Table of Contents

  • Greetings!
  • RUNES AND PLAYSTYLE.
    • Vanilla:
    • Split Pusher:
    • Initiator:
    • Fighter:
    • Lethality:
    • Lethality MID:
    • JUNGLER:
    • ROAMING SUPPORT:
    • POPPY SUPPORT:
  • Skill Path
  • Item Builds
  • Matchups and Synergies
  • I will keep it updated and add more matchups no worries! For now good luck in the Summoner Rift!

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Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer

by Paladin_Astolfo

Paladin_Astolfo

July 17th, 2022 ⸱ 13 min read

Greetings!

I'm Paladin_Astolfo, I have been playing LoL since Twitch and Evelynn could build sunfire and kill people meanwhile invisible!

I've played a lot of champions roles but Toplane always been where I used to get the most fun!

WHY POPPY?

Well, Poppy has an unique playstyle, she can be both an initiator but also a strong counter-engage. A good Poppy ult can carry alone teamfights and it is so beautiful watching your enemies flying away like the Team Rocket from Pokémons isn't it!?

Poppy is also the kind of champ that can build anything but is also the kind of champion that "doesn't shine" with specific itemization. The reason why is because there is not an actual itemization that really can make Poppy "broken", she has some synergy with some items but cannot really use them all at full potential, unlike other champions can do, I'll will give you some example later. Now let's get started: let's turn you into an Orlon apprentice!

RUNES AND PLAYSTYLE.

I'm gonna try to give you some patterns and also gonna try to make you understand the logic behind the choice so that you will be able to adapt:



Poppy
is not a weak solo laner, she is actually pretty strong in 1v1 and she can turn even the bad matchups into a skill-based one.

Vanilla:

This rune page is the most basic one. It's good in general vs every laner, I really don't like it personally but I sugguest you to use it if you want to start to play her, it's not a bad rune page don't get me wrong, the playstyle tho it's REALLY defensive compared to other ones I wanna show you.

I wanna precise a couple of things about this rune page:

Grasp of the Undying
is good on Poppy even when normally would not be a good choice, all thanks to her passive
Iron Ambassador
. It still work doing the full damage even if is a ranged attack. Its really good for poke and trades, also thanks to the side effects offer a decent scaling. Your aim is to spam it as much as possible, everytime you have your passive up, use it. You will see what damage she is able to do thanks to this combo!



Shield Bash
is good only because of her passive, this means that if you are not gonna be able to get
Iron Ambassador
shield, you are not gonna proc it. So take care.



Bone Plating
really good vs poke lanes or champions like
Darius
/
Fiora
. It can make you win trades early kinda easily if you play around it.



Unflinching
kinda situational, if enemies have a lot of CCs you should totally use it, otherwise I sugguest you to use
Overgrowth
, unless you are aganist scaling champions which deal DMG % your total HPs (
Fiora
or
Vayne
for example), in case just go
Revitalize
and play around the shield as much as you can!



Split Pusher:

This one is one of my favourites! Poppy is not really a solo carry but this playstyle in my opinion can make the difference.

This runepage is made so that you will be sure to do not be bothered too much in early and that you will be able to scale freely. You won't deal a lot of damage actively but you will still have your CCs and utility in a possible TF even if that is not the way you wanna play with this build. What you have to do is build as many HPs as possibile in order to do as much DMG as possible with

Demolish
, so a possible build could be:
Hullbreaker
,
Iceborn Gauntlet
,
Plated Steelcaps
,
Thornmail
,
Force of Nature
,
Warmog's Armor
. This would be the perfect setup, now you cannot always build this items OFC but you should not go too much far from that. All you have to do you keep split pushing, if you build correctly you will hardly find a marchup that will not allow you to do a 1v1 unless its an high-scaling champion. But even in the worse scenario you have to do 1 thing: hit
Keeper's Verdict
. Essentially you will have to keep split pushing and if enemies will come to you, you will have just to ult them right away and go away or keep going for the turret. They will lose a lot of time if they seriously will try to stop you and your team will be able to gain something else out of it.



Warmog's Armor
is really good on this setup. not only coz HPs but the ult can give you free tyme for proc the passive of this item, so that the enemies are going to waste even more time on you if they will come back.

(Remember to play always to the opposite side of Jungle objectives when they are up and you have also your TP up, in case you will be able to just group with your team if you think you won't get any turret and still bait 1 enemy laner on you).

Feel free to change

Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will
or
Time Warp Tonic
with
Slightly Magical Footwear
if you are confident enough.



Initiator:

OK this is probably the most usefull one if you have a fed hypercarry in your team and you are the only frontliner. Or more in general, if you will have to fight 5v5 in order to win the game.

What you want with this rune page is to hard engage enemies. So:

Turbo Chemtank
is a must and maybe even
Dead Man's Plate
. During laning phase be sure to hit the
Heroic Charge
stun when you trade so that you can full DMG your enemy with
Aftershock
.

There is nothing much to say about it, feel free to change second and third line of

Resolve
how you prefer.



Fighter:

So here we are to the more offensive Poppy's playstyle. I sugguest you to use this rune setup if you are aganist some easy lanes you can win aganist. And possibly also squishy enough. Poppy can proc

Conqueror
kinda easily with a full combo, you cannot poke really a lot with this playstyle since no synergy with
Iron Ambassador
but if you manage to AA WITH
Iron Ambassador
-
Heroic Charge
-
Hammer Shock
you should be able to win pretty much every trade. This is tho an aggressive style of gameplay, if you won't snowball here there won't be a lot of chances to carry.



