Poppy Build Guide by Stokyj96

Before you even think about voting, I suggest that you try out this guide first, however the cheat sheet that is shown above will not be the build that you will utilize 100% of the time and cannot guarantee changes overnight in your gameplay.







Welcome all to Summer of 2012/2013! For those who do not know who I am. Hi, my name is Stokyj96 and this is my guide concerning, yes you got it right, Poppy the Iron Ambassador. Unlike most of the other guides you have trauled through, this guide will SURPRISE YOU, prepare to

Let me demonstrate Hammer Diplomacy!

Poppy is a melee assassin type anti-carry, making her extremely potent against nearly every carry in the game (both AD or AP). She's able to charge into a team fight, taking little damage in her entrance, and then proceed to murder everyone and everything in sight. Her early game laning skills are terrible, I will admit, but providing that her Devastating Blow hits like a semi-trailer, and her Heroic Charge allows for an easy stun, you can safely trade damage against most enemies. She is more than underplayed finishing 3rd on the League of Legends list of most underplayed champions in Summoners Rift, falling behind Karma and Sejuani.


She is especially weak pre-6 and has trouble collecting CS, however after the initial laning stage and help from your laning partner or your turrent you should have no problem two-hitting carries in the late game. Her identifying skill is her Diplomatic Immunity, being on a rather long cooldown for a reason, it is an ultimate that has the potential to change team fights, and offers a lot of utlity, providing both damage potential and can be used defensively. Poppy is quite a simple champion to pick up and play, however there are large skill variations that sort the good from the bad. But, thats what this guide is all about, to turn you into that pro Poppy player we all want to be.

So bite the bullet and scroll down towards domination.

We cant talk about a champion without learning a bit about them now can we? So in this section we will be talking about Poppy as a champion, along with her strengths and weaknesses. For those that have seen and picked up Poppy before, they will realise that she is actually a very versatile champion, with many different build varieties. Some choose AD, some AP, and the rest go a mix of both and roll a hybrid.

But why even pick Poppy in champion selection to start with if she is so complicated?

Poppy's Skillset

Devastating Blow is also commonly used to reset your auto-attack timer which can help get that last hit in quickly. You might wonder why I levelled it up only 3 times prior level 7. The reason for this is because you will not benefit from the added % damage from each rank until later in the game when tanks and characters start obtaining some health, therefore the point is wasted until around the level 10 mark

Tips and Tricks

Here's me at level 2, in a bot game for convenience firing off a Devastating Blow on the tanky champion Renekton, notice that a single Q does a full bar and a bit of health on its own at level 2?

Paragon of Demacia helps you to position correctly within teamfights, with both the armour steroid and the movement speed boost aiding to your initiation and escape ability by improving your overall survivability.

Tips and Tricks

Here I needed to get in front of Renekton so I could Heroic Charge backwards into Skarner to affirm the kill. However in the end Skarner had it under control, and didnt really need me to get in front at all -.- . But still, better safe than sorry.

By utilizing the movement speed bonus from Paragon of Demacia and the movement speed slow of Exhaust I managed to get in front, ultimately securing the kill with Heroic Charge. Basically, the movement speed from Paragon of Demacia is incredible both early and late, be creative with it and zip around the battlefield.

Heroic Charge. This acts like Vayne's Condemn, you hit a wall and the target is stunned whilst taking double damage. This is your initiator, learn to time it right so you practically ram them into something every single time. What most people dont realise is that your minions and turrents actually count as a wall. Although it doesnt stop you from charging, the stun is still applied for HALF the duration if you charge your targets through minions.

Tips and Tricks

Looking at this image, We can gather that Poppy has a lot of burst when combining her Devastating Blow and Heroic Charge stun in tandem. LOOK AT THAT BURST and thats without the 40% extra from our ulti! This damage is done only when I have a fully built Sheen with a couple of attack speed items. Take note of how much extra damage Sheen gives upon purchase

Any target you cast Diplomatic Immunity upon will be the only person able to damage or CC you. On top of this attacks made by you against that target have a phenominal 40% damage increase at max rank. This percentage damage increase also affects item actives such as Deathfire Grasp and Hextech Gunblade as well as the summoner spell Ignite Tell me that isnt OP. When attacking, you want to either target the enemy support, or the person you are taking out (40% damage increase), depending on their position and threat level. This is because if you ulti your target in the middle of an enemy team, and take them out, you will be left standing there with no shield and some very unhappy enemy team members surrounding you.

