User blog comment:Muffintehbrony/Poppy, the champion not many give love to/@comment-5209745-20140305175233

Well, I would not say that she's the cutest when compared to Trist or Lulu... But I guess that's why comparisons are odious, right? One way or another, she's my fav from the female yordle trio.

I've tried her as pseudo-hybrid bruiser, full hybrid, AP on-hitter and lastly, a sorta new build that has definitely become my biggest success when playing her. All can I say is:


 * Her earlygame is always going to be tedious due mana problems and inability to clear waves. Try to play as safely as possible.


 * Twisted treeline is far better for playing Poppy than Summoner's rift, both due the global Chalice effect and the chance to start the game with 825 gold (Double Doran's ring or a direct Tear of the goddess as your first buy). Also lanes are somewhat thinner than in SR, and there is no mid-lane crossroad with no walls around, so it's far easy to land your E. Regardless, your earlygame will still suck, but it will last shorter.


 * Practice your wall-slam so you can never fail when using it. Your E has the biggest base damage from your kit, ranging up to 425 base damage at rank 5 if you manage to hit somebody against a wall. It's going to be your best bet for early if you know how to land it and when to use it.


 * The best item for aggressive sustain on Poppy is always Hextech gunblade. I'll just copypaste this from her page: "Her high base damages make up for the 20% spellvamp, while even in an AP build the 12% lifesteal doesn't goes unnoticed due Poppy's high natural base AD and the bonus AD from W". Still, some builds might not want to get it, tho.


 * Even when going full AD, getting some magic pen (Sorcerer's shoes, Abyssal scepter, Wit's end) is worth due Poppy's high base damages: Q ranges from 100 to 375 base damage depending on your target's health, while E goes from 150 base damage from 150+275 additional damage if you manage to slam. And this doesn't even takes into account the damage amplification from your ult.


 * When going full AP, don't take Lich bane alone, take also the Arcane blade mastery and Nashor's tooth, because your burst is completely random, and if you apply LB first and then do an animation cancel with Q, you will improve it by 30+ (35% AP) damage. Also, you're a mage that has to get into melee, so the DPS from Nashor's+Arcane can prove useful.


 * One of your best items for physical damage is Muramana. It does not only solve your mana problems, but your E will apply the toggle twice if you manage to wall-slam your target, and Q applies it twice due applying both on-hit and on-spell effects (And Muramana is considered both). Due her high base damages, this can prove your best bet when you want to deal hybrid damage.


 * Contrary to popular belief, Q doesn't turns Sheen, Iceborn, Trinity, BotRK or Mura's on-hit effects into magic damage.


 * Poppy can prove to be a fantastic tower-diver due her ult, which can be combined with the Ohmwrecker for additional diving periods.


 * Always pack Exhaust. It won't just help you due your potential lack of CC, but in case that you can't ult the enemy support (Or in case that it has just so much CC that it's going to disrupt you while your whole ult, like in Leona's case), you can ult the enemy carry and exhaust it, rendering the whole enemy team useless against you.

All-in-all, she can actually be quite equilibrated if you know how to play her despite her early problems, and she can be played with a plethora of different builds. That said, her lategame is just to good, and I can pretty much understand why rioters feel that she is unbalanced.