Poppy. When I first came up with the idea for this series, Poppy was the first champion that popped into my head (see what I did there). She is the definition of underrated. But why is it so? Well, she has a few flaws that are impossible to overlook, however, if you learn to manage these, she will be the best and funniest champion to play, ever. There are a couple of big factors that make Poppy a great champion.

Lets start off with her passive. Valiant Fighter

Poppy's passive is, in my and a lot of players' opinion, the best passive in the game. If the damage that you take is greater than 10% of your current HP, that damage is reduced by half. Imagine the baits you can do with it. It directly counters all execution abilities like Garen's and Jinx's ultimate abilities. Poppy is the one champion that, no matter how low HP she has, you should never want to dive and this is solely because of this passive.

The second factor is her Q. Devastating Blow.

This is a simple ability, it does magic damage, it scales off of your AD and AP AND it does 8% of your target's maximum damage. The % damage can't exceed a threshold. The thing about this ability is that it can do massive amounts of damage. It counts as an auto attack, so a Trinity Force or any item that builds out of Sheen works amazing on Poppy. Especially Lich Bane. AP Poppy with Lich Bane is the funniest and weirdest thing ever. She gets killed insanely fast but she can one shot every champion in the League. I will come back to this a bit later. It is also an auto attack reset, this means that you can do an auto attack, then activate Devastating Blow to do another auto attack with the devastating blow bonus damage.

The third skill is her E. Heroic Charge.

This is the ability that shows if you are a good or a bad Poppy. It does magic damage and pushes you and an enemy champion back. If the enemy hits a wall, he gets stunned. This can be, if done properly, an excellent way to engage by pushing their carry into a wall or into your entire team. However, it has low range and you have to have good positioning to execute this ability properly. You can also use this ability to escape from their team by using it on an enemy that is in the back. This, however, can only be done in specific situations, for example when the enemy team is face-checking a bush that you stand in.

Last but not least, her Ultimate: Diplomatic Immunity.

This ability is the perfect ability to either take down whoever you want to or tank the entire enemy team by yourself. Diplomatic Immunity enables you to only take damage from the targeted champion aswell as dealing bonus damage to the champion. If you're playing AP Poppy, this is your initiate. Along with a Deathfire Grasp and a Lich Bane, you deal massive bonus damage. If you're playing tanky, you can just activate it on the support and it is time to go ham on the entire enemy team.

Advantages of Poppy

- Underestimated

Not many players seem to think that Poppy can deal a lot of damage but they often don't get the chance to think twice. She can deal a lot of damage even if she builds tanky thanks to her % damage on her Q.

- Great initiator

Poppy's E, along with her ultimate is a great way to start a fight. She won't take any damage from the enemy team and she can, if done right, stun the carry or knock him/her into your team.

- Baits

Her passive often gets overlooked. When you see a champion with low HP, you generally don't think twice, you just try to get the kill. This is a great way to bait the enemies into a fight. Since she takes reduced damage, she can still take a couple of hits, making the enemy team waste time and abilities on you, instead of your carries.

Disadvantages of Poppy

If she is as good as I've been writing, why is she barely played at all? Well, this in fact has an easy answer: the early game. Poppy is probably the weakest champion in the game before 15 minutes. She has barely any mana compared to her mana costs and she does no damage before her third item. She is also melee aswell as being incredible squishy, so if you're facing a ranged champion, stay at the tower and spam like a million pings for the jungler to come and basically stay in the lane for the entire time.

Different ways of playing her

There are a couple of ways to play Poppy, three to be exact.

- Tank

Poppy's ultimate makes her a natural tank. She can go solo against a lot of enemies without taking hardly any damage. When your ultimate is over, you will still have around 3k HP and a lot of resitances to tank some more.

- AP

AP Poppy is hilarious. An ultimate, Deathfire Grasp an E against the wall and her Q can burst down a champion faster than Faker can win a game. However, if you go AP, you need to be extra careful in the early. I've already talked about how weak she is in the early game and if you play AP, you will have less HP and less resistances. It can be a good idea to play her in the jungle and farm up with not a lot of ganks. This enables a safer early game and maybe an easier late game.

- AD

This way of playing Poppy is almost exactly as you would play a Jax. Defensive early game and insane damage late game. With Trinity Force and a Blade of the Ruined King , you will be able to lifesteal and still have somewhat of a good burst. However, you should be careful, AD Poppy doesn't have as much burst as AP Poppy, so you might want to wait for the enemy team to blow their CC abilities on the tank before jumping in with your ultimate.

This has been my opinions on Poppy, I hope that they have been helpful and that this article has inspired many players to play Poppy and I will see you guys soon.