Anivia is a utility mage best when soaring above Mid lane and is a late game monster. She specializes in locking down opponents with her 3 full forms of CC so that both she and her teammates can blast them down. However, Anivia is one of the highest skillcap champions to play, and as such, may not be for everyone.

Who Am I?

I'm Dorryza, a Diamond player on NA. I enjoy playing primarily mid, but I also like ADC. I got where I am mostly by playing Anivia, and seeing as I love my ice birdie so much, I thought I might share how I play her with everyone else here on Mobafire.

Pros and Cons So Why Birdie? Great Utility with three full forms of CC Amazing Damage, especially in mid and late game Decently Tanky High Auto Attack Range Nigh-infinite Waveclear with Glacial Storm Game-changing Abilities such as Crystallize Rebirth is quite possibly the best passive in the game

Why Not Birdie? Low Mobility Weak Pre-6 due to reliance on the hard-to-hit Flash Frost Obscene Mana Costs due to her Ult Crystallize can Backfire if used incorrectly Damage relies on comboes Hard to CS with due to a clunky auto attack animation

The Big Two:

Flash is essential for Anivia. For a champion with no movement abilities and the lowest movement speed in the entire game, the ability to suddenly re-position is priceless. Try to avoid using it in lane if you can, as jungler will camp you if you use it too early.

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Ignite is great for a burst mage like Anivia. Sometimes, you need that tiny little edge for a bit more damage to an enemy, and Ignite is a nice finisher. It even halves healing so you don't need to worry about that last HP pot in the middle of the fight! Nice! That being said, it isn't as essential as Flash is- therefore, if you're going to change up summoner spells, get rid of Ignite first.

Other Viable Options:

Heal is now super-strong after the rework. It can give you that extra bit of HP to win a fight, or a nice burst of speed to get out of a tight spot. However, a lot of its power is the fact that it can also help an ally. Also, most mid laners carry Ignite, halving its effectiveness. Therefore, if I was to choose another defensive summoner, I would choose-

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Barrier gives you a pretty significant shield. It's nice because it can "overflow" your HP bar- if you're about to get nuked terribly, but are still full HP, such as if Syndra is about to use her Unleashed Power, Barrier will help you, while Heal won't. Heal also gets affected by Grievous Wounds, which halves all healing, inflicted by Ignite, which most Mid Laners carry. It has better base stats in general. Lastly, Barrier is on a shorter cooldown.

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Teleport is viable for Anivia. What she does is simply annihilate the minions with Glacial Storm and then teleport to a lane (usually bot lane) in hopes of getting a kill. Anivia's TP ganks are actually pretty strong- she has some great CC, nice damage, and the wall can be used to help your allies close the gap. Lastly, if you cast teleport and get Rebirth'd, your egg will still teleport. Hilarious when that Zed engages on you!

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In case you need to keep that extreme damage-dealer down but you can't stun them reliably. I can see Exhaust being viable against mobile champions such as Zed or Yasuo where it's pretty obvious when they're going to do damage, but you just can't stun those slippery bastards.

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You know that mobility problem that I was talking about? Ghost is capable of fixing that. I would still hesitate to take it, however, seeing as other spells (primarily Heal) can do much of what Ghost does, while still helping in other departments. Honestly, the only reason it makes it up to the "kinda viable" list is because Anivia is so gut-wrenchingly slow.

The Standard Build:

As a burst mage that heavily relies upon either slowing or stunning an enemy to start a combo, Arcane Comet feels almost built for Anivia. Not only is the damage almost guaranteed if she lands Flash Frost, but it also deals AoE damage to further strengthen Anivia's capability of dealing damage to multiple enemies at the same time. Even even if she doesn’t land Flash Frost, activating it with Glacial Storm is still surprisingly hard to dodge. Arcane Comet is just all-around, the clearest match with Anivia's kit.

Let's face it- Anivia has a massive mana problem. Before she manages to build her first mana items, she’ll be struggling to cast spells. Additionally, she has issues maintaining effectiveness during long sieges, as each engagement will chew up mana reserves like no other. This mastery is a great way to deal with that issue- not only can she occasionally toss out Flash Frosts in lane without bankrupting your mana bank within minutes, it also restores %mana every use, which is great news for a bird that almost always builds Rod of Ages and Seraph's Embrace.

I found this group of mastery skills to all be somewhat unattractive, to be completely honest. None of them really stood out as good. Transcendence seems to me the least mediocre, though- more spells available means higher damage output, as well as more utility through Crystallize and Flash Frost.

Most people would be surprised that I don't choose Gathering Storm here. I prefer Scorch, which is admittedly a very early-game mastery- seemingly questionable when put onto a decidedly late-game champion. The reason I use it, however, is because people don't expect Anivia to put out that much damage- if she can land literally a single Flash Frost, Scorch, in addition to Arcane Comet and Cheap Shot can deal almost 2/3 of an enemy's HP bar, right there. That early-game threat can help generate space, and perhaps even get a surprise upset kill or two. Gathering Storm just helps Anivia win harder in late game, which Scorch helps her get to that late game in the first place.

Cheap Shot is another one of those abilities that just synergizes surprisingly well with Anivia's kit. Almost every time she deals significant damage, she's impairing the movement of the enemy champion she's targeting, either through Glacial Storm's slow or Flash Frost's stun, before tagging them with another ability (usually Frostbite). That means that every time she’s dealing damage, Cheap Shot activates- which is actually a pretty significant chunk of damage. Additionally, Cheap Shot can be activated every 4 seconds. Due to her varied forms of CC, as well as the fact that she naturally wants to rotate spells or keep enemies trapped inside a Glacial Storm for that amount of time anyways for a multiple empowered Frostbites, Anivia is often already meeting the requirements for activating Cheap Shot more than once in a fight. In my opinion, it's simply too good to not take.

I personally really like Zombie Ward. Keeping enough vision in mid lane is always a perpetual challenge, as the lane itself has so many approach angles, but you only get the trinket and control ward to cover a few of them. Zombie Ward essentially adds 3 minutes to the duration of your wards, which really helps in keeping vision up in early game when your wards last for what feels like seconds.

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Honorable Mentions

While Summon Aery has been nerfed significantly, there is still a niche use for it for Anivia. As the Aery activates not only on abilities but also on auto attacks, it could be used for a bird that’s very focused on auto-attacking rather than using Flash Frost + Frostbite combos in early game. However, as this mastery would most of the time simply provide less damage than Arcane Comet, I simply wouldn’t take this mastery on Anivia outside of very specific matchups where she’ll be auto-attack harassing a lot, and not doing much else.

Nullifying Orb is essentially the active effect from Hexdrinker- take a lot of damage, and automatically get a shield that absorbs magic damage. The problem is, Manaflow Band is so incredibly useful for Anivia that I’m reluctant to swap off for it, but I could see certain match-ups ( LeBlanc, perhaps Syndra) where I would be willing to at least consider it. I would probably rather swap Ignite to Barrier over taking Nullifying Orb. However, there’s some times when she simply needs both Barrier in addition to Nullifying Orb, so it definitely worth considering.

4% movespeed is situationally useful, but not really that huge in my opinion. Celerity is mainly being considered because I frankly don’t really like Transcendence all that much, to be completely honest. I would mainly consider this into dodgeball lanes where I’d have to constantly dodge skillshots- think Ziggs, Lux, or Xerath.

Again, I don’t like Transcendence all that much, so Absolute Focus also gets a mention. It’s somewhat questionable - I don’t really like the requirement that I have to be above 70% HP, because I feel like that almost never happens. No one is ever full HP in early game due to standard trading, and Anivia is frankly a shorter-ranged mage liable to being poked down in the late game. That being said- extra damage is extra damage, and if Anivia can land that combo when she’s full, the enemy will definitely feel it.

While I do prefer Scorch’s early game power, there is something to be said for Gathering Storm. If Anivia can stall out to 50+ minutes, the amount of AP this gives her gets to be absolutely insane. I’d consider this in match-ups where there’s unlikely to be early fights or kills, and the lane is likely to simply lapse into a farm lane. Malzahar and Ekko both come to mind. Anivia can’t really go aggressive on them (because Malzahar has his shield passive and Ekko is Ekko), but they can’t really go aggressive on her either. In that case, a mastery totally built for late-game dominance starts to look a bit more attractive.

The effective replacement of Thunderlord’s, Electrocute is honestly not terribly difficult to activate for Anivia. The main issue is that whenever she’d effectively activate it, she’d also probably land the hit of Arcane Comet- and while I’m not terribly fond of Transcendence, I’m even more skeptical of the [ Ravenous Hunter/ Relentless Hunter/ Ingenious Hunter ] set, all of which totally suck for Anivia.

