This is Anivia. She is a bird. She uses ice. If you are lost already play a different game.

I'm currently still working on this guide, and have only started on the coding. As you look at it give me any advice.

Welcome! This a comprehensive guide about using Anivia. The above cheat sheet is simple enough, but you should know that it is basically useless in more than one occasion. So why is it there? Because if you are new to the game you'll find it a good basis for learning Anivia. For advance players you may already have decided to change the build, such as replacing Clarity with Ignite, etc.
As mentioned before this is a comprehensive guide, and I will go over the many strategies of Anivia, how to counter her if your playing against her, and how to build her. As I go into more details I'll include alternative items and how and when to adapt her build to the situation.

If you decide to rate this guide please give me feedback on why you give it a good or a bad rating. This will help me improve this guide and others. This guide is currently incomplete, and I'm adding to it everyday as I make changes. Please be patient. I understand if you choose to vote poorly for me due to that. Give advice at least on what I should add next.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Lets get started.

For advanced players you may skip this.

Before locking in you should select Anivia and call mid. Wait to see the composition of the rest of the team before locking in for sure, after all, LoL can be compared to American football in some ways. If everyone is the quarterback there's going to be a problem. Feel free to fill a different position if needed. You'll find the experience with alternative characters and positions will improve your comprehension on how to counter those when you do play as Anivia.

Here's a list of five things to watch for your team list. Familiarize yourself with which characters are good at which positions.

Mid- this is you, and refers to the middle lane. Mid is held solo, and whoever holds mid typically grows the quickest. They are the core of the early game and often decide how the early game goes along with the jungler. The mid is in charge of ganking when possible, while at the same time holding their own lane from the opposing mid. The mid should be sure to coordinate well with the jungler to maximize successful ganks. Anivia is a good mid player.

Tank- this position absorbs damage, and prevents your opponents from getting to your carries and high damage output characters. They lead charges and block most skill shots from the rest of the team. A typical tank will also have some CC, or crowd control. Often times the tank goes solo top lane at the beginning.

Carry- These are your highest attack damage champions, and will tear your opponents apart. They have one weakness however. They are easy to kill if not properly defended, very squishy. Late and mid game the carry dominates the team fights, and without your carry you'll lose many team fights. There are 2 types of carries, and it may be wise to have one of each. AP carries use spells for damage, AD carries use physical damage. If you have 2 of 1 type of carry it can cost you the game because the opposing team can easily build protection towards just one or the other. While Anivia isn't a true carry, with the right build she can more than take on the job, especially if your opponent deals armor to deal with your AD carry rather than magic resist.

Jungler- The jungler is most important early game, and in late and mid game is often in charge of assassinating the opponent's carry, which should result in lowering their damage output and winning the fight. The jungler attacks neutral monsters and gets most of the buffs in between lanes. They're primary job in early game is to prepare for ganks and execute successful ganks.

Support- This one isn't as imperative as the other positions, but can still drastically affect the success of your team. The support runs a lot of CC or may also provide a lot of buffs and abilities that directly benefit your allies. The support ensures everyone stays alive, and may be able to help the team retreat safely in a team fight that's gone wrong. Anivia is in some ways like a pseudo support thanks to her CC, specifically her Crystallize.



Now that you have chosen Anivia it is also time to be sure you have the right masteries and runes, as well as summoner spells. Always double check you are running the right things before starting, otherwise you may run into an embarrassing problem later on. To begin we'll discuss Masteries.

As I mentioned before, unless of course you are psychic and knew to jump to this part without reading any of the other parts of this guide because this was all you needed... ahem... As I was saying. I mentioned before I consider Masteries very flexible. With Anivia though it is typically best to run Utility and Damage. Feel free to read through each ability to decide its worth as you build your mastery page. Remember that Anivia uses very little attack damage, but runs a lot of ability power, so getting masteries to up your damage output and attack speed won't do you much good.

In the mastery page I presented I put 21 points in damage and 9 points in utility. This ratio is common across many guides and you'll be seeing 21 points in ... and 9 points in ... a lot. However this is not a set in stone thing, and you may find a different combination that works.
The reason for this current set up is that the better Masteries need more points in the category to unlock, with the best requiring 20 before it.
I'll go over each of my masteries in bullet points to simplify. Going from top to bottom, right to left.

[*] Sorcery- this lowers your cool down by just a little, It won't be much, but it is more useful than the other low level masteries in offense and opens up the next rank.

