Rework Poppy

Before this is taken as a rant post, I am saying this out of a genuine desire to have Poppy fixed as a champion. I have played her since her original incarnation in 2011. I was there when they stated her rework and I gave a long post on why they needed to not rework her, but tweak her instead. Of course, like most board posts, it got ignored. So here I am, ignorantly back with another one that will be lost in the woodwork of riven skins and vayne buffs.

Poppy was played briefly after her rework and it was because her numbers were really good. She had good base damage, she could survive a lot, and was capable of doing her job really well. It was a good time to be a Poppy player to the point that for once, she was getting banned at a high rate. Eventually, Riot did not like this for some reason, considering how long other champs went with having high ban rates and high win rates, and she was nerfed real hard. Her Q damage went down, her W resist bonuses is but a trickle of what it use to be, and her ult leaves a lot to be desired. Not even the speed increase makes her ult useful, along with the increased unrealiability of being able to get knocked out of its channel, which is kind of counter intuitive for a champ that is meant to be a frontliner with a ranged CC. Then there's her shield, which is only best as a poke tool, and absolutely sucks for the shield mechanic due to how you have to work to "pick it up", while champs like akali instantly gets her defense by just dropping down her W. Or Jax just channeling his E, which btw CANNOT be interrupted. Sad really.

Poppy is just an overall clunky champion. She has no synergy like Jax, Yasuo, and other fighters have. Their abilities mesh well together, and they have tons of effective items that give them considerable powerspikes. Poppy has ZERO powerspikes. And since tank items are no longer cost efficient, or effective for that matter compared to the overwhelming damage and rune power given to dps, Poppy has to rely on fighter level items that somewhat help her. Since most fighter items give health, it basically makes her resist bonus useless. Her Ad ratios or damage output in general is subpar, and she only gets bonus ad as a ratio to her abilities (let's not forget that her E can easily be ignored or flashed or even dashed out of).

This post is to highlight that Poppy's current rework has failed. She was made to be a tank fighter, but this was done back when tanks were still relevant and cdr was still kept under wraps so damage wasn't being tossed out so fast. Nowadays, the game has turned into a whole different beast and Poppy is left out in the rain this time. At least before her rework, she had a mechanic to curve getting to a target she wanted. Now, she can't even do that. High mobility makes dodging her Ult easy, her Q is too short ranged to do much in a fight or skirmish. Her dash is a one way trip to death, whereas champs like Irelia, Yasuo, Camille, can weave in and out as they see fit with little room for error. If Poppy is going to be a fighter, give her actual fighter mechanics and don't give her half abilities that barely do the job she is suppose to do.

Poppy doesn't work as a tank. She doesn't work as a fighter. She does't even work as an assassin like she turned into in her old version, and that version didn't even make her to be an assassin. And yet you have builds like lethality popping up now because the only use Poppy has these days is using her E into someone, and hoping to kill them before she dies. Just. Like. Her. Old. Self. Except this time, she cant just go in anymore when she wants since she doesnt have an immunity with ult, and her Ult may or may not hit anyone she wishes. This champ is in a sad state right now. The fact that Mordekaiser is still superior after his rework, along with Irelia and Akali, shows that there's some champs that need to be looked at again due to poor design. Pantheon's new design improved him a lot, giving him a lot of ways to resist mechanics these days and to be relevant. His new E shield felt like something Poppy should have had a long time ago, along with Xin Zhaos' new ult. All a lot better than whatever Poppy got.

tl;dr Poppy is not fun to play right now.

Thank you for listening to my ~~rant ~~suggestions.