Annie Build Guide by Steppenwolf91

Introduction

Hello there. I'm SteppenKat and I'm a mildly competitive League of Legends player. I'm currently Silver I in EUW. If you're here it means that you're looking for a noob-friendly Annie guide. Which should be basically: A quick explanation on how to use this champion efficiently with clear, yet simple reasonings. Some tips about complicated matchups and how to improve your gameplay using these sugestions as an ocasional reference. You want to get better at playing Annie but not at the cost of reading a wall-of-text Calculus treaty. By no means I'm despising in-depth guides: it's just that this guide isn't meant for competitive play, just for casuals who want some tips.

Basics gains and Trade-offs

Pros + Noob-friendly and easy to learn, compared to the average AP Carry. + Great AA range (625), one of the best of the game. + Superb burst potential and deceiving tankiness due to usual build options and Molten Shield. + Hard CC, both clickable and AoE (with passive). + Her roaming potential is very high (important for success in SoloQ). + She has few negative match-ups contrary to popular belief, making her a very safe pick.

Cons - Her skillset range is rather short compared to most of the AP mid roster. - She doesn't have any repositioning tool (no dash/blink). - She's a combo-reliant burst mage, making her skillset less effective against HP stacking. - The previous reasons forces her to depend a lot in Flash to make plays. - She's a little girl, so no sexy skins. - Goth Annie is exclusive to Digital Pack Collectors. EXCLUSIVE!

Annie

Disintegrate

Annie

Syndra

Breakdown: Quick Analysis of Annie's Kit

Pyromania

Disintegrate

Incinerate

Summon: Tibbers

Annie

Vayne

Caitlyn

Graves

Summon: Tibbers

Rod of Ages

Zhonya's Hourglass

Flash

Flash

Annie

Skillset

• Pyromania: This is one of the best passives of the entire game and what makes Annie hard to balance. You gain Pyromania stacks with each spell you cast. After 4 casts, your next spell will be empowered and deal stun. Molten Shield doesn't burn Pyromania's charges once collected, so you can keep using it.
  
  This passive is more effective in duels when you use it with Disintegrate since there will be no chance to miss your opponent unless he has some kind of skill that makes him/her untargetable (like Playful / Trickster or Blade Waltz). In teamfights, however, its more useful when combined with Summon: Tibbers as it will make Tibbers deal extra damage with his AoE aura for the duration of the stun without taking any himself.
  
• Disintegrate (Q): This is a clickable medium-range, single-target nuke that refunds its mana cost if you use it to last-hit. Max it second as you benefit more from Incinerate 90% of the time. You can use it to poke along with AAs or just to last-hit (a better option in early lanephase).
  
• Incinerate (W): This is a short-range damage cone that deals a huge amount of damage to all enemies within. As previously stated, its mostly a waveclearing tool during the laning phase and a good harass skill in close quarters.
  
• Molten Shield (E): This skill, at first, doesn't look very useful. Its a shield that doesn't mitigate burst damage (as it doesn't give temporary HP), though it boosts your defensive stats and deals damage each time you get hit by an auto-attack. It's more advantageous against AA DPS champions rather than casters for this reason. In lane, you usually want to use it to mitigate some poke and to gain Pyromania stacks.
  
  I'll talk about Pyromania's synergy with this skill later on.
  
• Summon: Tibbers (R): You land an AoE nuke that summons a huge bear pet in the spot. Tibbers can be controlled by using the Alt Tab like Shaco's Hallucinate. He deals AoE damage each second when he's on melee range, making him very useful in duels. As an ultimate skill, the nuke damage is very good and its overall a good skill.
  
  Along with other unconventional uses, Tibbers can block skills such as Ace in the Hole or Javelin Toss. He has a leash range and he'll port back next to you the very moment he steps out of it.

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

> > >

Even though Disintegrate is an effective last-hitting tool, Annie benefits more from maxing Incinerate first. As a rule-of-thumb when playing midlane, you usually want to max first your waveclearing tool. This gives you a lot more lane control: you can push hard if you want to roam, counter-push effectively and miss less CS in the long run. Obviously, you should try to max your ultimate skill whenever possible (levels 6/11/16).

Summoner Spells

Ignite: Basic finisher spell against low HP opponents that also gives you a healing reduction mechanic. Needed versus Swain, Vladimir, Akali or Fiddlesticks.

Flash: Annie lacks a repositioning tool, so let's give her one. It's fundamental when you want to gib opponents - otherwise they'll just kite you until you die.

Teleport: This spell is useful to defend lanes and to pull off powerganks with a properly placed Sight Ward. It's actually a very good alternative if you play vs Pantheon or Twisted Fate.