A good alternative to Cheap Shot is Taste of Blood. This mastery heals you every time you damage an enemy champion, on a 20 second cooldown. It's amazing for trading in laning phase. This effectively means is that you win any auto-attack trade really hard, because you heal back almost half of the damage dealt to you, while dealing damage to the enemy laner - and remember, Anivia's auto attack range is huge, allowing you to potentially poke and get HP back without even taking any damage in return. Additionally, the healing can help you survive in lanes that are focused on trying to force you out of lane. I still prefer Cheap Shot because of the synergy with Anivia's kit, and because Taste of Blood is useless past laning phase, but it's definitely something to consider.

The most hilarious, and quite possibly the strongest, passive in the game, Rebirth has a long cooldown but is completely worth it. Essentially, if you drop to 0 HP, you turn into an egg. Then, if it survives for the next 6 seconds, you are revived with the amount of HP that the egg had left. It's great for surviving that last tick of ignite after a heated battle in mid lane, or baiting an enemy turret-dive. Your opponents also have a hard choice in a teamfight- do they burst you down twice, completely ignore you, or burst you down once, chase the ADC, and then deal with a full-health, angry bird? Advanced Rebirth Notes: Notes: Your egg is extraordinarily squishy- it actually has negative armor and MR early in the game. While one person might not be able to burst it down, they'll certainly chunk it significantly, and two people will definitely take you out. Your best bet is to get some protection if you're going to get egged- try to get your jungler to bodyguard it, and don't be afraid to flash under tower so that it can protect your egg.

Flash Frost is Anivia's stun. It is a line skillshot that can be detonated at any time for extra damage and a stun. While it has the dubious honor of being the slowest skillshot in the entire game, it does have a large radius, high range, CC, and ludicrous damage when leveled. Advanced Frost Flash Notes: It applies the "Chilled" debuff, meaning that hitting your opponent with Flash Frost and immediately following up with Frostbite is an extremely high-damage nuke- this combo is your primary damage source pre-6. Note that this chilled debuff only occurs when the spell is detonated- you cannot simply let the Flash Frost pass through and still get a double damage Frostbite anymore. It does damage and slows upon passing through a target, as well as after detonating, meaning that an ideal combo would be to allow Flash Frost to pass through the target before detonating it, dealing double damage. Lastly, its detonation radius is slightly larger than its skillshot radius, meaning that there are instances when your opponent can dodge the skillshot, but the detonation will still hit them. You can also detonate early if you really need the stun, such as interrupting Requiem, Destiny, Teleport, or Death Lotus.

Anivia's "play-making" skill, using Crystallize instantly spawns a wall whose size depends on level. The intricacies of this spell are far too varied for me to be able to explain in this short area and Crystallize warrants a section of its own. So, check it out by scrolling down or clicking me!

Her main damage spell, Frostbite is fairly straightforward. At first glance, it seems relatively average- Mediocre range, targeted, hits like wet tissue paper. However, if you use it after you debuff an opponent with Chill by pegging them with Glacial Storm or Flash Frost, its damage suddenly doubles. As a result, you should pretty much always use this ability along with another one- never use it alone. Advanced Frostbite Notes: It should be noted that Chill is technically considered a CC. Therefore, Frostbite cannot do double damage to enemies that cannot be CC'd. The result of this is that Anivia does depressingly low damage to Olaf using Ragnarok or Master Yi using Highlander. Chill can also be Cleansed, and Quicksilver Sash and Mikael's Blessing actives will remove it. In a special exemption, Chill is applied to both Baron Nashor and Dragon, which means that Frostbite can do double damage to both targets. Lastly, the "Chill" is specific to Anivia only. There used to be cross-champion interactions (namely, Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow), but Riot removed them. =(

This is it. Anivia's waveclear button. It's what sets up most of those double damage Frostbites. It's one of the lowest CD ults in the game. It's also the sole reason why Anivia is the most mana hungry champ in the entire game. What Glacial Storm does is create a circular zone that expands the longer it's kept up. Enemies within that zone have their attack speeds and movement speeds slowed, and also take damage while they remain in that zone- these effects increase as the storm grows larger. Starting it has some up-front mana costs, and it can be maintained for as long as you have the mana for it, or until you stop casting it (either toggled off, move too far away, or CC'd). Advanced Glacial Storm Notes: Because of the fact that Glacial Storm only provides the Chill debuff after it reaches full size, the instant E+R combo no longer exists. Instead, you only use Frostbite after the storm reaches full size. Glacial Storm now deals an absurd amount of damage every moment you can keep an enemy inside of it, especially if the storm is max size. The hard part is keeping enemies inside- fortunately, you have great CC tools such as Crystallize and Flash Frost to force the issue. It's now quite viable to use the storm in its own right to deal tons of damage, rather than just a Frostbite damage multiplier! Don't forget that one of Glacial Storm's greatest strengths is zone control. Using Glacial Storm, especially in conjunction with Crystallize, can split up enemy teams and allow you to destroy them piecemeal. Sure, you might not be dealing any damage- but if you can turn a 4v4 into a 2v3 by preventing your opponents from entering a fight, it can oftentimes be worth it. Also don't underestimate the slows, both Attack speed and Movement speed, that Glacial Storm provides. The movement speed can either allow you or your team to catch an opponent, while it can also slow down enemies enough to let you get a clean escape. Meanwhile, the Attack Speed slow can damp down the damage that some mids that rely on auto attacks do, such as Orianna or Kayle. In a teamfight, using Glacial Storm on an enemy ADC like Jinx can really take down their damage output. Deactivating Glacial Storm also provides an extra tick of damage. Be sure to deactivate it right before the last minion dies to save on some mana, or deactivate right when your opponent walks out to get that extra bit of damage out on him/her. Lastly, anything that forcibly moves Anivia can interrupt her channeling of Glacial Storm. Movement speed impairments such as slows like Command: Dissonance, roots like Twisted Advance, or snares like Bola Strike, as well as taunts like Shadow Dash or Charm, are the only things that don't. Therefore, things like Vi's Vault Breaker, Diana's Moonfall, Rammus's Powerball, or Kassadin's Null Sphere all interrupt the ult.

Your general skill order is > > >

There are two main level paths for Anivia.

The main level path is: Getting a second level in Flash Frost instead of one level in Crystallize at level four really helps in trading. You want to level up Frostbite first, as it'll be your main damage spell the moment you hit level 6. Get one rank in Crystallize at level 8 to ensure that you can both help your team in mid-game with CC, as well as giving you additional kill potential with forcing your opponents into a Flash Frost, or keeping them in Glacial Storm.

On the other hand, if you're against a relatively immobile but long range mage such as Lux or Xerath, you can get Crystallize at level 4. You wouldn't be able to hit them easily with just Flash Frost due to how far away they are- however, using Crystallize to force them into a guaranteed Flash Frost is a combo that does a lot of damage, yet is extremely hard to react to. As such, the level sequence in this case is:
Note that these level-up paths are not set in stone. A early level in Crystallize can ruin a Fizz who used both his teleports to dive you under tower, and an extra level in Flash Frost can provide just that extra bit of damage damage to win trades against that Ziggs. It's quite simply, personal preference.

It should also be noted that if there is a lot of jungle pressure, from either side, I would get Crystallize at level 4. The extra CC provided by the wall might just be enough for you to catch out the enemy mid laner, or for you to escape to the safety of your tower.

Accidentally clicked on me? Done with this section? Click here to return to the "Skills" section!

This one spell is what both makes Anivia one of the hardest champions in the game, as well as what makes Anivia Anivia. It's an ability whose versatility is almost unmatched, and I'll be talking about Crystallize in four different sections:

• Engages; where you use Crystallize to start a fight
• Disengages; where you use Crystallize to stop a fight that's already in progress
• Peels; where you use Crystallize to stop an enemy from getting to an ally (or yourself)
• Other; where I talk about all the other myriad ways Anivia can use Crystallize, and give some general tips

Note that in this section, I have some color coded lines, arrows, and circles in my pictures.
Blue ---->s indicate the direction in which I use Flash Frost.
Red ---->s show where my opponents are planning on walking.
Green -~~->s show my opponents' new pathing after Crystallize.
And Orange Circles show the approximate area where Flash Frost hits my opponents.

Forces:

Pathing in LoL works in a very specific way; the computer analyzes the shortest distance between Point A (yourself) and Point B (your destination) constantly- if it decides that a different route is better, it corrects to that route instantaneously by human standards. Since Crystallize creates an impassible wall that changes the optimal route from Point A to Point B, you can abuse pathing and use Crystallize to make your opponent go in a direction which they don't expect, typically right into one of your spells, like the hard to hit Flash Frost. This is called a force.

Catches:

Every level of Crystallize can fully block off many jungle paths, and higher ranks can also block off a significant portion of the lane. This allows you to use Crystallize to block off the retreat of an out-of-position enemy, either starting a fight (or a slaughter, if you catch a lone Kog'Maw), or finishing one off by not allowing the last few survivors of a fight to flee. This differs from a force because you're not walling with the intention of hitting a spell, but stopping their retreat, which allows you (and oftentimes, teammates) to catch up and kill the out-of-position opponent. This type of wall is called a catch.




