I've ceased development of this guide. School and work are rough this semester, and League has been changing a bit too quickly for me to keep up with the guide. Therefore, this will be the last update.

If you're looking for good, up-to-date info on how to build Annie successfully, check out champion.gg! The site is automatically updated to show both the most used items on Annie as well as the items that yield the highest win rate. Take a look!

Thanks for all the support and feedback over the years. Happy gaming!

Welcome! My name is Devonfayr, and this is my guide for building Annie. I main Annie mid. As of 13 December 2015, I am Platinum IV. Feel free to check out my profiles.

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If you're looking for info about Annie's lore, stats, or skills, or if you want some basic tips on how to play her, click here.

Annie has high burst damage and a whole lot of stun potential. She's a high priority target for any team playing against her. A lot of Annie guides build innate tank stats (namely health) to guarantee that you survive longer in fights, but this sacrifices some of Annie's damage potential.

So, this guide is all about pure-damage. No defensive focus. Plan on building as much pure burst damage as possible, and position yourself well enough on the map to avoid any encounters that might make you wish you had more health.

Here are the core principles:

MAXIMIZE YOUR DAMAGE

Annie has some of the highest AP-scaling in the game, so she should be building a lot of high AP items.

Maximize the amount of damage that you do with each spell cast.

AVOID DANGER

Since Annie will be extra squishy with this build, you have to be at the top of your game if you're going to pull it off. Don't think that you're as tanky as a normal Annie would be; you'll be doing a lot more damage than a normal Annie, but at the cost of being easier to kill.

Be EXTRA careful in everything you do. Each mistake will likely cost you your life.

GREAT RISK

Even with some innate defense in Molten Shield, Annie is squishy. She gets focused often and dies quickly.

Be cautious. Ward, watch pings, and know what your opponents can do before you commit to a play.

GREAT REWARD

Annie does a lot of damage and has immense stun potential. Most of your stuns should guarantee kills, even if you're alone.

Use your power to win fights and secure objectives. Be the carry!

The runes I run depend on what game type I'm playing. I have a set for blind pick, and a variety of sets for draft.

BLIND PICK

When you don't know what you're up against, it's wise to take a mix of everything.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration helps you deal more damage. Generally stronger than AP marks.
Greater Seal of Scaling Health helps you survive fights, and works very well with your Molten Shield. I only recommend the defensive seals because the AP seals are underwhelming.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power buffs your late-game damage.
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed helps you setup friendly ganks, or escape ganks from enemies.

DRAFT PICK

When you're in draft pick, you typically know who you'll be laning against. Adjust your runes accordingly.

AGAINST MAGIC DAMAGE

When you're up against strong magic damage, it's wise to build magic resist.

Replace your default glyphs with Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

AGAINST PHYSICAL DAMAGE

When you're up against strong physical damage, it's wise to build armor.

Replace your default seals with Greater Seal of Armor or Greater Seal of Scaling Armor.

WHEN YOU'RE NOT ROAMING

If you think you'll have a hard time ganking for some reason, or if you would prefer an easier time farming with Q, bring some more AP.

Replace your default quints with Greater Quintessence of Ability Power.

AGAINST TANKS

When you're up against a team with a lot of innate MR, you're just not going to do that much burst damage to them. You'll want to build some tanky stats yourself, and then buy CDR and Liandry's Torment so that you can burn through their tanks' health with damage over time instead of burst.

Replace your default seals with Greater Seal of Armor or Greater Seal of Scaling Armor.
Replace your default glyphs with Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

BE FLEXIBLE

Remember to always have different rune pages set up to meet each situation. If you encounter a matchup that you can't handle, try making a new rune page to help you succeed in that type of scenario.

NOTE: These masteries were for Season 5. They are outdated, and since I have ceased development of the guide, I will not be updating them.

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I often adjust my masteries to help against specific lane opponents, but this is my standard set.

OFFENSE TREE

Take anything that will increase the magic damage you'll be dealing.

(1) Double-Edged Sword will make you deal AND take more damage. Play smart with this.
(4) Sorcery will allow you more spell casts, meaning more stuns.
(3) Mental Force will grant you some late game strength.
(1) Spell Weaving buffs your auto-attack > Q/W poke.
(1) Arcane Mastery will grant you some early game strength.
(3) Executioner will help you secure kills.
(3) Archmage will make your spells stronger.
(3) Devastating Strikes will help you eat through MR.
(1) Arcane Blade buffs your auto-attack poke.
(1) Havoc will make you deal more damage.

This should use up 21 mastery points. If you're not auto-attacking frequently, you might want to trade out Spell Weaving and Arcane Blade for Butcher and Feast to help with farming and lane sustain.

DEFENSE TREE

This build is all about damage. No defense is required.

UTILITY TREE

Annie relies heavily on her flash for fights, so we're definitely aiming to have all three points in Summoner's Insight .

(3) Fleet of Foot will grant you movement speed, which, in combination with all the other move speed this build offers, will make ganks, chases, and escapes super easy for you.
(3) Expanded Mind grants a small increase to your mana pool, helping you maintain a healthy supply of mana for early lane trades.
(3) Summoner's Insight will guarantee that you have flash up as often as possible. This is hugely important to a squishy Annie.

