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Poppy Build Guide by ZergDood

Top [11.3] Zerg's Complete Poppy Guide to be a Hero! (W.I.P.)

Top [11.3] Zerg's Complete Poppy Guide to be a Hero! (W.I.P.)

Updated on February 3, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author ZergDood Build Guide By ZergDood 26 3 32,301 Views 0 Comments
26 3 32,301 Views 0 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author ZergDood Poppy Build Guide By ZergDood Updated on February 3, 2021
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Poppy
    Toppy
  • LoL Champion: Poppy
    Joppy
  • LoL Champion: Poppy
    Soppy

Runes: Classic

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Resolve
Grasp of the Undying
Shield Bash
Bone Plating
Revitalize

Inspiration
Biscuit Delivery
Time Warp Tonic
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2
If you play top always use this
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

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

[11.3] Zerg's Complete Poppy Guide to be a Hero! (W.I.P.)

By ZergDood
Hello everyone! I'm Zerg, and I've invested 400k mastery points worth of time with Poppy. That time was mostly spent in the top lane, but I've got a fair share of experience to talk about in every role (even ADC! but you don't want to play that even if trolling, trust me).

You're probably interested in playing her since you read about or were denied by her Steadfast Presence or her Keeper's Verdict, and wanted to know about her. You came to the right place!

Poppy's a particularly versatile tank, who's good at following up engages, skirmishing and peeling for carries, thanks to her unique set of abilities. Every ability of hers has some kind of CC, and a second condition to maximize her potential. She's pretty decent at dueling, and has a good Early/Mid game for a tank! Hope you enjoy playing her in your games, and hopefully you can find this guide useful!
Pros and Cons

Pros

→ Exceptional at peeling and skirmishing
→ Health % based damage
→ Good sustain and poke with her passive
→ Game changing ultimate
→ Steadfast Presence denies enemy dashes
→ extremely cute, naive and optimistic
Poppy's great power resides in her versatile kit, as she has good mobility for a tank, has ok dueling and poking thanks to her Hammer Shock and Iron Ambassador, and can disrupt teamfights, pin lonely enemies into the afterlife and has a lot of versatility for builds!
Poppy's main focus is to go for skirmishes and teamfights to peel for carries and steal objectives, thanks to her Keeper's Verdict.
However, with great power comes great responsability, and every ability of hers is inconsistent and can mess up your current situation if not used properly. Poppy's Iron Ambassador needs to be picked up to get you a shield, Hammer Shock needs to hit twice, Steadfast Presence is at its best against champions with dashes, Heroic Charge needs to pin an enemy in a wall, and not only you need to actually land Keeper's Verdict to actually do anything with it (it's easy to dodge), but you can mess up free kills and teamfights if not used properly. Be patient and play the smart game.

