So... people who play Poppy...

Siachi·Oct 10, 2014·1 votes·1,538 views

... How do I play Poppy?

I got her on an impulse buy, and besides "Trinity Force is usually Core, You will probably not have fun early game, and ult the least threatening person on the team before going for the carry", I don't really know much about her or her build path.

EDIT: I guess I should say I don't really have a specified lane I plan to play her in; I feel like top is 'normal' for her, but I might try jungling too.

EDIT 2: Sorry I haven't really been that talkative in this thread, but I do appreciate all the tips you guys are giving me: I've mostly just been playing bot games with her, but so far I've been having fun with her.

16 Comments

jwf999Oct 10, 20141 votes

Personally I prefer ap but if you want ad here it is http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/s4-poppy-dominating-solo-top-179440

DustyElLionOct 10, 20141 votes

Personally I prefer ap but if you want ad here it is http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/s4-poppy-dominating-solo-top-179440

AP poppy isn't much more inconsistent though. It takes her longer to scale up in lane and she loses a lot of her dueling power to basically be a melee LeBlanc.

DustyElLionOct 10, 20141 votes

Are you laning or jungling? Generally start W in lane, the fre 15 ad and armor are helpful. Tri-force is core yes, but you can build her with pretty much anything. For the traditional ult the least CC kill the carry role I usually go Tri-force into BoTRK.

Some people prefer hydra for the pushing power she so desperately needs. Generally your goal is to simply survive the laning phase and be ready with your team. Yes with your team, despite her rep she DOES need a team to go with her given how much mobility creep has allowed ADC's and carries to become pretty slippery even to the likes of Poppy.

Honestly she functions best as a siege breaker. Whether it be a turret or dragon she will start a fight on spot and force at least one enemy (preferrably the carry) to leave the area or die. She doesn't care about turrets (though do watch the aggro when your ult drops off) so she can start a dive very well especially if someone on the other team positions near a wall or in front of the turret.

jwf999Oct 10, 20141 votes

Not nessicarly, she can 1 shot and live if played properly.

junglerboy16Oct 10, 20141 votes

There is no build path except to to build whichever damage suits you (AD, AP, somewhere in the middle). That is the beauty of a pure hybrid champion. However, some particularly good items on her are trinity, BotRK, Hextech gunblade, Guinsoo's rageblade (It is great in one on one duels), IE (Huge Q damage) and either mercs or swifties for boots (but really boots should always be situational, any of them are really pretty good on her).

Poppy is one of the only champs you want to take ghost instead of flash on. If you are newer and playing top, take TP for help with how hard you will usually be bullied, if you are more skilled and or vs a champ you are strong against (Mundo in particular, she is a great counter to him) then take ignite. Obviously take smite in jungle.

For runes and masteries, go for MS quints, and whatever you feel like for everything else (Except energy regen, she isn't a ninja lol) Hybrid pen Reds are pretty good on her, as a rule of thumb, if you need to have a stronger early game (especially if in a bad matchup) then get runes with flat early values, if you are confident enough in your early game then take scaling runes for an even more potent late game. For masteries, either go 21-9-0 or 30-0-0 putting points in either AD or AP depending on your playstyle (always get the percent Armor/MR pen, that with the Hybrid pen Reds gets you a very high amount of both for not being able to buy a hybrid pen item).

If in top lane then ask for first gank so you can start snowballing quicker than normal,if it doesn't work or your opponent kills you, try your best to farm under turret because you will have a hard time unless your jungler camps for you and gets you multiple kills to catch back up once you hit 6, if you are equal and haven't died to your opponent, all in them with your ult and kill them. Most players don't expect it when a Poppy goes from super passive to suddenly going hard and bursting them so you will usually catch them off guard.

Never take her mid, because it is far harder to wallstun an enemy mid than top or jungle.

In jungle, you will want to bank frequently, because your burst combined with your strong gap close and CC make ganking very powerful. try not to ever stay still in your jungle for long, because if you get jumped your toast. Ironically, Poppy is great at counter jungling because there are so many places to wall stun your opponent that you are almost 100% guaranteed to lock them down long enough to get a huge trade or even kill them, but be wary, you are easy to kill with out your ult, so don't go in without good vision of the area.

Usually I start either Q or W and then pick whichever one I didn't go for first, picking up E third. After that, max R>Q>E>W in that order. In lane or jungle, do not use your W active unless escaping or all inning your opponent, since it is on a long cool down and your best escape and the active is mostly for the speed boost (it is also mana expensive to spam). Keep the side brushes warded up, because it is extremely frustrating to try to wallstun someone but then lose sight as they escape and then not get to play yo FOOTBAHL. deciding who to ult is not always super simple either. Don't always just drop it on the support, because if they have CC, your ult is wasted. Also, in some cases, you want to ult a carry for the bonus damage that you ult grants (since it only applies to the target, not to everyone.

