Annie Build Guide by Kreezhem

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About Annie :

Annie is a mage short range with high burst potential but also high sustain damage thanks to her Disintegrate and her Summon: Tibbers. She is able to carry teamfight if she lands a good ultimate on the enemy team.
Annie is notorious for having enormous damages but she has a hard time breaking the distance. This build is made to exploit her high damage and allow her to get closer to her enemies easily.

The video provides extra tips and tricks I may not have mentioned in the guide. It also shows you how to correctly handle you laning phase and roams. It is only a bonus to this guide.

Pyromania Passive

After every spell you cast you gain a stack of Pyromania, at 4 stacks you gain a stun of 1.25/1.5/1.75s (Based on level)on your next ability.
Be aware that if you have 4 stacks and you miss an ability you will still consume the passive

This passive is where your lane pressure resides. As soon as you use it your lane opponent are going to try and start a fight with you. That's why you need to make sure to use it or a minion only when you are safe from an engage (enough minions / good positioning) and their jungler is not waiting in the bush.

When you roam on the map with Annie it's ideal to walk around with only 3 stacks to seem less threatening and let your opponents make a mistake.

Disintegrate - Active Cost : 60/65/70/75/80 Cooldown : 4

Throw a fireball at an enemy dealing 80/115/150/185/220 (+80% AP) magic damage. If Disintegrate kills a target, it refunds it's mana cost and half the cooldown of the spell.

With Annie you want to use this spell to farm most of the time. If you don't miss your last hits it will cost no mana and the short cooldown doesn't put you at risk if a fight starts when you just used it. It's range is lower than you basic attack, so if it's risky to move forward to last it just use your basic attack.
The spell is not a skillshot and cannot be flashed. Which means once you cast it on someone, the spell will hit except on rare exceptions Master Yi dash for example.

Incinerate - Active Cost : 70/80/90/100/110 Cooldown : 8

Deal aoe damage in a cone shape with an angle of 50° in front of you for 70/115/160/205/250 (+85% AP) magic damage.

It is important to know that Pyromania will stun every target you hit with Incinerate. This spell is instant and doesn't have travel time or cast time like Annie's other abilities. That makes it theoretically the best spell to use your Pyromania on.

Molten Shield - Active Cost 20 Cooldown 10

Wrap yourself and your Tibbers in a defensive shell for 3 seconds, reducing damage you take by 16/22/28/34/40% and dealing 20/30/40/50/60 (+20% AP) magic damage to whomever basic attack you.

This spell can be seen as Rammus defensive stance. Making you more tanky and returning damages. The low mana cost makes it convenient to use as a charge for your Pyromania but it is critical that you have it available right after you Summon: Tibbers to apply the buff on him as enemies tend to basic attack him a lot.

This spells is interesting to max in second when you have burst heavy matchup and you are behind. Like Syndra ultimate or Lux combo. 40% damage reduction is a life saver in a lot of situations. The proper use of this spell is what makes the difference between an average player and a great Annie player.


Summon: Tibbers - Active Cost 100 Cooldown 120/100/80

Summon Summon: Tibbers dealing 150/275/400 (+65% AP) magic damage in aoe. Tibbers is then controlable for 45seconds or until death.

Tibbers deal 10/15/20 (+10% AP) magic damage to all nearby ennemies every seconds. It works like Sunfire Cape basically.
Tibbers basic attacks deal 50/75/100 (+15% AP) magic damage and are treated champions basic attacks therefor is sensitive to blinds.
When summoned, Pyromania stuns an enemy champion or on Annie's death, Tibbers gets enraged gaining 275% bonus attack speed and 100% bonus movement speed decaying over 3 seconds. Tibbers regen for 6% of his max health per second when out of combat and get 50% missing health back when Annie dies.

Tibbers is a good burst in Annie's kit allowing you to perform a kill in one spell rotation. But tibber's best use is zoning the enemy team in the middle of a fight. Let's say you killed the enemy ADC, instead of going on the enemy mid you could send your Tibbers on him and help your team against the enemy front-lane.

Tibbers is also very useful at tanking towers after a teamfight and checking out bushes for you. If you suspect the enemy team to do a trap in a bush you can Summon: Tibbers and send him to scout for your team. It's always better to lose an ultimate rather than a team member. You're likely to get ? pinged by your teammates, but deep down you know that you very likely saved their life by doing this.


Usual / recommended :
If behind / against very high burst :

Runes :

Predator - This rune is the core of this build. Predator allows you to complete Annie's kit. It is giving you a way to get close to the enemies without only relying on your Flash. It allows you do gank efficiently during the laning phase, to perform catches during the midgame and to ensure you get your burst on the carries in the late game.


Taste of Blood - Even if Cheap Shot looks like the best option for Annie, I prefer using Taste of Blood. Annie has so much damage that doing 8-40 extra damage on a burst is not changing much outside of laning phase. Even in laning phase you don't really go for poke but you go for a all in kill. This is why I prefer having extra health regen. You can heal around 100+ HP in late game.


Eyeball Collection - All 3 runes are good here, since you go red trinket relatively quickly on Annie you will make use of Zombie Ward and Eyeball Collection the most. I prefer getting the 30 AP of Eyeball Collection because Annie has such high AP ratio that in a burst combo those 30 AP (42 AP with Rabadon's Deathcap translate to almost 100 extra damage.


