Hello and good evening, my nickname is S. P. Gardebiter and this is my first guide.
Note that this guide is recommended for advanced Annie players but not for beginners. That means I will assume you already know all the basics.
After being tired of playing AP Annie mid all the time, I tried out new builds and strategies such as Support Annie, Jungle Annie, AD Annie, Hybrid Annie, AP Offtank Annie and recently Full Tank Annie. They're all more or less useful (mostly less) but Full Tank Annie seems to be the most valueable of these. What I like about this build is, that you're still able to deal a lot damage over time to champions and the stuns, in fact a lot stuns.

If you think there is a better way to build her or just want to criticize, I would be glad if you leave a comment. I'm especially interested in how this build works for you and maybe if it is useful in any ranked games.
Please give it a chance and try it out before you say that it's not working, it requires some skill but it can be pretty effective with the right team.

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Pros: + Lots of stuns + Good initiator + Tons of splash damage + Bursting squishy champions + Extra Armor/MR with Molten ShieldTEXTEXTEXT

Cons: - Low early game damage - Little sustain - No natural gap closer - Somewhat Item dependant

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Full Tank Annie scales very well into late game but you might have some trouble in early/early mid game. Your very high armor and high magic resistance comes with the price of having relatively low health, this can be a problem, before you get Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Warmog's Armor. On the other side, your tibbers will do a lot of damage once you get your core items and you still will be able to burst down sqishy champions, such as the enemy ADC. You don't need a lot ability power to do damage, this is because Annie scales very well with AP. Keep in mind that Nasus and Syndra will counter this build.

Ordered from useful to useless

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Pretty self-explanatory, Flash is one of the most useful summoner spells in the game, it's great for escaping, chasing an enemy, as well as engaging. If you don't need it for an engage, you might want to save it up for chasing (more likely) or escaping.

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I consider Teleport pretty powerful on this build, as you want to be near your Carries as often as possible because it's your job to shield them from damage and to engage the enemy. It's useful for saving allies too and most importantly you can get back to the lane instantly, which you should try to abuse as much as possible.

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Mobility is pretty important, especially because you can hinder enemies from escaping with your stun. Ghost is pretty useful for chasing enemies that otherwise would just run away or to flee of course.

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I consider Exhaust not as useful as Ghost but it's also pretty good for chasing, you want to use it if your stun still needs some more charges and you can't use your skills.

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You usually don't deal enough damage to kill something alone, so you rely on your team for damage. Ignite helps you to provide you kills in early game (when you still deal a decent ammount of damage) and is just a general tank counter, it gives you nothing much in late game though, besides some extra damage.

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Currently Heal not only heals you but gives you a speed buff at the moment, which is pretty useful. However it doesn't help you a lot, since it's not that powerful late game and usually don't need it as you're very tanky. You can use it for escpaing but there are more powerful alternatives such as Flash or Ghost.

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Gives you sight and the cooldown is pretty low. Clairvoyance helps in several situations, for example when your ward is just not ready again yet. The other sunmmoner spells are way more powerful though, so I wouldn't recommend this one.

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Theoretically Cleanse is not as bad as someone might think, in fact it could be really useful, for example if you're chasing or escaping from enemies with CC, however the cooldown is way too high. Not recommended.

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I don't recommend Barrier. Firstly Heal is a much better pick at the moment and secondly you barely benefit from it at all, even in early mid game.

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I wouldn't take Revive, if I were you, of course it can be useful for your team to be back as soon as possible (since you're the tank). But it usually means, that you're dying a lot, which shouldn't happen at all (especially not as Tank).

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This spell is usually taken by the jungler, since you won't jungle much (except some counter jungling in mid/late game maybe) you shouldn't take Smite at all.

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Others:

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This is actually an option for you in Dominion, Garrison is usually taken by tanks in that game mode. If you're playing it, I recommend buying Moonflair Spellblade, it's the best pick in my opinion, I would even say a bit overpowered.

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Double-Edged Sword : You won't deal so much damage but you're able to tank a lot, this makes up for it a bit.

