Poppy Rework Idea

First: Yeah, I know something like this gets posted every once in a while and my suggestions aren't necessarily better than anyone's before me; I'm just putting my two cents in.

Second, an introduction: I’ve been playing League of Legends for a little while now, and I mainly play Poppy. I understand that Poppy is a little… “wonky” right now, and if she were to receive any changes, they would likely be in the form of a thorough rework. I understand that I play this champ a particular way, and what's best for my play style might not match what's best for the game. I also understand that Poppy is not the most popular champion, and any such rework would not be Riot’s highest priority. Finally, I understand that I'm a noob, and some of my suggestions might be ill-advised. I would like to put my ideas forth, however, as I see no harm in doing so.

If any employee who might work on a future rework could read through my suggestions, I’d be honored.

Important things that make Poppy “who she is” (positive and negative): Wall smash and stun Crazy good chase Burst damage that ignores some tankiness Powerful late game duelist Long range AA Plays passively in lane until she suddenly “pops” and becomes aggressive Having rather low health, but some survivability despite this Bad sustain against harassful pokes Slow AA animation somewhat low mobility without using an ability Inability to handle multiple opponents without ult

Things that need to change about Poppy (positive and negative): Unbelievably powerful ult Passive is difficult for enemies to calculate Does lots of free magic damage, even if she builds full AD, making neither armor nor MR effective against her “Devastating Blow” has really weird interactions Horrid early game Too weak to cc Mana Hungry Able to build items that negate most of her weaknesses, snowballing her into a bit of a monster if the game lasts long enough

Proposed rework:

Note: I have intentionally kept numbers out of these ability descriptions, as I want to communicate the ideas of these abilities, rather than accidentally proposing an overpowered cooldown/damage scaling/whatever else. I’m sure others would be able to balance such things more prudently than I ever could.

Inherent Passive: Valiant Fighter: Dealing or taking damage increases Poppy’s “Valor” resource bar. Poppy gains bonus tenacity based on how full her “Valor” bar is. “Valor” decreases when out of combat.

Reasoning: The mana bar has been removed because mana on Poppy was a resource that crippled her, until you built one mana item; then it didn’t. As a balancing mechanism, I don’t think it prevented her from spamming abilities against champions so much as it hurt her ability to farm. She has a slow AA animation, and I like that; it’s a hammer as big as she is, and should have some heft. Being able to use Q as a last hit aid without worrying about wasting mana would be a nice change to her laning phase. Of course, I know I should be skilled enough to last hit without the help of an ability, and I can if left alone, but it becomes less reasonable when you’re facing a lane opponent who’s generally more powerful than you at this point. The tenacity based on recent dealing/taking abuse is somewhat of a replacement for her old “W”. I also think it fits Poppy’s character very well to power through CC a tiny bit in the heat of combat. Of course, the scaling on how much Valor equals how much Tenacity would have to be balanced carefully.

Q: Devastating Blow: Empowers the next hit to do bonus true damage based off of AD and enemy max health. This ability will do damage through blocks, parries, and the like, but the damage will be reduced.

Reasoning: This is similar to Poppy’s old “Q”, but does true damage instead of magic damage. I would of course expect it to do less damage overall because of this. The main differences are that it gives her some leverage against tanky champions, and that the interaction with “blocking” abilities is less random and stated in the tooltip. (Her current "Q" bypasses some and is blocked by some in ways that don't always make sense)

W: Paragon of Demacia: For 5 seconds, Poppy takes % reduced damage from champions and gains increased movement speed toward enemies.

Reasoning: This ability replaces Poppy’s old inherent passive and old “W”. Unlike before, the damage reduction applies to DoT abilities as well as single-shot high-damage abilities. To offset this, it is an ability that has to be used, rather than a passive. This means that Poppy is vulnerable to surprise attacks, or battles that drag on longer than this ability lasts. A clever enemy will pay attention to this ability cooldown as well as Poppy’s “Valor” in order to pick a prime time to attack.

E: Heroic Charge: Now does physical damage, rather than magic damage.

Reasoning: There’s really nothing magical about being smashed into a wall. This ability is otherwise wonderful as is.

R: Costs half of current Valor Diplomatic Immunity: For 5/7/9 seconds, only the targeted enemy may affect Poppy, and Poppy may only affect the targeted enemy.

Reasoning: Poppy’s ultimate (flavor-wise) always seemed to be a one-on-one challenge, but in reality is mostly used on a low-damage champ, so that a late-game Poppy can then fight the rest of the team without fearing death. It lasted so long that she could even freely escape if it wasn’t working out so well. The fact that Poppy may only attack the target changes this entirely. Also, you may have noticed that the proposed “W” only buffs movement speed toward the enemy. That makes it an excellent gap-closer during this ult, but renders it useless when trying to escape a surrounding enemy team after this ult wears off. Basically, Poppy sucks at running from a fight, which I believe makes sense. While the rest of Poppy’s abilities have no resource cost (other than cooldown, of course), this one halves her “Valor”. This is to prevent her from using it on a CC-based squishy champion without consequence. (No dashing behind enemy lines to get a free kill on Lux.) This ult may seem like a huge nerf from what it once was, but some of this new Poppy’s abilities are a little better to mitigate that loss.

Conclusion I believe this kit will allow Poppy to feel like a fearless Yordle who will take on any enemy, without relying too heavily on only a small part of her kit. All of her abilities will be reliably powerful, without being too gimmicky. She will have a healthy number of counters, without any of them being such hard counters that she’s helpless. She will have a passive early game, but not a pathetic early game. She will have an aggressive late game, but not be capable of insane 1v5s. Most importantly, I believe this preserves the attributes of Poppy that her players enjoy, while removing many of her frustrations, and if it’s fun, balanced, and makes her fans happy, I think it’s a good idea.

Finally, if you disagree with me, I'd be happy to hear differing opinions.