One of Poppy’s best builds in season 10.
Poppy is easily one of the most effective top lane counter picks in League of Legends season 10. While she does have a weak early game, once the champion gets past level six she becomes extremely powerful. Since her rework in 2015 Poppy has become a more common pick in the top lane and has seen much more competitive play.
As with all League champions, specific items are going to be more effective given the situation the champion is in during the game. But there are certain items that are most effective on Poppy regardless of her match up in-game. These core items are going to give the player the best chance of effectively playing the champion.
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.
Demolish: This rune is going to make pushing lanes much faster for Poppy as a champion that will have to play quite defensively in the early stages of a game. Once Poppy can get to the enemy tower, she is going to deal extra damage with the charge built up from this rune.
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 up in a close duel or allow her to make an escape before being taken down.
Overgrowth: Sticking to the trend of boosting Poppy’s health pool, Overgrowth grants Poppy bonus health every time eight enemies or monsters die near her. On top of this, the rune will also increase Poppy’s maximum health.
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 a way for Poppy to heal damage without having to return to the fountain in the base. Biscuit Delivery will grant poppy consumable items that will heal heath back but also increase her overall Mana pool by 50 for each biscuit.
Time Warp Tonic: A rune that will speed up the effects of consumables, Time Warp Tonic takes some of the wait out of healing health by seeing the effects immediately heal the first 50 percent. This can often give a champion the quick heal they need to remain and emerge victorious in combat.
Bonuses: +9 adaptive force, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Starting items
Doran’s Shield
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.
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
Trinity Force
As Poppy’s abilities scale with a range of stats, Trinity Force is the perfect item for the champion. Trinity Force grants stat increases for health, mana, attack damage, attack speed, cooldown reduction, and movement speed.
This is going to extremely increase Poppy’s power, allowing her to chain together her basic attacks with her abilities to proc the ability from the Sheen component and deal devastating damage to enemies. On top of this, the bonus health and mana are going to increase Poppy’s durability.
Sunfire Cape
Sunfire Cape is a great item for most tank-based melee champions in the game as it will increase their durability by 425 health and 60 Armor. But the real value in this item comes from its passive effect. Nearby enemies will have magic damage dealt to them every second they are within range of Poppy. This effect also will assist the champion in farming as it affects enemy minions and monsters.
Spirit Visage
Outside of increasing Poppy’s health, lowering her cooldown times is going to be important also. Poppy might be a melee champion but in combat, her abilities are going to be used frequently to stun or deal bonus damage to enemies. Spirit Visage reduces the cooldowns by 10 percent and grants 450 health, 100-percent health regeneration, and 55 magic resist.
Late-game items
Ninja Tabi
Ninja Tabi assists Poppy not only with the bonus movement speed provided by all the boots in the game but also provides armor and a unique passive ability. When poppy takes basic attack damage, she is going to block 12 percent of this thanks to the item’s passive. Even the slightest reduction in damage sometimes can be enough to ensure Poppy wins in combat.
Guardian Angel
Front-line champions such as Poppy are often going to be taken out in teamfights regardless of their large health pool. To counter this, building a Guardian Angel will allow Poppy to get back into the action immediately after being killed. The effect of this item will see Poppy restored with 50 percent health and mana once her health is reduced to zero. On top of this, the item also will grant Poppy bonus attack damage and armor.
Titanic Hydra
To top off Poppy’s build, a Titanic Hydra is going to make Poppy a force to be reckoned with. This item grants the champion 450 health and 100-percent health regeneration as well as 40 attack damage. The item’s passive effect will cause basic attacks to deal bonus damage to enemies based on Poppy’s overall health. The active effect on the item will also increase the range and power of the item’s passive.