Poppy is in an interesting place in League of Legends right now. When she's taken into the jungle she runs damage runes, but builds full tank (most of the time). Which puts her in the unique position of being hard to kill and also legitimately threatening the enemy carries. Should she manage to get a lead in the early game, Poppy can really snowball. In this Poppy Jungle guide, we'll take a look at how to leverage this snowball into wins.

Runes:


Primary: We'll be taking runes from the Domination tree, as they'll allow us to deal some meaningful damage and complement our kit despite our intention to build tank items. Our keystone will be Dark Harvest: When we deal damage to low health champions (There will be a visual indicator) the first attack will deal adaptive damage and harvest a soul. The more souls, the more damage that will be inflicted by the Dark Harvest attack. Next we take Cheap Shot: which cause bonus true damage to enemies with impaired movement or actions. Poppy can stun or slow enemies with her Q, W and E, so it's a perfect rune for her. Third is Eyeball Collection: Gain bonus AP or AD (adaptive) on takedowns up to 10, this just helps round out her damage. Finally, Relentless Hunter: Unique takedowns grant out of combat move speed, great for junglers and moving around the map.

Secondary: We'll be taking the usual jungler secondaries in both Nimbus Cloak and Waterwalking. The pair of runes that improves move speed after using a Summoner Spell or while in the river.


Abilities:

Iron Ambassador (Passive): Every 16/12/8 seconds, based on level, poppy throws her buckler as her next basic attack, gaining 350 bonus range and dealing 20-180 bonus magic damage. The buckler then falls near her target and remains for 4 seconds.

When picked up, Poppy shields herself for 15/17.5/20 %, based on level, of her maximum HP for 3 seconds. If the buckler kills its target, it will automatically return to Poppy. Enemy Champions may also step on the buckler to destroy it.

Hammer Shock (Q): Active: Poppy smashes the ground in front of her target direction, dealing physical damage and 8% of the target's maximum HP (capped against monsters). The impacted ground will slow enemies by 20/25/30/35/40% before erupting after 1 second dealing the same physical damage to enemies in the zone.

Steadfast Presence (W): Passive: Poppy's total armor and total magic resistance are both increased by 10%, doubled to 20% when below 40% of her maximum HP.

Active: Poppy gains 40% movement speed for 2 seconds and creates a steadfast aura around herself. Enemies who attempt to Dash through it are dealt 70/110/150/190/230 magic damage, knocked up for 0.5 seconds and are then grounded and slowed by 25% for 2 seconds.

Steadfast Presence will block Dashes both from inside and outside the aura. It can only block 1 dash per enemy per cast, but grounds them after they've been blocked.

Heroic Charge (E): Active: Poppy dashes to the target enemy, deals 60/80/100/120/140 physical damage and carries them along for up to 300 units. Should the target collide will terrain, Poppy will deal the same physical damage again and stun them for 1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9/2 seconds.

Keeper's Verdict (R): Active: Poppy may charge her hammer for 4 seconds, slowing her by 15% (while increasing Keeper's Verdict's range and knockback distance). The ability may be cast at any point during the charge time.

Recast: Poppy smashes the ground sending a shockwave in a target direction until hitting an enemy, causing an eruption. Enemies caught in the path or eruption are dealth 200/300/400 physical damage and knocked back a distance toward the enemy fountain.

Releasing the charge immediately (before 0.5 seconds) will launch any enemy upwards, dealing only 50% damage, but knocking targets up for 0.75 seconds rather than launching them away.


Playstyle:

Poppy is a fairly straightforward tank in the jungle. Her incredible CC abilities make her very dangerous in the early game. Fighting the enemy jungler is usually Poppy sided if you can stun them and ganking is almost always going to result in a blow Summoner Spell or kill. Late game she's hard to kill thanks to her W passive and itemization. Not to mention the peel she provides for her carries with her W active and Ultimate.

Her main downside is that while she has tools for sustain in the jungle, with her Buckler shield and E stun, she doesn't do amazing damage to Neutral Objectives. Therefore, you'll want lane priority or flat out help from laners to take things like early dragons or Rift Heralds. While you may not end up getting super low from doing these objectives, the enemy jungler will likely be able to out-burst you and steal with an ability-smite combo.

However, in the late game, should you find yourself in a 50-50 baron or dragon fight, Poppy has an excellent cheat ability to win these duels. As Poppy you can simply launch the enemy jungler away from the Neutral Objective and smite without fear (make sure you hit the skillshot though).

Early Game: As stated above, Poppy is pretty straightforward in the jungle. Early game you'll want to follow a standard jungle clear, preferably starting at your strong side (bot lane assisted) buff. However, Poppy is incredible at blowing flashes early game and could start Red Buff to early gank Mid or Top and punish early aggression or immobile champions. Alternatively, following a standard clear path can lead to aggression at the Scuttle Crabs. Meeting the enemy jungler in the river should be a very winnable fight if you use your Steadfast Presence and Heroic Charge to block dashes and get a stun. Just be aware of the lanes and who can move to support their jungler first.


