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Poppy Build Guide by Jageiko

Support [25.22] The Poppy Support Encyclopedia - Ten Years of Knowledge

Support [25.22] The Poppy Support Encyclopedia - Ten Years of Knowledge

Updated on November 6, 2025
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Jageiko Build Guide By Jageiko 60 2 43,859 Views 3 Comments
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Jageiko Poppy Build Guide By Jageiko Updated on November 6, 2025
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Runes: Spellbook Tree

1 2 3 4
Inspiration
Unsealed Spellbook
Hextech Flashtraption
Biscuit Delivery
Cosmic Insight

Resolve
Bone Plating
Unflinching
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+2.5% Movement Speed
+65 Base Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4 5 6
Flash Heal
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

Items

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

[25.22] The Poppy Support Encyclopedia - Ten Years of Knowledge

By Jageiko
Introduction

Salutations everyone!


Welcome to this humble Poppy Encyclopedia!



Demacia Vice Poppy by Meduza (@lVleduza on Twitter - Formerly Te4moon)

❂ The Redaction Squad ❂

Let me introduce myself as Jageiko, aka Jag, or the Demacian Yordle Supp Maniac.

Rank : I climbed Diamond this season, in SoloQ only and exclusively with this beloved pick.

Mastery : I reached 2,500,000 Pts in August 2022
I reached 3,500,000 in April 2025

(ALL those points are on Poppy Support. I might very well be the one guy that played it the most in the world. I'm not sure but in any case a lot of ADCs have definitely been harmed in the process)

After the redaction of my Poppy Support Ecyclopedia, other mains and OTPs kindly accepted to help me in order to refine it again and again and even add other parts studying all the roles the Hero of Demacia can cover in a game.

The future project will be to write the Ultimate Poppypedia combining all of our knowledge to teach the Poppy ways to players willing to try that champion, but it's going to take a lot of time.

Don't hesitate to hit me up if you're interested !


❂ To whom is this guide adressed ? ❂

To the people looking for a pocket pick botlane, to the aggressive support players that want a pick to climb to gold, plat or even diamond, to the people that want to learn Poppy, and finally to Poppy players that are looking to perfect their knowledge of her capacities.

This guide's objective is to make a full inventory of everything a good
Poppy Support can bring in your game, so even if there is an entire section dedicated to it,the main focus of this encyclopedia isn't on the Items and Runes (those will keep changing every season), but is instead on the gameplay itself, since this pick's strenghts are extremely unique and independant of any meta.




▲ Summary ▲


You can click directly on those title to skip to the dedicated part :












The guide will be filled with clickable spoilers like this one, gorged with more detailed infos. Don't miss those :

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

SPOILER EXEMPLE : the builds and runes that i recommended are not mandatory

↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑

Our main goal here is to show you the tricks, the gameplay, the versatility, the numerous strategies, the aggressivity, the fun and the game breaking potential of a good Poppy Support in any imaginable game, regardless of opponents or meta.

So, dear Demacians,

Do you play Support, but also want to have fun?
Do you like All-in laning and peeling your team forever from assassins?
Do you like maintaining drake control, yeeting gankers back to their base, and one-shotting ADCs, Mages or Supports alike?
Do you like bullying the river crab, and pressuring Jungle, Bot, Mid, and drake, until people start to see you in their sleep?
And most importantly, do you like to dive?

Welcome to the Poppy Support Squad.


''A Demacian, a Noxian and a Frejlordian walk into a bar...''
Poppy Support : Presentation and Abilities
Poppy Support, Keeper of the ADC

★ DEMACIAAA: Tanky hard-engage and Dive-machine.
★ You.Sit.: Lot of CCs.
★ Bonk: Very good Early Game with insane base damages on MaxHP.
★ Up you go: Great teamfight and game changing R.
★ Nope: Anti-dash peeling ability.
★ Fool me once: Snowballs really well.
★ Mine: Very good roam potential and drake control.
★ Pocket Poppy: Exotic pick that people are still not used to play against.

★ Early hammer: Struggles late game.
★ Melee champ: Need to kill fast or she'll get poked by ranged match-ups.
★ All in champ: You're permanently one bad E away from losing the game.
★ Game-changing: Has to choose every fight between locking a target or peeling allies, which often ends up deciding the outcome of the battle.


why the hell would someone play poppy support?

Even with all my practice, Poppy Support gameplay is so rich that I still feel the skillcap is infinite. Believe it or not but no matter what happens, Poppy Support HAS a way to react, be it by peeling a carry, stunning a support, bursting a ganking jungler, kicking away a roaming midlaner, or so much more. You just need to be able to see it, and execute it at perfection.

I hope this guide will help you to do just that.


Let me start with the basics:

Know your Poppy

Alright, here we go! This section is for people that are new to playing Poppy Support, it will cover her spells and basic identity as a champion.
Important details worth noticing for experimented players will be highlighted like this.

Base stats (Last updated: patch 25.20):
Health
610 – 2480
Health regen.(per 5s)
8 – 21.6
Mana
280 – 960
Mana regen.(per 5s)
7 – 18.9
Armor
35 – 120
Attack damage
60 – 128
Magic resist.
32 – 66.85
Move. speed
345
Attack range
125 (Melee AA)
475 (Ranged AA)
Crit. damage
175%

Abilities
The ability levelling order is on a detailed section dedicated to it.
-I advise you to read the full abilities before focusing on what I comment about it-

| Passive (P) - Iron Ambassador |

Around every 10 (16/12/8) seconds, your first AA (Auto-Attack) on any target will be a ranged AA where Poppy will throw her shield on the ennemy.
It is still coded as a melee attack for the on-hit effects. (For exemple, it will one shot Zyra's plants, or apply the maximum slow on Iceborn Gauntlet on-hit effect.)
This empowered AA will also deal 20-180 bonus AP damage. The shield then falls on the ground. Step on it and it will shield you at 13/15,5/18% of your Max Health for 3 seconds. If an ennemy steps on it first, it will disappear before you can take it. If your AA killed its target, the buckler directly comes back and shields you for the same amount Captain America style.
As a Support, the World Atlas is always your first item, meaning its minion execution will always shield you if you procked it with your ranged passive.



| Q - Hammer Shock |

Poppy slams her hammer in melee range, damaging and slowing all ennemies inside a small zone. The impact explodes shortly after, damaging the remaining ennemies a second time. Both hits are dealing 8% of targets's Max Health. which means a Q hitting twice will take at least 16% of the ennemy's HP, plus the AD ratio, and the CD is very short. This is enough damages to go full tank and still 1v1 carries in Midgame.
You probably guessed it: most of your damages comes from your Q, that's why you will always max it first when levelling your abilities. It's also cheap in mana and usefull to kite, but Poppy lacks mana in general so be carefull not to spam it too much.



| W - Steadfast Presence |
Poppy creates a zone around her for a short duration, that moves around with her. Ennemies that try to dash in or from that zone take a little damage and are bumped airborne, then they are grounded for two seconds, meaning they cannot flash or escape during that duration. On top of that, Poppy gains a boost of movement speed and the spell unlocks her resistances passive buff, allowing her to be tankier when she is lower on health.
The dash cancel cannot be procked twice on the same opponent, and it does not cancel blinks or ennemies that are unstoppable or untargetable. Spellshield items such as Edge of Night will protect one dash from it.



| E - Heroic Charge |

Poppy charges at an ennemy she selected while pressing E (Point-and-Click ability). She carries the foe with her on a short distance, damaging him on impact. If she hits terrain (regular or created one such as Anivia's wall) with her ennemy, the opponent takes the same amount of damages again and is stunned for a few seconds.
When she E's an ennemy that is on the other side of a terrain, Poppy will dash through it.
When she E, as long as Poppy didnt touch her target and didnt began to push it, it can still flash or blink away, even if the E will already be used and on cd.
This ability can easily cancel dash just as well as W if you use it at the right timing.
A good Poppy will never forget than her W on CD does not mean ennemy dashes have no counter.



| R - Keeper's Verdict |

Two spells for the slot of one !!

