Summoner Spells

Ignite

Flash

Teleport

Flash

• Flash is non-negotiable with Annie since she has relatively short spell casting range, no gap closer, and no escape ability.
• For the second summoner spell, I prefer Ignite over Teleport since it gives you more kill potential at all stages of the game. Teleport is a viable alternative for a more passive play, and it is easier to help the other two lanes.

Skill Sequence and Masteries

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Notes: Click to View

Notes:

• You should max your Q ( Disintegrate) before W( Incinerate). This is because in the early part of the game you will be trading with a single opponent. While Incinerate does offer a little extra damage after rank 3 and +5% Ability Power (AP) scaling, it has twice the cooldown of Disintegrate. Your Q will be your main farming tool as well, and its cooldown will be halved if you successfully kill a minion with it.
• You should put one skill point in your E ( Molten Shield) at lvl 4. It's very useful for winning trades (try to always have it active when you are trading damage with the enemy laner) because of the extra 10 Magic Resistance (MR), 10 Armor and reflected damage it provides (this has been nerfed recently, but it is still useful).
• Annie is great for jungle invades, or for stopping jungle invades, which is why you should get Incinerate as your first ability IF your team is planning a jungle invade. Start charging your stun at the fountain ASAP - you can select the skill and use it before the 5 second mark, when your champion appears at the fountain). Leave the fountain at 15 seconds and get your last two charges on your way to the jungle. Talk to your team before the game starts on whether you should attempt an invade or not.
• Starting with one point in Incinerate is also acceptable if you don't expect invades, or if your jungler wants a passive start. Starting with Q instead of W will give you more harassment potential at lvl 1 in lane.

• 21 points in the Offense Tree provides you with the highest damage output from your burst (your main role is to burst carries down, do a lot of damage and provide CC).
• The 9 points in the Utility Tree are mainly there for decreasing the Flash cooldown (3 points in Summoner's Insight ) and providing 1.5% extra movement speed (3 points in Fleet of Foot). These are the best choices because, as stated previously, Annie's biggest weakness is her lack of mobility. The remaining 3 skills in the utility tree can be assigned differently. However, I do not recommend putting more than one point in Meditation , and you should get Runic Affinity if your jungler will give you the blue buff.

Game Progression

Boots

Health Potion

Doran's Ring

Doran's Ring

Mana Potion

Health Potion

Boots

Doran's Ring

• Try to harass with auto-attacks from range when the enemy champions goes in for a CS (especially against melee champions). Don't over-extend with auto-attack harass, only do so if you don't draw much minion aggro. This is very important at early levels, since minion attacks really hurt and, more importantly, you might end up pushing your lane which is NOT something you ever want with Annie early game. Remember you have no escape mechanism so it is really easy to gank you if you overextend.
• Let your opponent push the lane towards your tower, Annie can farm under tower very well, and you are safe from ganks. The other advantage is that with the lane pushed up, your jungler can come in and gank easily. His CC, coupled with your stun and Ignite can net you kills/assists.
• Don't Flash offensively, unless you are guaranteed a kill. You have to be able to estimate the amount of damage you can do (I am particularly guilty of using Flash offensively when I do not get an important advantage, but I am trying to control this). The choice to use Flash offensively in lane is also dependent on what summoner spells your enemy laner is running (does he have Flash, Barrier, Heal) and on the amount of MR the opponent has.
• If you do move up in the lane (although you shouldn't), you should have the stun from Pyromania ready just in case the enemy jungler shows up. Even then, a good gank can force you to burn your Flash, and you don't want to do that.
• If you warded only one of the side bushes, try to stay on that side of the lane if you move up.