[*] Blast - This adds a single ability power per level, building up to 18. This can improve your damage output, and when stacked with other items and masteries proves quite useful.

[*] Havoc - Improves damage output by 2%. With abilities that can deal around 500 damage, give or take a couple hundred, this mastery can't be ignored.

[*] Arcane Knowledge , Gives you some Magic Penetration, which will help you counter those who try to build up magic resistance against you.

[*] Mental Force - This is both less useful than Blast, and more useful. It improves your early game, but becomes less helpful later on. Stacks well with Blast.

[*] Spellsword - does 5% of your ability power on your base attacks. Anivia may not run basic attacks well as you'll discover, but that doesn't make this useless. Works well with your other masteries and unlocks the next mastery tier.

[*] Archmage - Increases your ability power by 5%, which if you have 400 ability power this equates to 20 more. With your other masteries this one stacks well, and just keeps getting better as the game goes on.

[*] Executioner - When they are below 50% health you deal 5% more damage. With Havoc you are now dealing 7% more damage, and with all that ability power stacked up, well let's say this can definitely mean the difference to you using rebirth or saving it for later.

[*] Summoner's Insight - the first of your utility masteries. Out of all of your masteries, this one is the most flexible if you want to change it. Its dependent on which summoner spells you choose to run. With this build Summoner's Insight is the best one to run, seeing how it improves both of your summoner spells.

[*] Meditation - improves your mana regeneration, which will help with preventing mana starvation.

[*] Mastermind - even with only 2 points, this improves your cool down enough that it can save your life a few times. If your running Clarity you'll be able to spam that spell more often.

[*] Expanded Mind - this improves your mana, which can help you hold your ult for a second longer, or shoot out another spell. Helpful anyway you cut it.

Some of these masteries stack well with other factors, and if you change them, such as summoner spells, you would then change your tree. Next up I'll explain the runes, which will be a lighter chapter. For a break drink some water, don't need you getting dehydrated. Do you get your 64 oz. a day? Do you? Cause you should. :D

So your runes. Once again I'll do the bullet points. This chapter is pretty short and pretty self explanatory, and you won't need to make too many changes. Remember that to maximize your runes you should stack similar runes for each of the sections, like all AP for one section.

[*] Glyphs- Scaling Ability Power, becomes more useful as the match progresses. Early on it won't do you much good but once level 9 is reached you'll have more Ability power than a flat value glyph.

[*] Marks- Magic Penetration, allows you to do more damage if your opponent runs Magic Resistance, which they will.

[*] Quints- Ability Power, gives you more damage early on. Isn't as useful as scaling in late games, but ups your potential early on.

[*] Seals- Mana Regeneration, helps with that mana starvation.

And that is that chapter. Finally on to your summoner spells.

The 2 spells I have chosen are Clarity and Flash, but there are other options as well, and some may very well be a better option. I'll go over these and the other viable summoner spells you can run.

Flash
The first I'll go over is Flash, and is something you should almost always run, especially as Anivia. Flash allows you to jump over walls, escape enemies, and avoid CC. You can get away from skill shots as well as catch a fleeing opponent. It is one of the most powerful summoner spell, and with Anivia's slow speed it becomes even more important. Your ability to put up a wall can be very helpful, especially when you can freely pass through the wall.

Clarity
With most other characters I would say Clarity is not a good spell. However I find it gives Anivia a very strong early game which can help get her fed. Even in late game it allows her to spam her ult more than you would otherwise expect. This combines well with making your Seraph's Embrace as early as possible. As you spam your moves you'll find it will become possible to participate in multiple team fights without recalling for mana, which will help you push in between those fights.


Here is a list of other spells. I suggest keeping Flash in most cases Flash. Clarity on the other hand is much more flexible, and there are other viable spells to run.

Ignite
This is a must in more than one case. It can secure you the kill when your opponent is on the run, and it can deter them from wanting to engage you if you are aware that they outclass you. Since Anivia at time may need to carry her team, this will add to your raw power. It also halves their healing, which can help deal with the opposing support or if they have a heal heavy champion.

Teleport
When this is combined with well placed wards this improves your ganking abilities, which is one of your jobs as mid. It improves your field presence, and allows you in early game to kill the opposing team's mid, recall to recover mana and health or buy items, and return before they've recovered. Not Anivia's best spell, but it works well with her and every other mid.

