SEASON 13

13.1

Thought I should update for the new season.
Playing Poppy support is a struggle in the current meta.
All of her major counters are strong at the moment.

READ THIS IF NOTHING ELSE

YOU CAN FLASH DURING POPPY ULT

Don't be like Closer, you can flash during R charge up. Had he known this simple mechanic it would have made watching him so much more bearable.
You can also flash during the charge to knock up enemies if you're fast enough. To do this start your ult and then flash before you release it. If you release it before flashing you will buffer your flash, miss your ult, and then flash like a fool.

YOUR SHIELD DOES NOT FALL RANDOMLY

It falls in a pattern I'm sure you noticed if you've played Poppy enough. It falls toward a wall an equal distance from both you and your target. Once you have this basic idea, it should become natural.

My name is AscorbicAcids, famed NA Bronze player.
I haven't played long (only since preseason 11), but have a majority of my games played on Poppy. I started as a jungler and was obsessed with offmeta picks, and as a result picked up Poppy. Eventually I wandered out of the jungle after 5 camp clears fell out of meta and tried her Support. The playstyle took time to get used to but I learned to use every part of her kit to it's greates potential in the role and can say it's not nearly as situational as it's made out to be.

Pros

• High base stats
• Great base AD
• Surprisingly tanky early game
• Unique and powerful utility
• Early tower dives
• LVL 2 all in
• AD support

Cons

• Some really bad matchups
• Team reliant late game
• Lack of "real supportive utility"
• AD support

Full AD Poppy

I was going to talk about this in the items chapter, but I think the idea behind it is based heavily on her kit.
Don't build it in ranked, but the main idea behind it is Poppy's ridiculous AD ratios on Q( Hammer Shock) and E( Heroic Charge)
Q has a ratio of effectively 180% on about a 3 second cooldown by max rank and her E having a 100% ratio along with its 2 second stun.
As a support you shouldn't be getting enough gold to abuse these ratios

PASSIVE: IRON AMBASSADOR

Poppy will occasionally throw her shield dealing bonus damage, this is her main source of poke in lane. If the target is killed the shield will automatically bounce back giving her a 15-20% max health shield. If the target is not killed, the shield will land next to a nearby wall equidistant from Poppy and the target. This will seem random at first but eventually you will be able to predict where it will land as soon as you throw it.

Q: HAMMER SHOCK

Hammer Shock is Poppy's main abilty to spam. It's a shortrange AOE damaging ability with a slow. The slow doesn't seem like much but it definitely hurts to play against. To maximize this ability's effectiveness you need to land the initial and the aftershock. Either through good placement or Heroic Charge you can guaruntee they get hit by both parts.

W: STEADFAST PRESENCE

Steadfast Presence Passively, give 10% bonus resistances. Actively it creates a field around Poppy that when dashed through by an enemy will knock them up for .5 seconds, and then ground and slow them for 2 seconds. It is best used to peel from assassins or lock down mobile targets by using the ability on top of them. Flash W has gotten me plenty of kills on cocky players. Steadfast Presence can be activated in reaction to a dash due to its lack of a cast time. Because of this, save it for the middle of a fight rather than to engage the fight.

Stubborn to a Fault

Stubborn to a Fault is the secondary Passive of Steadfast Presence which doubles the Passive resistances given when below 40% health. This extra tankiness can add up later on when building full tank and is extremely good at baiting out flashes.

E: HEROIC CHARGE

Heroic Charge is a unit targeted dash that will carry the target dealing double damage and stunning if they collide with a wall. After the charge Poppy is issued an Auto command on the unit. This ability can also be used to escape by dashing through minions or jungle camps. This can also be used over walls given the target is in range.

R: KEEPER'S VERDICT

Keeper's Verdict is an ability that can be charged up to 4 seconds to knockback enemies toward their fountain, the direction is not changed by what direction you hit them from.
If you release the button less than .5 seconds of charging, you will instead knock up enemies 500 units in the targeted direction as well as 180 units around Poppy.
Cancelling this ability, via death,cc, recall, or not releasing after 4 seconds will put the ability on a 15 second cooldown.
Use this ability to peel your team or turn a fight.