No team or person will play perfectly 100% of the time, and there will be times when you/the tattered remnants of your team will be fleeing for your lives against five angry full-health enemies. As Anivia, you could slow them with Glacial Storm and stun them with Flash Frost. Or, you could force them to walk around a gigantic ice wall!




In the middle of a fight/duel, you will occasionally have someone (typically melee) running towards someone you typically don't want them to reach, like a fleeing low-health team member, or that ubersquishy Kog'Maw. Oftentimes, a well-placed Crystallize will stop them right in their tracks, allowing that low person to escape, or that Kog'Maw to spit on everything without interruption and roflstomp entire enemy teams.

The line between a disengage and a peel is thin, but generally speaking, a disengage is when you want the fight to stop, while a peel wants the fight to continue, but with additional time/distance for the person that is being peeled to refresh cooldowns or auto attack more, respectively.

The Basics:

• Use already-existing terrain to your advantage! Especially applicable to Level one Crystallize, but still relevant at later ranks, using wall in conjunction with terrain features such as the little gap between outer/inner turrets and the wall, that protrusion at river into mid lane, and narrow jungle paths just makes Crystallize be more effective.
• Level one Crystallize can be used to effectively block off most jungle paths and entrances.
• Be warned that using Crystallize to fully wall-off jungle creeps such as Blue Buff is no longer effective. While partially blocking their pathing to create additional time is still a viable strategy, due to the new patience system, fully walling off creeps simply means that they will start regenerating HP likely before you can kill them.
• Crystallize used to give vision, but no longer does. No more face-checking bushes with wall.
• Wall also does exactly one true damage to an enemy if put right on them. While this can give long range assists, it can also accidentally proc. tower aggro. Plan accordingly.
• Crystallize is capable of interrupting channels such as Death Lotus, Requiem, or Destiny.
• ***NEW*** Her wall now interacts with abilities that check with terrain. Basically, you can use Crystallize to combo with Vayne's Condemn, Poppy's Heroic Charge, Bard's Cosmic Binding, and Gnar's ult (heave thing) GNAR!.

Advanced Tips:

• One of the most effective walls is "The Pincer"- where you try to get as close to a horizontal wall as you can get. This is extremely effective because it forces an opponent to backtrack instead of just walking sideways.
  Example:
  
  The Pincer

  
  The green path is significantly longer than the red, allowing me to catch up to Shaco and get a kill.
  
• As Crystallize does take up space, targets that you place it on will be slightly displaced. If you're fast enough, you can use this to push enemies into slow-moving skillshots like Aqua Prison, or even into the fish for Chum the Waters!.
• If your target is just past the max range of the wall, consider using the wall at an angle. It won't be as effective as a flat wall, but it might just slow down your opponent enough for you to get in range for a Glacial Storm or Flash Frost.
• A properly timed Crystallize can stop dashes in their tracks. If the wall is already placed when the dash begins, then the dash will clear the wall. However, if you use the wall AFTER the dash begins, the dash does not clear the wall. I've personally confirmed this with abilities such as Jarvan IV's Dragon Strike+ Demacian Standard combo, Vault Breaker, 90 Caliber Net, and Bandage Toss.
• A properly timed and placed wall can even interrupt both Sion's ultimate (as he slams into the wall instead of you), as well as Bard and his friends mid- Magical Journey!

The difference between a decent Anivia and an amazing one is how they utilize their walls. Don't be discouraged if you mess up the first couple of times- it does take a lot of practice before you get it right.

The Doran's Ring provides a nice health and AP boost, allowing for more effective trading early game. It also gives flat mana regen along with that useful passive, ensuring that Anivia does not run out of mana during early game. Seeing as it provides almost anything a mage needs during laning phase, this will be what you buy the majority of the time. Make sure to get health potions for sustain within the lane. And don't forget about your free trinket ward!

Alternate Starts:

The Cloth Armor start allows you to rush Seeker's Armguard or Ninja Tabi against those pesky AD laners. Do remember, however, that starting this isn't necessarily optimal- you lose out on a lot of potential mana regen and other combat stats. This choice is mainly for very defensive, passive play, where you're worried less about winning lane and more about simply not dying. Don't forget to get as many Health Potions as you can, as well as your trinkets.

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The Boots start is viable against skillshot-heavy champions such as Lux. The boots provide additional movespeed as to ensure better dodging of skillshots. Make sure to grab four Health Potions as well.

Catalyst of Aeons helps scratch that mana itch that Anivia has. It provides nice stats, and has a great passive that helps you stay in lane even under heavy pressure. With the changes to Chalice of Harmony, this should now always be bought first.

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I'll be completely honest- I hate that I have to do this, but the gutting of Athene's Unholy Grail means that Chalice of Harmony is no longer viable for Anivia. The next best thing is Tear of the Goddess. Buy this before Catalyst of Aeons if possible, as the earlier you get it, the faster you can stack up mana. Also note that not only will you be squishy and lose out on trading potential in mid game, but you will also need blue buff now to stay in lane longer than a couple of minutes. However, the early-mid game power slump will be more than recovered when you grab your Seraph's Embrace in the long run, as the mana shield gets you out of sticky situations, while the AP gained from the mana of both Rod of Ages and Seraph's Embrace will allow Anivia to bulldoze through almost any health pool.

Other possible early game items:

Seeker's Armguard is rather situational for Anivia- early game, she needs as much mana as she can get her hands on, and this doesn't give her any. It is, however, extremely efficient if you can charge it up, meaning that this is very viable against AD mids like Zed or Talon.

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Grabbing a Lost Chapter early is tempting, as the mana regen per level up is really useful in lane and you will end up needing to build one for Archangel's Staff eventually. However, it's simply too important to first grab a Tear of the Goddess and then finish the Rod of Ages very quickly, as you need to start stacking them both ASAP. This might be worth considering if you have no blue buff control (or if your jungler simply isn't giving blues to you) but in most cases, I would only build this after I've finished the Rod of Ages.

Rod of Ages is just perfect for Anivia. Everything that it provides is extremely useful to her- the health is great because she's relatively close-range, and it even beefs up her egg; the mana is mandatory; and the AP is great for an AP mid like her. Its passive also gives you great sustain within lane. Due to the nature of the item (it gets stronger the longer it's in the game), if you're going to get it, you want to buy it as early as possible. However, if you're ahead, you could skip it to get more damage faster.

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If an AP caster doesn't have Rabadon's Deathcap, (s)he's doing something wrong. It provides not only a huge boost of AP, but also amplifies your existing AP. After getting this, your damage should skyrocket.

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You should also have Sorcerer's Shoes by now. The magic Penetration is great, and the movespeed is nice for both dodging and getting to (and fleeing from) teamfights. However, this is much more situational- there are games when I get boots before Athene's Unholy Grail, and games when I get it after finishing Rabadon's Deathcap. However, there will be certain match-ups (such as Veigar) where you'll want to grab Mercury's Treads instead.

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The logical extension of Tear of the Goddess for Anivia. It provides the mana that the bird needs to sustain those Glacial Storms. The extra AP from mana that also comes from Rod of Ages is quite welcome as well. And that shield can really save your bacon, especially since you have to get so close to use Frostbite.

A must have- Void Staff provides not only a decent amount of AP, but also a huge amount of %Magic Penetration. It's just the thing to deal with those pesky MR-stacking enemies in the late game.

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This item feels made for Anivia. A bit more tankiness, some extra AP, and increased damage the longer a fight lasts, which synergizes very well with Anivia's lower-ranged but CC-packed kit. And you can't forget about that amazing %hp burn. The burn that does double damage if the target is slowed. Did we mention that Glacial Storm is a large AOE slow that Anivia excels at keeping enemies in?

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While Morellonomicon grants a decent chunk of stats like AP, health, and Magic Penetration, the main reason to buy it is for the healing reduction on Anivia. However, because she needs both Rod of Ages and Seraph's Embrace maintain that mana bar, Anivia doesn't have very much extra item space at all, and outside of specialized cases, she tends to get more mileage out of building Liandry's Torment and Void Staff after the Rabadon's Deathcap. Only buy this against, say, a Dr. Mundo or Vladimir when no one else can (or will) buy healing reduction; otherwise,you'll generally be better off buying something else.

Not only does Zhonya's Hourglass provide a very respectable amount of AP, but it also gives armor for survivability, and that great activate. It's like Trollpole, but you don't feel dirty just for playing Fizz. A win/win if I ever saw one.

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Unfortunately, the mana got removed from Banshee's Veil, but the shield is still gamebreaking. The extra health and MR are also amazing for a bird that has to be on the front lines constantly. Consider buying against people like LeBlanc or Akali.

