Poppy

Yay, so I'm halfway to level 29, and my efforts at getting access to ranked mode and the tribunal are nearing completion!

Here I want to talk about what is my favorite champion, albeit not one that I have played very often: Poppy, the paragon of DEMACIA!

This is a champion I rarely see get played, and having played her enough to see where she shines and doesn't, I think I know why such is the case.

She demands better positioning than any other champion I have seen.

This is due to her Heroic Charge ability, her E, which has two parts, the first of which is damage due to her tackling someone. The second part, the more vital one, is if while tackling they meet an obstruction, more damage is done, and the target becomes stunned. This is entirely dependent on her positioning on the map, and in certain areas of the map she loses efficiency as a melee assassin champ.

Her most effective place in the map is the jungle, simple as that. After the jungle, in lane trying to work the angles. She actually loses power when you make the push into the enemy base. Although, you can shove someone into a turret or inhibitor.

Oddball part is, she is not classified as a jungler. She'd be great for a jungle invasion, but so far I haven't seen anyone jungle with her, which I have thought of trying out sometime. Issue is she lacks lifesteal when her abilities are used naturally. Although, she has great defenses, and her passive will make up for a lot of her issues.

Speaking of her abilities...

From Riot's own website considering her abilities:

Devastating Blow - Poppy crushes her opponent, dealing attack damage plus a flat amount and 8% of her target's max health as bonus damage. The bonus damage cannot exceed a threshold based on rank.

Poppy crushes her opponent, dealing attack damage (+0.6) plus 20/40/60/80/100 and 8% of her target's maximum health as magic damage. The bonus damage dealt cannot exceed 75/150/225/300/375.
Cost
55/55/55/55/55 Mana
Range
600

Paragon of Demacia - Passive: Upon being hit or attacking an enemy, Poppy's armor and damage are increased for 5 seconds. This effect can stack 10 times. Active: Poppy gains max stacks of Paragon of Demacia and her movement speed is increased for 5 seconds.

Passive: Upon being hit or attacking an enemy, Poppy's armor and damage are increased by 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 for 5 seconds. This effect can stack 10 times.

Active: Poppy gains max stacks of Paragon of Demacia and her movement speed is increased by 17/19/21/23/25% for 5 seconds.
Cost
70/75/80/85/90 Mana
Range
600

Heroic Charge - Poppy charges at an enemy and carries them further. The initial impact deals a small amount of damage, and if they collide with terrain, her target will take a high amount of damage and be stunned.

Poppy charges at an enemy and carries them for a short distance. The initial impact deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.4) magic damage. If they collide with terrain, her target takes 75/125/175/225/275 (+0.4) magic damage and will be stunned for 1.5/1.5/1.5/1.5/1.5 seconds.

Cost
60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Range
525

Diplomatic Immunity - Poppy focuses intently on a single enemy champion, dealing increased damage to them. Poppy is immune to any damage and abilities from enemies other than her target.

For 6/7/8 seconds, Poppy is immune to any damage and abilities from enemies other than her target enemy champion.
In addition, Poppy's attacks deal 20/30/40% increased damage to the marked target.

Cost
100/100/100 Mana
Range
900

Valiant Fighter - Any damage dealt to Poppy that exceeds 10% of her current health is reduced by 50%. This does not reduce damage from structures.

So, how do these abilities work in unison?

Well, first off, her passive will keep you in the fight for longer than you would have otherwise due to its damage reduction. This gives her amazing effective hit points because of that 50% reduction. Something I have been thinking of for a while is whether or not to go with more hit point-giving items, or with more defense oriented items. Like Force of Nature versus Warmog's armor. Initially I thought that it would simply be better to have more hit points, but since her passive made off of hp, I think it might be better to have higher defenses than normal so her passive will come into play more often.

I'll need to look around for the equations on how her passive works, and I'm thinking that higher defenses will actually come out on top as far as interaction with the passive.

Alright, so generally her ability sequence will go as follows for her assassination and generally fighting game:

W to get speed and an angle of attack.
R to get the damage bonus and invincibility against other enemies.
E to shove them against the wall and stun them.
Q to do massive damage, and make them QQ.

One issue the poor gal has is that her AP ratios are relatively low. However, I generally stack AP on her, primarily for how her Q interacts with Sheen/Lich Bane/Trinity Force. Most recently, I've been wondering about what to do about her choice of equipment.

I think I'll consider her masteries and equipment sequence in a short while. I'll probably do a full DPS, then a jungling build, which demand different things. I do want to pursue talking about my favorite champ, so 'ere we go!

DEMACIA!