I am a big experimenter when it comes to builds and champions. I like to test different builds and/or champions that are out of the box. Legit testing looking for viable builds - not a troll.

Stream
You can view my Experimenter's stream here:
www.own3d.tv/live/25171

Other Guides by Stârk
Jungle Cassiopeia:
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/cassiopeia-jungle-133680

AP Karma:
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/ap-carry-karma-150170

Coming Soon.

Poppy is a fairly unique champion and to create the proper rune sets we look at the champion differently when creating builds for her.

The first important fact about Poppy is that her "W" gives her 15 Attack Damage and 15 Armor at Level 1. The Armor and Attack Damage increases by 5 for every extra skill point placed into the ability.

This one ability is what gives us our edge and allows Poppy to solo top. By adding this in to our Rune and Masteries as a level one build we can come up with some very strong early game advantages.

My main build provides: 26.5 AD, 34 Armor, 13 Magic Resist, 9% Life Steal + Left over Masteries. You can see compared to any other champion this is a big difference. As mentioned above your Armor and Attack Damage will increase by 5 for every point put into your "W" skill. Which most of the time you will have level 2-3 "w" before returning for your first buy.

Harrass your opponent early and force a potion use. Throw ignite on them to lower the amount and give you the bonus +5 Attack Damage and Ability Power from the offense mastery. Were now up to +31.5 AD at level one.

This not only makes our auto attacks hit like a truck, but with life steal quints its around 9 health per hit. Our first item is Regrowth Pendant which gives us some very strong sustain. Early CS is very easy as we tend to hit for 1/3 of most minions life.

This build does work as Jungle as well. I don't personally feel Poppy belongs in the jungle as she can't farm fast enough. Ganks can be semi-decent as her "E" stun is hard to pull off on someone not near a wall.

Can you still do well with it? Yes but it still falls sub-par to the other jungler's out there. She has 0 issues with sustain with this build in the jungle and usually heals up on most monster camps.

At first glance Poppy's inability to wipe minion waves with one spell looks like a huge crutch when farming. When using it properly however it can prove to be a major advantage.

There is no reason to use spells for farming. Because of this we are forced to farm with auto attacks. Spamming spells even at mid game will cause Poppy to go out of mana fairly quickly and since our mana regen is terrible we'll be forced to back off or be dead in the water.

How do we create Lane Control you ask? By killing minions waves slowly we can actually keep the lane pushed to our turret. Creating a more risky environment for our enemy and providing easier ganks for our jungler. By doing this right you essentially will have free farm.

Important Defense Masteries:
Indomitable and Tough Skin are both key to make sure minions dont come in turret range. You can tank a whole minion wave (or more) and lose next to no health at early levels.

Early game your goal is to Auto Attack and Q your opponent as much as possible. Always focus farming and only harass when minions are not in last hit range. In the generalized Bruiser vs Bruiser scenario you should almost always win. You have more armor, attack damage and Q hits nice and hard. In most cases "E" is not worth the mana if you can't land the stun, unless chasing to finish someone off.

When your opponent starts to get low pay careful attention to surrounding walls. If you can land a stun with "E" go for the kill. Try to bait them to attack you, move past them and slam them against the wall.

See Introduction section.

Ignite
If your prefer to be aggressive and go for kills this is probably your choice.

Teleport
Poppy needs to stay on top of her farm big time or she'll fall behind. This lets her get back to lane quickly and help other lanes when getting ganked.

Ghost
With Poppy's "W" + Ghost you can easily chase or escape sticky situations.

Poppy has a very powerful passive and I just feel it should be explained in detail.

--- LoL Wiki ---
Valiant Fighter: Passive

Any damage dealt to Poppy that exceeds 10% of her current health is reduced by 50%. This does not reduce damage from structures.

Valiant Fighter is a passive ability that will activate whenever Poppy takes damage that exceeds 10% of her current health, reducing that damage by 50%.

Valiant Fighter's damage reduction only applies to the portion of the damage that actually exceeds 10% of Poppy's health, not the entire damage.

For example: Poppy has 1200/2000 health and is being hit by a 400 damage nuke (after resistances). She will then take: 1200 × 10% regular damage plus (400-10% × 1200) × 50% reduced damage, which will total in 120+140=260 damage taken.