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Block : Only invest one point in here, the only other option is Tough Skin , which doesn't work with lane minions, so this is the only alternative you have. I don't consider this much useful because it's only worthwhile if you get focused a lot over time (so the blocked damage sums up), you only put one point in here so you can take the more powerful masteries.

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Recovery : While it isn't much, it helps you sustaining and you need every sustain you can get because your natural sustain is pretty low.

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Enchanted Armor : This gives you 5% extra armor and magic resistance, which scales nicely into the late game (well better than the other picks) and has good synergy with your Molten Shield.

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Veteran Scars : The only option you can pick here and it's pretty valueable because of your low base health.

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Juggernaut : Scales well into the late game, also like I mentioned before, your base health is low, so every bit helps.

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Hardiness : While 5 armor isn't that much, the only alternative Oppression , is not very useful, as your stun usually stops enemy abilities, also your enemies won't be able to attack or use a ability.

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Resistance : This gives you 5 magic resistance, see above for explainations.

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Perseverance : This gives you a lot sustain, which you absolutely need.

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Reinforced Armor : This blocks a lot damage (10%), if the enemy is able to land a criticial strike (crit chance Nasus anyone?), the enemy ADC will usually buy an Infinity Edge, this mastery will counter it a bit.

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Evasive : A lot APC actually deal AoE damage and 4% damage reduced is pretty much.

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Second Wind: Even more sustain, would be stupid not to invest a point here.

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Legendary Guardian : You most likely be a in a teamfight in mid/late game and 20 armor as well as 10 magic resistance (if the whole team is in a fight) is a lot.

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Tenacious : One thing that will hurt you is a lot CC, so the less, the better.

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Fleet of Foot: You absolutely need movement speed because you have no gap closer.

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Other options:

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Swiftness : This is actually a real alternative, since less CC usually means better chasing and escaping, however I don't consider it as powerful as the other masteries, you might actually do, so take it if you want to.

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Runic Blessing : I don't recommend it, it's a nice thing to have early game but it doesn't scale into mid or late game (plus it only regnerates if you're respawning, which means you died, what you should not).

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Why not 9/21/0 masteries:

I can tell you why, because in order to get the more valueable masteries, you have to pick the lower ones and the only ones who seem to be useful are Double-Edged Sword and Sorcery. While CDR is basicly the idea behind this build, to make use of your Molten Shield as much as possible, Sorcery only gives you 5% CDR if you invest 4 points into it, which means you either waste 5% CDR if you're full build (40% is max) or you have to buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity, which means you can't (or shouldn't) buy the other, more valueable shoes (you need magic resistance) and you have to buy other items, so that you don't waste CDR, which is possible of course as Randuin's Omen and especially Thornmail are nice alternatives to Frozen Heart).

Another possibility would be using 6 Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction, instead of Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Reist (which means 18 MR less at level 18), as it is not possible to archive 5% CDR with either 9 Greater Mark of Cooldown Reduction or 9 Greater Seal of Cooldown Reduction.
It is possible to use two Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction or a Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction (but it will cost you movement speed).

I still don't recommend it, the extra damage is just not worth it.

Annie scales extremly will with health because your Molten Shield will grant you an extra 60 magic resistance and armor. You will probably need some extra magic resistance but other runes should be fine as well. Magic penetration helps with the damage and movement speed is necessary because you have no gap closer.

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Pyromania: Try to abuse it as much as possible in teamfights because of your 40% CDR it takes only about 5 secounds to get another stun ready. However if you're alone, you're better off farming than keeping your stun or 3 charges (because you want to hide your stun, you know).

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Disintegrate: It's utility makes it great for farming, try to use it for last hits as much as possible. If you have trouble farming, you can invest one or two points here earlier, keep in mind though that when you're playing against bruisers like Fiora, it will get harder to defend yourself, especially in early mid game.

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Incinerate: If you do enough damage, you can use this for farming as well, however this is quite unlikely. If you're sure that you can farm with it, then you should skill this ability instead of Disintegrate. Also you can use it to AoE stun but I guess you already know this.