Cons

→ Easy to mess up
→ doesn't scale as good as other tanks
→ Really hard time against some mages and juggernauts
→ isn't optimal against enemies without dashes
→ damage falls off
→ She doesn't know she's the hero she's looking for!
Summoner Spells
FLASH
Essential to most champions in League, this is no exception to Poppy. Cool outplays, dives and lifesaving are waiting for you.
TELEPORT
If you're in a sololane, Teleport is your best bet. You can try going for Ignite if you're confident in your matchup, but given Poppy's nature as a peeling tank, she might want to be there for her teammates if they ever need her.
IGNITE
Try to bring this in sololane ONLY if you feel confident enough, to snowball and stomp as hard as possible. If you're playing support, this is the spell to go.
CHILLING SMITE
When jungling, you can use this smite to reach your enemies, as your ganks aren't as good as other junglers if the enemy lacks a dash.
Abilities
PASSIVE ABILITY
Iron Ambassador
✦ Poppy can periodically throw her buckler as an auto-attack, dealing bonus magic damage (20-180 based on level). The buckler falls between you and the target, priorizing walls as the place the buckler will fall. If the target is killed by the buckler, it will return to Poppy automatically. If she steps on the buckler (or if it returns to her), she'll obtain a shield based on her maximum health for 3 seconds. An enemy champion can step on it to avoid Poppy from taking it.
✦ If she steps on the buckler (or if it returns to her), she'll obtain a shield based on her maximum health (15%/17,5%/20% based on level) for 3 seconds. An enemy champion can step on it to avoid Poppy from taking it.
Q
Hammer Shock
✦ Poppy smashes the ground in front of her, dealing physical damage (40/60/80/100/120 + 90% bonus Attack Damage, + 8% of target's Maximum Health) to everything it hits. After a short, 1 second delay, the Area Of Effect will deal the same damage again.
✦ Whoever enters the AoE, will slow down for 20/25/30/35/40%.
W
Steadfast Presence
✦ Passive - Stubborn to a Fault: Poppy's Armor and Magic Resistance are increased by 10%. If her health is below 40%, these increases are doubled.
✦ Active: Poppy gains 40% additional movement speed and creates an aura around her. If an enemy dashes and tries to go through it, it'll be stopped (knocked up) for 0,5 seconds, and grownded and slowed by 25% for 2 seconds. It can only stop 1 dash per champion, and there will be certain abilities that can go through Poppy's aura. Examples of dashes that can be stopped are Riven's Broken Wings, Irelia's Bladesurge, Tristana's Rocket Jump and Tryndamere's Spinning Slash. Examples of dashes that can't be stopped are Ezreal's Arcane Shift, Warwick's Infinite Duress and Yone's Fate Sealed.
E
Heroic Charge
✦ Poppy dashes towards her target, dealing physical damage (60/80/100/120/140 + 50% bonus AD) on hit and carrying them along with her.
✦ If the target collides with terrain, it'll be stunned for 1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9/2.0 seconds and the target will receive the same damage again.
R
Keeper's Verdict
There's 2 versions of this:
✦ Tap! Whenever Poppy channels this ability for less than 0.5 seconds, she deals 100/125/200 physical damage + 45% Bonus Attack Damage, and knocks up what's in front of her for 0.75 seconds, launching her hammer.
✦ Charged! If Poppy channels this ability for more than 0.5 seconds, with a limit of 4 seconds, she'll slow herself by 15% and increase the distance of her knock back. Whenever you release the key, she'll slam her hammer and knock back what it hits in a close area in front of her hammer, towards a MASSIVE distance towards the enemy fountain, dealing double the damage of the tap version of the ability.
Runes


For Poppy, Grasp of the Undying is THE keystone in sololaning. You'll want it in most matchups. Try to proc it with your passive for better results. If you feel like you won't be able to do so, go Aftershock.

Shield Bash sinergizes really well with your dear Iron Ambassador, and will help you do wonders while trading. Demolish is also OK.

Bone Plating is good against almost every top lane matchup. If the enemy can potentially poke you out of lane, go for Second Wind. If you don't feel like you'll properly trade during laning phase, maybe because of the matchup (looking at you, Singed, or you simply don't feel confident, Conditioning is really good!

Try to take Revitalize as much as you can. If your enemies have too much CC, you can go for Unflinching. If you don't feel like you'll dueling your enemies and just want to have a pleasant tanky time, Overgrowth is OK.

Normally, People would take Inspiration as their second path and go with Biscuit Delivery and Time Warp Tonic. This is a really good option, since it helps you survive the lane with ease. It helps with Poppy's lack of mana early game, and might save her life if she spams potions during fights, but I'm going to recommend taking the Precision path as your secondary.

Presence of Mind is really good for Poppy as it helps with her mana sustain during the entire laning phase. Triumph works, but you'll miss the mana. If you're looking for a greedy start against a matchup you're confident against, you might try out buying Tear of the Goddess and selecting Triumph as your rune choice here.

Here, it might depend on your personal preferences, but I go with Last Stand if my enemies lack CC, and Legend: Tenacity if they have. Remember to combo this with Unflinching if the enemy team has a lot of CC. Other "Legend:" runes are OK, and Coup de Grace works if you're confident on killing and diving the enemy laner, but you won't use this rune as much as Last Stand.

If your Poppy is going Conqueror, it means you're against a matchup you know well and are confident in, or simply you're looking for more damage. This set can be particularly useful against some tanks like Cho'Gath. However, the playstyle is somewhat different, and requires a higher level of knowledge to get acceptable results.

