So I've finished my 10 ranked/normal games as Poppy and I have some notes I'd like to make at least from what I've learned. I know my playstyle is different, I'm bad, and even top players tend to disagree. The top 3 top lane poppy guides on lolking are from 2k elo + players and they disagree on things like matchups. There's always people who'll say "Tryn counters Teemo" or "Poppy vs Rumble ez lane for Poppy"
Playstyle
- R>Q>E>W. W might be better than E, but Idk, sometimes you can stun people a few times in a row. Get your first point in Q if you might trade. By level 3 you should have all your abilities. It's better harass than W even though W is 15 armor and AD at level 1.
- Poppy's regular abilities suck. Q literally scales by 20 damage. W by 5 damage/armor. If it stacks to full before you fight. E scales by 25 damage. But if people are stupid you can still outtrade them in lane by slamming them into walls or into your tower/tower range. Everyone says Poppy's Q is great since you can deal a ton of damage with it, it's only 8% of a target's health and on a 4 second cooldown + 100 damage. Malz W is 8%/second for 5 seconds. In an AOE. Jayce's melee E is a 20% max mana with a longer range and a knockback. And he doesn't even max that shit first. Sejuani does 12% of her own max health in an AoE on top of 160 damage. Even fucking Olaf can E a Poppy without getting in range for Poppy to Q him. And you'll see the Olaf matchup often because Poppy's passive doesn't block true damage. You'll often have to play safer in lane and wait for your opportunities.
- Poppy relies on her ult. Once she gets in teamfights I feel like she's a lot stronger.
- Because everyone knows what Poppy's passive does, or they looked up the matchup in a guide, they often run ignite vs Poppy. You can't reduce true damage. To play teleport vs ignite, you have to play around the ignite, back off before you're forced into an allin where you can die, then tp back to lane with more health than them. Abuse the fact you can split push often later game and still join fights with TP.
- Even if you can't E someone into a wall, you can use it to gapclose just to trade. Be mindful of minions. And in teamfights be mindful of pushing someone to safety.
- Try not to use your W in lane unless you absolutely have to. The active costs too much mana. Eventually once Poppy gets a mana item or her natural mana pool scales up she's fine. A mana pot early is great too.
Itemization
- Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think Triforce is necessary. It's great on champs that don't have much AD/AP scaling but have a little of both, need some mana, and can make use of the bonus movement speed. The bonus movement speed just isn't enough to stick to anyone. And Poppy's Q no longer converts triforce to magic. Her Q isn't even on that short of a cooldown. It's fine to get it as a first item every game. It's also fine to skip it.
- I think BotRK is just as good if not better. It gives more dps and I prefer slows to MS. Heck wit's is even defensible as a first item against AP for the extra dps for its cost and mpen.
- Shields from locket, and maw make sense on paper since you get low, pop a shield, and then are able to block a ton more damage with your passive since your passive works on health, and not shields, but the items don't seem that great because they don't let you stick to people. It makes more sense to get them if you're having trouble surviving magic burst or want to help your team. Heck I'm sure people have tried barrier Poppy.
- As shitty as Poppy's Q is compared to other champion's abilities, it's still at least a third of her damage (in end game charts), and getting CDR will help her use it and your E and R more often.
- Contrary to popular belief, I don't think poppy's useless built like a bruiser. I think she makes a terrible tank, but tank stats in lane can help her survive laning phase, and after her ulted target dies, she becomes vulnerable herself if she's too squishy. You've still got to contribute while your ult is down. Just because armor and health aren't synergistic with your passive doesn't mean you can't buy them. An early FH is great against physical poke, but the CDR definitely isn't much in terms of combat stats compared to like Sunfire. I haven't tried randuins. One great thing about poppy is that you can focus on one resist and just ult people who deal that type of damage.
- Always start flask. I've been running TP so I don't all in unless I severely outplay someone or they're running TP too and I think I can beat them.
Who to ult in teamfights
- You ult the lowest damage threat if you're worried about dying and just need to prevent damage. Their support can exhaust you but then they've blown exhaust.
- You ult the target you can kill for the extra damage if you think you can kill them 1v1. If they flash over a wall you probably can't chase them so just start hitting something else close by.
- Often time you'll ult your lane opponent because you've likely built to counter them. Eg. armor vs AD, or MR vs AP. If you built armor you can ult the enemy AD carry, if you built MR you can ult the enemy AP mid.
People are idiots and will hit you even when your ult is up on someone else.
- You can bait someone into throwing a skillshot at you, then eat it by ulting someone else just to remove that skill from the fight.
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