Anivia Build Guide by Vynertje

Introduction

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>> Hello everyone and welcome to a republish of my Anivia guide! In this guide I will be explaining you everything you need to know about Anivia - the real bird. Anivia is a really fun and unique mage and can be really deadly in the right hands. I fell in love with her because of that and never let her go. Even though I don’t main mid anymore, she still is my all-time favorite champion.

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>> This guide has been inspired by Froggen, the best Anivia player in the world. If you haven’t seen him play, you should definitely look him up. Twitch - http://www.twitch.tv/froggen Twitter - https://twitter.com/FroggenLoL Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Froggen.LoL

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>> Before jumping into the guide itself, I would like to quickly point out that I am not a native English speaker and I might have made some mistakes here and there. I thank you for keeping this in mind! I have also made an Irelia guide, which can be found here!

Pros / Cons

>> Unique >> Fun >> Impact >> DMG >> Scales >> Siege >> Defence

Explanation >> As stated in the introduction, Anivia has a very unique skill set which makes her fun to play. Her kit allows her to be really game changing in the right hands, opening clutch-plays with Crystallize. Her (potential) damage output is huge as well. Her Q and E spells both have 100% ratios if used correctly, and her ultimate can deal huge damage per second. Finally, she can also siege and defend really well because she has huge wave clear and zoning tools.

Explanation >> On the downside, she is really hard to master. Her Q and W are quite hard to use properly which requires lots of experience. Her wall is quite unreliable as well, it tends to bug out sometimes. Besides that, she is incredibly mana hungry because 3 of her spells have huge mana costs which is why specific itemization is required. Her early levels aren’t that strong as well because she needs the ultimate to have a reliable damage source and combo. Finally, last hitting before level 6 is a pain because her auto-attack animations are incredibly slow.

>> Hard to Master >> - Unreliable >> Mana Hungry >> Early Game >> Last Hitting

Runes

greater mark of hybrid penetration

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>> While greater mark of hybrid penetration might not seem an obvious choice, they are incredibly good on Anivia in comparison to ‘standard’ Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. You sacrifice only a little bit of magic pen for a quite significant amount of armor pen. This is really useful early game because Anivia has a great auto-attack range (600) which allows her to poke with auto-attacks to great effect.

Alt.

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>> If you don’t have the IP to get greater mark of hybrid penetration, these are a good choice. They might also be a bit more effective if you’re facing high range targets like Annie or Caitlyn - even though that final one is a very rare matchup - because you won’t be using auto-attacks a lot.

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>> Flat armor seals are hands down, the best choice on nearly any champion right now. You get about 13 armor from these alone which is a great solution to solve some early game squishiness problems: Anivia has a really painful amount of base armor and these will help you survive early on. They are a must-have against AD mids as well.

Alt.

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>> If you really dislike Greater Seal of Armor (or don’t have them) for some kind of reason, you can opt to go for these. Mana regeneration allows you to spam your ultimate more easily to farm with which is quite nice. I tend to run these scaling over flat because you don’t need any additional mana regeneration pre-6 where the scaling already beat the flat ones at level 7.

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>> Since you very likely will be facing an AP mid, it is of vital importance to get some kind of defence to make up for Anivia’s terrible defensive base stats. Since magic resist doesn't scale on level on ranged champions, you really want some extra magic resist in order to survive against heavy magic damage champions.

Alt.

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>> These are the only viable alternative to Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, and I would only go for them if there are is no magic damage whatsoever on the enemy team. After some levels these actually give a quite significant boost to your damage output, especially if coupled with a Rabadon's Deathcap.

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>> To boost your damage output in the early game, these are a great choice. Early on, they add about 30 damage to a single Q-E combo which is quite a lot.

Alt.

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>> These are an uncommon pick, but do make sense. Anivia is the slowest champion in the game and this is one of her biggest problems. Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed are a good aid to make up for this.

Masteries

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wiki

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>> The 21 points in offense are standard and mandatory as a main damage dealer, and will allow you to deal even more damage. Extra cooldown reduction, ability power and %damage boosts are incredibly good for you so I would never pass out on them.

>> For our final 9 points, there are two options: The 21/9/0 is a more defensive page which allows you to survive hard matchups. Especially the extra HP from Veteran Scars and Juggernaut can be of great aid and will make the difference in close calls. The Juggernaut perk is especially effective if you’re building Rod of Ages instead of Athene’s Unholy Grail.