Runes

Runes
Greater Seal of Armor 9	Greater Mark of Precision 9	Greater Quintessence of Ability Power 3	Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 9

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Flat AP is useful during the laning phase as it boosts all your abilities. You can switch them between Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed if you're facing heavy skill-shot dependent opponents and you can't dodge them effectively ( Nidalee, Xerath)
  
  
• greater mark of hybrid penetration: Why not Greater Mark of Magic Penetration instead? Because these runes take advantage of your auto-attack range, which is fairly good compared to others. Remember that Caitlyn has 650 AA range!
  
  AA-poke is very efficient in the early-game, since you don't need mana to harass and usually as Annie, you can't 100-0 with your burst before your opponent is already chunked down. Those who are weak against sustained poke ( Kassadin, Fizz, Mordekaiser) will find your AA poke a lot more painful and annoying.
  
  The opportunity cost between Hybrid Marks and Flat MPen is very low. You lose about 2 MPen (which is roughly 2% less damage in abilities) while gaining 8 ArPen (which gives you about 10% AA damage increase early on). It's a personal preference in all honesty, but you'll notice that with these runes, your AAs will hurt a lot more. And every little advantage you can gain in lane isn't a waste.
  
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: Scaling AP is the best stat offered by Glyphs. You can trade them for Greater Glyph of Magic Resist if you face heavy burst-poke lanes ( Malzahar, LeBlanc, Fizz, Zilean).
  
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: These runes offer the best mitigation against AD Junglers (which are basically the average) and ranged AA poke from the enemy laners. They're basically overpowered and should be picked with any character, regardless of the lane you play. Though if you really struggle early on with mana management you can try Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration.

Masteries

Masteries

1/5

1/1

2/1

4/5

3/1

1/1

3/1

1/1

4/

1/

4/1

1/1

3/5

1/1

I usually go 21/9/0 because even though Meditation is a good investment, you don't really need it if you start with Mana Potion and due to the fact that Catalyst the Protector is one of your early purchases. The Defensive tree bonus are superior as an investment compared to what you gain in the Utility Tree. Resistance is free damage reduction against AP Casters and Veteran's Scars helps against earlygame burst damage. Butcher helps with last-hitting early on. Since Annie is a combo-mage, you want to deal as much damage as possible with your burst in a quick sequence. The reasoning behind 9/0/21 setups is that you gain 10% cooldown reduction and lots of mana regeneration. This favors DPS mages like Ryze (who also finds Spellvamp yummy) or poke mages like Lux. Both of these kinds of champions want to have their skills reset as soon as posible, since this either increases their dueling capabilities or their ranged harass with skills.

Items

Item Sequence
Rod of Ages 2700	Rabadon's Deathcap 3800	Void Staff 2650	Zhonya's Hourglass 2900	Deathfire Grasp 3100	Sorcerer's Shoes 1100

This is THE item for Annie. You shouldn't skip it as it gives everything she needs: sustain in lane, damage and beefiness to compensate her squishiness and short cast range. Catalyst the Protector is the best earlygame purchase you can make: since Season 3 started, it's cheaper and there's no reason to even buy Doran's Ring anymore if it sets you back on this. Since the Rod takes 10 minutes to fully charge and give all its stats, you should get it before anything else.

These are the core boots for any AP Carry. You shouldn't need other ones, though against a heavy CC team or vs. a very hard magic damage opponent, you could consider purchasing Mercury Treads instead.

"So I heard that you like AP... Then here's some AP and extra AP, so you can build AP while building AP!" This is the damage multiplier item that will make you transition to mid/lategame better. The problem about AP is that it scales poorly the longer the game is, so extra scaling lets you cope up with it. You shouldn't rush it unless you are super ahead since you'll be really squishy without Rod of Ages.

After Rabadon's Deathcap you'll probably need some Magic Penetration because AP doesn't scale well against MR stacking. This will allow you to partially counter tanky builds, though MPen doesn't counter HP stacking - keep that in mind.

This item allows you to survive any kind of burst focus, gives you some resistances and it's a wonderful bait tool in teamfights. It will enhance your survivability a ton if used properly and since Annie is most of the time almost in the middle of the fight, it's very useful.

The tank-melting can-opener. This item gives a chunk of AP, some CDR (not really needed for Annie but always welcome), and a neat active. It's a nuke that deals % damage based on maximum HP and a debuff that amplifies all magic damage taken , so you want to use it right after you land your first empowered Pyromania spell. Together with Void Staff it pierces through the target's defenses like butter and there's no chance an ADC can survive your full combo.