Valiant Fighter's damage reduction occurs after armor and magic resistance's reduction.

Valiant Fighter does not affect True damage.

--- ---

HP / 10% - - - - - - - - - Damage Taken- - - - - - - - - -Damage Received - - - - - - Damage Mitigated
400 / 40 - - - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 70/120/170/220/270/320- - 30/80/130/180/230/280
600 / 60 - - - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 80/130/180/230/280/330- - 20/70/120/170/220/270
800 / 80 - - - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 90/140/190/240/290/340- - 10/60/110/160/210/260
1000 / 100 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/150/200/250/300/350- -0/50/100/150/200/250
1200 / 120 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/170/210/260/310/360- -0/40/90/140/190/240
1400 / 140 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/180/220/270/320/370- -0/30/80/130/180/230
1600 / 160 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/190/230/280/330/380- -0/20/70/120/170/220
1800 / 180 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/240/290/340/390- -0/10/60/110/160/210
2000 / 200 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/250/300/350/400- -0/0/50/100/150/200
2200 / 220 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/260/310/360/410- -0/0/40/90/140/190
2400 / 240 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/270/320/370/420- -0/0/30/80/130/180
2600 / 260 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/280/330/380/430- -0/0/20/70/120/170
2800 / 280 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/290/340/390/440- -0/0/10/60/110/160
3000 / 300 - - - -100/200/300/400/500/600- - 100/200/300/350/400/450- -0/0/0/50/100/150

The above chart compares Health Pool size, Damage Taken and Damage Received. This just shows how much our passive helps us throughout the game.

Chart Facts:

- The more HP we have the less damage is mitigated.
- Poppy has the highest mitigation VS Critical Hits. Armor + Ninja Tabi + Passive.
- VS AP (Burst): The lower your health the more you will mitigate.
- VS AD (Crits): Will always reduce the damage.
- VS AD (Non-Crits): The lower your health the more you will mitigate.

@ 3000 HP (Late Game)
- Against AP (Burst): With decent Magic Resist our passive is pretty close to useless.
- Against AD Critical Hits: With decent Armor our passive will mitigate a large amount.
- Against AD Non-Critical Hits: Non-Crits will most likely not hit the 10% cap with Armor.

@ 2000 HP (Mid-Late Game)
- Against AP (Burst): With decent Magic Resist our passive will mitigate a small amount.
- Against AD Critical Hits: With decent Armor our passive will mitigate a large amount.
- Against AD Non-Critical Hits: Non-Crits will mitigate a small amount.

@ 1000 HP (Early Game)
- Against AP (Burst): With decent Magic Resist our passive will mitigate a good amount.
- Against AD Critical Hits: With decent Armor our passive will mitigate a large amount.
- Against AD Non-Critical Hits: Non-Crits will mitigate a small amount.

It is also important to know how your Q works.

--- LoL Wiki ---
Devastating Blow: Passive

Devastating Blow is an autoattack modifier that causes Poppy's next autoattack to deal bonus magic damage, scaling with the target's maximum health, up to a cap.

Devastating Blow procs spell vamp and Rylai's slow similarly with all single target spells and abilities with full effect.

Devastating Blow pops spell shield.

Devastating Blow will damage Black Shield.

Devastating Blow, unlike most on-hit abilities, procs spell vamp instead of life steal.

Devastating Blow can critically strike, but bonus damage from the skill is not amplified.

Devastating Blow turns the whole damage of the attack into magic damage, which includes the skill damage and the attack damage of the attack, along with the proc of Sheen, Lich Bane or Trinity Force.

--- ---

Basically the main point here is that your Q, even with Trinity Force or Sheen, uses Spell Vamp.

--- Damage Cap Details ---

Poppy enhances her next auto attack so that it deals bonus magic damage and an additional 8% of the target's max health as magic damage. The magic damage based on 8% of the target's max health cannot exceed a threshold.

Threshold: 75 / 150 / 225 / 300 / 375

--- ---

Your Q is magic damage based even with Trinity Force or Sheen and will be reduced by Magic Resist. This basically states that there is no reason to level your Q until you start seeing enemy HP bars with:

Threshold: 937 HP / 1875 HP / 2812 HP / 3750 HP / 4687 HP

Basically when "Q" your opponent, watch for how much damage it does. If it hits the cap or there are other frequent fights with champions with higher HP than them - level the ability. Otherwise focus on "W" and "E".