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Molten Shield: Your main ability in this build, if you have 40% CDR, you can use it every 6 secounds, note that it lasts 5 secounds, so you want it to use it all the time you're in a teamfight or getting attacked.

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Summon: Tibbers: Your ultimate ability and secound AoE stun. You want to invest a skill point into it whenever you can. Use Tibbers to harass the enemy, farm, push, tank and scout/ward.

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Core Items

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Frozen Heart: You should never skip this item, it gives a you a ton of armor and a lot CDR. You don't necessarily need the mana but that will help you staying on the lane longer nonetheless, which is pretty important. The passive is also great, reducing enemy attack speed will help the whole team. You should buy this first, as well as Boots if you're playing against AD.

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Athene's Unholy Grail: You absolutely need this item. With it you can stay on the lane a lot longer, it gives you plently of mana regneration and with it you will have 40% CDR, which is the maximum cooldown you can get. The most important thing however is, that you can constantly harass your enemy with your spells and you need the extra magic resistence (don't forget to buy Boots as well).

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Mercury's Treads - Alacrity: Gives you magic resistance and a good passive. Plus you will gain extra movement speed, which you will absolutely need, since you have no gapcloser. If you're playing against AP, you should get Mercury's Treads without the enchantment early. Also don't underestimate the enchantment, if you have trouble escaping, chasing or just got leftover money in mid game, then just buy it.

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter: This item gives you a lot health and utility, both are pretty useful. You can use Tibbers to slow your enemies and with Liandry's Torment you will deal extra damage. And of course it gives you 80 ability power, which means you will deal more damage.

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Liandry's Torment: This will give you extra damage, magic penetration and turns your Tibbers into a splash damage monster (and on level 3 you can summon him every 48 secounds with 40% CDR). Once you have this item you will deal a lot damage and the synergy with Rylai's Crystal Scepter is so good. Tibbers is not only slowing enemies but applies the passive of Liandry's Torment as well, dealing massive splash damage. This will make your enemies focus Tibbers usually. Oh and did I mention that it gives you extra health?

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Warmog's Armor: I've tried diferent combinations with this build and Warmog's Armor works best because you need the extra health and sustain. If the enemy team has abilities to counter building a lot health like Bio-Arcane Barrage or Silver Bolts, you could think about buying something else. However health is very powerful on this build and this item gives you a lot health and health regeneration, together with Perseverance , your health regeneration (every 5 secounds) equals 2% of your life, which is a lot (healing yourself completly through health regeneration would still take 4 minutes though).

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Alternative Shoes

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Boots of Swiftness - Alacrity: If you don't need the extra tankiness of the Mercury's Treads and the enemy team doesn't have too much CC, these boots are perfect for you. They help you a lot with engaging, chasing and escaping.

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Situational Items

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Abyssal Mask: This item is pretty good if you need extra magic resistance but it adds damage as well and quasi magic penetration (it lowers the magic reistance of your enemies). You should only buy this item if your AP carry or support is not going to buy it, as the passive doesn't stack. Health is probably a lot more useful on this build though as it counters magic damage as well.

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Thornmail: This item counters lifesteal extremely well (so much indeed, that it is almost ridiculously overpowered), if you're facing a team with a lot lifesteal, then go and buy it! You should also think about getting it if the enemy ADC is extremly fed (and the only one that is), you need the extra armor or you're facing a whole AD team, which is unlikely but still possible. If the latter is the case then encourage the other team members to buy this item as well.

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Rabadon's Deathcap: If you think you're tanky enough, then you should really buy this item because it adds a lot damage, which is noticeable even in late game because Annie scales very, very well with AP.

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Zhonya's Hourglass: I can only see one situation where this is useful and that is if you're facing a whole AD team. If you're getting focused or need to tower dive a lot, this is not the item you should get because you won't do your team a favor (you're the tank, so you have to take the damage).

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Guardian Angel: If you need extra magic resistance but Abyssal Mask isn't an option, then you should buy this. It has a great passive as well.

