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Annie, the Ultimate AP Carry

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Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (6) More Guides

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Ability Order

Annie Passive Ability

Introduction

Introduction

Before you rate, please read everything, since the items shown up top are only situational(Please note that they are not in the good order, too), and everything can be changed and adapted to any situation. Also, if you down vote, please tell me why because I could learn things from you too.
I want to say that even if i am not a professional player, I am still level 30, and i played Annie ever since I was level 1. She is the first champion I discovered and I have not played any other champion before level 22, so I hope that my experience is enough to fully build this guide, and help anyone who would like to learn more about Annie.

P.S. English isn't my primary language, so please be tolerant on some dumbs mistakes I might do. Thank you for understanding.

Enjoy my guide!!

Role & Pros / Cons

's Role
Annie's principal role is to destroy the other team's squishy champions. It is really easy to kill the casters and the range DPS of the other team as Annie, but the hard part is that they want you dead too. The easiest way to be able to kill the other team's squishies is to get a lot of ability power, but not to forget to get some health and probably a , depending on the situation.

P.S. The best way to get kills is to have good items, and the best way to have good items is to last hit every single minion with , practice this and you will be fed before even getting kills.

Pros/Cons

Pros:
-Incredible burst
-Great nuker
-Incredible farmer
-Decent stun
-Great ultimate
-Not so hard to play
-A fed Annie is most of the time a victory
-Awesome skins =)
Cons:
-squishy
- isn't good at getting kills
-Not good at catching up or at fleeing
-It is a must to get plenty kills; assists are not an option

Skills, Skill sequence & Combos

Annie's skills

-- stun
-- get an epic number of last-hits with that spell!
-- Aoe burst, love to stun with that spell
-- great armor and magic resist for a caster, use that in team fights, where you will probably be targetted!
-- Nuke, amazing damage, and then your tibbers has a sunfirecape!

Skill Sequence

One thing that everyone understand soon or late is that the economy of the game is mostly based on the number of last hits that you do. Someone with no kills can have a lot more gold that someone with kills, just because he killed more minions. That's the reason why I take first. With and , this spell will hit 99, which is great to last hit. Also, the mana used for this spell is refunded if it does the killing blow, which makes this skills even better for farming. I then take to harass or last hit the mage minions. I take my ultimate at level 6,11 and 16 obviously and i only take at level 8, to stack my stun easily. Once you get to level 18, might become useful to survive, but its not useful at all to burst or kill ennemies.

Combos

Annie is fun to play because you can literally kill someone in one second with her( i do not say one shot because it takes 3 spells, lol). Here is the best combo that i found on Annie, it can basically kill anyone, but if your target is a tank, you should harass him a little bit before doing that combo.

Early game
1. Harass with Auto-Attacks and
2. Farm your stun by last-hitting minions with
3. Stun with and
4. Move closer to your target and cast
5. Nuke the target with
6. Cast , to stop his health regen, and to kill him if he is really low
7. If the target is still alive, if necessary and kill him with

It looks long in text but in game, the steps 3 to 7 happen in less than 2 seconds. You just have to spam all your spells at your target and it will die.

Late game
In the late game, you should do the same combo as at level 6, but you add the 's active at the beginning, and it becomes an even more killer combo. Also, the damage from are less effective late game, so use it to stop your target from healing.

It should probably looks like this:

1. Farm your stun with and
2. Stun with
3. Cast the active from
4. Cast
5. Cast
6. Cast
7. Cast

Learn these combos and you will be feared in all the games you play, since Annie got a giant burst with all those spells.

Runes

Runes

Personally, I don't think there will be much disagreement on this part, since most casters will go for the runes I took. Here is my runes explanation anyway.

By the way, I really don't like the use of secondary runes, since the only one that migth worth it are ,, and , and in my opinion I think that Annie doesn't need any of those runes. The only one that wouldn't be so bad is , but i really don't think she needs more mana regen if you last hit proprely with disintegrate.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

I think it is obvious that those are the marks to take as a caster, since it is one of the best thing you can get for a caster, and they are primary so you know that you are not wasting anything. I don't think anything else would fit as good as those marks.

Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration

Mana regen seems obvious but if you don't use your mana that much, you could also go for or Greater Seal of Vitality, since mana regen doesn't directly affects Annie's performances. But i prefer to keep mana regen, to stay in lane longer, and harass with and .

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power

There are multiple choices for glyph, but i take because ability power is always good on Annie. The other runes you could want to take would be , because those runes allows you to spam your spells, and deal a ****load of damage. are also very good on Annie for the simple reason that her utli's cooldown is really long, and having it more often could help a lot.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

Ok, here you have three choices. You can take , or . Magic penetration is good, but you already have 15% from masteries, 8 or 9 from marks and 20 from boots, so in my opinion, you don't really need this. The health quint could also be good but if you micro properly, you shouldn't get hit a lot, and health shouldn't be a problem early game. So I really think that the best Quints to take are , because you need the ability power, and with the , your will hit 99 damage, which is awesome at level 1 imo.

Masteries

Masteries

Almost all the casters take these masteries, because it gives everything a caster would like to have : ability power, cooldown reduction, mana regen, mana, magic penetration. I don't think there is much to say about that, its obvious that any caster would want 9/0/21.

