:WARNING: LONG AND DETAILED GUIDE :WARNING:

Prologue:

This is my first guide, having played League of Legends since beta till now and would like to share my personal favorite champ of all times, Anivia. Please forgive me for my poor english.
Anyway, it doesn't matter if you are a seasoned player or just started LoL, it is not shameful to read guides or ask noob questions, you'll notice that there is a lot of tricks and tips you are yet to discover in LoL team play.
If you are reading this guide, or going to, please feel free to comment and rate will be appreciated. However if you just started playing LoL and want to try out Anivia, i'd recommend trying other champions first and get used to the game, get ganked a few times, feed like hell to learn the game, then try Anivia.


For Those Who Hates Abbreviations:
LoL = League of Legends
lol = Laugh Out Loud
AD = Attack Damage
AP = Ability Power
CC = Crowd Controls: Stuns, Snares, Slows, Path Blocks etc.
HP = Health Points
MP = Mana Points
CD = Cool Downs
CDR = Cool Downs Reduction
DEF = Defense Power
MR = Magic Resistance
OP = Over Power
OOM = Out of Mana
Ult/SS = Ultimate Skill
mPen = Magic Penetration
aPen = Armor Penetration
AoE = Area of Effect: Skills or Attacks that affect an area of targets

Personal Winning Streak

Tough games, the scores aren't that amazing, but my Anivia turned losing games into winnings, and they focus you hard...

Pros:
1. 4min CD passive egg revive, can be really useful in 1v1 or team fights.
2. One of the best CC in game.
3. Life saver, the best champion at saving teammates.
4. Annoying path blocker, blocks enemy walk path.
5. Able to AoE slow instantly.
6. One of the fastest farming champion in LoL.
7. Great ganker.
8. Stun, Slow, Path Block, she has it all.
9. Free revive skill, Anivia needs no guardian!
10. AoE stun which you can pick targets and damage the rest.
11. Ashe has a bird to scout, Anivia has her ice wall to scout :)
12. Has the best team fight CC abilities during late game.

Cons:
1. Low HP and slow moving speed at start, roughly 1800 HP at lv18.
2. Out of mana easily.
3. AD champions that can ignore CC are dangerous threat to Anivia.
4. Easily 1 shotted by Veigar, LeBlanc, Xin Zhao, Master Yi.
5. Long CD Skills.
6. Skills become useless if enemies stack MR, you are in real trouble.
7. First to die in ganks if you're not paying attention.
8. Skills are not easy to manage, highly depends on current situation.
9. If you are a lazy person with your fingers, don't play Anivia at all.
10. *Important* Requires very good predictions and strategies.
11. *Important* Anivia is not a recommended late game champion if enemy champions have thick HP.
12. Doesn't dps fast enough during late game.

I'm being very detailed, because everything counts for playing a good Anivia, knowing how to counter and retreat save countless lives and turn tables.

Some of you may ask, is Anivia my kind of champion that suits my playing style?
Anivia is a difficult champion to master, even tho i am writing this guide, i dare not to say that i have mastered all of this bird's aspect and potential, however it is not recommended for early LoL players, mainly is because they lack the knowledge of the skills and abilities that the other champions have and how to counter them. Anivia is a great champion to either lane with or solo, and also great at pressuring lanes. Anivia also have incredible CC abilities that is crucial in team fights or soloing other champions. No doubt, Anivia is also one of the fastest AP farmer in LoL either on lanes or jungling (after lv6). To summarize it, Anivia is a champion that can turn the table of a game, a support hero and semi AP assasin, recommended for players above lv15, why? Don't spoil Anivia's OPness...



Is Anivia a popular champ in ranked matches?
One good thing about Anivia is she doesn't get banned, almost not at all...She is a good champ to have, either to support and early game ganking pressure, and with and she can stay in lane forever to farm, however the team leader or you have to decide if late game Anivia would really dance good and support team fights, if the enemy has really good carries like Master Yi, Veigar, Mundo etc, then having Anivia in team could be a potential counter by them, however if the team has more CC champs or squishy ones, Anivia will surely help out a lot, even if played by a decent Anivia player.



Should Anivia Solo?
Again, it depends on your team builds, most of the time Anivia should not be the one soloing, unless there is a jungler and she can solo top. Anivia can push hard, CC hard, and deal hard solid damage with the and combo, which is painful before lv9 for most of the non-tank champs. Anivia can handle 2 v 1, or 3 v 1 soloing depending on the situation given, playing defensively is also a great tactic to last hit creeps and keep enemy champs at low HP, or farm creeps with .

Simple and short...


Anivia is AP based, so to hit your enemy at near full damage, you need mPen or magic penetration, don't you just hate it when your enemy left that 1 last little hit and escaped?

