// Welcome to my birdilicious guide covering Anivia - This is my third guide here on MOBAfire which I used a lot of time on, I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

// My intentions of this guide is to go in-depth about as many things as possible to show the community that Anivia is currently one of the best mid-laners imo. Please be kind to both read and test out my build before judging and dropping a vote.

// You shouldn't blame me and my guide if you are doing poorly with Anivia, it is possible that she won't fit your play style and you will have a hard time mastering her to the core, she requires a lot of skill and should mostly be played by experienced players.

// My build is not the bible, you shouldn't follow every single item I list in my main build, it is just the build I use in most situations so I got a list of optional items later on in the guide.

// This guide is purely based on my personal play style and opinions, you are free to customize my build if you find something else more viable.

Anivia is a strong burst mage champion relying and focusing on splitting up the enemy team and keep them CC'ed - allowing you to take them down easily. If you can't land a proper Crystallize you won't be a successful Anivia, and you'll end up like this guy:
Play Video Why play Anivia? Says Elementz:
"Bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word. Okay so Anivia I'd say is quite the amazing champion who I also had too low for too long. Her poke, her dps, her utility is all awesome. Theres nothing she cant do well. Hell she can even pull a Jesus and revive herself. Her only problem is her weak early laning phase imo. Its not the strongest but if you can make it through that area with decent farm and keeping up in levels you will good to go crush everyone after that. " What is Anivia:
Anivia is a bird. :-)

Jokes over, lets get serious:

Anivia is a mage whom's damage is purely based on how much Ability power she has. She is mainly a burst/late game carry who should be the key to make gamechanging moments, as she has a variety of abilites that will basically allow her to change the whole game if used correctly.

Her play style is rare and should be used with caution. You're not Annie you shouldn't rush in and land Tibbers to ace the enemy team.

Her play style is based on something you could call "Passive-Aggressive (Credit to Hypershatter for that usage of word to Anivia's playstyle).
What do I mean by this? To put it simply it means that you should remain with a passive play style just autoattacking and farming your creeps until the an opportunity appears where you can go all-out on the opponent and destroy him/her in a matter of seconds with your combination before they get to realise what just happened. 2 Key words:
To become a succesful Anivia you have to keep in mind these two key words 'Patience & Timing', it will be the key to your succes. You should not rush in when you feel like it, you should not use your abilities when you feel like it - You have to wait for the correct moment, your abilities can get your team a kill and save several of your team mates in the meanwhile as well.

Use your brain:
Compared to certain champions ( Tryndamere) you actually have to use your brain when playing, she requires a lot of skills. You have to play with courage, brain, guts and patience, and should not fear dying as long as you got Rebirth ready and 1-2 team mates nearby. Rebirth is the perfect bait, which I will inform you about later on.


Is Anivia so OP that she no weaknesses has?:

As any other champion Anivia lacks some weaknesses. Anivia is rarely mentioned as an "OP" Champion, it is based on the player who is playing her as she requires a high skill cap. to master.

One of Anivia's biggest weaknesses is her early game pre-level 6. Your auto attack animations are extremly slow + her auto attack damage is weak as well, which will make it hard for you to last hit.
Anivia is also really slow which can be really annoying when you are chasing someone / escaping + Ganking lanes, she can also oom very quickly and be worthless if she won't get blue buff often enough, as well as her poking abilities will be hard to complete without taking a high risk of taking damage as well without giving any.

On the positive sides, her weaknesses are minor compared to her strength:

Might be that her auto attack animations are slow and giving minor damage, but her range is one of the longest in the game(600) USE this to harass early game to outlane your opponent but do not forget to farm in the meanwhile.

The second you reach level 6 and gets blue your lane is partically won, your poke is amazing and the opponent cannot do anything to stop you, your push and farm is too extreme and will grant you a lot of spare time to gank the other lanes in the meanwhile which will aid your whole team.

You have abilities that will be game changing, you can easily pick out a champion and rescue your own as well, you can counter melee-characters with your ultimate and slow them as well, you can depart the enemy team and make 1v5, 2v5, 3v5 situations which will grant you free kills without taking any damage yourself.

Pros + Being a bird. + Insane Passive, will trick people who dives you and forgets about Rebirth + A 2nd life, can reach 3 with Guardians Angel. + AoE that slows and reduces their attack speed. + Great stun Flash Frost + Frostbite does double damage if timed with an ability that slows the enemy( Flash Frost & Glacial Storm) + Being a bird. + High damage output. + A good positioned wall can change the outcome of a battle. + A good positioned wall can make people waste important CD's to get over the wall like flash. + Being a bird. + Easy character to bait successfully with and get a kill out of it. + Extremely fun to play.

