Pretty please upvote this guide if it helped you out, or voice your greviences in the comments so I can fix it. Thanks!

Heya, I'm Kc. I got into League at a friend's request around midway through season 12 (a bit before Bel'Veth's release). Been a lot of fun since then and I've had a lot of fun experimenting with different champions, and I figure this would be a great way to share some of what I've learned with fellow Poppy enjoyers

So, what's with Poppy support finding prevalance? Well, she offers a massive amount of CC and durability for your carry during laning phase as well as into the lategame.

A good Poppy can completely oppress a lane, making her enemies consider if leaving tower is ever a safe option or if warding that bush is really worth the risk of a Poppy sitting in wait. Even if laning phase doesn't go well, your abilities transfer great into objective control and peeling for your carries.

"Pip, Pip! I've got a new tactic!" - Peppy

Reasons to play +++ the enemy team is dash-dependent ++ the enemy team is assasin-stacked ++ your team is squishy + your jungler needs help securing objectives If the enemy team has a large amount of dashes, a Poppy anywhere in the game can ruin their plans with a well timed Steadfast Presence When the enemy team has an abundance of assassins Poppy can be a great asset with both her Steadfast Presence and gratuitious amounts of resistance she can build. Ideally, you shouldn't be the only tank on your team (looking at you, top lane), but if that's the case you really need to be a beefy support. Poppy is one of the tankiest support choices, especially with low eco builds. If you have a jungler who might have issues winning a fight with the enemy jungler and can't easily steal, Poppy's Keeper's Verdict can be a great boon to objective control. Just try to keep vision on jungle objectives and ult the enemy jungler away when the objective is ~5-10 seconds away from death.

Reasons not to play --- the enemy team is crowd control heavy -- the enemy team is poke heavy - the enemy team is mobile without dashes The greatest hamper to a Poppy's freedom of movement is an enemy team stacked with crowd control abilities. The majority of these abilities will usually come from the enemy support and midlaner. Either get these champs behind early so they are easy to takedown or focus on other enemies. If the enemy has a poke-heavy team composition, you'll find it tricky to survive any amount of time both during laning phase and once the teamfighting begins. You can build resistances but if there's both an AD and AP poke champ, you'll never have enough resistance for both. Sure, Poppy's Steadfast Presence is amazing for dampening enemy mobility, but some enemy champs don't use dashes at all, yet are still incredibly mobile. These champs are going to be very tricky to pin down.

"Other people are here? Ugggh, great." - Vex
With the new support items, Poppy has a decent amount of freedom in her choices.

Increase enemies' damage vulnerability After using an ability, your next attack will increase the damage vulnerability of the next champion you attack. You can use any of your abilities and then use Iron Ambassador to trigger the damage vulnerability. This is great when your carry can easily exploit it with their range or mobility. Great with:

Survive engagement Massively reduce the damage you take after first taking damage (20 second cooldown). This helps greatly when fighting assassins and high-damage fighters, as well as surviving your engage into the enemy team. Great into:

Sustained laning After landing any of your abilities, heal yourself and your carry as well as giving you both a decent movement speed boost. This extra sustain is great for poke-heavy lanes and keeping your team healthy. Great into:

"Vroom, vroom!" - Lulu
Poppy also has quite a lot of freedom regarding boots, though it's usually a pretty clear choice in most games.

Maneuverability and disengage My personal favorite boots, swifties are great for maintaining mobility in the middle of a fight and getting the angles you need to pin enemies. The added slow resist is very helpful into slow-heavy teams. Great into:

Sustained CC & damage Decent boots for when the enemy team has equal damage types and you want to maximize the uptime of Steadfast Presence and Keeper's Verdict.

Magic resist and tenacity Great boots for surviving against mages and maximizing your tenacity. A must have into teams with multiple CC mages. Great into:

Roaming Great for heavy-roaming builds but generally situational, build if your ADC is safe on their own to farm.

Armor amp Good boots into an AD stacked enemy team. Since the boots give a flat % reduction to the damage from enemy attacks, it can greatly amplify the effectiveness of your armor. Great into:

"Don't ask where it's from. Ask how much." - Black Market Merchant

Armor Engage and tenacity Chase enemies and reduces slowing effects Great into: ADC nulification Large armor, mana, slow down enemies' attacks speed Great into: Spellblade and slow Causes AoE slowing fields, good for keeping mobile targets pinned. Great into: Carry survival Keep your carry (or carries) alive, and heal off of their attacks Great with (anyone who can output a ton of damage): Crit reduction Has an AoE active to slow nearby enemies, great for running carries down with your team. Great into: Microwave Purchase if you plan to stick to enemies Great into: Melee-stacked enemy team Antiheal Thorns damage and grevious wounds. Don't underestimate the thorns damage once you stack armor Great into: Team Speed Amp Emit a trail that speeds up your slower allies and discharge your speed to slow enemies when attacking. Great with: Microwave Healing microwave, purchase if you plan to be in the thick of 4-5 enemies in a fight. Great into: Melee and/or Short-ranged stacked enemy team (Unending Despair has a rather large radius) Ultimate Amp AoE slow after casting Keeper's Verdict. Useful for CC chaining slippery enemy champions, but generally not recommended. Great when: Building for ultimate and ability haste.

