What are Poppy's Weaknesses?

48983507DEL1··2 votes·1,853 views

I'm struggling to see how she's weak in any regard.

She builds full tank and still outdamages most melee carries while retaining that unkillable status.

She has a good amount of mobility, since her W gives her extra movement speed and her E is on a relatively short CD all things considered.

She's got a ton of utility, not only blocking enemy movement abilities, but also having a really obnoxious wall stun and an incredibly bullshit ultimate.

And she gets a needless shield every few seconds, as if Riot hasn't learned from Yasuo that this isn't fair for a laner to have.

So if someone could explain why I should pick ANY other Top Laner, I'd really like to know. She's not just a "Jack-Of-All-Trades", she's the Master.

47 Comments

Serevas4 votes

She's not too good when fights are shoved into the mid lane due to a lack of walls.

Like other melees she suffers against ranged matchups, and Quasus makes her life a living hell.

The only thing I'll say about the melee carries thing is that the only reason she out damages melee carries is they die too quickly to deal much damage.

Derp R Us4 votes

I've seen this before a million times and just have to say:

#Put down the dash-heavy AD champ and pick one of her million counters.

She eats Riven and Yasuo alive in lane.

Grab a juggernaut, profit.

Don't play juggernauts? Ok, that's weird, thought anyone could play Garen. Well, grab a ranged top laner.

What, don't have Quinn or Graves? Alright, maul her with Rumble. No Rumble? Ok, Gangplank!

There's countless counters to Poppy and countless people you should never pick into her. I hate being first pick because everyone sees I'm picking Poppy and picks a ranged/AP/Juggernaut champion because she has numerous counters. Probably why she does best in the jungle, because even if the enemy jungler picks a counter, you aren't always running into them.

Ralanr1 votes

Hell I think Nautilus is a pretty good counter. Dude has much more AoE damage that adds up over time.

Derp R Us1 votes

He definitely has an instant shield that beats her "throw me and pick me up" shield. She can stop his Dredge Line but that's about it.

redniwediS1 votes

I'd personally recommend Darius before Garen. Garen isn't in the best place at the moment, though a smart player can still make great use of him in that matchup. For Darius you don't have to be smart, you just have to right click and make use of that passive.

Derp R Us1 votes

True, I have managed to beat Garen as Poppy but it was tricky, involving a lot of maneuvering and making sure to not trade without the shield (many trades I didn't come out on top but overall won the lane). Thank goodness for their absolutely horrid jungler who made it a point to make stupid tower dives and surrender free kills. Basically, Garen's not a direct counter, he's a challenge, for sure, but far from a counter. Meanwhile, Darius punishes Poppy for her lack of escapes and cleaves straight through her bonus resistances with Noxian Guillotine, yeah, he's definitely up there as someone you don't want to see while playing Poppy.

RexSaur1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Derp R Us,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Xxcq5h87,comment-id=0008,timestamp=2016-12-05T23:20:57.003+0000)

I've seen this before a million times and just have to say:

#Put down the dash-heavy AD champ and pick one of her million counters.

She eats Riven and Yasuo alive in lane.

Grab a juggernaut, profit.

Don't play juggernauts? Ok, that's weird, thought anyone could play Garen. Well, grab a ranged top laner.

What, don't have Quinn or Graves? Alright, maul her with Rumble. No Rumble? Ok, Gangplank!

There's countless counters to Poppy and countless people you should never pick into her. I hate being first pick because everyone sees I'm picking Poppy and picks a ranged/AP/Juggernaut champion because she has numerous counters. Probably why she does best in the jungle, because even if the enemy jungler picks a counter, you aren't always running into them.

Poppy does just as well against tanks and juggernauts, while shes actually a counter pick to ranged champs as shes pretty much immune to lane bullies due to the free resists + shields (and she then outscale).

She legit only has 1 bad matchup in the game, which is trundle, and counterpicking isnt counterplay, shes too good for a champion that is so generalist (like lee sin is right now).

Derp R Us2 votes

Have you played Darius against her? Sion's not a direct counter but he's pretty difficult to lane against. Shen is currently in a bad spot so she does do well against Shen. Udyr, although you're never going to meet him top since he's solely jungle, will pound her in a slapfest unless he's behind. But at the same time, Poppy does fairly well against Zac.

No champion can beat an entire class of other champion, they can fare well against most or only very few members of that class, but because champions are designed to be unique, you can't just pound an entire class.