The DoubleTap
Poppy can tap the R key quickly to damage and bump airborne all ennemies that in melee with her, the hitbox starting a little behind her shoulders, so with the right angle you might actually be able to hit ennemies that are behind you. It's a huge follow up to your basic E Q combo, that can chain CC and allow an instantaneous take down on a dangerous opponent. It's also a very easy set-up for the ult of the super-popular samurai we all love, Yasuo.

The Threat-Yeeting
Poppy can also maintain the R key to channel a different ult acting like a projectile. It takes at least 0,5 seconds to charge that second R form, and the key can be held for up to 4 seconds in total before the spell cancelling itself if not released. Releasing it will shoot a linear wave of rocks that throws the ennemies hit back towards their base on a very long distance, effectively getting them out of the current fight. If you change your mind and dont release the ult, your spell will then only have 30 seconds of CD.
You can also cancel the channel faster and before the end of the 4 seconds by pressing B at any given time to trigger your backing animation, and it will still count as a 30 seconds cooldown.

There is an entire section of this guide dedicated to the mechanics of this ultimate's long version, you can find it here.

In late game, if you use this ability correctly, it's propably one of the most game-changing ultimate in the game, transforming a doomed 5v5 into a easy 5v3 wipe for your team. People tend to underestimate it and not pay attention to the channeling
Poppy in the backline, often giving you a free R on primary targets.




Conclusions

Poppy's peeling kit is one of the best you can find, while also being very offensive and allowing you to hard engage extremely well. Overall, she's an insanely versatile champion that can shine on very different ways depending on your playstyle.
You can also see that all your spells can CC and deal more damages if you use them at max efficiency. Being successful in lane means managing to hit your E stun, hit both Q, and cancel dashes as often as you can to deal as much damages as possible. Practice a lot to learn the utilisation pattern of dash users in Botlane.


I described a lot of countering mechanics on the Threats and Synergies pannel, at the top of this guide. Feel free to check it out, there is a lot to learn for inexperienced Poppies!


Dragon Trainer Poppy by monorirogue

''The Demacian says: I'll have a wine. No, wait.. An ale! ... Yeah...''
Runes and Summoner Spells
Main Build : Utility Runes


INSPIRATION
Unsealed Spellbook and Biscuit Delivery






!!! IN SOLO Q, BEST TO BE USED ONLY IN EMERALD OR HIGHER RANKS !!!

The best possible Runes for Poppy Support in the current Meta, and it's not even close.
That being said, this build has the massive downside of making her rely a lot on her team and her ADC to be successfull. It's undeniably better than the other two, by an unreasonable margin, but it's also a Build that scales in efficiency with your own capacity to use both active items and all of available Summoner Spells fast and well.

Those two reasons makes me heavily advise you to use the second build instead (Tank with Aftershock and Demolish) if your rank is Platinum or lower. It's especially true if you think that your teamates are not reliable enough, or if you don't feel comfortable enough with League to go with this infinitely high skillcapped key-stone possibilities.


In-depth Explanations for utility runes


Second Build : Tank Runes

RESOLVE
Aftershock and Demolish






IN SOLO Q, BEST TO BE USED FROM IRON TO EMERALD

This build is the more traditional approach of a Full-Tank Poppy Support. I've played this playstyle for litteral years, and I'm very confident in saying that it's never been as effective as it is right now. It heavily relies on Movement Speed and gold generating in early and midgame, hence the CRUCIAL importance of rushing Symbiotic Soles and running Demolish in your Runes Tree.

The logic behind this build is to be able to facilitate as much as possible your snowballing to reach midgame as strong as you can, and able to fight head-on 1v1 with laners. It's designed to utilize Poppy's raw damages without building more, and be tanky enough to decide when a fight starts or not. It's heavily aimed towards Solo Q and relying on yourself more than your team, to seize control out of the nine other players in your game.


In-Depth explanation for Tank runes


Alternative Build : Full Damages Runes


DOMINATION
Hail of Blades and Sudden Impact




Explanations for the damages build runes



Ability levelling order

Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This is your go-to in most cases. The logic behind it is to level up your E at level 1 to be able to stun and engage, then max out your Q first to maximize your damages, since both Q have time to hit even on a lvl 1 E stun. Then, you're just looking to max E to keep stacking your damages, and finally W to reduce its cooldown, as it's extremely effective in late-game.

Two variations are possible from this start, each depending on ennemy team's composition and the game state:

Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

1) Swapping Q for W at level 2, but still max Q first, then E, then W.
variation 1


Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

2) Swapping the Max-levelling order: First Q, then W instead of E, then finally E.
variation 2


As you probably guessed that you can combine both variations, to go for W level 2, then max out Q, W and E, for games when countering dashes is clearly your main focus the whole time.



Summoner Spells


UTILITY SPELLBOOK BUILD
TANK AFTERSHOCK BUILD AND ASSASSIN HAIL OF BLADES BUILD

OR


In-Depth explanation for the summoner spells

''Tha Barkeeps asks: What would it be?''
Items
-As said above, items are not the main focus of the guide, so although this section is very detailed, I put it almost entirely inside spoilers so you know that it's for people that are really willing to look into it.-




Option 1 - Core Utility Build
Emerald or Higher

This defensive build is doing absolute wonders at high elos or in five-man stacks, as it allows
Poppy to become a dedicated peeler right away to allow a better control of her carry's safety. It's designed to be played with the Unsealed Spellbook Rune Tree.




Option 2 - Core Tank Build
Any Elo

This offensive build relies heavily on Movement Speed to take over the game before the end of laning phase. It heavily takes advantage of the synergy between
Iron Ambassador and Dead Man's Plate with stacking a ton of movement speed to deal very good damages in mid-game despite being itemized full-Tank. It is meant to be played with the Aftershock Rune Tree.




Option 3 - Core Assassin Build
Any Elo

This is the classical assassin build relying on the
Domination rune tree. It's doing very decently and has been popularized mainly though Hail of Blades, as Lethality Poppy was already a thing in Jungle during the last few seasons.
It's for the same "Supports" that play
Pyke, Pantheon, etc...
No ennemy can hurt your ADC if all ennemies are dead, right?


֎ Are those auto-win builds? ֎

֎ It would be an absurd lie if I pretended that they were. ֎

Poppy Support is about both your playstyle and elo, and those two parameters will heavily influence how you want to build her items, since you might prefer going for solo plays or peeling allies, two domains a good Poppy will excel at.
Don't worry though, the in-depth section below will help you choose your own build if needed.

First, this TLDR spoiler will show you all the items you might want to choose from.

TLDR : Poppy Support Current Items

❂ If you really want to know in detail ❂

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Spellbook items Build - Step by Step

Aftershock items Build - Step by Step

↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑



❂ Notes on all Items ❂


My personnal thoughts on every item I can think of that would have a rightfull spot on Poppy Support builds :

Detailed section : how to dress properly


The Supp-Item Swapping Strategy


>
>
>


Swapping Bloodsong for Celestial Opposition during late-game

A very underestimate stategy to adopt in late-game can actually be to switch your Support Item to one that fits your late-game role better. As you'll see in the Gameplay Part of this guide, a Tank Poppy in the role of Support heavily shifts from an engager and assassin to a peeler during the last stages of the game.

