Hi, I´m noodle.
I like to come up with, play, and collect off-meta builds in LoL.
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You can get a decent idea on how to play this pick by just reading through the notes above.
However, if you want to deepen your knowledge, keep reading!

Annie is treated as a burst mage on mid, however, her kit has many supportive capabilities. The main reason she can work as a support is her shield and stun. On top of these, she has the second-highest AA range, allowing her to poke easily.

As such, play similar to:
Twisted Fate with his ability to stun priority targets in fights
Janna and her offensive in-fight shielding
Karma to lead your team into fights with your MS
Ivern and his R, allowing you to block important skillshots with Tibbers

Annie´s simplicity is one of her greatest strengths. It allows for many different rune and item choices. Feel free to experiment with them and see, which sits well with you. I have personally had the most success with Guardian.

Using spells gives you stacks of your passive Pyromania. When at 4 stacks, your next offensive spell stuns.
With that said, your Disintegrate is the only spell that does not give a stack immediately upon being cast.
It only gives said stack, once it connects to an enemy.

As such Disintegrate can be used for a surprise stun.
When at 3 stacks of Pyromania, cast your Disintegrate at the target you wish to stun.
While the skillshot is flying, use either Incinerate or Molten Shield, causing the earlier cast skillshot to stun.

Since your Disintegrate can be cancelled by untargetability, this trick is a very good possible outplay option.
 

 

What is the advantage of building tanky?

First, we need to consider the intended playstyle - buffing up your teammates, while setting up picks with your stun. You can not permanently rely on your flash for an engage/disengage and as such being able to take a bit of beating for engaging, as opposed to just blowing up, allows you to stay in the fight longer and have a persistent impact on both the allied and enemy team.

Zhonya's Hourglass is by far the most efficient item for this playstyle. Stasis is one of, if not the, strongest status effects in the game. It allows you to both safely bait enemies, as well as have a safety net for really messy teamfights. Not to mention that it completely negates burst damage (when used well), which has is becoming very common.

Am I missing out on bigger shields by not building caster items?

Yes, however, that is not that big of an issue. As has been discussed before, tank items help you survive for longer.
If you wish to augment your shielding, 99% of the time Redemption is the correct pick.
Comparing it against Ardent Censer or Staff of Flowing Water, redemption has a 20% shielding and healing bonus, whereas both AC & SoFW each give 10%. Factor in the bonus heal on activation and Redemption is clearly the best pick for better healing in general.

Do I ever build Ardent Censer then?

There are two niche cases where Ardent is a decent rush item.
Those being when your ADC picks either Twitch or Kog'Maw.
Both of these champions synergize really well with Ardent, and as such, you building it will make their job much easier. However, by doing so, you put a lot of trust and gold into a single person on the team, as opposed to having more generally useful items. If said Twitch or Kog'Maw then turn out to be unable to carry the game, you have wasted 2300 gold.

I believe it is always better to play for yourself than to put so much effort into enabling a single teammate.

Is a purely enchanter playstyle possible?

Yes, absolutely. Shurelya into redemption into more caster items, pair it with aery & revitalize and you will be shielding like there is no tomorrow. You will be MUCH squishier, but the build is possible. I wouldn't recommend running it in ranked tho.
  

The problem with Tear

In the item notes about choosing your support item, I mention that it is a decent idea for beginners to get a Tear of the Goddess along with the Relic Shield to help with mana consumption in lane. However, Tear is quite problematic.

1) Tear gives too much mana

This might seem like a good thing, but really it is not. Buying more mana is a trap of very many off-meta and meta builds alike. Mana is a limited resource for a reason - you are meant to think before using your ability and make the choice of trading Mana for something else. Be it a trade, pushing a wave, or an all-in. By putting gold into mana, increasing your max mana pool, you are delaying your power spikes. A good rule of thumb is: "if you are not low on mana after a teamfight, you either did not fight, or you have too much mana."

With just the mana regeneration of Spellthief's Edge and Shurelya's Battlesong, you should never have to worry about mana, unless you perma spam Disintegrate and Incinerate.

In general: Mana Regeneration > Max Mana

2) Tear wastes an inventory spot

If you want to buy a tear, you need to do so ASAP. I would recommend backing for it as soon as you have enough gold for it, regardless of the wave state. The reason is simple. Tear takes a long time to stack up.

When we compare the possible builds from Tear, we can only choose between Archangel's Staff or Fimbulwinter.
However, neither of these are ideal to build early.

As such, you are forced to sit on tear, until it is your last item and only then upgrade it, or sell it. This is not the best, as it takes up space, which could be used for consumables, such as wards, or other more useful component items.

[13.6] 4th April 2023
Well its been a while. Annie is a solidified support now.
Updated the items a bit to reflect current patch, but the gameplay is mostly the same. Start Q or W now for the stun.

[12.20] 24th October 2022
> aery is overall a better choice over guardian rn
> annie is in a rough spot because of the constant poke meta on bot, but playable
> zhonya is more expensive now, more of a situational item now, prefer frozen heart

[12.5] 29th March 2022
> guide published

Thank you for reading my guide!
I hope you have plenty of fun with this pick on the rift.

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Have a wonderful day!