Hey! I'm r3ddf0xx, (or Cody, whatevs) and this is my guide for Annie, The Dark Child. (This is also my first guide ever, so be gentle XD) I made this guide specifically for 3v3 play (The Twisted Treeline or TTT), where Annie was first implemented and, in my opinion, she truly shines. I am making this as comprehensive as I can, and will expand to include information on 5v5 when I figure out how to dominate with her on Summoner's Rift. XD This guide is not a concrete way to play. This is MY way to play Annie, and should not be followed blindly. I can almost guarantee you play differently from me. Enjoy!

The reason that Annie really rocks The Twisted Treeline is enemy numbers and target selection. On Summoner's Rift (5v5) ganks are all too common due to jungling and number of enemies. If a team mate does not call MIA, chances of you seeing it anyways of the minimap are much, MUCH higher on TTT. Your ult does not cover too much area, but it is enough to easily fit 2 or 3 enemies into. It is far too small to stun 4 or more however. This makes AoE stuns, ganks, and escapes much harder on Summoner's Rift vs TTT. Target selection is much easier on TTT, seeing as how there are only 3 targets to choose from. There is only usually 1 or 2 in a lane. If there is 2, one of them is much squishier than the other, making target selection a breeze on TTT. On TTT, I find myself, at least, doing far better in terms of kills, deaths, and victories. That is why TTT. Annie was built around it, so she dominates it.

Sorry I can't do fancy columns. I'm a nub at this.

Pros:
- Easy mode farming with her Q passive.
- Her passive WILL give you a early kill if you have any clue what's going on.
- Her passive WILL give you the best early harass / escape EVAR, no matter what.
- She will scare your enemies s***less with her giggle and HEAVY cc early on.
- Tibbers has a sunfire cape x4.325 aura (at 18, full build) which is AWESOME.
- She will nuke down ANY enemy 1v1 at lvl 6.
- Her Reverse skin is probably one of the coolest/scariest/funniest ones in the game.

Cons:
- She can be quite squishy until you get your Crystal Scepter.
- She has no true escape ability, her passive is her escape.
- She is TEAM DEPENDENT imo. If you have a s***ty team comp, she will suck (just like every other AP carry)

I'm not yet level 20, so I personally have not got any runes yet (as not level < 20 should), but here is my setup if I could:

Marks: Force: These runes will make you get a decent amount of AP for no cost. By the time you reach level 6, you will have an extra 5.4 AP. This with your quints and early AP items will ensure you your first kill (if you already don't have it.) It will also make getting CS with your Q a breeze late into the laning phase.

Seals: Intellect: These seals will give you an extra 62 mana right out of the gates, which will allow you to use your precious Q one more time if you screw up a last hit (which happens!) and will also give you all the extra mana you will need for the game along with your Masteries.

Glyph: Replenishment: With these puppies, and your masteries, You will start out with 5.79 mana /5sec. over the course of 1min at the start of the game, you will regen enough to use your Q without last hitting. This will keep you safe, and allow you to go OOM without a recall for reasons I'll explain later.

Quints: Potency: With these bad boys and your starting Tome, you will be hitting 138 on your Q, easily enough to kill a minion from about 1/4 HP or a little more, letting you farm with the greatest of ease! CS will fall into your greedy hands with these runes and your starting item. (You may also score a sweet early gank!)

These are fairly self-explanatory. They are aimed at giving you extra mana, mana regen /5sec, and above all, precious AP which makes kills, surviving and farming much easier. You could bail on the Offense tree early and go for more Utility or Defense, but that would apply more to a Support oriented Annie, which I am not talking about here.

Annie has 4 awesome skills and 1 AMAZING passive that will let you dominate the game.

Passive - Pryomania: This passive procs after your 4th spell cast. If your Pyro is procced and you cast your E, it will not proc, but will stay charged.