To accompany this change of gameplay, know that the game allows you to sell your Support Item to buy another one instantly without having to stack the gold again.

Playing with this mechanic, we can obviously consider switching from the ultra aggressive in early game Bloodsong to a way safer defensive Celestial Opposition, since in late game your whole team rarely lacks the damages to finish a kill on one of your stuns, but you often expose yourself at being killed right back. This is why switching to Celestial Opposition when you feel that your team is ahead enough to kill without the Bloodsong buff is a good idea, or in a similar thinking when the ennemy team is starting to be strong enough to catch you up easily on your potential engages or during your warding.


And that concludes our part about items !

Let's now go to the main topic of this guide, how to actually play our beloved
Poppy, shall we ?





Ruined Poppy by Unknown (If you know please tell me so I can put their name here)


''Then the Noxian says : I'll have a... A wine... Yeah, he wants a wine...''
Combos and Tricks


Poppy Combos and Mechanics

-Finally!! Let's get to the fun part!-


BASIC COMBOS

Let's start with a list of all the most common combos you want to use while playing Poppy. Remember that fighting as Poppy Supp is often either about bursting all your damages and run away, or counter-engaging everything that approach your ADC, so be sure to use those combos accordingly.

Happy learning !


Basic - E Q Combo




E
or
(P) AA or regular AA

Q

D/F

In depth



Basic - E Q W Combo




E
or
(P) AA or regular AA

Q

W

D/F

Note : Always wait the last possible second before pressing W, so the ennemy thinks he can dash away when your stun ends. More details in the spoiler below.

In depth



Basic - E Q R (+W if needed)


(In this clip my passive went back up after my R, so the first auto is a regular one)


E
or
(P) AA or regular AA

Q

R (tap)

D/F

Regular AA


in depth



Basic - (Wall-less) Q R Combo / R Q Combo


(Even if W and E are often needed to gap-close, it's not what the combo is about, so consider them mobility tools to be able to land the actual combo.)


Q

R (tap)
or
(P) AA or regular AA

D/F

in depth


Basic - (Wall-less) E-Back ''Popp'Insec''


E back to your allies after passing them

Q in their escape direction (often behind you)

in depth


Advanced- E Q W R (when target doesn't have Flash)




E
or
(P) AA or regular AA

Q

D/F

W

Regular AA

Regular AA

R (tap)


in depth



Advanced - E W Combo (Chasing a dashing ennemy)


E on secondary target

W

Q

in depth



Advanced - Flash W Combo


F/D

W

In Depth




Advanced - Escape Combo E-Q



E

Q

in depth



Advanced - Escape Combo E-R



E

R (Hold)

in depth



Advanced - Flash R W E "Alistar combo with more steps"



F/D

R (tap)

W and pass behind the target

E the target back into your team

Q

in depth




MECHANICS

Now that the combos are all perfectly stacked in your head, let's move on to the usefull things to know about how Poppy actually works. I will list here all the little details that makes this pick so flexible and usefull in all situations. The more you'll memorize, the better you'll adapt to situations, realizing the potential of a true hero of Demacia.

Happy learning !



BASIC - Directing abilities on secondary targets
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT



If there is only one thing that you should remember from this guide, it should probably be this. That's also the best thing to learn to actually progress as a
Poppy beginner.

Always aim for additionnal targets with your spells when you stunned someone during teamfights.

in depth




Basic - Dodge / Escape with E


A very basic Poppy thing is to remember that your E is not only an engage.
It's also a very good movement tool, just as much as your W!

in depth




Basic - Charge through walls


Yes, Poppy goes through walls. Carefull, it works only before you reached your target, since once you carry it, you stun it when reaching a wall (duh).

in depth




Basic - Pathing Q Slow


The slow of Hammer Shock is easily slept on by most players, and it's often enough on its own to get you out of dire situations, especially if you have some movement speed up your sleeve. If you are running away from an ennemy and you can guess his pathing, throwing a Q in its way (if you have the time to do so) can really help you gaining much-needed distance to get to safety.

Don't underestimate what a well-placed Slow can accomplish!



Basic - W Management



You can see in the exemple above that Leona misses her R stun, which is why this whole play can happen. It allows Poppy to keep her W since Leo isn't in range in time to E on her slow. Cancelling Kha'Zix with your saved Steadfast Presence then becomes the only priority, and setting up the free kills for Aphelios after that is child's play.
The key is self control.


in depth


How to adapt depending on the lane matchup

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

W Priority decision making

↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑

Bonus : The Emergency W
-in case you get CC'ed-




Being stunned doesn't always mean that you're out of option, you just need to react fast enough when you know you're gonna be CC'd and prevent their follow-up with a late Steadfast Presence. Being able to do this when needed is the main reason you always want to keep your W cooldown up as often as possible.

In depth



Basic - Cancelling Dashes Reminder
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

Never forget that W is only one of the THREE dash-cancelling spells that Poppy possess. When a CD is down, use another. In my opinion, Poppy is the best peeler in the game... Prove it to me ;)

Let's make Akali cry a little and show you all the way to cancel the same spell:

W



E



R (tap)





Same goes for all the dashes in the game, as long as they are not a blink or unstoppable / untargetable.

Also note that your R bump is instant and works as an area of effect, timing it properly means the dash will be canceled no matter what. Heroic Charge is trickier since it is a displacement. Following the rules of this particular kind of CC, your E will cancel a dash only if it is casted AFTER the dash has been casted by the opponent.

-Technically we could add that the long version of your R works too, but it's not as much cancelling a dash as it is yeeting an opponent out of the fight-

There is not a lot of stuff to add to this, I simply always want you to remember :

If you got no W, the ennemy will let its guard down and think it's their golden window to land their dash.
If you counter his dash with E and/or R at this moment, his mental will most likely crumble, or at least it will make them buy Edge of Night or Banshee's Veil if they didn't consider it yet.




By the way, now is an excellent time to tell you to always ask your team, and particularly your ADC, for help if those items have been bought, since most of tem have a spell to down it. In case you have no other shot and if you can do it while remaining relatively safe, using Heroic Charge to down it is often worth the trouble, and super frustrating for them. Also be aware that Iron Ambassador's passive range auto-attack will down Malzahar's passive spellshield but not Edge of Night or Banshee's Veil.



You're Poppy of Demacia. No one dashes until you say so.



Basic - Passive AA-E Burst


(P) AA

E

As seen here, timing your E right after the ranged attack of Iron Ambassador will cause the two damages to stack up at the same timing for a decent burst. If you have enought time to play the throwing animation before the ennemy escape the angle for your E to work, it's worth to do so, but it's a pretty rare situation in the explosive trades in botlane.

On top of it, since the passive AA animation is longer than your normal AA's, getting it to play before your E-stun saves a little more time to stack regular autos during the CC duration.



Basic - Flash on Passive / Passive CD Control


(P) AA

F/D

Pretty self-explanatory.

In depth


It's also very important to note that your shield CD from Iron Ambassador lowers from 16 seconds (at level 1) to 12 seconds (at level 7) to 8 seconds (at level 13).


You can easily know when the shield is back up cause it whill shine briefly (as showed on the clip above) when it is popping back on Poppy's arm. Always be aware of this timing and of the targets around you that your shield can one-shot (such as Atakhan's flowers or Zyra's plants when not buffed by her R yet) to be able to emergency-shield yourself in times of need.



Basic - W-E Dash Absolute Cancel



W
(just before ennemy dash, without being in range)

E
(during an ennemy dash before your W ends)

in depth




Advanced - E-Flash Combo and Heroic Charge detailed description




E
(to lock your target)

F/D
(to get in range and auto-E)

The most important mechanical combo to learn while playing our dear Demacian Hero is the E-Flash.