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Alternative Enchantments

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Enchantment: Homeguard: I would only buy this if died and need to defend your base really quickly at respawn. But usually this is only the case in late game and by then you should already have bought Enchantment: Alacrity. So it's not really that useful. However if you took Teleport as one of your spells, it is possible to abuse Enchantment: Homeguard by teleporting, which can be devastating if used for engages and you're likely to win a team fight with it. The enemy will remember this trick though. But if you're a master of this technique, then you should go and use it.

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Enchantment: Distortion: If you're fast enough without Enchantment: Alacrity, then you should get this, for example if you're using Boots of Swiftness. Only buy this enchantment if you're sure about it though.

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First thing to know is that you should play reactively most of the time, instead of playing aggresively or defensively. That means: Let your opponent push your lane if he or she wishes to do that, this will give your jungler a chance to gank him or her. If the enemy engages, just active Molten Shield and use abilities on him or her. If you get ganked, try to land a stun on the enemy with the most CC (or both, if possible). Also you want to stay near your own tower, so you can farm near your own tower. Try to stun your opponent if he or she gets focused by the tower, you most likely will get a kill. All these things are the reason why a pushed lane is often strategically better for you, be careful though that you're not losing farm to your own tower.

Try to outfarm your opponent as much as you can, you will need any farm you can get because you're not supposed to take a lot kills later and you don't have the gurantee that you can always get an assist. If you got your stun ready and you still have enough mana left, you can try harassing your opponent (this will hinder your opponent to farm of course), it's really hard to get a kill without your jungler though, so you shouldn't try to engage.
If you run out of mana make sure you have Teleport ready, before you use Recall , so you can teleport back immediately and don't lose any farm. If Summon: Tibbers is ready, stun your enemy and use your other abilities to deal some additional damage. Your enemy will most likely back off, this is your chance to push and farm using Summon: Tibbers and deal some damage to the enemy tower. This will buy you some time as well, so think about using Recall while your lane is pushed.

There are champions which you can counter like Wukong or Fiora, watch them killing themselfes with autoattacks if you use Molten Shield while you damage them with your other abilities and stun them.
On the other side Teemo will counter you very, very hard. His range is much higher, Toxic Shot is pure evil and he is able to quickly run away with Move Quick. Try to avoid him by switching lanes if you can. Allthough luckily he is not always played in top. Nasus is able to counter you as well, as you don't do enough damage to force him out of the lane and he relies heavily on farming in early game. Buying Athene's Unholy Grail early might be a good idea, as you will be able to constantly harass him.

Your main role in teamfights is to engage and tower dive (sometimes both), use Summon: Tibbers or Incinerate to engage and stun as much as possible. Try to burst down the enemy carry (preferably the ADC), you will most likely do enough damage kill him or her. Try to leave all the kills for your carries, as a rule of thumb you only want to take them if you have more dies than kills (this only works out if your carries have enough kills though). Your Tibbers should deal a lot damage once you get your core items, try to harass your enemy with him. Be careful though, Syndra can counter this strategy with her Force of Will extremly well.
It's not bad if you die for your team, if your team manages to archive an ace.

Try to abuse your AoE stun as much as possible such as Incinerate or Summon: Tibbers, with 40% CDR you should be able to AoE stun approx. every 7 secounds for 1.75 secounds. If you have enough life and your team is with you, you always want to engage, try to focus the enemy ADC.

18.12.2014 - Ver. 1.5: Updated the runes and some other stuff
07.08.2014 - Ver. 1.4: Added my classic AP Build, that will take advantage of Annie's Molten Shield, the core ability in this guide and in my opinion a very underrated one, this build in my opinion scales way better into late game than the others
27.07.2014 - Ver. 1.3: Bugfix
23.06.2014 - Ver. 1.2: Core Items and Guide updated, the new items are a lot more efficient
17.05.2014 - Ver. 1.1: Added additional information and removed some mistakes
15.05.2014 - Ver. 1.0: Guide published