Annie Build Guide by TheOnlyLite

Introduction

About Me

Hello everyone! I have played since the middle of S2 and still playing to this day. My IGN is Promised Victory on the NA server and I am currently Platinum IV. Throughout my life, I have always strayed away from games that lack a competitive aspect. This doesn't say that I don't play other games, but I try to stick with games that can always be a challenge for me. I have been participating in the FGC (Fighting Game Community) since Super Street Fighter 4 and recently picked up Super Smash Bros. 4. For now, League of Legends will not be the game I will be competing in, but instead, analyzing and educating players on high level gameplay I have learned about in my experience playing the game. Note: Most of my guides will be personally created for my playstyle, but should work for anyone with proper insight of matchups, tricks, and mechanics.

TLDR;
IGN: Promised Victory - NA Server
Current Rank: Platinum 4
Long time competitive player/follower
On the side analyst
Guides will not always be "normal"

Why Annie?

The question is 'Why not?' Annie is a champion that everyone can love and hate at the same time. Kind of like Teemo maybe? Nahhh. Annie is a bit more lovable. Admit it, you just can't help but to like Annie. To your allies, Annie can be a one man... and one bear, army with enough damage and crowd control that would even make Leona scream for her life. Big ole Tibbers is all you need to find yourself standing on five enemy corpses.. "Let's count to five!" -Annie, the Dark Child

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Very strong lane presence + Long range harass + AOE and single target CC + High early game damage

Annie has an extremely strong laning phase due to her high base damage and godlike lane presence with the stun. You can also choose whether you want to use your AOE skill or your single target skill when you stun. Either one is situational and can change the outcome of a gank or fight.

Cons

- Telegraphed stun - Pretty squishy without her E - Only one chance of CC

The fact that Annie's stun is not on demand makes it able to be telegraphed. The little swirling particle around her when you reach four stacks of Pyromania shows that you are ready to initiate a fight or have the potential to kill the enemy with your jungler waiting on your stun. The stun is also a one shot only ability in early game due to lack of cooldown reduction. Without her stun/abilities available, she is a sitting duck.

Picking Annie

Annie is a very strong champion when played correctly, but will not always be able to fulfill her role in certain games. When you are selecting Annie, be sure to look at what the enemy has on their team already. Sometimes just waiting for the right moment will be enough to win you a game.

Annie fills a very niche role because there are many factors that will cause her to not be as effective as in other situations. For example, Janna will completely gimp your initiation attempts with Monsoon unless you delete her or one of her allies before she has the time to react.

Spells and Skill Order

PASSIVE: Pyromania
Every 4 spell casts, Annie's next damaging spell will stun.
A great passive that allows Annie to have a very dominant lane wherever she is because there is always a threat of getting chunked without any reciprocation. This passive creates a mindgame that the enemy has to guess if you're going to initiate, if there's a jungler, or if you're just going to keep the stun up for intimidation.

Q: Disintegrate
Long range single target nuke that refunds mana and half the cooldown by killing a unit with this skill.
This will be your main form of harass and farming. Since you get all of your mana back by killing minions with Disintegrate, you can use it to farm minions that you normally wouldn't be able to get with just auto attacking. This is also a targeted skill so if you target someone when they flash, they will still be stunned when the fireball hits.
W - Incinerate
Short range AOE spell that hits everything in front of Annie
Usually this skill is taken first to keep a multi-stun up in case of invades or counter-invades. Very good to combo after stunning with Q vice versa. The only drawback is that this skill is not targeted so it is slightly avoidable. Great alternative for starting fights if you don't have Tibbers yet.
E: Molten Shield
When activated gives bonus armor and magic resist and mini Thornmail
Not a great spell as it's pretty useless in most situations. Use this as a buffer for your passive because it costs very little mana. You can also sit at 3 stacks and when you're ready to engage, press E and lay down the Tibbers.

R: Summon: Tibbers
Have you seen my bear Tibbers?
One of the most iconic figures in League of Legends. If you've found Tibbers, it's highly likely that you're already dead or about to be dead. He's Annie's protector and will rip your face off. Use Tibbers to initiate fights or start your initial burst combo.