General Laning Tips: Click to View

• Hold three charges for your passive Pyromania. Then when your opponent goes in to kill a minion pushed further up the lane, hit him/her with Q, and while the fireball travels, hit E. This will allow you to stun your opponent, and you can follow up with 1-2 auto-attacks and/or W. Move back before the stun wears off if your opponent has over 40% health as he/she will try to turn your harassment into a trade. Even then, you should be in a pretty good position, since you have Molten Shield active.
• If your opponent is dedicated to pushing you out of the lane (he keeps spamming his abilities and auto-attacks on you), it might be a good idea to get Molten Shield at lvl 3. This is a decent defensive skill that gives you 10 extra Armor and MR. That will reduce the damage you take, and also provides damage back to your opponent from auto-attacks. You should also activate Molten Shield whenever you trade with the enemy laner, especially against AD champions.
• Your big power spike is at level 6 when Summon: Tibbers comes into play. I usually drop him on the enemy when I get him and force him to back/kill him. Summon: Tibbers is a very important part of winning your lane because if your opponent stays and fights, and you are not very low health, you WILL kill him. Summon: Tibbers has 80 attack damage, and an aura that does 35 +20%AP damage per second to every enemy around him. For any lvl 6-7 hero, that translates into: back-off or you will die.
• If you killed the enemy laner or he/she has backed and you want to base yourself, try and push the minion wave into the tower as fast as possible before backing yourself. This is very important because it will allow the minion waves to reset (they will meet in the middle), and you won't have to return to a lane that is pushed to his/her tower. Otherwise, you might end up losing a lot of CS or get killed by a jungle gank while attempting to CS.

Tibbers: Click to View

Proper control of Summon: Tibbers is a big part of playing Annie right. Summon: Tibbers has many uses, including zoning opponents or pushing the lane. You can control his movement by holding Ctrl down and right clicking or by clicking R. You now have even more things to consider while Summon: Tibbers is active because of the speed boost he gets from you activating Molten Shield. I have listed below a few uses for Annie's friend and protector:

• Use Summon: Tibbers to zone your opponent from the minion wave. Have Summon: Tibbers move towards the ranged minions and get your enemy laner to back off. Alternatively, you can use him to push the wave fast if you want to back or roam to another lane (place him around as many enemy minions as possible and have him auto attack).
• If you are very low on health and want to back, you can use Summon: Tibbers to kill enemy minions and get some extra CS while you are backing.
• I also use Summon: Tibbers as a moving ward. Put him in one of the mid bushes, and you will see if any enemies are coming. If you have Summon: Tibbers up, you can also use him to check hidden bushes when you are moving through the jungle.
• Your cuddly bear can also be used to block enemy skill shots. Since Summon: Tibbers is a minion for the purpose of cast abilities, he can block skill shots such as Charm, Dark Binding, Javelin Toss or others which take into account minion collision
• When activating Molten Shield, you can get him faster to where you want him to be (for example, send him to attack the enemy laner, and press E). I have gotten at least 2 kills because of this new feature on low health enemy laners that did not respect the Summon: Tibbers damage.
• Summon: Tibbers has a maximum leash range (if he gets too far from Annie he will reappear next to her). This is useful to know if Summon: Tibbers is relatively far away from you and you need his help to escape or fight off an enemy. If you are moving in one direction, you can order Summon: Tibbers to move in the other direction while activating Molten Shield. This will cause him to reappear next to you once the maximum leash range is breached.
• Be careful with Tibbers around enemy Towers. If Tibbers damages an enemy champion with an attack or with his aura, the Tower will target Annie if she is in range. So make sure that if you are using Tibbers to damage opponents under their turret, keep Annie away from that turret.
• Don't give enemy champions free kills on Summon: Tibbers. He provides 50 gold for whoever deals the killing blow - that is more than a cannon minion. So don't let your opponents get that gold without getting anything out of it yourself, if the enemy laner is focusing him out and you can't engage him, pop Molten Shield and move him away.

Ganks: Click to View

• Know what the enemy jungler can do. If you are playing against Shaco or Jarvan IV for example, you should stay back, don't cross the mid-lane point if you have no wards. If the enemy jungler is Warwick or Master Yi for example, you are a bit more safe since those champions only become threatening at lvl 6.
• Ask your jungler to ping before he comes in for a gank. This is to allow you go get 3 charges of your stun ready. Act normal in lane, don't become overly aggressive all of a sudden, that is a big tip-off that your jungler is close. Once your jungler is ready to engage, stun the enemy laner with the ability sequence Q-E.
• If your jungler is fighting the enemy jungler close to mid, drop whatever you are doing (CSing, harassing) and go help him. Keeping your jungler alive or getting a kill/assist on the enemy jungler can be game turning. Try to help him as soon as possible. If you respond before the enemy laner, you might net yourself a kill/assist and some jungle buffs.