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Cons - She can be squishy early-game (Depending on runes and first item) - Her early game farm is weak, can be hard to learn for new players. - Slow Auto attack animations. - Using your spells too often can make you mana hungry. - You cannot depend on her CC to hit every single time. - You will often be in need of blue to solve your mana problems - Slow, oh so slow. - Often in need of blue buff.

I played a lot of matches testing both Offense and Utility (I was inspired to try out Utility by "iwillblessu") but I personally enjoyed playing Offense more than Utility.

I will recommend new Anivia players to use Utility because of the mana regen and exp to help you if you often get the feeling of falling behind in exp.

While I recommend Offense to those who knows how she works and knows how to avoid wasting mana and falling behind in exp.

Offense > Utility, in my opinion it is superior because of the damage which goes really good together with Anivia.
Offense

• Summoner's Wrath 1/1 - Ability power increased by 5 when Ignite is on cooldown, worth the point in offense to support your early game.
• Mental Force 4/4 - What else should I take? Attack damage, no thanks. This grants you a small amount of ability power which suits Anivia
• Sorcery 4/4 - +4% Cooldown reduction and builds up to Arcane Knowledge .
• Arcane Knowledge 1/1 - 10% Magic Penetration is perfect for you.
• Havoc 2/3 - Increases damage dealt by 1%, this isn't worth much to be honest but it beats the optional choices.
• Blast 4/4 - 1+ Ability power per level (+18 Ability power at level 18). Superior to life steal and Critical strike damage - You're a mage not an Attack damage champion.
• Archmage 4/4 - Increases your ability power by 5%, speaks for it self.
• Executioner 1/1 - My primary reason to go into Offense instead of Utility. The extra damage when the opponent goes under 40% of health really matters on getting the kill or not.

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• Summoner's Insight 1/1 - Reduced cooldown on Flash by 15 seconds, might matter on wheter getting a kill or escaping.
• Expanded Mind 3/3 - +12 Mana per level. Anivia is a mana-hungry champion and needs the mana.
• Swiftness 1/4 - Movement speed is a nice thing to such a slow champion as Anivia but Meditation is superior.
• Meditation 3/3 - You want the mana regen, having mana means you can cast your spells which means you can get kills.
• Runic Affinity 1/1 - Increases the duration of your SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEEEEE buffs, since you should be getting blue quite often this is SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEEEEE a MUST HAVE to keep blue as long time as possible.

People might disagree with me on this part; But I only got one pages of runes that I find viable for Anivia and I do not recommend for any of it to be placed so I will only list 1 kind of runes for each kind - Marks, Seals, Glyphs & Quintessences(I will list a mixture in Quint). If you disagree with me, do not hesitate to inform me and I will consider changing it if you have a good reason.

Q U I N T S

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Greater Quintessence of Health & Greater Quintessence of Ability Power I decided to mix health and ability power because going x3 Ability power will make you too squishy early game. On the other side picking x3 Health quints would decrease your damage output early game. So I decided to combine them and pick 2 ability power quints + 1 health quint.

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Q U I N T S

M A R K S

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Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Magic penetration is a nice addition to mages, and works for the entire game, since it will always penetrate magic resistance - However, alone, these are rather bad, so you might want to build a Void Staff, to stack up a bit more magic penetration.

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M A R K S

S E A L S

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Greater Seal of Replenishment - Useful for her mana recovery early gam, since Anivia is using a lot of mana on her abilities which makes her mana hungry, this should help you from ooming too often and have a bit of regen to sustain and harass in the lane.

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S E A L S

G L Y P H S

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Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power - A very common choice and really suitable to characters like Anivia, it will help you increase your AP ratios and increase your early game damage enough to matter on if someone is escaping with 10 health if Ignite wasn't enough to finish them off.

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G L Y P H S

I have intentions of going into details about HOW to use her skills to the maximum potential. When you learn to master the skills of Anivias correctly, you will notice how huge a difference there is between a good and a bad usage of her skills. I hope that you will notice if you've done any of these mistakes after reading my guide and improve in the future.

Rebirth

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Anivia's replacement of Guardians angel, really awesome when you wish to bait an enemy to turret dive you while they forget about Rebirth. This mainly happens for low-skilled players that forgets about Rebirth. Be careful and do not get cocky, your armor and magic resist is lowered and you die very quickly in the egg. For example in a gank, you can die even quicker than you did pre-egg, those six seconds is a lot of time for them to hit you down once again. When Rebirth is on Cooldown, play rather passive as you are squishy and won't survive the same way as if you had Rebirth ready. So keep in mind to play more careful when it is on cooldown. You should not be afraid of dying with Anivia (As long as your passive is ready) It can be used to bait several enemies into thinking they stand a chance and forget about your egg. Turret baits is a good way of making the enemy dive you and forget all about your egg. What is baiting? - Baiting includes luring your enemies to your turret or hidden allies to get the kill of the enemy who thinks they can kill you "Succesful baiting will involve that you keep your opponent with the idea that they can kill you when you are fully aware that they cannot It takes patience and experience as well as map awareness. A succesful bait could also be early game when you and your opponent are extremely squishy and takes loads of damage from minions. Bait him into the middle of the minions trade blows. It doesn't matter if you're falling into egg if the minions will damage your opponent enough to either kill him or force him to retreat while you get free exp and farm on the lane.