As stated before, Presence of Mind is what makes this runeset viable enough to lane with it, and Triumph works, but I wouldn't recommend it, since Poppy struggles with mana early. Again, if you're feeling hungry today, try Tear of the Goddess.

Legend: Alacrity helps Poppy stack Conqueror, and even if it isn't Poppy's main source of damage, it'll certainly help her. Legend: Tenacity works pretty well with her if the enemy team has considerable CC. If they don't, stick to Legend: Alacrity. Legend: Bloodline doesn't really stick to her right now, unless you're going for a lifesteal build, which isn't that viable for Poppy anyways.

Here, you take whatever suits your taste. Because you're a tank, Cut Down might not be something to look for. Coup de Grace is good for finishing off enemies, and Last Stand is a good general choice.

As for secondary runes, Domination can be good for damage (and lifesteal), but generally, you'll want to take Resolve. Here, You can go Bone Plating, Second Wind or Conditioning depending on the matchup, Demolish if you're looking to splitpush, and Revitalize for that precious shielding and healing. Remember that if the enemy has too much Crowd Control, you might want to take Unflinching with you. Need to scale? Overgrowth is always here.


There's a lot you can take while jungling, but these runes are consistent, help with scaling }your damage, while allowing you to stick to your targets. While Aftershock gives you the resistances tanks are known for, taking the Domination route gives damage for consistent ganks and helps you abuse your good early game. Electrocute gives you a nice burst, but kind of relies on you pinning someone on a wall. Hail of Blades gives you enough damage for early ganks, but quickly falls off if the game extends its duration. Dark Harvest gives you amazing damage scaling, even if your early game ganks aren't that good. However, what makes Poppy jungle so interesting is the fact that, with that versatility in mind, she can build tanky as comfortably as she can build lethality.

Always, ALWAYS take Cheap Shot. Taste of Blood is viable enough, but your Heroic Charge is an amazingly important part of your kit, and powering up that damage is amazingly important, both in duels and ganks.

Now, both Zombie Ward and Eyeball Collection are good options here. I recommend any of them, depending on your playstyle and confidence.

Relentless Hunter is a must for Poppy. No contest. The movement speed is amazingly good for her.

As for secondary runes, there are 2 main paths: Sorcery and Precision. If you feel like you don't have enough movement speed to keep up during the upcoming match, go Waterwalking and Celerity. If that's not the case, go Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Legend: Alacrity, Coup de Grace (my personal recommendation) or Last Stand.

If you're going the support route, then this is my personal recommendation! Aftershock is a must, unless you go for the Domination path as your main, but you'll lose on a lot of tankiness. You don't go Guardian because Poppy support is constantly looking for Heroic Charge stun opportunities, and peeling for your carry using Steadfast Presence.

Now, Font of Life, Demolish and Shield Bash are all pretty good options, but for SoloQ Shield Bash ensures you can burst an enemy down and live to tell the tale. Feel free to select any of the other runes.

Again, Conditioning, Shield Bash and Second Wind are all pretty good options for different situations. If you're looking to engage, go Shield Bash!. If you're playing defensively, go Second Wind, and if you want to scale and farm, go Conditioning.

Here, Overgrowth is always an option, but Revitalize and Unflinching are really good too. Go for Revitalize when playing against pokes, and Unflinching against heavy CC.

The secondary path depends on your playstyle being aggressive or defensive. If you're going for the former, go Domination. If you're playing the latter, go Inspiration.

Now, we take Cheap Shot and Relentless Hunter. You can consider replacing Cheap Shot with Zombie Ward, Ghost Poro or Eyeball Collection but the consistency of Cheap Shot combined with Poppy's ideal playstyle makes it such a good rune.

