Start Items:

First Back (1595g):

Core Items:

+ 3x

+ + + sight ward

+ + +

Against heavy AP:

Against heavy AD:

+ + + + +

+ + + + +

Against heavy CC:

Against heavy magic resist:

+ + + + +

+ + + + +

Basic skill order for more sustain:
Summon: Tibbers -> Disintegrate -> Molten Shield -> Incinerate
Basic skill order for more damage:
Summon: Tibbers -> Disintegrate -> Incinerate -> Molten Shield

Hi this is my first real guide on mobafire. I basically created it for my own but will also provide it to the public. If you have suggestions feel free to comment and tell me. If you vote this guide it would be nice that you leave a comment and tell me what was good or bad in this guide so I'm able to improve the guide. Thank you.

Keep in mind that all masteries, runes and items are suggestions! Many things could or have to be changed by situation. For example if you face a very hard CC team you want to buy items that help you with that instead of raising you damage. Because if you can't do damage it's meaningless how much damage you would deal. Use your common sense to adjust this guide to your needs.

Annie is a squishy champion that doesn't have any escape mechanics. After her burst she hasn't much possibilities to escape. Therefore it's important that she builds some life and resistances and get Flash as an escape skill. Her Molten Shield gives a nice amount of armor and magic resistance therefore it's more important to build life. For that reason this guide will use a combination of offensive, defensive and utility masteries as well as offensive and defensive runes.

Pros:

Cons:

+ High burst damage

- Small health pool

+ Built-in Thornmail -> Molten Shield

- No escape mechanics

+ Built-in resistances -> Molten Shield

- Mana hungry if not played properly

+ Good farming potential -> Disintegrate

- Often focused

+ Multi-target stun

- Bad mobility

+ Powerful summoned bear from hell

- Hard to master

This guide will at least lower the first two Cons by increasing the health pool and give Annie some improved escape mechanics.

Other possible choices:

I recommend to replace Ignite with another spell if necessary and keep Flash all the time.

Not really good choices:

I max out Disintegrate as soon as possible. It's your main farming tool because you get the full mana back if you kill the enemy.

I put more points in Molten Shield than in Incinerate in early game as it is very handy to reduce the damage of the midlane enemy and also of creeps that focus you after poking the enemy. But at least put a point in Incinerate at level 4 to have more damage on ganks and also have a multi target stun before level 6. You may also put the point in Incinerate at level 2 or 3 if you like to. You should be flexible with the order of Molten Shield and Incinerate based on the enemy your facing. If you need more sustain pick Molten Shield and if you need more damage output pick Incinerate. I recommend to put at least one point in each skill till level 4.

As always put a point in your ultimate Summon: Tibbers whenever it's possible (level 6, 11 and 16).

Basic priority for more sustain:
Summon: Tibbers -> Disintegrate -> Molten Shield -> Incinerate

Basic priority for more damage:
Summon: Tibbers -> Disintegrate -> Incinerate -> Molten Shield

Damage (Offensive Tree)

Arcane Knowledge together with your Greater Mark of Magic Penetration will give you 8% magic penetration and nearly 8 flat magic penetration. Together with Haunting Guise you'll have 23 flat magic penetration which should be enough, especially in early game. If the enemy is stacking magic resistance you should also buy some items to help you (see Items).

Blast is mainly chosen because it's a requirement for Arcane Knowledge . But it also provides 1 AP per level which isn't that bad.

Summoner's Wrath is optional. I use it because it can help you to secure a kill in early game where 5 AP and 5 AD are significant (if you take Ignite as a summoner spell). To use it properly throw your skills on the enemy, pop Ignite on him and then auto attack or throw another Disintegrate with increased AP/AD on him. If you use Exhaust as summoner spell this is also nice to lower the enemies resistances. If you neither use Ignite nor Exhaust don't put a skill point in this. Another good choices would be Relentless , Expanded Mind , Vampirism , Unyielding or Tough Skin . If you use Cleanse or Heal as a summoner spell invest a point in Summoner's Resolve instead.

Sustain (Defensive Tree)

Durability and Veteran's Scars will boost your starting life a bit (36 HP on level 1 and then 6 HP per additional level). Greater Seal of Scaling Health will boost your life even further by nearly 10HP per level. So you will start with about 46 additional HP which could decide between you being first blood and you doing first blood. At level 18 you will have 313 additional HP only from two masteries and 9 runes. This is a lot for free. In addition this guide will use items to boost your HP by keeping the damage high too (see Items).

