...
...

Greetings!

Who am I and why this guide should be the one you're looking for?
I am not a known überplayer playing in Challenger. No. I am just a random guy from Silver (at the time I'm writing this), slowly raising in ladders. But from the fact you're seeking a guide I assume that you're not Challenger as well. So why should you listen to this guide? Because it works! At least for me.

This is very long, detailed guide. If you don't want to read huge blocks of text, it is not for you. Go away then, and don't leave me negative response. This guide took me tons of time and effort to write. Even if you don't like my build, you can still get lots of useful informations here.

Anivia is a champ with really high skill cap. After reading this, you won't immediately become professional Anivia player. BUT you will know everything I had to slowly find out on my own. It's up to you if you will use it to get better player.

Sorry for mistakes, as English is not my native language, my guide won't be perfect as for grammar.

Soooooo... let's begin!

Music I'm listening to while making this guide (and you can listen to while reading this guide):
Play Video ...
.

...
...

PROS: + Rebirth is like having Guardian Angel on level 1. Awesome passive. + Crystallize - The Wall. When well used, wins games. + Huge damage, amazing mid&late game. + Tons of CC. One of the most useful mages. + Farm. Farm. Farm, farm, farm. She farms like a beast. + Eggnivia. It's a must to write something to /all chat when you're "egged".

CONS: - Very hard to master. - Bad AA animation, not easy to farm pre-6. - Crystallize - The Wall. When misused, loses games. - Mana dependant, needs that blue buff hard. - Low base movement speed. Slowbird. - Her original skin and icons could use a visual rework.

...
.

...
...
Rebirth makes you "survive" your death in a form of egg. The egg has your full HP, but can do nothing for 6 seconds - and thus are vulnerable to enemy attacks. If you manage to survive, you're alive! You can abuse this on early levels, when your opponent might not be capable of killing you in 6 seconds. Also you can bait with this very well. Just make sure your teammates know they should defend you and are able to get there in time. This has 4 minutes cooldown.

• Try to die under turret, so enemy is unable to kill you even if he could.
• In teamfights, stay on a safe place. If you'll get "egged", your teammates will be able to protect you.

...
Your stun. Get it on level 1, max it last. It's your E's damage amplifier pre-6, it's your stun, but for both level 1 is enough. Don't forget you can pop it on your own - no need to wait until it reaches max range. Just click Q again and stun that enemy!
...

• It's hard to hit - it is damn slow. When you have enemy that can dodge it well, forget it and use it only when in trouble - just to stun that aggressive enemy. If you can, use your Crystallize to ensure it hits.
• When you hit it, use your Frostbite immediately. Surprisingly high damage output.
• You can pop Banshee's Veil with it and still stun your enemy. When it touches your enemy, it deals damage and slows him. Which pops that Banshee's. THAN you activate it again to stun him. It will make them angry. And stunned.
• Don't smartcast this. Even Froggen doesn't.

...
This is what makes that slow bird Anivia. Although it's hard to learn to place it properly, when you do, you won a teamfight. Always level this wall second - on laning phase that tiny lv1 wall IS enough to make some plays. In teamfights though - the bigger, the better.
...

• Practising makes perfect. Don't play Anivia in ranked matches until you're good with walls.
• Crystallize gives your team vision. You can check important places with it. Don't do it too much though, as it has brutal cooldown.
• Don't smartcast this. You need to aim it properly. It's worth that 0.2 seconds.

...
Your main damage output. Since it does quite low damage when used single, you need to CHILL your target - to do DOUBLE DAMAGE! You can do it two ways: with your Flash Frost or with Glacial Storm. When using your Q, it's enough to hit the target, no need to get him stunned. Way more reliable way is to chill him with your Glacial Storm, as it is nearly instant.

