Board Thread:League of Legends discussion/@comment-5489694-20140310172442/@comment-5404153-20140423075002

Poppy is a burst Assassin (even if it's flagged as her secondary role), emphasising high mobility pure damage builds. Unfortunately, she comes off second best in many match-ups, unless she has a distinct gold advantage. High mana costs relative to her mana pool, making a mana crystal (usually into a sheen+) almost essential. Melee fighter, positioning dependant, lacking utility, and usually outclassed at early levels.

Mid lane; No, just no. Lack of any terrain for a stun, and requiring melee range for a Q, with little farming ability, easily pushed off the creep line.

Jungle; She's not a real jungler, requiring blue to be at all effective, and requiring precise positioning when ganking, as well as having one of the slower clear times. She's not really at risk of dying, just takes a while doing it.

In top lane; Her lack of any real creep farming ability whatsoever is an early game hobble, essentially giving an enemy the lane advantage, thus gold advantage, thus the game. That's one of the things that needs to be addressed.

Duo bot; run Poppy with a marksman, and stick to bushes, aiming for a kill lane to put the other team behind.

That being said, once she reaches level 6/11/16, her ult is a gamebreaker, particularly on TT. +40% damage on an already hefty burst kit = dead enemy. Provided you can keep up enough in the gold department to actually deal the damage.

Don't get me wrong, I like Poppy, though moreso on TT than SR, it's just that she needs a considerable kill/gold advantage to be effective, and has less of an ability to get there than others.