Jungle Poppy Problems

Salve,

Last night I tried a few games attempting to jungle with Poppy. Even though I thought I was doing everything correctly, two prohibitive things are keeping me from thinking that Poppy can be an effective jungler:

Mana
Hit Points

Now, it may be that I should have a leash, but with the masteries I took, which went to magic pen in offense, down to extra damage and AP in defense, then imp. ghost in utility, I thought that she would be able to withstand taking on Blue buff first.

I was quite wrong. I will test it out with a leash, but lacking any hp regen on her abilities, and with her level one prohibitive mana bar, I doubt that she can be a quick and effective jungler.

As an aside, I took AP Quints, flat armor seals, AP glyphs, and magic pen marks.

So, she doesn't have the sustain to work in the jungle, and that does transfer over to the lane a bit, but without as big a constant early demand.

Heck, the poor gal begins with only a little over 200 mana. So, this issue has me rethinking the character build again.

Sheen is the most important weapon to get Poppy to do well early on with her dps output. Also, since she has mana issues, I think I'll try the following item build:

Mana Crystal
Potions
Sheen
Boots
Boots of Swiftness
Rod of Ages
Force of Nature
Void Staff
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Lich Bane

So, what I get out of this is the ability to take advantage of her naturally high armor, yet her magic resistance will desperately need a large buff, so enter Force of Nature. Since resistance goes through before damage itself, and if it exceeds 10% of her max hp it gets reduced 50%, I think this will give her the advantage of lasting quite a bit longer than she would otherwise after her initial assassination run.

As for where to fight with her, I would suggest coordinating with your team to take fights into the jungle. If the enemy team won't follow, then send one or two to push a nearby lane, then try to angle them in anyway. She'll be most effective with her CC in the jungle, and a large obstacle to be removed.

Something that will be annoying is that, although you can use Diplomatic Immunity on a tank to get at the carry, if that carry has movement blocking abilities or items, you will be moving slower, just not taking damage. Quite annoying, and so I would suggest entering the fight from as oddball an angle as possible, potentially with a good flash.

Flash over the wall, ult the tank, charge the carry, blow all cooldowns, then hopefully get cake.

I'll attempt this particular build tonight. I'm wanting to play her in ranked matches, so getting a set-in-stone build will work well.

As a side note, I haven't tried her in Dominion yet, but I think she'll be a great champion to use there, due to plenty of walls and her own movement speed buff.

Alright, I will return later with an update on Popps!