I will firstly like to state that as with the majority of builds, this should not be completely stuck to every game. You need to vary your build depending on the opponent team and this is just a rough guide of what to build if up against a team which varies it's damage type. I will also admit I am by no means an expert player and any/all constructive criticism is welcomed. Lastly, yes. Annie can tank.

This build aims to make Annie particularly bulky while also being able to deal enough damage to hurt anybody annoying enough to try and kill you. A key part of this build is molten shield, with enough CDR (Cooldown reduction) you can run it virtually constantly giving a bonus 50 armour/mag resist while also damaging attackers. CDR is capped at 40% at which point you will be able to run molten shield for 15 seconds and only have a 3 second cooldown at the end of it.

Pros
- Very durable
- Ability to regularly stun multiple enemies.
- Able to deal noticeable damage.
- A major lolwut for the enemy to deal with.

Cons
- Will not be very tanky early game
- You will have to convince people at team selection every game that Annie can tank.
- Doesn't do much damage compared to other builds of Annie.

For runes I have gone for 3 flat HP quints for the early game bonus. Greater glyph of shielding because well, you're a tank and magic resist is always good on a tank. For seals MP5, as with a high CDR and spamming spells just for the stun you'll be burning (No pun intended) through your mana pretty fast. And for your marks, magic pen is the obvious choice.

Pretty much self explanatory stuff. Possible variants would be hp per level seals if you plan on getting archangels over Rylai's (Explained in the item section).

A basic 0/9/21. The focus on utility over defence gives 6% CDR and remember, a higher CDR means more damage, more stuns and more time shielded. The defence masteries still grant a decent level of...well, defence.

Here is where the fun part begins. I will firstly start with the few must haves.

Boots
Mercury treads if they have any form of CC. If not, get the Ionian boots of Lucidity.

Largely self explanatory, CC can quite easily be the difference between living and dying and above all else it is just plain annoying. If they have no CC though get the other boots for an easy CDR of 15% giving you a total of 21% already. If you go with Mercury treads you must buy Elixir of brilliance and have one in effect at all times to get the CDR.

Armour
Definitely frozen heart, it's like it was made for Annie as a tank. Good armour, great mana, an amazing 20% CDR (Giving you the capped 40% with boots of Lucidity and 36% without them and using the elixir of brilliance) and it slows the attacks of all enemies in the area which improves your survivability.

Magic resist
Banshee's veil. Always useful on any champion. Health, mana and magic resist plus it passively blocks one negative spell every 45 seconds. This may not sound like a lot, but people tend to lead with their most damaging spell as it is likely to have the longest cooldown. Cancelling that first spell could be the difference between winning a team battle and losing it. Possibly.


That is it for the "must haves" (They are only must haves assuming the enemy team deals both AP and AD. If this is not the case, first laugh at the enemy team. Then just stack defence against whatever type of damage they do)

Other items!
For HP
Rod of ages: Gives a decent chuck of HP, mana and AP. While it might not seem like an obvious choice for a tank, a tank needs to be able to deal damage or will otherwise just be completely ignored. So this makes a decent choice at giving you some firepower (Once again, no pun intended) and the HP boost to help with the tanking.

An alternative to RoA is warmogs. While it does not give you the AP bonus it does give a LOT of health and you can make up for the AP lost with the next item. I prefer RoA's though as at level 18 this build already gives over 3000 HP, any more would just likely be countered with bloodrazors making the extra HP somewhat useless. Also, building RoA uses a catalyst, which is a great early game item.

For AP
Rylai's crystal scepter: Once again not an obvious tank choice. But with 500 health, 80 AP and a passive that makes grown men cry it is definitely worth getting if you need to hit a bit harder. The passive of this item slows enemies with any spell cast. With the CDR you have you will be casting a LOT of spells. Combine this with Annie's stun passive and it makes it relatively easy to help your team get away from otherwise lethal pursuers.

Alternatively, Archangels staff will work well. With the CDR you will make the most of this item's passive giving a huge mana boost and decent AP boost. I personally prefer Rylai's out of the two due to the slowing effect, but either is perfectly viable.

For the last item you should probably look at either armour or magic resist depending on what is hurting you more. If it is magic damage force of nature would be a great choice, attack damage would probably cause me to get a Randuin's omen (Providing it does not get nerfed for the 293485th time).


As far as the order goes for what to build it is mostly situational. I will however always start out going for catalyst first and then buy boots when it is finished. Getting a negatron cloak/chain vest next is generally a good idea as it gives added protection against everything. Getting a frozen heart for the CDR relatively early is also advised. From then on it is completely your choice whether you finish your defensive items or offensive items first.

Remember, you are tanking and therefore should focus on your defensive abilities. I put two early points into disintegrate to make it easier to last hit minions for the gold, but other than that the main goal is to max molten shield as 50 armour/magic resist is extremely useful.

Flash is a must on any champion in my opinion. Somebody try to gank you? Flash through some trees and make your escape! Somebody you tried to gank flash through some trees? Flash through the trees after them! Basically useful for offence and defence.

The other I have gone for is cleanse. Your molten shield will shield you from a lot of damage. If your shield is down and you are silenced you are not nearly as durable. Cleanse will allow you to have the shield up whenever you need it. Yay!

While spells are always personal preference, I can't see anything better than these two for this build.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and hopefully it proves somewhat useful to you. I suggest you give this build a try, it's tanking but actually fun!

This has been my first build guide, so don't be too harsh ;) but as I mentioned earlier constructive criticism is welcomed.