I did go into detail for every item in every item group, the runes, and the specialty builds if you wanted to learn more about any of them. My thoughts on them, when they're good, when they're bad, and if they're just alright are all included there.

Oh yeah.

It is I, Garloke, and my Guide to Poppy.

I have included every item you could ever rationalize building on Poppy and runes appropriate for the style of Poppy you want to play. I have been playing Poppy for around 2 years now and have learned a lot from personal theory crafting. I've experimented with multiple different play styles (Assasin, Tank, Brusier, Sup, Crit even) in every role besides ADC/bot. While Poppy mid is a discussion for another day, I have learned a lot not just from playing myself but from content creators such as the very articulate writers on here to Tyler1 screaming about game balance and how much he hates Riot Games.

I included 2 Specialty Build at the bottom of the Items Section along with corresponding Runes in the Rune Section. Tanks are very pliable as far as items go and no tank should be building the same 3 items every game outside of maybe a dominant mythic option. I included items I think will always have a certain time and place to be built, I did not include items like Mikael's Blessing because sure, its a magic resist item, but I think there are better solo lane income based magic resist items. On that note if there we're one item I could add to league it would be a generalist magic resist item because all the current choices seem REALLY specific to not just the enemy team but your comp as well, and as an AD/Tank Abyssal is pretty weird to buy, leaving you with effectively 2 magic resist items to choose from.

I'm not very good at writing exactly what to do for laning since its pretty match up dependant which is to be expected for a counter-pick champion like Poppy.

Poke enemies with grasp buckler, inbetween passive trades try to poke out with q, even if you don't hit the enemy you will still be accumulating charges to your next grasp proc. When your passive is about to come back up you can auto a minion then q the minions a second later to ensure you have grasp up for your buckler.

Some champs make you auto lose lane but some champs auto lose lane to you, even if you lose a supposed easy match up don't get tilted, understand how they beat you and learn WHY they beat you. Poppy is simple to learn but isn't one dimensional, she has a lot of potential to out play enemies especially if you're playing jungle, her strongest role by far.

Poppy is sleeper in the jungle, even if shes not against someone with dashes (which every jungle has anyway) she has easy to apply e's and she gets to gank.

Ganking with Poppy is stupid easy because people just love to hug the wall when they see a jungler running into their lane after they over extend.

My normal clear for blue side is
Blue > Gromp > Wolves > Is mid gankable? > Raptors > Red > Is top gankable? > Krugs > Is top gankable? > Reset.

My normal clear for red side is
Red > Raptors > Is mid gankable? > Wolves > Blue > Gromp > Scuttle if lane prio OR is mid and top gankable?

If you have an aggresive bot combo you can start raptors and potentially let your bot get a early lead with bush cheese. Outside of basic pathing, jungle is a fiesta, especially in low elo and can become a constant skirmish with you in the enemy jungle or the enemy in your jungle.

Here I go into depth for most of the Tank Items and explain when and why to build them.

*Starting Items
Start Corrupting Potion nearly every game when you're against a melee champion, champs like Teemo and Cass you should get Doran's Shield.

NEVER start tear, always try to first back into it, slow push first 3 waves and get a sneaky back.

Very rarely should you go Doran's Shield, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, only recommended against ranged champs.

Tank Mythics in order of usefulness.

Iceborne Gauntlet - This is hands down the best tank mythic for Poppy. Her synergy with the other items is questionable at best but Iceborne is perfect, stronger dueling with sheen, sheen proc makes them deal less damage to you, and the slow field keeps people around longer while you run around waiting for cooldowns or helps you get to them if they're a slippery ranged champ.
Overall Rating, 9/10 perfect fit for any game.


Jak'sho The Protean - This item has a strong synergy with Poppy's W passive where you gain bonus armor and magic resist, Jak'sho is for sure usable on Poppy but I think a majority of the time it would be a safer bet to just get Iceborn. I would recommend purchasing this when you're anticipating longer team fights againt ~3 tanks/bruisers, otherwise just get Iceborne.
Overall Rating, 7/10 less slotable than Iceborne but a much stronger contendor in melee focused games than Iceborne is.


