Disclaimer: This is the first guide I am building, so please pardon me if I have any mistakes.

I have been playing Poppy for quite some time now and I've seen a lot of players play her and fail miserably. I am by no means a pro-player, but I would like to believe that I play decently. This guide is not me saying "Hey, you should ONLY play her this way" but rather my way of showing you how I play Poppy. I've had a lot of success with this build and I'd like to share it in the event that maybe it might help you too.

CHANGES:

(June 10, 2011) :
- Edited Item Build order
- Changed Skill Build order
- Added better descriptions in Items

(June 20, 2011) :
- Added build's 2 and 3
- Items build order for 2 and 3 are not shown. Only the final items.

(June 21, 2011) :
- TOTAL BUILD REVAMP
- Renamed the build
- Removed Builds 2 and 3

(June 23, 2011) :
- Changed Item Build Order

(July 8, 2011) :
- Changed Item Build Order
- - Changed Boots
- - Changed Runes

(Oct 15, 2011) :
- Updated Mastery section for other options

(Dec 20, 2011) :
- Updated Masteries due to the new Mastery Trees
- Updated Runes due to the new Mastery Trees

While other young yordles would play skip-step and make wreaths out of braided posies, Poppy was earning calluses and grease stains in her father's armor shop. Blomgrun was a well-respected armorsmith, and he named his daughter for the sprightly sounds that accompanied the sparks leaping from his ever-burning forge. He was filled with pride when she was first able to lift his trusty hammer, Whomper. One day, Blomgrun was comissioned to create a glorious helm for a Demacian general. Word of the charge was leaked to the Noxian High Command, and two of their best spies ambushed Blomgrun's caravan en route. Though Poppy escaped with the helm, she helplessly watched as her father was slain. Instead of fleeing home, she carried the helm to Demacia alone. When the Demacian general saw the grim determination behind the tears in her eyes, the general requested that the leadership of Bandle City appoint Poppy as the yordle ambassador to Demacia. Soon after, seeking to crush Noxus with her father's hammer, Poppy volunteered for the League of Legends.

Poppy may be small, but Whomper - or her will - is not.

So I suppose you're wondering, why not just focus on AP if you'll go CDR and keep spamming? or why go CDR where in you only need to use your skills once or twice if you build AD?

Well for me, I find that AP Poppy to be a little on the soft side, and also WHILE WAITING for Cooldowns (even if it is a short while), you'll be doing close to no damage.

So, why not full AD? Although, that route is tried and tested, I have more fun with this build. Rather than charging in, hitting your 1-2 combo, and then whacking away, I like being able to press the Q button and keep spamming massive damage (Plus its easier to get last hits this way haha!)

PROS

Massive burst damage
Fast runner / escape artist
Tough to kill, because of her passive
Good tower diver
Nearly Spammable skills
Health and Mana Regen is decent compared to other builds

CONS

Easily harassed by ranged
Weak during early game
Terrible Farmer, dependent on last hit
Semi-item dependent

Ghost : I normally use Ghost for the extra running speed to escape a gank or to engage or get into position for charge quickly. It also doesn't lose its usefulness late game, its nice to have have the extra run speed when you're tower diving and need to get out ASAP.


Exhaust : Great for chasing. Also great if you'll stand toe-to-toe against another AD melee. You zap their AD down to almost nothing. Finally, cast Exhaust if you want to keep the enemy in the right spot when you're heading to the perfect position to Slam him to the wall.

Other viable Spells are:

Ignite : I used to use Ignite as it gave me easy last hits and more damage, for when I can't catch up to the enemy. But after playing around with Poppy more, I found that Exhaust might have been the better choice all along.


Teleport : Good spell, specially for those who are still learning how to lane better, or has a tendency to over exert themselves and need to run back to base and back to the front lines quick. This also helps in the late game when you wanna port all the way to the other side of the map to join the gankfest :)


Flash good spell to position yourself for a Charge. Although, I prefer Ghost over it cause it can be used to chase and Ghost stays longer also cause of the 1 Mastery Point.


Cleanse very good spell when you feel you have to be the initiator of the fights. They gang up on you, pop cleanse and your invul and they've just spent all their CDs for nothing.

(newly changed: Dec 20, 2011):
9 / 0 / 21
With the new masteries introduced, it allowed me to get more utility and yet still keep the Cooldown reduction masteries. What's better is that the CDR% is now 10% instead of the old 9% which means, you can change your runes also and add 2 more Blue Mana Regen / Level runes.

Offense Tree:
It's nice to take note that the Ghost and Exhaust Summoner spells both get buffed by 1 Mastery instead of us having to take 2 before.