• CSing is still important, but in this part of the game you have to pay more attention to enemy movements and you should roam whenever possible. Mid game is defined by sporadic team fights and jungle/tower control. You should be able to complete 1-3 items + boots in this interval, depending on how well the game is going.
• You should always buy wards in this part of the game and at least a Vision Ward. This is also the part of the game where I recommend switching from a Stealth Ward to a Sweeping Lens. Upgrade that sweeping lens whenever you can - it provides REALLY good value for only 250 gold. Denying enemy vision is just as important as acquiring vision. Landing a full combo ( Summon: Tibbers+ Disintegrate+ Incinerate+ Ignite) from a bush you just swept, or one that has a Vision Ward in it, will most likely net you a kill on the unaware victim. This is the second reason why warding is very important for Annie (and all burst mages for that matter): you can get free kills because of proper warding/denying the enemy wards.

Tips on Roaming: Click to View

• Roaming is an important part of what you should attempt to do mid game. You should roam to the lane that is getting pushed in. If for example both top and bot are getting pushed, go bot. Helping your AD carry is more important than helping your top laner, and it is easier to score a kill/assists on the squishy enemy AD. Take a safe path if you can in your roam, and keep a check on where the enemy champions are. If every opponent is accounted for save the jungler, then it is pretty safe to roam. If you meet the enemy jungler by himself, you will be able to kill him or make him back. You should not lose to a jungler 1v1 if Summon: Tibbers is up.
• Do not roam before level 6, or if you are constantly getting pushed to the tower.
• Roam only after the enemy laner has backed to base, or if you have pushed him to the tower.
• Even if the enemy players ward, you can pull off successfull roams if they are pushed up in the lane. If the area around mid is warded, then you will be able to see them back off right away, and in that case you can return to lane. In that case your roam has failed, BUT you have given some breathing room to the lane that was getting pushed in, so you have still gained a small advantage.
• You shouldn't just sit in your lane and farm, especially if you are going even/winning lane. Past lvl 7 you should coordinate with your team to take objectives (tower, dragon/kills, enemy jungle buffs/camps, in that specific order) and help any lanes that are struggling. Remember that it's a team game.

Warding: Click to View

• Proper warding with Annie is very important. It is a thing that ALL champions should do, but for Annie it is a requirement. The question should never be, "Should I buy a ward or not?", it is "How many wards should I buy".
• If for example, on your first back you have enough gold for 3 Health Potion after the item you bought, buy 1 Stealth Ward and 1 Health Potion instead. Again, Annie has no escape abilities, so you should have vision around yourself every time you are not under your tower.
• Even if you spend your time mostly under the tower, warding still helps immensely because it allows you to spot enemy movements. If your wards spot the enemy jungler or a roam, that is very useful information for the entire team. I buy on average 6-7 Stealth Ward+ Vision Ward per game. I can tell you without exaggerating, that it has been worth it every single TIME.
  Never skimp on wards.

• Team fighting and Inhibitors/Towers/ Baron/ Dragon is the name of the game. Your objective in a team fight is to burst down their carries with your Summon: Tibbers and to stun as many people as possible.
• Don't move to areas you have no vision by yourself - stick with the team. Chances are you will be a high priority target for the enemy in team fights, so getting a Zhonya's Hourglass is very important at this stage.
• If you see an opportunity to land Summon: Tibbers on 2+ members of the enemy team and kill at least one, take it. Otherwise, stay towards the back and wait for the fight to start.
• Don't be impatient and drop Summon: Tibbers on the enemy tank as soon as the fight breaks out, your purpose is to kill the enemy team's carries, provide cc, and do as much damage as possible. Bide your time until you see a good opportunity to get Summon: Tibbers and Incinerate on 2+ enemies.
• Of course, don't wait too much, as the team fight may be lost by the time you decide to join in. This is the part that is most difficult to explain, since it changes for every single fight. Your team fighting ability will improve with experience; the main message I want to get out is "Don't be impatient, wait for a good opportunity". Once a fight breaks out, people have a tendency to group, which is not the case when people are vying for position and attempting to get a good initiation.
• A good three man ultimate is a lot of the times a won team fight right then and there. With a rank 5 Incinerate and rank 3 Summon: Tibbers, you will be able to do 745 + 205% AP to two people, and 965 + 285% AP to the target you choose to use your Disintegrate on (the AD or AP carry if he/she is still alive). That is 2455 flat + 700% AP worth of magic damage before magic resist. If you have around 450 AP, that is 5600 Magic damage (before MR).
• There are no other champions that can net that amount of magic damage in a team fight, and provide an AoE 1.75 seconds stun, all off one combo. The good part about Annie is that this situation is far from rare late game.

Conclusion

Annie

Change Log

Summon: Tibbers