Talk:Poppy/@comment-5686533-20130601054014/@comment-3358335-20130613223917

Oddly enough Poppy is pretty tough to play against the Bots unless you really know what you're doing. The Bots have a habit of staying clear of walls. It's not intentional on their part, they are just single minded in the lanes. "Center of lane ftw jejejeje." Anyway, it's tough to learn poppy playing her against bots. Once you get the hang of her the bots fall apart like my kid's dry noodle art.

Some things I can recommend (that also apply to people):

1. Wards/sightstone. - You can lure bots into the bushes to chase you. However you may notice you can't see them when you leave the bushes to smash them into the wall, preventing you from targeting your E. But, since you have your handy dandy sightstone/wards, you can drop it in there before you leave the bushes and then turn around and smash them. This is also useful when playing against people. Running around with wards (a la Lee Sin), can turn many an ambush into a kill for you. "Those bushes look suspicious, let me drop a ward." Now their trap has put them right next to a wall for you. Convenient.

2. Hit and Run  - Poppy is not the best in lanes. She usually starts to shine once people start to leave lanes and roam around, that's when she catches people in the jungle and kills them in the narrows that allow for a lot of wall smashing. But during the early part of the game hide in the bushes the best you can, run out and smash your Q into someone's face, then run back (all those little minion damages do a number on Poppy, so shake them off by using the bushes.) If they chase you, see tip A, smash them and run while they are in a daze.

3. W comes before E - Not just on the keyboard. E is useful, it's Poppy's stun, it does a lot of damage, and it is pretty much her signature move. I get it as my second skill, and then I don't touch it until I have both my Q and W maxed. W makes Poppy faster, tougher, and hit harder. It also stacks with her Q. (More AD damage gets translated into more magic damage once Q is hit.) Next to what more levels in E does for you it's easy. (E just does more damage and a shorter cooldown.) The speed you get from a W boost makes 2 (hit and run) much much easier. In fact, you can kite like a melee teemo.

4. Magic Pen - Your Q and E are magic. No matter what type of Poppy you build. If you don't put any AP items at all on Poppy, you still do a ton of magic damage. Sneaking in some magic pen does crazy things to Poppy's damage output.

And yes, there are a lot of hard counters for Poppy right now. DOT's, early pulls (when Poppy is still slow and can't avoid them), true damage, and ranged champs can really slow her down early. However, playing Poppy well is a lot about patience. You will probably lose the lane, just don't feed, don't try to hard to deny or fight back, just get your philo stone, hit minions when you can, and toss the occassional Q at the other guy if (and only if) you can get away with it. Late game, as long as you don't feed you'll be stronger.