Hello there summoners, my name is Weeznaz and I am here today to give you a beginner's guide to play and dominate with the Ability Power based champion, Annie. This guide is designed for Summoner's who are new to Annie, new to the role of Support, or relatively new to League of Legends. Just to note I was a Silver 4 in Season 4. This is just my humble opinion on Annie, so take what I advise with a grain of salt, and I would love to discuss any opinions you may have on my build. Annie is an AP caster with medium/short range on all her abilities. For comparison: Nami's Aqua Prison, Morgana's Tormented Shadow and Dark Binding, and Thresh's Death Sentence all outrange Annie's spells. Annie's Disintegrate, Incinerate, and Summon: Tibbers are very short/medium range This short ability range makes her an "all in champion" that has to commit to her initiations. Annie may be short ranged, but she is high risk/high reward, and is so much fun to play as.

My personal preference for starting Annie is to take Incinerate once loading onto Summoner's Rift. Stay on the fountain as you use this spell 4 times. Then once you come off the fountain, you will have an AOE stun ready to go without having lost any mana before the laning phase. I recommend the gold generation item Spell Thief's Edge as this is the most aggressive oriented of the gold generation items. However, do not upgrade this item. Spell Thief's Edge is all the gold generation you need. Once in lane, while your abilities may be medium/ short ranged, your auto attacks are long range. With a range of 625 units, this is only matched at level 1 by Caitlyn and Kog Maw with his Bio- Arcane Barrage turned on. What does this mean: Auto attack your opponents like crazy. Just dodge their skill shots, and although your auto attack deal low damage, engaging in short trades while taking no damage back means your upcoming burst combo will be more effective.

Due to Annie's Passive Pyromania, you can stun enemy champions for 1.25->1.5->1.75 seconds(depending on your summoner level. The most efficient way to engage with Annie is the following combo: Prime your passive using Molten Shield and Disintegrate( Disintegrate won't take any CS from your AD Carry unlike Incinerate). Once your passive is charged, communicate to you AD Carry its time. Then Flash into the enemy duo lane and Summon: Tibbers them, which should stun them, then use Incinerate to damage both of them. The next step is situational. Ideally, you want to kill their AD Carry, however depending on the health bars of both enemy duo laners, use Disintegrate on the enemy champion that is lower on health then use Ignite on that champion. If your AD Carry is doing damage during this time he/she can get at least one kill if not a double kill. So as a summary: Pyromania, wait for all cooldowns to be up then... Flash -> Summon: Tibbers -> Incinerate -> Disintegrate -> Ignite

Step 1: Prime your passive by using 4 spells beforehand.
Step 2: get in range of your enemies, this requires either Flash, Speed boost, or having good positining.
Step 3: Pre level 6 use Incinerate to stun both enemy bot laners. Level 6 and above you want to lead with Summon: Tibbers
Step 4: Follow up your initiation spell with followup damage onto the enemy that will be easier to kill. If both are at 100% health aim for the AD Carry, but if the support is low health target him instead.

Ideal Surprise Damage combo: Flash -> Summon: Tibbers -> Incinerate -> Disintegrate-> Auto attacks

There are only two summoner spell combos to consider with Annie

1: Flash + Ignite: My personal favorite combo for getting my carry early kills and lane pressure.

2: Flash + Exhaust: A safer laning and superior late game option. By going this, you just don't have the early game threat that I like to have.

I play Annie as a very aggressive support and want to get an early kill as quickly as possible. I prefer to play my AP carry set up in order to deal heavy damage early on. I take flat AP quints, magic penetration marks, and scaling AP glyphs in order to pack a harder punch early in the game as well as have more damage later on. I take scaling health seals because Annie is extremely squishy and these runes help mitigate damage taken in the late game. This rune set up is just my personal favorite way to play Annie.

I prefer to run a 0-18-12 mastery page simply to maximize the effect of the Cunning Tree, which contains the only really good Keystone for Annie Thunderlord's Decree . Support Annie doesn't make good use of any of the other keystone masteries.