Tips and Tricks

The reason why Poppy does not need any health items, unless it is absolutely needed. This is one of the best passives IMO. The innate ability to basically absorb 50% of all oncoming damage from enemy champ skills is incredibly useful in surviving bursts, unfortunately it doesnt have the same effect on tower hits. This passive is what gives Poppy the ability to duel and trade favourably with top lane champions mid game.


For those that like the math:

Spoiler: Click to view

To be frank this passive simply states "all damage that is greater than 10 percent of her CURRENT health gets reduced by 50%. Therefore lets say you have around 1500 health. If she has 1500 hp then the 10% limit is 150. An attack that causes more damage than 150 would have all damage in excess of that 150 limit reduced by 50%. Therefore that attack with a base damage of 200 would cause 150 (restricted) + 0.5 * (200-150) damage = 175 damage. Mitigation from resistances applies before her passive this is why resistances synergize with Poppy greater than hp ever will..

Now onto the most controversial topic that has plagued League of Legends to date. I shall try to answer it and provide details as to the differences between the builds. This is based upon personal opinion. So dont flame, merely stick with your own preference and playstyle :).

First off, if you aren't even level 20, dont even bother with runes. It is a waste of your IP that can be better saved or spent on purchasing champs like Poppy. To those who already have an existing AD runepage, stick with that but just wack in movement speed Quints and you should be fine.

Rune choices are key, as with all champs, but is especially so concerning Poppy.

AD Poppy

Why? Greater Mark of Armor Penetration?

Why? Greater Seal of Armor?

Why? Greater Glyph of Magic Resist?

Why? Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed?

AP Poppy

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

Greater Seal of Armor

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

Here are the masteries I run with as Poppy. Along with the ability to play Poppy in many different ways, a player can also decide what masteries suit themselves best. Its usually standard as a carry of any sort to run 21/0/9 which greatly help your damage output, which is what we are all about here really.

Pro Tip

Running 9/21 is fantastic against hard pushers or sustained solo tops.

AD Masteries

Summoner Spells. These are what compliment a persons playstyle. I cannot tell you what is right for you only state what I use myself.

Ignite: I used to run Exhaust as many of you followers have realised. However I found Ignites extra damage is simply too good to pass up. Due to Poppy's rather short burst, it is hard to follow up if your burst fails to kill them, this summoner guarantees kills, and also allows you to take on those lifesteal enemies namly Sion, Dr.Mundo or that Vampire Vladimir. This spell also does bonus damage when combined with Diplomatic Immunity thus in a 1v1 contest, having ignite will mean the difference as solo tops usually possess great amounts of sustain and self heals. Running Ignite nullifies their advantage.

Flash: This summoner was at first avoided by myself during my time playing Poppy, simply because I found the 10 second movement speed from Ghost invaluable for chasing. However, I have found that Flash is decent to take as a kind of "Counter-Flash" allowing you to quickly close the gap enough to an enemy champion to Heroic Charge them followed by well timed AA's and Devastating Blow's. This also allows you to follow enemies in the jungle by flashing over walls. However be aware of ambushes as a result of this, smart teams will set up on the other side of a jungle wall using your "Prey" as bait so you use your escape tool to get yourself INTO a sticky situation.

Pro Tip: You can flash behind enemies close to your tower, and Heroic Charge them into your tower for an easy kill, 9/10 they will AA you upon you flashing drawing tower aggro.

Suitable Choices

Cleanse: It's a Quicksilver Sash as an item, but this spell also reduces any further incoming CC used upon you by a portion of the amount. If the enemy team is composed of CC that permanently stops you from using your skills effectively, you could take this skill (or screw it and buy the Quicksilver Sash). Not being CC'd is especially important on Poppy since you rely on hit and run tactics and cannot hold out against being focused within a team fight. I recommend this Summoner for skilled micro managers, otherwise leave it.