Warding and Trinkets:

This will typically be the trinket that you start out with, as well as the trinket that you stick with as the game goes on. As it is now the only source of wards, barring the Sightstone, it's typically required in laning phase in order to help stave off early game jungle ganks, as well as to help gain map control in mid and late game.

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This particular totem choice is rather situational. You typically want to get this only when a troublesome member of the enemy team has stealth. Consider this against enemies such as Akali or Talon.

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Serving much of the purpose of Control Wards, the Farsight Alteration is best used to either maintain control of an area that you can lock down, or get vision of something far away you need to see right now (such as Baron Nashor). When it comes to the vision wars that teams oftentimes fight, however, the plain old Stealth Ward, by virtue of stealth, is oftentimes a greater investment, as it requires an enemy to expend either a Control Ward or one of the detection trinkets to destroy it (assuming they can even find it), as opposed to any member of the enemy team simply walking up and hitting it. Situationally useful, but you should never have more than one on a team.

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Because of the changes to the warding and trinket system in the new season, in early and mid game, it is impossible for the trinket alone to cover both sides of mid lane, not to mention the multiple entrances for each side. Therefore, ensuring that a pink ward is placed at any given time (past the first back, that is), has become absolutely essential. Good places for Control Wards are the little bush in the middle of the river on each side of the lane. If those spots are being regularly cleared by the enemy mid laner or jungler, consider placing it slightly farther back- in the small section of brush closer to your side of the map, or the bushes directly to the sides of mid lane. You can then use the Stealth Ward to make sure the other side of the jungle is also in sight. It should also be noted that these are also very useful against characters that use stealth, like Talon or Akali.

I classify "Early Game" as levels 1-6, when everyone just stays in their lanes and glares at each other from their respective towers. Anivia's goal in early game is to CS better than your opponent, gain levels, and not die- if you're handed a kill on a silver platter, take it by all means, but that's not what you're here for. This is because, pre-6, Anivia is actually quite weak. While a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo does do a large amount of damage early game, Flash Frost is relatively easy to dodge, leaving you completely helpless to enemy harass or all-ins.

However, just CSing is also hard too, because Anivia's auto attack not only does little damage, but is also slow, both in the particle (though Riot buffed this a bit), and also in the animation.

But it's not all bad. A slow projectile speed, along with an absurdly high auto attack range ( Annie is the only standard mid to outrange Anivia) makes auto attack harass a breeze, as you can attack, and immediately retreat, negating creep aggro and, if you're feeling gutsy, turret aggro. It's also hard for opponents to retaliate, as if they walk directly towards you to counterattack, they just eat a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo to the face.

Therefore, your best bet is to harass your opponents with auto attacks. Keep in mind that if you have to choose between harrassing them once or getting a minion, the minion takes priority, as Anivia is one of the hardest-scaling AP mids in the game. If your opponent is being predictable and going forward for a minion, and you can hit a Flash Frost, be sure to hit them with a Frostbite as well as an auto attack to maximize your damage before falling back- just be careful that you're not being baited by a mobile champion that can take advantage of you like Fizz or Zed by dodging your q and going to town on you.

I classify Mid game as the time when everyone stays in their lane most of the time, but occassionally roams/rotates. It tends to be level 6-11ish. This part of the game is one of Anivia's strongest.

Access to waveclear means that she can push the lane hard when your lane partner leaves. Blue buff and mana items mean that you can farm Raptors for extra gold with impunity, while being able to buy boots allows you to roam decently. Having Glacial Storm also allows you to use your Frostbite much more easily, as you're not immediately blowing your only hard CC every time you want to trade.

This portion of the game results in many haphazard, running teamfights, and Anivia excels at this. She can lock down an area with Glacial Storm or Crystallize and not let anyone join the teamfight. Alternatively, she could use Crystallize and catch an unorganized team member off guard. Also, the unpredictability of the teamfights highlights yet another one of her benefits- her ult is always up, in stark contrast to most other mids' ults, which often have cooldowns of over one minute. More teammates also means more bodies to stand bodyguard in front of your egg.

However, not everything is perfect. Additional enemies means that an exposed egg will die every time. Your low, low mobility will mean that you could get caught out easily, or chased down at the tail end of a losing teamfight. Other enemies have greater sheer nuking power with higher cooldown ultimates. And mana will become a precious commodity to you- try to get Blue buff from your jungler every time it's up, because you need it to clear waves and fight effectively, at least until your mana items kick in.

Late game is when people stop really caring about lanes and start roaming in teams with the intention of getting kills or objectives. At this point in the game, Anivia is a downright powerhouse and I would venture to say that she is the hardest AP Carry in the game.

Right now, you have three main jobs, in varying order:

• Kill enemies, especially squishies like ADCs or Mids
• Peel for yourself and your ADC
• Catch out enemies, allowing your team to pounce on them, and then forcing a 4v5 fight.

The order of this differs based on the team that you have, the team that your opponents have, and the relative farm of all parties involved. For example, if you're 0/4 but your fed Kog'Maw is 10/2, you're going to want to focus completely on peeling for him. On the other hand, if your 0/7 Lucian gets caught by Skarner yet again, you're going for the exposed Jinx instead of saving him.

Similarly, if your enemies are extremely mobile- say, Kassadin and Ezreal- you shouldn't focus so much on catching them with Crystallize, because they'll just Riftwalk or Arcane Shift over it, respectively. On the other hand, if they're relatively immobile, such as Kog'Maw or Brand, catching them out with wall will either force a flash, give your team a free kill, or force a unfavorable teamfight for the enemy.

Because of Anivia's great AP scaling (a full 1 AP:damage ratio for both Flash Frost and Frostbite), she's putting out some ludicrous damage. Her Crystallize can catch out people with ease, even in lane, due to how large it is- and those people tend to die when there's 5 angry team members whaling on them. Flash Frost, while slow, does have a rather long range and explosion radius- Stunning an enemy ADC at max range can be done if they come up to CS or harass at a bad time, and can result in a favorable engagement for your team.

Remember that Anivia's CC is just as strong, if not stronger, than her raw damage output. Landing a stun on the enemy ADC is a full second of them not attacking, which could be essential in a teamfight. Separating an enemy team with Crystallize within a teamfight can be devastatingly effective. And try to make sure that your Glacial Storm affects as many people as possible, for as long as possible- its damage is nice, but the attack speed and movement speed slow are essential for both peeling that pesky Jax off your fleeing Kog'Maw, or making sure you win that DPS fight against that enemy Jinx.

6/10

Ahri Ahri is actually quite similar to Anivia pre-6. She has to get relatively close in to get her full combo off (otherwise, her Fox-Fires hit minions), and she loses trades unless she hits one, clutch, hard to hit skillshot ( Charm). She has some benefits over you, though. Her Passive, Essence Theft, also gives her an annoying amount of sustain in lane. Her Orb of Deception is also more effective at pushing and harassing than your Flash Frost at this point in the game. Firstly, don't let het get free passive procs. For it to really be effective (as she's burning at least four spells to just get that proc once), she has to hit all 6 minions in the wave. That makes her really predictable- she stands in the melee minions to toss out her Orb of Deception to hit all your minions. Abuse that! This would be a great time to counter- Flash Frost+ Frostbite, as one of Ahri's damage spells is down, and she's probably going to get hit. Be sure to back off quickly so you don't get hit by many of her Fox-Fires. Also keep in mind that Ahri is extremely mobile when she hits 6- it'll be very difficult for you to land your Flash Frost on her. Even without her long CD ult, her Orb of Deception gives her quite a lot of movement speed, making landing Flash Frost even harder than usual. Despite that, however, I would ask for jungler ganks pre-6, you can still easily take her down pre-six with jungler assistance- almost any hard CC will do, to help you land your Flash Frost. I would also take Crystallize level 4- this not only allows you to fight her more effectively pre-6, but also allows you to fight her better when her ult is down. And above all, don't get charmed!

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3/10

Akali Akali isn't really a problem. This is the rare example of a lane where you have to take the initiative pre-6. She doesn't have any way to close the gap, it's hard for her to CS, and she has to use her one ranged ability, Mark of the Assassin to CS or she'll fall way behind. Every time she attempts to use Mark of the Assassin on you, just auto attack her twice and the trade is even. Get a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo on her and you win the trade extremely hard. Also, harass her every time she goes for a CS with her auto attack. Just be wary of jungler ganks. Post-6, you can still win, although the lane isn't totally one-sided anymore. Feel free to just Frostbite+ Glacial Storm harass her every time she goes for a minion. If she retaliates with a Mark of the Assassin only, you come out ahead on damage. If she Shadow Dancees you, you get a guaranteed Flash Frost that she can't even dodge- consider holding it until you can get a second empowered Frostbite. Also, her Twilight Shroud can be completely covered by Glacial Storm, tipping the balance in farther in your favor. She either hides in there and takes a ton of damage, or flees and lets you get a free empowered Frostbite off.