Heartsteel - Don't be fooled, Heartsteel may be funny but I would consider this items pretty bad, and I'm not just talking on Poppy. You drop all effective tankiness and long term fighting power early in an item in exchange for raw health, that is quite bad. Not building it first puts you at a stack disadvantage but its also exetremely expensive and quite the commitment as a first item for how little power it gives you until around 15-20 minutes later when you have another item or two.
Overall Rating, 5/10 is a funny item but doesn't fit due to it's stats.


Radiant Virtue - This item is as counter intuitive as Collector. It would be the perfect support item but it's unreasonably expensive so support champs won't get it unless they're snowballing lane or at 25 mintues. This item also has anti-synergy with Poppy because sometimes you want to R enemies away making it's effect useless in those situations.
Overall Rating, 2/10 might be worth experimenting with as tank in jungle which is what keeps it from being a one. Just buy Jak'sho if you want the stats.

No Order, build what you need.

Sunfire Aegis - You will usually want to buy this before Jak'sho or Radiant, Poppy really likes the sustained damage and if you've been playing with it for the last 2 years you will start to miss it.

Thornmail - Gives you anti-heal. Buy it if you need it.

Frozen Heart - A personal favorite item of mine, its one of the best ways to "reduce" Vayne's damage since she will be attacking slower. Great against short range/melee and on-hit auto attackers which have become much more popular as of late.

Randuins Omen - Specifically good against Crit ADCs now since it's change. Keeps the slow but lost 30 armor and AD reduction, Crit ADCs have fallen out of favor and have been being replaced by On-hit ADCs so I'd suggest Frozen Heart Over this a majority of the time.

Dead Man's is really something... Its situationally useful and should NOT be bought every game, a majority of it's cost is in it's passive, making it a bit difficult to argue buying. This item DOES proc it's slow off your buckler passive attack so this item is very funny to cheese with in conjunction with Iceborne and Rapidfire Cannon. I'd say that you should only buy this item if one of two things, you're splitting/zoning often and need the movement speed to run around more or push the threat of your e, OR your using the Cheese build included lower down.

Yup, these are pretty much it. No particular order, buy as needed.

Force of Nature - The best item in the game against heavy AP comps. Against 3-4 AP you only need this and another health item and you are good to go. Probably don't buy against only 1 AP threat unless they get fed out of their mind or are Ryze, Malz, Cas, or Kayle. Its always good against them.

Turbo Chemtank - A good Magic Resist item than Poppy can buy! Get it against long range mages who are at their best when you're as far away from them as possible to close the gap.

Spirit Visage - A good buy since it increases shielding received from not just your teammates but your passive as well. Great purchase when you think Force of Nature is overkill and especially if you have an enchanter on your team.

Abyssal Mask - By far the worst of these three items on Poppy since she is an AD damage tank, but that does not cut this item out of the running. This item is great if you have a primarily AP focused team damage spread and are against multiple melee or short range champions, if you don't have at least 2 big **** AP damage dealers and Sunfire NEVER SLOT THIS ITEM AS POPPY.

Situational Items, usually should have one by 3rd of 4th item.

Gargoyles Stoneplate - A fantastic items against team comps who have 40/60 and 50/50 damage spreads, the defensive stats it gives you also work with your w passive giving you 10%-20% (based on health) more magic resist and armor. This item also has a strong synergy with Jak'sho, I love this item and when it works it WORKS.