This, is the most important part of playing Poppy. Choosing the right items at the right time and adapting to situations can either make you come out on top or cause you to kneel at the enemies feet. Keep in mind that this build is AD orientated and will differ in every game you play. I have included many items that bosst survivability in conjunction with AD, this is because any team worthy of playing a ranked match, should and will, hard CC you everytime you come into range as well as focus you as soon as you enter the teamfight. That is where many other Poppy builds fall down.

The reason I get this first is because of the massive sustain it provides, along with the much needed GP/5 ,that Poppy, being a natural poor farmer requires. Along with the bonus gold, Philosopher's Stone allows you to last in lane more efficiently with your Q, as well as being able to harrass more effectively with your combos in an attempt to push the enemy out of the lane. You should be obtaining this upon your first recall to maximise the gold output. Late game we sell this once it is no longer needed (I usually leave it until the last item slot) or it can be built into an early Eleisa's Miracle so it can become a permenant buff without taking up any item slots.

The attack speed boost from these helps out a lot by making Poppy's attack animations that little bit smoother to last hit better early game. These are good boots for any AD Poppy build. I dont know about other Poppy players but I find that with these boots, you can auto attack really easily after you activate an ability to proc your Sheen, releasing your combo in around 2 seconds, which is amazing burst for a champ around level 5.

Huge boost to your already great damage. The mana suppliments your limited mana supply allowing you to spam your abilites even more. With you now rarely running out of mana and hitting trucks for early game, the enemy better be running scared. Rememeber with Sheen, is that it only applies damage to the auto-attack AFTER a skill has been used, so to maximise your damage output and to minimize your mana usage early game, auto-attack in between your skills.

Here is where many other Poppy players will be up in arms about. All the stats are needed by Poppy (its almost as if Riot went, oh Poppy needs an item, *adds Trinity Force*). Trinity Force although takes longer to build than Iceborn Gauntlet is overall stronger on Poppy against the majority of her laning opponents. The early Health bonus is a really nice suppliment to her Paragon of Demacia to survive laning against heavy AD opponents. Trinity Force comes with increased movement speed, attack speed, mana, all of which build upon the damage of Poppy's skillset and her auto- attack damage improving her ability to trade early game. I dont really believe I have to further explain the mentality behind this item once you start seeing the numbers you pull with this. It is definitley a strong choice and a must have as Poppy's first item.

This, along with Iceborn Gauntlet or Trinity Force provides all the pushing power and AOE damage that Poppy needs to become a dominating power within the game and a powerful farming machine. Attack speed suits her AD build very nicely, whilst the added procs help her to split push, of which you should be doing as Poppy during mid game. Secondly, the movement speed increase as well as the 20% critical strike chance synergize nicely with an Infinity Edge and Poppy's requirement for Heroic Charge positioning. BUY IT!

The perfect s3 AD carry item, offering a decent spike of AD combined with an amazing amount of lifesteal. It's active is useful, for both the added lifesteal for sustain and the movement speed bonus that can help with kiting. To be honest Poppy needs the Lifesteal that this item provides to sustain herself. In saying that I would advise to get a Vampiric Scepter rather early, maybe after you have built your Iceborn Gauntlet or Trinity Force to allow you to stay in lane and to heal up between battles. I have positioned this item later in all builds because it's precentage lifesteal doesnt exceed that of a fully stacked The Bloodthirster until the target has at least (100-25)/(0.05) = 1500 health (excluding active and attack speed) in burst cases and over 2500 health when taking an enemy from 100-0 due to the average damage from this being less than that of it's season 2 cousin.