Flash Frost

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A slow and clear spell that consumes your mana early on in the laning phase. Any enemy that is actually paying attention to you shouldn't get hit by this spell if they care enough to dodge it. Shooting this at medium and maximum range is pointless because it is so easily dodged by side-stepping. Just a loss for you and your mana, sometimes it is better to save it instead of shooting it right away Patience is the key. Patience is a must with this ability as this skill often results in either saving you or getting you the kill, pay attention to your enemies movement and attempt to predict it before using Flash Frost. A small tip: Use this spell when you feel secure about hitting the enemy instead of letting it go to waste. Move close to your own minions and shoot Flash Frost through the minions, it can be difficult to see at times and gives the opponent less time to react. Keep in mind this also pushes your lane. Tips & Tricks: Flash-flash Frost Usually used early game before you get your ultimate when chasing a low healthed enemy. Use Flash Frost the same time as you click Flash towards the enemy. This will make the small gap between you and your enemy smaller as your stun hits them, then finish them off with Frostbite before they get to react after the stun. Most players won't have good enough reflexes to dodge this swift combination and should take them by surprise. Flash Frost --> Flash --> Frostbite. Back Shot This move requires both patience and timing. This is the kind of trick that will be used in baiting situations. You are acting like you're running away from an enemy, and as he sees you retreat back in the lane he would most likely follow you - While they begin to advance fire your Flash Frost at the chasing enemy champion. In most situations the enemy won't be able to react fast enough to dodge this stun because they are expecting a retreat from your side, especially if you are at low health and do not expect the sudden ambush. Retreat --> Get chased --> Flash Frost --> Frostbite --> Glacial Storm --> Crystallize --> Ignite. Through a wall

This one can be tricky, so I decided to show a picture that fairly covers it.

Lets go through it, shall we?

1. You start of by throwing your stun from FoG when the enemy is close enough to the wall - Patience and Timing are the two keywords in this situation.
2. Great, you got the opponent in a stun! Flash forward.
3. And throw a wall to make them Flash to safety or attempt to escape by running around the wall.
4. Place your Glacial Storm to cover as much of her escape route as possible to keep the opponent slowed.
5. Finish the opponent with Frostbite and Ignite.
6. Profit.

Crystallize

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I decided to make a specific chapter covering Crystallize after this section, since it got a huge impact on your game play and the outcome of team fights for both you and your team.

Frostbite

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This ability can be tricky if you are new to Anivia, this ability should only be used if your enemy is chilled ( Flash Frost & Glacial Storm will make the chilled effect), if your target is chilled Frostbite will give double the damage and will hurt them for a high amount of their health. This doesn't mean you cannot Frostbite to finish off a low healthed enemy without a chill, if you are aware that it will finish of your enemy - Use it without a chilled effect. Tips & Tricks: It partners wonderful with Glacial Storm. You can shoot frostbite, while its travelling mid-air you can place down Glacial Storm and cause the chilled effect for a double damage combo. It doesn't work instantly like Katarinas Shunpo. This is recommended to experienced Anivia players. Beginners I recommend placing down Glacial Storm first and then use Frostbite. Keep in mind that only your spells causes the 'chill' effect. Lets say " Frozen Heart, Frozen Mallet and Rylai's Crystal Scepter" might cause a specific chill effect as well but it won't proc Frostbite.

Glacial Storm

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Play with caution when using this ability, it drains your mana in a matter of seconds. NEVER LEAVE THIS ABILITY ON FOR TOO LONG unless there is a reason for you to keep it on, for example if you're having 3-4 enemies inside the spell. The positive thing about this spell is that it reduces both attack speed and movement speed by 20%, which is a very good counter versus champions like Tryndamere and Master Yi.

Crystallize

• Cooldown: 20 seconds
• Range to Center of Wall: 1000
• Cost: 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 mana
• Wall Length: 400 / 500 / 600 / 700 / 800

I decided to make a chapter dedicated to "Crystallize" as it is one of the best abilities in the game to make game changing moments both postive and negative.
In the hands of an ameture this ability is USELESS and a loss to the team, while in the hands of an experienced player it will be a godlike ability.

