While she may have been released years ago, Poppy remains one of the most consistent champions in all of League of Legends. Her abilities have aged very well over the years, and often help her counter newer champions that have an overwhelming number of dashes or tools to escape.
Thanks to some recent changes to Mythic items, Poppy has become a more potent pick in the top lane and the jungle, yet not as a tank. Her build path now favors a more aggressive playstyle by rushing Divine Sunderer and following up with items that help her engage quickly on enemies.
A more tank-oriented playstyle is certainly still an option for Poppy, though it takes away from the damage she can do on the front line. A Poppy simply soaking up damage would not be doing her job to the fullest potential, making items that boost her damage capabilities while also helping her defensively must-builds.
Here is the best build for Poppy in League‘s 2022 season that can work both in the top lane and jungle.
Runes
Resolve
Grasp of the Undying: Poppy sustains a lot of damage throughout the game, especially in the early laning phase. Being a melee top champion, she often will find herself in combat with the opposing champion while trying to farm. Grasp of the Undying is going to assist Poppy by granting her healing and extra damage upon attacking the enemy champion. On top of this, it will also boost Poppy’s overall health pool, which is something Poppy aims to do with most of the items in her build.
Shield Bash: Poppy’s passive grants her a shield that she can pick up and utilize. Having this shield will proc Shield Bash, allowing Poppy to deal more damage with her next auto attack.
Bone Plating: Most of the parts that make up Poppy’s build are to increase her overall durability, which in turn makes her extremely powerful. Bone Plating is going to do just that by reducing the damage taken from three attacks after Poppy is initially attacked. This is often enough to give Poppy the edge in a close duel, or allow her to make an escape before being taken down.
Revitalize: Since much of Poppy’s sustain in lane is centered around her passive, it’s best to give her a rune that makes her passive even more powerful. When shielding herself with Revitalize, the shield becomes even larger, giving Poppy an extra layer of protection when slamming enemies.
Inspiration
Biscuit Delivery: Most of the melee-based top lane champions will want to use the Biscuit Delivery rune. This rune is very handy as it allows Poppy to heal damage without having to return to the fountain in the base. Biscuit Delivery will grant Poppy consumable items that will heal her and give her back some mana.
Time Warp Tonic: A rune that will speed up the effects of consumables, Time Warp Tonic takes some of the wait out of healing by seeing the effects immediately heal the first 50 percent. This can often give a champion the quick heal they need to emerge victorious in combat.
Bonuses: +9 adaptive force, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Starting items
Top lane: Doran’s Shield or Corrupting Potion
Having some early durability is important for Poppy due to her being reasonably weak until she reaches level six. Doran’s Shield helps greatly, as it not only grants 80 bonus health, but also regeneration and extra damage from Poppy’s basic attacks. This item is going to make farming much safer for the champion early on.
Corrupting Potion gives Poppy a bit more damage while healing her, though it’s meant for players that want to be more proactive in the early game. Doran’s Shield is generally the better option in most top lane match-ups.
Jungle: Hailblade
Access to Chilling Smite lets Poppy stop her enemies from running away. This lets her follow up with a barrage of attacks, oftentimes changing the tide of a game before a major objective spawns. As with Emberknife, the built-in Smite effect doesn’t become active until the mid game, so in the early game Hailblade is simply Poppy’s way to jungle efficiently.
Health Potion
During the farming phase, Poppy is going to likely take damage from the enemy champion. Health potions heal back 150 health over 15 seconds, and will allow Poppy to remain in lane farming for a greater time before having to back.
Core items
Divine Sunderer or Top Lane: Sunfire Aegis
In the current state of the meta, Divine Sunderer is the best Mythic item option for Poppy in both her top lane and jungle builds. Other than giving her a large boost to her health and damage, Divine Sunderer buffs Poppy’s next basic attack after using an ability and heals her in the process. This works nicely with Poppy’s passive that also empowers her attacks, allowing her to deal massive damage when both requirements are met simultaneously.
Poppy players looking to be the team’s tank at the expense of damage can also opt for Sunfire Aegis. This is better suited for top lane Poppy players, as jungle Poppy wants access to ganking lanes and preventing enemies from escaping by taking them down. Should Sunfire Aegis be the Mythic item choice, players should avoid building any damage items and focus solely on mitigating damage for themselves and their team.
Jungle: Dead Man’s Plate
Part of Poppy’s current prevalence in the meta is thanks to Dead Man’s Plate. This Legendary-tier item rewards Poppy for walking around the map, giving her extra movement speed and making it very difficult to avoid her. If players can fully stack Dead Man’s Plate before attacking, they’ll be rewarded with an extra slow onto enemies, as if slamming them into walls with hammers wasn’t enough.
Top lane: Thornmail
Most of Poppy’s lane opponents will be AD-based, making Thornmail an important item for winning early-game trades. This will also benefit her should she decide to Teleport into the bot lane to help her allies, as Thornmail will deal damage to any champion greedy enough to damage her with an attack. It also procs grievous wounds on those enemies, which will reduce their healing received.
Jungle Poppy should consider building this item after Dead Man’s Plate, unless her jungle match-up requires it being built first. If players don’t want to fully complete the item early on, Bramble Vest, which builds into Thornmail, provides a smaller version of this passive.
Plated Steelcaps
Like the reasoning for building Thornmail, Poppy will constantly be in the face of enemies that deal AD-based damage to her. Plated Steelcaps not only provide her with a suitable boost to her movement speed, but mitigate some of the damage she receives.
Late-game items
Force of Nature
More movement speed is just what Poppy wants. Force of Nature provides Poppy with an extra five percent movement speed and grants even more when taking magic damage. When combined with Dead Man’s Plate, this item lets Poppy catch up to any enemy champion in her sights, and lets her roam the jungle faster.
Randiun’s Omen
Randiun’s Omen is a quintessential part of Poppy’s late game power. While players may not be able to purchase this powerful item due to the cost of itemization and the length of games, Randiun’s Omen allows Poppy and her allies to single out a target and drop all of their abilities on them. It also grants Poppy a myriad of resistances, which are vital to keeping her alive in the late game.