• When doing R-E combo, it's faster to cast E first, and when it's flying to your target, just put R under it. It is easy and fast.
• BUT when your target is running away and it's out of Frostbite's range, feel free to use ult to slow the target. E him then.
• Enemies chilled with Glacial Storm remain chilled for 1 sec after they get out of it. Use it to your advantage. Flash Frost chills them for incredible 3 seconds, by the way.
• SMARTCAST THIS! In key bindings, put normal cast on Shift+E and smartcast on E. Helps a lot.

...
Your ulti with 6 seconds cooldown. Frostbite's damage amplifier, AoE DPS spell. Try to use it in teamfights, not only as E's predecessor, but as well as your DPS spell. It's AoE, so you can hit many enemies at once. Works well with let's say Jarvan IV's ult, but even alone. It's also AoE slow, so use it to your advantage, to help your Q land, to slow your enemies, to ... to do lots of things. Also, this is one of the best farming skills in the game. You only need that Blue buff.

• This ability is channeled, and so it behaves like it. This means enemies can interrupt it with hard CC like silence or stun. Stay back!
• You have quite long range for casting this ult, but you can walk MILES away and it still works. In teamfights, cast it, and then just move in for your Frostbite and out to stay safe.
• SMARTCAST THIS! Again, in key bindings, put normal cast on Shift+R and smartcast on R. Helps a lot - mainly for proceeding your E-R combo.

...
Really, learn to smartcast these two abilities. It saves your time, and saved time often saves your life. Or kills your enemy. Or does both.
...
.

...
...
VIABLE SUMMONER SPELLS
...
Flash is a must for me. It makes plays, it lets you escape through wall, it lets you go in through wall, it lets you avoid that damn Lux's Final Spark even when you don't react too fast to avoid it without flashing. It lets you kill and it lets you survive. ALWAYS use flash. You need it.
...
...
I take Ignite to most of my matches. Your damage output is quite decent, but as your opponent on mid is squishy in most of times, Ignite takes important part of his health down too. You can kill with this, while without it your opponent would go back with 50HP. You can also ignite your opponent before he turns you into egg, which scares him and makes him run away instead of crushing your egg (works mainly when your team is alive).
...
Teleport. I nearly don't use it with Anivia, because you really quite need that ignite on lane. Still when you get really hard lane (hi, LeBlanc), it's viable to go Flash+ Teleport. It lets you recall without losing any CS and XP, but IMO it has too long cooldown to make up for the fact you don't have Ignite.
...
You're very mana dependant, so Clarity surely IS a viable choice. You might use it when you have jungler like Diana, who needs blue buff whole game. Still you're giving your opponent advantage with lack of any offensive summoner spell. I never take Clarity, I rather use Mana Potions.
...
Well, I don't have too much to say about this. Someone uses it on mid, but I don't. IMO Anivia has too long cooldowns to make these two seconds important. Still I consider this as viable summoner spell. It's your choice after all.
...
...
Same as Barrier, but less selfish. You CAN use it, but I never do. And it's countered by Ignite, which your middle lane opponent nearly surely has.
...
...
...
If you're used to Ghost, it might be a good choice for you instead of Flash. It doesn't let you make these plays though, as you can't jump over walls with it. That's a clear disadvantage, so I rather take Flash. Always.
...
...
Ummm... maybe. When no one of your team wants to take Exhaust, and there is an enemy Tryndamere on top. Or when there is AD mid against you, and you don't feel like you will dominate the lane - in this case you can take Exhaust to prevent yourself from dying. Still I've NEVER taken Exhaust on Anivia. It lets you weakened on mid, you're lacking that Ignite hard.
...

NOT VIABLE SUMMONER SPELLS
...
No one uses it on Anivia. You're not Karthus to make use of it. Even if it CAN be useful, don't take this.
...
...
...
Well, with Smite you can lasthit those minions. Leave it to your jungler though, NEVER take it.
...
...
...
...
It's not viable versus most of your opponents. It is just too unuseful for you to take it instead of Ignite.
...
...
...
Clairvoyance is VERY underrated summoner spell. Leave it to your support though. You don't need it.
...
...
...
...
Promote can be very useful in pushing lanes. That super minion is also very cool. Promote doesn't exist anymore though, which makes it's use a bit hard.
...
.