Fimbul Winter - My usual go to item against team comps with longer fights in mind. Maybe 1 or 2 assassins in the game and the rest of each team consisting of tanky or tanky-building champs (ex. shieldbow adcs, everfrost/crown mages, anyone that builds Riftmaker, Rocketbelt, Night Harvester). This item synergizes VERY well with Frozen heart and in certain games make you an unkillable monster whos AOE slowing attacks's with Frozen Heart and shielding plenty with Fimbul
~~~NOTE - DO NOT START TEAR, TRY TO FIRST BACK INTO IT, STARTING TEAR INSTEAD OF CORRUPTING MAKES A LOT OF MATCHUPS SUBSTANTIALLY HARDER SINCE CORRUPTING POTION IS OP~~~

Warmog's Armor - Warmogs is Warmogs. I cant exactly tell you when you should or shouldn't buy it since I don't really know myself. I think it's a good, not great, but good item. Surprisingly strong second item with Sunfire but other than that the gold might be spent better else where.

Titanic Hydra - It's ok third and REALLY ok fourth, ever since it got the nerf to being 2% bonus health into AD from 1% max health into AD it hasn't quite felt the same. Good if you want so sizable damage in front to back team fights or if you're constantly dealing with the enemy tank support while trying to get to the adc.

Anathema's Chains - Anathema's does not get enough credit, it's extremely cheap, gives anti-tenacity, and reduces a carries' damage. It's good if you're stuck on tower duty, countering the split pusher all game and also quite good if the enemies have the only damage dealer of one type get fed (ex. 4 enemies are AD damage but the enemy Viktor gets fed, buy Anathemas and put it on him to reduce his damage while not having to sacrifice buying MR items into the primarily AD team)

Bruiser Mythics in order of usefulness

Divine Sunderer - By far the most OP item on Poppy. It has everything you want beside armor/magic resist, this is alleviated by a special build I created which I explained more in its own respective build.

Stridebreaker - By no means bad but it cannot live up to Divine Sunderer in my opinion. I like to go Stridebreaker in the very specific circumstance that we already have a tank, don't have much AD damage, and the enemies are quite mobile. This is also a viable item in the special sussy build instead of Divine Sunderer.

Goredrinker - Goredrinker is an item I want to love but I cannot. It feels terrible in so many match ups and clunky to use. You may take this item if you want to play backup /peel tank against many melee, but I would only suggest it if you plan on building Spirit Visage third or fourth after another bruiser item. Stridebreaker has always performed better with my own gameplay but I would encourage you to try this item and see if it fits you.

blah blah buy as you need

Sterak's Gage - It has been buffed back up in the preaseason and I can now rationalize telling people to buy this either as Bruiser Poppy or a fifth or sixth item on Tank Poppy (if you have a sizeable amount of resistences).

Black Cleaver - Great against an armor stacking team. Great at tank shredding and gives you pretty much everything.

Death's Dance - I really enjoy getting third, after my Mythic and either Black Cleaver or Steraks. It's a fantastic item, especially for melee fighters.

Maw of the Somethin-manother - Good replacement for Steraks or Death's dance if you are against a lot of AP. Divine > Maw > Force of Nature makes you damn near invincible against 4-5 AP.

Titanic Hydra - Titanic makes a return. Synergizes with Steraks. Yup.

This is SUPER SECRET POPPY BUILD, for this build to work optimally you need the correct rune page which will be included in the rune section. This build is all about going in, smacking, then running away before your stun even ends, you have big aoe cc with your w, stridebreaker, and Randuins if it fits the game.

Randuins and Silvermere are situational and should not be built as commonly as the 3 core items, (90%) Stridebreaker or (10%) Sunderer, Steraks, then Gargoyles.

You play a pseudo-tank who focuses on aoe cc while being deceptively tanky, with ingenious hunter allowing Steraks and Gargoyles to be up nearly every fight. This is a very fun, fast, and active build which I would highly recommend trying once you understand Poppy mechanically if you're new.

This is Poke Poppy, you throw the shield at people and it hurts BAD. This is something you pick against 4-5 squishy ranged damage dealers. You poke and your team uses the initiative you've granted them via the slows and heavy damage to capitalize and make picks. I would not recommend using this build if you are learning Poppy as it plays somewhat differently to how she normally plays and might misconstrue your perception of what Poppy is actually meant to do in fights. But I'm not your mom, go do whatever.

-You are NOT very tanky
-You ARE quite cheesy