Also, instead of getting +AP and +2% crit chance, we're getting a flat +3 damage which IMO is a lot better. The rest is about the same, except we lost 5% Magic Penetration from the Offense tree BUT we gained 1% more CDR. The 5% Magic Pene is does not hurt the build too much, since we're focusing more on the Physical Damage she does.

Utility Tree:
We basically lost (3% down to 2%) 1% movement speed, and 10% length increase on buffs (30% down to 20%) for 12 Mana per level or 214 Mana at level 18. Not much really, but more spamming! The rest remain the same from the old build. We still have 10% less time spent dead, +3 MP5, 5% more XP, and 6% CDR.

You can also get the full 40% CDR if you go with another mastery build like say (21/0/9) except that you have to change your Blue Runes to CDR/Level or flat CDR.

Greater Mark of DesolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation
Basic Armor Pen Runes here. Roughly 75% of our damage will be coming from Attack Damage, having armor pen just makes us hurt them more.


I've changed the Blue runes to all Mana Regen runes, if you feel that these are a little slow for your early game, by all means switch out to Flat Mana Regen Runes or some other runes you feel will supplement your game play (Magic Resist comes to mind) or keep them and switch the yellow runes to (Armor Increase). I like the MP5/Level since after level 6 it already out does the flat MP5 runes.


As I mentioned, you'll often find yourself low on mana. Having these runes helps deal that problem to an extent. These are also better then the Flat MPR Yellow runes cause, like the blue ones, they already out perform the flat MPR runes at level 6.

[The Core Items]


TOTAL CDR:
15% CDR from Shurelya's Reverie
15% Ionian Boots of Lucidity
6% Utility Masteries
4% Offense Masteries

---

40% Total Cooldown Reduction - CDR CAP :D

EARLY GAME:

-> Philosopher's Stone
We start off using a Regrowth Pendant as this will allow us to stay in the lane long enough to get Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone .

Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone helps Poppy out a lot in the beginning since we all know she isn't great at farming, so the extra gold helps. Plus the mana regen it gives along with our mana regen runes allow us to start spamming skills early on to get last hits more often or charge in and start whittling down your enemies with a quick Devastating Blow and Paragon retreat.


Get Boots of Speed next as you'll start to feel that moving sluggishly won't get you where you want to be able to efficiently Charge and use Devastating Blow.


From then we transition to Sheen, as this is one of Poppy's bread and butter items. The synergy it gives with her Devastating Blow and Charge is astounding. After getting Sheen you can already take the 2 Golem spawn with ease. You can also kill the Buff giving jungle creeps (RED or BLUE). Although I don't suggest this yet as you'll end up with roughly 50% life after getting the buff.

->
These boots are a must for this build to work. We're focusing on using Q and E skill as often as possible, and they allow us to get to that point faster. You should be getting these boots around level 6, right before mid game hits. You'll notice the CDR increase it gives immediately, from 10% CDR to 25%.

MID GAME:

+ + ->
Rush to Trinity Force. Get Sheen if you feel that you aren't getting FF'd and you have decent enough life to get by and not get bursted down. If you feel you are cutting it close get Phase first. Trinity Force gives us everything we need to start smashing people's faces in with our hammer. Extra 150% AD with our Devastating blow? Yes please. Extra Movespeed? Yes Please. Extra Mana, Health and AP? Yes Please. GET TRINITY FORCE NAOW.

Philosopher's Stone + ->
After getting Trinity Force, get Kindlegem as fast as you can then get your Shurelya's Reverie. Don't forget to use the Active of this skill for chasing or escaping.

LATE GAME:

Start with Hextech Revolver it gives you the spell vamp you'll need to allow you stay in the fight and keep whacking away.

+ ->
Since we're using skills a lot, more (25%) spell vamp is very handy. Seriously, 25% of 800 damage is 200, that's good chunk healed. Every 2-3 seconds? Sure! This item alone will allow you stay in the middle of everything and not have to back down until your target is dead. What's nice is that if they "Flash" away, shoot him (Active). Then chase again :D


By now, if played right, you should be smashing faces in and leading the charge. And the opponents are starting to get a little bit more "meaty" if the game lasts this long. We fix that problem by getting an Infinite Edge. Extra Crit, AD, and Crit Damage makes them squeal.


Final End game item, makes you get super damage. I normally am not able to get this far cause the game has ended already, but if you do, get it. Extra Armor Pen and Extra Damage, more hurt for them! GG!

This is my build for Poppy, tried and tested. I hope you liked it, and I hope it helps you smash your enemies. Please leave your comments and suggestions so that I can further improve on this.

Thanks all for your time! Enjoy!

[THANKS TO HIACliff's build and DigDug86's build as I used them as Base for my builds]

HIACliff - http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/poppy-a-scary-carry-54057
DigDug86 - http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/poppy-the-two-hit-ko-6789