Heal
Since Anivia runs kind of a pseudo support with her CC, giving her heal can add to her potential to do that. It is amazing in team fights so that you can win. Once again though, I find there are plenty of other spells better than this. Its good for beginners if they are struggling to keep her alive early game.

Exhaust
A good offensive spell for Anivia. It makes up for her slow speed and can allow her to escape or catch a fleeing opponent. Combine this with her slows and you can quickly harass someone out of your lane. Exhaust does well for 1v1 encounters.

Ghost
Another good offensive spell for Anivia, like Ignite and Exhaust. It's best to compare this to the latter when considering its use. Ghost makes up for Anivia's slow speed to help her escape or catch fleeing opponents as well. The difference is because it affects her instead of a single opponent, it is better for team fights than Exhaust.

Barrier
I don't recommend this one, but it can help with Anivia low defense, and combined with Seraph's Embrace's active can help you block incoming ults.

Revive
If your good you won't need this because you aren't dying. If you are dying however, this will help give you more field presence as well as combine well with teleport to surprise the mid who pushed the lane in your absence.

Be sure to look at each of these spells as well as ones I didn't cover. If you decide to change your spell you may have to change your masteries as well.

I'll begin with the loading screen. You are now looking at what your opponents are and have a moment to think. Recognize what you are up against; what are they using? Are they running a lot of CC? How many carries do they have, and are they AP or AD? Which positions will each character likely be in which lane?
You need to ask these questions, because though the cheat sheet as a few items on it, I will be expanding on that a lot, and talk about alternative builds and when to build them.

I'll start with your initial items. I'm having trouble with coding, so I can't put the actual images in. Use the cheat sheet if that helps.

Boots Health Potionx3
So let's discuss why you need the boots. Anivia is a very slow character. You may think that with her being a bird she might be, I don't know, fast. She isn't. Anivia needs boots just to keep up early on, and any experienced player knows that you are at a disadvantage without your little bootsies. Get them, and build those up first. You may not need the enchantment til later game, but you will need your 2nd tier boots at least. The potions are pretty basic and allow you to survive longer in mid. This prevents your opponent from harassing you out of the lane. Add in Rebirth, and you are actually pretty durable early game, despite having such low starting health.

The first time you visit your store you want to upgrade to your tier 2 boots. There are three to choose from as Anivia, and I put them in order of likelihood of use.

Sorcerer's Shoes
These will up your magic penetration as well as giving you the bare minimum speed needed. Great for dealing with teams who have a tank or 2. Should your opponent's lack any tanks, this won't be as useful.

Boots of Movement
This gives you some good speed if you die and helps you get back in the fight. Combine this with Teleport and Homeguard if you decide to use it. This leads to some interesting gank possibilities. Nothing is scarier than a bird dashing in on you and hitting you with a blizzard in the face. For Jax users looking at this guide, do this with Counter Strike for some interesting results. Great if your opponent's are pushing your side lanes too much.

Boots of Swiftness
With this you should get the Alacrity enchantment. Basically makes Anivia fast enough to outrun her opponents without too much trickery. Great if your opponents have poor CC. If your opponents have some faster characters on their team with no tanks this is a great idea.


On top of all this it is wise to get a couple of wards if the mid game is coming up and you have the cash. Also get it if their jungler keeps coming in for you. Remember, wards save lives.
You want to limit ganks toward your lane, because this limits your own gank potential as well as being able to feed your opponents. If you see a gank coming, or haven't seen anyone for longer than normal, back off.

The mid game has arrived! I'm going to review this 2 different ways. First if you had a successful mid game, got your money and farming in, etc. Next I'll look at how you should react if your mid game was a disaster. Too many guides go through a whole game assuming you did well, and I think there should be more on how to react to bad situations.

You done good!
Congratulations, you have plenty of cash to begin buying for your mid game! Time to buy some items. If you were doing good, there is no excuse not to get Archangel's Staff or Rod of Ages. Time to evaluate which to get first. Remember you want Seraph's Embrace as soon as possible, so most times you'll go for it first. In a few circumstances, say you had a 5 kill streak early game and are still low level with loads of money. Rod of Ages has some nice passives that will give you a better boost in the short run, especially at low levels. It also is much easier to power up, since it doesn't rely on you using spells. If you aren't running Clarity it may be harder to spam spells, which will make Rod of Ages even more attractive of an option. Assuming mid game continues to go great, you should have both these items first before deciding what to get for the end game.

