Why should you play Poppy Top in League of Legends?

We are still a few days away from LoL patch 13.11 coming to live servers. But on LoL patch 13.10, Poppy LoL in the top lane has been the best champion in the game. Midway through season 13 in League of Legends, she has a 53,5% win rate in the top lane. This is boosted by her low play rate of just 2,7% across all League of Legends games played on LoL patch 13.10 in LoL Ranked Queues above Platinum rank. But unlike the other meta LoL champions, she has a low ban rate of 3,7%.

Nah this the cleanest Poppy play I've ever seen in my lyfe, bro makin me think Poppy a mechanical champ pic.twitter.com/MP5sREW4PR

— WeabooSlayer (@420WeabooSlayer) May 27, 2023

This means that if you take the time to master Poppy LoL in the top lane, you will be able to actually use her. Another reason you should play her, is her current role in the top lane meta. She is the only top laner to be top 10 in terms of win rate percentage on LoL patch 13.10, and that’s mostly due to her being a direct counter to the most popular top lane LoL champions.

Poppy LoL Abilities Rundown

Passive: Iron Ambassador

Poppy LoL has one of the most unique passive abilities in League of Legends. Every 13-7 seconds, her next basic attack becomes empowered and gains a 350 bonus range. Poppy throws her buckler at her enemy to deal 20-180 magic damage, before it falls to the ground where it can linger for 4 seconds. If Poppy picks it up, she will gain a shield for 13-18% of her maximum health that lasts for 3 seconds. If enemy champions step over the buckler it will be destroyed, but if Poppy LoL kills her target using the buckler, it will bounce back to her, not on the ground.

Q: Hammer Shock

Poppy LoL smashes her Hammer on the ground, creating an unstable field that erupts after 1 second. The ability does two types of damage on those two instances. She does flat physical damage and 9% of the target’s maximum health once she smashes it. And the same amount of damage is repeated once the field erupts. With proper utility usage, Poppy LoL can do up to 20% of her target’s maximum health with one ability! 

W: Steadfast Presence

This is Poppy’s signature ability, although all of them are and make her one of the most unique LoL champions. This ability passively increases Poppy LoL total armor and magic resistance by 12%, which is doubled up to 24% once she is below 50% health. 

Poppy gains 40% movement speed when she activates it and creates a field around her. This field lasts for 2 seconds, prevents dashes by grounding and slows her enemies by 25%. This active is what makes Poppy LoL a great counter to most meta top lane LoL champs.

E: Heroic Charge

With this ability, Poppy LoL tackles her enemy in a certain direction. It does damage, but if Poppy tackles them into the terrain, her enemies are stunned for 2 seconds and take additional damage. 

R: Keeper’s Verdict

Poppy LoL ultimate ability is unlike anything else we have seen in most LoL champions. She channels the ability for at least 0,5 seconds, after which she smashes the ground with her hammer. This smash knocks up and displaces all enemies caught in the radius while dealing damage. 

Best Poppy Top Skill Order and Ability Maxing in LoL S13

Regardless if you are playing Poppy Top or Poppy Jungle, you should always start with your Q spell. This is the first ability you will be maximizing in any scenario since it’s where most of your damage lies while playing Poppy LoL. You should have it maxed by level 9 after which you can focus on other abilities.

The second ability you will scale up depends on the matchup. Usually, going E spell second is the wisest choice, since it offers crowd control and damage. If you find a positive trade at level one, going E second can increase your kill potential. Especially if you have the Ignite Summoner Spell. If you are against one of the champions that Poppy LoL counters, you should always take W ability second. Damage doesn’t matter when the enemy can’t play the game. You should also always max W second or E second depending on the matchup.

Best Poppy Top Runes and Mastery Choices in LoL S13

When playing Poppy Top, your rune and mastery choices will be similar most of the time. Grasp of the Undying will always be your main rune choice in the Resolve Mastery tree. It has great synergy with Poppy LoL passive ability, heals her, and makes her harder to kill. Due to the items that Poppy LoL builds, she has great synergy with Demolish. This will help her be a terror on the sidelane and create pressure for her team. On the other hand, if you are struggling to learn Poppy and want a safer approach, Shield Bash also works great. This rune also has synergy with Poppy LoL passive ability. 