That's it for Masteries, nothing to elaborate on.

Summoner Spells

Summoner Spells

In this section, I will talk about all summoner spells that would be acceptable for Annie.

I usually always use and , since they are both really good at getting kills. is also very useful to flee when someone is chasing you, it will save your life really often. I think those summoner spells are the best from far for Annie, but in my opinion, a balanced team shouldn't never have too much s. I usually change my ignite for another summoner spell if there is 3 other s in the team, because a good diversification in summoner spells could win you the game. Here is the list of the other summoner spells that are acceptable for Annie.

It can be good if you have a really agressive play style, because you can harass your ennemy and never run out of mana

This spell is sooo great, but only use it if nobody has it on your team, since there are better options

Mobility is always great: allows you to flee or to catch people. Just like flash, this spell migth save your life plenty times if used proprely.

This spell is also really good, if you dont have to back too often, this spell will allow you to recall and come back with new items in less than 20 seconds. It is also good to gank, and to defend abandoned turrets that are getting overwhelmed by minions.

I don't think the other summoner spells worth it. The only one that wouldn't suck to bad would be , but its absolutely not your role to have this spell.

Core Items & Situational

Core Items

I know that the items shown at the beginning of the build seems strange because they don't give much ability power, and because i get a . But wait! Never forget that you want to survive as much as possible, to get feed. I often finish my games with 200-400 last hits(depending on how long they last), which means i have my items really early compared to other players who don't farm. I use that advantage to try to carry my team, by buying items that give me both survivability and damage.

P.S. I've watched a lot of pro streaming and videos, and if there is something that i learned, it is that s, s and s power own big times.
I saw the pros play, and everytime that they recall and that they dont have enough for one of their core items, they buy a doran's. I tried it and i had amazing results. Those items are amazing, lets take as an example. It gives health, mana regen and ability power: all things that a caster would want. the price it cost is really low, and it helps you to get more creeps killed, to get more kills, to survive more, and to stay in lane for longer because of the mana regen. I personally only buy two, because when i buy three, i sell the third one too fast for it to worth it. Having several can allow you to go for a fast without putting my life in danger, because of the 200 health.

Holy **** that ''P.S.'' was long

Another thing I learned is that is one of the item that everyone should get. It counters every Crowd Control or spell, and gives you magic resist ( which is good since most casters will focus on you first), and I think everybody should get one. I Personally like to go for it just after rabadon's, like you will see further.

Your item core should look something like this:

+++ Boots + 2x situational item

Having this item as one of your first item will make you deal extreme damage, and will give you an incredible farming ability.

This item is also great because it gives lot of things Annie would want, but try not to get it too late because it takes 10 minutes before it gets to it's full power

This item is awesome, gives ability power and adds an incredible active to your spell combo. It migth sound stupid but I try to get it as late as possible, because I want Kage's lucky pick to refund (it costs 765, and it gives 5gold/10seconds=30g/minute --> 765/30=25,5 --> after 25minutes and 30 seconds you bougth this item, it is like you never spent for it).

or
I normally always choose , since with blue aura, items and masteries, i already reach the cap of 40% cooldown reduction.

Of course, you don't have to follow that order, but I like to have several items in sight and to choose depending on the situation.

Situational Items

This is one of the items that can raise your ability power incredibly high, but i suggest you only buy if you are doing well early game, because if you dont, you lose 1235 gold for 20 ability power. If you plan on getting it, get it as soon as possible so you don't waste stacks, by killing people without have this item yet.

Buy this if you get killed easily, or if your enemies flee from your team easily. This staff makes all of you spells a CC, which is AWESOME!! Really cool item, but I usually get it like my last item.

If you buy Rod of Ages and Banshee's Veil, this staff will be great because you will have a lot of mana, but if you go with more survival or pure damage items, don't buy this.

Ability power, magic resist, magic penetration, enough said, this item is great. Do not forget the magic penetration is an aura so your allies will like you for this, too.

''Good from far, far from good'', only buy this item if all the ennemy team is buying magic resist, because 40% isn't good as it looks, unless they have tons of magic resist. (see void staff vs abyssal scepter)

This item shouldn't be in situational because it is so great and will save your life so many times, but i put it there anyway, in case the enemy team are all physical DPS.

I do not recommend this Item, because Annie isn't made to have armor, but in the case the enemy team are all DPS like i told in Banshee's Veil description, it might worth it to get it, since it gives good ability power and survivability against physical.

When i'm facing a very balance team (Tank, ad carry, ap carry, etc) and that i'm not doing bad for whatever reasons, , my complete build order looks like this:

1)
2)
3)
4) Kage's lucky pick
5) catalyst the protector
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

By the way, never forget to buy a ward and a potion everytime you recall, if you can.

Void Staff VS Abyssal Scepter

I have to warn you that i didn't make the maths in this part, i took them from the build ''Words on Magic penetration'', because i think everyone should know this because it helps a lot.

In summary, what this page says is that 40% magic penetration only worth it if your target has 75 magic resist or more. In other cases, abyssal scepter is way better. I also prefer abyssal scepter because the magic penetration it gives is not only for you, but for your allies too. Also, it gives good magic resist, which allows you to survive more in team battles.