In addition I use Perseverance to get a bit more sustain in form of HP regeneration. It's much better than Vampirism as the 3% lifesteal and spellvamp will only give you below 5 HP in early game and only if you use spells or auto attack.

As you face an AP champ most of the time in mid lane it's a good choice to invest 3 points in Resistance . Together with your Mercury's Treads and the basic 30 magic resistance you get at least 60 in sum. When Molten Shield at max level is active you double this value to 120 magic resistance. That isn't a bad value in fact you'll not really buying magic resistance items.

Utilities (Offensive Tree / Utility Tree)

To have Flash up as often as possible I use Summoner's Insight and Mastermind . The 300 second cooldown will shrink by 45 seconds. So instead of waiting for 5 minutes you'll only wait 4 minutes and 15 seconds. This is much and can save your life.

Sorcery will reduce your cooldowns by 4% and is the most valuable mastery to get to Blast and Arcane Knowledge .

Runic Affinity is very important for Annie in my opinion. Her spells cost a lot of mana, especially if you use Disintegrate incorrectly in early game. Therefore the blue buff is important and with this mastery it will last even longer.

Improved Recall is optional but sometimes it is very handy to bluepill right in time to avoid get killed. In addition it saves a bit time when bluepilling in lane phase. This may ensure 1 or 2 more creep kills as you are a bit earlier back in lane. Feel free to pick other masteries instead (see Alternative Masteries).

Meditation will help a little bit if you have mana problems. As mentioned before try to get blue buff as often as possible and only use your spells if necessary. If Disintegrate is used right in early game while farming you won't have any mana problems at all.

Why not use Havoc , Mental Force , Archmage or Executioner ?

Basically because other masteries are more important. Your damage will be huge enough in mid/late game thanks to your items. But let's have a closer look:

Havoc - 2% increased damage for 3 skill points. Your ultimate Summon: Tibbers will deal the most damage (with full equip something between 800 and 900). Let's say 900 damage. 2% of 900 is 18. So this mastery increases the damage by 18. This is really not worth it.

Mental Force - 6 AP for 3 skill points. This would be a nice boost in early game but is useless in endgame. But as you should focus on last hits in early game you will be fine without this mastery. The masteries of the defense and utility tree will improve your early game much better.

Archmage - 5% increased AP for 4 skill points. 4 skill points are much and 5% AP sounds much but keep in mind that you won't have much items in most of the games and therefore your AP won't exceed 300-350 most of the time. Even if you got 400 AP this 5% only give you 20 additional AP in lategame. Annie's spells have 0,7 and 0,75 AP multipliers so those 20 AP will add 15 damage in best case.

Executioner - 5% increased damage to targets below 50% health. Like Havoc this isn't that much damage and also we would have to invest 20 points in the offense tree for this mastery. Not worth it.

Alternative Masteries

Offensive:
Havoc - If you think a little bit more damage is helpful.

Defensive:
Tough Skin - If you want to poke safer.
Hardiness - If you face AD in mid or fear enemy AD champs.
Summoner's Resolve - If you pick Cleanse or Heal as summoner spell.
Unyielding - If you want to reduce the enemy damage in early game.
Relentless - If the enemy team has many slows.
Safeguard - If you plan to tower dive.

Utility:
Wanderer - Walkspeed can't hurt.
Expanded Mind - If you feel that you need more mana.
Greed - If you like gold. :)
Vampirism - If you want a bit lifesteal and spellvamp.
Artificer - If you want to use Zhonya's Hourglass' active more often.

Total stats of the runes:

+7.83 magic penetration
+25.65 ability power
+9.72 life per level (+174.96 life at level 18)

Why not using AP/lvl glyphs?

Those glyphs will weaken your early game damage by nearly 10 AP which is much in the beginning and will boost your AP at level 18 by something slightly above 10 AP which is not much in endgame. Therefore I always prefer flat AP runes in general.

Alternative Runes

Marks:
Simply said: None. Passing magic penetration is just stupid. But if you don't have this runes you may use Greater Mark of Ability Power or Greater Mark of Health.

Seals:
Greater Seal of Armor - If you face AD in mid or fear enemy AD champs.
Greater Seal of Health - If you want more HP in early game or don't have enough Greater Seal of Scaling Health.