Awesome little defensive item. This is the ideal defensive item for Poppy simply because of the fact that your job is to get in the thick of it after your tank has initiated, kill the enemies carry/carries, and get the hell out there or die trying. Once dead the battle will rage around you, and by the time you ressurect you will be able either a) Run off with your W, or b) wreak havoc with all your off cooldown abilities and join the fray for a second time. However, be wary about when the passive of this item is up and be hesitant about where it is used, as it will be wasted if they simply camp your dead body. This item also has a fenominal amount of magic resist and armour values, making you that slight bit more resiliant to any incoming damage without stacking any health items.

Shen: *Few... Poppy's dead, now to taunt the rest of the team* - Taunt

Poppy: *YIAHHHHH!*

Shen: *Bugger...*

At an expensive 4k gold in price, this should be the final item you get. The main reason I take this late, is because the attack damage will is a nice addition to your damage ratios. However what is really nice about this item is the dispel like active that is given every 90 seconds allowing you to get out of CC and poison effects that will have certainly killed you beforehand. This, along with your Guardian Angel and Valiant Fighter will allow you to duel easily and is critical to your survival within late game teamfights where resistances are becoming increasingly noticeable. A reminder that the unique passive on this item does not stack with Mercury's Treads.

Remember that this item build is not 100%, if you need more damage swap this out for a The Black Cleaver and watch you attack speed and damage hit the roof.


Other Options: The Black Cleaver for the extra burst against all squishies (This I recommend normally if the teams are evenly matched, as your job is to NOT kill the tank rather the squishies), Infinity Edge/ Phantom Dancer if that is your preferred method and you have either already purchased, if against a Double AP composition swap to a Maw of Malmortius.

Early Game/ Starting Item set.

Focus on last hitting wherever you can as it imperitive you reach your Philosopher's Stone as quickly as possible for the much needed Gp5. Be sure not to be over extend and be pushed out of lane, as this will impact upon your late game severly. Try to harrass where you can but an early game Poppy should avoid any interaction with enemy champs for as long as possible and focus on farming minions. If you have encounterd a kill lane, namely Leona and Xin Zhao play passively and be sure to stay beneath or as close to your tower as possible to avoid feeding, and to get through Poppy's difficult laning stage.

Engaging

You've at least skilled up all three skills and are looking for a gank from your jungler who is present in the tri-bush or top bush near the lane. When the enemy is past the top bush, or as close to it as possible, Flash behind them and nail them into the wall with your Heroic Charge, this followed up with a Devastating Blow and attacks from your jungler will gaurantee a kill. Remember to pop Ignite to prevent any summoners or a Soraka Wish.

Level 6.

Ok so you have hit six and have your ultimate Diplomatic Immunity. Now the game really begins. Consistantly harrass your opponent if they have no in-built sustain and attempt to push up to their turrent, being sure to ward both top bushes in case of a jungler gank. If he is low enough you should initiate beneath his tower (Which should be killing your minions) popping Paragon of Demacia and Diplomatic Immunity whilst closing with a Heroic Charge into the wall or tower for the damage bonus and stun. Follow this up with a Devastating Blow and Ignite to assure the kill.

Whats Expected by Mid Game.

By now you should possess your Sheen, Berserker's Greaves,and your Philosopher's Stone. You should be building towards your nearly compeleted Iceborn Gauntlet or Trinity Force. Laning would have been over by now and the ganking game begins. Your lane partners will often disappear from your lane momentarily, it is imperative you call "Mia's and Re's " whenever your opponents leaves the lane, or you cant see them no more, simply because smart laners will appear like they have either simply recalled or mnake you believe they are camped in the bushes, when in fact they are heading towards your poor mid lane AP. Make sure you are at every teamfight!, target their AP carry as he is usually very bursty, but squishy at this point in the game, however you are not powerful enough to initiate unless it is a 2v1 gank, so dont try it.

Remember to keep an eye on all towers, you can easily pick up a kill with a Flash + Heroic Charge combo. In a teamfight be sure to take out their Carry and not their Tank.

Dragon control is incredibley important, if your bot lane teammates or your jungler hasnt warded dragon yet, physically harrass them until they do. A dragon is worth a kill for the entire team, and usually at this stage a kill can make all the difference. Make sure to put up a fight at dragon, however be careful as those already inside the circle that forms dragon have the location advantage, but can be hit by ranged AOE's rather easily, use this to your advantage and smash the enemy into the walls.

