Talk:Poppy/@comment-10136989-20151117133809

Not sure how Poppy is performing on the new patch, very hard to tell at this point because some stuff (warlords bloodlust, Guinsoos, Graves) are plain broken, but she seems stronger than last season. Not even slightly, very noticeably stronger:

1) Gold gain has been increased, so despite her poor ability to farm it seems she can keep up in items well.

2) Sheen is cheaper, which is huge for her laning phase. It gives less AP, but more mana. Doing a tiny bit more damage because of 25 AP is nothing compared to being able to use an extra Q. On top of this the cdr being given is just insanely useful for chasing/dueling or ulting more often.

3) Boots of swiftness are pretty insane at the moment. 65 ms for 800 gold, and the slow reduction. Mercs are so expensive for only 20% tenacity, Ninja tabi are great vs all the marksmen/yasuo's running around too, and Poppy gets free armor for them too. I expect this to change as balances are brought in for AP champs.

4) Guinsoos has great synergy with her, not quite Jax level but seriously stupid item. Even once this gets a hit from the nerf bat I expect Maw of Malmortius to be a great replacement, the shield was already great for low HP Poppy, now she gets lifesteal and vamp to survive even longer at those tiny amounts of health like only Poppy can do.

4.5) Various items Poppy could buy have been changed, I've yet to try them all out, but the more obvious ones like Shiv and Gunblade work well. I have yet to try out essence reaver, I imagine combined with the 20% crit on triforce it gives a huge boost with 40% crit and 30% cdr + the mana regen passive. I doubt it would be quite as powerful as the Shiv pickup, and doesn't give the sustain or slow that Gunblade does, or anywhere near the power Rageblade does, but I'd be open to getting it as a third item. Also the jury is still out on Youmuu's, speed and attack speed are nice, 20 armor pen is expensive for not much use, crit removal for more AD is meh, unless something on it synergised more with her kit I don't see it being better than the other items mentioned.

4.6) Iceborn Gauntlet gives mana, 20% cdr, spellblade proc, scales off Poppies free bonus armor, physical damage meta, 'nuff said.

5) MASTERIES: I don't even know where to start. The idea behind the new masteries is choose a mainline path to a keystone, get some other stuff.

- Fervour of battle is huge, 110% better than Deathfire touch. Keep the stacks up in lane along with your passive on W, take a bunch of attack speed in runes, then go ham on the enemy laner with +25 damage per auto at level 1&2, and it only gets better from there.

- Thunderlords gets 2 procs off a wall slam E, will just proc anyway from using E, aa, Q. Seems good, 30 seconds is a long time though, and it is bugged atm, maybe good once hotfix comes out.

- Stormraiders 35% movespeed is also crazy for Poppy, providing you can get that 30% damage off, which a simple triforce proc Q does to most squishies. I would take this more if the other keystones didn't just outclass it in raw damage terms.

- Grasp of the undying is probably the most underrated mastery for many melee top laners. The 3% extra damage also stolen onto herself is truly awesome when you see it proc on low health, knowing that could be an effective 6% of health you just took. Also getting the occasional proc with the burst on your Q in lane is great. Also helps with sustain. Don't know what else there is to say, it really is just fantastic for her, definitely the most noticeable with the low health duels being won by a proc every few seconds. Whether it beats fervor of battle in raw damage terms is unlikely, and Warlords gives an insane boost once you pick up Zeal, but surviving to that point is hard without the bonus from fervor or grasp of the undying.

- After choosing from the buffet of awesome keystones available the individual Tiers can also give her some huge boons. 20hp for killing a creep every 20 sec is a necessity for surviving laning, it's a fantastic point to take. 3% damage would also be great if you are certain you can survive laning without it, but this is mucbh harder with the removal of flask and how expensive potions now are. Spell vamp/lifesteal is also my mastery of choice. The AD/AP would be good, but when you know you survived a fight because your Q hits for 400 damage and you healed 8hp, or stole just enough hp from minions while keeping your passive up while laning, the measly AD/AP per level being granted just doesn't seem to be justified. Flat regen for lane is ok, but so is the %increase on resists seeing as you get free armor and generally itemise some. Personal choice here. Similarly you can go further into the tree for increased healing and lower summoner spell cooldown, or less damage from champ autos, or even more speed for chasing people through bushes or roaming in river. Generally best to go with the reduced damage imo. Don't feel like resolve tree? Cunning gives a great boost to your potions (necessary on Poppy), farming gets a bit easier with the tier 1 points, or even take some out-of-combat movespeed for roaming and escaping those random chase the Poppy scenarios. You also get mana regen, don't bother with the executioner mastery you rarely fight champs below half health, people either sustain above that amount or die to overkill anyway. Tier 4 kinda sucks, bandit won't get you too much gold, dangerous game is quite noticeable but Poppy doesn't get assists as easily as others who could use this. CDR is ok, but really the flat hybrid penetration is what you'll be aiming for here. Likewise in the ferocity tree, both types of pen work on Poppy, she does about 15% more magic than physical according to champ.gg but that will depend on build.

Good luck on the rift fellow ambassadors, i hope the rework doesn't hit live too soon, this took a while to type up.