...
......
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power gives us AP. Cool. I don't use scaling ones, because IMO runes are here to give us advantage in early game. Anivia's pre-6 is weaker, and that's where your flat runes shine.
Greater Glyph of Ability Power works exactly in the same way.
Greater Seal of Magic Resist is a good choice on mid - as long as your opponent is AP.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is important too, because your opponent surely won't come with 0 magic resists.
Greater Seal of Armor replaces Greater Seal of Magic Resist in case of enemy mid is AD.
...
Another viable options are scaling runes, if you like them more than flat ones, although I use flats. You can also get some health instead of magic resist, magic penetration or even instead of ability power. Health works very well on Anivia, because it's doubled by her egg. I recommend you taking health + more magic resist runes vs LeBlanc, because you need to survive her incredible early game. Ahh, I hate you, LeBlanc.
...
.

...
......
OFFENSE TREE
...
Summoner's Wrath for improved Ignite.
Sorcery because cooldown reduction is nice - and other masteries aren't good for Anivia here. 3 points here, you need that last point elsewhere, and 3% or 4% is not so important difference.
Blast , because having more AP is good, and we want that Arcane Knowledge
Arcane Knowledge is really a great mastery. Pretty self-explanatory.
Havoc increases our damage a bit, and gives us access to next line of masteries.
Mental Force , because having more AP is good again.
Spellsword , because it's made for mages. Lasthitting is better with this, and you know, other two masteries in this line are pretty useless on Anivia.
Archmage , because having more AP is still and still good.
Executioner , because we want to kill!
...
DEFENSE TREE
...
I get 0 points here, because Anivia is so mana-hungry, that she needs that utility tree. And Runic Affinity is must-have for her. Blue buff!
...
UTILITY TREE
...
Summoner's Insight for reduced cooldown on Flash. Saves lifes, you know.
Meditation , because we need mana.
Improved Recall can save you in various situations. In more than that 1% of Sorcery.
Expanded Mind gives us even more mana.
Runic Affinity is a must-have. We are very Blue buff-dependant.
...
Enough about masteries.
...
.

...
...
EARLY GAME

Begin with Boots and 2+2 pots. You can vary amounts of pots by your matchup (easier -> more mana potions to kill him; harder -> more health pots!)

On first back you NEED TO buy Tear of the Goddess, as you want to stack this ASAP. Don't forget stacking it when recalled, it's 2 free stacks! Buy some Sight Wards too, because warding saves lifes. Would you buy one more life for 75 gold? Well you can.

After Tear is yours, rush Catalyst the protector. It gives you that sustain you need.
As we're buying Mercury's Treads, we need to find Magic Penetration elsewhere. Guess what? Haunting Guise is on it's way!

MIDGAME

Well, now let's get some AP. We need to build Rod of Ages ASAP, because it stacks with time, and buying it in 50:00 is not really worth it. You can buy Banshee's Veil instead - when against LeBlanc or something alike, but I would buy Negatron Cloak only and postpone Banshee's Veil after Rabadon's Deathcap.

So, Rabadon's Deathcap should come now. It gives you huge damage on your R+E combo, it gives you ability to push these minion waves really fast, it gives you ... ability power, that's pretty self-explanatory.

LATE GAME

Next, build Archangel's Staff - you should have your Tear of the Goddess stacked now, so you'll get Seraph's Embrace with it's lovely shield. Finishing Liandry's Torment will also grant you with some extra damage.