Lethality:

this is another playstyle that I really like, but you MUST be ready to put efforts to learn it. I sugguest you to play it MID, JUNGLE or SUPPORT. But if you are aganist a lot of squishy enemies and you have already a strong frontline, IG you can go for it even top, even optimal then would be aganist a ranged one, maybe something like

Quinn
. You have to get dark harvest stacks which means you will have to commit over and over being sure to proc your
Steadfast Presence
to counter your enemies so that they won't be able to escape your full dmg. You will have to build
Duskblade of Draktharr
and play around invisibility in order to try to force to get at least 2 kills in a Team Fight (basically this build turns Poppy into an assassin!)

You can go

Electrocute
if you don't feel you wanna risk harvest, take care tho in late, you gonna miss a lot of damage, definitely worse you are going to snowball.



Lethality MID:

OK HEAR ME OUT! I sugguest you to go for it ONLY if you really don't wanna play anything else OR FOR COUNTER PICKING (like vs.

LeBlanc
). Your aim here is still to scale building lethality but also to be a pain in the *** to your enemy laner and your enemy team. But most of all: PRESSURE FOR KILLS.

YOU will have to ROAM as much as possible. No excuses, YOU aim for KILLS, you prolly won't even be able to farm anyway, especially vs a ranged champion. You will have to rush

Boots
, maybe even starting with it in some scenarios and just ROAM. Help your jungler and you laners and make so you will get as many kills as possible. I sugguest you to run
Predator
and to go
Ignite
or
Exhaust
and to use them so that the boost speed from
Nimbus Cloak
can give you enough mobility speed so that you can position your self for proc a good stun.

You will still have to go lethality build OFC. Changes tho that you do not play in the TOPLANE ISLAND anymore, you are now a roaming champion.



JUNGLER:

So, Poppy can be a strong Jungler if you can play her correctly. (duhh).

I do not sugguest you to build Vanilla in jungle. I feel it's not good enough unless you are an OTP and in a really bad case scenario.

I will leave 2 runepages in case, but I will still recommend to go LETHALITY in jungle and pressure for kill, as many as you can.

In any case, go

Hailblade
smite! (it steal movement speed from your enemy, this makes it so you don't need
Nimbus Cloak
and you can go
Waterwalking
!)

Remember that your LEVEL 2 IS REALLY STRONG AND YOU CAN EVEN EARLY GANK IF YOU REALLY WANT TO AFTER RED! (

Hammer Shock
Heroic Charge
).



ROAMING SUPPORT:

THIS IS IT! MY CREATION!

So hear me out, this is some deep stuffs, only real Poppy ready to 1v9 lovers would appreciate it.

--->Poppy roaming support lethality: this. THIS. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT!

So, I'll try to explain it: Poppy jungle full lethality is strong coz of kills pressuring, Poppy full lethality support is the same BUT, UNLIKE POPPY JUNGLER YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FARM! That's it! You will have just to build

Spectral Sickle
and ROAM as much as you can and get as many kills as you can! It is like roaming Janna or Twitch support more or less but it offers a WAY of more of kill pressure since poppy has a literally a spell that makes even champions with dashes not being able to escape, so basically Poppy has 3 CCs (and 2 of them are hard CCs!). You can even easily dive someone based on the lane matchup! Just be sure to ward always in enemy jungle in order to being able to track it!



POPPY SUPPORT:

So this is just a normal support playstyle, you generally go tanky for this nothing much, it doesnt really work anymore coz there are better support to lane with that does this job a way better but I am still gonna give you some rune pages tips for this!

Try to play around your CCs as much as you can and to build tanky/peeling supp items, should also give you a decent ammount of CD which allows you to spam more CCs.

  • Vanilla
  • Tank/Split Pusher
  • Tank/Initiator
  • Fighter
  • Lethality/TOP
  • Lethality MID
  • Lethality JG
  • Vanilla JG
  • ROAM. SUPP/Lethality
  • Poppy Supp





Skill Path

  • Skill Path

Poppy

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Item Builds

(Boots OFC are situationals, and OFC if you go aganist a full AD team you do not need MR and if you go aganist a full AP team you do not need AR). Always start with

Corrupting Potion
when you have
Time Warp Tonic
in your runes. If not start
Doran's Blade
or
Doran's Shield
if you are vs a poke lane. IF YOU ARE VS A POKE LANE BUT STILL WANNA HAVE KILL PRESSURE START WITH
Long Sword
X3
Health Potion
/
Refillable Potion

  • Vanilla
  • Split Pusher
  • Initiator
  • Fighter
  • Lethality TOP/MID/JG
  • ROAMING SUPP
  • SUPPORT

Matchups and Synergies



  • Matchups



I will keep it updated and add more matchups no worries! For now good luck in the Summoner Rift!





TopJungleMidPoppySupport
AUTHOR
Paladin_Astolfo
ABOUT

Just someone who studies literature/lift/work/play LoL all day.

2 Comments

Share your thoughs, feedback, comments...

1
Diachi itachi 11 months ago

thank you sooooo much, I was thinking of starting poppy but your guide is useful and easy to learn

2
Katsu 11 months ago

Very diverse builds. I think the Fighter one will fit my style.

Paladin_Astolfo
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