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Anivia Build Guide by

Will of the Freljord - (work in progress, 5.13)

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Anivia Build Guide By Updated on

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Choose Champion Build:

Will of the Freljord
Speednivia
Tanknivia

Spells:

Flash

Teleport

Items

onStart()

early Core options[ ]

Core mana items [ ]

Core Damage items [ ]

Do when you need to

Optimal Deathbox

Viable Offensive items

Viable Deffensive Items

Ability Order

Anivia Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Ahri

Extreme

Korean Ahri will always make you suffer and melt down, stop her from snowballing or you are screwed, you can play aggressively safe because all your ranges out range her, and she is really squishy and depends on her placement to pull off plays, you can trap her into damage, lots of damage, she can go through your wall 3 times in a row with her ult but you can burn her ult izi with your w because of that, you have 20 sec cooldown on your w, when you have your W back up, her ult will already have burnt out, easy squishy kill if played right.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hello my dear Anivia mains/lovers/everyone and welcome to my guide :)

This guide is an extensive walkthrough on every aspect I could think of when thinking Anivia, I have been maining Anivia since Blackfrost came out, at first just because it looked sexy so I thought Anivia would be interesting to try for a new champ.

I noticed the outplay capability and utility she can bring to team comps just from looking at her kit and fell in love with birdie and all of its glorious and majestic obliterating burst damage and bullying potential, and after using her for a while, she is left IMO as one of the best mid laners to climb the ladder with on the whole roster as she has great CC, has great scaling, is a team fighting beast and she is bursty as can get and man, haven't ever felt any regret on the skin purchase, and even though a lot of people say she is not competitive anymore, out of meta, yada yada yada bleh, I will do my best to show you the not just potential but what a good birdie player can actually pull off, and why people should fear the well played bird.

I know this guide will be useful for everyone researching Anivia, for newcomers I will put all of my effort in making it the most helpful and for those experienced players who want to try some really effective builds/strategies I will get real in-depth about her (I think I've really sweetspoted the nicest of all for Anivia) and also this guide will be helpful to effectively counter Anivia if you need as well, but be wary Anivia can get tough to counter and can be a pain in the arse, her outplay capability as I said is lots, but she can get pretty complex which is the reason why people stay away from her and she does not have the most amazing pickrate in the game, however its a really safe laning champion with great peel for herself and teammates and even though she is played mostly on the mid lane, you can get to handle top lane nicely against the correct matchups or hell if you have control of birdie you can even tackle support or play as an mk Carry on the botlane.

I will try to extend myself on every aspect as much as I can so you get the best mental description of what I'm talking about, btw it will be a Lot :v

I will talk a lot about the unique plays Anivia can perform and the nice sweetness of motherfckn CCfesta burst Anivia can by definition pull off, I will also write a lot about how to best play defensively and offensively with Anivia and what you need to watch out for, when is it that you are most vulnerable or safe and when you should best try a strategy to counter your opponent's.
I hope that you like this guide and without further due, lets get right into it :)

Pros / Cons

Pros:

Can carry hard
Great harass, real nice wave-clear.
CCFesta kit.
Can burst enemies to dust with a real potent point n' click spell.
Great AoE Dps, real nice team fighter.
Great outplay capability when played at best potential.
Great passive (forgotten-mid-fight to a lot of players, which can be advantageous and can get you a free counter-gank if positioning right)
600 ranged AA, 1100 ranged poke and lots of siege from lvl 6 onwards with an AoE DoT spell that pretty much scares champs the fck off, the zoning gets real.
Crystallize can stop almost all channels (unknown to most players).
Crystallize can be used to give vision to scout and avoid facechecking(unknown to lots of players).
Crystallize can troll
Has tricks ;)
Legendary Skin that is sexy as fck

Cons:

Slow base movement speed (tied for lowest move speed on roster with 325)
Because of her low mobility, squishy without itemization.
It IS hard to get the feeling for AA animation (awkward sometimes.)
(...Blackfrost Anivia's AA animation mmm sexy)
If non experienced, early game is real weak-sauce.
Very mana-hungry early if not on blue buffs/mana pots.
Poor roaming potential without the right item set or Tp.
CSing can get real hard because of animations.
Trades gap closers and mobility for all of her CC.
Reliant on choosing the correct combo and positioning to be effective.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

As for Runes I run on Anivia, I Go flat AP Quints, Magic Pen. Reds, Scaling AP Blues and Scaling Health yellows, and the reasoning behind this is because those are the most efficient runes you can get, Anivia has 1.0 AP ratios on both her and (0.5 on two part Q and double damage to chilled enemies on 0.5 E), and you want to take advantage of the early presence those ratios can give you since Anivia is a caster champ, which is why we like the flat AP Quints for some immediate boost for Anivia's early game, the scaling AP quints suck because they take too long to outscale flat ones, but contrary to those, the Blue counterparts, the Scaling AP Blues outscale the flat AP ones at level 6-7 which is when you start pulling nice > combos, I take Magic Pen. reds, because Anivia scales quite well with those and when you buy your or , your ratios increase by a ton, and to be honest, other reds are worthless for what you are spending on runes, if your page does not compliment itself its worthless, and the Health yellows, I even run those for blind-pick because they help Anivia get tanky and not have so much of a hard time with most champs and tankyness compliments Anivia's passive in a versatile kind of way :v Although if you have extra rune pages with MR and Amr it's obviously way better to match that with the lane opponent you are facing because it gives you a great early boost.

Masteries

My standard page goes like:

Summoner Spells

For summoner spells I almost always take + because Tp actually works really good on Anivia, I'm too much of a fan of Tp Eggnivia and it makes up for the map presence you need to have as a mid-laner taking into consideration Anivia's low movespeed, even though you can run +, that only does it for the early kill pressure if you want it, I just run when feeling greedy/hungry for early kills or against a though life-stealing champion like or and for other cases I think is better because it synergizes with your ult and negates a lot of damage, and I think the safest choice ,if what you want is safety, is actually + always, and is also viable but not so much of a fan of them on Anivia.

Abilities

Passive:

Anivia actually kind of has two passives, one somewhat undermentioned debuffing type of passive and her more noticed Rebirth passive
[*]

Chill

Anivia applies her 'chill' debuff to enemies using Flash Frost and Glacial Storm, what chill does is applying a 20% slow on enemies for 3 seconds and compliments Anivia's Frostbite with double damage on 'chilled' enemies for the debuff's duration.
[*]
Upon dying, Anivia will revert into an egg and will get an armor and magic resistance modifier of -40 / -25 / -10 / +5 / +20. These values change at levels 5, 8, 12 and 15. If the egg can survive for six seconds, she is reborn with the same percentage of health that her egg had left upon rebirth. This can only happen once every four minutes regardless of cool-down reduction.

Notes:

This passive is probably one of, if not the best passive in the game, you can sort of 'pull of plays' by abusing the passive, you can get a free counter-gank if 'skilled' and 'lucky'(actually good position is the right term but some people really just get lucky) you can just bait your enemy into returning you into full health if your passive is ignored(Eggnivia bait happens in diamond, signature to her low pickrate)
*Eggnivia is considered in game code as a champ, contrasting to other similar abilities unlike Zacs blobs which according to code are considered kind of as a monster and can get even targeted by Tp, Eggnivia can't get Tp'd to.
*If Anivia enters it's passive, triggered by non-CC damage, while channeling Tp, Eggnivia will still teleport, best outplay tactic ever, real rewarding when pulled off.
*Eggnivia is immune to CC so when channeling Tp already, Eggnivia WILL teleport unless bursted down godlike quickly.
*Eggnivia can use Thresh's lantern and will be able to get picked up by Tahm Kench
*Eggnivia however is susceptible to knockbacks and forcible movement abilities (making reference to Lee Sin's Dragon's Rage, Vayne's Condemn, Tristana's Buster Shot, Zigg's Satchel Charge, Xin Zhao's Crescent Sweep, Volibear's Flip the table, Thresh's Death Sentence and Flail, Syndra's Scatter the Week, Skarner's Impale, Singed's Fling, Gnar's GNAR, Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab, Alistar's Headbutt, Azir's Emperor's divide and all knockups, soon also moveable by Tahm Kench's Devour)
*Sunfire has been seen built by high level players like Froggen because it actually makes the egg real tanky and makes the egg do nice damage as well.