To sum it up: Run around, catch up on lost farm from your weak early game, snag team dragons, and target their AP carry whom will be dealing a whole load of burst, whilst being squishy at the same time..

Late Game

By late game you should have 3-4 items under your belt and you Should have a positive K/D ratio. Towers should have fallen all over the place. Basically, stick with your team wherever they go you go, let the tanks initiate and dont be caught out on your lonesome. As far as split pushing goes, be sure you know where the enemy team is at all times, and only then can you safely push a lane to an inhib tower possibly even taking it while the enemy team is at baron. Be sure to target the carry in late game teamfights, the longer they survive, the more damage that is being done to your team, however, do not charge in blindly, in-case of the enemy team separating you from your tanks, so be aware of your positioning within teamfights.

In summary:

[*]Focus enemy AD/AP carries at all teamfights!

[*]Split Push like a boss.

Difficulty: Average

You cannot hurt this guy until you get your Sheen. This is because he has Carnivore which you will find make him almost impossible to push out of the lane until you have at least a bit of burst under your belt. However, the same goes for him, unless he manages to land a Rupture + Feral Scream combo on you he will deal effectively no damage to you after you have your Philosopher's Stone. Now what everyone is worried about from this big guy is his Feast.

The ability to deal 500 or so true damage is unheard of at level 6. Thus I recommend grabbing a Ruby Crystal (build into a Phage or a similar health item to survive his burst at 6, as the true damage bypasses your Valiant Fighter passive. Since you are required to build a small amount of health against him, I would recommend replacing Iceborn Gauntlet with Trinity Force. Overall this matchup is basically a farming fest, with relatively little damage being dealt to either side, however if you catch him at 1/2 or 1/3 of his health, dont be afraid to bait his Rupture and go for it. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU ATTEMPT TO DIVE A HALF HEALTH CHO'GATH WITHOUT SUPPORT

Difficulty: Rather Easy

I've seen a lot of players playing Gangplank top, mainly as a squishy "Crit-Plank". All the better for Poppy. Many tops fear the Pirate, but not Poppy. He should be one of your easy laning opponents. His Parrrley is his main harrass skill, however, early on he will be unable to spam it as effective harrass, so as Poppy you want to level Devastating Blow up to 3 before level 6. This allows you to win trades easily as well as dealing slightly more damage at the cost of the mobility that Heroic Charge at rank 2 gives you.

You should easily be able to push him out of the lane, but mind his Remove Scurvy as good Gangplank's should and will use it to heal himself during your burst and negate your wall stun. Basically your armour, as well as that from Iceborn Gauntlet and his lack of, will win you this matchup.

Difficulty: Average

I dont often see Graves topping, however when he does he is usually building a slight bit more tankier than he would down bot. Smart ones that is. This, for me, tends to be a rather easy matchup if Graves forgets about your Heroic Charge which can be used on a minion close to him to close the gap between you and him. Most players are unaware of this tactic and should be used quite liberally. Anyway, Pre 6 you arnt much of a threat to him, as your burst isnt high and neither is your sustained damage along with your health anywhere close to his. You, along with your lane partner should be able to zone im rather well, just remember to keep the lane pushed and you will be fine. If he is really becoming a major hassle just take a early Cloth Armor to give you that little bit of added survivability, jsut make sure to avoid his smokescreen and his Q and you will be fine. Go Trinity Force for this matchup.

Tip: If he uses his dash, to dash toward you for the attack speed bonus, he made the biggest mistake of his life, if your on any more than half your health and neither of you has fed, simply turn around on him and bash him into the closest wall/ towards your turrent, since he is relatively squishy he will attempt to Flash out. Well done! you have made him waste his main escape tool.