Basically, when you select a target with Heroic Charge, the spell won't actually start until Poppy is in the spell's max-range, only then beginning her dash to reach and push her opponent.

During this duration where Poppy walks up to be in range, instantly flashing inside the E max-range makes the spell start instantly, which can surprise your opponent very easily since this trick is WAY faster than pressing Flash then Heroic Charge.

Heroic charge : the specificities and steps


In depth



Advanced - The AA-W animation cancel



Normal AA
(not passive)

W
(during the AA animation)

In depth




Advanced - Reverse-W


Use the fear of the Steadfast Presence rather than its effect.

in depth




Advanced - E-AA Cancel/Target Swap combo



E
(on an ennemy close to your target)

(P) AA
(fast clicking on the actual target)

Not that it's that spectacular, but remember that this is possible if you're fast enough to cancel the automatic attack
that Poppy always does right after her E.

in depth




Advanced - The Q-Flash combo



Q

F/D

In depth




Advanced - The Flash Short R combo



F/D

R (tap)

Unlike its predecessor Q-Flash, this combo is only possible if you use Flash first.

In depth




Advanced - Long R Tricks

Here is a list of all the specificities you should be aware of when casting the long version of your ultimate.

(I hit a Tryndamere with the R, if you wonder. I just poorly clipped it T-T)


1 - Flash R


2 - W while channeling R


3 - The Lollipop hitbox

Extremely important
4 - Hide the casting


5 - Back to cancel the R and CD Cancel Abuses


''And the Frejlordian says: I'll drink anything so long as... Wait.. Hold on, let me start over !!''
The Poppy Support Gameplay
The huge aspect of Poppy Support is that she can do so much that it's sometimes hard to know what's best at a given moment. Those calls are up to you.

My job is to show you all the possibilitizs.




★ EARLY GAME (A.k.a Laning Phase) ★


Let's start with the obvious : how to successfully lane as Poppy Support.

In case your jungler needs a pull, be aware that Poppy has very nice tools at her disposal to help him a lot for almost no cost at all:

buff pulling


Despite the different playstyles, one thing is certain regarding Poppy Support laning phase : It's about snowballing.

Poppy is an explosive champion, with most of her items and powerspikes peaking during mid-game. It's no wonder she's not as effective as a Senna, a Vel'Koz, an Alistar or any enchanter in late game, this is just because you're supposed to win before, or at least get you or your ADC so ahead that their scaling won't matter at min 35.


1) Match-ups and how to adapt your attitude

Botlane is a wild place, but we can roughly sum up your possible supports matchups in four categories (even if most champions are a mix between at least two of those).

I will rank those categories from easiest to hardest to face as Poppy:


★ Engagers
Easiest Lanes

This category of Supports is composed of champions that will try to kill you or your ADC before you kill them or their ADC. They're often melee-ranged, with a good amount of CC at their disposal to set up fights on their terms.

Common exemples: Pantheon, Rakan, Alistar, etc...

If I had to classify Poppy, I'd say she is an engager, that specializes in peeling and bursting. This gives you the upper hand, either by countering their engage or going-in yourself while not allowing them to retaliate with their own CC.

There is a lot of specificities to be aware of depending on the match-ups, especially in high-elo where it becomes a skill matchup, but it's where you shine the most nonetheless, your W often reaching its max potential during those games.

TLDR : Focus on defense and wait for a misposition from their ADC or themselves. They won't be able to engage through Steadfast Presence and should lose more than they gain if they do. If it's too late to counter it, engage their ADC yourself to split their attention and save your Carry. When you engaged first, time your W properly to negate their re-engage.


Special matchups : Rakan, Leona, Zac = Litterally cannot engage if Steadfast Presence is up (if you know their dashes timing) so it's often your job to go-in first and cancel their re-engage.

Carefull : A lot of spells canceled by Steadfast Presence have a shorter CD than it, which means you (or your ADC) should avoid getting hit twice in a row on CD, since you won't have W yet the second time.

how to lane those lanes



★ Grabbers
Not that hard

This category of Supports is composed of champions that mainly rely on their linear grabbing ability to pick of you or your ADC. They are extremely avoidant with direct confrontation, and remain safe while pressuring to kill.

Common exemples: Blitzcrank, Nautilus, Pyke, etc...

A good part of laning phase will consist of mindgames concerning vision and letting your ADC farm while positionning in order to ripost if your ally gets grabbed.

What makes it difficult is that your Heroic Charge is a very linear spell, which makes it easy to read when you'll use it and where you'll end up. If they decide to wait to guarantee a grab when you go in there is nothing much you can do except stay passive, which is often a win situation for them, their pressure making it hard to farm for your ADC. In terms of raw damages though you have the upper hand once the fight starts if the HPS are equals. and your ADC is in range to fight.

TLDR : Focus on fighting for vision in the bushes so you can either avoid grabs or surprise them with an engage when they think you have no vision. You have a small hitbox and a lot of movement speed, baiting their grab is not the easiest thing, but it's far from impossible, remember to E minions to escape if you get grabbed. Trust in your Salsa.


how to lane those lanes



★ Mages
Might be tricky

This category of Supports is composed of champions that will try to poke you and/or your ADC with ranged spells until you can't fight them head-on anymore, most of them are doing Ability Power and not Attack Damage, which means building Magic Resistance might help.

Common exemples: Vel'Koz, Zyra, Brand, etc...

Those lanes are either extremely violent and explosive, or a slow-paced chess games relying or your ability to predict and dodge spells. It's one of my favorite things in the game despite what a lot of people will tell you about mages "countering"
Poppy. The only annoying thing is the certainty to be outscaled at some point.

First thing needed when walking into those games is keeping your head cool. The mages are annoying but they almost all have the same exact weakness : Squishy HP bar, and very bad mobility. This is why the lane is perfectly doable, it means you only have to engage once or twice before you gets a kill.

TLDR : Either all-in to avoid poke and kill before lvl 3 or fight for vision and bushes and consistently position in order to bait their spells while wasting their mana slowly. Protect yourself with
Iron Ambassador while farming from behind with your ADC if needed. Don't hesitate to back a lot if you have Symbiotic Soles, what matters is not to kill fast, it's not to feed them. The first to die, be it on a rotation or in lane, at 5th min or 15th min, will be the one to start losing. At even score, you'll still be able to 1v1 or 2v2 them even after laning phase is over.


how to lane those lanes



★ Enchanters
Hardest Lanes

This category of Supports is composed of champions that specialize in healing, shielding and buffing their ADC without interacting too much with the ennemy. They heavily counter you by negating your burst and lowering your impact on the long run.

Common exemples: Karma, Lulu, Nami, etc...

By far the hardest type of lanes you can face, but you're still not short of options to deal with it. You'll have to kill very early or forget the idea to kill at all in botlane though. A better news is : you're way better at roaming that them.

Think of those lanes as you would for a mage lane, except they have less damages but are way harder to kill. Overcomitting on the enchanter might give up a free kill onto its ADC, which is what you want to avoid, but all-in the ADC is playing their hand aswell. You have no choice during laning phase though, so try while focusing on not dying because of greedyness.

TLDR : All-in only if you see a clear missposition, don't forget that a well-placed ignite can counter a lot of healing spells. If you took too much damages, don't hesitate to back and come back, and roaming is always good if they play too passive. Avoid giving them the possibility to freeze your ADC and try to make difference elsewhere if you didn't manage to kill early.


how to lane those lanes




2) Vision

◊◊◊ A - Starting the game // Countering invade


Your main goal once the game started will be to rush and put a ward in the lane middle bush (W) around 0:45 in order to be early enough so that the ennemy won't know this is warded but late enough so laning actually starts before the ward runs out. What makes it tricky is when your ADC didn't cover and you're alone to execute both tasks at the same time, especially when facing a grabber Support.

