The Lost Legends: Poppy

Poppy's reputation is strange; unlike some of the other low-pick champions like Heimerdinger and Karma, she doesn't have the insta-dodge/troll stigma that generally follows champions that wane from popularity. She sits in the same sort of situation as Nasus and Tryndamere, melee carries who have the potential to destroy entire teams but increasingly have a difficult time reaching that state with the release of more formidable lane opponents.

And the lane is a hard place for Poppy in the face of most top-lane opponents. She has no poke to widdle down opponents, and is rather squishy to go all in early on. Her lack of reliable escapes can be brutal as well. While her Paragon of Demacia skill gives her a brief active speed boost, it's rather pint-sized without leveling the skill.

Her Heroic Charge is also a bit of a pickle. It's Poppy's only source of CC, yet to get it to work you have to slam someone against terrain. It's also her main way of entering the fray, especially early game where she has difficulty getting close to people without a the fully-leveled Paragon skill. Since it's almost impossible to get behind people, it actually does more to help your opponent escape to their tower, even with the brief stun. Being her main way of getting deep into fights, it also tends to leave you stuck if the tide turns in your enemy's favor.

Diplomatic Immunity is what makes Poppy super fun to play. The ability to effectively tower dive at level six is a great asset with certain junglers, and her ultimate shines in team fights. The utility of choosing your target makes interesting options available. Do you ult their carry for the extra damage or do you ult their support and start picking their team apart one by one? Granted, Poppy's lack of reliable mobility can make catching most prey difficult, but in tight team fights, she thrives.

But using the most of her ultimate depends on having a decent laning phase, which has become a difficult task. She can't farm against poke heavy tops like Kayle, Teemo, and Jayce, and her lack of tankiness makes trades impossible against lane bullies like Riven and Darius. Without any key skills to survive top lane, it seems strange that it is considered her primary position on the map.

Thankfully, there is a viable alternative. Poppy makes for a fairly strong jungler. Paragon of Demacia's extra damage and armor are easily kept at max stacks, and give enough of both to survive the camps early on. Heroic Charge's utility exceeds in ganking, as well, as getting behind mid lane and purple top/blue bot are relatively easy tasks. The displacement alone can give enough time to secure kills for your lanes. With farming generally safer than in lane, she also is able to pick up key items faster and provide a stronger anti-carry role.

Role: Jungler, Bruiser
Runes:

For all of my junglers, I run the appropriate penetration, flat armor, scaling MR, and move speed Quints. I imagine attack speed runes would do wonders for her clear time, but I haven't invested in them to try it out.

Masteries:

With my junglers, I tend to fall into a tanky-initation role, so my Masteries match that. The extra tenacity and slow reduction can make CC-heavy ganks a bit easier to pull off. Going 9 into offense on Poppy really helps her clear times early on, as well.

Summoner's Spells
Smite, Flash, Ghost, Ignite, Exhaust

Smite is absolutely necessary for anyone jungling, and don't let anyone say otherwise. The other Summoner Spell should either be an initiator/escape (Flash/Ghost) or something to help with ganking if you're feeling confident (Ignite/Exhaust) I highly recommend Flash as it's the most versatile spell, but play with what you're comfortable with.

Build Order:
Hunters Machete and 5 Health Pots -> Wriggle's Lantern -> Trinity Force -> Warmog's Armor
Options:
Bloodthirster, Aegis of the Legion, Shurelya's Reverie, Phantom Dancer

Hunters Machete is the standard in jungling now, and the extra damage helps Poppy out in her first clear. Wriggle's Lantern is my go to upgrade for Poppy, as most of her damage against camps comes from auto attacks and procs Madred's passive constantly.

Trinity Force is the bread and butter of any Poppy build, and once you have it her ability to kill carries is exceptional. I tend to focus Phage first for the early game tankiness of a Ruby Crystal, then go Zeal for the speediness.

Warmogs is the new must have for anyone looking to be a bruiser, so I tend to rush that afterwards for survival.

After that, your options are open. I tend to grab a Phantom Dancer to move quickly into charge-stun position without having to worry about minions. Shurelya's Reverie is also exceptionally helpful in this, and gives your team some nice support. If your support is building that, Aegis of the Legion is the best support alternative, and will give you some nice beefiness with your Warmogs. I tend to not build both, though, I just go for whichever my support is not building.

At this point, you're likely able to get close to specific targets safely, so I tend to get a Bloodthirster for extra damage and longevity in fights.