If we're peeling for our carry since champion select, go Hextech Flashtraption or Biscuit Delivery. The former gives you aggressive play opportunities and creative ways to escape terrible situations, and the latter gives you sustain, which you'll need. Now we can decide between Cosmic Insight (do you need to get your abilities as soon as possible?) or Approach Velocity (you needed sustain AND aggressiveness, which is OK).
Mythic choices (Tank)

Sunfire Aegis

Frostfire Gauntlet

Turbo Chemtank
Poppy Sinergizes pretty well with each and every one of these items. Try to pick Iceborn Gauntlet most of your matches, Turbo Chemtank when you need to be the one to engage in teamfights and Sunfire Aegis when there's more engage than you, but the enemy team abuses teamfighting and has a lot of CC.
Mythic choices (Bruiser)

Sunfire Aegis

Divine Sunderer

Stridebreaker
Poppy, while being a tank, really sinergizes with Sheen because of her passive's nature. This makes Divine Sunderer a truly divine item against most tank matchups if you're winning the lane. Stridebreaker can help you chase down enemies to avoid being kited, and might be a splitpushing option against squishy enemies. Trinity Force is also OK. As a tankier and safer option, Sunfire Aegis is meant to be used offensively and has really good sinergy with Conqueror, in case you're going for those runes. Iceborn Gauntlet and Turbo Chemtank are also pretty solid options depending on your build and what your team needs, but those are items made for utility.
Legendary Item Options
Armor
THORNMAIL
Core item for most matchups. This item is a must against the likes of Fiora and Aatrox.
RANDUIN'S OMEN
Go for it when the enemies have critical hit builds. The armor stat is really nice! Tristana and Tryndamere don't enjoy this item against them.
FROZEN HEART
There's a Jax hitting like a machine and there's no critical hits? Take this instead of Randuin's Omen, as it will also help you with Poppy's mana issues.
DEAD MAN'S PLATE
Because of Poppy's limited mobility, this item isn't a must, but I recommend it for it's sticking potential.
DEATH'S DANCE
Ahead, against a heavy AD team? Go for this item. You'll feel the difference, and combined with items like Sunfire Aegis and Sterak's Gage you'll be able to take on big fights if ahead and come out alive to tell the tale.

Magic Resistance
SPIRIT VISAGE
Good third item! It sinergizes wonderfully with Poppy's Iron Ambassador and with items like Sterak's Gage. It also gives a good amount of health and magic resistance, which is nice.
FORCE OF NATURE
We've all been there. That Mordekaiser Passive, Teemo's poison. They're a pain to deal with. Not only will this item help you fight magic bullies, but it will also help you with your movement speed, so that they won't escape by walking this time!
ABYSSAL MASK
If you're looking for some extra damage during teamfights, this is the item you're looking for. Not only it gives you a good amount of magic resistance and health, but it will bring extra damage to whoever hits that enemy you stunned or hit with your Keeper's Verdict.
MAW OF MALMORTIUS
If you're ahead, but need help to survive magic bursts, this item might come in handy!

Other Options
STERAK'S GAGE
Good item when ahead,it gives damage and healing, and it will also give you a shield when you're close to dying, allowing you to survive and come on top of tough fights.
WARMOG'S ARMOR
Maybe the enemy team has a lot of poke, or you're having a hard time staying relevant during late game. This item gives a lot of health and gives you strong healing capabilities. Good to combo with Spirit Visage.
GARGOYLE STONEPLATE
One of my favourite items this season. The resistances are nice, they also get better when fighting many enemies and the item can give you a really big shield as an active, which is huge when surviving bursts or tanking something specific.

Bruiser Items (Except Death's Dance, Maw of Malmortius and Sterak's Gage)
TITANIC HYDRA
A good choice if you're looking to splitpush. Even so, if you need it for teamfighting, you might as well look for other options.
BLACK CLEAVER
Classic Anti-tank item, I heavily recommend taking this if you're against a tank. Combined with Divine Sunderer, you'll hit really hard!
CHEMPUNK CHAINSWORD
If you decided to build Executioner's Calling at some point, this is the item you're looking for. No pressure, though, it's not THAT good.
SILVERMERE DAWN
When you combine Mercury's Treads, Unflinching and Legend: Tenacity, you get an absurd amount of tenacity, so this item might only be used if you forgot to set your runes properly, and there's a lot of CC in the enemy team.
MANAMUNE
This might look like a weird choice, but Poppy's a really mana hungry champion, specially early. Tear of the Goddess is a fantastic item for scaling your damage, now that Sheen items don't give you mana anymore.
Let's talk about lethality
Ever heard about AD Sion? Now, get ready for...