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>> The other option is the 21/0/9 page, which is my standard choice: The 9 points in utility are surprisingly good and fit Anivia extremely well. Important slots in utility are: Meditation, Summoner’s Insight and Runic Affinity. These are all good to solve a little bit of Anivia’s downsides.

Summoner Spells

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>> Flash is mandatory. Anivia is immobile as hell and this is a huge pain. Taking Flash allows you to reposition yourself once every couple of minutes to get yourself out of awkward situations. >> Ignite is what I go with in about 75% of my games. Ignite is a great addition to your burst and allows you to secure kills or to reduce healing on high lifesteal targets or on heals. It is really important to always have at least one or two ignites in any team composition >> Barrier is a great choice if you are in a really hard matchup, e.g. Fizz, Kassadin or Zed. These champions are usually not looking to lane versus you but to kill you and roam instead. If you can survive their all-out engages, you will usually have the upper hand because of better poke and wave-clear.

Skill sequence

>> E max is standard. It is the most reliable form of damage output with the lowest mana costs. Having this at rank 5 in combination with a chill effect is a guaranteed 350 damage while Q is not reliable at all and W deals no damage at all.

>> After maxing E, you can go two ways: Q or W. Q second is my standard way-to-go. The cooldown goes down by a noticeable amount and the damage increases greatly. If you’re purely looking for damage, this is your best shot.
>> On the other hand, W is best for sieging: A bigger wall allows you to cut off a full lane which results in free towers. However, the mana costs go up greatly which means that you should only max it second if you really know for sure you’re going to use it. For solo queue and normals, Q max is usually a lot better. Overall I would not take your wall before level 8 because it isn’t such a useful laning tool as it is in late game.

>> Note that I generally don't take W before level 8. I like to have an extra point in Q for the damage and generally this is the better way to go because your wall doesn't have as much use in lane as it has in late game. However, for some specific situations it might be recommended to DO take W at level 4. I leave it for your own judgement to make a good call here.

Skills explanation + tips & tricks

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>> This is a really unique element in Anivia’s skill set and makes up for her squishiness and lack of mobility (which is quite strange considering she’s a bird). While in the egg, you get a resistance modifier which means that you’ll still be dying quite quickly early game, while late game it makes health stacking a lot more effective (if you get free armor, every point of hp you buy gets more effective).

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>> This is a really hard to hit skillshot which requires a lot of practice. You can hit it twice both hitting for a decent amount of damage and 50% of your AP, which is why it is really important to aim it well. You can let it explode along the way to proc the stun sooner but be careful to not miss the first proc of the spell that way.

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>> In lane, you can aim it along the enemy’s path when they go to last hit a mage minion. This way they have to make a choice: last hit the minion and get hit, or let the gold fly away and save some HP. Usually they will react too late and catch the projectile. >> In fights, try to chain it with your allies’ crowd control. That way you can get a guaranteed hit on as much targets as you can. >> When people force themselves in small corridors, like the narrow path on the side of a turret, you can aim it in there and people will be stuck between the turret and the wall, unable to escape the spell in-time. >> You can aim it from behind a wall so enemies cannot see you firing it when you have vision on the target, for a sneaky hit.

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>> This is your signature ability and this makes the difference between a good Anivia player and a great one. It does not only require great knowledge of Anivia, but of the game itself as well. >> First of all, it is really important to know the exact cast range, angles and cast time. This is something that comes with experience so if you can’t get the hang of it at once, you’ll just need to practice it at once. >> To know the cast range, you should always use this on regular cast instead of smartcast. That way you can easily see where the wall will be placed. Keep in mind that the wall can occasionally bug out if you place the wall directly onto somebody, knocking him away to the ‘wrong’ side. The angle of the wall is determined by your own position which means you have to position well if you want to angle the wall in a specific direction.

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>> Trapping people: This is the most straightforward thing. Just close a jungle entrance at a strategic point to stop the enemy from escaping. Keep in mind that some champions can jump over or dash through the wall and you and your team might not be able to follow, so use it with care. >> Scouting places in the fog-of-war; If you are unsure whether the enemy is taking objectives like baron, or when you fear a gank, you can place your wall to get vision of that place. Keep in mind that the enemy team will be able to see your wall as well which means you’re giving away your position as well. >> Forcing people in a specific direction in order to hit ; This is a tricky thing to do. Basically, you want to cut off a specific route while leaving one lane open, for example closing down one part of the lane next to a turret, forcing the enemy into the small path on the other side. Then you can throw down your stun in that direction for a nearly guaranteed hit. You will need practice for this to execute this quickly. Refer here for an Example Click me! >> Sieging and defending turrets; You can use your wall in combination with your ultimate to zone enemies away from defending a turret or away from sieging your turret. You block off one way with your wall, then lay down your ultimate on the other side of the lane. That way, the enemies have to go through your ultimate in order to engage or defend.

