I am Vít Matějíček (I am czech - your browser may not display my name correctly), in LoL witekmat, currently bronze one ( :-( ) and this is my fourth guide (see my other two as well - Udyr, Kayle and Gragas).

I started to main Poppy recently (lvl 27, now bronze I.), but I played her a lot. She's of the only two junglers capable of soloing the dragon at level three.

+ Hyper Carry
+ Good survivability
+ CC
+ level 3 solo dragon
+ Good at targeting carries in teamfights
- Only gap closer, not gap prolonger
- her CC needs skill to use and enemies may avoid
- her ult does not avoid CC

Poppy is near to a common fighter, and a bit more close to Udyr as for the build. trinity force is the core, some changeable defences and BotRK. I will only explain when and why to pick the items.

Common AD Poppy

You will get this most time - it enhances your ganks a lot while still keeping your jungling potential.
Pick this for better clear speed and healing when your team has huge advantage (no ganks needed).
Enchantment: Devourer stacks for late game. You will be teamfighting very often and your early game is less horrible with Warrior.
Your must have. Your Q, like Nasus's, synergises well with sheen and the stats are best. Poppy's abilities scale with AD (Q,E,ult) and AP (all except W which scales with nothing), making such hzbrid items potent.
Good stacking with Q&W, overall decreases your spell reliability and enhances ult proc. Changeable with defenses.
Commonly used alternative for BotRK. Your only farming potential, still good champion damage, lower spell enhance. Changeable with defenses.
When you are not going for GA and the enemy team is balanced or AD, always head for this. Basically, it solves your mana issues, grants massive armour and fulfills your tank or fighter role.
Pick when balanced/AP/no heavy CC enemy team. Enhances your LS and adds strong vsAP defenses.
Way too hard AD enemy team and you need it more than Sunfire Aegis? Go for it, elsewise get Frozen Heart or Sunfire Aegis instead.
The second viable vsAD item. Unlike Udyr or Sejuani you don't plan to stay face2face with the enemy long - when the enemy team is balanced get Frozen Heart instead.
Straightforward antiCC vsAP item. Overall the stats are not as good as Spirit Visage, but usefull against the likes of Veigar and Ahri.
Better AS, CDR, movement, tenacity... What else do you want?!

APoppy

Alternative to Trinity Force.
A must-have for AP Poppy. the slow is useful and the AP+HP are the stats you want.
You can get nashor'tooth instead, but this is one of the core items for nearly any AP.
Enhances your Q's and skills stack with both based stats while providing insane healing.
Your second GA providing massive AP instead of tankies.

For that early sustain and better healing late.

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It does more damage than AD runes and procs your W better.

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That early game it is better than armor runes. If you want to scale better to late game armor or AD seals are better.

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Tanky option.
If you are sure you will win easily or when the enemy team is heavy AD.

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So I will explain only the controverse ones.
Why take this all the time? Poppy needs the cooldown especially early. That's also why you go red first. It helps your ganks. It helps your mobility, survivability [W], damage. Clear speed increase is crucial as long as Poppy has no AoE.
When you are AP Poppy take this every time over Fury .
Why to not take this? The stats aren't that great and it eats so many points for almost nothing.

It is more deceitful than you might see at first.
It only reduces damage that deals more than 10% of your current health.
So with 100 health, if you'd get hit by..
10 damage, you would take 10 damage
12 damage, you would take 11 damage
20 damage, you would take 15 damage
30 damage, you would take 20 damage
etc.

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awesome. Makes percentual damage bad and reduces ultimates. Early levels it counters dragon.

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Poppy enhances her next attack so that it deals her attack damage plus 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+60% of ability power) plus 8% of her target's maximum health in magic damage. The bonus damage based on enemy health cannot exceed 75 / 150 / 225 / 300 / 375.

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Your main damage tool. Extra effective against tanks and dragon's. With CD included in this build you can spam it freely.

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Passive: Upon being hit or attacking an enemy, Poppy's armor and damage are increased by 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 for 5 seconds. This effect can stack 10 times.

Active: Poppy gains max stacks of Paragon of Demacia and her movement speed is increased by 17 / 19 / 21 / 23 / 25 % for 5 seconds.

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Your defensive and escape tool. You use it for faster way to dragon (you have blue buff on you so you don't need to worry about mana and CD) and immediately when you start attacking buffs and dragon and champions.

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Poppy charges at an enemy and carries them for a short distance (300 units). The initial impact deals 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+40% of ability power) magic damage. If they collide with terrain, her target takes 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+40% of ability power) magic damage and will be stunned for 1.5 seconds.

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Your CC. Use your Ghost and Paragon of Demacia to position yourself to stun the enemy. Sometimes it's wise to carry one enemy with yourself [and stun him] to escape four others. Also when the dragon knockbacks you use this to get back fast.