You done goofed!
Well, dungsicles. Your opposing mid is a couple levels ahead of you, your minion feed is pathetic, and you need to try reversing this before they figure how to permanently kill a phoenix. First up is get a Sapphire Crystal. You need as much mana as possible, and you'll be able to build it into something else when the chance arises, specifically into a Tear of the Goddess for the greater mana boost.
After getting the Sapphire Crystal you want to go for your enchantment for your boots. Clearly you need some help escaping, because so far you've been failing. You can get Alacrity to remedy that. Maybe its that harass that's bothering you. forcing you to make constant recalls. Homeguard will help, healing you on arrival and allowing you to return quickly to the battle field. It will also give you more openings to return to shop and buy the items you fell behind on. Furor will allow you to use your ult as a great escape mechanism. It slows them and speeds you up. Alacrity is a little more flat, but Furor will speed you up more if you use it right.
Its time to get your Archangel's Staff. This item is one of your core items, something you should never trade for anything. If your opponent is still doing well though and has plenty of magic resistance you need to replace that Rod of Ages. It doesn't do you a lick of good if you can't hurt them with your spells anyways.
Go for a defensive item, specifically something like Frozen Heart. This will lower their damage output as well as still improving your mana. This will replace your Guardian Angel that you'll see in the cheat sheet later. Spirit of the Spectral Wraith is also a good one to get at this point if you don't want to replace your Guardian Angel. The spell vamp, which heals you for your spell's damage, is incredible when combined with your ult. If there is a large swarm you become almost invincible for a couple seconds, at least until their all dead. If you want a more offensive item get [Abyssal Sceptor]. This is a MUST if all your opponents are running Magic Resistance.

And with that I'm glad to announce that it is time to enter your end game. I'll divide this into two chapter. One where you did well early game, and one where you did poor early game. On top of this they will be divided based off of whether you did well mid game or poor mid game.

Once again this will be divided into if you did well or did poor in the mid game. This chapter covers if you did well in the early game and looks at how to build in the end game.

REVENGE OF THE FOWL
You did well early game and mid game. It is time to cash in your great bonus. You should already have Seraph's Embrace If you ran Clarity and spammed your abilities as you should. [Rod of Ages] Should have finished charging up, and you are ready to go into your final build. Since you have been decimating with your ability power so far, its best you keep stacking that. Right now the best defense is a good offense. Keep them beat down so they can't get money and can't build that Magic Resist. Get Mejai's Soulstealer followed by Rabadon's Deathcap which will drastically increase your power and will continue to increase as you get other items.
Mejai's Soulstealer goes well if you are doing great with kills because it gives you stacks, and gives you more ability power than any other item. If you haven't died yet get this. If you have died after every few kills you should not buy this.
Next up is Zhonya's Hourglass. This has a great active that can save you from an ult shutting you down as well as surviving CC while you make your final push.
Finally get Spirit of the Spectral Wraith. This will give you spell vamp, which when you put up your ult as their hoards come out of their Nexus, well let's just say you just recovered all your damage.

I'M NOT DEAD YET!
That's right, another movie reference. So your early game went good, but mid game not so much. Apparently while you were getting Seraph's Embrace they were getting magic resistance. A lot of it. So what comes next?
Time to ignore that MR. Void Staff is first on your list followed by Abyssal Mask. This combined with the sorcerer's shoes makes it where you can ignore all that pitiful magic resistance. Get Guardian Angel for some interesting mind games. Combined with Rebirth this makes it where they have to kill you three times before you stay dead. Remember every time you pop up from death put out your ult and hit them with your Frostbite. Your cool down should be done each time you come up for both those moves and they are easy to quickly use. Throw in Flash Frost if you can and you can actually do a 1v3 in a few cases. Do that by your turrets for maximum impact. No one plans to take an additional 10 seconds by a turret to shut you down.

Time to look at if you had a bad early game. I'll break this down into 2 sections depending on your midgame.

Keep up the momentum
That was a bad start, but hey, you can still recover. You should be almost complete with Seraph's Embrace. Depending on which item you got will affect what you should get next. Regardless Rabadon's Deathcap is a must for Anivia. Get that as soon as possible. If you got Abyssal Scepter you can get Guardian Angel for a defensive item. This will help you survive, but avoid taking advantage of the mind tricks like mentioned previously. You just don't have that attack power. Continue to get Void Staff if they continue to get MR. Zhonya's Hourglass is another good item thanks to its rather defensive active.
Overall have patience. Your opponents will probably try riding their earlier momentum. Use your ult to keep their hoards down and when the team fight opens up be sure to be there. When you win a team fight aim for Baron if he's available and push their weakest lane. Should be smooth sailing from there.