I definitely recommend changing these masteries around (or just having multiple pages) to fit your needs. You might have a 21/9/0 page handy, for example, in case you feel the need to be a little tankier.

Flash is your primary engage tool, and you'll be using it to catch enemies off-guard with your AOE stuns.

You might use flash once or twice in the early game to secure a kill or escape a gank, but in the mid and late game, you'll want to reserve your flash for surprise stun engages.

Flash is absolutely necessary on Annie. Don't leave champ select without it.

Ignite adds more damage to your already-powerful kit, and it helps secure important kills at all stages of the game.

ALTERNATIVES TO IGNITE

Exhaust is good when your lane opponent has a very high-damage burst combo.

Teleport is good if you're in top lane, or if you just want to have guaranteed map presence.

If you'd like, you can start the game with a point in Incinerate and charge a stun at base. An AOE stun is a boon in low-level skirmishes, and if no fights break out, you can use the stun to make your jungler's first camp easier.

I tend to start with Disintegrate because mid laners don't leash often in the new jungle, and Disintegrate is better than Incinerate for early-game farming and harassing.

For the rest of the game, focus on your Disintegrate for farming. Get Incinerate second for the additional damage. Get a point in Molten Shield sometime early to help you charge stuns and to make up for your lack of any other defense. Get Summon: Tibbers whenever you can.

Remember that this build is all about dealing tons of damage. You won't be tanky. These items are not necessarily the best picks for every situation, and they're certainly not a "Free Win" set. But if you want the most pure burst damage for your gold, this is how you get it.

CONSUMABLES AND EXPENDABLES

This list consists of anything you'll buy regularly but that isn't a part of your main six items.

Doran's Ring
I start every game with Doran's Ring. Since my runes are often set up to foster late-game strength, Doran's Ring is optimal because it grants a nice compensatory early-game power boost, along with some lane sustain.

Health Potion
Extra sustain in lane is clutch when you're buying time to reach late-time.

Stealth Ward
By far the best trinket for Annie. Knowing your enemy's location is key to netting free kills with stun into full combo.

Farsight Alteration
This will be invaluable for late-game when you need to check Baron and Dragon from a distance.

Elixir of Sorcery
The true damage from this is huge against tank teams and decent for attacking structures, but the small AP boost is nice, too.

Vision Ward
These are nice for clearing Dragon and Baron, and they're also useful in establishing safety for your jungler if they're getting invaded.

CORE ITEMS

These are the items that I build in every single game that I play pure-damage Annie. The last three items slots vary, but these three do not.

Luden's Tempest
This item is absolutely necessary on Annie, and not just because it grants immense power. Since Annie has no innate mobility, the movement speed it grants is almost required. This item is fantastic for making ganks, chases, and escapes easier, and the passive damage it deals is a strong bonus. This item should come before Deathcap.

Rabadon's Deathcap
This is the most important AP item in the game for Annie. It grants the most possible AP per item, meaning it allows Annie to deal more AOE damage than any other item in the game, and it buffs the AP you get from every other AP item. It should go without saying that this is Annie's most important core item. It would be first on the list, but Annie needs the mobility from Luden's Echo to chase / escape enemies, so Luden's Echo comes first.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
This item has a good passive on top of a very good damage boost. Having this is great for chasing and peeling, and it gives a decent health boost as well. The passive is the main reason I buy this item - the stats are just awesome bonuses.

AGAINST MR / AGAINST NO MR

You ALWAYS want some kind of MPEN item. I've run some damage calculations about when it's more effective to build Void Staff than it is to build Abyssal Scepter based on how much MR your opponent has. Basically, if you know your opponents will NOT go above 60 MR, get an Abyssal Scepter after your core items. If you know that most of them WILL go above 60 MR, get Void Staff after your core items.

Void Staff
This is typically reserved for after your opponents start building MR, but it is by far the best MPEN item in the game. Even when your opponents have very low (less than 60) MR, this item increases your damage more than every other MPEN item in the game. As soon as you see your opponents' MR pass that threshold, get Void Staff INSTEAD of Abyssal Scepter.

Abyssal Mask
This is good if the enemy team has very little MR, or if you're up against strong AP champs. It reduces the damage you take from them while increasing the damage you deal. As an added bonus, the item's MR reduction counts as an aura, so it'll benefit anyone else on your team who deals magic damage. However, the aura only works if you're close enough to your opponent, so be mindful of your opponents' spacing options when purchasing this item.

Since people almost always build MR against Annie, I tend to build Void Staff more frequently than I build Abyssal Scepter.

SITUATIONAL OFFENSE

The items listed above are the items I build most frequently on Annie, but they're not the only items that can be effective on her. Below are some alternatives that I build occasionally into my last item slots, depending on how much my game demands it, or if one of my regular items is not ideal for some reason.

Zhonya's Hourglass
This is the item I build most frequently to fill my last item slot. It grants more AP than any of the other alternatives. It also grants 2.5 second damage immunity, which can be very useful for getting out of tight spots.

