User blog comment:Alonlah/Poppys viability in the current meta and her status in the PBE./@comment-8506165-20130817072158

Poppy's beyond terrible early is one of her main problems. She can't farm well, she goes oom way too easily (high mana costs, lowest mana pool), has no innate sustain, no good disengage from trades, unreliable CC and very little kill potential without her ult.

I've rarely seen a toplane Poppy -not- feed horribly early unless babysitted hard by the jungler until she's just got too much of a level and gold advantage for her opponent to deal with her. If she can catch up after her terribad early she can be devastating but otherwise she's just a walking bag of 300g.

I've had ridiculously good games with her when I've been able to duel anyone even without her ult, and ridiculously bad games where I've contributed virtually nothing.