First Clear:

My jungle path has become a bit streamlined with Season Three, mostly due to it being more single-target focused. Wolves into Blue is the best start, and you absolutely need a leash from your team mates. Thankfully, this is a much more common occurrence than it used to be. I start with Paragon of Demacia since it will give you the most constant DPS out of her abilities. You will constantly keep up ten stacks of extra AD and armor, and thus get the most consistent DPS. With a strong leash, Wolves can go down before Blue, but it is a bit slow with my setup. Blue with a leash is simple, and goes down without too much hassle. Pop a health pot after Wolves and after Blue and you should be fine.

With Blue's level, take a point in Devastating Blow. From there, head over to Wraiths, knock them out, and afterwards Wolves will have respawned. Take them out for Level 3 and put another point in your W. Smite will be back up at this point, allowing you to take down red with the remainder of your potions. Afterwards, Wraiths will have respawned and will give you Level 4, which I put into Heroic Charge.

Depending on your clear, you should be able to gank mid before going back to buy.

Further Farming/Ganking:

Ganking in Season Three has become a bit bothersome. The jungle isn't as friendly as it used to be; because they are harder to kill, it's a bit easier to get behind if you aren't constantly resetting your main camps. With this new risk, ganking should only be done if your lane is actually ready and in the proper position in the lane (IE not pushed up super far.)

Mid is by far the easiest lane to gank on either team. Simply go around the side river bushes up into the entrances into the enemy jungle, run behind the enemy champion in lane and push them back with your charge. Your presence will almost always bring out a flash, as the of displacement from Heroic Charge is extremely threatening and guarantees a kill if your teammates has good CC. I've had my most success camping and feeding mid kills using this strategy, and is quite useful in frustrating the enemy mid laner.

Top and bot are more difficult as only one side per team offers an easy way to enter behind your opponents without the lane being pushed to the tower, and in bot lane, it is almost always warded. Ganking from the lane is sneakier in the right situation, but doesn't offer as much utility with your Heroic Charge (you tend to push people closer to their tower.) With a competent lane, though, ganking is possible and tends to keep people from giving you unnecessary guff about how they are losing their own lane.

Poppy is also one of the best tower divers in the game, specifically because her ultimate negates six seconds of tower damage that she can soak up for the lane partner she's ganking with. Her ultimate makes ganking any pushed lane easier, as access to the enemy's tower is easily accomplished by using the jungle paths that exit behind them. Have your opponent push the lane a bit, then rush in. Charging an enemy can sometimes push them outside of tower range, negating the need for your ult, but it's helpful to pop it if the engagement manages to push back under it.

Teamfights:

Poppy's goal is to get right in the middle of the fight with her team following behind her. Once she is there, she has two options with her ultimate.

Option one is placing it on top of the enemy support. This is best used in tight team fights where access to the entire enemy team is easier. Since the support tends to stay up for most of the fight, your invincibility won't fizzle and will allow you to push your way to the enemy carries. Give'em a good charge and smash with your hammer. The stun will give your team enough time to focus them down and turn the fight in your favor.

Option two is placing it on the enemy AD carry. This is better suited for when team fights are a bit more open. Diplomatic Immunity makes you immune to CC for its duration, and thus putting it on the carry gives you enough time to get in, assassinate them with the extra damage, and get out before anyone can stop you.

The main thing to consider is the enemy support. If it's a champion like Soraka or Sona who has limited CC, the ult is best used on them. If it's a champion like Taric, Leona, or Nautilus who can CC for the entire fight, your ult is better saved for another target to save you from being stun-locked for the entire fight.

Game Notes:

I've been testing this strategy in a couple of normal games with surprisingly good success. I should note that in none of these games was I ever counter jungled, and I imagine that would be very horrible for early game Poppy.

In my most recent game, my friend was playing Karthus middle against a Kassadin, and decided to put as much pressure on that lane as possible before Kassadin hit level six. He didn't take flash, and thus I easily maneuvered around him and gave my friend three early kills.

I also was a fairly decent counter ganker. Paragon of Demacia gives enough of an early speed boost to get to lanes faster, and kills that escaped my team were easily contained with a quick charge/hammer combo. I could also out run the enemy jungler in the odd change we met in the river, and escaped multiple encounters where death seemed imminent.

Farming definitely gets progressively easier as the game goes on, although can be a bit slow in the early game. Everything comes into play once you finish Trinity Force, which is now much easier with the cheaper price tag of 3 gold.

Overall, Poppy as a jungler felt right; her ganks were consistant, her farming was decent if a bit slow to start, and her ability to get to her carry potential came much easier than it would have in top lane.