Cunning Tree
I take Wanderer so I can roam the map better when I need to, also as a support Savagery is not very useful. As a support the odds of me ever getting a buff are slim to none, so Runic Affinity is not a good investment leaving you to take Secret Stash by default. When I want to go all in I want to deal as much damage as possible, so I take Merciless . Also note Meditation is not necessary on Annie if you manage your mana correctly. I take Bandit because as a support I need to generate as much gold as possible. I take Intelligence as Annie loves CDR to make Summon: Tibbers come up as fast as possible. For my keystone mastery I go Thunderlord's Decree because the early damage is good for your early trades. Also Stromraider's Surge isn't very good as after Annie dumps her spells she is useless, so her having a small burst of speed doesn't mean much. Additionally, Windspeaker's Blessing is useless on Annie as she doesn't give out any form of heals or shields to a team mate.

I go 12 points into the resolve tree for 1 reason: Insight . Having your flash and ignite come up as often as possible is crucial for being able to consistently engage onto the enemy team. I take Explorer in order to help me roam around the map.

Spell Thief's Edge + 4 Health pots: The only real way Annie can start. Since Ancient Coin is a bad starting support item and you don't use Relic Shield that well. Now I never upgrade this into Frost Queen's Claim because F.Q.Claim isn't great on Annie. Annie would prefer to be able to run faster at enemies, which is why many Annie's build either Talisman of Ascension or Turbo Chemtank, or both.

Sightstone + Sweeping Lens: Mandatory support items, I always pick these up as my first purchase so that I can help control the map through vision. Having vision control means you can act aggressive with more confidence. you can keep track of dragon timers, watch the river, and help keep your carry safe.

Ruby Sightstone: While this is a natural upgrade of Sightstone I don't pick up this item early: Since the war cap is 3, spending 800 gold to have a 4th ward and only have 250 more health isn't a gold efficient purchase early on. Better to use this money on completing a different item. I usually save this pick up as a 4th item when teamfighting gets more intense and want to become slightly tankier for them.

Turbo Chemtank and Talisman of Ascension: Both of these items basically give the same end result: Run at your enemies faster. You don't need to buy both of these, most likely only one is needed. I perfer Turbo Chemtank as, assuming I have vision of the enemies]] I will run at them faster. In addition, Annie is by default squishy, R. Glory helps make Annie less squishy and more likely to survive her engages. Talisman of Ascension is a cheaper option that builds out of a Forbidden Idol, which is so good on supports. T. Ascension gives you a speed boost regardless of where the enemy team is, meaning that this item is the superior disengage tool. I prefer R. Glory for the superior speed boost, and tankiness.

Mobility Boots with Distortion Enchantment: This is by far my favorite pair or shoes on Annie. Gives me map presence, superior engage, and the Distortion Enchntment makes my Flash initiation come back up quicker.

Mikael's Blessing: This is a situational item I pick up if the enemy has hard hitting CC that could kill my carry. It can "cleanse" them of almost and 1 form of CC, and the mana regen is a nice touch. This item is a decent purchase on Annie if you need it.

Rabadon's Deathcap + Zhonya's Hourglass + Void Staff: If you are ahead and want to have some fun, this is my favorite way to play Annie. This is a risky way to play, you will have little to no utility in late game, but if you area head and just want to end the game this is my preferred way to play. All of your spells will hit like a truck and Summon: Tibbers will melt people. If you are behind as Annie, don't consider any of these items.

Warmog's Armor + Randuin's Omen + Frozen Heart + Banshee's Veil: All of these are viable selfish tank options. These are situational items. If I buy these, I like R. Omen for the extra CC, Frozen Heart for the CDR, and Banshee's for the shield.

Locket of the Iron Solari: this is a good item to purchase when facing multiple AP threats. It gives the team utility and a safer teamfight.

Pros:
Long auto attack range,625 units. Only Caitlyn or Kog Maw with auto range increase on can match this level 1.

Has High Burst, even with little Ability Power items

Has a fun champion play style and "fantasy fulfillment" (And no my head is not in the gutter on this one)

Can snowball your lane very easily

Can wave clear decently if need be( If your team is ahead Annie can become a relatively effective makeshift split pusher)

Has many great looking skins, each one is unique and gives a different vibe
Sidenote: I have tried out "Sweet Heart Annie" on the PBE. For the price of 750 RP you get to kill the enemies with a Care Bear, buy this skin immediately.

Respectable cooldowns on all of her spells.

Cons
Annie's Spell are medium/short ranged

Annie is initiation heavy: you can die a lot

Annie is initiation heavy: this is not very useful if your team starts to fall behind.

SQUISHY without any health items, and even with Ruby Sightstone.

Her passive's stun requires preparation, in comparison to more immediate forms of Crowd Controll, such as a Nami bubble, Morgana Dark binding, and a Sona Crescendo.