The dummy (above) is roughly where the Scuttle Crab is going to spawn in the Bottom River. All these walls (red) are potential stun locations for the Crab and enemy jungler (and that's only the walls on screen currently). You have a MASSIVE advantage in the river and in the jungle simply because any wall can be turned into a weapon.

Your clear speed won't be anything to write home about at first, although the AOE damage from Hammer Shock will keep you moving at a pretty good pace, but once you get the Cinderhulk jungle item enchantment you'll speed through camps. This is where clearing and ganking speed turn up a notch. With your bonus health and AOE damage from Cinderhulk, jungle camps will clear faster and hurt less; allowing you to go to lanes more often and put Poppy's kit to great use.

It's easy on tank junglers to get lost clearing your camps or ganking repeatedly and Poppy is no exception. You need to be careful not to fall into the trap of power farming to get tankier or power ganking to keep a specific lane down as you'll either fall behind yourself or your other lanes may fall behind due to you not being there.

Mid - Late Game: Now that the game is transitioning to focus more on teamfighting and fighting around/for Neutral Objectives you'll want to stay with your team. This is where you're really going to want to assess your role on your team and look at how fights are playing out. Is it better for you to engage fights or wait for a teammate or enemy to do. Then, is it better for you to dive onto their backline to fight their carries or is it better for you to sit with your carries and peel for them?

Your most powerful tools in teamfights ar your Steadfast Presence and Keeper's Verdict, because of how disruptive they are. Preventing an enemy from dashing away from you or into your backline will surely turn the tide of the fight in your favor. As well as using your ultimate to either knockup valuable targets or send them out of the fight. Instantly making a fight uneven in your favor is beyond useful and is often overlooked in favor of using Keeper's Verdict as a knockup tool. The flipside to that, however, is that you need to be extremely careful when using a charged version of your ultimate. You don't want to knock a priority target or low health target away, saving them.

Depending on how your team is pushing lanes or what the game state is in general, Poppy is excellent at catching enemies out of position. Whether it be finding someone roaming through the river and jungle or shadowing a laner while split pushing, you can snag easy 2 v 1 kills and transition into easy objectives with the proper warding and teamwork.

The Build:

The main build that jungle Poppy goes for is the full tank build. Most of the time you'll do enough damage and be more useful in general by building full tank, especially with Dark Harvest. Building damage is reserved for a massive lead in the early game, with a dedicated tank top laner, but is still a risk.

The core of the build revolves around Stalker's Cinderhulk, Dead Man's Plate and Gargoyle Stoneplate.


- Cinderhulk provides you with bonus HP and an AOE passive, both great for clearing jungle camps and grants you a larger shield from your Buckler passive.

- Dead Man's Plate provides you with more HP (Buckler Passive), armor and movement speed/damage. The passive movement speed build up paired with an empowered hit is great for Poppy who wants to get onto a target by running at them. Combine the Crushing Blow hit with Dark Harvest and you've suddenly dealt a lot of damage to an unsuspecting target.

- Gargoyle Stoneplate provides you with both armor and magic resistance and will passive provide you with even more when you're near 3+ enemies. The active will further reduce damage and increase your health for 4 seconds, making you a monster in teamfights.

Your final items are up to you based on the situation you're in, should you need armor I'd recommend:


- Thornmail: Will reflect damage back to enemies when hit by basic attacks and apply grievous wounds to reduce healing. Also has the Cold Steel passive that will reduce attacker's attack speed by 15%.

-Frozen Heart: Reduces attack speed of nearby champions by 15%, but trades the grievous wounds for extra cooldown reduction and mana, should you need either of those/not need the grievous wounds.

-Ninja Tabi: Block 12% damage from basic attacks

Should you need magic resistance:


-Spirit Visage: Against a single AP threat or if you have a teammate who can heal you Spirit Visage provides considerable resistance, health, regen and cooldown reduction. It also increased healing received by 30%.

- Adaptive Helm: For multiple AP threats and/or if you don't have healing on your team this item is just better. It will provide similar stats, but will reduce all subsequent magic damage from that spell or effective by 20% for the next 4 seconds (This is also better to take in a single AP threat game if it's someone like Cassiopeia who uses one ability to burn you down).

- Mercury's Treads: Reduce the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds, polymorphs and immobilizes by 30%

Finally, Warmog's Armor, Locket of the Iron Solari and Righteous Glory are all great items to build as well if you need more healing, team shielding or speed, but provide less resistances and health as single items, therefore being more situation than above.