What to build now? Well, that depends. If enemies stack tons of magic resist, troll them with Void Staff. If they focus you really, really hard, Guardian Angel will do the work. You shouldn't need it though, as you should stay behind your teammates in teamfight and just abuse your very long ranged ult + spam E whenever possible, but carefully. My favorite item is Warmog's Armor. It gives you really huge (had to write it in bold) amounts of health, making you quite tanky. You should have about 3700HP. Multiply it with your Rebirth egg, and you're on fantastic 7400HP. Well, even Cho'Gath can only be jealous (if he isn't dumb having 6 Warmog's).
... ...
...example full build. My favorite.
...
One important appointment: NEVER EVER EVER EVER FLAME AND RAGE ON YOUR TEAMMATES! It has nothing to do with items section, but it's VERY IMPORTANT. Enjoying the game is the way to success. Wrote it here, because if you don't read whole guide, you probably read at least this section.
...
And the second one: Ward. Ward. Ward, ward, ward. It really saves lifes.

...
.

...
...
EARLY GAME
...
Take Flash Frost first, and defend your jungler ( blue buff in most times). You won't do tons of damage with it, but that CC is surely very useful. Don't go into open teamfights though, your 40 AA damage doesn't make too big difference, and you're really squishy now. Also you can save egg for worse times. Just QQQQQQ them.
First levels you will probably have trouble with lasthitting, as Anivia's AA animation is really slow. Try to lasthit as much as you can, don't take too much damage from enemy though. Never take damage from minions. They're more powerful than you probably think.
You can try to Flash Frost your enemy. If you hit, Frostbite immediately. If not (which will probably be the case, if you don't have bad opponent), farm. Don't overuse that Q though, because it's not mana-cheap.
When on level 4, you can start using Crystallize to hit your opponent with Flash Frost and then with Frostbite. Place your W behind him, leave one side of the wall shorter than the other. Now he'll instinctively fall back, but as there's your wall behind him, he will go around the shorter side of it. If you're good, there is already Flash Frost flying there. *HIT*, stun, Frostbite. Half of his HP is gone. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
Don't forget warding though, as your only escape is Flash.

When you hit 6, everything is much easier. Just send your E to him, and when it's flying, place Glacial Storm under him. Double damage! Now he's slowed by your R too, so you can quite easily (with help of your Crystallize) stun him with Q. Don't overextend, though.
One danger of hitting 6 is that you will become overextended by pushing with your Glacial Storm. If this happens, go gank top or bottom lane.

Strong farming ability is one of Anivia's big advantages. Aim at least for 100cs in 20:00, ideally 150 and more. Take Wraiths whenever you can. Just put there Glacial Storm and Frostbite the bigger one.

Don't forget looking on minimap, as your jungler might be in trouble or enemy lane is overextended and thus vulnerable to your gank even when warded. You are on middle lane, so you can easily gank top or bot. Use it to give your team advantage. Your lane enemy can do that too, so whenever he disappears, call MIA.

MID&LATE GAME

Now we're approaching mid- to late game. blue buff should be yours permanently now. Keep on farming as hard as you can, don't let them catch you alone somewhere though, always encourage your team to go together (when not intentionally split-pushing or doing alike). Teamfights are your strong point with Crystallize. Just put your Glacial Storm under them, keep on going in for Frostbite and out to stay safe, and when you see you can split their team, do it! Don't outwall your member though, as he wouldn't thank you for it. Trust me.
When you split their team, you should kill them one by one. If you can, focus important ones, but when their carry is behind their team, it's NOT your work to all-in there and try to kill them. You'd probably end up as Eggnivia - and deadnivia then.

Your Crystallize has lots of uses. Save teammates, give your team vision, block enemies. "Can't be slowed", Yi? Try to run through The Wall then. It's probably the most tricky part of Anivia, so practise her hard. That wall really can win games when placed well.
...
.