And she doesn't have only a bad time against Trundle, Gangplank ignores 40% her excessive amounts of armor with his barrels, 100% of her resistances with his passive, and she can't even beat him with a well placed wall charge because his oranges will remove the crowd control, not to mention his super-short cooldown Q makes him half ranged. Oooh, let's go into Quinn. She can stop Quinn's Vault with Steadfast Presence... That's it. Quinn can blind her, pummel her with volley after volley of bolts, the only time I did ok against a Quinn matchup was when I abandoned the lane and lived solely off of ganks and jungle monsters (And that didn't even matter because Quinn got fed off of my teammates). Another! Ekko. While most tanks don't suffer against the Boy who Shattered Time, the second half of Ekko's Phase Dive easily slips past Steadfast Presence because it's a blink and not a dash. Add in his ability to outmaneuver out of Heroic Charge hotspots, percent health damage, and the ability to undo Keeper's Verdict all by pressing R and you have a matchup Poppy'd rather not see. And let's look at Irelia, she hits Poppy where it really hurts: right through Steadfast Presence’s bonus resistances in the form of true damage. While Irelia can’t Blade Surge through Poppy’s W active, she can stand toe-to-toe with the Keeper of the Hammer and trade basic attacks. Having extra armor and MR below 40% health is normally enough to keep Poppy in the thick of a slapfest, but true damage ignores those fancy numbers, leaving Poppy in a dangerous spot. Oh, and better hope you don't wind up against the dead man walking. Graves gets free resistances from standing next to you and he's ranged! The guy can sit on your face, deal tons of damage, and take none. Yeah, if you see him going top, you better make top lane Draven meta or you're gonna lose. And Kayle, oh my gosh, don't even get me started on top lane Kayle. Pantheon can outpoke her, outduel her, thank goodness for Steadfast Presence or you'd have no chance here. I could go on all day against people that Poppy struggles against and I should know because I main her and I've met them in top lane, sometimes the other way around, too!

TyrekGoldenspear2 votes

This right here shows that you have a very intimate understanding of Poppy.

You my friend are a true poppy main.

Derp R Us2 votes

######You must have missed the "big reveal", pretty much everyone knows I'm AbsorbantTNT. I'm just using this account because I put half-meme up and they hit me with a week-long ban for it.

But, yeah, when I pick up Poppy, I know what I'm doing.

TyrekGoldenspear1 votes

Ah. Well okay then, I'll drop the pretenses.

Hey TNT!

Derp R Us1 votes

Hey! How do you manage to chat in the Lolclient via mobile? I've been wondering how to do that.

TyrekGoldenspear1 votes

Riot made an app called LoL Friends.

Just download it and login to your LoL account, then you get basically your chat box from the client on your phone.

Derp R Us1 votes

Cool, now I know how to annoy Ralanr while he's playing Ranked matches!

TyrekGoldenspear1 votes

Inb4 he comments on this chain saying he's on to your plan.

Derp R Us1 votes

Ralanr! Look away, this conversation is not meant for your eyes.

Ralanr1 votes

Don't worry. I don't have the phone app.

For reasons (Data).

Automated Riven1 votes

she doesn't just eat riven alive. This is the one matchup where no matter how bad the poppy is she still wins the stupid lane. riven could do true damage and still lose that lane. I play riven anyway cause I usually trust myself to be more impactful later but for heavens sake that lane is cancer for a riven main.

Derp R Us2 votes

Don't think I don't feel the same way when I'm pitted up against Rumble or Gangplank! Everyone gets their hard matchups.

Automated Riven1 votes

I just read what I said and I sounded super salty. I am not but I rather play against teemo instead of poppy. I just really hate that lane.

Derp R Us1 votes

Well, Teemo's not really a direct counter to everyone, he's just annoying to everyone. I have a chance against Teemo as opposed to the pirate. So I can see why you'd pick Teemo over Poppy.

AttackOnTeemos2 votes

Her ultimate is her own weakness if used wrong. I've seen and have been saved by it numbers of times by poppys trying to kill me but ulted me away from her teammates. Really if I had to say her weakness is her cds.

Derp R Us2 votes

As a Poppy main, I wonder if Alistar mains and Tristana mains feel the same way I do when seeing a noob play said main.

"So, get this, I headbutted their low health carry over the wall to safety."

"Nice, but I saved three people with one Buster Shot!"

"Pfft, amateurs."

Jon11742 votes

Her weakness is reducing her health to 0,it works for me

Ralanr2 votes

Like most tanks, she's weak to sustained damage. But that doesn't mean you should just run up and wack her. You should avoid her Q as much as possible since that's her main damage output. Avoid walls like the plague (this includes your own tower terrain. CoTC is busted and if you're low enough she'll dive you).

Poke and kiting are also great ways to kill her, though kiting her is tricky since you can't rely on dashes, unless you can bait her W since it's a 24 CD and they don't max it till late (unless they're fighting a Yasuo or Riven, then they max it second to fuck with them). It is very possible to kit without dashes though.

She also has no sustain outside of potions or masteries.

Hope this helps.

48983507DEL11 votes

It seems that even when she misses her Q completely, and has already used her shield, she still outdamages me in trades no matter what champion I'm playing. Once she's done with her full combo, her Q is back of CD and she comes out ahead.

RexSaur1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zethera Densetsu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Xxcq5h87,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2016-12-05T22:51:03.830+0000)

It seems that even when she misses her Q completely, and has already used her shield, she still outdamages me in trades no matter what champion I'm playing. Once she's done with her full combo, her Q is back of CD and she comes out ahead.

