

junglerboy165/1/2015, 6:23:06 PM2 votes

They aren't changing her kit because it was uninteractive, they are changing it because it is beyond broken. Her ult is the single most overpowered ability in the whole game, and has been since release. The only thing keeping her from being a top tier pick is her plethora of mechanical hindrances and weak early numbers.

If you are bad at Poppy and don't land her stun, that is your fault, because her kit has everything necessary to get in position to stun enemies almost anywhere on the map. It is indeed her most iconic ability, and her most healthy and interesting one at that.

I don't like the idea of making her a no damage tank (because then she has absolutely no purpose to exist in place of someone like Alistar), but making her more of an anti-carry bruiser similar to Jax, Irelia, and Nasus would be perfect.

Centuros5/1/2015, 7:11:57 PM2 votes

How is her Q representative? It's just a bland autoattack modifier - it doesn't even have any particular effects besides damage.

Hellhammer5/1/2015, 6:42:27 PM1 votes

I personally think Poppy needs to be reworked into more of a bruiser, like Vi or Leesin for example, that are strong enough to take a hit, they aren't the first person that everyone wants to destroy, and they do a crap load of damage.

however i'm sure riot has spent their 6 months letting Solcrushed turn poppy into Yordle garen without any other Riot member's consent, if he is even working on her...

because I'm convinced the job order to rework poppy is underneath a bunch of trash on someone's desk

LadyRenly5/1/2015, 7:06:29 PM1 votes

Poppy to me comes across as a "durable assassin". Not as flimsy and pathetic as Akali or Katarina

PROJECT Bear5/1/2015, 7:52:22 PM1 votes

I think Q+passive are most representative of Poppy because she just stands there surviving with a sliver of health to place one last Q or two, trading or getting multiple kills when she's almost dead. her Q is a powered up attack that melts faces, kind of similar to Nasus syphoning strike, but instead of getting stacks it's empowered by items.

see they think - she's almost dead, one last hit, I have enough health to withstand her 1 or 2 aa - but instead she survives and lands her Q.

in other words, Poppy is cheeky. her ult is also cheeky (ignoring all the remaining enemy team). her E is very useful but nothing special, that's my point. it's kind of on a long cooldown, also, it's an important part of her kit but does not define her in my eyes.

her appearance as an armored fighter is related to her passive, being a somewhat survivable assassin.

I agree with everybody who think that turning Poppy into more of a bruiser would be acceptable or even good. I play Poppy all the time and even though her early game is weak I can still get kills because she just won't die with her passive.

Even if occasionally I feed (say, against a very good teemo or darius) early, as long as the rest of my team isn't losing I can still turn the game around and end up with most kills between both teams because once you have your full build you just smash people.

granted, probably I'm successfull with poppy because people don't expect poppy. I'm good with a rework into a bruiser, but I hope it's not a tank.