Glyphs:
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - If you want more cooldown.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction - If you want more cooldown.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - If you want more magic resistance.

Quintessences:
Greater Quintessence of Health - If you want more HP.
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration - If you want more magic penetration.
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - If you want to be faster.
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power - If you want to boost your lategame damage.
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health - If you want more HP in lategame.
Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp - If you want spellvamp. Good in combination with Vampirism .

Why start with Haunting Guise?

Haunting Guise is relatively cheap and provides 3 important stats: AP, HP and magic penetration. This will increase your sustain as well as your damage output. Especially the magic penetration is very useful as every champ has 30 magic resistance at the start of the match. Therefore you won't deal 100% damage if you don't have enough magic penetration. The good thing is that the magic resistance is not increased per level and the most midlane champs won't buy magic resistance items till lategame. Arcane Knowledge will ignore 8% (for 30 magic resist this is flat: 2.4) of the enemy magic resistance. Your 9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration will ignore additional 7.83 magic resistance and with Haunting Guise you will ignore 25.23 magic resistance combined. So there is only 5 magic resistance left that will decrease your damage. And trust me that isn't much. ;)

Simply said: Haunting Guise cut the enemy magic resistance by half in early game and most of the time till late game or even till the end of game.

Or: Haunting Guise = Cheap + damage + sustain.

Sustain

Haunting Guise, Rod of Ages and Rylai's Crystal Scepter together will add 1350HP. Annie will be much harder to kill with this HP pool and her Molten Shield. If you manage to farm like a boss and even get Liandry's Torment you will get 100 additional HP. Your masteries and runes will add another 313 HP. So in sum you'll have 1763 additional hitpoints. Many squishy champs will at least have this additional HP only as their whole HP pool in lategame. Annie has 1716 base HP at level 18 so you will double your HP pool to 3479 by also having a lot of damage potential.

Because of Molten Shield I won't buy much armor and magic resist items and focus on HP items. Everything over 150 armor or magic resist is not really worth it. With Molten Shield you will nearly have those values. But if your enemies have strong or fed AP champs you should add some magic resist items. A Abyssal Mask or Banshee's Veil is a good choice in that case. If your enemy AD champs cause you trouble you also may buy some armor like Frozen Heart. In general Zhonya's Hourglass will provide enough armor and your Mercury's Treads will provide some magic resist. Be flexible and keep an eye of your enemies. See Alternative Items for some suggestions.

Damage

All your skills scale with AP so you want to buy as much AP items as you can to boost your damage. Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass provide the best AP values in game. But beside your AP you should also have a look at your magic penetration. Especially if the enemy is stacking magic resistance feel free to buy a Void Staff or Abyssal Mask. Buy Abyssal Mask if the enemy has strong AP champs and Void Staff otherwise. If you don't have problems to deal sufficient damage just follow the normal item suggestions of this guide. In most cases the Haunting Guise in combination with Arcane Knowledge and your Greater Mark of Magic Penetration should be sufficient.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is also a nice item for Annie. 500 HP will boost your sustain a lot and the 80 AP will increase your damage. Also it's passive is very nice as all your spells will slow the enemies. This is useful for chasing and escaping, especially when your stun is not ready.

Rod of Ages also gives some nice AP. Try to build it early (at least before the 30 minute mark if the game will be long) as it gets it's full potential over time (each minute).

Utilities

Zhonya's Hourglass will give you your second life safe ability beside Flash along with some armor and of course a huge amount of AP. But don't use it if you are alone and have no possibility to escape after it's active. It would be a waste. But if Flash will be up in a second and you may manage to jump over a wall to escape - use it. And in teamfights while your teammates are still alive and you are focused this is the right time to activate it. I build Zhonya's Hourglass before Rabadon's Deathcap because of it's active.

Banshee's Veil also grants a useful utility to avoid stuns or hurtful spells. Buy it when you face hard CC or receive huge amounts of magic damage. Also buy it if you face a Karthus. For another utility against CC you also may buy a Quicksilver Sash. Don't buy it if you picked Cleanse as a summoner spell though.