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>> This spell is really self explanatory. It works like a single target nuke which hits for 350+100% of your AP in magic damage if you chill the enemy with a slowing effect on your Q or ultimate. It travels slowly which allows you to cast it before laying down your ultimate if you can combo it quickly while still getting the double damage. You can also use it occasionally to last hit with (under your turret) before hitting level 6.

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>> This is your ultimate. The cool thing about it is the super low cooldown which makes Anivia unique from other champions. It also makes her the single most mana starved champion in the game. Just like your E ability the use of it is quite straightforward - however, this one has a few important things to keep in mind. Besides the absurd mana consumption, you have to be really careful of one more thing: placement. The channel can be interrupted by pretty much any form of CC, besides slows. Even though it has a quite low cooldown, you will want to be making optimal use of it which is why you really need to mind when and where you put it down. Oh and finally, this is your main spell to farm with after level 6. You generally want to shove the wave with R+Q and then proceed to take wraiths and possibly even wolves - but don’t overdo it if you’re not having blue buff.

Items

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>> Pretty self explanatory. Everyone needs boots and spell pen boots are the best for any caster. I would not get them before having your first major item finished though. Just grab boots of speed for the first 15 minutes of the game.

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>> This is one of the best items for Anivia. Basically, it gives a ****ton of mana if once you have it fully stacked (which is quite easy to do as Anivia) and once you have Seraph’s, you will get ability power based on the amount of mana you have. Get it early or don’t get it at all though: You’ll need at least 20-25 minutes to get it up to +750 mana. You usually want to finish Seraph’s once you have 750 stacks or just before that, which generally is just after finishing your Rabadon’s Deathcap.

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>> This is the single best mana regeneration item out there. Besides that, it is rather cheap and gives a nice amount of CDR. After the nerfs on blue buff (it used to give 20% cdr but got changed to 10%) it is advisable to get some extra form of CDR besides the buff, which is another reason why this is such a great item. I only skip this item if I’m up against AD champions (because the item gives a lot of magic resist as well). The biggest downside of the item though is that it doesn't give any health which renders you very squishy, while Rod of Ages partially fixes this.

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>> This used to be my standard pick for a long time. The item itself gives a lot of useful stats (mana, ap and health) but the downside is that it only delays you from running out of mana instead of fixing most mana problems like Athene's Unholy Grail does. Also, it needs time to scale which is quite risky if you already have another item that needs to scale ( Tear of the Goddess). Final downside: it doesn't give any cooldown reduction, which is a quite important stat to get on Anivia.

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>> This is a core item for pretty much any mage. It gives a huge amount of AP (Yay!) and also gives a big bonus to all the extra AP you’re buying. Anivia scales extremely well with AP so this item is a must-buy. Generally you’ll be getting this as your second core item, after Tear of the Goddess and Athene's Unholy Grail.

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>> Gives a huge amount of AP and a truly outrageous active. The active is really great on top of your egg because it makes focussing you down even harder. Even if you’re not facing much physical damage dealers, the item is usually worth buying for the active only.

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>> Spell pen is mandatory if you’re facing any tanky champion. You want this item to cut through any magic resist. I would not recommend ever skipping this item.

SPE

>> The idea of getting this item is really nice. Anivia has a huge amount of crowd control which means that you can apply those double damage stacks all the time (4% of hp every second). The downside is, however, that you’ll be sacrificing a really important item like Void Staff or Zhonya's Hourglass for it, which is why I usually skip it. Also, since your ultimate is easily interrupted or walked away from, it doesn't work as well as intended.

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>> Since Anivia is a really immobile champion, it can be really important to have some form of CC reduction against certain team compositions. Keep in mind that you’ll be sacrificing spell pen so don’t get it before you have at least one other spell pen item like Void Staff.

SPE

>> I did not mention this item in the cheat-sheet, but it can work decently in some specific games. You can build Anivia in a DPS-type of way, which means that you’ll be getting Liandry's Torment + Will of the Ancients to survive for a long period of time while dealing lots of %hp damage. This build is extremely well fit if you want to peel for hypercarries like Vayne or Kog'Maw in combination with an AP top. Keep in mind that you’ll be lacking damage overall if you go for this setup though.

