Hello fellow summoners in this guide I wish to explain the style of which I play Poppy and why it is the most viable. For me there is only one true way to play Poppy and that is AD. People always ask me in Ranked games why on Earth would I pick a champion like Poppy? I mean fine she's a Yordle but this is no reason why I should not take her after all they have feelings too :*(. Before the guide gets in full swing I would really appreciate it if YOU GUYS could up-vote this guide after having read through and gone on to test it successfully and if you found the guide to be useful. However if you didn’t please don’t hastily down-vote, either comment or send me a PM and I will look into your queries and suggestions and see if there are blatant areas which can be improved upon.

We can’t look at how to play a champion without first understanding who they’re so for this short section we’ll be looking into Poppy herself as a champion. She's a champion who can and is played with different styles. Most choose AD, others AP and fewer play the Hybrid Poppy. In my opinion AD Poppy is the most effective way to play her and is the style in which the guide is written for. Why is my guide better than the others? Because I recognise that Poppy although being a naturally hard hitter is still, like many other champions, incapable of lasting very long on the planes of justice without the aid of survivability items but even then an overhaul would cause her damage to suffer greatly, that is why I have created an awesome blend of damage, sustain and survivability.


But why pick Poppy to start with? To answer that question we need to weigh up her pros and cons!

Pros of Pop-Pop-Poppy:
- Potentially a great farmer when played well
- Best passive in League of Legends (imho)
- The ability to engage successfully
- Awesome tower-diving capabilities
- A greatly feared enemy of AD/AP Carries
- Unstoppable at mid and late game
- Natural survivability reduces money wasted on survivability
- She's a ****’n Yordle!?
- Ultimate on enemy supporter and rush ftw (best ultimate btw!, again imho )
- Devastating Blow , which has a swingtime-reset, meaning it can be instantly used after an auto-attack

Cons of Pop Pop Poppy:
- You only have a few seconds to eliminate the enemy carries
- A bad farmer if not practiced enough
- No dedicated escaping spell
- Unbelievably squishy!

The rune selections of any champion are of key importance and some of the choices which separate a good Poppy from a bad one.

Why do I take Greater Mark of Attack Damage?
-> The real reason for it is to allow Poppy successful last hits, last-hitting being one of the worst aspects of Poppy, isn't it? NO, it isn't!
A good farmer should be able to farm even with champions which are not designed for efficient farming, even so these runes for Poppy are still a must, but why? More damage on her auto-attacks does not only make it easier for her to last-hit. It also gives your enemy a good reason, though not a full AD rune build, to not attack you.

Greater Seal of Armor is something you'd expect on most top lane champions, and why?
The more armor you have, the more hits you can take and hence the longer you can survive in your lane, especially when the enemy is someone like Gangplank, Nidalee, or Pantheon who have harassing capabilities. But not all the armor in the world of Demacia could save you from the dreaded true damage like that of Irelia or Cho'Gath.

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction yep you guessed it cool-down reduction. Although Poppy does not really have excruciatingly long cool-downs it is still beneficial to her. With the help of your runes and our good friend the Bluebuff we're able to spam our favourite, Devastating Blow , every 2-3 seconds which means we get HUGE DAMAGE OUTPUT in just a few seconds, able to shred even the tankiest of champions like Amumu or Galio and the like. Unfortunately for this yordle, her ultimate, Diplomatic Immunity, has a long cooldown so a small amount of cool-down wouldn't go amiss here.

And the moment you've all been waiting for, my explanation for the Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed runes. We all know how Paragon of Demacia works, as we attack or are getting attacked our attack damage increases automatically with every hit upto a maximum of 10 stacks. However this is just it's passive. Active use of this skill will also boost your movement speed which is very important as a Poppy. The base Poppy is a slow champion like Miss Fortune without her passive. With your Paragon of Demacia, your Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, Trinity Force, Phantom Dancer and 4 mastery-points into Swiftness will all allow you to get a movement speed of 555! As a side-note: don't forget to use your Summoner Spell Ghost whenever it's ready during team fights as it will give your mobility a great boost allowing you to weave through their front-line and directly to their carries where you can annihilate them!