Morellonomicon
I wish there were seven full item slots in the game, just so I could build Morellonomicon more often. It grants cooldown reduction on top of a decent damage boost. Its passive also lowers your opponents' healing potential immensely, to the point where it can shut an entire tank team down. This item is the answer to the problem of enemy tanks like Dr. Mundo and Volibear. Keep it in mind if you need more CDR than pure damage.

Liandry's Torment
This is a good choice when your opponents have a lot of health. Be warned: you'll deal slightly less burst damage if you buy this item instead of one of the recommended damage items, so don't buy it for the AP. Buy it when you need the passive.

Lich Bane
This item grants a decent AP boost along with an auto-attack buff that's based on AP. Since Annie has a ridiculously long auto-attack range, this item is a smart choice if you find yourself frequently mixing auto-attacks in with your spell casts, or if you're in a siege / poke comp instead of a hard engage comp.

Will of the Ancients
This item grants a decent AP boost, CDR, AND spell vamp. Since Annie is very squishy, she shouldn't ever survive long enough to be able to use the spell vamp. So this item is really only useful if they enemy team is killing you slowly, perhaps with damage over time, instead of quickly with burst.

SITUATIONAL DEFENSE

Rod of Ages
Let's face it: Annie is squishy. Her high-AP scaling makes it downright frustrating to use up an item slot on a tanky item instead of on a damaging one, but Rod of Ages manages to be a tank item AND a damage item at the same time. This item eliminates any mana problems Annie could possibly have while simultaneously boosting her AP AND her health. There's no better dual-purpose item in the game for Annie than Rod of Ages. Of all the situational items in this build, this is easily one of the items I buy most frequently, just because it's a strong pick in situations when you just NEED to have more health.

Guardian Angel
This item is good when you're super-fed and the enemies keep focusing you, but honestly, Zhonya's Hourglass is typically better because it accomplishes basically the same thing while also granting an immense power boost. Only get this if you NEED to be alive for your team to win.

Banshee's Veil
This is good when the enemy team has hard engages that you have a hard time dodging, like Amumu's ult or Ashe's ult. Buy it only when you're not confident in your ability to avoid CC. The build should provide enough mobility for Banshee's Veil to not be necessary.

Sunfire Aegis
If you find yourself in a game where pure damage just doesn't work, and you decide to go a little bit tanky, consider picking up a Sunfire Cape. If you have max cdr, you'll be throwing out stuns like crazy, and the more tank stats you have, the longer you'll be alive to keep stunning people. Sunfire Cape would just grant you some nice passive damage on top of your spell damage, but this should only even be CONSIDERED if you've already committed to being a tanky stun machine.

Thornmail
This is reserved exclusively for fed enemy ADCs. Or Master Yi. Or anyone who auto-attacks a lot, really. Just make sure you have a decent amount of health before you buy this item or you'll be dead before its passive really kicks in anyway. This works nicely with Ninja Tabi.

BOOT OPTIONS

I wholeheartedly recommend Sorcerer's Shoes OR Ionian Boots of Lucidity most of the time, but there are some extreme cases where these two just aren't the best options.

Sorcerer's Shoes
These don't increase your damage by much against tanks (the more MR a target has, the less effective MPEN is), but they're the only tier two boots that directly increase magic damage, and against squishy targets, they actually boost your damage by quite a bit. Buy these if you're up against an entire team of people with very little MR.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
If pure burst isn't working, or if your opponents have a lot of MR, these boots are better than Sorcerer's Shoes. The CDR helps you stun targets more frequently, allowing your team to deal more damage overall. Building these instead of Sorcerer's Shoes will cut your damage slightly, but since they lower the cooldown of your Flash, they're almost always worth it.

Mercury's Treads
These are reserved for when the enemy team has a LOT of hard CC that you have a tough time avoiding. If you find the enemy is stacking stuns on you, you should probably invest in some Mercury's Treads.

Ninja Tabi
Like Thornmail, this item is almost exclusively reserved for when an enemy AD auto-attack champ gets fed. It's not a strong buy on a pure-damage Annie, so I can't really recommend it, but it has saved my butt against all AD teams on occasion.

ENCHANTMENT OPTIONS

Enchantment: Alacrity
This is good if the enemy champions are fast and you're having a hard time catching them, or if you're fighting away from base a lot, or if you're ganking frequently.

Enchantment: Distortion
This is good if you rely on your Flash plays, or if you just like having Flash up as often as possible.

ADAPT TO WIN

Don't build the same six items every game and expect to hit challenger. Be willing to adapt to each match. Build items that counter your opponents. And get used to changing your playstyle to fit the items that you build.

The most important thing to remember about this build is that you're going to do immense amounts of damage, but you're going to be VERY squishy. Your survival is going to depend entirely upon your map awareness, your communication with your teammates, your ability to accurately assess risks, and your raw skill. Remember:

Be cautious. Ward, watch pings, and know what your opponents can do before you commit to a play.

Use your power to win fights and secure objectives. Be the carry!