Alternative Items

Abyssal Mask - If the enemy team stacks magic resistance and/or you get heavy AP damage.
Void Staff - If the enemy team stacks magic resistance.
Archangel's Staff - If you run out of mana too often.
Athene's Unholy Grail - If you run out of mana too often, need cooldown and/or need some more magic resistance.
Banshee's Veil - If you need more magic resistance or face heavy CC or someone like Karthus.
Deathfire Grasp - If you have problems killing enemies and/or need more cooldown reduction.
Doran's Ring - Buy 1 or more in early game if you have problems to stay in lane or farm.
Frozen Heart - If you are permanently killed by AD champs.
Morellonomicon - If you have problems killing a Dr. Mundo, Fiddlesticks, Warwick, Master Yi, Swain, Vladimir, Volibear or champs with heavy lifesteal or spellvamp like Irelia or Akali.
Quicksilver Sash - If you get permanently stunned, silenced or feared.
Will of the Ancients - If you want to have spellvamp. Good in combination with Vampirism and Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp.

Alternative Boots

I highly recommend Mercury's Treads because of the magic resistance and tenacity they grant. I would switch the boots only if you have other sources of magic resistance or tenacity or if the enemy team hasn't much CC or AP champs. If you want to switch here are the alternatives in my personal order of usefulness:

1. Ionian Boots of Lucidity - If you want more cooldown.
2. Sorcerer's Shoes - If you want more magic penetration. If you pick those maybe you won't need Haunting Guise.
3. Ninja Tabi - If you face a really hard AD team and also face a heavy AD champ in mid lane.
4. Mobility Boots - If you want to be faster back in lane or at teamfights or are fed and want to clear out the map quick.

As enchantment I would recommend Enchantment: Furor. It's very useful for chasing enemies.

You should focus on getting last hits till level 6. If you can lasthit with your auto attack, do so. Else if you can lasthit with Disintegrate and you are sure that it will kill the minion, do so. If you can't lasthit and the enemy is in range, poke him with your auto attack if it's safe (Annie has a huge auto attack range). If he aggresively pokes you, turn Molten Shield on and throw Disintegrate + Incinerate on him. If your lane is pushed and it's possible that the enemy jungler is coming for you, keep your stun ready and save it for the gank. If it's possible stun both enemies with your Incinerate, otherwise use Disintegrate to stun the enemy mid champ. If your jungler is coming for gank make sure that your stun is ready. If you already hit level 6 use Summon: Tibbers to ensure a kill. You also may be a bit more aggressive from there on.

At your base after death or bluepill you should use Molten Shield and Incinerate to get stacks for Pyromania stun (if you not already have the stun ready of course).

If the enemy managed to run away with low health and your Tibbers is present, order Tibbers to follow the enemy as he will do area damage (see Summon: Tibbers). To control Tibbers hold the Alt key and right click on the map like you would do to move Annie.

If your lane is pushed try to gank other lanes (get your stun ready for this). Group with your team to kill single enemies (for example the enemy jungler) and try to destroy turrets. The most important thing is to have your stun ready before teamfights start or you try to gank/kill enemies. Never initiate teamfights and never check bushes where you have no sight except if you know where all enemies are. You should also buy a sight ward from time to time. Most important warding spots are dragon and nashor (especially in mid/late game). To check bushes you could also use Tibbers if he is present. Just order him to check the bush by holding the Alt key and rightclick on the map to move him to the bush.

Before teamfights start you also should have your Summon: Tibbers ready. Try to stun as many champions with Summon: Tibbers or Incinerate. Don't waste your ultimate on single targets except if you'll score an ace or you don't have to be afraid that the other enemies will come for you. If you only can secure a kill with your ultimate then do so. Otherwise save it.

Use your Molten Shield to get stacks for your Pyromania stun when possible. Always have an eye on your remaining mana and get blue buff as often as you can.

Try not to face strong enemies 1vs1 if you are not sure that you can kill them safely or if you don't know where their teammates are. Be aware of enemy skills especially stuns, silences, fears or slows and also consider enemy heal potential (for example Heal or Maximum Dosage).

Don't use Flash as initiator as it is your only real escape skill. Only do so if you are sure to get the kill and you can escape safely without Flash. Otherwise safe your Flash for a possible escape.

Use Ignite on enemies that base on life regeneration, life steal or spellvamp. The best examples are Dr. Mundo, Fiddlesticks or Volibear. If you have Exhaust and are escaping try to use it on the most dangerous enemy like the AD carry.