Greater Seal of Replenishment
Anivia burns MP real fast (really fast), especially to keep Glacial Storm up, so flat MP Regen runes is always good for starting and helps at the end, meaning you can spam a couple more skills before you need to go back and heal every time, it looks noobish.


LvLing faster is always on the upper hand, and Anivia can hold a lane really well so using Experience Runes allow you to level up very fast, it is always good, and Anivia has really low HP, higher level will have more basic HP thus higher survivability.


Thats about it, its up to most people how they want to play, there isn't really a fixed combination in building runes, however using aPen or armor penetration runes would be stupid in this case. Unless you go for AD build, which is not covered in this guide.

Rebirth

This is the best passive all champions dreamed to have, after you died and your passive is not in cool down, you will become an egg on the spot where you were killed, after a short period of time you will rebirth at the same % of HP the egg has, if the enemy did % damage to the egg, you will rebirth with % less HP, if enemies destroy the egg, you are dead for sure this time.
This skill is extremely useful at the beginning and mid game, you have 1 extra life to waste your enemies' skills and ultimates, then reborn and chase or CC them, stuns them for your teammates, or run away. Just pay attention on the cool down if you were really killed, and abuse it to either reborn max HP, creating a diversion or stay at low HP to bait for your teammates to ambush them.

Flash Frost

The best stun skill in game in my opinion, because when travels through enemies it damages them and slow them for 20% thus applying chill effect, then stuns anything that is in the detonate range (I know,WTF right?).
To use the skill into its full potential, the player must have really good timing and reactions to manually detonate by hitting Q again during the missile flight. This skill requires the player to have extremely good movement predictions to land in the line of the enemy movement.
However the best damage is when Flash Frost passes the enemy champion and detonated right behind them, because if it is a direct hit, the passing through initial damage and slow 20% will be wasted and doing the stun damage only, which is 1/2 damage and stunning them. However if lands right behind the enemy by just a little, it will do full damage.

Crystallize

This skill, has a really long CD at lv1, and it is very effective when it is placed at the right places and on right timings. But, using this skill is not as simple as it seems, you must position yourself to rotate the angle of placing (the skilling mouse guide, whatever they call it), it can be a little annoying to place exactly the angle you want at first, but practice makes perfect. can save dozen of your teammates' butts, blocking narrow passages, holding towers line, and even scouting! Yes, just like Ashe would shoot her bird to scout, Anivia can use Crystallize to scout too, as it has ridiculously high FoV (field of vision), and reveals that entire fog for 3sec, it has saved me from ambushes thousand times, and a most annoying skill to have in team fights, you can easily split the enemies into minimal numbers and the rest that are not engaged will watch their teammates get ripped apart :)
The best part of this skill is blocking the retreating route of enemies, so they will have to either run back to you, or stand there do nothing (which often makes people smile). Again, movement predictions is very important, giving the enemies a few more steps is crucial for ganking and team fights, thus Anivia is the best battle terrain planner most of the time.

Frostbite

Anivia's primary and highest damaging skill that must be the first to get maxed. However, this skill is only affective when the target is chilled. Chilling Effect applies from or , and last for 3sec. When the target is chilled, Frostbite will deal two times the damage to a single enemy target, it is one of the most painful skill during early game and mid games, and with full items, its almost 900-1,000 per skill hit at 700ap as long as the target is chilled. Combo'd with , at lv2, squishy champions will lose at least 40% of their hp depending on their starting items, therefore first blood is common for Anivia :)

Glacial Storm

Anivia's ultimate is a target ground AoE spell and it will not disappear unless Anivia leaves the skill channeling area or switch it off by hitting R again, it will drains up your MP really fast if you just leave it there. To perfect this skill, all you need is concentration and timings. Use it to farm, and turn it off right after the creeps die, or cast it to instantly Chill targets and slowing them, then turn it off. It has a fast CD, so you can spam it as long as your MP could support it. The damage of Glacial Storm is not so amazing, but it CC really well and can finish creeps very fast! During team fights, always drop it on enemy foot and they will be slowed and take damage every seconds, making them hard to retreat and suffer damage at the same time.
When you are retreating, drop one right behind you where enemies will walk right into it, and you just keep on running, don't bother to turn it off because it will disappear if you ran too far.
Glacial Storm is also one of the best skills to save your teammates!


I understand it is rather long to read, but from my experiences, Anivia is a very difficult and rather hard to control and needs a lot of practices.

Recommended Summoner Spells

Teleport

Anivia is really good at zoning and controlling lanes, she may not be the best, but staying at the lane longer will definitely be better, so teleport allows you to port back to buy items and back to the lane within 20sec, that 1 new boots can make the difference.
Another great thing about Anivia having teleport is ganking support, for example teleporting to a lane where your teammates are having trouble, and you jump you and start CC'ing enemies and turn the table.