Mixed & Health Teamfight sustain Purchase if you need sustain in teamfights, along Frozen Heart, as its sustain scales with your mana. Great with: Long Game Purchase if planning for a long game. Usually not worth it but if the enemy team is melee stacked it may be worth it. Great into: Melee stacked enemy team with a plan to play for late. Ally burst-protection Shield your squishy teammates from burst champions every 90 seconds. Great with: Resistance amp Build as a final item to a full resistance build to maximize resistances. Great with: Bruis-ify Gain a portion of your bonus health as AD. Pretty good to cap off a high-HP build if you need a bit more damage. Great with: Vision dominance For maximizing vision control, purchase if the enemy team has multiple users of stealth, wall jumps and ganking. Great into: Roaming and Playmaking A powerful item in the right situation, tops you up on health between fights and roams. Lets you take bad trades for free and the movespeed is very good on Poppy. Also great into skirmish lanes where you'll take lots of long-range damage. Great when: You plan to roam aggressively and bounce between lanes and Great into:

Magic Resist Subvert enemy MR Great if both teams have 2-3+ AP champs. Your AP teammates can exploit the enemies' lack of MR and you can survive longer. Great when: Both teams have 2+ AP champs Sustained MR Purchase if you anticipate long duration battles with 2+ AP champions. Great into: \ Microwave MR sunfire, purchase if you plan to stick to enemies. Great into: AP poke protection Protection against sustained AP poke, make sure to let it recharge between hits. Great into: Shield amp Great amplification item with either several ocean drakes or multiple heal/shield items. There probably won't be any other healers on your team. Great with:

Temporary health & tenacity Elixir of choice when looking to frontline for the team and not get pinnned down

"That's not a hammer! This is a hammer." - Poppy

AD Enemy armor shred Reduce up to 30% of an enemy's armor through repeated attacks, great into armor-stacked teams. Allows your AD carries to deal much more damage. Great into: Sustain Less of a pick for typical support assassin poppy builds since she won't have much gold, but if you get fed this can be a good buy. Great when: You're mixing a tank and AD build. Antiheal Viable alternative to Thornmail into an AP stacked team. Great into: %HP damage Anti-HP item, great into high-health but ineffective into heavy-armor. Great into: CC deflection Helps break through heavy CC teams if you struggle to make contact. Great into: Survive initial engagement If you anticipate bring burst down after killing your target, take this to try to survive more fights. Not useful if your team can't save you after the engagement. Great when: You'll likely die after your engage but you'll win the fight. Vision control Cheap early source of damage and vision denial tool. The earlier purchased, the better. Great when: You want to roam and gank heavily. Also good when the enemy support likes to buy immense amounts of control wards. AP burst protection AP burst protection, but shouldn't be necessary in an AD build, very situational. Great into: Rapid kills Great assassin engage tool but only useful when you can get quick kills. Don't build into a team with more than one tank. Great when: Enemy team is fragile and immobile. Shield reduction AD anti-shield item, situational but can be very helpful for the team. Great into: Anti-tank and slow AD Anti-tank & slowing item. Great for pinning down mobile bruisers and tanks. Great into: Movement amp and slow AD movement-amp & slow. Great for helping allies hit their abilities on slowed enemies. Great with: Engage-aid AD Engage-aid. Good if you struggle getting near enough enemies to engage. Great into: CC-heavy enemy team composition

Temporary lifesteal Elixir of choice when looking to kill champs a little faster and survive in sustained fights

"I can spend a whole fight wondering 'shield or hammer.'" - Poppy

Aftershock

Gain bonus resistances when immobilizing champs and emit a shockwave of damage when engaging Keystone of choice when: +++You'll be engaging for your team ++You need extra resistance to survive engaging +The enemy team is easy to pin down +You'll be playing aggressive early +No-one else on your team can frontline