I tend to find Kennen a lot lately, maybe its due to his utility that he provides in his multitude of stuns. Unfortunately for us, Kennen is one of the harder matchups due to his ranged nature, with a powerful arsenal of poking tools that will leave us all high and dry in no time. The ideal way to approach this matchup is to simply, like most others, farm under your turrent, hiding within a minion wave to block his harrass with Thundering Shuriken. This means learning to last hit under your turrent.


Poppy gets one major opening in the laning phase against a Kennen. This comes when you have your Philosopher's Stone and your Mercury's Treads or Sheen and reach level 6. In a direct 1v1 situation you will be able to beat a kennen due to the damage amplication from your ultimate. On another note, kennen is an energy user, with no direct way to restore used energy. Thus once Kennen uses his combo, he is useless for a crucial 3-5 seconds relying on his auto attacks for damage between bursts, allowing you to quickly trade, or finish him off.

Often Kennen players will use Lightning Rush as an escape tool. If you can keep up with Kennen even after he has used this it will be an fight, as this skill uses up HALF of his total energy negating a large portion of his burst potential.

























Although a good Shyvana might not be the best to lane against as a top lane Poppy but it is do-able. The main problem is that as a Poppy you have a high base defence allowing you to withstand a lot of damage from AD characters, however since Shyvana does magic damage along with that, you will have to build a Mercury's Treads simply for the added magic resist, either that or use flat magic resist runes.


A Poppy should tower hug in this situation, gathering a farm here and there avoiding early tradeoffs as you will come out for the worse, however once you have your Sheen you can afford to be a tad more aggressive beginning to even out your trades with her. But be wary, he damage will rise considerably once she hits 5-6. A Shyvana tends to push quite hard due to her Burnout farming, this allows your jungler (lets hope you got one) to gank her rather easily. I find that once she hits 6, players often become overconfident and tend to Dragon's Descent directly outside your own tower range. This is incredibly silly on her part, simply because a quick thinking Poppy will climb over her back and Heroic Charge her into tower range to draw the aggro, damaging her significantly. Basically, play it safe in this matchup as you are ill prepared to go against hybrid top lane bruisers.






Tryndamere is a surpisingly easy matchup for a skilled Poppy. Basically what you want to have against a top laning Tryndamere is a full set of armour runes, which if your following this build you should have to begin with and a couple points in Paragon of Demacia with all of this added armour he will be hitting next to nothing you with his auto attacks early game, which is his main source of damage.


What you want to do to a Tryndamere and his laning partner is to zone them out completely of the minion line, Devastating Blow him every time he comes close to win trade offs and preventing him from gathering any rage to heal himself. If you are having a tough time with the enemy jungler pick up a Sheen as usual to harrass Trynd out of the lane completely pre 6, for an un-fed and under-farmed Tryndamere really is useless to his team besides his slow.


Pre-6 watch out for his Undying Rage lure, as this sometimes catches me off guard when I believe its on CD. If possible Heroic Charge stun the bugger before he can pop it for an easy kill.

Many people question Poppy's viability in the jungle. Her kits brings a lot of versatility and change to how a jungler is meant to be played and provides ganking mechanisms that cannot be seen on any other champion. Whilst her base statistics and skillset seem fit for the jungle, it is incredibley hard to deal with early jungling as Poppy but fear not! for it can be done.



There are a few obstacles to tackle when facing the jungle as Poppy an example is having to take Smite which leaves you with only one summmoner to play around with forcing you to pick between Ignite for a better finisher, Exhaust for a reliable form of soft CC in ganks, Flash as an escape mechanism and Ghost for greater mobility, whether it be chasing or fleeing. Jungle Poppy sounds on paper like the go to build straight off the bat. A champion that needs lots of consistent farm to progress to a late game beast. Since the creeps in the jungle dont move your guaranteed the majority of your farm, the one conflict with this is Poppy takes a long to time to start off and become self sufficient.


Poppy is able to inflict some serious single target damage in ganks as well as offer up easy tower diving opportunities around the level 6-10 mark which no other champion can match. As long as one places her Heroic Charge's perfectly, Poppy turns out to be a strong jungler with amazing ganking potential as well as being able to defend against invasions easily.

Why use wards? Especially since I'm Poppy!