Clarity

Why clarity? Because Anivia needs MP, a lots of MP to sustain team fights and her Glacial Storm. Clarity provides that extra 40% MP heal, and also healing other teammates MP, allowing more constant ganking opportunities than having to cry OOM or out of mana.
Clarity can also surprise enemies, because seasoned players would chase a out of mana champion as they can't spam skills, however for Anivia CC abilities, she can easily take down a few champions that are squishy.


Only these 2 summoner spells are highly recommended for Anivia, it allows her to lane fast, farm faster, and gank faster, with the help of clarity, you do not have to worry about a second gank, or teammates out of mana to help out. Overall, it is the best so far that i've found after trying dozens of combination for Anivia.

So, you have finally decided to use Anivia after the long read...

Laning

Anivia is both offensive and defensive at the same time. She has very good zoning and capable of pushing enemies back due to her and , most champions will be aware and not stay in range. Therefore, always try and get into the brush before enemies do, and harass them with + combo, which will deal a significant amount of damage. Always concentrate and last hit creeps, don't hesitate to use to last hit creeps too, because it will do x2 times damage on the end of the mage creeps, sometimes stunning enemy champs. Whenever you are running low of mana, just use asap, don't save it, keep the pressure on and force enemy champs to stay back from last hitting creeps. When you have roughly 1600 gold and lvl6, depending on situation, port back and back to lane and continue. You have full MP, and don't focus on harassing unless necessary, try to use your in the center of the creeps and last hit them all, keep on repeating and you'll be rich in no time. When your is ready, port back and buy a , this greatly boost up your AP and CDR, allowing you to stun faster and hit even harder with .

and Skills Combo Tips

If you have used Anivia before, you should know that is not a easy click and target skill. Very good movement predictions of enemy champs is required, but how? So according to human psychology (by an actual science research), humans have a specific pattern which they will perform it constantly without knowing it, which means they always have a same pattern of moving their champs, by observing how they evade your first 2 or 3 you should be able to catch where they would run next time, and land your similar to their pattern. This technique applies for other similar skills too.
It is not entirely based on how lucky you are, because you can detonate your to do an early stun, or pick your targets in between the missile route. For a wider range and more possibility of stunning your targets, always move to the front a little more then fire to land behind enemy champs, if they run backwards, it will hit because you initially made a further shot, and if they ran forward and stood there, detonate it while it travels through and BOOM, they are stunned and chilled, quickly run up and them while they are chilled, and retreat, repeating rotation to keep pressuring enemies.

Farming

As mentioned, Anivia is one of the fastest farming AP machine, and it is very simple, find a group of creeps, drop for 3 to 4 seconds, then and detonate to finish off the left overs. As for neutral creeps, do the same thing, however don't keep your up too often, at most 2seconds and turn it off, then frost bite to finish them off. Anivia farming's speed is so great that even a noob can do it quick. *Important* Always drop in jungles to scout if enemy champs are missing, this will save your from jungle ganks.

Getting the Blue Golem Buff

The Blue Golem Buff...so popular and most wanted for AP champs, if your teammates don't mind, you should get Blue Buff whenever you can, the mana regen and 22% CDR is the best thing ever for Anivia to farm non-stop and drop continuously without having to run out of mana. However, Anivia can't actually solo the Blue Golen until lv9, you can do it before lv9 but it will take forever for you to solo it, else, try to get a teammate to help you once you reached lv6. *Important* Always drop in jungles to scout if enemy champs are missing, especially when you are getting golem buff, place one at the river's ramp, this will save your from jungle ganks or buff stealers.

Non-stop Harassing

The cooldown of Anivia's is considerably fast, so use it to harass your enemy champs, they will either fall back, or try to avoid standing in it, if any of them are Chilled by and is in your range, use on them and retreat(*Important* Remember to turn off your whenever the area is empty). If they are low on health, to stun them, and again. Use again on fleeing champs, then place on their front and they will either stay inside your or run backwards to go around your ice wall, so them again, you will definitely get a kill with this method. *Important* Always your enemies only when they are chilled, else you are wasting your skill CD and MP.