How it functions:

Anivia can place down a wall that blocks the path for both your team mates and enemies.
Crystallize can also be used to get sight in FoG, for example by placing it into a bush you will grant vision in this bush, I will cover that part later in this section.
Crystallize blocks off a path but can be jumped over by using Flash a spell like Jax's Leap Strike, else why you have to walk around it.

Why you should pick Crystallize by level 4:

The reason to choose this ability by level 4 even though I am trading some valuable damage, Is that I rather have this wall, even if it is small in the first rank it will still aid you in important situations, can save you from dying / getting a kill.

Angle of the walling :

You can't turn the wall as it pleases you, you're not Dr. Mundo.

You can only place the wall if Anivia is facing the center of the wall at 90 degrees angle, if you do not understand what I mean it will be shown in the picture under this text.

• Keep in mind; Anivia will turn around if the wall is placed behind you, be carefull when placing it and have patience.

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Position and Patience; Time the wall

Tips & Tricks:

• You're getting chased through the middle river. You have 2 options here; Panic and place a wall in the middle of everything, or remain with patience and wait for the correct position to use the wall. Pick option 2, Don't place the wall in the enemies face right away, they'll just walk around it and continue chasing. Wait until you enter a passage where you can completly seal the entrance and force them to quit.
• A team fight is about to start - Remain patient and wait for the correct moment, this requires that you have an overlook at the battle and can judge when to place the wall correctly and seal of half of their team to make it a 2vs5 battle followed by a 3v5 battle.
  Placing the wall correctly will force the enemy team to split up, their carries can't get past the wall and will either be on the side ready to get attacked by your team or on the other side without any chance to aid their own team. It will create a brief chaos situation for the enemy team and you will have the battle in a tight grip.
• You can also end up placing a bad wall - What will this do to your team?
  Placing a bad wall might result in saving a dying enemy or splitting up your own team placing yourself and your teammates in a horrible position which causes you to loose the fight, so keep in mind to have patience and wait for the right moment.
• Use the wall to remove Fog of War, it grants you sight even in bushes. The bigger the wall is, the more sight you get.
  You top priorities for a wall to be placed when checking FoG is:
  • A bush instead of facechecking.
  • Dragon & Baron.
  • Different buffs (Blue)
  • FoG locations where you feel insecure about an ambush.
• You can lead the enemy to your Flash Frost by placing a wall which forces your opponent to have only 1 exit. Line up your spells by the exit and kill the opponent.

More tricks & ideas:

Crystallize got a lot of hidden properties that most people haven't noticed yet.

• One of the most common and forgotten tricks is that Anivias wall can interrupt channeled animations, such as Malzahars ulti. Keep in mind that this does not actually stop the ultimate, but simply cancels the animation for everyone who is looking at it, making it look like it stopped by itself. By this the trick is that your opponent will get confused and automatically cancel their ultimate by walking away, in confusing they believe that the ultimate got cancelled.
  This works on characters like : Malzahar, Nunu & Willump & Katarina
• For this sneaky trick to function, you have to place a wall ontop of the target so the opponent gets removed from their original position. It will push them to the side and make it look like the animation stopped by itself, it isn't easy in a stressful team fight and is very risky as it can be a waste of your precious and important wall.
• You can cancel Malphites ultimate and cancel it by placing a wall in front of him as he charges towards you.
• If you are pushing your lane too far or getting zoned out, you can use [[crystallize] to block your next minion wave. This will result in holding them back long enough for the enemy minions to move closer to your turret.
  
  It is based on a 50-50 if it goes wrong or right. You want your minions to meet in front of your tower, yet not close enough for the tower to attack them, which can be sort of tricky to time.

You can also use this wall to 'trap' people by pushing them against the wall:

This is a rare opportunity and almost never happens, your biggest chances would be to do it while they are hiding in a bush waiting. It can also done against inhibitors, but is really hard to do. It all depends on your enemies position.

You can also capture them in small gaps, where they have a very small spot to move on, for example by wraiths or blue buff.

Walling by Dragon and Baron:

Wall the path to block the enemies while fighting the dragon, it is pretty simple and can be done by the baron as well.

I hope I managed to cover everything about this godlike and unique ability - Please do not hesitate to inform me if you feel that I need to add something else.

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As you see above this is your skill priorities, if I could I would have maxed Glacial Storm first, but that is not possible so I have to max Frostbite first.

You have to prioritize Frostbite as this will be the main skill to your damage output if you use it correctly. Use it while the enemy is under the 'chill' effect else why this spell just tickles.

2nd you should max Glacial Storm as it slows and decreases the attack speed of the enemy, very cruel against champions like Tryndamere and Master Yi.

3rd you should max Flash Frost even though this spell can actually damage more than Frostbite it won't unless its a sure-hit-burst.

You're asking yourself why I do not max Flash Frost first now?