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8/10

Annie This little girl will put you in a world of pain. She not only has the burst to take you down to your egg (especially post-6; damn you Tibbers!), but she also has the sustained damage to mow the egg down before you revive. Her movement speed is fast enough to dodge your slow Flash Frost, and ignore everything I've said about auto-attack harassing, as Annie is the only standard mid lane with a higher auto attack range than Anivia. You do have some windows of opportunity though. Levels 1-3, she actually has relatively low damage, and a good Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo should put you on top- just make sure you back off before she can use Disintegrate a second time, as that thing has an extremely short cooldown. Post-6, you're going to need blue buff to win. Essentially, Annie's one weakness is that she needs her stun ( Pyromania) up in order to fight effectively. If you push with Glacial Storm hard enough, she will be forced to use abilities in order to not lose CS to the tower. This, besides jungler ganks, is your only real opportunity to strike back. Remember, when Annie has that swirling white magic around her, it means that her stun is up- try to avoid fighting her. Especially good Annies will stick around with only three stacks of Pyromania up to lull you into a sense of complacency, and then use Molten Shield right before their combo to get an instant stun. Don't fall for it!

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4/10

Brand Ah, the classic Fire vs. Ice matchup. Again, both of you rely on hard-to-hit skillshots Flash Frost and Sear in order to set up more damaging spells Frostbite and Pillar of Flame. Pre-6, Brand comes out on top because of the simple fact that he has 3 damaging spells to your two. Post-6, you have the edge because Pyroclasm isn't as useful in lane and in duels as Glacial Storm is. Brand's combo is Conflagration> Sear> Pillar of Flame> Pyroclasm if he has it. Conflagration, while targetted, does have a rather low range, so that gives you an opportunity to counter- Flash Frost. Also, if you can dodge Sear, it makes it much harder for him to hit Pillar of Flame. Lastly, stay away from minions/allied champions post-6; you will be hit by Pyroclasm only once instead of the ideal 3 times, greatly reducing the damage that you take. TL;DR- don't get hit by Sear.

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5/10

Cassiopeia While I wouldn't say that the Cassiopeia changes were necessarily nerfs, Anivia specifically now does better against her. Cassiopeia still wins duels pre-6, if only because her movement speed boost on Noxious Blast makes it exceedingly hard to hit your Flash Frost. However, because her straight-up damage in early game was nerfed so hard, it should be much easier to survive. Anivia also has some benefits of her own. Your auto attacks have a huge amount of range compared to Cassiopeia's, so you can harass her that way. It's fairly obvious when she comes in to use Noxious Blast in the first place as well- make sure you at least scare her off, if not punish her, with your own Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo. Post-6, things get even better. Her ult both has low range and requires you to be looking at her to really be effective. Fine- just Frostbite+ Glacial Storm her and run away. Cassiopeia will likely hit you with a Noxious Blast and maybe one Twin Fang, but you still come out ahead in damage. She needs to be close to you constantly to get full damage off of Twin Fang, so kite her with Glacial Storm. If she really presses the issue, Flash Frost her inside the storm, then peg her with another Frostbite.

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3/10 OR 7/10

Diana Diana can be either extremely hard or extremely easy- it honestly depends on how well you can dodge her Crescent Strike. Crescent Strike is a unique skillshot that curves, unlike any other in the game. It will go from her right (your left), and then curve around to hit her target. As such, sidestepping left, as people do half of the time, only means walking into it. I've found that the most effective way to dodge Diana is, a bit counter-intuitively, to walk towards her. This means that the Crescent Strike overshoots and misses you, and it also gives you a commanding location from which you can harass, whether with Flash Frost+ Frostbite, or with Auto Attacks, and Diana is helpless to retaliate. However, if you cannot dodge Crescent Strike, you will be taking a lot of harass that deals a lot of damage for relatively little mana. You will lose auto attack trades and even a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo will mean that you are even in damage, due to that shield granted by Pale Cascade. Dodging Crescent Strike becomes essential post-6. On one hand, you can just Frostbite+ Glacial Storm for some harass that Pale Cascade can only partially mitigate. However, if Diana hits her Crescent Strike, that doubles her total damage, as not only did she hit the ability that she is most likely leveling, but she also gets to use Lunar Rush twice. Keep in mind that Diana's Moonfall interrupts Glacial Storm. The slow "falling in" animation also makes it impossible for you to activate your Flash Frost for the stun/double damage. Also, make sure that you save Flash Frost for after Diana engages with Lunar Rush to put some distance between you- as with Akali, consider keeping it until you can get a second empowered Frostbite off.

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3/10

Ekko Ekko is rarely seen in the mid lane, nowadays (he's much more common in jungle), but he's still quite annoying to deal with. The biggest thing to remember is that if the Ekko is good, you won't be able to kill him. Also, his waveclear isn't too shabby, which means that pushing him into tower isn't terribly effective. Whatever you do, try to avoid getting hit by Parallel Convergence. If you're ever inside, he can just Phase Dive straight to you, stun you, and run away scot-free without losing anything. If you can dodge that, however, Ekko's options are much more limited. Timewinder has terrible damage on its first hit, and it's so slow coming back that you should realistically never get hit by the rebound. And if he ever Phase Dives you without hitting you with Parallel Convergence first, you get a free Flash Frost + Frostbite combo. Pre-6, your main objective is to farm. You can't really go aggressive on him, but he can't really go aggressive on you without eating a full Q+E combo either unless you really mess up and get hit by Parallel Convergence. Post-6, you can start dominating the lane more. Ekko has no real answer to the Glacial Storm+ Frostbite combo, and you can start harassing him. Keep in mind that it's usually not worth it to really shove with Glacial Storm, as Timewinder is a very effective waveclear. Also, don't get overly greedy. It's extraordinarily difficult to kill Ekko, so simply don't try. You win hard late game anyways.

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3/10

Evelynn Evelynn mid isn't seen very commonly anymore, and with good reason- she's hard to CS with, she gets harassed easily, and her ranged CS pushes the lane way too fast. Twisted Fate does what Evelynn does better, and I hate Twisted Fate. Essentially, every time she goes for a minion, auto attack her. Every time she tries to use Hate Spike on you, she's close enough for a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo. Be wary, as her Dark Frenzy removes chill, so try to be fast enough that Frostbite hits her while she's still stunned. Post-6, you win even harder- Dark Frenzy is useless if she's attempting to run through Glacial Storm, and Agony's Embrace is pretty bad when used on only one person. Evelynn doesn't get fed through mid, she gets fed, like Twisted Fate, through ganks. Don't be afraid to spam MIA pings every time she disappears. Pink ward one side of the river, and try to get your jungler to pink the other. If she does leave, shove the lane as hard as you can- with Flash Frost and auto attacks if pre-6, and with Glacial Storm if post-6. You want to punish her for ganking by making her lose out on XP and CS. The tower is nice, but even if you don't get it, it's still resetting the lane for you, so that's a win/win. The only reasons why Evelynn isn't lower in difficulty is because Anivia, being slow, can't follow ganks very well, which means that she can potentially snowball an enemy lane while you can't really do much about it. Also, Dark Frenzy does have some outplay potential because it removes chill- however, if you were outplayed that hard with Evelynn, your opponent could probably just beat you with a better champion.

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6/10

Fiora Fiora is incredibly annoying in that if she's good, you won't be able to reliably land Flash Frost, as she'll simply Riposte and you'll be the one stunned, not her. As such, do not use Flash Frost to harass, as a good Fiora will turn the tables on you with Riposte and that gives her an opportunity to engage favorably. With Fiora, your best bet pre-6 is to auto-attack harass only. Save Flash Frost for if she jumps on you, and try to detonate it before she can react with Riposte. Don't focus too hard on harassing, though- your main objective is to farm and get to mid-late game without falling behind. Harass is an opportunity, not an objective. Once you hit 6, things get a bit tougher for Fiora. She has a hard time CSing under tower, especially if you've got a Glacial Storm going on your own minions. Also, Anivia's kit is great at dealing with Fiora's ultimate- just wall her out after her first lunge, and try to cover weak points with either terrain or a Glacial Storm.