Guardian

Grant yourself and a nearby champion a shield when they take critical damage Keystone of choice when: +++Your carry is liable of being burst down ++You'll be sticking to your carry instead of roaming +You're not going to be engaging the enemy often +You'll be playing defensive early +The enemy will have high-damage items and abilities which are impossible for you to defend your carry from. |

Phase Rush

Gain a large speed and tenacity boost after hitting three attacks and/or abilities in quick succession Keystone of choice when: +++The enemy team is incredibly slow-heavy | ++The enemy is hard to keep up with (see list of mobile champs in the reasons not to play) +You'll be disengaging in the middle of a fight to recover +You aren't building to have the resistance and health needed for the other keystones (AD Poppy) +You want to take more Sorcery runes for mobility and mana

"Uhh, let's... just do a frontal assault! That always works." - Tristana Deal bonus damage after CCing an enemy. Great if your carry also has CC. Good if you anticipate getting poked a lot and will need sustain. Bonus damage on your pin combo. Maintain vision dominance in fast-moving lanes where you'll kill enemy wards. Maintain vision dominance in slow-moving lanes where your wards will expire naturally. Aiming for early takedowns to snowball your carry. Not generally advised, you shouldn't need the gold for most support builds. Take if you plan for 3+ items with CDs. You need lots of speed to catch up with and engage enemy champions. You're in a game where you want to use your ult a lot to peel or CC-chain enemies.

"Veigar, you are SOOO scary." "And you are very brave, Poppy, speaking to me." - Veigar Laning into a double AP botlane, not great after early game. Take if you don't plan to purchase any mana items Generally good movement aid. Fine if you absolutely need more haste for your Steadfast Presence and Keeper's Verdict Default pick for even more movement, always useful. Not advised. Not advised. Great pick for roaming often. Generally not advised, but useful if you plan for a very long game, possibly pair with Heartsteel

"Look at all that shiny armor. Sorry I gotta mess it up." - Poppy Useful if you plan to push early and fast. Make sure to roam to use it on other towers. Great for giving your ADC sustain. Good for some extra resistance in a sustained fight. Fine for full resistance builds but the bonuses aren't that significant. Good into heavy poke lanes. Good for burst-heavy lanes. Long-game rune which benefits from high max health builds Good for some extra sustain with your shield. Great sustain bonus into a heavy-CC team

"Just needs a few adjustments." - Rumble Up to player preference, great for playing aggressive and catching enemies off-guard. Also good for teleporting over walls when roaming. General mobility aid, but early boots are important for Poppy so I wouldn't recommend it unless you're playing super safe. Not advised. Not advised. (This is more of a Poppy jungle thing) Great pick for some extra AD since support can proc it easily. Build these items ASAP for the cheapest 10 stats: Mercury's Treads, Serrated Dirk, Cloth Armor, Glowing Mote. Good rune for early-lane sustain, but no benefit after laning phase, so only take it if neccessary. Decent summoner spell and item CD reduction. Fine if your carry has easy to apply CC, but generally you'll be the one CCing the enemy in the first place. Not advised.

Blue team oracle scanning
Red team oracle scanning


Botside warding
Place vision in the center of the midlane bush so it covers the whole bush.
Lane warding
Topside warding
Place vision in the center of the midlane bush so it covers the whole bush.
Place vision in the tip of the blue river bush so it covers the whole bush.

"Poppy! Excellent execution of our latest tactic. What do you think of calling it 'Peanut Petalstorm'?" - Kip
"I, uh, kinda just hit the baddie with my hammer. Can't we just call this one 'Hammer'?" - Poppy


When you first get to lane, the lane will likely look similar to this.As Poppy, you want to not only look for openings to pin and poke your enemies, but you want to stoke fear into your enemies. Make them consider if moving up for that melee minion is safe or if it will just get them killed. Make them use all their wards just trying to keep an eye on you.


After a moment, the lane will either shove towards or away from you depending on carry pick and playstyle. It's very important to recognize which as soon as possible so you can position accordingly.


In this situation, I'm playing slightly aggressively towards their support, though it's very important to watch your carry. I wouldn't be able to engage here unless they moved up. If the enemy support had easy to hit CC , I'd certainly be playing in the back of the bush or playing behind it entirely. Unless you can get an early level 1-2 pin, you're playing for the enemy to misplay, so try to avoid deaths into unfavorable matchups.


Take this example. We have the waveclear advantage and the enemy has to play riskily to farm. In this case (unless the enemy botlane is superior and we have the wave pushed too far), I'd always be looking for a pin on the enemy carry or support. If you take Hexflash, the enemy's reaction time here will be greatly reduced.