Q - Disintegrate: This spell IS Annie. You will use this spell to farm, farm, farm. It makes last hitting an absolute joke. Use it early to stun, then run in for a W for massive harass, and use it late game for a never-miss nuke on a super low cooldown.

W - Incinerate: This spell does quite good damage, can offers a cone AoE stun before you get Tibbers. This spell is also good for proccing stun in fountain before you go in lane. Later on, it can clear a minion wave without a problem. It also just adds another massive nuke to your combo to melt through enemy HP and give you moar kills.

E - Molten Shield: This spell has two main uses: a little protection from auto attacks, but not much from spells. This also has a Thornmail like feature which returns damage. Its other main use is to proc your stun. The enemy may think that you have no stun, but at 3 charges, you can hit E to proc your passive and then stun and kill to your hearts delight.

R - Summon: Tibbers: This spell offers many important things: An awesome AoE stun, An awesome AoE nuke, a bada** bear pet that does your bidding, An improved Sunfire Cape aura, and a shield, a harass, a bush checker, ect. Tibbers does it all. Start out with this in your combo for max stun and AoE damage as well as harass and Sunfire. He'll follow you and attack what you attack. However, you can control Tibbers with Alt+Rightclick to direct him into towers, into bush, or onto other enemies. Tibbers and the stun passive are what makes Annie herself.

I'm not dividing it up as usual. I will include an items section later.

The game just started, congrats. Has your team already decided to gank at lvl 1? If not, you're already too late. Either way, go to the store and buy an Amplifying Tome and 1 HP pot. Unless the other team comp has 2 or 3 champs that have skillshots (Nidalee, Morgana, Kennen... I could keep going but...)
If the other team has said skill shotters, get Boots of Speed and as many HP pots as you can. You will need to stay in lane until your pots are gone or they leave.

If your team decided to go for a lvl 1 gank, do the unthinkable and rank your W instead of your Q first. Now you may be asking yourself why this would be wise. Simple enough. Sit in the fountain and spam your W until your passive is procced, enabling your stun. Then either run to (hopefully) catch up to your teammates in time to drop and AOE cone stun on your enemies faces.
OR be even sneakier. Proc your stun in the fountain, then use your summoner teleport to go to the ward your support or tank bought and placed in the bush that your team is hiding in. You all pop out and score a first blood on one or two enemies, leaving the other peeing his pants in fear on your awesome stun.

Regardless of how the first few minutes go, when minions spawn, head to your lane and begin to farm.

Which lane should I take? You may ask. Frankly, it doesn't matter much. If you have an AMAZING solo laner (Gangplank, Riven, ect, ect) let them take top lane where they really shine. Otherwise, you can take the top lane, and do just fine. You may even score a sweet kill with your passive and Q W combo if your target is exceptionally dumb or ballsy.

You may be worried about the squishiness of Annie (if you bothered to read everything so far) and might freak out. Don't. Annie has one of the best auto-attack ranges of a majority of champs, specifically of AP champs. That poor Yi or Jax wont expect you to take 4 steps and hit them with a heat-seeking missile of 40HP pwnege. If they poke you, and you're scared, step back and hit them with a few autos to scare them back. Then proc your passive and really make them pee themselves.

At this point, focus on CS (last hits on minions) alone. Ganks shouldn't really happen until a few minutes from now, so don't fret. Around the time you hit level six, (or before, whatevs) take a trip back to the fountain. Get your boots first. THEY ARE YOUR PRIORITY. If you have extra gold, build your Hextech Revolver. If you're really getting beat up in lane, get a Doran's Ring. This will give you survivability and let you spam your W as well as your Q to farm up them minions. When you reach level 8, the other team is mia all the time, or you get your Large Rod (for your Deathcap) It's time to gank.

In this part of the game, it's time to stop freaking out so much about your CS and time to worry about killing those other champs. Stay in lane to build up your passive with your Q (and W if you'd like) until your passive procs. At this point, go to the other lane. There are two ways to enter other lanes. You either pop out from near their tower, or near your tower. Depending on the position of the enemy, take any of these entrances. Drop your skills like this: R>Q>W>Q>Q>W>Q>Q>W>Q>Q..... you get the point. After you hit your second Q, if you or someone on your team has not scored the kill, you focused the wrong champ. Simple enough. Sorry. ALWAYS focus the enemy squishies, whether that be an AD or AP carry, or a support if you must. After killing a champ, return to your lane to continue farming and pushing your minions up to the tower to deny XP if possible. Your first purchase (If you dint have it yet) should be sorc shoes. With this magic pen, your spells will cut into the enemy even further. Then build in the order I put in the item section, changing the order slightly if necessary. IT IS OKAY, and even recommended to build items one part at a time. Both parts of your Deathcap should be build separately, and the Wand for your Deathfire should also be seperate for awhile before you get the extra 975g.

The end of the game is the most nervous part of the game. Too early, and you may find yourselves too weak to do damage to the towers and unable to win. Too late, and the enemies will have their builds done and be fully leveled up, making victory much more of a challenge. Regardless of timing, here's how Annie will help:
- Her W will easily clear a whole minion wave late game
- Her shield will let her stop minion waves without much damage taken
- She will melt through any enemy dumb enough to mess with her team while under turret by saving a stun
- If Tibbers is summoned, he will mess up minion waves with his Sunfire aura and taking turret agro, as well as attacking turrets.

Good job! Whether you won or lost, hopefully it was a gg and you had fun playing Annie.

All these items are built to give Annie as much AP as possible when she needs it. When she doesn't, we focus on survivability, magic pen, and such.

Opening Items:
- Tome, pot. Gives you easymode farming, poke, and some HP.
- Boots, pots. This is a standard for many higher tier players. I would only take this setup if playing against champs that have skillshots that will mess you up (and you can dodge them, of course)
Second Item
- Boots. If you dont have them, get them. If you have them, get a tome or two for your Hextech Revolver.
Third Item
- Hextech Revolver. This will give you a little bit of AP, but much more importantly, it will give you a precious 12% spell vamp, which combined with your Q farming, will give you infinite lane sustain.
- You could also get a Doran's ring here if you are having issues living for a while, or have problems going OOM. A Doran's Ring is not required, but is reccomended in those circumstances.
Forth Item
- Kage's Lucky Pick. This item will give you a decent chunk of AP while giving you enough gold /5sec to pay for itself, wards, pots, and part of your Deathfire Grasp by the time you build it.
Fifth Item
- Sorc Shoes. The enemy team might have caught on to your complete r**e train you're running by now. They very may well build MR. This item will cut through the base MR all champs have without an issue.
Sixth Item
- Rabadon's Deathcap getting this item early will allow you to melt through enemy HP like a hot knife through already melted butter. If you are really good at getting CS, and get this fairly early, it is gg.
Seventh Item +
- I would personally follow the items I have set forth, in that order. There are exceptions, however. If you're getting focused too hard, get your Crystal Scepter early. If you find yourself going oom often, get Morollo's evil tome. I would generally start with Deathfire Grasp, however. The active effect and the cooldown reductions let you nuke even harder than before. With DF Grasp, Mor.'s evil tome, and masteries, you will have 39% CDR, reaching almost full cap. Your Q will have a cooldown of 2.4 sec and will hit 730. By the time your stun ends, you will almost have another stun procced up, if they're not dead. (but they are) If you reach your full build and the game STILL has not ended, just end it. No game should last that long. I've had games end before I could get my WoTA, even.

Thanks a ton for reading my first guide! Sorry if I'm a little wordy. Hopefully you can read just as fast as me. XD I would love if you read it, tried it maybe, and then left a comment on how I can improve, and vote on whether you like it or not. Thanks!

-r3ddf0xx

Feel free to leave any awesome screenshots of Annie games in the comments, and I may add them!