Other than that, there really isn't much else I can say from my own experience with her, hope you enjoy her!

junglerboy16Oct 10, 20141 votes

Holy carp I just realized what a huge wall of text that was...

SiachiOct 10, 20141 votes

It's fine; I could probably use a good wall of text for some pointers on how to play her.

JedenVojakOct 10, 20141 votes

Just remember if you're laning with Poppy, you want to be kinda defensive and conserve your mana; Poppy has serious mana issues early game - don't use your Q to last hit creeps. If your enemy looks like they're walking up to attack you, Q them - especially on tanks, those Q pokes really wear down on them after a while. I generally go TF -> BotRK -> IE, thought AP poppy can also work.

DauthdaertOct 10, 20141 votes

A good rule as Poppy (whenever I play her) is just don't give a hoot. Do whatever you want, YOU'RE POPPY. Your passive is hilarious, and buying a TM after all of your 3 damage items is a lolfest. I play her botlane, and make the enemy team sad. Eventually in game, you will have a "hit list" of sorts. This is the list where you order the people you kill. Start with whoever you want. Because Poppy. End with either you being dead after a triple kill and have you team clean up the rest, or being mad because someone stole your penta. That's how I play her, anyway. Poppy Poppy Poppy Poppy

Going DarkOct 12, 20141 votes

Poppy actually makes a pretty decent support with and against many ADCs (but not all), and I have also had success in mid lane and as unconventional bot lane carry with healer support; but I will limit this post to top and jungle.

I would argue that you should NOT get very aggressive masteries in top lane; Poppy's late game takes care of itself and you need to concern yourself with getting through the early game. In the jungle, however, you need to make your clear time as fast as possible. I like 13/17/0 or sometimes even 0/27/3 for top lane, but 22/5/3 in jungle. I'd recommend that you only go 21/9/0 or other aggressive masteries if you know who your opponent is and you feel confident you will beat them and want to do so as hard as possible.

summoner 3 (Top lane) Flat AD reds are OK but hybrid pen is probably better. Poppy has strong autoattacks but also has a lot of magic damage on her Q (and her E, but you do that more for stuns or movement than for damage).

Movement speed is very important for Poppy, so MS quints are a fine choice, but armor or health regen quints are very valid choices to strengthen her early game.

I usually start Crystalline Flask and 3 red pots, but Doran's Shield and perhaps Blade work as well.

Max Q first in almost any situation unless you really want to max W for extra armor.

In top lane, you want Sheen ASAP for the huge damage boost on your Q (and bigger mana pool). If you would rather get Vamp Scepter for sustain, that's a valid choice, especially if you find yourself trading a lot of autoattacks. No other damage items are comparable to what you get from Sheen. Only get other stuff if you are getting wrecked and want to focus on defense. Rush Trinity if at all possible, Sheen then Phage then Zeal.

summoner 11 (Jungle) Attack speed runes are key since her autoattacks are naturally strong with her W already. I always start W but Q is likely a little faster if you don't mind being low mana by the time you get blue buff and probably a bit lower health. Rush the AD jungle item, or Trinity if you're very gank-focused, or Wriggles if you're really concentrating on jungle farm. Max Q first.

I usually go Hextech Gunblade in top lane and BotRK in jungle, but really it's up to you which one you get in either situation. Getting one of them is strongly recommended IMO.

Aside from Trinity and whichever Bilgewater upgrade, you can get more attack power or focus more on tankiness; those two items make you really strong by themselves. (The Trinity buff adding to every Q you land is pretty huge: you'll notice your power level really jumps when you complete Trinity.)

Defensive options include Randuin for armor/HP tank; Spirit Visage for MR/HP tank and CDR; Frozen Heart for armor, mana, and CDR.

You'll notice quickly that Poppy is SUPER mana hungry. You can either be very careful with your mana expenditures and/or recall often, or you can consider buying Chalice of Harmony or possibly Tear of the Goddess.

Maw of Malmortius is a good buy sometimes to balance MR and more damage output. QSS into Mercurial Scimitar is an item I really like if the enemy team has suppressions because they usually seem to like targeting Poppy with them. (Skarner, Warwick, Malzahar) If you get lucky with your ult, though, sometimes they will waste their ult while you are invulnerable to their suppression! QSS can also help against other extremely strong CC like Nasus's slow.