AD Poppy.

"But Zerg! Poppy's a tank! How is building lethality something you're recommending on a guide?"


Duskblade of Draktharr

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Poppy, while in the jungle, has a lot of freedom for itemization and runes, unlike while laning, where her tankiness and shield sustain are what makes her be able to take on those situations. If you've been watching Poppy jungle videos, you might've noticed how she feels a lot more comfortable in the jungle. People have been running Electrocute, Hail of Blades and even Dark Harvest. This damage based rune path allows you to build whatever you want if you need it, because your damage will remain relevant over the course of the game. Now. AD Poppy has been something for a while. What changed?

Duskblade of Draktharr changed. And with it, AD Poppy's main problem: successfully disengaging after a quick kill. I give a few item choices for you to try this out up in the builds section. I won't say anything else. Try it out!
About Poppy Mid...
" Poppy's really good into assasins! Why is she never used in the mid lane?"
After a bit of matches here and there, I came to the conclusion that she's viable but extremely situational Because there are characters like Talon, who are absolutely demolished by Poppy in duels and laning, but can easily roam and take advantages everywhere else. Poppy's wave clear isn't as good as average mid laners, and her gap closer can be unreliable in certain matchups. This allows characters like Talon or Galio to lose 1v1s consistently, but they also shove and roam consistently. Feel free to experiment, though!
I recommend taking Poppy against characters like Yasuo, Yone and Fizz.
Tricks and Combos!
Combo Guide
Q - AA
Poppy's "Lane harass combo". This is the name used in most Poppy guides out there. You want to use it when the enemy laner tries to farm.
R - Q
If you're trying to finish someone off without them retaliating, you can try this chain. Really useful for landing both Hammer Shock procs without landing your Heroic Charge.

E - AA - Q - AA
Poppy's BnB combo. This is why you are constantly looking for pining enemies into walls. Remember that Heroic Charge's stun at rank 1 lasts 1.5 seconds.


E - AA - Q - AA - R - AA
This is your max damage combo. If you have Ignite or Smite, use the spell right after Keeper's Verdict for better damage. Also, it fully charges Conqueror stacks, if you're going for a bruiser Poppy.

Now, some tricks...

Poppy's Steadfast Presence can stop a blast cone's jump, but this only happens if the enemy is the one to hit the blast cone. SO there's no video (by now).

Speaking of jungle fruits, Iron Ambassador returns directly to Poppy if the target was killed by the buckler. This also applies to jungle fruits. Video below:

Keeper's Verdict can hit many enemies at once when charged, if they're really close to each other! Use this to your advantage as much as you can!


Keeper's Verdict really is versatile. If you charge it the lowest amount possible, you can reposition your enemies into the place you want them to be with ease (not really, it takes a little bit of practice). Video below:


Now, it's time to talk about animation cancelling! You can cancel Iron Ambassador into Heroic Charge!... Well, this might sound a little bit weird for some people.

Animation cancelling means what it means. You do something, and if you time it correctly, the next action will interrupt the animation of what you were doing before, but you'll do both. It only interrupts the animation. This means that you can do more stuff faster. Example of the concept below:
Look at Heroic Charge's timing right after Poppy's buckler comes out of her hand. You can use this whenever you want.

Now that you've seen the cool stuff, I need to tell you about the bad stuff, so you don't get outplayed.

Heroic Charge's most dangerous weakness is Flash. If an enemy flashes while you're charging at them, they won't be stunned NOR HIT by the ability, and you'll be left standing there.

Keeper's Verdict, when charging, is a channeling. You can stop Poppy's channeling by any displacement or hard CC. This means it's easy to interrupt. How can you work around this? The answer is "bushes". Example below:
Conclusion
And that's it! There might be some stuff that's missing (because I released this guide a little bit too early) but there's a lot of Poppy knowledge I'd love to share, as I feel this champion is heavily underrated. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, and look for updates to the guide! (Seriously. I'm working on getting this to look more polished and bringing some new content.)

Right now: I'm working on...
-How to play the game, phase by phase (Top, Jungle and Support, with illustrations!
-Reworking threats for every role
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