DISCLAIMER

---

****************************************************************************


I made this guide a very long time ago, and as I read through it now, wow, how much fun a guide made by an unexperienced player can be. I hereby disclaim all responsibility for the losses you may experience after being infected by this devious piece of art.

Captain obvious all the way. Enjoy.

Oh, and dont forget to kill the ancient golem. It gives buffs and stuff.


****************************************************************************

---

Hello everyone! Welcome to my tutorial (oh boy, here we go) on how to play Anivia, and how to pull of a few tricks! I will explain a few basics as well as important things to note while playing her. First of all, I would like to give a brief explanation of Anivia. (Tell us all the secrets Captain, I dare you)

Anivia is an overall great champion both early, mid and late game. Her devestating skill combo can tear apart any champion in a matter of seconds. She is, in my opinion, the best mid champion. This is because of her ability to farm creeps, her range, amazing CC and damage output. With a Flash Frost + Frostbite combo you can put the opposing champion to almost half health. With a good use of her Crystallize and Glacial Storm, you can lead your enemies into a dead end, and force them to enter your Flash Frost stun. This will prevent them from escaping and ensure an easy kill.

There is particularly one thing that you need to know while playing Anivia:
KILL THE ANCIENT GOLEM!! (WHATT?!!??1!) There is no such thing as enough mana on Anivia. She is so mana dependant; she can fry off her entire mana pool in a matter of seconds! Therefore, kill the golem often to prevent running low on mana.

Anivia requires a lot of precision and timing, and is a hard champion to play. But if you manage to master her, you will find her quite amusing to play. The sight of your enemies' desperate attempt to escape from you when you put them in a dead end is priceless. And of course, to see them freak out when they towerdive you for a kill and you turn into an egg is also quite funny (Cause this happens all the time in wood-league). Oh, and did I mention that this build gives you a total of three lives?

The items I chose for this build will provide survivability, great burst damage, and potential to carry your team towards victory if you do well early game. These are the items:


A great item to start off with. Anivia is very mana dependant and squishy early game, and the ring gives mana regeneration as well as 100 health. Thats exactly what you need! And not to mention the ability power, which will help you earning early game kills, and maybe first blood. Also remember that the 100 health has a double effect because of your passive rebirth.



One of Anivia's weaknesses is her movement speed. To land easier kills early game, positioning is very important. Therefore, a pair of boots goes a long way. Early magic penetration will remove almost all the opposing champion's magic resist, as most champions start off with 30. With the runes set up, you can reduce their magic resist by 28,55 when the boots are aquired.



IMPORTANT NOTE: If you tend to get a lot of kills early in the game, and know how to stay alive, then grab Mejai's Soulstealer before Catalyst the protector. This is what I do, but if you are new to Anivia, I recommend getting Catalyst the Protector first, as it improves your survivability and lets you stay in lane longer.

If you are able to stack up Mejai's Soulstealer, you will receive an amazing load of firepower as well as a nice cooldown reduction. Along with the Ancient Golem's buff, you can max out your cooldown reduction at level 18. This will enable you to spam your abilities a lot more than you would normally be able to. If you do not feel like getting this item, then skip it, and go straight for the other items. If you end up with all the other items, you can build a situational item, like Abyssal Mask if the enemy has a lot of magic damage, or Zhonya's Hourglass if they have an overwhelming physical carry like Yi or Tryndamere. If they are neutral with no spesific focus in either magic of physical damage, I would recommend getting Abyssal Scepter because you already have a lot of Armor, and it reduces your opponents' magic resistance for both you and your team.


Catalyst The Protector
It is simply a great item because it provides health and mana, as well as an awesome refreshment of mana and health for each level. Because Anivia is very mana dependent and squishy, this will help you stay in lane a lot longer.



I recommend getting this item before late game as it stacks up mana over time when you perform attacks. As Anivia is very mana dependant, it is quite important to have enough mana. Remember that all the mana you gather will increase your ability power at once you acquire Archangel's Staff.



Health, mana and ability Power. Nuff said.



So much power hidden within a cap. This is one of the main items for Anivia and basically any other mage. It increases your total amount of ability power by 30 % in addition to adding another 155 ability power! When you reach this item, things are starting to get real nasty.



Finally what everyone has been waiting for: Anivia's third life!
This item along with the health from Rod of Ages will transform Anivia into a glasscannon made of unbreakable glass (Really?). She is no longer the clever main focus of the battle, not only because of her health, magic resist and armor, but because she now has three lives. First of all: It would take ages to make her fall, and secondly; with all her ability power the enemies would be long gone before they ever completed the third takedown.



Last but not least, we have our treasurous mana converter. This item will be most efficient when all the other mana items are completed, simply because it converts 3 % of Anivia's maximum mana into Ability Power. In this build, Anivia will have a pool of approximately 3300 mana. This means (3300*0,03+45)*1,3 AP = 187,2 Ability Power, assuming that you have Rabadon's Deathcap.

If you have come this far, you are now probably the most feared champion in the jungle, as you can make dead ends and remove their health in a matter of seconds.