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Armor
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

In top lane, you'll be facing a lot of strong bruisers and juggernauts that just do a lot of damage in general. I like to run scaling resists in the top lane because that ensures that you will have guaranteed damage reduction against both types of damage.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction

Extremely strong, standard page that works on all AP carries. You generally don't need armor or magic resist because playing safe and gaining levels is the easiest and fastest in mid lane. The scaling health will pay off the longer the game goes on. The cooldown is especially good on Annie so you can have Tibbers off cooldown more often.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
  
• Greater Seal of Armor
  
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power
  
• Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration

Due to Annie being in support role, you won't be able to build as much damage as you would like to. Even with the support gold generating items, you wouldn't have enough gold unless you completely starve your ADC or jungler by stealing every kill. The mana regeneration helps you keep your mana pool higher and able to initiate ganks with your stun.

Overview:

All of these rune pages are just variations of a standard AP page and can still be further modified to suit your playstyle.

Masteries

Top/Mid Annie:

Both have the same page because Annie is a very, very strong lane bully and has kill pressure even before hitting level 6. There is no point in getting the sustain masteries in the Ferocity tree because playing correctly will allow you to counter any engage the enemy attempts and chunk them in the process.

*NOTE: Thunderlord's Decree is still extremely strong right now so you can go 12/18/0 if you wanted. Going this route would give you basically the same stats, but no dot damage.

In the cunning tree, I take movement speed for easier initiation, biscuits for extra sustain, mana regen for a larger mana pool, and Dangerous Game because the gold mastery doesn't apply for solo laners.

Support Annie:Just because Thunderlord's Decree is so strong right now, I've opted to choose it over Deathfire Touch or Fervor of Battle . The only thing you have to take note of is when to go aggressive. WithThunderlord's Decree, you have a ton of damage when it's off cooldown. Try to combo this with your Pyromania stun to prevent any trading from the enemy.

Overview:

I choose to invest 18 points into Ferocity because I want to take advantage of Annie's extremely strong lane bully game.

With support Annie, the new [[thunderlord's decree) is super strong. It's almost ridiculous how good this keystone mastery is. Don't expect to be doing much damage later in the game because it is only 10% of your AP.

Core Items

Technically this item can be built on any lane, but for consistency, I put this item on Top Lane since most meta top laners scale very well and RoA will let Annie scale as well. This item gives stats that are very preferable for Annie such as HP since she is relatively low range, mana to be able to cast spells more, sustain for laning, and a ton of AP since all her spells are AP based.

Currently, this item is extremely good because there is no more extra cooldown reduction from the offense, now Ferocity, tree. Any kind of CDR helps Annie because she can have Summon: Tibbers up more often, which is a crucial part of starting fights or killing a target.

Always a good item for a mage. This item provides armor and AP which is amazing against AD champions and a couple seconds of invulnerability which can mean the difference between a kill for you or the enemy.

Once you build this item, Annie's damage will go up by a truckload. Always recommended once you get two items. You'll immediately see the difference when buying this after a Zhonya or RoA.

Extremely good item for high burst. The movement speed and high amount of AP is extremely good for Annie so she can initiate and blow people up. Not necessary, but extremely good on her.

Again, not a necessary item, but if the enemy has a lot of magic resist, you probably want to build this item. Another alternative would be Liandry's Torment against tankier champions for the burn on their current health.

After the change to the game, Frost Queen's Claim is basically the new Twin Shadows (RIP). The change was for the better and made Frost Queen's Claim way better than it was. Definitely a great buy for Annie as she excels and getting picks. One stun will certainly spell death for an enemy or at least force them to expend their summoner spell such as Flash.

Even more important item on support Annie than mid or top because you will need to keep your stun available at a moment's notice. Also keeping Summon: Tibbers up more often will benefit your side in team fights.

Core item to keep vision up, but not necessary as a first or even second item. The new Warding Totem holds two wards, so technically you will have access to four wards with your ADC.

Always a good item and even better when you upgrade it to oracle aleration as you can see wards and units nearby. Especially useful against Shaco and Rengar and it shows a cool frame by frame when they are in range of your trinket!

The rest of the items listed are all important, but you need to choose the ones that are best for your team.