• The cooldown is more than double up except for the last pick in Flash Frost
• High risk of missing.
• Double damage isn't always secured even if you hit, you might risk detonating it too early.

It drains more of your mana than Frostbite as well.

Pick Crystallize last but take a point in this ability by level 4 to have a bigger chance of surviving when ganked but also helps you block of for the opponent when your jungler is ganking.

This section is a list of possible combinations that you can use throughout the game, I will show a quick way of using your spells pre-level 6 then afterwards show common ways of harassing / farming.

Level 1-3

This should be your only way to go in for a kill or attempt to harass effectively early game.

Level 4-5

This next combination can be a bit 'tricky' so I decided to show a video on how to do it.

Throw Flash frost into a specific direction then place crystallize down in attempt to push them towards your stun.


Play Video

Harass combinations

1.
This poking ability is amazing and gives a high damage poke, there are 2 ways of doing this:
Those who knows how her spells work can throw frostbite before glacial storm and still be quick enough to land glacial storm before impact with frostbite to proc the chilled effect.

• Skilled: Frostbite --> Glacial Storm.
• Beginner: Glacial Storm --> Frostbite.

2.
A more serious harass combination.
The reason I use Glacial Storm first is because it slows down the enemy and makes Flash Frost easier to land.



3.
Flash-Flash frost as explained earlier in the guide.


4.
A more serious attempt to get a kill.
You should place Glacial Storm first to slow down the enemy and then stun him followed by your combination.



5. Clearing minion waves.
This simple combination will clear minions waves in a matter of seconds but rapidly drains your mana, shouldn't be done too often without blue.

Place Glacial storm to hit as many minions as possible while throwing Flash frost across the whole wave.

• Your first purchases should be Boots and x3 Health Potion or x2 Health Potions and 1 Mana Potion. Since Anivia is a slowpoke she can really use the shoes to dodge incoming spells easier than if she had no shoes and for example Sapphire Crystal, I pick 3 Health Potions to sustain in the lane early game, as I'm not the type to spam my Flash Frost in level 1-3.

Catalyst the protector

• Try and see if you can earn 1325 gold on your first or second trip back to the base, after getting these two items you will get a bit more sustain in the lane and can begin to play more aggressive, since you get a nice bonus regen per level from Catalyst the protector and some mobility to dodge incoming attacks like Pillar of Flame.

Almost ready to begin buying your core items, but first you have to build up by getting the minor items that fits to get your cote items.

Choosing boots is optional and is a matter of taste - I personally recommend using Sorcerrer's shoes, I will go in-depth about what boots to pick and why after this part.

You should get Blasting Wand as soon as possible, so you can get Rod of Ages and stack it up as quickly as possible, when I finished building Rod of Ages and got Tier 2 boots (Mainly Sorcerer's Shoes, I prepare to get Needlessly Large Rod.

When I get Needlessly Large Rod I can really feel how my ability power got a high boost and I am starting to get a lot of easy kills from this point.

Recommended order to buy your items:

• Catalyst the Protector
• Sorcerer's Shoes
• Rod of Ages
• Needlessly Large Rod

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• Sorcerer's Shoes: The best and most common choice of boosts when it comes to Anivia and other AP-carries in general, as the magic penetration is something you need since you won't get any other Magic penetration items until Void Staff. My personal choice.
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• Boots of Swiftness: Can be used, I once played with this and enjoyed it. A quick moving Anivia sometimes feels like heaven, it is a viable pick and suits her decently because her movement speed is generally extremely slow.
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• Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Rarely used by Anivia because they are out matched by other shoes, but they can be great at certain situations. Anivia can often be in need of the cooldown reduction to increase the output of her damage in team fights.
  It is always nice to have the CDR on any champion to increase your damage by throwing more spells than usual.

The following 3 items, should be picked almost no matter the situation. These items fits Anivia so well, that there is nothing worth replacing them with.

• Rod of Ages
• Rabadon's Deathcap
• Zhonya's Hourglass

My two recommended items if you have intentions of playing aggressive.

• Void Staff: This is a MUST HAVE item, you will be in need of the magic penetration to damage the more 'tanky' champions.
• Will of the Ancients: This item can be replaced by other items but I like it because you can some spell vamp. Blue + Spell vamp = No need to recall as often as you would have otherwise, aids your sustain.

Worth buying:

• This is a good item to get if you are versus a lot of AP-carries and are on team with more than you as AP-carry as well. Ability power, magic resist and reduces the enemies magic resist as well.

• This item is used by a lot of Anivia players to solve her mana issues, but I'm not a fan of this item and have never been it. I find other items more superior than this one.

• I'm amazed how rare this item is seen on Anivia players. It really helps you burst down the enemy, it grants you ability power and mana regen, this item is perfect and very viable.

