Annie is one of the best burst mages in the game. She has three damaging smells and all three of them have stun potential. She is a great mid character but can lane just as well. She abilities make her a great team asset.

Pros

• Great Burst Potential
• Great Farmer
• Multi-target stun
• Can lane and mid effectively

Cons

• Squishy early game
• relies on last hitting minions
• Easily countered with banshees veil

Passive- Pyromania: Every fifth offensive spell stuns. This passive is what makes Annie go round. The best Annie players will always have a stun ready for the team fights. Her Q, W, and R are all offensive spells so they will all stun. The spells don't have to be offensive spells to build up the stacks for the stun either.

Q=DISINTEGRATE: This is the spell that makes Annie such a great mid character. If this spell kills its target, the mana cost is replenished. It makes it so that she can lane without losing much mana. It is a single target spell so only use this to stun your opponent if you are unsure you can stun them with your other two spells. (Your ult has much more range so it's easier to stun with that.)

W=Incinerate: This spell is the mid to late game farming spell. It has a better scale than your Q and is a multi-target spell. You should be able to wipe out minion waves with this spell without having to auto attack. Also since it is a cone, it can be used to stun multiple targets. It tends to have a little more range than the cone shows but don't depend on it. After you are experienced enough with this spell you will be able to know if that extra little area will hit your target. When going down mid lane be sure to use this spell to clean out wraith camp. You can also use it to kill the wolves but it may not kill the big one.

E=Molten Shield: This is a great spell. Very under used by most Annie players, but is incredibly powerful. It adds armor and magic resist, but that isn't even the best part; it returns damage to physical attacks. It also is very useful to help build a stun. So when leaving the base use your shield and your incinerate to build up a stun. Also the extra magi resist you get from this can help to block that nasty Karthus ult that would kill you. I have just barely survived multiple times because of this spell.

R=Summon Tibbers: This spell is AMAZING. What could be better than dropping a bear on an enemy? Much less a bear with a sunfire cape that scales with your AP, and he auto attacks. This spell has a lot of range so it makes it easy to stun your enemy to get the rest of your spells off. Using Tibbers as your stun is the best thing you could do. It will stun multiple targets within the area and do that two seconds of burn damage it takes for them to get away from your pet bear. Be careful though because if you have Tibbers auto attacking a turret while you are there, if Tibbers burns an enemy champion the turret will attack you. I cannot pressure this hard enough but use Tibbers to stun. It does soooo much damage.

When you enter a fight; Use Tibbers to stun, then use incinerate to get all the champions you stunned. Then get the lowest health champion with your Q. Then hit your sheild and use your Q and W as much as you can. Use this for team fights.

When in fights with only one or two targets, stun with Tibbers then Q, and then W, then hit your sheild and use your Q again. Your Q has a really short cooldown so in small fights spam i first so you can build up another stun really quick so noone gets away.

The masteries are nothing special, just the 9-0-21 as for most mages. The Rune page is also very simple. As most people do for burst mages, use flat magic pen reds for that early game magic pen. The only real significance to my runes is the AP per level yellows. It is just a little bit of extra AP as you level. She doesn't need extra mana regen because you shouldn't run out of mana if you are last hitting minions correctly with your Q. Cooldown reduct blues are always helpful and then flat health quints so you can have more health because you bought a amplifying tome first instead of a dorans ring.

I will always get an amplifying tome and a health pot to start the game. It doesn't matter if I am laning or midding. It gives you a little bit of extra damage so that you can last hit minions better. I will try to lane as long as I possible can before I recall to base. The magic number for gold to recall is 1700. Because then you have enough gold to finish your soul stealer and buy a pair of boots and a couple health pots.

I always always always get a soul stealer with Annie. She just does so much damage that their is no way you shouldn't be getting kills and assists with her. The amount of times that I have had 20 stacks on Annie is ridiculous. That and once she gets going with these stacks she does so much damage she can't be stopped.

After a normal pair of boots I get my catalyst asap. It gives her that extra health and mana so that now that you are duking it out with you lane opponent you have a little extra mana. After that finish of your Sorc shoes and move onto finishing your Rod of Ages. I like this item with Annie because she gets that extra mana and health from it. It could be interchanged with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter, but I like the ROA better with Annie, besides, Annie does so much damage and can recharge her second stun so fast the opponent shouldn't need to be slowed.

The deathcap is just a necesary item in almost every mage build. The passive on this item just makes it so essential to the build. It amplifies your damage significantly. The void staff next to add the rest of your magic pen. I like to finish the build with a Zhonya's hourglass because it adds a lot of extra damage and a little bit of armor. The active is also very nice to have to maybe wait for your Q to cooldown so that you can finish your opponent instead of him finishing you.

A substitute for the hourglass could be a deathfire grasp. The active is so nice to help burst down tanks. The added cooldown reduct is always helpful. It all depends on the opponent team comp. If they have a tanky team I will get a deathfire grasp before I get the void staff.

LANING

During lane phase, Annie is fairly powerful champion. I usually won't start attacking the enemy champion until around level 3 or 4. If I am midding I will usually first hit them with my Q when is at charge number four so that when I cast my incinerate it will stun then and hopefully they will be in range for another Q because it cools down in less than 4 seconds. Then i will ignite them. Hopefully this will draw a kill or atleast make them recall so that you have some free farming time. Apart from that master using your Q to last hit minions. I makes Annie so deadly when you are around level 6 and 7 in lane when you have full mana.

TEAM FIGHTS

Annie is great for team fights because she has two spells that can stun multiple people. Try to get more than one person with your Tibbers stun to maximize the burn damage Tibbers does. Then immedietly after incinerate the people that are stunned, then finish off the squishy characters. If you are forced to start a team fight, flash in, stun with Tibbers, then use your other spells and pot your hourglass so that your team can finish them off and you won't die.