It's the exact same thought process in both Red Side and Blue Side, those paths being quite effectively mirrored, as showed in the image.

To do so, two paths are available : the green one is the normal one, but it's assuming your ADC went to cover a potential ennemy invade in your tribush (1). If he did, just put the ward with the green path and join your ADC, if possible without being seen by the ennemy botlane.

If your ADC didn't cover the invade
You'll have to do it the hard way and take the red path. It's fine as long as you do it right away, as most laners won't be here to contest you. In any case, you can assess the situation when arriving at the river mark (2), and back off if you're spotted by the ennemy. I would not recommend pushing the red path alone if they have a grabber support, though, even giving up the ward idea if it becomes too risky. If you successfully put down the ward though, return to the tribush via the river to continue covering the invade in place of your AD, but assess the situation once again while arriving to river mark (3), and back off through your own lane via the green path if you see ennemies.

Why this ward?


◊◊◊ B - During Laning Phase



Warding Priority in Botlane - A Detailed Map

For the exemple, we'll assume that you are playing Blue Side (Nexus on bottom left corner of the map). If you are playing red side, just swap between themselves the tribushes (1) and (3), and the lane bushes (4) and (6), then it's exactly the same thing.


Explanations by zones:


1) River wards

Due to the possible paths a jungler can take to surprise botlaners, the first and most important ward to put down in order to securize your lane is inside the river middle bush (2). It's a common move to put your first Control Ward in your tribush (1)(or 3 if you play Red Side) and a Stealth Ward in the river bush (2), which creates the green combination on the image. When you push the ennemy tower, or if you are generally the ones pressuring the opponents during laning, you might want to instead switch to the red combination, more aggressive, which consist of putting your Control Ward on the river bush (2) and a Stealth Ward on their tribush instead (3)(or 1 if you're Red Side once again), to cover up for their jungle side's entry.

Having this area warded is absolutely mandatory and your absolute priority as a Support. It is the very first of your vision duties, to avoid giving a free double kill gank to the ennemy team.


2) Dragon pit

ONLY IF DRAKE IS UP OR ABOUT TO SPAWN, then warding it becomes temporary more important than warding laning bushes. A good way to ward it would be the entry of the pit (7) to see roaming ennemies as well as the river crab, or the absolue bottom of the pit with a Control Ward to maintain constant vision on it and forcing the ennemy to actually enter the pit and take a few seconds in order to clear it, which can give you the time to rotate and punish them for it or even replace ward.

Most of the time, a simple Stealth Ward will do the trick to at least spot the ennemis coming near the objective, switching to a Control Ward only if the drake is actually about to get started by your team to prevent the potential steal from ennemies.


3) Lane bushes

If your ADC put his own Control Ward or Stealth Ward on the river bushes or the drake pit, you may use your own stock of wards to gain the upper hand in lane. The alcove bush (5) is permanently very interesting to ward since it often gives you intel on whether the ennemy is pushing or setting up a trap. If you put your ward correctly, you can even cover the alcove area entries from bushes (4) and (6).

Also be aware of all the potential shenanigans you can develop with a Stealth Ward or Control Ward inside lane bushes:

wards on your lane bush (4) - (6 if you're Red Side)


wards on their lane bush (6) - (4 if you're Red Side)


If the enemy botlanes contest vision too heavily or you know their jungler is around and tries to remain hidden, you can see on the picture three emergency wards that are great -depending the situation- to avoid enemy Control Wards and get you out of a tense situation during a brief tension.

4) The Alcove

Finally, the alcove itself (8) is never that interesting to ward -especially if you warded the alcove bush (5)- unless you know for a fact someone is hiding inside. It's usually a safe place to back for low-HP ennemies, so just be aware of that.

You should also note that since the alcove is basically a bunch of walls close to each other, so it is an INSANE playground for Poppy, as pretty much every direction gives Heroic Charge a stun.
For real though, that spot is your territory.

More details on this zone in the Laning Phase - Stuns part, right after this Vision section of the guide.



◊◊◊ C - Vision during roaming

Most of the time while roaming you're looking either to set up Stealth Wards on the river bushes to set up control on ennemies roaming, or to put deep Control Wards inside their jungle to have permanent deep vision. If you plan to sit on a lane, a Control Ward can be a pretty effective way to ensure a good gank. Don't forget to often pop your Oracle Lens to take any wards you can while moving around the map.

The following maps will be helpfull to understand how to both ward as a Support and how to get what Poppy is supposed to do in a game.
There is a lot of differences between Blue and Red Sides when it comes to roaming, so be sure to mark and comprehend the differences and why they exist.


If you are Blue Side:



If you are Red Side:





3) Stuns, farm, and lane-control


Mastering the art of positionning is 90% of your champion's effectiveness. Know where to go and when to advance in order to provoke an ennemy mistake, take advantage of it, or save yourself because of it.

I remind you that your basic goal as Poppy is to hit a wall with them, so your whole deal is to be able to identify the best window for a guaranteed CC. This is trickier than it looks, as you cannot just CC whenever your team wants, you need to be patient and precise in order for this to work, especially during laning.


◊◊◊ A - Stuns

Let's study all your common windows during laning phase:

Lane stuns



The most common Heroic Charge you can land as a Support. Usually, you'll get it by taking advantage of a misspositionned ADC who was farming without paying attention to you.
Be carefull about tanking the minions aggro too long when you're doing this, especially at level 1-2 !

Lane bush trap stuns


Most of the time those Heroic Charges will be the ones giving you the biggest advantages. These are also the reason you fight so hard to keep vision on lane bushes and clear their wards as often as you can: because the mere threat of those attacks is enough to mess with the ennemy farm, and often put ir botlane on the back foot.

zoning and teasing

Lane bush counter stuns


Those stuns happen when you lost control of the bushes and one ennemy is sitting in it. You can either put a ward beforehand and surprise them when they think you have no vision, or put a Stealth Ward when you already know they are inside it so you can quickly Heroic Charge them when they think they are safe (If you're fast enough it can work even if they have a Control Ward set up on the bush).


vision is usefull, but not always required


Alcove bush stun


As the previous ones, this stun will necessitate a ward.

Now is probably a good time to show you how to position around a target:


Practicing it will give you a lot of intuition, but always try to adapt to the ennemy's movement to make a missed-stun as unlikely as you can. If you cannot find an angle, it's fine, just fall back and try again a few seconds later : better a late but decisive Heroic Charge than a missed one.

surprising the ennemy entering your bush


Jungle rocks stuns




Way trickier than all the previous stuns, the angles on those two can seriously mess you up if you miss, since it'll get you in the ennemy's turret aggro on top of not stunning the target. That being said, it's a very explosive and most of the time unexpected play so it's definitely worth it if the risk pays off. Practice !

Turret-Dive Stuns


Yes, turrets are terrain too!

diving school


◊◊◊ B - Farm // Gaining Gold and Experience

First of all, remember that since Poppy is a melee champion, meaning that executing a minion with World Atlas takes effect under 50% health and not under 30%. It also means that attacks on ennemy champions and turrets gives you more gold (22g instead of 20, to be precise).

Good news is, your Iron Ambassador is a perfect way to abuse of those two mechanics, since it's effectively a ranged AA but counts as a melee attack.

Use it to farm from safety and poke ennemy champions without taking unnecessary risks.