Its because she has 2 shields in trades now, she can literally drop her keyboard and still win trades as she doesnt take damage, the mastery made an already broken champ even more broken.

Ralanr1 votes

She cannot be outrading you if she's missing her Q. Her AA beyond her passive aren't building AD.

Who the hell are you playing?

Derp R Us1 votes

Probably Aatrox.

As if he wasn't in a sad state already, Poppy counters him.

48983507DEL11 votes

The thing is, she misses her Q, then All Ins, and by the time she's used her passive auto, her e, another auto, her Q is off CD again.

Ralanr1 votes

When I say "missing her Q" I mean that you're repeatedly dodging it.

48983507DEL11 votes

You can't dodge it when you're stunned against the wall.

The thing is, you have to focus on dodging her Q multiple times in a row, while you avoid the walls, while you check on her shield timer, while you bait out her W, all while making sure you can hit all of your own skills.

The biggest problem with her is that in a 1v1, she's always got the statistical advantage, meaning if both of you hit all of your skills, she will always come out ahead.

She gets way too many free stats that honestly make her the 100% best choice in Top Lane right now. There's no reason to pick another champion over her.

Ralanr1 votes

Rule #1 when fighting Poppy: Avoid walls. If she stunned you against a wall then you deserve pain.

koreansmurf87513 votes

if shes outdamaging you after missing her q and just wacking you with autos, theres 3 scenarios

  1. youre something like a full tank ashe or some bs like that
  2. she hit the q but you don't notice it
  3. yer boosted
MacDeath2 votes

She can be put down in laningphase by pretty much any ranged toplaner. She is relatively easy to kite (her W lasts for 2,5 seconds she won't kill you in that time). Her cc-threat is counterable, so she has no 100% reliabe cc.

Pretty much all of her abilities have to be very well timed and coordinated, else she loses a great deal of her teamfight potencial.

SpartenA79912 votes

Death. Death is her weakness. Also everyone else too.

Derp R Us1 votes

#No! Why must you reveal her weakness?

Kaioko1 votes

The mastery is causing her to be broken right now not so much the kit itself. Her damage is alright but nothing outstanding as she's not going to assassinate anyone in team fights.

I agree that she's strong right now but that happened entirely after CotC was introduced. It's receiving a nerf next patch so I believe her performance should wait to be evaluated until then.

48983507DEL11 votes

My biggest problem is that she doesn't fall into the category of Juggernaut or Tank, because she has damage, utility, and tankiness.

Ralanr1 votes

Uhh...tanks have high base damages you realize.

Derp R Us2 votes

I get that Shen and Sion aren't wildly popular, but you've got to have seen a solo lane tank before, right? Because if they did no damage, they'd just suck.

Surprise, surprise, tanks can still hurt people.

Automated Riven1 votes

her damage falls off past midgame if your fed and up a few levels yeah she can 100-0 if she builds like an iceborn or something. but once late game comes around she will need help to kill the adc unless he is brain dead.

Dark Nephthys1 votes

Stay away from walls and don't dash in her W field and she is easy to deal with. She suffers in team fights in the lane where walls aren't easily accessible.

[{quoted}](name=Zethera Densetsu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Xxcq5h87,comment-id=,timestamp=2016-12-05T22:27:41.380+0000)

I'm struggling to see how she's weak in any regard.

And she gets a needless shield every few seconds, as if Riot hasn't learned from Yasuo that this isn't fair for a laner to have.

So if someone could explain why I should pick ANY other Top Laner, I'd really like to know. She's not just a "Jack-Of-All-Trades", she's the Master.

Top Lane Champions with Shields: Ekko JarvanIV Kled Malphite Nautilus Poppy Riven Rumble Ryze Shen Sion Yasuo Most of them have control over when and how they use their shield. Poppy is kind of forced on her when she auto attacks when its up, on top of her shield being able to be destroyed (unless she killed a minion with it). So really...Poppy's have more counter play in her shield than most of the other champions who can be played top lane.

RexSaur1 votes

Shes broken as fuck, no weakness right now outside of being banned, shes also extremely faceroll to play as.

Also the silvers in this thread saying shes bad against ranged champs lmao, never mind that in worlds she was THE COUNTER PICK TO JAYCE AND KENNEN because shes too tanky for those to kill them (shields + free resists + being able to build full tank and still 100-0 ppl).

Derp R Us2 votes

Because Jayce and Kennen are the only ranged champions in existance. Great job, Sherlock.

23382622_DEL1 votes

Yordles that are tall(ish), dark and handsome. See Rumble + Teemo threesome.

Derp R Us1 votes

Teemo can be beat. As in, Ohmygoshthisissofreakingannoyingandidon'tknowhowididit but it can be done. Rumble... No, he beats Poppy every time, she might come out even in early trades if the Poppy's experienced as opposed to a newer Rumble player, but he's a pretty strong counter.

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