Level 1: "W"
Level 2: "E" if your have a jungler coming for an early gank (and can land a stun), other wise "Q".
Level 3: "E" or "Q", whichever you don't have.

From here, Max "E" than "W" upgrading "Q" only when enemy champion HP rises to:

937 HP / 1875 HP / 2812 HP / 3750 HP / 4687 HP

See "Q Details" section for details.

Starting Items - Regrowth Pendant + 1x Health Potion
We want the sustain to keep up strong farm.

First Buys - Philosopher's Stone or Sheen
If you are doing well in your lane farm enough for Sheen, the damage bonus is considerable. If you can't hold out till than, upgrade your Regrowth Pendant to a Philosopher's Stone. I normally try to hold out for 1-2 Health Pots and a Ward as well.

Lane Counter
If your having trouble with your lane pick up a Negatron Cloak or Chain Vest to make farming easier.

Boots
Pick up boots around this time, Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads.

Trinity Force
Your first major buy and the earlier you get it the better. If you get left alone up top farm this as fast as possible and forget about the other buys. It all around makes Poppy a beast.

Defensive Items
At this point pick up Thornmail, Frozen Heart or Force of Nature as needed.

Your Choice
Generally speaking as Poppy you want to focus for more burst at this point. You can go more tanky but I wouldn't advise it. With our passive we really do not need to focus too much on health items. Warmog's is still a viable item if your going for that solid bruiser.

Burst:
Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, Maw of Maltorious, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Hextech Gunblade.

Armor:
Thornmail, Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen

Magic Resist:
Force of Nature / Maw of Maltorious

CDR:
Frozen Heart, Youmuu's Ghostblade

Optional:
Shurelya's Reverie
Eleisa's Miracle

- Poppy has the highest mitigation VS Critical Hits. Armor + Ninja Tabi + Passive. This makes Thornmail work very well.

--- LoL Wiki ---

Damage returned by Thornmail is calculated before the damage reduction from armor. This means you can be taking less damage than Thornmail is returning.

Valiant Fighter's (Passive) damage reduction occurs after armor and magic resistance's reduction.

--- ---

These items have a 2 second cooldown once used. Your "E" stun lasts 1.5 seconds. Space out your "Q" shortly after your "E" stun to maximize your damage.

Keep these couple points in mind when playing Poppy:

General

- To win vs some champions you will NEED to land a stun. Its generally not a good idea to go for a kill without landing a stun.
- "W" can stack easily on its own, you do not need to activate "W" until you are chasing or running away. One "Q" or "Auto Attack" on an opponent will have minions attack you and almost stack it to 10. When it hits max stats a noise sounds off.
- Try not to use "E" unless you can land a stun.
- Your ultimate is a great escape tool, when being ganked target the Non-CC/Slow champion and ult them, "W" back to your turret.
- If your Ult target dies your immune shield will fade.

Early Game
- Every Auto-Attack will heal for 7-10 HP.
- Harrass with "Q".
- Use levels 1-5 wisely and bully the lane.
- Focus farming until you have your Trinity Force.

Mid Game
- Land "E" stuns than "Q" and run away. Keep doing this until you can commit for a kill. Poppy is very much a hit and run champion until you have your Trinity Force plus some defense items.

Late Game
- Your main job is kill or push out Carries / keep your Carries alive (stun those chasing them).
- Ult the support to become immune damage.
- Do your best to be the person to catch people out of position. Get oracles if needed to clear wards. Positioning drastically changes a fight for Poppy.

Tower Diving
- Poppy has great defense vs tower dives, constantly run behind the tower and stun the one with tower aggro. Use your ult on the lowest damage champion.
- Poppy can do some really powerful tower dives with her ult. Try to cast as your charging and not before. The ideal cast would be when your "E" triggers the charge but not before the damage is dealt. Ofcourse don't dive unless you know where their jungler is.
- Turrets count as walls - even when destroyed. If your enemy is hugging his turret charge him against it to stun him, use your ult and finish him off.