- Level Two -

Powerspike - passing level 2



Lvl 2 Variation - The W games



Sometimes you'll see that your ADC is especially passive, while their Support can heavy engage with a dash and deal a lot of damages and CC. Good exemples of this would be Alistar, Leona, Rakan, Zac or even Pyke.

It depends on how laning went before that point, but during those particular games, it might be a good idea to swap your traditionnal choice for Hammer Shock as a new level 2 ability for the more defensive Steadfast Presence. This hidden gain of safety can surprise a lot of botlaners, used to having a window between level 2 and 3 to jump on you or your carry.

Extremely important reminder
I will also use this window to inform you once again that a lot of dash-engages abilities have a shorter cooldown than your precious W. It means that while you are indeed countering those abilities, if you or your ADC get hit twice in a row (let's say by a Zenith Blade from Leona before your Steadfast Presence can be up again, you won't be able to save the situation both times !!


- Level Six -

Powerspike - passing level 6



- The importance of Demolish -

Demolish - Your best way to generate gold
It takes 3 seconds to prock the rune, and it has a 45 seconds cooldown. You can apply it every two waves if you are constently pushing ennemy turret.


As a Support, the gold you can gain is very limited, but taking the turret plates into account heavily changes the game :
One plate brings
160 G split between the ADC and you, which would mean 80 G x5 plates = 400 G for you, 400 G for your ADC.
We can add to that eventually one or two plates mid for another
160 G, and the 150 G bounty for the first turret.

According to this, using
Demolish in early game can bring you up to a total of 710 G.

For a Support used to live off assists and passive gold, that's not bad, uh? ;)

But it means knowing how to use that rune properly.
Lucky you, Poppy, as always, has some insane tools to add to the mix.

using demolish properly


◊◊◊ C - Jungle // Crab, Ganks and Jungle-Tracking


Last part of a Support laning phase would be to help the jungler. I'm not talking about Objectives (Dragon, Grubs, Herald and Baron) yet, this will come in the next section, but for now I'm mainly talking about knowing when and how to rotate to assist an invade, a counter-invade, securing the crab for your team, tracking the ennemy jungler and reacting to ennemy or ally ganks.

A good map awareness is a fundamental part of being a decent Support. As such, you should spent a good amount of your free time to check what your Jungler is doing, and if he knows where the ennemy Jungler might be.

Scuttle Crab

The Bot River Crab (which spawns at 3:15, like his topside brother) is often a very good way to get vision for your lane, a usefull tool to roam faster, and a good experience source for your Jungler. As such, it is often very contested by both teams, and Supports are the primary source of help Junglers are expecting to involve in order to tip the scale in their favor.

Even if you end up not killing the crab, remember that your champion is exceptionnaly well-built for Jungle fights and skirmishes, with an in-and-out kit based around walls and bursts. Fighting there early to midgame will very often go in your favor (this is the same reason that pushes you to contest drakes as often as you can).


Always be on the lookout to claim (or deny) this neat side-objective.

Invade

In a similar fashion, be on the lookout for potential invades (be it allied or ennemy), since the first Support to react is often winning the fight by itself. While you join your Jungler, always remember about your Oracle Lens or potential Control Ward to either hide your rotation or claim vision territory over the ennemy jungle while your team steal a camp.

Helping your Jungler snatch an ennemy buff with your peeling kit is not hard, especially to disengage (or even re-engage) when the ennemy tries to contest it. The only condition is to be there first, hence why map-awareness is so important.

Counter-Invade

When you can guess a crossmap clear is being traded by junglers, warding either your Krugs (if you're Blue Side) or Gromp (if you're Red side) is a very good way to catch their junglers off-guard in your jungle.

Remember that Poppy is an insane fighter during jungle skirmishes thanks to the proficiency of walls, pre-6 you're even able to 1v1 most of the Junglers as a Support if you manage to land your stun. The only very important exception would be lifesteal-based champions such as Warwick, which most likely won't go down unless your ADC gets involved, so don't engage them unless you can't one-tap them ( Ignite helps a lot).

Jungle Ganks

There is two types of ganks a jungler can do; a River/Jungle gank or a Lane Gank, and they are called such according to the way the Jungler takes to surprise botlaners in their lane, either by coming from the River, the Jungle, or by hiding in the Lane bushes while coming from his team's turret.

In all logic, those are countered (or set up) with good vision control over River/Jungle bushes or Lane bushes.

about lane ganks


You're being ganked by the ennemy:

Once the vision game is played, fate is sealed. If you see the enemy Jungler ganking, first rule is : do not panic. Calmly analyze your tools and the situation.

-Do the enemy botlane have their summoner spells up?
-Do you have Steadfast Presence or Heroic Charge available?
-Who has the upper hand in terms of HP?
-Is your ADC rescuable?

Depending on all those factors, you should be able to determine if engaging the enemy Jungler head-on with your E is doable or not, if you should hide in a bush to use Keeper's Verdict either on the Jungler, or onto their botlane, and if your goal is to CC, to kill, or simply to survive yourself.


kick their jungler

OR


kill their jungler

Always remember how explosive your burst is, especially pre-lvl 6, but also how well your kit allows you to desamorce an enemy assault.

Your Jungler is ganking you

Your Jungler should not arrive in a lane where the ennemy is already retreating. Either bait them too deep for them to manage to reach their turret before he's already there, or hard-go in when you see he's about to get spotted.

You already know that Heroic Charge is not a spell you can use to stun on command, but rather needs a wall to work plainly. That's why if you're on an urgency, you'll rather gap-close the enemy with E or W in order to bump them with Keeper's Verdict or slow them with Hammer Shock.

Keep in mind during these situations that your main goal is to set-up a 3v2, not to kill yourself or throw everything you have if it's not needed to kill.

◊◊◊ D - Holding a lane 1v2 // The Poppy Support Special

The Poppy Support Special (PSS), or Reverse-Dive, is a power-move that you can use only in very specific situation when you have no choice but to defend your tower 1v2 past level 6. It's based on an ennemy mistake and starts with the sole idea of using Keeper's Verdict to save farm for your ADC or avoid getting pushed/dived.

Consider it the signature move of Poppy Support


Save the Wave



★ MID-GAME (A.k.a Roaming Phase) ★


1) Roaming, Rotating, Collapsing


Roaming can be done as soon as the game starts, as opportunities present themselves, but I put this section here for conveniance as it's roughly around 15:00/20:00 that rotating with your ADC also starts.

Just remember that those advices can perfectly work in early-game aswell, especially paird with the roaming vision maps on the Vision section above. I'll put them here aswell if you need a reminder without searching it above :

Vision when roaming the great return of the previously seen maps but its kinda practical to have it here


When to roam?


Usually after a kill botlane, if you still have a decent amount of Health and Mana.

First help your ADC to clear the wave if possible, then use demolish if it's available.

Once it's done, head to the river, while clearing wards if you see some with [/color] Oracle Lens.

Jungle Chill

Always keep an eye on your lane if you're not that ahead, cause their lane will freeze and deny creeps to your ADC if you roam for too long, or even dive him if they have enough CC.


gank mid


gank while returning from base


As with any Support, when you return from base, always check if Mid or Jungle needs help (or even Top, those guys are lonely) while taking into account how much time your ADC can spare you.

There's no magical formula to determine when it's worth, but if your ADC is safe, is backing or with your Jungler and you have enough time, a gank on a solo-lane can help regaining control of the game when an ennemy started snowballing.
Or it can bury them deeper if your teamate is already winning !

counter roaming



2) Playing for Objectives

SPAWN TIMERS

OBJECTIVE
First Rift Scuttlers
First Drake
Void Grubs
Rift Herald
Atakhan
First Baron Nashor
FIRST SPAWN
3:30
5:00
8:00
15:00
20:00
25:00
RESPAWN TIME
2:30
5:00 after kill
Never Respawn
Never Respawn
Never Respawn
7:00 after kill

Be sure to often check timers with TAB, so you can see what time remains for you to join the objective site to ward it before the fight.