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9/10

Fizz Fizz has long been known to be the bane of Anivia's existance. His kit seems made to beat her- untargetability through Playful / Trickster to dodge the painfully obvious Flash Frost, another dash with Urchin Strike just 'cause, on hit damage with Seastone Trident to burst Rebirth down, a passive that reduces the effectiveness of auto attacking, and a slow moving but powerful skillshot that is relatively easy to land on the slow, slow bird. Fine. You win when he can't use his kit. This is another rare matchup when Anivia has to abuse early game, specifically levels 1 and 2. Fizz's damage only really skyrockets when he gets all three of his abilities, and many of them start Seastone Trident to help with early CSing. Abuse that by using your Flash Frost along with Frostbite at level 2, as well as auto attacking. Even though Nimble Fighter reduces your auto attack damage, it doesn't completely negate it. Make sure to keep auto attacking Fizz whenever you can- when he comes to CS, primarily. From level 3 onwards, you can't fight Fizz directly. Counterengage on him if he jumps on you and harass with Auto attacks if you can, but focus on farming until you get 6. Whatever you do, don't use Flash Frost or he'll dodge it and engage on you. At 6, you have two options. You can just directly Frostbite+ Glacial Storm to harass him. He can either use Playful / Trickster to dodge it, or just eat it to the face. If he does the latter, great- free damage. If he uses Playful / Trickster just to dodge it, it's now on an extremely long cooldown- one which you can use to gain lane dominance, and perhaps get another Frostbite+ Glacial Storm combo off. If he uses that Playful / Trickster to engage on you, he's next to you, so you should get a free Flash Frost on him. Option #2 is to just push the lane with Glacial Storm- it's far too dangerous to use Flash Frost to help. Fizz now either tanks tons of minion damage, loses CS to tower, or uses Playful / Trickster to counterpush the lane. If he uses Playful / Trickster, be sure to get some free Frostbite+ Glacial Storm harass on him. And whatever you do, don't get sharked. Chum the Waters not only shows you down, not letting you get to tower for Rebirth, but it also does a TON of damage. TIP: Even if you do get hit by the fish, it's still possible to dodge the shark. Similar to Requiem, if you flash after the shark comes out of the ground but before it knocks you up/does damage, you can get out of the way. However, this is extremely hard to pull off, and you may not want to burn your flash on such a risky maneuver.

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1/10

Karthus Seriously, who doesn't beat Karthus in lane? You have longer range and more burst, and your wall is better than his wall. At level 6, it gets even easier- he can't even outplay you by dodging Flash Frost. If you simply Frostbite+ Glacial Storm every time he comes forward for a minion, he can't actually stop you. You should win this lane hard. Be sure to ward both sides of the river, as chances are that you'll be pushing and the last thing you want is Karthus with kills spoon-fed to him by his jungler. Also, try to make sure you're always close enough to be able to Flash Frost him whenever he might ult. And make sure that you're not egged in his passive, as he can easily burst a stationary target down with ease. NOTE: Putting Crystallize on Karthus has been rumored to interrupt Requiem- however, I have not tested this myself. It's worth a try, however.

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7.5/10

Kassadin Void-man has been nerfed, reworked, nerfed, and nerfed again, and yet he's still extremely strong. Again, you're going to have to force the issue pre-6. Kassadin will, depending on how desperate or confident he is, use Null Sphere to either harass you or CS. That annoying thing has a magic shield, preventing you from counterattacking with your spells effectively, and he'll probably be expecting a counterattack, and will be prepared to dodge. Alright. Two auto attacks evens out the trade totally, and now Kassadin has his primary spell on cooldown, meaning that he can't CS as well, and that you now have lane dominance for the next ~8 seconds or so. You want to save Flash Frost for when Kassadin auto attacks minions, especially when he activates Nether Blade. You want to scare him away from getting mana with that, as that, in turn, means less Null Spheres to harass you with. Of course, use auto attacks whenever you can as well. Also note that Kassadin is completely immobile and has no escapes pre-6. A jungler gank could be extremely effective. Once you hit 6, things get a bit scarier. Riftwalk has an even shorter cooldown than Glacial Storm, and it teleports to boot. Luckily for you, it's also even mana hungrier than Glacial Storm, so Kassadin can't exactly spam it very much. Kassadin now has two choices if he wants to engage you. He can either Riftwalk in range to Null Sphere+ Force Pulse you, and then run away. Just Frostbite+ Glacial Storm immediately to retaliate- the trade will be somewhat even despite his magic shield, and will even tip in your favor if you toss in some auto attacks too. His second choice is to all-in you by Riftwalking on your face before spamming all of his spells. Once he is 6, be sure to save Flash Frost for when he does this- if he jumps on you, stun his face, preferably before he can use Null Sphere, and Frostbite. If he wants to Riftwalk to you again, Glacial Storm and Frostbite should be up again, giving you the edge in damage trades. On the other hand, once you hit 6, you can now harass easily with Frostbite+ Glacial Storm. Oftentimes, the Frostbite will be halfway to him before he can retaliate with Null Sphere, and the magic shield will be too slow, therefore meaning that you win the trade. Kassadin also can't push very well. Great for you- you can just use Glacial Storm to push the wave and laugh as he misses CS at his tower.

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3.5/10

Katarina Like Fiora, while Katarina does have the capability of outplaying you, it's extremely hard for her to do. I would take Crystallize level four on this one, actually, because while Katarina does have a teleport, once Shunpo is gone gone, she's relatively immobile and a Crystallize+ Flash Frost combo is quite easy to hit. Katarina has one ranged farm/harass tool- Bouncing Blades. Try to stand away from your minions so that she doesn't get farm while she harasses, or harasses while she farms. You can't do much if she uses Bouncing Blades to last hit a minion. However, if she tries to Bouncing Blades you OR auto attacks/picks up a dagger to last hit a creep, make sure you get an an auto attack off- two if it's Bouncing Blades. Do not use Flash Frost unless you're confident that you can stun her. If you miss, you have practically no options to prevent her from Bouncing Blades-> Shunpo with that extra dagger dealing even more damage to you. When you hit 6, your harass goes from auto attacks to the Frostbite+ Glacial Storm combo. If she backs off, you do a ton of damage and she's not CSing. If she Shunpos to you, don't use your Flash Frost yet. Wait until she's either used Death Lotus so you can interrupt it, or has moved far enough away that you could back out of Death Lotus range by the time the stun from Flash Frost wears off. This, by the way, is why I get Crystallize level 4 against Kat- to help with hitting my Flash Frost if Katarina is backing away. Katarina is one of the few matchups that I would actually suggest not pushing (unless she's roaming, in which case you want to push really hard). Her kit allows for really easy tower farming, and that makes it harder for you to harass her, as well as easier for your opponents to gank you.

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3/10

Kayle Much of Kayle's power comes from her auto attacks with Righteous Fury. Unfortunately for her, that means that you can Flash Frost her relatively easily, as she's relatively immobile while she's waving that flaming sword around. Her auto attacks hurt much more than yours do, so unless you can get a free shot off, try to avoid trading autos when her sword is on fire. However, her Righteous Fury isn't always up, and as such, you should try to poke at her during the few seconds when it's on cooldown. Things get even better at level 6. Kayle's Intervention is really strong, but it only really shines when she's blocking a big cooldown spell like Chum the Waters or Unleashed Power. Your Frostbite+ Glacial Storm combo, by contrast, is up every 8 seconds or so. Sure, her ult can block one combo, but you can just toss another one at her a few seconds later. Lastly, because a lot of her damage comes from auto attacks, the attack speed reduction part of Glacial Storm really tips the trades in your favor. Remember, though, that despite all this, Kayle does an absurd amount of sustained damage. You're going to want to fight her in short bursts- fire off your spells then back off, leaving her to flounder in your ult. If you sit there and shoot at her, and she sits there and shoots at you, she's going to eventually come out on top.

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7.5/10

Leblanc Although she's been toned down quite a bit by the silence nerf, LeBlanc is still very much a problem. Her early game damage can only be described as "overwhelming", and it only gets worse at level 6. However, you do have some windows of opportunity. Now, because her Sigil of Malice doesn't silence anymore, when she comes up for her customary Sigil of Malice+ Distortion harass, you can toss out Flash Frost and actually stun her without being insta-silenced. You want to aim the Flash Frost so it'll stun LeBlanc when she's in front of you, activating the mark with Distortion. Toss a Frostbite after for good measure. Now, instead of being one-sided roflstomps, if you use Flash Frost correctly, you can trade evenly with the Deceiver. If you're feeling even riskier, you can try to trade favorably with her. The range on Distortion is much shorter than most people realize. If she's walking up to hit you with q+w, a well-timed Flash Frost will stop her in her tracks. Quickly use Frostbite but do not auto attack, as you want to back off as quickly as possible to ensure that Leblanc cannot retaliate. This is much riskier, as a good LeBlanc can dodge the Flash Frost with Distortion, then activate Sigil of Malice with Ethereal Chains, but if it works, you do some nice damage while not taking any in return. Also remember that, while Anivia's cooldowns are long, Leblanc's are even longer. Distortion can be close to 20 seconds! As a result, after a trade, you have a small window during which Leblanc cannot trigger Sigil of Malice easily and you trade extremely favorably. Use this window to auto attack harass or try for another Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo, which should be off cooldown faster than Distortion. LeBlanc also doesn't scale nearly as well as Anivia. As long as you make it out of laning phase without being too behind, you'll win the late game.

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3/10

Lissandra Lissandra is your great rival in the battle of the morality of ice! Unfortunately for her, Anivia is just better. Lissandra has rather low range. She does, however, have a nice, if blatant, engage, and her damage and CC are just as high as yours, if not higher. Fortunately, you outrange her in almost every sense of the word. Your auto attacks have greater range than hers, Flash Frost has greater range than Ice Shard, Frostbite has more range than Ring of Frost, etc. Pre-6, you could use Flash Frost to try to stun her when she goes up to CS with her auto attack, and get an empowered Frostbite off on her. This does a ton of damage, and although a good Lissandra could outplay you by jumping past the Flash Frost with Glacial Path, it's extremely hard and requires quite a bit of quick thinking on her part. On the other hand, you could just auto attack harass her. Harass her every time she CSes and every time she comes up to use Ice Shard. While this is slower, it also is safer. When she hits 6, Lissandra becomes much more dangerous, but you still have the advantage. Harass her with Frostbite+ Glacial Storm, as Ice Shard still doesn't quite have the range to touch you. If you see her using Glacial Path to try to engage, time Flash Frost to stun her just as she comes out close enough to use Frozen Tomb on you. A smarter Lissandra will activate Glacial Path earlier or let it go through without teleporting, allowing you to keep harassing her, as Glacial Path has a cooldown of greater than 20 seconds. A greedier one will activate it anyways, giving you a free stun, a frre Frostbite, and time to run away. TIPS: Like Lucian's Piercing Light, the range on Ice Shard increases if it hit a minion first. Try to keep empty space, instead of minions, between yourself and Lissandra.

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4/10

Lux Lux is remarkably similar to Anivia- they're both immobile utility casters who amplify their teams' success. However, Lux focuses more on long range, while Anivia provides some more utility and CC with her wall and AoE stun. Due to how they both have relatively long range in auto attacks, both Lux and Anivia have to want to fight. If only Anivia wants to fight, Lux just farms at her tower with Illumination, and then starts to straight-up one-shot the caster minions with Lucent Singularity during either level 7 or level 9. If Lux wants to fight, Anivia stays far back enough to easily dodge Lucent Singularity, and starts counterpushing at level 6 with Glacial Storm. If you both want to fight, Lux will throw out a Light Binding, auto attack, get a guaranteed Lucent Singularity, and auto attack again. Once she hits 6, she'll throw a Final Spark at you after the snare hits as well. As for Anivia, Lux is relatively slow and immobile, so a Crystallize can set up a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo really easily. Post-6, you can add a Frostbite+ Glacial Storm to the end of that. Most Lux's get their Prismatic Barrier at level 4, and that will lower the damage your combo does by a lot, seeing as Anivia's damage is pretty obvious. Essentially, if you're fighting, dodge the Light Binding, and most of Lux's damage goes out the window. To be honest, 99% of the time, this lane just degenerates into a farm fest. You win it though, because no one can rival your late game scaling.

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6/10

Malzahar Malzahar is one of the most underrated and underplayed champions in all of LoL, but he's extremely strong. In lane, he just pushes you down from level 1. In teamfights, he unloads a huge barrage of AoE spells on your team before staring someone to death. To be honest, you can't really fight Malzahar 1v1 in lane if he has his spells up. However, Malz always uses Malefic Visions to push the lane and get himself free mana- don't let him! Early game, it doesn't do enough damage to kill the minions outright, and he has to auto attack them. However, during this time, he's actually surprisingly vulnerable- you'll want to auto attack harrass him to proc his passive, Void Shift, before getting a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo on him (similar idea to Yasuo, except a bit safer). Learn to last hit under tower because you'll be doing it a lot- however, if you don't fall behind, you win late game. Post-6, Malzahar is capable of killing you outright if you're at less than 3/4 health by using all of his spells and then staring at you. He can even DPS down the egg, mainly because of the Void Swarm that's also smacking away at you. You can effectively harass him with r+e, as the passive will proc and then end before your Frostbite actually reaches him, but it's very dangerous as you'll be within Nether Grasp range- harass at your own risk! Your best bet for winning this lane is to call for Jungler ganks. Malzahar's kit relies on pushing, and he has no real escapes, so he's extremely vulnerable to ganks- especially if you put a point into Crystallize at level 4. Just farm and don't do anything rash, and you should win late game when he has to suppress himself just to use his ult.

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6/10

Orianna The best way to beat Orianna is to not let her maneuver you between herself and her Ball. If she does, she can Command: Attack and Command: Dissonance with little cast time and great range, meaning that you can't dodge or counterattack, giving her extra damage for free. On the other hand, if you approach her from the other side of the lane, Orianna's spells have rather low range. This means that you can counter- Flash Frost+ Frostbite, evening out trades. Chances are that her Command: Protect will be too late for her to block the damage. Orianna's auto attack range is also pretty low- this gives you windows to both auto attack harass yourself, as well as get a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo off. However, Clockwork Windup gives her auto attacks a huge damage boost- don't get caught trading them with her, and it also gives her a ton of DPS to kill your egg with. Try to harass her with autos at max range only, or work on getting out of her auto attack range- only stop and attack her when she can attack back when you can get a kill. Once you hit 6, Command: Protect can partially negate your Frostbite+ Glacial Storm combo, but you'll still do a significant amount of harass. Remember that Command: Shockwave can interrupt Glacial Storm- if she's going in for a fight, consider using Flash Frost+ Frostbite first, so that she won't do as much damage to you with Clockwork Windup due to Glacial Storm's auto attack slow.

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3/10

Ryze Ryze's range is extremely low, and his spells have relatively long cast times. As a result, he's extremely easy to auto attack harass, and he's extremely easy to hit with a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo. Don't be afraid to use it to harass him in lane- just make sure you don't get close enough for him to Rune Prison you, or for him to hit a minion with the Spell Flux debuff on it. Once you hit 6, you have to be quick with your Frostbite+ Glacial Storm combo or he'll counterattack, and Ryze's combo hurts a lot. Keep in mind that Ryze's Ultimate is now less of a direct combat ability, and more of a ganking/picking ability similar to Destiny. The real threat isn't him killing you in lane, but teleporting to a side lane to get a quick kill or two with an unexpected gank. Remember to ward both sides of the river, and spam MIA ping to help out your teammates.

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6.5/10

Syndra Despite the nerfs, Syndra is still an extreme lane bully. As Anivia is relatively weak in lane (at least until 6), you will have some problems. A good Syndra will zone you out from your minions- A great Syndra will force you to back or get egged relatively early in the lane. All of Syndra's pre-6 abilities are skillshots, which are relatively easy to land on the slow bird- boots and movespeed quints are recommended. Don't let her maneuver a Sphere between herself and you, as Scatter the Weak more or less guarantees hits for the rest of her kit, and you'll take a ton of damage. Barrier wouldn't be a bad choice, when taking into account both the time it takes to finish her combo, as well as the considerable wind-up of Unleashed Power. Many Syndras like to push with either auto attacks or Dark Sphere. Farm under tower as best you can, and call for a gank. Note that Scatter the Weak has an extremely long cooldown, and Syndra is pretty vulnerable to ganks while it's not up. If you can just survive, you scale much harder than Lane Bully Syndra, so endure as best you can and try to get to late game.

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3/10

Twisted Fate While Twisted Fate is annoying, particularly for your team, you can definitely beat him, especially after 6. TF's combo is Pick A Card: gold card, having Stacked Deck up, and then hitting you with Wild Cards when you're stunned. If he starts Pick A Card, back off- if he chooses a gold card, don't let him use it on you. If he uses it on minions, he's just burned ~50 mana for absolutely no reason. If, on the other hand, he picks a blue card, try to engage with Flash Frost. If he gets hit- great! Frostbite and be sure to sidestep the counter- Wild Cards that are likely on their way. If he backs off, he's now lost CS, and he lost his blue card. He feels the mana effects of this much more sharply than you do pre-6. At level 6, Twisted Fate generally pushes the lane hard with Wild Cards and Pick A Card: Red Card, before using Destiny to gank a lane. On the plus side, you can counterpush really easily with Glacial Storm. On the minus side, he's still getting full gold+exp from the minions. Because Destiny isn't global anymore, try warding the sides so your side lanes have a bit of warning when he's ulting. See if you can try to interrupt his teleport with Flash Frost or even an on-point Crystallize. When you're fighting him in lane, it's extremely hard for him to combat Frostbite+ Glacial Storm, especially if he doesn't have gold card up. Be sure to harass him as much as you can. If he does have gold card up- back off a bit, as it doesn't have that ludicrous duration anymore, and it has a relatively long CD.