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>> Overall this item isn’t that good on Anivia, but it can work - again, mostly fitted for a DPS build with Liandry's Torment. The item can help when you’re having a hard lane to both survive easier and to help out your team in some way. The obvious downside is, besides sacrificing an item slot for something generally more useful, that the range is quite low while Anivia is a backline mage with high range which means you won’t be applying the passive on many enemies.

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>> Homeguard is one of the best enchantments for Anivia because she’s painfully slow and generally needs to recall often because of mana issues. Homeguards help you waste less time in this process. Alacrity are great as well, because it helps Anivia a bit in terms of mobility / movement speed.

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>> Alacrity are great as well, because it helps Anivia a bit in terms of mobility / movement speed.

Gameplay: Lane phase

Anivia has a rather distinct playstyle and this takes some getting used to. Anivia’s main power in lane is her immense wave clear after level 6 and high burst damages on Q-E or R-E combo’s.


>> In the first few levels, you’ll be focussing on last hitting (which is hard! You really need to get used to her attack animations) and hitting Q’s whenever possible. Try not to get pushed into the turret while not pushing yourself: Anivia is really easily ganked if you overextend while she last hits quite badly under a turret.

>> Try to keep the lane in balance and whenever you hit a Q, follow up with E and them immediately back off afterwards. Anivia before 6 is super reliant on hitting those Q’s which means that if you miss it, the enemy has a ~10 second window to wreck your face without you being able to stop it.


>> After level 6 and getting blue buff, you want to quickly shove the lane in the opponents face, try to poke him with R-E combo’s, take (enemy) wraiths and shove the lane again. Anivia is super strong after level 6 because you’ll be able to keep the enemy occupied all the time by quickly pushing the wave. You can get a really big CS/XP advantage by taking jungle camps all the time after shoving. Be careful to not overuse all your mana though, especially if you don’t have blues.


>> Keep in mind that Anivia is not such a great roamer: While she is really strong in terms of CC/damage, she is awkwardly slow making moving around the map a pain. Because of that, it is usually better to stay in lane and push all the time. Make sure to keep pressure at all times to make it harder on your enemy to roam, and make sure to have wards down for if he does. Generally, if you see the enemy roam, you’ll be trying to take down his turret the instant he leaves the lane. However, it is up to your personal judgement to decide to follow or not.

Gameplay: Mid/late game

Anivia in late game is mostly oriented on taking objectives rather than forcing 5v5 fights. She excels at taking major objectives like turrets and dragon/baron because of her wall. You want to group as 5 when you’re ahead and try to force down objectives without fighting. I mentioned some tips on how to force control with your wall in the skills section.

>> If you’re behind, you can do pretty much the same but then the other way around: use the same skills to defend turrets by quickly clearing all incoming waves. Pretty much the best example of how to do this, is being shown by ex-CLG.EU’s Froggen (Now on Team Alliance) in a game against Moscow 5 (Gambit Gaming). After being down 20k gold, Froggen holds CLG.EU’s base with amazing Anivia plays winning them the game after a miraculous comeback. The game itself is quite old which is why you see some items that have been removed long ago but it still shows some great Anivia gameplay.

>> When teamfight positioning / targeting is concerned, you’ll usually be looking to create picks with your Q or with teammates. Once you’ve thrown down your main combo on a high-value target, you generally want to start peeling for your AD carry. Anivia is too squishy and immobile to dive deep to focus enemy carries which means you’re best off helping your ADC from the backline to rip through the enemy team. It is of vital importance to position well because you don’t want to have your ultimate interrupted for as long as possible. Because of that, you generally do not want to focus the enemy carry but the enemy frontline (assassins, off-tanks and tanks) instead.

VOD section

>> This chapter will include a couple of VOD’s of games I’ve played (usually just highlights) which show some nice Anivia plays. I will also point out a few things I did for you to notice. The gameplay is taken directly from my stream and I'm trying to get the best plays in here.

(more to come soon)

To conclude

Thanks for reading my guide on Anivia, the real bird (f*ck swain). I hope you liked it - if you do, please let me know by dropping a comment or by upvoting, nice comments always keep me motivated to keep the guide up-to-date! Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask it in the comments or through PM. Players on EUW can also add me in game on my IGN: vynertje

Thanks to Veng Lmfao for helping me out on major parts of the guide coding, this guide wouldn't be there without you!

Also, do not forget to follow my stream for more anivia gameplay! I try to stream Diamond solo queue from time to time, and Anivia is, of course, one of my favorite champions to stream :)