KILL STEALING: It is very likely that when you initiate onto the enemy team you will Kill steal from your AD Carry when performing your combo. This is a very real possibility that may anger and frustrate your laning partner. I honestly don't have an answer or this problem, since your playstyle encourages you to unload your full combo onto the enemy team.

Being an Annie support is part skill, part lauck, and part having a good AD carry with you. Not accounting for summoner skill, these are the AD carries that either synergize or don't work with Annie. Now, the Top 5 worst list, CAN work with Annie depending on skill level, they just aren't as likely to do so than the TOP 5 best. In addition, Im only going to be discussing AD carries that are worth anything, so Quinn/ Urgot/Teemo/ Azir/Gnar/ Jayce/ Kennen do not apply at all.

Top 5 Best AD Carries
Kalista: Kalista has average auto attack range, her "Pirece" has 1150 range, due to Annie's high auto range she makes great use out of Kalista's Sentinel passive( dealing extra damage to champions when you both attack them at the same time), and "Fates Call" can transport Annie 1500 units! "Fates Call" might as well be renamed "Tibber's Delivery Service" giving you Tibbers a potential range of 2100 units! In addition Kalista scales into a very capable and strong ADC.

Jinx:
Jinx is a hyper carry with a respectable laning phase. Jinx has a great mid game power spike. In addition, Jinx's "Flame Chompers" synergize perfectly with your passive stun. Simply stun them, once the stun has taken effect Jinx puts the Flame Chomper at the enemies feet, when they wake up from the stun, they are immediately snared. If both of you unload your combo's you can get a kill easily, maybe even a double kill.

Corki: Corki has an amazing mid game power spike and mirrors Annie's love for snowballing. While he has no CC to synergize with your stun, his damage before and after building a Trinity Force make up for this. In addition, Corki has amazing post 6 poke and a very long dash for security purposes.

Graves: Similar to Corki, Graves has immense damage pre and post level 6. If you both engage and are level 6, Annie's stun can hold them in place for a "Collateral Damage" which even with no AD items built does damage. Graves also has "soft Crowd control" in the form of his Smoke Screen, which can make it even harder for the enemy duo lane to recover from. Look for a level 6 double kill.

Sivir: While Sivir may have a short auto attack range. she has a long range poke with her Boomerang, but more importantly Sivir has a massive AOE teamwide speedboost. One of Annie's weaknesses is that it can be hard to get in range for her Tibbers. Sivir's "On the Hunt" can speed you up so fsst you will be in Tibbers Stun range in no time. In addition, Sivir has good damage to follow up Annie's.

Top 5 Worst AD Carries
Vayne: Not only does this champion not have a mid game powerspike, Vayne has one of the worst ADC laning phases in existence. Even if you set up a perfect stun, Vayne may not have the power early game to properly capitalize on it. However, the more likely scenario is that basically any other ADC will poke Vayne down to below half health and you will be forced to use your stun, not for engage, but for disengage. Annie and Vayne don't have very much synergy.

Caitlyn: While Caitlyn has a very strong laning phase, she doens't have a mid game power spike, in fact she has a mid game dip. However, the biggest problem is in Caitlyn's kit design. Caitlyn is designed to poke down her enemies over time, she does not at any time want to go "all in". Annie is all about the "all in'. Annie and Caitlyn simply don't have synergy.

Twitch: While Twitch in the late game scales into a monster, in the early he doesn't have enough power to properly capitalize on Annie's damage and power spike. Also, while Twitch's laning phase isn't the weakest, see Vayne, his laning phase is weak enough where the majority of ADC's have a stronger laning phase, which can make Twitch irrelevant in the early-mid game.

Kog Maw: Very similar to Twitch. He has a relative weak laning phase, and early game can't properly take advantage of Annie's powerspike. In addition, Annie doesn't have enough utility to keep Kog Maw health in prolonged exhanges, unlike Nami or Janna. This is a particular problem for Kog Maw since his auto range is very low, 500 units compared to the standard 550. Without Kog Maw's Bio-Arcance Barrage turned on, he can be poked down eaily. Annie and Kog Maw simply don't mix.

Varus: Similar to Caitlyn, he has a strong laning phase but doesn't have a kit designed for all in's. In addition Varus is relatively immovable( easy to gank) and many other ADC's have a more impactful powerspikes than Varus'