Guide · Support

Poppy Guide

Keeper of the Hammer

Tank

Fighter

Tier B Support

Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer, is a tank and fighter champion of medium difficulty. Across our 581 analysed ranked games, Poppy is mostly played as Support (57% of its games), and more rarely in Top (29%) and in the Jungle (13%), with a 56.9% win rate in that role: tier B among Support champions (#16 of 38, ranked by win rate). Poppy's damage is mostly physical (79%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 59.1% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min, 176 games) versus 51.1% in long games (over 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Averages measured over 334 Support games played with Poppy, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Poppy is an anti-mobility tank: Steadfast Presence stops enemy dashes around her (the enemy is slowed and grounded), Heroic Charge knocks back and stuns against a wall, and Keeper's Verdict knocks enemies very far away. Her passive throws her shield, which she picks up for a temporary shield.

The wall stun

E › Q › AA AA

When: An enemy is near a wall.

Heroic Charge knocks the target back; against a wall they are stunned. Hammer Shock slows then explodes.

Anti-dive

W › R

When: An enemy dashes toward your carry.

Steadfast Presence stops dashes around you: the enemy is slowed and grounded. Keeper's Verdict then knocks the enemy very far away.

See all 3 Poppy combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Pick up your shield after your passive to get a temporary shield. Hammer Shock creates a zone that slows then explodes after a delay.

Common mistakes

• Not picking up your shield.
• Using Steadfast Presence with no dash to stop.
• Casting Heroic Charge far from a wall when you could wait.

Riot's official tips for playing Poppy

• Iron Ambassador tends to land near walls, try to take advantage of this with Heroic Charge.
• Keeper's Verdict can be released immediately to send the enemy straight up, take advantage of this in duels.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Protoplasm Harness, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Dead Man's Plate (12 games, 66.7% win rate).

Protoplasm Harness+Locket of the Iron Solari+Dead Man's Plate

12 games · 66.7%

Bandlepipes+Locket of the Iron Solari+Dead Man's Plate

11 games · 81.8%

Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari+Dead Man's Plate

8 games · 87.5%

Skill order

Max order : Q > E > W61.1% · 18 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q		●		●	●		●		●
W			●											●	●
E	●							●		●		●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 56 games).

Starting items

Health PotionHealth Potion55.4% · 56 games

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 2986 gold, 13 CS, 2578 XP. At 15 min: 4567 gold, 18 CS, 4157 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Ignite58.1% · 155 games

Flash + Heal56.0% · 141 games

Exhaust + Flash54.0% · 37 games

Most-played runes

Aftershock + Inspiration

53.8% · 160 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life89%

Bone Plating85%

Unflinching96%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Hextech Flashtraption94%

Cosmic Insight93%

Shards

Adaptive force86%

Adaptive force57%

Health56%

Hail of Blades + Inspiration

61.7% · 94 games

Primary tree · Domination

Sudden Impact99%

Sixth Sense68%

Treasure Hunter70%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight97%

Hextech Flashtraption97%

Shards

Adaptive force99%

Adaptive force87%

Health scaling62%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Poppy's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team56.2% · 80 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Locket of the Iron Solari 59.7%

Dead Man's Plate 61.5%

Force of Nature 75.0%

Knight's Vow 63.6%

Bandlepipes 70.0%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team65.3% · 98 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Locket of the Iron Solari 63.9% ▲

Dead Man's Plate 74.5% ▲

Knight's Vow 63.0%

Protoplasm Harness 64.3%

The item that stands out most is Dead Man's Plate: 74.5% win rate, +15 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team51.9% · 156 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Locket of the Iron Solari 53.0% ▼

Dead Man's Plate 50.0% ▼

Protoplasm Harness 51.7% ▼

Knight's Vow 57.7% ▼

Force of Nature 58.3%

Bandlepipes 63.6%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Poppy as Support

Rell Poppy: 47.1%17 games

Rell has the edge in 53% of the 17 Support duels against Poppy. See the Rell guide.

Alistar Poppy: 57.1%21 games

Alistar has the edge in 43% of the 21 Support duels against Poppy. See the Alistar guide.

Pyke Poppy: 66.7%15 games

Pyke has the edge in 33% of the 15 Support duels against Poppy. See the Pyke guide.

Who Poppy is strong against

Pyke66.7% · 15 games

Alistar57.1% · 21 games

Rell47.1% · 17 games

How to play against Poppy

• Poppy can stop nearby enemies from dashing with Steadfast Presence.
• When Poppy starts to spin her hammer, she is charging Keeper's Verdict.
• You can step on Poppy's shield to deny it from her.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Poppy's matchups.

Poppy Support: what our games say

Laning phase against the Support average

Measured over 56 Poppy games with a timeline; the average covers 51 champions played Support in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Poppy in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Top	170	44.7 %	6.3	366
Jungle	77	46.8 %	5.6	389

Roles where we have at least 40 Poppy games.

Abilities

PassiveIron Ambassador

Poppy throws her buckler that bounces off the target. Poppy can pick it up to gain a temporary shield.

QHammer Shock

Poppy swings her hammer, dealing damage and creating a zone that will slow enemies and explode after a delay.

WSteadfast Presence

Poppy passively gains Armor and Magic Resist. This bonus increases when she is low on Health. Poppy can activate Steadfast Presence to gain Move Speed and stop enemy dashes around her. If a dash is stopped, the enemy is slowed and grounded.

EHeroic Charge

Poppy dashes to the target and pushes it back. If the target is pushed into a wall, it is stunned.

RKeeper's Verdict

Poppy channels a hammer strike that knocks enemies very far away.

Other Support champions to know

Most played

Nautilus49.9 %Lulu51.2 %Thresh50.1 %Nami49.0 %Bard50.9 %Alistar52.8 %Karma45.9 %Leona51.7 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Zilean55.0 %Neeko54.9 %Galio54.2 %Brand54.2 %Lux53.6 %Maokai52.7 %LeBlanc52.3 %Elise52.2 %

Frequently asked questions

Full Poppy page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides