I've noticed there are few guides for annie, and with her recent revamp of mana cost reduction among other things, I've played her a few times and have found that she is, in many respects, just as good as any anivia that's played right. I'm not lvl 30 yet, so keep this in mind, use this as a GUIDLINE/SUGGESTION only please, and PLEASE give me feedback, this is my first guide and I'd greatly appreciate it, I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.

And if you don't like it the first time you try the build, play at least 3 games please before down voting it. And please state why you think it's bad, not just "it sucks" or "horrible build" ect. I reserve the right to ignore/deal with those posts as i see fit. Constructive criticism welcomed. (I.E:it's a bad build because:(your problem with this build or examples here))

Pro's
-Serious AP power late game (I've hit 698 + with archangles full buff)
-get kills with 4-5 charges then either drop tibberstun or pop shield and THEN stun, then get close with flamethrower and fireball.
-can initiate team fights with tibberstun or incinerate-stun
-can help counter an enemy team gank on your allies the same way

Con's
-ALMOST makes ashe look liek a tank (REALLY SQUISHY)
-not the best escape mechanisms
-have to charge 4-5 times to EFFECTIVELY get stuns off in a timely manner
-is targeted as a squishy nuke often by any enemy team worth it's salt. use those tanks of yours.
-no real aniti crowd control effects on this build

OK i don't have enough IP to actually get all the runes or masteries yet since I'm not lvl 30 yet, but use common sense here.

I take per level runes over flat runes, because with how annie van farm, she can hit lvl 6 quite quickly, and at lvl 6 most per level runes that i've taken are better. Exception being the seals, those are flats because per level isn't better till lvl 7, by which time you should have solved your mana problems, but if you haven't (and it IS possible) that's waht the glyphs are for.

Magic penetration helps more than those few ability points that runes give, especially later on in the match, you do more damage with Mpen (magic penetration) then AP (ability power)

COMMENTS REQUIRED TO VOTE!

For annie, I usually start with
sapphire crystal for the mana pool, which will LATER build into sheen and lichbane before you diss sheen on a non physical caster, read this whole thing please.
AFter that, go ahead and get
Tears of the goddess. You can build into this from meili pendant, which is a good alternative starting item for annie if you want to get to archangels staff quicker.
after that, you really should be getting your boots, either building into them or buying
Sorcerers shoes for the magic penetration.
After you do that, it's a good idea to finish Archangels Staff to add to your mana pool and your ability power over time. With how much your spamming your skills to charge your stun, THIS ITEM ISA MUST HAVE! YOU BENEFIT FROM IT GREATLY!
Now here's where it can be a tad situational, so pay attention please.
If you're dealing with an enemy tank or TWO or more, go ahead and grab
Void staff, building into it if you have to in any order you see fit. If not you can either go straight to
Rabadon's Deathcap for the HUGE AP spike, or go ahead and build that saphire crystal into sheen and then into
lichbane Sheen may not be the best for annie, since it only doubeles your BASE attack power after your skill use for one attack, but lichbane deos it slightly differently. Instead of doubling your base damage, after you use one of your skills (once per 2 seconds) it adds your ABILITY POWER to your damage. If you built deathcap first, that's an extra 350-550+ damage on your first auto attack after you're skill spam, putting your nuking power at well over 1000! keep in mind that the auto attack + AP is purely physical, and you don't have Armor penetration, so it may be less. It also gives you more mana(yay for archangel staff!) and even better, MOVEMENT SPEED!

Now, I've never gotten this far since the game's usually over by this point, but if you have problems with people running the heck away, Grabbing the
Crystal scepter Will put the icing on the nuke. er...cake. with billions of candles on top.



EDIT May 26 2011: finally got to where i could grab scepter. wasn't bad, but higher ap items might be better, unless your team plain and simply lacks CC. IF you find yourself with tons of money, sell your boots, bbuy and use all the elixers that you see fit to grab and rebuy your boots. topped myself off at 758 ap that way. 18 8 20 on best match.

EDIT May 27 2011: Rod of ages isn't a bad item, you can substitute it in where you wish, But I'd recommend getting it relatively early, so that it ahs time to improve, sine its stat gains are better the longer you have it. Not my Prefereance, but it'll work. If your having issues being focused on, and everyone else in your team is ignored in your team until you're dead, try grabbing Hourglass to have that ultimate invincible tankiness for 2 seconds, this way, you A) can hopefully spam one more fireball, and b) keep their attention long enough for your team to deal some serious damage, possibly even saving your butt. It also still gives you some AP, though not as much as say, crystal scepter, or will of the ancients (which, if your supporting your team or vice versa and you got a lot of AP dependent team members, might not be a bad idea. not really going to happen very often, but still. When you're team is made of say, annie, fiddlesticks, Leblanc, ashe, and a tank, it don't hurt to help 3-4/5 of your team with it.

Just don't sacrifice lichbane, that's a serious part of this AP nuker build. build.

Ghost: A good running / catching up / get to team fight move.

Flash: good escape mechanism. Also good for flashing into range, dropping a tibber-stun on someone and then nuking them to death, even early game. Them vayne make fer some nice stew don'cha think?

Early game make sure you're last hitting minions with your fireball to get the mana refund.

If you wanting to hold someone off your turrent, charge your stun, then don't use abilities till either you can kill them, or they get stupid and get in turrent range. then stun them before they get out of range and nuke em.

Late game: you can pretty much wipe out whole waves in one shot if positioned right with incinerate. not that you need to very often, but still. Most of your money SHOULD come, at this point, from kills. Just don't go chasing tanks and stuff alone, and always REMEMBER TO EXERCISE BATTLEFIELD AWARENESS! refer to the map awareness song on youtube for more details.

Remember that teamwork is a good thing. Also: don't go QQing about Kill steals unless the person is doing it constantly and on purpose. As long as the enemy champion dies and you don't (or your ally), it's all good. Help your team, and they should help you.

To sum this whole thing up, this build basically makes you pure AP damage nuke, and annie has short CD(cooldown) on her fireball and incinerate so it's quite nice. you can either pwn the enemy or flop with this build, so play smart. She's extremely squishy with this build however, so feel free to experiment, and let me know how it went please.

Don't you just love the smell of burning in the morning? Because next time, You'll just BUY the damn girl scout cookies. *insert picture of burning house in background with little girl with creepy smile on face in fore ground)