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7.5/10

Yasuo Ronin here just redefines mobility. With 6 guaranteed teleports in each minion wave (7 if there's a cannon minion, potentially 8 if you count yourself), Yasuo can be extremely hard to catch. Your best bet is to stay away from your minion wave. Yasuo needs to actually get up to you to be able to do damage, and he can't do that if he can't randomly dash through your minions. Do your best to farm pre-6. You don't want to engage on him, because Flash Frost will only be either dodged with Sweeping Blade or swallowed up with Wind Wall. On the other hand, he can't really engage on you because if he tries, you can just Flash Frost him to the face, toss in an extra Frostbite, and fly away. At 6, you can start to harass him. Try to use your auto attack once before your main combo so you can pop Way of the Wanderer and waste part of his shield. Then, just Frostbite+ Glacial Storm him. He can stop the first one with Wind Wall, but OP as that ability is, it still has a rather long cooldown, so he'll have absolutely no way to stop the next Frostbite+ Glacial Storm combo you throw at him. Be wary of his ult synergies. You can dodge every tornado Steel Tempest he throws at you, but it won't matter if a wild Jarvan IV shows up with flag+poke.

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6/10

Xerath The Archon has an absurd amount of range. Although his spells have some wind-up, he's usually so far away that you can't take advantage of that fact. You're going to have to win early game in order to beat him. Early game, Xerath doesn't quite have the damage or mana to clear the minions with spells. He has to auto attack to CS, as well as to get his passive proc to get mana. This is your opportunity, as you are now in range of him. You should be able to land a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo. If you can prevent him from auto attacking, you can not only deny gold, but his damage will also go down drastically, as he doesn't have the mana to harass you or trade effectively. Once he gets his mana regen items, though, you're in trouble. A good Xerath will never even be in Crystallize range, clearing the minions and harassing you from across the lane. At this point, you should just farm and try to out-scale him. Try to grab Raptors, roam if the side lanes are pushed, and avoid getting poked down.

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8/10

Zed Zed is yet another AD assassin moved to mid lane. He can also cause problems due to his infinite poke and his nigh-instant teleportation using his Living Shadows. Early game, Zed will harass a lot with Razor Shurikens. Try to dodge these as best you can. If he uses Living Shadow in conjunction with Razor Shurikens, it gets much harder to dodge. However, by doing that, he throws away his mobility spell, leaving him open for both a Flash Frost+ Frostbite combo, as well as a jungler gank- consider getting your junglers' attention if he's using Living Shadow a lot. At 6, he gets a lot more dangerous. Death Mark spawns another shadow, meaning that he does more damage. It also stores up some of the damage dealt while it's active, before dealing a percentage of that damage when it pops. As a result, if you can avoid taking damage while Death Mark is active, his ult actually does nothing. One way of doing that is using Flash Frost to stun him precisely when he comes out of his ult and before he can use any of his abilities. The timing on this is extremely hard, but it's possible. The far easier method is to buy a Zhonya's Hourglass and use the active when he ults you. His ult won't actually do any damage and the armor+AP helps you win trades against him anyways, making a Zhonya's Hourglass a must-buy against Zed.

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5/10

Ziggs While Ziggs is annoying, he's not impossible to beat. Early game, he won't have the mana for infinite harass/waveclear with Bouncing Bomb. If you want to trade, try to make sure Short Fuse is down, and then Flash Frosting him when he comes up to CS. Land a Frostbite and back off, and be wary of the retaliatory Bouncing Bomb. Even though Morellonomicon doesn't give nearly as much mana as old Athene's, it's still enough for Ziggs to permanently waveclear and harrass without any danger to himself. You have a couple of options- you can either counterpush with Glacial Storm and get wraiths (although this option more or less requires possessing blue buff yourself), you could counterpush with Glacial Storm and try to roam, or you could try to force a fight with Crystallize into a max range Flash Frost. However, a good Ziggs will never be in range for you to hit him, so staying in lane means constantly getting poked down by max range Bouncing Bombs. This lane can be hard if he can hit you consistently- however, if you can dodge the max range Bouncing Bombs, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. NOTES: his Satchel Charge is capable of interrupting Glacial Storm. If he times it well, he can also use it so that you're in the air when Flash Frost is passing over him, preventing you from stunning him. Also, when Ziggs uses Satchel Charge as a mobility spell, he goes away from the center of it. However, if you can prevent him from getting to that half of the Satchel Charge, he actually goes back towards you! Crystallize, anyone?

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I hope you enjoyed my (admittedly absurdly long) Anivia guide. I hope you learned a bit about how to play my favorite Ice Birdie.

The To-Do List: Champion Match-ups Updating Champion Match-ups, Synergies, a warding guide, a full Crystallize section, and Pwetty Pitures!

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• There's always the chance I got something wrong. Feel free to tell me in either a PM, in game chat, or in the comments section below.
• This is my first guide, so I would love feedback. Doesn't matter whether it's positive or constructive, every bit counts!
• If you liked the guide, a great way to say it would be with an upvote or with a comment.
• Above all- Bird is the Word.

Thanks for reading, and here's to hoping you soar to victory!

7/21- Guide Published!
7/22- Assorted edits and Clarifications. Also, Title change as it was pointed out that I was totally ripping off the title of the top guide >_< (sorry whomever wrote that)
Also champ match-ups from Ahri-Malzahar.
7/23- Additional assorted edits and fixes. Also added Champion match-ups from Orianna-Talon.
7/25- Updated cheat sheet, even more random edits/fixes. Champion match-ups from Twisted Fate-Ziggs added. Also, turned on C2V because it looked like everyone was doing it.
7/26- Finished and Published Crystallize section. Removed most of Crystallize in the Skills section to compensate. Even more random edits and fixes.
Added "Comprehensive" to Guide title due to finishing of Crystallize section.
7/30- Slight changes to reflect Patch 4.13
8/2- Fixed a minor formatting mishap. More minor errors and edits.
8/4- Fixed an out-of-place header.
8/8- Added more a bit more BBCode. Random edits
8/9- Large overhaul of guide based of the review from the Scouts de Mobafire (Thanks so much, Vynertje, GrandmasterD, and Janitsu!). If you want all the changes, just look at the comments section. Notably, Runes/Masteries have been changed significantly.
8/13- just realized some idiot mistakes. That's what I get for editing at 2AM, I guess.
8/25- some really really embarrassing typos.
9/4- it's really kind of surprising the kind of things you catch. More little errors
9/8- Even more little errors
9/12- Reworded some parts of the items sections, specifically the TotG section.
9/16- fixed a bit of broken coding
9/19- added in the patch change about terrain-checking abilities (Vayne, Poppy, Gnar)
11/15- I'm back! Finally completed overhaul of guide due to feedback from Meiyjhe (thanks for the review, by the way! I appreciate it a lot!) Namely, aesthetic and formatting things that weren't quite working before.
Also rewrote the Talon and Cassiopeia champion match-ups, considering their significant ability changes.
11/17- fixed a bit of cruddy spacing
11/20- more spacing fixes. Formatting is hard.
2/18/15- fixed some bugs, updated some out-of-date information about items and champions, added an Athene's/Morellonomicon portion to the FAQ due to the Season 5 changes.
3/2- assorted fixes, added trinkets, added rules to help separate different areas (notably in the item and summoner spell sections).
3/6- fixed some spelling/grammar errors, mainly in the matchups section.
3/16- found some outdated information, added other intricacies about Crystallize, added some interactions with Bard
6/25- added to the Athene's vs. Seraph's portion of the FAQ. I'll try to get in an Ekko match-up soon, but I haven't actually played against him enough to be comfortable giving advice against him.
11/25- Updated for Season 6! Changed masteries, the warding section, and added a (decidedly late) Ekko section!
2/4/2016- Fixed some broken hyperlinks in the Ekko section
2/17- Forgot to remove the Homeguards part in the items section >_<
3/9- Fixed some inconsistencies I missed due to the season change.
3/12- Fixed some masteries mix-ups.
6/5/17- Major overhaul! Accounted for rune/mastery changes, Anivia mini-overhaul, and mage itemization changes. I'm still going through the little stuff to make sure I caught all of the no-longer-relevant information- if you see anything, just let me know!
-As an aside, I still have not worked through the champion match-ups one by one yet. Part of it is that I'm still trying to actually play against some mid laners ( Taliyah and Aurelion Sol apparently don't exist). Updates on that pending.
6/6- renovated match-ups section. Removed some that I don't feel comfortable giving advice on anymore (s/a Talon)- we'll see if I can get some games in against them to see how they feel now.
9/7- Fixed some awkward grammar, and further modernized the guide. Updated Control Ward section, as well as the Ryze and Malzahar match-ups. Thanks to everyone who commented and pointed out some outdated information!
9/8- Fized a minor issue in the Ziggs match-up, being out of date.
9/13- Fixed a nonsensical sentence in the Crystallize section
10/3- Removed some extraneous wording
11/27- Reworked entire Runes/Mastery chapter to account for new preseason Rune revamp.
2/11/2018- Added Taste of Blood to the Honorable Mentions runes page.
7/29- admittedly belated update to the items to reflect mage item rework- primarily to Lost Chapter subsection.
7/30- Removed FAQ section (because there are no more relevant questions...)- added Morellonomicon to Offensive Items section. Changed Liandry's Torment descriptions