Conditioning is a great rune choice for Poppy in the Resolve tree. It helps her become much more durable in the late game, mostly due to the synergy with her W ability. But if you are facing a tough lane matchup, going Bone Plating is also a viable choice. Closing of the primary runes with Unflinching is a great choice. This enables Poppy LoL to get out of sticky situations rather easily and also has great synergy with her W ability. 

In higher elos, LoL ranked players value Biscuit Delivery and Time Waprtonic a lot more. This is because more often than not, the outcome of the game is decided in the early stages. For 99% of the player base, this does not apply. Beginner Poppy LoL players will have a great time using Manaflow Band and Transcendence as their secondary runes. Manaflow Band solves the mana issues Poppy faces early on. By increasing her maximum mana by 250 mana and providing mana regeneration, it offers more value and cookies and helps her sustain until she buys Frozen Heart. 

Poppy LoL mostly relies on her abilities since they are so powerful, so having more cooldown and ability haste is always good. But since the item rework in season 10, not a lot of tank items give ability haste. This is where Transcendence comes into play. It also makes Poppy a terror in extended team fights, enabling multiple stuns and providing so much peel with the grounded effect. 

Best Poppy Top Summoner Spells in LoL S13

While most of the League of Legends meta is ever-changing, that’s rarely the case with the Summoner Spells. This entire game is balanced around the Flash summoner spell and nearly every champion in the game is required to take it. The same goes for Poppy, which can set up great combos with her E and ultimate ability if she has Flash.

Teleport should be the other summoner spell of choice for most Poppy LoL enjoyers. Both Ignite and Teleport have similar win rates, but Teleport is used in 94% of the games. It just offers way too much versatility, play-making, and sidelane pressure as the game goes on. Something that Ignite just can’t do. Also having Teleport severely helps your gold income, the importance of which we have already discussed. 

Best Poppy LoL Top Lane Build in League of Legends Season 13

Knowing how Poppy LoL abilities function, it’s important to note how much she likes Sheen items. Her Q spell and passive ability enable her to abuse the Spellblade proc to its full extent. That’s why, if you’re facing tanks in the top lane, your first Mythic item of choice will be Divine Sunderer. This item is overpowered as it is, especially on most champions that use it properly. But when not facing tanks, Iceborn Gauntlet will be much better. It too uses the Spellblade passive, but the slow field is even more impactful. This helps you stay on top of mobile targets. Which is important, since damage is now good if you are not in range to do it. 

Ultimate Poppy Top Itemization Guide: Best Poppy LoL items

Sunfire Aegis should be your next item, as it does a lot of damage the more durable you become. If you are not facing tanks, Frozen Heart is a great option. Especially against the LoL champions that Poppy LoL counters. It offers a lot of mana and armor, as well as making ADC players useless. Gargoyle Stoneplate should be a part of any tank itemization guide since it makes great use of their stats and has a great active for team fights. As for your booth choice, it will depend on the game itself. Mercury Treads LoL will be the logical choice if you are facing a lot of crowd control. Otherwise, Plated Steelcaps LoL will be the default choice. 

Best Poppy LoL Top Lane Matchup Analysis

Best Poppy Top LoL Counters in LoL S13

Most of the champions that do well against Poppy LoL, are those who don’t care about her W ability. They can either sustain her burst combo, don’t have dashes, or just out-range her. These include Sion LoL, Olaf LoL, and Warwick LoL among others. Usually tanks and AD champions that do max health damage.

Weakest LoL champion against Poppy Top

On the other hand, Poppy is a great counter to most champions in the meta, which are very popular. LoL Champions like Irelia LoL, Akali LoL, Yasuo LoL , Yone LoL, Riven LoL and K’sante LoL. Anything that has great mobility and relies on dashes to win, is negated by Poppy LoL. She has great base damage, and scales great with her items and runes. This will always make Poppy more usefull than any of those champions.

Best LoL champion to pair Poppy Top with in LoL S13 

Usually Poppy Top can fit into any League of Legends team composition. Since she offers a lot of crowd control and relies on her abilities to be useful, she does great when paired with AD champions that can follow up on her setup. Anything that does burst or DPS AD damage will thrive when paired with a good Poppy LoL player, since enemies will have to choose between Mercury Treads LoL against Poppy and Plated Steelcaps against her teammates. Kha’Zix LoL, Graves LoL, and Kindred LoL are great jungle champions to partner with Poppy Top.