General

My build changes nearly every game, I build for whatever is killing me and then I decide if I can trust my team to deal enough damage.
Stacking health early is my priority. Typically prioritize boots over cloth armor unless vs double AD bot.
After you should build Spectre's Cowl IF you are struggling really badly against a poke mage. Boots will be better so you can just dodge their poke easier.
If you have several high mobility threats on a team you should build Dead Man's Plate, If you have a fed lifesteal/enchanter you should build Thornmail. Thormail can also be built late game to give yourself a little extra wave clear and damage.
If their team has no threatening champions you can instead look to buy AD or directly supportive items if you have a fed hypercarry.( Knight's Vow, Zeke's Convergence etc.)

Mythics

Poppy support has plenty of viable mythics, Turbo Chemtank and Iceborn Gauntlet being some of my favorites.
Turbo Chemtank has a great mythic passive for scaling as you can stack tank items and still have plenty of ability haste.
Iceborn Gauntlet Is strong because of the sheer amount of health you gain as well as giving you more size to tank for your team better. It acts as a sort of intermeiate between Turbo Chemtank and Sunfire Aegis in that it can catch people while also giving you similar burn damage.

Bruiser

Bruiser, unlike the full AD builds can be a completely viable option. If your team is full AP, the other team will stack MR and your tank item damage will be negligable. Instead it would be better to build something like Goredrinker to be able to tank and deal more damage. Divine Sunderer should not be an item you need to build if you are the only AD on the team, your team should have Liandry's Anguish and/or Void Staff for tank shred.

Thanks for reading if you got this far, and good luck in your climb from Challenger to Bronze

Predator

Predator is difficult to make work without any survivability in your runes, you're stuck waiting for your boots to have a the ability to go in.

Glacial Augment

Glacial feels bad in my opinion because it procs on the shove from E. Even if you can consistently proc it with your W the duration will be affected by the .5 second knockup rather than the 2 second ground.

Guardian

I used to take it into poke mage matchups, but I don't think it's worth it anymore after the nerfs.

Past here is older information, still useful if you're starting out.
This info is based on my old playstyle heavily emphasising hexflash.

Playing lane is mostly brush campingOriginal:u/Totobean
Here are some common wallstuns that you will often use. Depending on what side of the map you are playing on(Top/Bottom), these change. Most stuns will be more effective with the use of flash/hexflash
These will always result in a good chunk of damage or a kill.
From topside you can walk through river because you are guarunteed to win most level 1 fights. If the other laners try to follow you to lane through river you can wallstun and maybe even kill.
The most active part of you laning phase will be the first few levels. You won't be camping in brushes and instead need to focus on the race for level 2. You and your ADC get level 2 after the first wave and 3 melee minions. As such, save support item stacks for 2 of them and the 3rd for canon in the wave after. After level 2 is secure you can zone the othe laners and gain control of the brushes. There you will sit and be a threat, wallstunning anyone who dares to disrespect your damage.

Losing Lane

In some games, you may lose lane. This can happen if you die early against a poke mage, Morgana, Blitzcrank, or Pyke. Depending on how far behind you fall you likely will have a chance to get back into the game. Playing passively in lane you should be ducking in and out of brushes to bait abilities and make space for your ADC to farm. Your goal should be to get tanky so you can frontline for your team in the mid and late game.

Unplayable Lane

Any lane where you can be dove without trading a kill. There are few matchups that you will be unplayable from the start. Doesn't matter how you got behind, you just need to stop giving up gold. Roam with your jungler until your tower falls.

Playable w/o brush control

Most notably into Maokai. You won't have any opening to kill. Play to shove and then roam.

Poppy's mid game consists of looking for wallstuns. If your team didn't secure a great enough lead the chances are you're gonna be stuck waiting around for late game. Trading your life for a kill and objectives is usually the best option if this is the case. Just make sure you don't have a bounty from laning phase. The mid game begins to bring out her team reliance and how badly she needs a team to follow up on her cc and upfront damage. If you can't end here you will be at the mercy of your team to deal damage unless you plan on selling support item(don't).

Late game you should focus on not getting caught, you are impossibly hard to engage on and should lock down anyone who tries to engage. Buy your elixir of Iron, stick to your team, and play frontline.

12.10

The durability patch definitely hurt Poppy's agressive one shot potential early. With an adc with good synergy a level 2 or 3 all in should still kill.

12.11

Tank items got some crazy buffs, making Knight's Vow actually useable, Randuin's is an option to replace frozen heart, and more health on tank mythics.

12.15

Been a while
After recent patches the resolve tree got nerfed, so I've taken a more aggreessive approach.
Domination with chemtank is very powerful right now and likeley won't be changed until the end of LCS season.