• Problem with mages that got heavy CC? Get some tenacity.

• Armor and mana + Reducing cooldown by 20% as well as reducing the enemies attack speed. A nice defensive item and should be used in certain situations.

• Allows Glacial Storm to be on in a whole team fight
• Massive mana regeneration and cool-down reduction always helps

I cannot stress enough about this part, last hitting is really important to Anivia, and requires practice due to her attack animations being extremely slow and her attack damage being weak as well.

Sometimes last hitting can be more important than a champion kill; might sound strange but let's look at it.

• A Champion kill is around 300 gold.
• That means 1 kill = 15-17 creep score.
• That is around 2 and a half creep waves.
• 3 waves = 350~ish gold.

An experienced Anivia should be able to get around 200-300 in creep score in the end of the game, but this takes practice as she is really difficult to last hit with - Especially if you've just played Miss Fortune with Doran's Blade.

I need to point out that this is super difficult and requires practice, the best way to practice this is in a custom game. Even if you got troubles last hitting early game you can attempt to catch up by level 6, when you get Glacial Storm.

• Glacial Storm + Flash Frost wipes the entire wave.

Most people tend to see harass > Last hitting. This is incorrect, if you just keep in your mind to last hit effectively, you will in time get some really awesome items and defeat the opponent that way.

Once in a while you will meet opponents that just gets directly to your lane and begins to push, auto-attacking, auto-attacking, auto-attacking( Mordekaiser). This is super annoying and can give you a hard time last-hitting by the turret. What you should do in a situation like this is to keep on auto-attacking the minions as well to keep the minions away from your tower and attempt to remain with a balance of holding the minions close to the middle of the lane.

Sometimes it can be good if you are getting pushed by the enemy, this will increase his chances of getting ganked. But the table can also be turned, where your enemy leaves the lane to gank another lane in the mean while.

There exist situations where you WANT to push the lane.

• You wish to gank another lane (Great, help your team).
• You noticed that you got money enough for a new item, go get it. But make sure you pushed the lane first.
• You never want to go back if your lane is pushed, this will result in missing a large amount of gold and exp.

This shouldn't be a huge problem, you're Anivia and 90% of the times you're going mid-lane. There are certain occasions where you will end up with a partner in bot-lane or solo top-lane. Anivia can be strong with a partner and I will cover this part later on.

Rules to keep in mind through the laning phase:

• Always position yourself to harass with your auto attacks (Anivia's auto attack is superior to most mages except for Annie). use it wisely and do not get hit in return.
• Do not overextend with your auto-attack harassing if you're losing minions on it. Keep in mind only to last hit; Not auto hit.
• If you miss your Flash Frost pre-level 6 I suggest moving back again as soon as possible as you will have a damage that tickles without a chill effect. If you are level 6 you can afford to continue your combo by using Glacial Storm and Frostbite.
• Do not be afraid to use your Flash if it can save your life, if Rammus comes for a gank, a perfect wall + stun won't always be enough.
• Shooting Flash Frost across your enemy's wave of minions will result in pushing.

Everything isn't about getting first-blood and kills, to win your lane it will require:

• Killing your opponent or facing them to recall = Out leveling.
• Higher creep score than your opponent.
• Succesful ganks in the side lanes.
• Getting the enemy turret - Can be difficult to Anivia, shouldn't be your target - Gank the side lanes and help them get their opponents turrets down first.

This can be the most crucial part of your game, and will matter a lot on your performance mid and late game.

• Focus on getting your farm.
• Do your best to keep the minions around the middle of the lane, closest to your turret.
• Do NOT overextend and go too far - It backfires 90% of the times.
• You're on mid-lane, it's your job to call SS/MIA if your opponent is missing (This is IMPORTANT)
• Harass with your auto attacks whenever possible, but do not trade hits.
• You're mid, don't expect for your jungle to buy all the wards for you.
  Got spare gold? Buy a ward, save a life.

Level 1

• Buy your items, and move down to protect your jungler (if you got a jungler). If he starts at the Ancient Golem camp or wolves camp - Give him a leash with Frost flash, you should manage to regen mana enough to get full mana before using any abilities again.
• At this rate you should only focus on last hitting from level 1-6 more than harassing.
• You should only harass with your auto-attacks, spamming your abilities early game isn't worth it.
• You will be oom in a matter of seconds if you spam your abilities, be patient and wait for the correct movement.

Level 2-3

Once you reach level 3 it's time to consider some serious harass, early game you give a lot of damage if you can hit with your spells.

