Why the Poppy "changes" were not strictly nerfs in a nutshell
Alright so this was actually a comment on a previous post from a Poppy main crying like a lil baby about how his champ sucks now, and I'm reposting it for anyone interested in the meta.
I cut out a lot of it bc I was a little flamey towards him in response to his ungrateful and disrespectful tone he had towards the balance team. So the new preface is just going to be this:
I fucking love it when Riot decides to buff a champion with little mechanics/boosts to mechanics, which I like to refer to as swagger, instead of buffing their stats/numbers. These kinds of changes help good players, while dampening brain dead ones. Alright, onto the real discussion of the day.
Increased wallbang range. If I had a dollar for every time Poppy missed her wallbang on me by 30 units, sheerly because I flexed SO hard to dodge it, I would be a very rich man. I'm definitely going to tilt a little the next time a Poppy lands a bullshit Heroic Charge on me. That's power in your hands now you god damn fool. The net range on this bs is literally equivalent to a Caitlyn auto attacking with a goddamn Rapid Firecannon in her inventory.
Increased passive range. Poppy has an incredible, extremely powerful passive when used properly. Once you have just a bami's cinder, maybe a giant's belt too, your buckler gives you an enormous shield. You can now last hit from an even safer distance, which is actually exactly equal to Vladimir's auto attack range, for effing reference. This isn't MASSIVE because the shield doesnt land 30 degrees closer to you or anything, but the ability as a whole is VERY powerful and it's usabability, or swagger, WAS increased.
Increased ultimate speed. Now this one, was big. It was already really fast, and, sound familiar?, this is a very powerful ability in the right hands. Before, it was fast, and now, it strikes like lightning. Literally among THE fastest, AND widest skillshots in the game after the 25% increase in speed. Now, a player with a brain should literally never miss it. A main like yourself might even land this teamfight turning ability at its max range of..... wait, am I reading this right.... 1900 units............
The ultimate's knockup "change". This one I'm going to say is a buff. 25% less CC time, but now Yasuo can effing ult onto it. Brand can W. Vlad can E. Ori can ult it. Mf can ult it. Anything dude. Gp barrels. Sivir Q. Graves Q. Alistar could knock them up even further. The list LITERALLY does not end. Every single game you play, there will be an opportunity for your team to use this change to your advantage, but here you are, the Poppy main, shitposting about how these changes were a "strict nerf".
Ok. now let's look at the actual nerfs!
You can tank 10% less damage on what is already one of the single tankiest champs in the game .......................................Yep, thats fucking it. Oh wait actually, your movespeed also went from godly whatthefuck to just really, rreally fast. For reference, 30% movespeed is what phase rush would grant at, what level? Level 11. Yep. That shit was strong as hell, and really.. Still is. And I just realized that it only even affects you from level 14-18.
Before I wrap up this post, let's take a look at WHY these buffs to swag and nerfs to ballofstats hurt her winrate. What is the play rate of this champ on champion.gg, aka the bible for people who think one site can sum up the true balance of a champ? 1%. Meaning if you go out and play 100 games, roughly 50 HOURS of gameplay, you will see a Poppy in top lane 1 time. Hm....... Now, did you stop to take a look at the average # of games played for those 1 players in 100 games? Bet you didn't. It's 4. Meaning that, on average, when those extremely rare players pick Poppy, it's their 4th time playing her in rank. That puts her at 39/48th for least mained champion currently, ahead of a couple guys like Garen and Mundo who are being played bc buffs. So when a champ gets a buff to playability but a nerf to her RAW stats, I'm not at all shocked that her winrate dropped 3%.
That's it. Thanks for reading guys! Feel free to send an upvote my way if you agree that the changes truthfully did not leave her in the gutter where she belongs. Haha jk about the belonging part. c:
