(Rework history)
Riot finally gave her the love she needed and reworked her to be viable again, and boy did they make her fun. She's not only viable, but she's also insanely fun to play, running around like a Teemo on steroids, pushing people to the walls and slamming their faces in, and finally, throwing people around like they are nothing with her new fancy ult.

Pros

+ Stucks to enemy carries like a snail + Rather fast jungle clear time + Insane ganks with the E+Q combo + Passive makes your melee ranged! + Wields the hammer thats made for a hero

Shes the tiny force thats sits on top of enemy carries, not letting them do anything. Superdurable with the W, and great initiates with the E. Her ult, the hammer of doom has so many uses its hard to list them all. Enemy team initiates? Hammertime. Your team initiates? Hammertime on their frontlane. Somebody got caught? Hammertime.

Cons

- Sluggish without tons of ms - Learning curve for the ult, bad ult might save enemy champions - Not overpowered by any means

Not much to say on cons, not the fastest jungle clear time, not the highest damage, not the most durable champion, but she still excels on all of them over average. Some players might have problems catching people with her due to her low range E, but following my build you'll have a tons of MS to catch those pesky carries.

---

Iron Ambassador: // Iron Ambassador makes your melee autoattack ranged whenever its up to use, and drops a glowing circle which you can pick for a health percentage shield. Do not underestimate it.

---

Hammer Shock: // Poppys Q hits the ground for a really small linear AOE that, after 1 second, erupts, dealing damage both instantly and on the erupt. The damage scales on targets maximum health, and also slows everyone hit.

Max Q first, works for ganks and jungle clear.

• E+Q combo works wonders, first throw the enemy to the wall, then Q him/her for insane damage and slows. The enemy will be stuck between you and the wall until he/she dies.
• When clearing enemy camps be sure to hit the whole camp with the Q so you'll kill the small monsters aswell.
• The aoe is really, really small. Learn to use it well if you want to master Poppy.

---

Steadfast Presence: // Poppys W. The talk about Teemo on steroids? This is the skill. Passively it gives you a lot of durability, scaling the more armor/mres you have. The active gives you speed boost for a short period of time, and also BLOCKS ENEMY DASHES. Let that sink in a bit. When talking about dashes we talk about Fioras dash, Lees W, Graves E, all of those, not blinks, not teleports, but dashes. Meaning if you position yourself BETWEEN the desired dash target and the dasher, the dasher will stop his/hers dash on top of you and take damage. No getting away from this tiny fighter. This dash-blocking is one of the biggest differences between good and bad Poppy players.

Only take one point for W for the block, passive and speed boost, the additional ranks don't do much. Max it last.

• Passive is passive, just enjoy your durability
• Speed boost for initiates, blocks for later. Be sure not to use the active for speed boost if the enemy you're about to gang has easy dash to get away, wait until you've gone to his/hers melee range first.
• Master the blocks and no Lee Sin gets away from you anymore.

---

Heroic Charge: // Remember what made old Poppy so irritating? Well, it's back, and it's even better! 1.5 to 2 second stun if you manage to hit the enemy to a terrain with this ability, and also double the damage. Combined with Q your targets will be crying for nerfs. The range isn't too long so you have to tinker around a bit to make sure you hit the target against terrain. Turrets, and turrets remains count as terrain aswell, as does some abilities, like Anivias wall and the like. If enemy jungler dares to come to your jungle while you're clearing a camp just destroy him with this ability.

Max E second after Q for added damage, longer stun and shorter cd.

• Do not use E when chasing with a teammate and you can't hit a wall, you'll only push the enemy further away from your ally.
• Even though the range is low, you can E over few of the terrain spots, find them to abuse them.
• This is the skill that makes your ganks so dangerous, so do gank a lot.

---

Keeper's Verdict: // The hammertime. Poppy charges her hammer for few seconds to gain additional range, aoe and knockback for the initial hit. She's able to move while charging the hammer, even though she's slowed a bit. On hit it deals aoe damage to the targets hit and flings them TOWARDS THEIR OWN FOUNTAIN, no matter the angle, and boy if you charge it to max and hit someone he/she will fly far, far away. While the targets hit are flying they are invulnerable and can't be targeted.

