Poppy’s passive is her fist shield, the “Iron Ambassador”. When the passive is available, Poppy’s next autoattack becomes a ranged attack in which she hurls her fist shield at the target. It bounces off and remains on the ground so that Poppy can pick it up. This attack causes additional magic damage and when Poppy picks up the fist shield, she is trained depending on her maximum health points. If an opponent steps on the fist shield, Poppy can no longer collect it. If Poppy’s boosted autoattack kills the target, the fist shield automatically flies back to her so that she always keeps the shield and does not have to collect it. This passive allows Poppy to poke other melee fighters in lane and take aggressive trades. You can also often finish off an escaping opponent with the additional range of the autoattack.

At level 1, you start with Poppy’s Q, the “Hammer Shock”. When activated, Poppy swings her hammer, dealing damage and creating an area that slows enemies and explodes after 1 second. Both the initial blow and the explosion deal 9% of your opponent’s maximum health as physical damage. This percentage damage allows Poppy to trade very effectively with other tanks or bruisers. Poppy’s Q is also her only ability for Waveclear, which is why you maximize it first.

At level 2, you skill Poppy’s E, the “Heroic Rush”. Poppy charges towards her target, pulling them along with her and dealing physical damage. If the target collides with terrain, they will be stunned and take the same damage again. This ability is Poppy’s best form of mobility and Engage. However, she must be careful to push her opponents against a wall to take full advantage of the ability. If you succeed, you can also land both Q instances safely thanks to the stun, which means a lot of burst damage for your opponent. As the damage and duration of the stun are increased while the cooldown is reduced, the E is maximized second.

The last basic ability you unlock at level 3 is Poppy’s W, the “Unshakable Presence”. This passively ensures that Poppy gains additional armor and magic resistance. These bonuses are doubled if Poppy has less than 40% of her health points. Poppy can activate the W to gain 40% additional movement speed and stop enemy Dashes in her vicinity for 2 seconds. If she blocks an enemy Dash in this way, the enemy is grounded for 2 seconds, takes magic damage and is slowed by 25% for the same amount of time. Good timing is therefore important to make full use of the W. In teamfights, you ideally want to prevent enemy engages or follow-ups with your W. Another possible use is to activate the W after you have knocked an opponent against a wall to prevent them from escaping over the wall after being stunned. Last but not least, you can also use the W to put yourself in a better position for your E with the additional running speed. You maximize the W last, as your other two abilities are much more reliable.

Poppy’s ultimate ability is the “Guardian’s Judgement Spell” and is leveled at levels 6, 11 and 16. When activated, Poppy channels a hammer blow that knocks enemies very far away. The channeling lasts up to 4 seconds, during which Poppy slows herself down by 15%. When you release the R button, Poppy causes a shockwave in the selected direction, which deals physical damage to enemies hit and knocks them back towards their nexus. The enemies hit can no longer be targeted during the flight. The range of the shockwave and the knockback increases depending on the channeling duration. You can also simply tap the R, causing enemies hit near Poppy to take half damage and be thrown into the air for 1 second. This is especially useful for your all-in combo, as you can follow up your E and Q with another CC and more damage. However, the most important use of Poppy’s ult is to disengage from bad fights. If the start of a fight looks bad, you can use the ult to throw out the enemy frontline and allow your team to escape. In team fights, you can also use the ult to split up the opposing team. If you manage to send 2 or 3 enemies flying, your team should be able to take out the remaining enemies before the enemy team can reunite.

Poppy’s all-in combo W->E->AA->Q->AA->R->AA: you use the running speed of the W to get into a position from which you can push your target against a wall. Then follow up with an autoattack, the Q and another autoattack before throwing your opponent into the air with the ult and finishing off the combo with another autoattack. You can then use further autoattacks and Qs to finish off your opponent if necessary.