Mastering The Ice Wall

Using correctly requires a lot of experience, you don't want to leave small gaps that allow enemies to get through, or block your teammates from ganking, or even block yourselves on chasing fleeing champs, and yes you will get flamed most of the time for placing noobish ice wall that actually helped your enemies instead, you don't want to be accused as a spy now do you?
The angle of the wall's placement is the exact angle of where your champ's face is facing, so if you were to place a 90 degree horizontal wall, your champ should be facing 90 degree north, to achieve that, just click and move to position yourself (do i really need to explain this?), it can be done in many ways, the art of movements lies in you already... So, just remember not to block yourself or your teammates that would really messed up things.
During team fights, always think fast, and split the enemies apart, or cut their retreating route, this is really effective as your carries have enough time to finish them off 1 by 1, rather than struck yourselves in team fights AoE and CC, which will be fatal.
Moreover, + is also a great combo at any situation, just be fast with your fingers, and that is the first thing you have to prepare before picking Anivia.
Sometimes if you placed directly on top of a champ, they will be pushed either forward or backwards, i have no clear explanation for this, but this can be an advantage.

Saving Your Teammates

Ever heard of The Dancing Queen Aniva? well i made it up, because she can really dance with her skills to save countless teammates. Firstly, always use to block enemies that are chasing your fleeing teammates, then drop right at the corner of the ice wall where enemies have to pass (don't bother to turn off) this will slow them significantly and quickly run along with your teammates (staying right behind him), save your for enemies who have either or . If there are champs such as Teemo, Master Yi, Gangplank, Rammus etc who moves fast or ignore slows, try to retreat into the jungle and place to block the entire path, a lvl2 can block most of the small paths in jungle. If things are really bad, you could sacrifice yourself to save your team's carry and their stacks, or buy the team some precious time.

Starting

Start with a and x2, this is crucial for having enough MP to sustain heavy pressure on enemies and survivability. You should not rush, because of your low HP and slow moving speed. Focus on harassing and last hitting creeps, kill if necessary.

Before Level 7

You really need a boost of speed to boost up your walk speed...so you have to get it first, then total cost $945 for both items on your first trip back, you need as the first item because everytime your turn on your glacial storm it adds up to your maximum MP Pool and gives you more MP for later, then get an extra , it is always these little things that save your life.

Before Early Mid-Game

At this point, you will have to decide either going full AP or AP support, this is very crucial because it will affect how the game ends, and how well you will perform. To adjust yourself in such situation really depend on how good your enemies are, and what kind of champs they are using, and who are the carries.

Situation One: Squishy Enemies
On your second trip back, you should have enough gold to afford , you want this item because Anivia can KS easily during early mid game, and you will sure get a lot of assist if you are not last hitting champs, this will greatly boost up your damage and you can farm even faster with . If you have over farmed at this point, don't hesitate to buy one , stacked with blue buff and you'll probably on rampage. Upgrade your boots of speed to if you have spare.

Situation Two: Thick HP Enemies

In this case, you will have to build your Anivia a little differently, mainly is because your HP will be way too low comparing to your thick HP opponents, and they will likely to out tank your MP before you can kill them. Why more HP than MP? As mentioned, to survive and constantly keep your CC up is your main role now, you won't have much chances to 1 v 1 Champs like Tryn, Mao Kai, Xin Zhao etc, they will instant rape you...So, i'd always get for that extra HP, then farm up as soon as possible. Remember to upgrade your boots of speed to .

Situation Three: Regardless of the Enemies
So you are lucky and skilled, you got a lot of kills early mid game and your team is keeping the pressure on, then go straight for then . You still have your and should have got you to about 1500 MP at lv11, get a for extra HP, so you won't lose your streak, then upgrade your to and you'll pass 600 AP as long as your stacks are above 15.

Is Not Recommended
A lot of Anivia players get this as their first core item, i wouldn't say its not good, it just not worth the gold and reaching the cap takes too long, in my opinion, getting and is way better and you could upgrade them into and .

Mid Game to Late Game

At this point, if your team is on the upper hand, or is on the winning wind, then get the core items asap by farming through jungle or creep swarms, its fairly easy for Anivia to drop , and start retreating as it will clear creeps in 2 or 3secs. Always get then , with your stacks, you'll have a significant AP boost from both items, normal bruisers and squishy champs will be your food in team ganks. If the game reaches 40mins and everyone are lv18, upgrade your to avoiding being focused as Anivia has the lowest HP by then. If the enemy stacks MR or at least Banshee's Veil, consider getting for that 40% mPen. If you find that you are being targeted most of the time, get , trust me, that 2sec saves me many times, buy sometime for your teammates to arrive, even if you did die, you still have your .

Core Items Late Game
OR

Situational Items



These are recommended items as for playing AP support pack with a big punch and good crowd control abilities.


If you find that this guide doesn't work for you, please do not blame me and flame me that it sucks, however giving positive feedbacks and suggest improvements are appreciated, please vote too! Thank you for reading, good luck and have fun folks.

Please comment below.
Inform me if there are any spelling errors,typos, outdated informations.
Updated.

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