Relentless Hunter - This line of runes is very tricky. All 4 of the choices you have are good :
- Ravenous Hunter allows you to heal a LOT with your Disintegrate and your Tibbers as his basic attacks are considered like single target spells, like Heimerdinger turrets. I run this build against a high AP team and go for a Spirit Visage 3rd item. Coupled with Resolve secondaries with Second Wind and Revitalize it leads to a Annie healing more than a Vladimir.

- Ingenious Hunter give you more CDR for your trinket to take vision away, more CDR on Predator and also more CDR on Zhonya's Hourglass and Spellbinder.
Going with this rune will are very likely to see an enemy type in all chat : 'What the hell is your Cooldown on ...' I recommend this rune on plat and below game, as it has more solo carry potential.

- Relentless Hunter is always a good rune. It gives you more map presence and allows you to gank and do catches more efficiently. That extra movement speed is needed when you get to higher Diamond and above as people are less likely to be out positioned / without vision. It also allows you to escape after doing your assassination but be careful as your Tibbers will keep you in combat if he is hitting anything with his Sunfire Cape like aoe or his basic attacks.

- Ultimate Hunter is good, but once you have 40% CDR and level 16+ it doesn't really matter. I help snowball a bit faster early game. I don't recommend it.



Celerity - Perfect synergy with Predator/ Spellbinder build. GO FAST!


For the last rune I would recommend Nullifying Orb on a bad AP matchup, Waterwalking if there is 2 early aggressive junglers or Gathering Storm as you often go for Rabadon's Deathcap and you have very high AP ratios. It allows you to kill carries that do not have Magic Resistance with only your Disintegrate + Incinerate combo.

Bonus :
- +9 Ability Power
- +9 Ability Power
- +6 armor / +8 magic resistance

He is an example of Annie's Healing with the build Domination / Resolve mentioned above :
............Q ToB + W combo........................Simple Q with ToB................Q ToB + Predator + Spellbinder

Note : High number achieved with Taste of Blood, you heal about 200 per Disintegrate otherwise.

Summoners :

Flash is mandatory, it's such a great summoner spell, it can save you, allow you to do a clutch move. Flash tibbers has to be one of the scariest combo of the game. You NEED to play with Flash.

Ignite gives you that extra damage you need for a kill. It's also amazing against high regen champions. It allows you to not commit for an extra Q-spell that could potentially cost your life.

Teleport is really nice to have against hard matchups, it allows you to have more lain sustain. It also makes you even more mobile.

Coming soon

Early game

Annie's early games revolve around farming, farming a lot. You just have to use your Disintegrate to last hit minions easily and sometimes use it on the opponent to poke him a bit. You have an easy time shoving the lane and going to help your jungler on scuttles. Try to pick 2v1 fight, even 2v2 fight should be fine.

Try not to back until level 6 at least, if possible back with 1k5 gold and buy large rod + boots. When you come back in lane you can try a all in on your laner or push the lane and roam. Usually I prefer to shove the lane and roam as it puts you ahead of your laner, and puts your team ahead. When you roam bot you want to try to W double stun then Tibbers as W is instant and has no cast time.

When you gank or solo kill early game with Annie it is important to try and get a plate. You can use your Tibbers to take the tower so your minions do more damage or in an optimal situation, let your cannon tank and use your tibbers to damage to tower.

Mid game

When first towers are done and teams start grouping up, you want to try and catch outpositionned enemies with your high mobility or you want to engage teamfights by landing a nice stun. You should get the red trinket to deny vision and walk around with at least 3 stacks of your passive.

As soon as you see an opportunity get your Predator going and run strait to the other team, dodge the eventual snares or stuns. Always follow-up a catch or a fight won by some objectives, towers, jungle camps while your tibbers is up.

Once you did your two first items you want to start looking at the enemy team build. If they start getting MR or if they build full damage. You also want to look at their CC. If they have a good amount of snares you might want to go for Zhonya's and if they have a lot of engage breaking stuns, like Sejuani's ultimate for example, you might want to get a banshee. Your item choices will play a major role in the efficiency of your engages.

Annie is a short range champion and is easily dodgeable / kiteable by ranged champions once you lost your mobility spikes. This is why you need to be as precise as possible in your assassinations and focus key targets in this order :
- Extremely fed carry
- Long range / kite potential carry
- Assassins
- Supports
- Tanks

Even if you are behind with Annie as long as they dont get MR you still have the potential to kill someone in one combo. But if their team is extremely tanky and not suitable to an assassination you can go for the Rylai / Lyandry combo. Your Tibbers will melt tanks and the slow you will provide for your team is always welcome. (Never got flamed for slowing the enemies so far)

Late game

Your late game playstyle is very similar to midgame. You want to try and do picks before a fight start, and if it's not possible just drop a stun in the middle of their team. In late game your opponents start to expect your predator and play more around it. You will have to expect to be baited and go in really when it's safe.

Learning Curve :

It's popular opinion that Annie is a very easy champion to play. I agree with this, but there is also so much depth if you want to perfect your playstyle and maximize your win-rate. Here is where you can improve in order of difficulty :

- Use your E at the good timing for yourself
- Use your E while your Q travels to get the stun
- Do not use Predator when Tibbers is fighting
- Get the good timing for your Predator
- Always keep track of your passive and know when and what spell is going to stun
- Control Tibber, focus the good targets, enrage him, use him to scout bushes
- Use your E at the good timing for Tibbers (if not needed for you)
- Use your Spellbinder correctly to get your Q dealing increased damage twice