Lets now see how to adapt if either your team started the objective and you have to prevent the ennemy from stealing it, or if in the opposite the ennemy started it and you're trying to either make them abort the call or steal it.

Vision

Fighting around the Objectives



Objective : Defense


Objective : Offense



★ LATE-GAME (A.k.a Teamfighting Phase) ★

1) Late-game Teamfighting


Peeling


Congratulations, you got hired as a bodyguard.

The more the game lasts, the harder it gets to be able to engage, kill, and survive as a Poppy Support. This is hardly surprising, since most of the champions outscale her, and Support gives you less ressources than other roles on average. This means that your role slowly shifts from the main frontline and CC engage to a full-time counter-engage bodyguard when timer reaches around 35:00.

Of course, you have to recognize and jump on the rare opportunity to straight up catch and one-shot a target, but the safest bet is most of the time to always track their assassins and their carries, in order to turn fights in your favor.

peeling, a philosophy


Kicking their damages
As opposite to early and mid-game, where you're often looking to kick CC and utility protecting the carries to quickly ruin them, it's often good in lategame to disengage by kicking the carries thanks to your ultimate, effectively wasting the ennemy heavy engages when no one can follow them, and locking them in a tough spot with your own carries killing them, in order to then re-engage and even dive their carries when no one can protects them.

Pay attention to the backline: after kicking Nasus and Jinx, I went on Katarina to ensure that no matter what happens, the damage isn't there to save Zac and Alistar, my team dealing for free and being able to re-engage 4v2


The logic behind this is simple : Death is the best CC. Without damages to follow-up or cover, most engagers and enchanters are doomed to die fast. After that, without peelers or healers, most carries have no chance in late against a team that heavily outnumber them and hard focus the same target.

As usual, playing with vision to hide the cast can prove to be extremely effective to turn the tide of the whole game on just one ability:



Sometimes being a Support Tank just means being an mobile HP bar for your team. Once again, after your allies are saved from the initial threat, go in and lock the main target.


When they have fed Assassins or Hypercarries


Peeling is all fun and games until they have a 17 / 0 / 153 assassin like Talon, Kayn, Master Yi etc. Luckily, assassinating assassin is Poppy's bread and butter in early, and perma-blocking them is her mission in lategame.

The first thing you need to learn as a Peeler in general is to think like them. If you're not able to kill him in a teamfight, try to catch him offguard in the jungle or when he tries to surprise your ADC.

Against heavy damages, CC is the Key, always.

When to pivot?
You're a good peeler, but you don't have Kayle's ultimate. You need to fight your best to make the fight safe, but if despite your effort he died or is in a position you cannot save, and that would make you die aswell if you tried, you need to be able to recognize when it's best to switch for another ally to protect. You should be the first to die in a fight, but if mistakes that are too heavy are made by one teamate, sometimes it's better to limit the loss to avoid losing the game in one move. Protect your team, up until the end if needed, but don't waste what you can bring just to be able to die a glorious death.

You're supposed to be the brain of Botlane, so be it.




The Rengar Experience



Engaging


If your team has no one else to do it, or if you lost other options, it can sometimes falls upon you to engage the ennemy during late game.

I want to be absolutely clear, as counter-intuitive as it is since it's what you're doing for most of laning and roaming phases, engaging is NOT the main job of a Poppy Support in lategame.

There are two reasons that back up this statement, the first one being that Poppy falls off. Since she is nowhere near as tanky as other hard-engagers in the same role past 30 minutes, or as tanky as her toplane counterpart, a Poppy Supp can be bursted and one-shot at the slightest missposition. And contrary to Nautilus, Pyke, Braum, Bard, etc, she cannot engage while remaining safe : her CC, Heroic Charge, is in itself a very hard commit, when the stakes are never been higher than past 35 min, when a single death can mean losing Nashor or Elder Drake.

The second reason is how effective she is at peeling and baiting, litterally denying ninety percent of the assassin roaster. This insane value simply cannot be competed by a solo-target stun or a 3-man 2 second airborne bump.

That being said, sometimes a yordle gotta do what's a yordle gotta do.

The main key for a good engage as Poppy, very much like in Laning Phase, is patience. Unfortunately, you're not able to go in all the time: you need a wall, or a good flank, and time in late game is a precious ressource.

Yur champion is made to punish positionning mistakes, which often means waiting for the ennemy to commit one. If the long version of Keeper's Verdict doesnt create an advantage by itself, you'll have to play slow until you see the window, or provoke it by baiting a missposition with your very life.
Once you stunned your target, aim a short version of Keeper's Verdict onto the most ennemies you can hit, and tank/add damages where is needed, while praying.




Solo-mission/The diversion strategy


A.k.a If all else fails button



When the game is very hard and their teamfight seems to be way better than yours, you can try to split the attention by full engaging a carry 1v1. You will almost never kill (unless you got Thornmail, it's an ADC, and he actually tries to kill you), but the mayhem you cause can actually turns the fight around.
It's a desperate move, to only do when you truly have absolutely no options left.



Closing the game

Thankfully, all games aren't that tense, and sometimes you can play by the book and slowly grind towers and vision until Nashor or Elder spawns, and your team slowly suffocate the ennemy.

All is good and well, and the only risk becomes a surprise comeback engage from your opponents.

The best way to avoid this is to pressure even harder yourself, by putting everything you got into a powermove. Those two next ones are easily doable in any game, but are both very good methods to put the last nail into the coffin for the ennemy team.


1) The Base-Door Stun



It is very interesting to see that no matter if it's your base or the ennemy one, the door between lanes, leading to the jungle, are counted as a valid wall for Heroic Charge. This means that even if they can walk through it themselves you can stun your opponents on their own door, which is a surprise move for a lot of players, that even trained diamond and above forget to account for.

Very nice to pick off someone for free just next to their base when you're in a middle of a siege before your final push.



2) The Nexus-Dive



ONLY WHEN YOUR TEAM IS ALREADY OUTNUMBERING THEM

To assure that your push on Nexus towers is the last one and keep the game from dragging out too long, you can attempt a badass conclusion by Diving onto the Nexus itself. A good E-Flash can do the trick really well.

Usually, I do it when we already have a good minion wave and two or three teamates are with me, when there is one particular target on the ennemy team that could attempt a clutch defense while waiting for death timers of their team.


And just like that, you should now have won your game of Poppy Support !

I hope those informations helped you progress and that you had at least half the fun reading them as I had writing. If you loose, be proud to have tried, as it's all part of the process of becoming better. Poppy is an insanely fun champion, but she leaves very few margin for mistakes, that's probably what makes it both so gratifying and so terribly frustrating to play her.

To each their own, but I feel like I wouldn't have it any other way.



Pizza Delivery Poppy by Te4moon (@lVleduza on Twitter)


''I'm not good at staying down.''
Jungle, Traps and Wall Hops
This section will be dedicated to either special strategies linked to emplacements on the Summoner's Rift map, or general tips to play around bushes or walls.


The smallest hitbox in the game



The size of Poppy's hitboxes means that she is one of the very very few champions that can actually path between ennemy mid towers without getting hit, which is true for both sides. It's a very narrow window, so most of the time you'll end up tanking only one shot, but with a little practice you can actually do it in a pretty consistent manner.


Heroic Charge on Jungle Camps

Heroic Charge can allow you to move around the map or escape foes by using it on jungle camps. You'll need vision on the monsters, so it often requires a ward.