Best uses:
Good positioning, "Taking advantage of Eggnivia" section will be added on a later update to the guide. Because you can actually abuse it if skilled, but by now you already get the idea.

Health is the best stat to really buff up your passive, making Anivia tanky is not a bad idea, Anivia needs mana as core, so RoA is needed if not using any other heavy mana item and Liandrys is actually really good on her(more now that it gives 80 AP) and Rylais fits tanknivia real nice, so yeh, tanknivia IS legit.

*

Anivia summons a shard of ice that flies on a line. The shard will deal 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+50% of ability power) damage, slowing movement by 20% for 3 seconds (applying chill) to anyone in its path. The shard will detonate when reaching its max range or if the ability is activated again. When Flash Frost is popped it will deal 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies nearby, stunning them for 1 second. The magic damage done by both the shard and the detonation is the same and both will apply the "chilled" debuff on enemies hit for 3 seconds.
Cool-down: 12/11/10/9/8 seconds.
Range:1100

Notes:

*

Anivia summons an impenetrable wall of ice 400 / 500 / 600 / 700 / 800 units wide, blocking all movement. The wall lasts for 5 seconds before it melts.
Cool-down: 20 seconds

Notes:

It is considered hard CC still, because it creates terrain, Anivia sports one of the only wall type skills in the roster, and consided by most people, Anivia's play making ability, it is a utility skill that has so many uses, because what you can do when you get good at playing birdie. You use it on teamfights as to either condemn an enemy to die alone or to peel people off of your team or yourself, but most importantly, you will make the most out of this when traping other player's auto pathing to be able to land full combos, burn people's flashes, to stop dangerous players channels (the wall when put on top of someone, stops all channels like Katarina's ult or Galio's and Nunu's as well as any other channeled ability, even your team mates get their channels interrupted by your W if you want to, you can even force someone to not back using your wall), and to scout and avoid face-checking places out of reach/sight (the wall gives large vision on the area you use it on for the duration of the wall and according to wall's actual size, vision gets insane when buffing up W), you are also able to use it to give you vision and simultaneously trap kite Blue Golem to burst it down without the need to walk up to it and taking no damage whatsoever when pulled off correctly, there is a multitude of uses you can give to this wall.

Personal Thoughts/Best Practices:
Anivia sports one of the only wall type of skills on the whole roster of the game, others including Yasuo's wind wall (blocks proyectiles), Azir's Emperor's Divide (blocks movement + does damage), Karthus's Wall of Pain (damage/CC), Braum's Unbreakable(First hit block and reduced damage to champion afterwards), Thresh's The Box (Ult, CC), Trundle's Pillar of Ice (Impassible terrain) and Veigar's Event Horizon (omega CC), but hers can be used to make awesome plays and gives you awesome utility, afraid of ganks? put a ward on one side of the midlane and shove a w on top of the opposite wall and brush to give you vision, saw anybody? If not you are safe to still do your stuff, if you did see someone, you just saved yourself from getting ganked and can react accordingly. What do you do when you have vision on members of an enemy team initiating a teamfight with yours and they do not have vision of you/are positioned perfectly for you? Split them, give away the *** of the enemy ADC and supp to your team, CC the rest or aid in deleting the first, teamfight done.
*Scouting can be done with Crystallize to check quickly down any side of the river or jungle, don't get shy to scout with it if you are trying to push without the harass of the enemy jungler or just want to give you and/or your team map awareness.
*Complete section on walls will be added below.

