Whoa there guys, you're going off topic, remember this is the Poppy thread!
AD Poppy is the build I've had the most success with, and that AP Poppy is the one that's had the least amount of success historically, in pretty much every single category. AD has been good on SR and hybrid good on Dominion, AP nowhere.
I think one thing that's happening is people are underestimating the power of autoattacks without Q. Yeah, you can get 14 damage on Q or whatever for the price of 10 AD, but that 10 AD gets you 40 damage from normal autoattacks in the time you're dealing the 14 extra.
There are two basic types of fight - slugfests and kite fests. AD is always going to be more useful when you go toe to toe with other melee bruisers. If you're getting kited a lot, you just aren't going to land as many autoattacks, so your Q will form a greater proportion of your damage output. The question of whether AD, Hybrid or AP is better for you is going to vary a lot from game to game based on the team compositions.
And Poppy's ability to run through the enemy team as an assassin shouldn't be considered completely as a strength, because it's also a crutch. Yes, it's her greatest strength but the reason she has it is because she needs it. Veigar can't rush through the enemy team because he never needs to. You're like Tryndamere - if you seriously need your ult to be doing your job, then you're probably doing it wrong.
The
potential of Poppy's ultimate is unmatched, and lets her do things to the enemy back line Veigar could only dream of.. other than the ult, she has quite a lot of built in survivability,
that passive and the W giving her a respectable amount of tankiness. When the ult is on cooldown, she could fill a more defensive team fight role, using her E to displace anyone who jumps on the carry.