...
...
This is not only for Anivia players, it's for everyone. As I play in Silver, I experience a lot of raging. Which is quite pointless. Let's look at an example:

Our Jayce went against Darius. Really easy lane. But then he went 0/2 in first 5 minutes. What are we gonna do now?
...
A)
Someone (Anivia): OMFG JAYCE FCK YOU NOOB ****** !!
Someone (Anivia) (all): REPORT JAYCE NOOB
Someone else (whoever): surr at 20
...
So what happens now? Jayce continues on feeding, ends up 1/12 and we lost. We're angry, everyone's raging and Jayce is reported. Bad games happen even to us sometimes, but whatever.
...
B)
Someone (Anivia): Jayce, wanna swap?
Someone else (Jayce): No, thanks. I'll try to manage it.
Someone (Anivia): OK, try to defend, stay under turret.
Someone (Anivia): Lee, would you camp top for a while, please?
Jungler Lee (Lee Sin): OK.
...
So now two things can happen:

1. Lee Sin ganks top, which results into kill for Jayce. Jayce is back in game, he can harass Darius out of lane without getting killed. Jayce overfarms Darius and owns him. Victory!
2. Lee Sin fails that gank, and Jayce dies again. You can try to gank together with Lee next time, but even if it doesn't succeed, still you encourage your teammates to do their best and not to blame Jayce. They get fed and wreck Darius, resulting into victory for you again. Or they get wrecked by Darius and you lose. Without pointless raging and flaming, though.

...
See? When you rage, you have only one option: losing. When you don't, you actually CAN win, and it's not even so hard.
...
...
My guide maybe won't make you significantly better player. These two will, though. Read them, please. People who wrote them should be held honored for good.
...
How to be a nicer LoL player
How to lead your team to victory
...
I don't care if you read these now or tommorrow. Do it though.
Well, that's all I wanted to tell you about behavior. STAY POSITIVE AT ALL CASES! Don't forget you're team, after all.
...
.

...
...
Just a reminder before reading: nothing like easy lane exists. You make lane easy by being skilled. No match-up is won just by counterpicking.
...

...
...

...
... ...

... ...

...

...
...
Well, we're finally getting to the end. I enjoyed writing this guide, but these Match-ups were hell. If you read it all, thank you for your time. Use this guide to become a good player. And one thing: trust me with that "Behavior" section - it's much, much more important than anything else said here.

EDIT: I got question why nearly all the difficulties are from medium to very hard. Why there is no easy? Well, I'm saying it on beginning of match-ups section. Let's just imagine you're in loading, and there is Ryze against you. You go here and read "It's easy, he can't defeat you at all. You will wreck him, I promise." And then you go in game, you get greedy (I'm hard-countering him, I won!) and then you go 0/4 just because you're greedy. You lose game, then you come here and blame me. Well, I really WOULD be responsible for it, because I wrote he can't beat you. Everyone can beat you, not with champ, but with skills. Always play like it was a hard lane. You make it easy by being skilled.

Anivia has a high skill-cap, so if you read all these important things, now jump into game and practise and practise and practise her. Keep on playing her, and you will surely start to beat others with her - even her counters. PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT! Really.

This is my first guide, and even my first experience with BB-code, so don't downvote me just for some stupid mistakes. If you see some, put them into comments and I will try to correct them.

I would like to thank jhoijhoi for his Making a Guide guide, and IceCreamy for his How to use Columns guide. Without them, my guide would look somehow like jhoijhoi's bad karthus guide (part of his Making a Guide guide).

If you like this guide, upvote it for me so I know I did a good work. Another time I'm sorry for some grammar mistakes, as I'm from Czech republic, and thus English is foreign language for me. If you see some bad mistakes, again, let me know through comments.

OK, I think this is all I wanted to say. Do you think something's missing here? Guess what? Again, LET ME KNOW THROUGH COMMENTS. :)

Good luck in your games, and what's important?
ALWAYS STAY POSITIVE! IT LETS YOU WIN GAMES, AND IT LETS YOU ENJOY EVEN LOST GAMES.
...
.