Poppy Mid Lane

Mid Lane Intro: Poppy Mid Lane can be a strong and viable pick depending on the match up. When Playing her mid, it is important to realize that a standard tank build won't work. Also, match ups that work and don't work are crucial in knowing. Some match ups where Poppy does well are against , , and, if played right, she can do well against and . Match ups that are not good are match ups like and . Depending on your degree of mastery, as well as the skill of the other player, , , or may be an easy or hard/challenging match up.

Core Build: Poppy needs to be built like a mid laner, (or most mid laners), high damage and bursty. Situational builds are prevalent and play style may vary, but a bunch of these topics we shall touch upon. However, all of the builds for Poppy Mid Lane revolve around these 3 items: ,, and . We take static shiv to help with farming (cs) and give increased poke damage as well as a 30% crit chance. We take Infinity Edge, because of the unique passive dealing a bonus 50% critical strike damage, as well as the increase to a 50% critical strike chance, and the additional 70 AD. Finally, we take rapid fire cannon to increase the critical strike chance to 80% as well as increase the range on her buckler (Iron Ambassador). With this build, Poppy's buckler alone at full build may crit for more than 1100 hp.

Other key items we may build are or (usually either or). Here is why we may take either of these items:

: Because Poppy's buckler and her W scale off of Ability Power, while the rest of her abilities scale off of Attack Damage (Q, E, and R). Seeing that this build heavily also relies on her buckler, its nice to have some additional Ability Power in the build, while not using an item slot for just pure Ability Power. It also provides sustain, as well as its active which slows champions down, allowing Poppy to catch up and possibly set them up for an E stun, as well as its passive healing.

: Because of the 60 AD and 10% cool down reduction, as well as lethality. In addition, it adds 20% movement speed out of combat which helps since Poppy isn't exactly the fastest champion in League of Legends, and its active speed increase helps for engaging targets who may be fast. (Tip: If the active is used when you use W at the same time, in some builds, Poppy's movement speed may be upwards of 600+)

Boots: Boots are not always necessary for this build as you get movement speed from 2 of the critical strike items, but I enjoy sometimes taking boots. Depending on your laning opponent, the enemy team comp, or play style, here are some good choices.

, or Mobi Boots for the movement seed out of combat, Serker Boots for the increased attack speed since Poppy's auto attacks do more than 500 damage per auto, Swifties for all around constant movement speed, and Merc Treads and or Tabi for situational defense.

Last Item(s): should you choose to not build boots you will have a 2 free slots open. If you have built boots, you should have one slot left. Here we build a tank item usually, just because, naturally, Poppy is a little more squishy than one would imagine. So situationally, we can build any tank item here that we may need from to and many more like other tanky items like .

Other Options: You may also be able to go Hybrid Tank, still sticking to the core build, but building 3 tank items instead of other key items or boots. Also, we can take boots and 2 tank items, or two tank items and . With the update to Guardians Angel from before, we now see that small amount of armor, but added Attack Damage which is useful, as well as its great passive revival.

Other Situational Items: and or sometimes (keep in mind this really isn't the traditional tank Poppy we are used to)

REMEMBER: The core build does not, and usually isn't build in succession. In other words you don't usually just build Shiv, then I.E. then Rapid Fire Cannon, rather based on what you need and how your doing in lane. You can always start items and finish them later while finishing the first two core items, and then finishing a defensive item. For example: If you are building and you are having a hard time facing an AP champion like you may want to build if you know you are going to build later, and for the build , and then start , or just build then go right into . Sometimes, situation given and I am doing well in lane, I like to go for first and then go for the core build. Usually I do what i just stated, then finish a "non core item" before I go for the last crit item, .

HAVE FUN!