Poppy support is rapidly gaining popularity, and for good reason. She has very strong engage potential, but even better, she can easily make sure no one engages on her or her team. Her W is the one reason all dash champions hate her. Kha'Zix coming to your lane to gank? W. You stun Tristana into a wall and she tries to jump away? W.

She also has very high base damage, and her tankiness scales extremely well into mid-late game. The W passive which gives her 11% more resistances, and her passive which gives her a shield makes her very strong.

I will say that in order to play Poppy as support, you'll need to have more than a basic understanding of how Poppy works AND how playing support works. You're going to be way less tanky than when you'd play her in top or jungle. Your damage will not decrease though, depending on which build you go.

You can easily get top damage in game if you dominate early, but you can easily fall behind HARD if you missplay. Make sure to know what Poppy's strengths are, which I will explain further in this guide.

Pros:

- Engage potential
- Disengage potential
- Roaming potential
- Being able to lock down an enemy carry
- Being able to either go tanky or burst damage

Cons:

- Vulnerable to poke
- Does not scale the best into lategame
- Needs to have an ADC that reacts to her engages

When to go Phase Rush?

Phase Rush works extremely well with Poppy's kit. It allows you to dash onto an enemy, use a few abilities and then zoom away without the enemy being able to catch up to you. Phase Rush is really good all-round. There is not a situation where I would say NOT to go Phase rush. I recommend using Phase Rush when you're either sure you won't go the Youmuu's build, or when you don't feel comfortable using Hail of Blades.

When to go Hail of Blades?

I would only recommend going Hail of Blades when you're sure you are going to build Youmuu's. Hail of Blades is INSANELY strong early to mid game. Afterwards it does fall off, so when you go these runes, try to finish as quickly as possible.

-- Refer to my Build Options if you want specifics on what items to build --

When to go tank build?

If your team already is very heavily focused on doing damage, and/or you have no frontline, I would advise going the tank route. Going Tear on first back, and building items according to my guide. Once your build is completed, you'll have Fimbulwinter with either Spirit Visage or Frozen Heart. Both of these items will boost the shield that Fimbulwinter give, which will make you even more unkillable.

When to go Youmuu's?

Youmuu's is very strong on Poppy for several reasons:
- Very big damage early to mid game
- Insane roaming potential all game round
- Very cheap to build

Once mid to late game hits, you won't be doing the same damage as before. But you will still get a lot of use out of this item. The active alone is really good for getting to fights and objectives on time. And you can still catch off guard squishy/low hp enemies.

My biggest issue with Poppy's R is the fact that it's difficult to predict if you're gonna ult away all the enemies or just one of them. My rule of thumb is as follows, if you hit one enemy while others are around that enemy, they will all be ulted away. The same applies to one tapping your R.

There are quite a few different situations where you can use your R. Here are a few examples

Enemy team is doing an objective

If you see the enemy team at drake/baron, you can easily ult them away. If you're not able to ult them all away, just make sure to ult the jungler away so that your jungler has the chance to smite the objective.

You are getting ganked

If you're getting ganked, just ult the jungler away. Or maybe you can even ult the enemy ADC and/or support away. When ulting them away, check if you have made yourself an opportunity for a kill. If you and your ADC are low, just walk away. But if by ulting the jungler (or other enemy away) you have made a chance for a kill, go for it.

You are 5v5 and want to give your team chance to engage

If you see both teams waiting to engage, try to sneakily ult away one or two enemy champions. This will immediately give your team an advantage. Better yet is to ult some of them away, and dash someone into a wall so that your team can immediately follow up on you.

You are chasing down an enemy and are not in range yet

This one might be a bit more difficult to pull of first try, but make sure to not charge your R when doing this. Your R has quite some range when one tapping it. So if you're barely in range, but don't want to use your E because you might give them a chance to escape, try one tapping your R. This will knock them up shortly, which will give you and your team a chance to catch up to the enemy.