Poppy rework suggestions!
With the release of Sion, Poppy is very likely the next champion in the queue for a long term rework/relaunch. I'm not necessarily in favor of anything drastic, and I really love Poppy right now as is, but it seems like changes are inevitable. Taking this into consideration, it is in my opinion better to at least cooperate and get as much out of a rework as possible, rather than fighting it. Here are my ideas for what needs to change, and potential ways to change them. Anyone else who enjoys Poppy, you should post to explain how you think they should change her to "fix" her as well so that Riot can see what we want and hopefully act on it. I am not putting numbers into this, since her problems are based around ability interaction, and damage can be tweaked any time. Everything in this post is my opinion, and you are entitled to share your own.
Current problems: -Passive: This has a lot of hidden strength. It is really good as a passive, but it uses antiquated mechanics and enforces an unkillable assassin play style which Riot dislikes. -Q: not a bad spell, except that its scalings are clunky and strange. -W: not bad, but not really that fun as a spell. -E: Probably the best part of her live kit, almost no changes necessary imo. -R: Top offender, 0 counter play. (counter play is not something that a whole kit should focus on, but it has to have at least some amount of it for it to be fun to play against). -Miscellaneous: AA animation needs to be fixed, needs VU (has to keep the pigtails, hammer, and shield at minimum), needs mana cost adjustments, needs updated ability icons. Hyperscaling, while not a problem when done well, is done badly for Poppy: she starts far too weak but becomes far too strong. She should still be able to hyper carry hard, but just not in as ridiculously an extreme way
Solution ideas: -Passive: No real ideas yet, kind of a tough one to deal with. I will edit this if I have any good ones. -Q: Make it not scale with either AP or %hp (still keeps the base AD ratio). Another possible solution is remove the base flat damage boost and have it scale with your AD and AP, with enemy % max health as the base damage statistic. -W: Keep the stacking armor AD passive, make the active more interesting, as in give it something more than the speed boost and stack fill up, not instead of. Maybe have the passive AD and Armor be lower, but while active, has double the bonus for the duration of the speed buff. -E: No changes wanted or needed. This is really her defining ability for me, and has plenty of skill, damage and enough counter play (not standing next to walls) that I think it should be left alone. Yes wall stunning someone deals a HUGE amount of damage, but it is appropriate in proportion with the difficulty in getting the stun. -R: Simple fix: make her only able to damage the selected target, emphasizing her tower diving/siege breaking/assassinating potential while removing the toxicity of being able to relentlessly 1v5 over and over again. No matter how good that part feels when playing her, it really cannot stay for her sake. Less simple fix: Remove it entirely and give her some boring normal ult like everyone else. I definitely prefer retooling her current ult rather than making a new one. Right now it fits her identity as a no nonsense get in your face kind of character, it is just a little too strong for her own good. -Miscellaneous: these are mostly QOL and ought to come with a kit rework anyway, and her hyperscaling should be addressed with her abilities.
