Poppy Gameplay Opinion Revised edition

Forum mods I will be briefly discussing her bugs as they relate to her live gameplay balance, do not delete my thread for wrong boards because i mention the word bug or glitch a few times.

edit: it broke my quote stuff when i posted this, sorry bout that.

** iron Ambassador (Passive):**

"Poppy's Basic attack throws her buckler, gaining 400 range and [10 + 10 per level] bonus magic damage [18/14/10 @ level 1/7/13] second cooldown. 

The buckler lands at a nearby location and Poppy can pick it up to gain a shield that absorbs X (15% of her max Health) damage for 5 seconds. Enemies can step on the buckler to destroy it. 

The buckler automatically returns to Poppy is the attack kills the target."

The good Provides great poke at range and allows you to secure minions when behind in lane, lets you stay healthy in jungle

The bad No readable pattern to where shield will land unlike draven axes, is usually a trap to turn around and pick it up during most matchups. Hitbox for the shields feels bad, shouldn't need to walk on center of shield to pick up, imagine if that was required for draven axes? ** Hammer Shock (Q):**

35/40/45/50/55 Mana 9/8/7/6/5 Sec Cooldown

Poppy smashes the ground, dealing 40/70/100/130/160 (+.70 bonus AD) plus 6% of the enemies' maximum Health as physical damage, and leaving an unstable area.

The Area slows enemies inside it by 20/25/30/35/40% and erupts after 1 second, dealing the initial damage again. Hammer Shock deals 80% damage to minions.

The good Lets you trade autos in lane vs melee champions then slam this down as they are leaving to complete a solid trade Minion cap on Q prevents massive monster split pushing

The bad Prepare to be crushed if you are vs a ranged or semi ranged champion like vlad or gnar, they will never ever let you trade optimally as this ability is meant to do in normal situations. Monster cap on Q prevents timely clearing and cripples any attempt to use her as a jungler. Passive interferes with E look to E for more info

The Fix Remove monster jungle damage cap, keep minion cap. note: i know it says minions for cap but this appears to be applying on monsters as well.

** Steadfast Presence (W):**

50 Mana 24/22/20/18/16 sec cooldown "Passive: Poppy gains X Armor and X Magic Resist (12% of Armor and Magic Resist). This bonus is doubled if Poppy is below 40% Health. Active: For the next 2.5 seconds, Poppy gains 27/29/31/33/35% Movement Speed. While Steadfast Presence is active, she stops enemy dashes in an area around her, dealing 70/110/150/190/230 (+.7 AP) magic damage.

The good Gives her that I'm tanky feeling/I'm going to duel you on my terms vibe Grants movement speed to position for E Provides a decision point in the skill, use it for movement or hold to stop that leblanc you suspect is in that bush

The bad Feels weak for what it does on such a long CD

The Fix Allow this ability to break any invisibility that comes into its range and its existing numbers and CD rate will be acceptable, this also gives poppy a third decision point between using to prevent gap closer, use for movespeed, or use to early to reveal twitch during a team fight.

** Heroic Charge (E):**

 70 Mana
12/11/10/9/8 sec Cooldown 

"Poppy tackles an enemy, dealing 50/70/90/110/130 (+.5 bonus AD) physical damage and carrying them forward. If Poppy carries the target into terrain, the enemy takes 50/70/90/110/130 (+.5 bonus AD) additional physical damage and is stunned for 1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9/2 seconds.

I quite like this ability, always have and always will. that being said it currently has some nasty bugs that completely ruin poppys flow as a champion.

The Problems It is treated as an auto attack and since her passive range is just barely larger then her E range poppy will animation dance the shielding animation instead of stunning someone into a wall which just feels terrible.

Players can flash out of poppy's E after her model hits their model and during the entire slide into the wall instead of disabling spells like any other spell with a similar effect. It is ok for enemies to flash out before poppys model touches them though.

** Keeper's Verdict (R):**

100 Mana 140/120/100 sec Cooldown

"First Cast: Poppy channels for up to 4 seconds, slowing herself by 15%.

 Second Cast: Poppy smashes the ground, emanating a shockwave that deals 200/300/400 (+.9 bonus AD) physical damage to enemies around the first champion hit and knocking them a large distance toward their Summoning Platform. The shockwave length and knockback distance increases with channel duration. 
 Enemies are untargetable while they are being knocked away.

The good grants poppy a short knockup so she can wait for CD's or allies to get closer to finish someone offf

The bad Charging this ability is a trap 90% of the time due to how slow the animation is, it also does not travel fast enough to save anyone vs burst champions unless you cast it and release before the leblanc or rengarish champion is anywhere near your carry, they will of course walk around it instead.

The Fix Keep the charge time however change it so the more you charge it the longer it knocks the enemy straight up into the air rather then sending them flying across the map, this would also make the spell feel more consistent rather then frustrating, maybe increase the move speed slow the longer she charges to compensate for no travel time.

Other thoughts I maintain that using this spell for its damage on surrounding units is 100% a trap and should never be used as such, usually it sets you up for failure rather then success because the enemy who is low can see what you are trying to do and just ensure they are the first person hit thus taking no damage and getting a free ride back to nexus and away from your allied burst champion who was going to kill them anyways before your massive misplay.

Summary Patch up the bugs with her E and remove the damage cap on Q for monsters only and it will fix her flow problems both in the jungle and as a lane champion/team fighter, these fixes are absolutely needed regardless of any other power adjustments she may need in the future as these are quality of life changes to remove pointless frustrations in an otherwise fun champion kit.

The old opinion

I'll admit it i thought new poppy was complete trash and worthless, however as i played her for more matches i realized her main frustration points were massive glitches and a few spell flow problems resulting in a series of kill secure failures which snowballed future failures.

I also mained old poppy enough that she used to be considered one of my top 3 mastered champions before the mastery reset and i let old poppy mechanics influence my initial playstyle attempts too much.