• I decided to put level 2 and 3 together since the game play is alike.
• You got both Flash Frost and Frostbite, its time to begin a more aggressive form of harass.
• Be careful when harassing that you do not take aggro from the enemy minions, they hand out a lot of damage early on and injures you.
• If the enemy got a silence; Make sure to stun him before he gets silence on you or let the silence go off then throw your stun. While silenced you cannot activate Flash Frost again and stun.
  
  Harass rotation:
  
  
  
  If you miss Flash Frost at this point back out immediately!

Level 4-5

This is the part where you should pick Crystallize.
You can increase the chances of hitting with Flash Frost, it can be difficult by a well placed Crystallize will make them automatically go to one of the sides of your wall and risk getting hit by Flash Frost, I will show a video of this in another chapter.

By this point you will have a higher chance of getting succesful ganks with a with a well placed wall.

• You're about to get ganked - Place a wall between you and your enemy, and stun the opponent closest to you or the one who got the most deadly CC.
• Your team is ganking - Place a wall in front of your enemy and try to make it difficult to walk around this will result in a kill or the opponent using Flash.

Harass rotation:

.

Level 6

This is where Anivia begins to dominate throughout the laning phase, if granted blue.
Your poke and harass is amazing and simply, a very high poke with low cooldown and easy to cast without trading blows, I often begin to play more aggressive than the first 5 levels because of Glacial Storm my only problem will be mana, so attempt to get blue.

• You now got Glacial Storm and will be even more deadly.
• You can avoid getting pushed to the turret and you can clear minions waves in a matter of seconds. Glacial Storm + Flash Frost across the entire minion wave.

There are several new rotations of harassing and combo's now, but I will go in-depth about this later on, instead just cover her way of poking / harassing without going for the kill.


Beginners to Anivia; This is the secure way to hit with Frostbite and make sure that you got the chilled effect on the opponent, use this if you aren't familiar with Anivia.

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Experienced Anivia players; You know how to play Anivia and are aware how her spells functions. Since Frostbite isn't instant but travels in the air, it is possible to throw Frostbite BEFORE Glacial Storm and still get the chilled effect by placing Glacial Storm before Frostbite hits.

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Level 6-9

By this phase of the game, team fights shouldn't have broken out yet but there will be minor fights around the dragon.
This is mainly where I begin to gank the other lanes if possible, Anivias movement speed is really slow so a failed gank will be a huge loss for you in creep and exp, but if possible attempt to gank the bottom lane.

If you are sure that your ganks will be in vain, remain in your lane and farm creeps instead to get your items and aid the team afterwards.

• When you wish to prepare for a gank throw Glacial Storm and Flash Frost to push the minion wave to the enemy turret and move down to the enemy lane. It is worth taking a longer route if you know a path to avoid getting sighted by wards.
• Q: Why gank the bottom lane instead of top-lane?
  A: It will make a 3v2 situation, and bot-lane is often the combination of AD-Carry and support which also means 2 squishies whom are easy to kill while top-lane is often a tanky character like Nasus.
• When ganking a lane, place down Glacial Storm first to slow the enemy and remove their chances of escaping with Crystallize and save Flash Frost until you're 99% sure of hitting this stun, it will matter on getting the kill or not. Attempt to Ignite your target if possible to reduce the amount of healing done.

At this phase of the game the first few turrets should have been destroyed (hopefully theirs). This is where team fights begin to break out even though you're not done farming yet.
You still need a few items and a lot of gold, but if you can feel the tension of a team fight coming up do NOT I repeat do NOT leave your team in a 4v5 situation because you wanted a minion wave, this part of the game will figure out if your team got enough teamwork to function as a team and win the game.

Mid game goals:

• Farming
• Turrets
• Team fights
• Dragon
• Map awareness
• Avoid walking alone
• Make sure to get your blue buff

There will be certain occasions where you will end up traveling alone to push a lane, just make sure that you are SAFE when doing so. Keep an eye on your mini map to check if anyone is MIA, if there is more than opponent MIA you should retreat immediately to avoid getting ganked.

This is where your build should be close to complete and have downed most of the turrets, farm shouldn't be a focus of yours anymore as you are close to completing your build.

Make sure to be part of every single team fight from this point, you can turn 5v5 situations into 5v1, 5v2 and 5v3 with a well placed wall

• Do not forget about your position, it can change the outcome of the battle if you survive long enough to constantly stun and slow the enemy champions.
• Due to Anivias unique spells she doesn't need the same kind of protection as your AD-carry does, but try and remain behind the tank if possible.
• You can pick out targets to engage the team fight if stunning an opponent who sleeps or fails to dodge your Flash Frost.

You got some top priorities to focus if possible, the following are:

• AD or AP carries: Removing one of those roles from the team before any damage is given is mainly like winning a team fight before it even began, they lost their sources of high burst damage and damage over time.
• Supports: Supports might seem like a target you would ignore, but NO. They will assist their team, heal them up and protect them at all cost - Nuke them down before they get to stop you from getting your kills ( Soraka and Janna can be a pain in the ***).
• Off-tanks & Tanks: Less important, should be killed after your primary targets are eliminated.