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For 6 / 7 / 8 seconds, Poppy is immune to any damage and abilities from enemies other than her target.

Poppy deals 20 / 30 / 40 % increased physical and magical damage to the marked target.

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Amazing in teamfights. Just put that point on a support and kill them a hypercarry. Also useful in 2v2 - put that on the strongest enemy for the increased damage. Double kills expected.

It is obvious, isn't it?
> > >
Most times you will max that first. This is the skill path you go when jungling, having easy time on lane or AP Poppy as well. Change the Q/W order when having hard time on lane or playing tanky Poppy.

This is the bad thing about Poppy. She has no AoE built in and Ravenous Hydra isn't that great on Poppy. But if you are doing well or need that farm more than the champion damage go for it.

In this chapter I wish to explain the route to the dragon on level three. For other Poppy mechanics see other chapters.

I have tried almost all the variants and found that the best way to go.
So. Call your team to red buff. Even if you are solo you still have two potions to spend here. Get your second level there, use the first stack of smite. Use W to get faster to blue. Farm blue, perhaps use a potion. Gromp. Smite the frog, be sure to have spent one potion before you are too low on health. Wow, you got the third level. Recall. Get Ranger's Trailblazer or Stalker's Blade and five potions (you do not need to use them all on dragon, but to annihilate the need to recall after dragon). Ghost and W to dragon. Start AA'ing until he knockbacks you. Jump to him with E, quickly activate W and Q. Dragon got farmed. Use as many potions as you need to get max health, clear some camps, gank...

Explanation

So... Why I go red first? You will have only one buff when you reach the dragon no matter how you used your movement abilities. I tried all the ways and as long as Riot still has not solved Poppy's mana problems the mana regen and CDR and Gromp's poison are more useful on dragon. It has even better clear speed and lower damage input than the red route.

Early game

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Your early game is bad, play it safe.

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Jungle

See the jungling section above.

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Laning - Carry

Start with Paragon of Demacia for better defense unless your lane is won the moment it begun. Until level three play passively - you don't have such great harassment [lacks the range]. By the time you got your stun use W and Ghost for stunning effect. Begin your E-W-Q-ignite-AA-Q combo. Enemy still living? Try and chase him while your W and Ghost are still active, but not overextend yourself against the likes of Darius or Gnar or even Thresh.

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Laning - Tank

Your role is to absorb damage. Your role is to jump into the enemy team and try to take one or two people to hell with you. Your Early Game as a tank Toppy is a nightmare - you don't have ranged harassment, you are not as tanky as others, you lack such damage. Play passively, try to avoid harassment, harass when enemy walks in range, not waste your mana. Start your combo when you are 100% sure it will kill.

Mid game

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Your strength is in teamfights, wait for your time.

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Jungle

Gank when your team needs it or when there is an easy kill to take or just to give your team an advantage. Around 12th minute start watching for dragon respawn. Around 11th level start ganking as much as you can, watch that you are buffed before.

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ADC

Play it safe. Sometimes you can lauch your combo even to force the enemy to recall, getting you the farm you lack and exp advantage.

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APC

Do not waste your mana. Harry the enemy with Q as often as you are still confident it will not cost your life. Ask for gank.

Tanky

You can trust your tanky items, but ask for frequent ganks. Warn your jungler that you will try to take the enemy to hell with you - he has to stay aware of the situation at your lane for taking easy kills. When you see you are going to die, send a short message for him before your reckless assault.

Teamfights

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Your main strength lies just here. Be sure to use it even at the cost of death, but try to avoid meaningless feeding the enemy.

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Jungle + ADC

As a jungler, your role ends just here and merges with Carry. You are not the casual fighter or tank, who is the first to jump into the fray, trying to take someone to hell with himself, absorbing CC and damage. You are more worthy than that. Let your Toplaner or Jungler initiate. Be sure to stun the enemy Hypercarry after you put ult on Support for kill ensurance.

APC

You are precious. Try to not die meaninglessly, twice consider jumping in the fray. You can easily go through the enemy ranks when someone already started attacking the enemy team. Just put ult on Tank/Support and kill their hypercarry. Ask someone to start fights.

Tank

Unlike the other builds, you have enough HP, resists and tenacity to survive a round of enemy spells so you can jump into the enemy team without a second thought. But when your team has some good initiator let him initiate. You deal too low damage to instakill enemy hypercarry. Try and take out on weaker targets unless you are fed or just help your Carry. You are strong against enemy tanks - you deal damage based on enemy HP. Say your allies to not waste their ults - tanks are your work. Also stunning enemies.

I would be grateful for feedback.