Smartcast

When I play Anivia, I use smartcast on everything but the ultimate. To enable smart cast, enter the main menu and then the key options. Scroll down to the bottom and put your normal ability activation keys (Q,W,E,R by default) in the "smartcast" boxes. Let the ones you like to aim remain as default in the top of the list. That means in my case R, as in Glacial Storm. Smartcast will let you play more on reflexes and this will enhance your gameplay a lot. The reason why I do not enable smartcast for my ultimate, is because it's an AoE skillshot with a certain range. If I put it in smartcast, I sometimes end up putting it too far away, and my champion will then attempt to walk within range to execute the spell. This will delay the spell and it will most likely miss the target.

Skill Sequence

I choose to max out Frostbite and Flash Frost as soon as possible, because it's the best way to maximize your damage output early game. I start off with Flash Frost at level 1, because without Flash Frost or Glacial Storm, Frostbite is useless. Frostbite deals double damage if the target is first hit by either Flash Frost or Glacial storm. This means that because the ability has a 1/2 AP ratio, she will deal 100 % of her AP in bonus damage. When you have reached rank 3 in Frostbite, it begins to deal very large amounts of damage. Use this to your advantage. If you are good at harassing your opponent, you can eventually get a kill.

I choose to wait with ranking up the ultimate, because Flash Frost and Frostbite are much better to get maximized first. Once you have those maxed out, you can start skilling up your ultimate. Remember to put one point in Crystallize at level 10, as the more intense fights in the jungle begins.

The Abilities

The most important thing to manage when playing Anivia is to master her abilities. I will take a look at each ability and explain a few tricks you can pull off to hit precisely.

Flash Frost

It is important to always hit accurately with Flash Frost. This requires a lot of presumptions, as you need to assume where they will run when you close up to land your spell combo. Most likely, they will run towards the closest bush or tower. The tricky part with Flash Frost is that you have to make the crystal pass the enemy to damage them once, and then explode it by tapping Q once again when it has passed them. The explosion is what triggers the stun. I like to open up with Flash Frost, and then cast Glacial Storm and Frostbite. The reason why I start off with Flash Frost is because it will stun the enemy, and slow them down. This will make it easier to place Glacial Storm and crystallize. Flash Frost is also a great harassing-tool because of it's awesome range. Once you hit, which you hopefully do very often, the enemy will be stunned and you can come up close and toss Frostbite before backing off. They will not be able to return any damage and you have left them with a pretty screwed up health bar.

Crystallize

This is one of the most awesome abilities in my opinion. How often can you place a solid wall to prevent enemy movement or completely block off a path in the jungle? There is a lot of clever ways to make good use of Crystallize. One of the best ways to use it, is to lead your enemies into Flash Frost by putting up a wall in front of them which is connected to the closest static terrain-wall to them. This will force them to run around the corner of your wall, and thats where your Flash Frost should be sent. This will almost completely ensure a stun, followed by Glacial Storm and Frostbite.
And of course, you can use it to block off paths in the jungle entirely. This suddenly makes baiting a whole lot more fun, as you can block their friends away while killing the poor loners in the jungle.
In team fights, you are able to split your enemies' team by placing a wall in between them. This will, in some cases, turn the tide of the battle. Before a team fight take place, there is usually some harassment back and forth between the teams. If you pay attention, you can catch those who overextend while trying to harass your team, and eventually, you will pick of the target with your team.

Frostbite

Frostbite is Anivia's main damage output. The ability is extremely powerful, but only under a spesific condition. If the target is chilled, they will take two times more damage than they usually would. This is the reason why you always have to apply the chill effect on your enemies before you cast Frostbite. There are two ways to apply the chill effect. The first method is to land Flash Frost. Both hits will trigger the chill effect, and this is one of the reasons why I always start off with it. The second way is to keep your enemies within the Glacial Storm. Because the cooldown on Flash Frost is longer than the cooldown on Frostbite, you will often find that Frostbite is ready before Flash Frost. Now, it is important to remember this: NEVER cast Frostbite before you have applied the chilling effect. If you are still in range of the enemy, and do not have Flash Frost off cooldown, then put down Glacial Storm and follow up with Frostbite. This will have the same effect as if you first sent Flash Frost.

Glacial Storm

Finally, we have Anivia's ultimate, Glacial Storm. Unlike many other ultimates, Anivia's ultimate is spammable. It is a freezing storm than can be placed within a certain distance, and will deal damage over time to any enemy within the area of effect. After Anivia has placed the Glacial Storm, she can back off to about two times the range of the ability. This means that during lategame, when her mana pool is enormous, she can let the storm deal damage and slow enemies in teamfights while keeping a nice distance. The reason why I choose to level this after Frostbite and Flash Frost is simply because it's better to max them out first. It has nothing to do with Glacial Storm being a bad ultimate, because it's actually quite a good one. Glacial Storm can be used to slow enemies, apply the chill effect, and of course to deal a bunch of damage. Because of the range, it can be used to finish of enemies with very low health, because it instantly deals damage when placed.

Power of the Build

I have been using this build a lot, and it works every time!
(Yes, I really did make this entire guide to show off one game)

I hope this was a good introduction to Anivia!
Please rate my guide, and I love feedback whether it's good or not! :D
(Feedback as to how f*cking hard you laughed your *** off.)
Good luck to everyone and have fun playing her! :)