Let me start off by saying this build will not guarantee victory, but it is a start that focuses late game burst as well as survivability. What I have tried to do is adapt current builds on mobafire, and blend them to make a creative build where items can be swapped based on play styles. In this guide I will give you tips and techniques on how to effectively play Annie as an AP carry. As I said before this build does not guarantee you will achieve victory, only to alleviate the pressure of picking items, and keeping you focused on gameplay.

Pros-

All of her abilities scale very well
Annie has a potential aoe stun
Her spells do massive burst damage, when incorporated with her stun leads toa quick easy kill
Her Disintegrate refunds the full mana cost if it is a killing blow
She can farm minions with ease
Her bear Tibbers is basically a buffed up sunfire cape that can chase and tank towers effectively


Cons-

Annie is very often focused as she does amazing damage and has low armor
She has slight mana problems in the beggining and middle of the game

When choosing items for Annie it is very important to concentrate on items with health and AP. I like to start off with Mejai's soulstealer,as it gives you an early AP edge. If you are having difficulty controlling the lanes, try considering other items such as Zhonya's hourglass. It is essential that you choose Rod of Ages as it gives a nice amount of health and mana as well as a hefty amount of AP. The same is said for Rylai's Crystal Scepter. When it comes to the other items, I like to pick these as they focus AP and magic penetration which are crucial for Annie late game.

The masteries that i have chosen follow a very common format of 9/0/21. Unless you are level 20 or higher, masteries are not as important so i recommend spending your points in utility first. One choice i made was the increase of neutral monster buffs, as the blue buff is very helpful for Annie throughout the entire game.

Annie has a couple choices in how she can utilize her runes. I chose to Greater Mark of Insight as it gives a decent amount of magic penetration which is a very helpful tool in Annie's arsenal.Greater Seal of Clarity is a nice glyph as it helps you get through that midway hump that most AP carries go through, running out of mana mid game. I also chose Greater Glyph of Force as it helps to build upon Annie's very high AP.Greater Quint of Potency is a very useful quint to have as it builds upon her AP, which is her most important stat, as all her abilities scale well.

Annie is a perfect burst character. Part of this is her skills and how you level them. Early on you should be leveling disintegrate as much as possible. This is your nuke, learn to love it. Early on it will be perfect for finishing off minions, as it refunds the mana cost, as well as finishing off enemy champions. After you have maxed this out, while still picking up your other skills, level Incinerate next. This will dramatically increase your farm, more farm more items. Then you should finish it up with molten shield. It is a very useful power and goes overlooked. Don't forget to level your ultimate up when you get the chance.

The two summoner spells I like to use are Ignite and Ghost. I am not saying that these are the absolute best spells, but they work for me. The reason i chose ignite was simple. Playing as Annie you will nuke the enemy down very quickly, but what if they run? Annie does not have a very fast movement speed and ignite is great to finish off fleeing foes. The other spell that I use is ghost, it is very useful as an escape mechanism as well as a ganking tool or for pursuit. Like i said, these are the ones i prefer. Other very useful ones are, teleport, flash, and exhaust. All are to aid in ganking which Annie excels in.

Ganking is very common and easy to do as Annie. One thing that sets her apart from the others is her potential to gank multiple people at the same time. What I like to do is open with my ulti, pop Incinerate, and use disintegrate to finish them off. As you level up, this will be much easier especially with the Golem buff. Always make sure to take advantage of her passive. Every five attacks is a stun, i always open with the stun in order to ensure my incinerate hits. If you are doing well in the game, the enemy champion should be dead or close enough for you to ignite them as they flee.

In conclusion, Annie is a very powerful team player and ganker. She has spells designed to be able to burst her enemies down in a few hits. Coupled with her stun and good teamwork she is a force to be reckoned with. Annie is a very item dependent champion, but with the right items can be played to the fullest. Although Annie does not have the most armor, you should have enough health to withstand a few hits as you burst your enemy down much faster. All in all Annie is a powerhouse champion with amazing spells and a insane passive stun to back her up.