IMO Poppy's greatest weakness (aside from magic DOT cutting bypassing her passive and high natural armor) is CC, so I usually get Mercury Treads unless the enemy team's CC is weak overall or isn't mitigated by Tenacity. In that case, Swiftness (+3 speed, slow mitigation) or the CDR boots are probably better choices. Mobility (+5) is also an option.

Going DarkOct 12, 20141 votes

People say Poppy sucks at farming but it would be a lot more accurate to say she sucks at wave clearing and pushing lane; her ability to last hit is actually very strong thanks to her W and her ability to "double tap" with Q, either to get two minions or to correct a failed last hit.

If you are under your turret, you can usually kill melee minions with one auto after two tower hits, and a ranged minion with: one auto, one tower, one auto. This isn't always true depending on how much you level up over time and how many stacks of W you have (and your items), but it's usually true early game. Obviously, if the minions have been attacking the minion you want to hit, you have to take that into account. Q or auto-then-Q can usually let you clean up a minion with weird HP that the tower is threatening to kill.

junglerboy16Oct 12, 20141 votes

Her Q is actually the main reason people think she is bad at farming. Her attack animation deals damage at the veeeeery last millisecond of the animation, as opposed to most newer champs who deal it in the front half. This means that she basically can't take advantage of the Q's AA reset, since it won't deal the first attacks damage until it is already finished.

Going DarkOct 12, 20141 votes

The AA reset might not save as much time as it does on champs with a more front-loaded AA animation, but it definitely does save time compared to just doing two AAs. No-one who has played Poppy should have this misconception.

Going DarkOct 12, 20141 votes

"Okay", you say, "now I know how to farm, and what to buy with my farm, but what am I supposed to do with that stuff? How should I take the fight to the enemy?" Great question.

When Poppy is in a fight, all she cares about is hitting people in the face with her Q. You max Q for the cooldown reduction to hit them in the face with Q faster. But! She also cares about wall stuns, because that means they stand still so she can hit them in the face with Q more easily. If you absolutely can't get a wall stun, it's okay to just use your E to close distance. It's better to use your gap closer to take the fight to them without landing a stun than to never use it hoping for a perfect wall stun that never happens. Whatever lets you hit them in the face with your Q the most is the thing Poppy wants to do.

If your enemy is standing in between you and a wall, charge them! They are between a rock and a hard place, and you and your hammer are that hard place.

If your enemy is not standing in between you and a wall, fix that problem! Your W has a decent movement speed buff on a modest cooldown. Don't use it too freely because its active use costs about ten million mana, but don't be afraid to use it for that extra burst of speed if you need to position yourself to fight the enemy.

In laning, in certain situations (when the waves are pushed past the middle area, where it narrows into lanes), if you position yourself right, and they don't, you can wall stun them, autoattack them, Q them, and walk away before they can hit back too much ... or just keep autoing them until they lose the fight. Before too long they will stop letting you wall stun and Q them, and you might be able to use this threat to zone them away from some of the minions.

If the enemy jungler has gotten behind you (in between you and your turret) to gank you, charge them! They are your path to safety. If there is an enemy minion behind you, charge it! They are even better because minions don't have the CC and damage of the enemy jungler. You can also charge a minion to try to catch up to an enemy you're chasing that is too far away for you to charge them personally.

Poppy's ultimate. Well known and justifiably feared, it has both offensive and defensive purposes. You can use it offensively for the damage boost. You can use it defensively to turn a 1v2 gank into a 1v1 duel (for 6 to 8 seconds, anyway), or just use it to take a lot less damage and CC as you're running away. The most infamous use of it is to ult someone who has little CC or has blown it already and go after a completely different person who is now unable to defend himself from you! (You don't get to use the damage boost in this situation, though.)

The MechEOct 12, 20141 votes

She's pretty strong early game as support and jungler. Your mid game is the tough part.

Source: Poppy main G4 with roughly 300 ranked Poppy games.

Some builds I use are as follows:

Poppy summoner 11 summoner 7 item 3106 item 1080 item 1001 item 3078 item 3158 item 3153 item 3143 item 3031 item 3135

Sell as you go

Next up is support

Poppy summoner 14 summoner 6 item 3096 item 1001 item 3144 item 3057 item 3078 item 3153 item 3143 item 3069 item 3031

Some tips:

Start bottom buff Gank top or mid after you get the 2nd buff Bait them with heal

Skia AsteriOct 12, 20141 votes

http://www.youtube.com/user/BestpoppyNA/videos

Watch this guy's videos and then go read his guide on LoLKing.

(as to what to build, it depends - practically every item is useful to her in theory except Hurricane. That is part of what makes her strong late game, you can build to counter what the other team is bringing)