I've been wondering a bit today about whether or not Poppy is a viable jungle, or at least acceptable.I've heard from a friend who quit playing a while ago that she used to be good, and I'm wondering if that might still apply, if it ever did. I like playing Poppy from time to time, so this might just be another reason to play her every now and then.

short answer: no

long answer: poppy is incredibly deadly 1v1 in the jungle because of her kit. However her clear times are incredibly slow, she has 0 sustain in the jungle, and her ganks provide no cc, so unless the positioning is perfect poppy wont be able to gank early game.

her clear time is slow but man, if you get the good early ganks she snowballs hard even from jungle

shes basically a better lategame panth jungle

she offers tons of damage though in those ganks and has a speed buff. i'd say she is better than some junlger's and /could/ maybe do it. she's probably got better ganks than yi, and a better late game presence.

If we break it into pros and cons:

Pros:
IF you catch enemies out of position, her ganks are very strong. She can wall-slam them or push them away from their tower significantly.

Free increasing armor and damage as she beats on creeps. 15 to 35 AD/armor max! Plus you are likely to increase this skill first anyways as more pts in Q/E aren't as useful.

Movespeed boost, handy for ganks.

Ult gives very strong towerdiving presence in ganks.

Cons:
If you DON'T catch enemies out of position, your gapcloser will literally help them out by pushing them closer to their tower and away from your ally.

You have no Slow, Stun, etc to help your ally catch up and assist during ganks, other than your Charge which can be a big plus or a big minus.

NO area effect damage which means very slow creep clearing time.

NO sustain which means you eat lots of pots or rush vamp scepter type stuff.

She scales off of AP in summoners rift (with deathfire grasp/lichbane used for high burst). This makes her kind of sucky in the jungle as time goes on. Its possible to make her AD based, but this greatly decreases her burst and none of her skills actually scale off of AD.

She is NOT a utility jungler. She needs gear to be able to squish enemy carries during her Ult before she explodes. If she lacks gear and only bursts them down 80%, then its a 4v5 fight pretty much. Enemies kill her, the ADC is safely behind their bruisers/tanks, and poppy is dead.


Conclusion: She is workable but not very good at all. Maybe in season 3, the weaker wimpy creeps and stronger big creeps might work better for her 1-target damage playstyle and increase cleartime. More gold might let her get farmed better.

The new jungle might be a better place for Poppy since it will shift to beefier, harder hitting single mobs, especially with the new jungle items. Her Q wrecks high HP creeps.

There are a few decent videos on YouTube showing how one can jungle Poppy effectively.

Warrax her Q's damage combines data from both her AD and a %of her opponent's health, with the final damage output being magic damage. That is why AD/hybrid builds are viable on her.

To answer the OP's question: Not really.

Her clear times are slow to average and she has weak early game, such that she is easily countered by agressive, strong early game junglers including LeeSin and Shyv. Her ganks are very hard to pull off, too, as her Charge is her only CC/displacement tool, and when the enemy is running towards their towers it's not going to be easy to get in position.

Poppy is also very blue dependant early on due to her bad mana regen stat, so if she gets invaded at the start of the game, she can't do much to help other lanes.

Warrax has the best and detailed responses, so I will comment on his post. I have jungled Poppy more than any other champ as she is "sleeper" good. I can consistently get her philo or wiggles, boots plus trinity at 19-21 min mark with only about 3 kills. At that point, she is a beast.

I have jungled her about 20 times on PBE for S3, and she is okay. They are nerfing philo and trinity pretty hard. I am liking the new Spirit of the Wraith that has 50 AD plus passive true damage as her starting item now.

Here are some tips:

1) Run Spell vamp quints. She can sustain with these in season two or three very well.

2) Gank level 2 either mid or lane FROM BEHIND. Knock them to your allies and ask them to get you LOS into the bushes if they duck into them for first blood wall stun.

3) Defense tree with indomitable Season 2, 9-21-0 or 19-11-0. Get the bladed armor to help with early clear times. I give up buff duration in utilty for at least 9 in offense in Season 2.

Season three 0-8-22 or 0-6-24. Get the 50 gold in utility to start with machette and a flask. Run those spell vamp quints with the 3% life steal/Spell vamp in utility and you sustain well with the spirit stone.

4) Tower dive, tower dive, tower dive. Learn how to set them up for a tower dive and let your ally know you will be diving so they can jump in while you take aggro (with ult likely engaged AFTER your intiail charge/stun). Many opponents will hang around tower feeling safe level 6-10, even if 1 on 2 or 2 on 3. They don't want to miss the CS or farm.

5) Level Q for lower cooldown 1st, but start W or E. Start E if you will gank level 2, otherwise start W.

6) AP poppy from jungle in Season 2 is pretty bad. Trinity tanky with max cooldown is very strong. Add Frozen Heart, Shurelya's, Wit's End, Mercury treads, Aegis, etc. Be sure to get some HP beyond trinity if they have true damage (multiple ignites, Darius, Olaf, Cho, etc.)

Remember point #1, Spell vamp quints are her best friend.

Jedi