This ability has so many uses it's hard to list them all, and this skill is why Poppy will become one of the dominating junglers once players find her. When the teamfight breaks out you can throw the enemy frontlane far away from the fight, leaving the squishies alone, or you can target the highest enemy damagedealer and throw him away to make the fight 5vs4, or even 5vs2 if you hit multiple opponents. Enemy team taking Baron? No sweat, throw a hammer there and watch them fly half way to their base, leaving you to free smite the Baron. Fighting 1v1? Slightly tap the R, not to charge it but only to hit it, and boom, 1 second knockup, the enemy isn't flying anywhere else but up. This skill is really, really overpowered when used right.

Always max up R.

• When teamfight occurs, throw enemy frontlane away so your team can reach the squishies
• Is enemy adc too fed? Throw him/her away from the fight, and watch the enemy team cry about your opness.
• 1v1? Slighty tap the R, 1 second stun!

• Predator: Predator has marvellous synergy with Poppys kit. Your main problem with ganks and teamfights is to find and catch the target. Once you manage to get to the targets melee range you'll have no problem finishing the kill. Predators active speed boost (and burst damage) helps to conquer the shortcomings of Poppys range.
  
• Cheap Shot: Cheap shop adds to your initial burst when you connect your targets face and nearby wall.
  
• Zombie Ward: Most of the game after first recall you'll be rocking Sweeping Lens as your main trinket. Clearing wards in the river and jungle helps you establish your own vision with this talent. Very useful for junglers.
  
• Ingenious Hunter: In the midgame you'll have Predator Boots, Turbo Chemtank and possibly Randuins Omen. Ingenious Hunter helps to reduce the cooldown in increasing manner, giving you more chances to make the best of your items.
  
• Conditioning: Following my guide you'll be building heavy into durability, and Conditioning adds to it. Increasing the more resists you build and adding Ws passive you'll become unkillable later on.
  
• Overgrowth: More of the same, increasing HP on top of resists gives you even more effective durability.

With minor masteries go with ATK speed, Armor and Health.

Before we check out the core itemization, please doublecheck the NOTES on top of the page next to every itembox, I've explained everything more in detail and the buy order.

Depending on the enemy composition I usually go with Plated Steelcaps for the passive against auto-attacks from the enemy AD carry. If the enemy team has high CC and/or magical damage champions (both sololaners playing AP, Ziggs bot carry with AP mid..) one should go with Mercurys Threads instead. Poppy does love movement speed, but with Predator enhancement and Turbo Chemtank we don't really need to build Swiftness Boots.

Turbo Chemtanks stats with perfectly our role, and the passive really helps with clearing camps. The bread and butter of this item though is the active, which pretty much gives the same effect as Predators Boots, making you even faster when you're out hunting those pesky noxians. Just remember to pop this and predator when you're closing in for a gank.

Your core. The health and armor are one thing, you need both of them for the jungle aswell as ganks, but the passive is what makes speedy Poppy so dangerous, the extra MS helps a ton and the burst with E+Q+Melee combo is just insane, try it out.

Your magic resist item to-go. You want to go fast, you want to catch that Teemo and smash his face against the wall, atleast 12 times in the laning phase. The stacking passive becomes highly effective in extended late-game teamfights, since your initiating and your escape both rely on having quick feet. For initiating you have Predator Boots and Turbo Chemtank, and for escaping you got full stacks of Force of Nature.

Later on you usually want to stack some more armor if the game gets super late, since most of the AD carries in this meta really come online when they get to 3-4 items. Randuin's Omen not only give you more durability (especially against auto-attacks), but also a slowing active, which helps in numerous situations. Did you catch enemy champion running alone in the river? After stun and your own slow, slow him even more to buy your team more time to catch up with you! Did you get caught trying to steal a juicy gromp? Slow your usurpers and W your way to home.

You can pick up Thornmail at any point in the game instead of some other armor, like Dead Mans Plate or Randuins Omen if your enemy team is heavy on healers, no matter if that's a selfheal or an enchanter. Vladimir, Mundo, Samira, Yasuo, Yone, they all need to be countered with antiheal or they can become unkillable when they get fed. Thornmail obviously demands that your target hits you to apply the antiheal, but you're really irritating short girl hugging the knees of the enemy, they will hit you back.

I always loved jungling for its versatility, you never need to go the same routes anymore now that we have extra camps and objectives.

With Poppy I almost always start botside, no matter the enemy jungler or the side, the leash that botlane can give you helps you to really get your jungling going. As I said on notes, if your bot doesn't seem to be giving you a leash ask them kindly. Always remember to thank your leashers with an emote or a "ty".

BLUE TEAM:
Move to Brambleback and ask your botlane to give you a good leash on it. With Season 12 the big camps spawn at 1:30, and with the early spawn botlane can give you a good pull without missing a single cs on lane. You should always aim to get a smiteless first buff with the help of your laners. If your botlane doesn't give you a pull do smite red when smite is enough to kill him to heal up and fasten your initial clear.

After you got your red buff level up your E and move to raptors. E the big raptor in to the wall and position yourself in the way that your Q hits all the little raptors along with the big birdie. Keep smashing big bois face in and aoeing the children for that juicy juicy exp. After raptors run straight to topside jungle, move past the wolves and slap Gromp until the frog is dead. You'll hit lvl3 with Gromp kill and you get your W.

At this point look around the minimap. Is your toplane pushed? Is your mid pushed? If the answer to any of these two questions is yes run to that lane from behind the enemy champion and W+E him/her into a wall, or towards your lane partner. In the worst case scenario the enemy champion will use flash, in the best one he'll/she'll use flash and die for first blood. After the game-winning first blood go and take the scuttler from the river. Depending on enemy jungler he might've taken either top- or botside scuttler already. If you get to choose (meaning the enemy jungler hasn't taken either yet) go and take topside scuttler and then take your blue. Afterwards it's time for your first recall and buying those Predator boots.

RED TEAM:
Start with your blue buff and ask your bot for a leash. Just like on blue team take smiteless if botlane is willing to give you one, only blowing smite if the botlane leaves early. After blue take your gromp with E+Q, and move straight to topside Brambleback. Killing the red buff here will give you lvl3 and access to your W, and from here on out the scenario plays the same as from blue side. Is your toplane pushed? Is your midlane pushed? If the answer to both of the questions is a no then move to top river and the scuttler (even if the enemy jungler is better at 1v1 at this point in the game, your mid and top will have priority on their lanes since they are the ones who have pushed. They should be faster to help you than their enemy counterparts). After scuttler if there's still no chance of ganking top- or midlane, move to take your raptors and then do a recall. Grab boots, Control Ward and possibly a Ruby Crystal and get ready for gank city.

All in all jungling is like a minigame of chess with the enemy jungler for the first 20 minutes, just keep putting pressure for the lanes even if its only showing yourself in the lane, to keep the enemy laners away from their comfort zone.

Alright, if you really did take the time to check out my guide I thank you for it, and I hope this helps to get your Poppy-ing to next level. I'm not a great Poppy- or the best jungle-player by any means, but I strive to be better after every game that I play, and I'm proud to say that I've made Poppy my comfort pick.

I have to thank jhoijhoi for her awesome guide for making guides, I wasn't very familiar with mobafires creator since this is my only guide here, and her tips really came in handy.

Please do leave a word if you got this deep in to the guide, I would love to hear what you liked or hated about this guide, feedback is always appreciated, no matter if its bad or good. Happy Poppying!

21.2.2022
- Season 12 update? Oh yeah. Poppy is as relevant as ever, and man is she fun to play.

31.12.2016
- Season 7 is here, and it's time to bring Poppy back from the dead. Build updated, jungling guide updated, notes updated, talents updated, runes updated.

10.2.2016
- Unlucky patch 6.3 destroyed a lot of Poppys jungling potential, I'd advice not playing her on this meta, all of her kit got nerfed. Q's base damage down with some additional bonus damage ratio, but since we build her tanky she just lost a ton of damage. E's cd got increased, and ults knockup-snap stun got shortened, leaving you less time to get CDs back up when dueling. Very, very unlucky patch for our hero of Demacia.

Therefore I will not be updating the guide accordingly anymore before Poppy will see a buff or meta switches enough for her to become valid choice for jungle again.

31.1.2016
- Updated masteries due to Assassins change

29.1.2016
- Added the note about the targets hit by Poppys ult being invulnerable for the duration of the flight (Thanks aletwa)

26.1.2016
- Updated recommended start items after testing it out on custom.

25.1.2016
- Updated masteries, Merciless instead of Meditation now that Jungle item got increased mana regeneration
- Updated skill sequence, take W on lvl3 instead of Q, that was just a mistake on my part
- Updated Stalker's Blades price.

23.1.2016
- Updated title to fit more for season 6
- Updated itemization to include Iceborn Gauntlet after playing a lot more games with Poppy
- Matchups coming soon after I eloclimb back to Diamond, placements gave me a demote all the way to Gold II from Diamond V.
- Typofixes