So in conclusion to this section, runes are very important to the play of any champion and especially Poppy. Getting 2+ kills per team fight will leave you looking like this:

So just like most damage-dealing champions we'll be putting 21 of our mastery points into the Offense tree. I often see people putting 3 points into Vampirism instead of Havoc which is kinda useless - 3% of lifesteal isn't going help you but the extra damage on AD Poppy on the other hand.
The other 9 points will be spent down the Utility tree to reduce your time spent while dead (which will already be minimal) and also to increase your mobility, by maxing Swiftness .

We're going to start with our Heroic Charge.
As a solo-top, if an enemy is more aggressive than most this skill can save your behind as well as possibly landing you the First Blood. The damage of Heroic Charge isn't that much as AD Poppy and even more so at Level 1 but it's just like I said, a well placed charge will bring you the win. Who needs spin to win? Poppy's got charge to win!

Upon reaching level 2 we put the skill point into Paragon of DemaciaJust have a look at the closing statements of the rune section to see the explanation for it. The reason why we take it right after Level 1 is to make sure that you can screw your enemy over. Your hammer starts to glow, your damage starts to increase and if you want you can even increase your movement speed, win win it seems.

Well, now we're coming to the point where I will explain what separates you from other champions totally,Devastating Blow, your Bread and Butter!.

It stacks on top of your basic attack damage, Devastating Blow even deals tons of damage regardless of not focusing AP. At mid - lategame AD and AP carries are like basic minions to you - often 3 hits being enough to take them out. The percentage damage that comes with it makes Poppy shine like a Bawz and combining it with your blue-buff and your CDR runes, the full might of it is exposed.

You should aim to max Devastating Blow first, and after your Paragon of Demacia and last but not least your Heroic Charge.

After completing most of the skill sequence you can relax and just watch the kills come to you!

Again this is a very important chapter full of decisions which can either cause you to win or lose a game. Remembering this is a champion guide for AD Poppy, I think the item choices are rather self explanatory.

My first, non-compulsory but recommended item is Philosopher's stone, but why? It provides with great early game sustain allowing you to unload skills onto the enemy champion whilst being able to take some yourself whilst make you a nice tidy profit in doing so.

The next item is Sheen. This is what makes you totally shine in the early-game, it boosts the damage of your Devastating Blow really nicely.
After reaching the gold limit for it you should Recall or wait to last hit a few more minions to also have enough money for Boots of Speed.

Well keep on going guys Poppy is waiting :)
OurCore Items are:

Trinity Force <- This will push all your stats needed by Poppy (and imo is the best item ever created for Poppy). It's passives are what lets Poppy shine even more.

Phantom Dancer <- Again a lot of stats are getting boosted for Poppy. Especially her movement speed. Kind of a no-brainer.

The Bloodthirster <- Tons of AD combined with lifesteal further accompanied by your critical strikes, make it a real hard hitter.

Quicksilver Sash <- Added Quicksilver Sash for less CC impact on Poppy

Guardian Angel <- Guess what? I mean survivability is always a good choice and especially for a champion who doesn't know how to die. Valiant Fighter and Diplomatic Immunity won't let you die any time soon.

Last Whisper <- I removed The Black Cleaver and added last Whisper just because I think this item has a much higher cost:stats ratio than the Black Cleaver.

The Black Cleaver <- Since it is a totally new item with new benefits for Poppy it is your choice now to choose beteween Last Whisper and The Black Cleaver.
I totally recommend this one since it EVEN gives you now some life, damage and armor penetration ofcourse :)

The following listed Items are Situational Items. If you have an enemy team filled with AP Carries? Then you could either try Force of Nature for the good Magic Resistance or you could go for Quicksilver Sash if there is a lot of crowd control from the enemy team. Banshee's Veil is also a good item, that's for sure, but it is just like I said "situational". Another situational item are your boots. I prefer Berserker's Graves instead of Mercury's Treads for more DPS, since your ultimate will ignore every crowd-control-effect placed on you. But be careful Diplomatic Immunity on a champion like Taric will let you ignore all other, external damage but not Taric's stun and his own damage. So choose wisely!


In all of my LoL experiences, AD carry Poppy is still the best champion i've seen dealing damage overall. With a damage dealt score of 680.000 damage after 45 Minutes of gameplay she is definitely the strongest damage dealer. As you will come to see.