User blog comment:NicknameMy/My little poppy rework/@comment-4490167-20111210105828

She's already viable. I don't ever play her, but I know that you can build her to be as viable as any other AD carry (other than Yi, who is either useless or faceroll-ey). Your "rework' would actually hardly do anything to her, so if she's not viable now, she certainly won't be even with the slight change to her devastating blow.

Look at Poppy's strategy page and scroll down to the table that covers the values of devastating blow (with the threshold). At level 1 of the skill, you reach the threshold when attacking a 940 health (approximately) opponent. When the skill is level 1, or in other words, when Poppy is level 1-2, there are NO champions that come close to this threshold. So devastating blow is going to deal full damage regardless of the threshold; removing it won't do anything early game. Apply the same figures for every level of devastating blow... removing the threshold honestly won't make a difference.

As for the mana costs, I've never had problems with mana when I play Poppy. Costs seem fine as they are now. You should always rush philosopher's stone, which should alleviate any mana problems (and health problems too, I may add), so that point's kind of null. If your mana is still going down a bit faster than it can regenerate, then Manamune can help, since it develops into a decent late game item as well. If it's REALLY a problem and you're spamming your skills as soon as they come off of cooldown, then there are always masteries and runes... although I don't really know what to say to this, I've never seen anyone have severe mana problems on Poppy.

TL;dr: Poppy is balanced as she is. You even seem to AGREE with this, since this "rework" will hardly change her at all. Removing the threshold won't make a noticeable difference most of the time, and mana costs are fine as they are. She is balanced.

You may as well cut Gangplank's mana costs instead; it'd make more sense than cutting Poppy's costs, since Gangplank can actually have mana problems due to Parrrley and Scurvy removal. Although in both cases, playing smart will eliminate any mana problems in the first place.