The most important thing to keep in mind when playing AP-Carry is your positioning. You can harass and use your abilities from an incredibly range, so make use of it and stay behind your team while picking them one after another.

During a team fight you should wait for your Tank/Off-tank to engage the battle, and afterwards pick out the ones giving the most damage but do NOT risk placing yourself in a bad position to kill their squishy, pick out the one close to you that gives a lot of damage. Stepping into the middle of the fight in attempt to pick out their carry would be suicide.

If your tank/off-tank is good, he will protect you if you get focused, so do not worry too much about it, and if needed you got a wall and a stun + AoE based slow.

Your 2 primary focus targets should be the AD and the AP Carry, but there are certain situations where you are forced to hit the closest enemy to avoid putting yourself in a bad position (The tank).

There are certain times where you do not have to wait for your tank to engage, but you can engage by catching an opponent off guard and separate him/her from the rest of his/hers team by placing Crystallize in certain occasions like for example:

• Your team is hiding in the bush, preparing an ambush as an enemy wonders cluelessly towards you where you can easily close the exit by sealing it off with a wall.
• A legendary trap by the baron or the dragon, trapping 1-2 of their team mates while getting attacked by the baron will make them suffer and have a lot of problems surviving the fight.

Learning how to team fight as Anivia is really important due to her utility and damage, in this section I have intentions of a detailed checklist on who to stun and what to be doing in a team fight situation.

Keep an eye on AoE/suppression initiators.

• AoE stun like for example Amumu can be deadly and is hard to stop if you got no one to push him away like Lee Sin. Try and wall off the incoming enemies before Amumu gets the chance to stun you all.
• Example of suppression could be Warwicks ultimate on one of your allies, use Flash Frost to cancel this.

Keep an eye on the enemy team when looking for someone to focus, Alistar in his ultimate form would be a waste of mana and cooldowns, go after the dangerous targets.

Even though your mission is to execute the enemy carries, you can still be a good team mate and help any of your other carries if they are getting focused by using Glacial Storm and Flash Frost, even a wall if you feel forced to.
In a team fight only 2 things will happen - Either you win or lose. Okay, you won your team fight - Good job! Use this and change the game.

• Push the lane and destroy the enemy turrets as quickly as possible.
• Go ahead, kill the Dragon or the Baron and grant some extra gold.
• Just do something! No need to recall if they are all dead, just be sure to pull back before they respawn.

Your whole team is dead. What now?

• You're screw'd, pray to the League of Legends god and ask for another chance.
• Hope that they decide to recall.
• Watch them take your turrets and Dragon/Baron.
• Ragequit and blame the team. (JK, Do not blame the team if you did something bad too, use the time on making new tactics to beat them in the next fight)

This might seem a bit off-topic, but is very important.

Elixirs are often bought towards the end of a long game when you finished your build and got some extra gold, they can also be bought mid-game to give you a temporary stat advantage during ganks and team fights.

There are certain people who tend to underrate an elixir thinking it won't help much.

It grants you 20-40 ability power based on your level and 10% cooldown reduction, this will matter on seeing that Veigar getting away with 10 health or not.

It will increase your damage rapidly combined with cooldown reduction allowing you to cast 1-2 more stuns and frostbites that you wouldn't have had time to otherwise.

When to buy it:

• You got spare gold after finishing an item
• You got full bags and spare gold.
• You are behind in the game and need some extra AP Boost.
• A team fight coming up.

YOU MADE IT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING! (Unless you skipped some of it >.>)
I hope that you enjoyed my in-depth guide about Anivia and understood what I wrote and meant.
Please leave a comment and a vote, it really means a lot to me.
If you have any questions, ask and I will gladly answer them.

Criticism would be appreciated, but please have a good reason.
(Anything I could improve?)

- Also a big Thank you to Jhoijhoi who made an excellent guide, showing how to create a good guide, which helped me out in a few sections.
Clicky to check it out

- Thanks to Snowfall, Medianprime & SirSpankAlot for coding and layout at certain chapters.

-Thank you to Koksei as well, who helped me out as well. I recommend for you to check out his Lux guide.

- A huge thank you to "Hypershatter" who inspired me to play Anivia, his old guide (which sadly expired) inspired me to make this guide and it had a huge impact on my game play when playing Anivia.


It would also mean a lot to me, if you could check out my other guide that covers Taric
Click for Taric guide :) As well as my Caitlyn guide. click for Caitlyn guide
- Taneren <'3 (EU-West) You're welcome to add me.

Thank you for reading my guide.