*

Anivia blasts her target with a freezing wind, dealing 55 / 85 / 115 / 145 / 175 (+50% of ability power) magic damage. If the target has been chilled, they take double damage.
Cool-down: 5 seconds

Notes:

Hits like a truck. You max this ability first.

*

*

Toggle: Anivia calls forth a driving rain of ice and hail, dealing 80 / 120 / 160 (+25% of ability power) magic damage per second, slowing their movement and attack speed by 20% for 1 second per tick, and chilling them. Costs 40/50/60 mana per second while the storm is active.
Cool-down: 6 seconds.

Notes:

Skill Sequence

Standard path:

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

There are three ways that you should consider on how to level up your skills, and I don't care if you heard some idiot talking about maxing Q first because of the cooldown and the damage because that is wrong for many reasons, however, according to match-up and skill, and what you feel most comfortable with in-game as to pull off good plays, you can CONSIDER different ways of leveling up.

Some Anivia players like to max Q second to maximize damage output, but I feel your wall and the plays you can pull off with a full sized wall and the fact that flashfrost's mana cost scales with level and leaves you so empty real easily early, makes me think it actually needs a cost reduce and is why I level up my wall second, also, because at level 1 Flash frost is on 80 mana but the cost scales up to 120 and even though it reduces the cool down on flash frost and improves your Q's base damage, the stun duration does not get better and it still has great Scaling (0.5 + 0.5 ratio) with your AP and will still hurt nicely, and you really don't poke with flash frost unless you get a good, clear shot and after level 6 you should start using it for the utility or for all ins instead of poke, unless you want to scream "I'm a bronzie and would like a Yasuo to rape my ********".

IMO Crystallize is the better choice to go for second maxed skill since you can pull off Playz, and it is the skill that defines if you are an ok player or a great Anivia player, however to non experienced players that don't know Anivia and are uncomfortable with walling, and only on the case you really are not comfortable enough using the wall I would consider maxing Q second only if fed and if a have a bronze packed enemy team where I know I can show off Koreanivia and do magic with just a level 2 wall that I still put an extra point on at 8 and 10 when following that strategy.

What actually varies on my level up order in game is the level I put my first point in crystallize, level 4 (98% of the time) or 8, I usually still put a point at level 4 in most matches just to get the wall leveled up and capped at 13.

You should Always start on level 1, because your E is worthless if you cannot chill enemies to get it's double damage, you can't wall enemies to death, it does AoE damage, it's your stun, it's your life-saver pre-6, the highest base damage you can get at level one and provides the best all around utility and damage at level 1. Afterwards get two points on your to get trading damage and by the point you reach level 4, you should already taken a glimpse at your opponent's skill level and your need of , if you need the wall put a point into it, if not, the only other possible point you should put into wall is at level 8, since you will focus on E and give your Q some damage boost with the second point you give it if you start leveling up Crystallize until level 8.

Order for level up goes like this for me: R>E>W>Q.

The orders you could choose from would be:

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Standard Wall max second

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Standard Wall max second with wall start at 8

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Maximizing q with wall start at 4

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Maximizing q with wall start at 8

Combos

//Poke:
Lvl 1:

AA poke combo:

aa>Q-q>aa

If being traded on lvl 1 (which actually should NOT be happening) pull this off by walking up to your opponent to basic attack and because of the range you will be in you shoot your Q so you can get the first part of the damage from your Q going through your opponent before popping to proc the stun and the second part of the damage, try to soft cancel the animation of your first auto with your Q so you can get another auto easily after the stun and if you see that your opponent runs away throw some more ice chunks in their faces so out-trade them and make them hurt, usually that does a lot more damage than people think, 2 or 3 autos plus both parts of the damage from your Q (bases +0.5 AP + 0.5 AP) it usually out trades most champs at level one.