And as one final example, let's take a look at this, say, everyone just got back to lane after first back. It's tricky to make a play with this, sure you could try to go for the enemy close to the wall but your carry is too far back to make the trade profitable. You'd either want to wait for them to move up and hope they don't check your bush or just fall back. You can also try to camp in the Alcove if you think coming from behind would secure a takedown.



Here's a diagram I drew up, the orange lines and shaded regions represent ideal pinning angles. You'll want to aim for these lines of engagement as it maximizes your chance of securing a stun without the enemy having enough time to get away.

The two red arrows indicate good spots to hide and dodge skillshots from champions throwing abilities in the bush to check it. You can stay in these spots until you're about to engage, in which you should move to the edge of the bush (be careful not to accidently stick out)

Heya, thanks a bunch for reading this far, this was a pretty decent time investment but I learned a lot about matchups and itemization in the process of making this guide and conversing with others.

Thanks to these communities for helping me with the making of this guide:

Mobafire official Discord.
Poppy Mains Discord.
Ashe Mains Discord.
Twitch Mains Discord.
Caitlyn Mains Discord.
Draven Mains Discord.
Ezreal Mains Discord.
Camille Mains Discord.
#PoppyAbusersChat of the Unofficial League of Legends Discord
And many other Discord, Reddit and assorted forum posts I looked through when making this guide.


Please let me know if there's anything I should change about it or add to best inform the average player of the potentness of Poppy Support Gaming. Thanks! Kc.

[i14.23[/i]
Minor changes across the board, will have to wait and see how the Rell and Smolder changes affect matchups.

14.21 / 14.22
Swing and a miss. Sorry Toppy players.

14.20
Welcome nerfs to Brand and Senna. Corki will probably be more prevalant now, adding a section for him. Big changes to Swain, have to see how this winds up.

14.19
Decent nerf to Iron Ambassador, but I don't think it will be too substantial. Bloodsong is still dominant.

14.19
Big Trist tweaks, sizable buff for the most part. Will keep an eye on her. Did a minor rewrite of the runes since several have been nerfed pretty harshly and the extra scaling health isn't as important without easy Warmog's.


14.18
Minor Hwei and Lulu buffs, and Maokai/Smolder nerfs. Varus toned back down.


14.17
Minor nerfs to Ashe and Senna, sizable Varus buff, will have to see where this puts him. More nerfs to Warmog's. Why'd they nerf Celestial?


14.16
Minor changes, rewrote my thoughts on some of the items. Warmog's is good but it's not recommended every game.

14.15
Minor changes to some ADCs and some items that Poppy mostly doesn't buy.
Minor boot nerfs across the board.

14.14
Warmog's Heart health threshold increased to 1500 bonus health from 1300. Less viable to rush now but still good. You need to buy a kindlegem after Warmog's to activate the passive now.

14.13
No notable changes.
Becomming a big fan of Warmog's.

14.12
No notable changes.
Can people stop playing Cait / Lux for like 3 games?
Removed conditioning & unflinching from rune recommendations, added Electrocute experimental runes.
Watched some of Coach Cupcake's videos, added a segment for shards and warding.

14.11
Minor changes to botlane champs but nothing too drastic.
Roaming has become a bit less important with the extra resistances turrets have, go for first turret in the botlane.

14.10
Removal of Zeke's mana makes the item somewhat moot for Poppy.
Overlord looks to be a solid Poppy item but will have to test some more for support.
More cleaver buffs.
New boots look interesting, but swifties is probably still the default.
Bloodthirster got its crit removed, it kinda looks cool for Poppy now?
Slight relentless hunter nerf makes it a bit less desireable.
Legend Tenacity has been removed, wasn't that important for Poppy anyway. Jack of all Trades though looks real interesting.


14.9
Decent hits to Steraks, Sundered and Eclipse, doesn't affect support too much.
Blitz and Pyke should be a bit less oppressive.

14.8
No notable changes

14.7
Not too much of note, I think the Camille buffs are enough to label her in the matchups segment. Nerfs against Bloodsong continue to punch down the power of support.

14.6
Finally, some Smolder nerfs. Shouldn't affect his laning too much, though the MS hit is pretty big.
Support item gold end gain reduced by 200 and big nerfs to gold from hitting enemies. Hope you like farming. Even more Sleigh nerfs

14.5
Decent Kog buffs, I think he's still fine in the mid-tier threat section since although the slow is annoying, it's not debilitating.

Sivir's extra armor will make her slightly tankier in laning phase but shouldn't be too big an issue.

Big hit to TF's AD Ratio which I'm glad for, super oppressive champ if played well.

Pretty big hits to Solstice Sleigh, just solidifies Bloodsong as an amazing support item pick for Poppy with the damage amp.