If you regularly keep tracks of both junglers clear, it's also fairly easy to determine if a camp is still up, which means that keeping a Stealth Ward specifically for this type of situations is often pretty effective as an emergency tool. Of cours, a Control Ward can do the trick if you got nothing else left at your disposal.

Here's all the camps you can use (it also applies to their other side of the map counterparts, of course):


Raptors

Since your goal while using your E on camps is often to move faster, I recommend aiming for the little raptors (as seen in the exemple) instead of the big one, to avoid trapping yourself inside the pit and losing precious time to escape your ennemies. It's also the only camp you can easily use to escape from the classic early midlane by wall-skipping, which is true no matter what side you're playing.


Red Buff

As you can see, it doesnt work on the big wall near red buff.

Otherwise it works just fine with the smaller wall, but the angle of the rocks around often make the distance gain not that great compaired to other camps. I guess it's still usefull to know that it's only doable one way.


Krugs

The Krugs camp allow you to gain some distance in all three direction, including the wall hop. I always aim for the closest one to me while doing this from either non-wall sides, since the pushing distance will be longer while doing so (which effectively makes Poppy faster for a little more time).


Gromp

The Gromp one is by far the camp wall-hop that allows you to escape ennemies more easily than any other, since the wall it allows you to skip is pretty massive and force the ennemy to either to take a longer path around or waste an ability to keep up with you.


Blue Buff

The Blue campsite is a little more permissive than the Red one, and it allows a very good skip when you're trying to run from opponents, often directly leading to explosive plants to secure your escape.


Wolves

Comparable to the Raptors, the Wolves allow a pretty decent skip in both direction if you aim for the little ones instead of the big Wolf.



The E-Flash Escape Trick


Remember that you cannot cancel your Heroic Charge once Poppy started her rush. It means that if you press Flash, she will use the summoner spell as soon as the E ended. Combine that fact to your E often ending very close to a wall, and you've got a great combo to leave your opponent screen in no time.

When you're in a truly delicate situation, you can apply the same combo without the presence of walls or terrain just to gain distance off your chasing ennemies.




Jungle Plants



When you're running around in the Jungle, remember that your passive will always one-shot both jungle plants and atakhan flowers, which means your shield will come back to you instantly. It's a good way to gain survivability if it's needed, or to activate plants from afar.


On top of this, I'm pretty sure you know that already but remember that Steadfast Presence can block dashes from the Explosive Plants (or Blast Cones, depending on how you call it).


Be sure to use it if you see it a possible target to lock, applying the grounded effect on top of it.
It's also particularly effective to defend Drake and Baron if the ennemy Jungler tries to enter the pit with the nearby blast cones.


Other types of walls

Just be aware that you can stun on Atakhan walls near him on the side he spawned in, and on the Mountain Drake Walls.

In a similar fashion, all created terrain such as Taliyah's wall, Anivia's wall, Jarvan IV's cataclysm, Ornn or
Trundle's pillars etc also count as terrain you can stun a target on with Heroic Charge.


Perfect Spots for Heroic Charge under Tower Aggro


As you can see, there are some tiny secret spots on the maps you can use to stun a target into a surprising turret range. If you use this correctly, it's a guaranteed kill, as it surprises most of players.

I will enlist those secret spots passed on by generations of Poppy players here:

Undertower E-spots secret list


Finally, I already talked about it at the end of the last section during the Closing the game sub-section, but always keep in mind that no matter what side you're on, you can actually stun your opponents on both base doors, no matter in what team you or you opponents are.


Pretty neat to catch people fleeing to their base or exiting it, or to surprise ennemies on your own base.




Bee Poppy by Harimii[/spoiler]

''What do you mean my hammer's too big?''
Skins Concepts and Fanarts
skins


Classic Popps Fanarts


doodles


Memes

Why doesn't Poppy have a "DEMACIAAAAA" line, for real? I get that she's not super patriotic but come on. That scream is so hype.
Personal Highlights
Video to be done one day =)
Special Thanks
Thank you all for all the wonderfull time I spent on
League of Legends.


And yes, YES, thank you RIOT GAMES, and everyone working really hard in it, for this ******** thrilling and fun game, even if we all insult the hell out of you from time to time from how passionate it makes us.

Thank you a million times to Shini, Hood and Moldhof, my crew, my mates from forever, my brothers from another life, The Boys, The Homies, and always the first squad on the breach.
You guys taught me what it is to have brothers-in-arms, loyalty without bounds, understanding and care. No one I would trust more than you to jump after me under that tower. And you know that if I have to tank those R's, I'll do it tenfold.
You're the most precious people any dumbass gamer would ever hope for in its squad.

Thanks Floki my best friend and my ultimate bro, my twin brother GT Purple that put me into this game, Katsuukii that I put into it, MurderOfBirds and Masterjust for all the NA-RAM and fun times.

Thanks to all my Poppy friends and mentors from Discord, Youtube and everywhere else.

Thanks Chibi Miku for being the absolute boss that he is, holding way more than twice my points alone while being the chillest guy out there. Thank you also for your Discord Server for Poppy mains and all the wonderful people in it.
Of course thanks NA Tactician for his tutorials and videos, he's not the rank 1 Poppy without reasons trust me.
I never heard any Poppy player talking **** about him. It proves how clean he is, but also and most importantly, that he's just nice enough to be liked by his peers. We ain't aiming at the king here. The king's chill.
Thank you SweetAvocados ''Avocabro'' for the Poppy Jungle insights, Okonaye for all the laughs and streams.

Thank you Dacnomaniak for all you taught me about Lethality Popps Jng and the help over the years !

Thanks Kc, BigJohnson and all the other Poppy mains that are always up to help each other (and me more time that I can remember) to understand our champ better and assist beginners into mastering her smoothly.

PixelPoppyHD for the fun contacts.
Thank you SKT T1 Oner and SKT T1 Keria for briefly giving us all the hope of a SKT T1 Poppy skin.

Thank a lot to the chad that destroyed my *** with the old Poppy back in 2013 to give me the idea to try her botlane when her reword came out.

Thanks Tea4moon for the super friendly answers, and thanks to you again and to all the others artists that allowed me to display their art in the guide, that I quoted under their respective Skin Concepts in the pages.

Thank you Kate Higgins for your flawless voice acting performance on Poppy. You cannot comprehend how many times I heard your voice crack the same two lame jokes, at a period of my life when I really needed a laugh.

Thank you John O'Bryan, for having written one of the most beautifull and poetic lore in the game with our little dense yordle. Your story inspired me to play her further, and helped me a lot on a personnal level, and I want you to know it if you ever read this.


And of course

Thank you Poppy for the fun times and laughs. You rock.
Thank you for every dive, every kill, every save, every call we did. Even every time we died cause of your stupid all-in E and solo lost the game while being flamed, or every time we ulted the ennemy carry to safety cause brain diff.
Thank you for teaching me perseverance.
Thank you for teaching me patience.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for teaching me confidence.
I'll move on from LoL, but I'll always be alone to know what impact every bit of knowledge I wrote here had on me, and how slowly getting better and learning more proved me I was capable of so much.
I never thought I'd be Platinum one day. Today, I leave as Diamond.

Thank you, you knucklehead.

One day, you'll find that ****ing hero, and that day, you better present it to me.
Glad we could work together in that botlane for so long,

Take care partner.


Time to pass the Hammer onto someone else.



If any of you want to reach me to discuss strategies or anything else,
Discord: Jageiko, IG EUW: Jageiko#Popps, IG NA: Prof Poppy#NA




''Some things are just too important to give up on.''

-Poppy of Bandle City, Keeper of the Hammer of Orlon and True Hero of Demacia
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