Level 2-3:

Stunpop Poke Combo:

Q-q>E/Q>E-q

Stunpop Trade Combo:

aa>Q-E-q>aa>E*

Always try to get both parts of your Q's damage since it actually does hurt a lot, try to angle it so you catch your enemies pathing or at least can reach them with the explosion range and trade with autos so you can get the most out of your damage potential, most people actually don't know that Anivia has one of the strongest bursts in the game at level 2 and 3, actually your damage at lvl three with both parts of Q and E alone, is more than LeBlanc's level three burst, it is a good way to secure a first blood on someone who isn't familiar with her damage if pulled off right. For the reference, her Q+E combo does 230 + 2.0x AP if you land both parts of your Q and the elusive Leblanc Q+W at lvl 3 does 195 + 1.4x AP.//

After wall: (For me its always level 4, but most people do 8)

Trap combo: (different uses in the Walling section.)

W->Q-q>E

When used right, you can chokepoint enemies movement path into your Q so you can proc the 2 parts of it and get a safe and heavy burst on your opponent

Level 6 onwards:

TruckPoke:

E'R

This is one of the signatures to a good Anivia player, the trick to it (I'll explain further why it actually requires skill if you still haven't noticed) is that Anivia's Frostbite does damage ON HIT, not on cast, and you can take advantage of the low projectile speed, because Anivia's ult is toggled and has no cast time and most importantly, procs chill, so you shoot your E first and as soon as you see the projectile being shot, you proc the chill on your enemy with your ult just to see your enemies health bar getting deceivingly chunked down, real devastating and usually catches enemies off-guard letting you also get some good damage on DoT on your ult as well, this is what you use to actually poke after 6. Also, I should advice to really always smartcast spells on Anivia so you can check for ranges before trying anything because with this particular combo, I've seen so much people mess it up because they try to toggle the ult ahead of their possible range and waste time walking up to where they can cast it, you should always try to cast the center of it at max range so you reach enemies easily, don't expect to get it on first try if you haven't ever tried to, practice this beforehand if you have not ever tried it, if your enemy still wants to trade after you already threw nice damage at them you stun them and walk away.

TrapTruckPoke:

W->E>R

Not as efficient but what is actually good about the combo is that you get to choke point your enemy so you get get in range for your E and setup some DoT with your ult and you can followup or just save your Q for when you need it most because saving your stun is the efficient and best way to go when you don't have your wall and your enemy's lifebar is not low enough to go all in.

Flashfrost to burst trap:

***Q-q>E>R>W/E>E/W***

If you get to pull off any Q and think it is worth it to burst all-in regardless of your cooldowns then go for it, this is your all in burst combo, wall usage on the combo is needed to get nice setup DoT on your ult but depends on situation and needs strategic thought on placement as well as the moment you place it down, because the wall alone actually gives psychological pressure and your enemy can get scared off on usage and the best way to use is not to scare but to catch people off guard, we want their flash at the last moment, trust me ;)
After a flash burn you and your team can get to capitalize on that a lot.

All-in combo:

***E'R>Q-q>*W>E***

This is your sure kill combo, you decide to go all in or not after your E'R, always proc the first part of your Q when possible but make the stun a priority so you can get your enemies to suffer another second inside your ult, usually you can get to pull off a second E after enemies have been stunned because the chill proc stays for 3 seconds on enemies, that is 3 seconds after leaving your ult, and Anivia's E has a 5 second cooldown, now take into consideration that you already shot your E as your first spell and enters cool down on cast, and that you get a slow on your ult, so enemies should take at least a seconds damage of it and take another second on stun, another half a second for them to get out and you should be able to chase easily the remaining 2 or approx 1.3 seconds for your E to get the finishing hit, it can get more complex by adding auto attacks whenever you can which I think is self explanatory but if you want to get more graphical, it could be something more like E'R'*aa>Q-q'*aa>*W>*aa'E.