... I still got this... I think
So far you've had a poor game the whole game, You have a low minion feed and have little spending money. Since you keep dying Seraph's Embrace isn't quite ready. You need to get Guardian Angel This will add to your defense. Next analyze your opponents. Who's killing you the most and why? Is it the tank or the carry? Do they have an assassin shutting you down?
Your next item should be something with armor or MR if they are beating you out by pure damage output. Frozen Heart will suffice as well as Banshee's Veil if they run AP. The extra second you survive can be the extra second needed to kill them and begin getting your gold.
If the tank is the one shutting down you need to run more magic penetration if they have a lot of MR, such as with Void Staff. If its their health daunting you grab Rabadon's Deathcap. This is your best and only counter.
Most importantly, remain flexible. You need to adapt your build to counter whatever their greatest threat is. Trying to hug your typical build will cost you the game in most case. Even if you can't reverse your bad kill:death ratio try and make yourself as useful to your team as possible.

I'll list these based off of importance. Some of these are great core items, and once you get good with Anivia you SHOULD run them. Others are just good ideas to keep in mind. I'll divide it into why you should run it, why I excluded it, and when it should be used.


Why: This will solve all mana problems late game as well as give you some good AP and MR. It improves your cool down, and will enable you to easily go from a team fight to a push or even a Baron. This item will replace your Spirit of the Spectral Wraith, and makes a great core item that should not be replaced with anything. This will give you a much stronger late game, which can both reverse a losing situation or make that final push on your opponents.

Why not: So why don't I use it? I do actually, but not with this build because Clarity solves your mana issues as well, which is what this build uses. This build is made to help people new to Anivia, and because Anivia has a difficult early game to master, I suggest Clarity which helps with this. If you have a different summoner spell get Athene's Unholy Grail.

When: In an advanced game this is a core item. I suggest it right after your Rod of Ages if not your Archangel's Staff. Always get this if you don't have Anivia, which most advanced builds won't.


Why: Good item with an incredible active with a low cooldown. Its a bit expensive, but well worth the investment. This will help you decimate the tank on the other team as well as give you great 1v1 potential, which can take your opponent by surprise.

Why not: This item is very expensive, and I find it most beginners forget to use their actives. Seraph's Embrace has enough advantages, primarily the massive mana, that makes it worth it for beginner's even if the forget the active. This item though primary benefit is the active, so it isn't worth it.

When: Another good offensive item. Better if you have experience with item actives. Anivia's Glacial Storm and Crystallize gives this combo exceptional power.



I'll add more to this later on, and their are several other good items to think of. As you get experience you'll get a better feel for these other items as you gain experience regardless.I also plan on adding an item's summary chapter to summarize each item and add some tips to using it. After this section.

Sorry about the poor quality of this guide. This is my first guide, and I accidentally hit the publish button before I was even done. I'm racing to finish adding all sections and make it more pleasing to the eye. I don't expect my rating to get much better right now, but if you have any coding advice I'd appreciate. Currently in my comments I've been given a lot of hard time for coding, which I already knew was a problem, as well as the missing parts.
As for Retribution's response about advice, I'm aware of that, and believe it or not I often don't follow this build even in the masteries and summoner spells. I find some of these to be a good suggestion for beginners, like Clarity being used to more swiftly get Seraph's Embrace. I'll try to add more items and options as well as elaborate on why I chose to mention them as I go along.
Thank you for commenting Retribution, as well as Meiyjhe and HeadinPants. It was really helpful. The rest of you keep harassing me about the coding please, is actually good motivation for me.

When I'm done with this guide it will probably be too long, so I'm going to break it down into advanced builds and beginner builds probably so that it appeals to everyone. For example in an advanced build I'll replace Clarity and throw in Athene's Unholy Grail to the item build.

Today I added the last of my item build section of the guide. Tomorrow I will focus on coding and making this more picturesque. I may break down the sections better to make them a little less intimidating to read. There will be no new information until January 4. If you are enjoying this guide so far, please check again then. Please give me advice for coding, as well as links to any cool banners you'd like me to add (nothing inappropriate please).