Items

Ok, so, items, here it gets interesting.

First, I should tell you, Anivia is a high skillcap champ because of a reason, and if you have ever talked to an Anivia main, you have already heard that birdie has an immense tree of options for itemization and the way you build according to gameplay is also defining of how good of an Anivia player you are, so, let's talk items.

First of all, I should tell you, what stats is it birdie is grateful for:

[*]Mana

[*]Ability Power

[*]Magic Penetration

[*]Movement Speed

[*]Health

[*]Cooldown Reduction

and yes, those are in order of importance, now as to why:

Mana: Because Anivia is the MOST mana hungry champion in the whole roster, she needs to rush mana items for her to play succesfully throughout the whole game and there is a reason I put flat mana here and not regen, Anivia oom means dead-bird, waiting for those 50 mana you need to complete the 80 you need for a rank 1 Flashfrost to save your *** early are painful, and almost always leads to a free enemy kill, flat mana feels almost endless and gives you room to use your ult for zoning, also and are real stronk as of 5.13 in contrast to their counterparts on the mana department, and .

Ability Power: Anivia DOES have an AoE ult, but by no means is she designed to be played as a damage over time kind of champion, she sieges, she is scary and she is bursty, you need Ability Power, because Anivia has conditional 1.0 ratios on 2 of her skills, and you should take advantage of it, her Q is two-part damage and when you manage to proc both parts of the damage, it's 0.5 + 0.5, which equals 1.0 and your E does double damage on chilled enemies, and that means 2 * 0.5 which also equals 1.0, I can't stress enough how you should always try to aim for high AP items, and how much AIDS I get from people overvaluing Athene's and using it as only source of AP when playing Anivia, I've made those cry when playing against me so hard, because those kind of Anivia's hurt as much as marshmallows.

Magic Penetration:

Movement Speed: Anivia is tied for the lowest base move speed on the whole roster (I think it is unfair) and that, is something noteworthy, and a problem you should address in your build, because enemies know that the only slow motion moving bird they will see is Anivia(Rito plz), and they WILL take advantage of that, you should not let that happen, hence what I'm telling you, is the reason I love because of the 10% move speed increase plus the nice 100 AP it gives (yes, that stat was nerfed on 5.13 from 120) and also the passive which is an AP Shiv and gives you nice burst, I also love to build when being shoved under turret by AD midlaners (referencing Zed and Yasuo here) and I think you should try out building move speed on birdie, she becomes more fun to play with MS :)

Health: As I've noted before, health is a nice stat to buff up your passive and give Eggnivia an easier time reviving and also, Tanknivia feels nice and gives enemies a hard time, also there are items you can consider to make you tankier and also real stronk, is real nice now that it gives 80 AP, because it boosts offensive a lot with 80 AP + 15 magic pen. + passive and also gives 300 health, is pretty much a standard choice for mana for Anivia and it gives 300 to 500 health, 400 to 800 mana and also nice 60 to 100 AP, is real good with 100 AP and the passive and it gives you 400 health, all those items are viable and make Tanknivia legit.

Cooldown Reduction: Ok, first off, I should tell you that most people overvalue CDR on Anivia a lot, I actually don't like CDR so much, because ok, you get your abilities up faster and it may save you once in a while, but Anivia's kit is not designed for the CDR to be that effective, the only ability you get to spam effectively while all-inning is your E, which would be left on a 3 sec. cooldown instead of 5, but using 2 E's is enough if playing right to succesfully delete enemies, and having your Q up for poking may not be what you are really looking for, unless you like to run oom, remember that after 6 you need to poke with your E>R because that hurts more and that your kit is perfect for peeling, CDR is nice, but should not be considered priority, I only build CDR when I really need it, as to increase DPS and beat outhealing champs like or , where I would try to go for a + build.