Morellonomicon

Ignite

Twin Shadows

Shyvana

Nidalee

Zed

Seeker's Armguard

Kha'Zix

Pantheon

Talon

Zhonya's Hourglass

Rod of Ages

Abyssal Mask

Seeker's Armguard

Veigar

Elise

Seraph's Embrace

Rod of Ages

Rabadon's Deathcap

Rabadon's Deathcap

Rod of Ages

Doran's Ring

Tear of the Goddess

Tear of the Goddess

There is no such thing as the perfect build and you must take in account that each game is different and sometimes you have to skip or delay common purchases in order to improve your perfomance. Besides the core suggested ( Rod of Ages, Sorcerer's Shoes and Needlessly Large Rod), anything else is situational and regarding who you face and the needs of your team. Sometimes buying a Warmog's Armor or even a Thornmail can mean victory since it will prevent you from feeding and snowballing your opponent, even though I don't even mention it in my guide because those situations are very rare. Take my item selection as a general guideline, you are free to build whatever you think it's best.

Stages of the Game - The whats, whys, whens and whos

In-depth Explanation

As you start the game, you will probably want to make sure that everything's right. Check your team's picks. Even though Annie by herself is a good pick (or we wouldn't make a guide about her), she works better with some champions since they make her job way easier.

First of all, your jungler. He should have some CC: preferably a root or a stun. Something that locks people so you can get close and land your skills. My personal favorites as an Annie player are Maokai and Jarvan IV. Twisted Advance is a clickable root that also works as a gapcloser, so it has no chance of missing if Maokai is in range.

Jarvan IV's earlygame ganking is worse, but Cataclysm is one of the best skills that any champion can offer to an Annie. It traps people in a cage, meaning that if they don't have Flash or a blink ( Arcane Shift, Pounce), you can just throw Summon: Tibbers with Pyromania for an instant win.

You should try to avoid picking Annie when your team lacks a decent front-line. Even though you have Molten Shield, by no means you can act like a bruiser. You can engage but most of the time as a secondary initiator. Poke comps are specially painful for Annie since she wants to get close and land her burst to wipe the whole enemy team with huge AoE damage - however, a team in which your mates are Jayce, Janna, Caitlyn or the like want to be as far from enemies as posible, making it impossible to land your burst safely, and even sometimes, they'll blow people away from your range and you won't be able to reach them.

Annie

Varus

Urgot

Miss Fortune

Ashe

Thresh

Sona

Taric

Alistar

Singed

Malphite

Nunu

Darius

Xin Zhao

Zac

Vi

Amumu

Trundle

Sejuani

Team comps that favor Annie:

Team comps that don't work so well with Annie:

Early-Game In-Depth Analysis

Pay close atention to the opponent's moves. If he gets out of position, you can try to land Disintegrate + an auto-attack in a short combo. Make sure that you aren't too close to the enemy minions, as AA harass draws aggro towards you (but abilities don't).

You shouldn't push aggresively unless the jungler is ganking elsewhere or you've properly warded your lane. Levels 1-2-3 are the most critical for you as you're extremely squishy and you don't have enough skills to stack Pyromania quickly.

If the opponent hard-pushes the lane, you should push it back using Incinerate. It's okay to let it closer to your side as it exposes the enemy laner to your jungler's ganks, but don't be too passive as you risk to lose CS under turret and it's the best scenario for poke champions to be aggresive against you ( Ziggs, Lux, Jayce).

Don't spend your Pyromania recklessly. You will need it sometimes to defend yourself from ganks. The best scenario is to keep it stacked at 3 charges, so you can quickly use Molten Shield and empower the next spell. This is the synergy I was talking about earlier. If you get used to it, you'll make your CC less predictable.

If you manage to chunk an opponent to 1/3 of his HP due to constant harass, you can try to Flash + Ignite + Incinerate + Disintegrate to net a kill. Even though you'll burn your main repositioning tool, spending it for an early kill sets you really ahead.

Also remember to push the lane towards the enemy turret whenever you wish to leave your lane or right after your opponent is dead. Then go back and buy. This way you'll deny him the creepwave, making him lose valuable gold and XP that's really critical in this early phase and will increase the gap between you.

Kill the Jungler: A Hunting Game that you should practice

The reasoning behind chosing to start with Health Potion x5, Mana Potion x4 and Sight Ward x2 is not only to ensure good sustain, but to try to get advantage of the jungle's early exposure to invasion. This strategy works in most games if the jungler of the enemy team isn't particulary fast (as the current meta doesn't favor speedy junglers) and it's better to pull off if they start in their red buff rather than blue.

As soon as the game starts, quickly make your purchases and head to the enemy's red buff. Place a ward in the bush next to the red buff, so you may have vision of it. It should be placed around 1:05 so you may have time to back up and help your jungle with his leashing and it gives you enough vision span for the ward to be effective.

Now, try to get some levels and pay close atention to the minimap. Lane normally to not draw suspicion. Whenever the enemy jungler comes to their red buff, head towards it. The ideal scenario is to have level 3 and a few Pyromania stacks already. Go from behind, following the path behind Baron/Dragon until you reach the bush where you placed the ward. Wait until the jungler gets chunked down by his red (about 30% of his HP): then quickly hit him with a Q+W+Ignite combo along with Pyromania. Add a couple of AAs and the red buff procing on him - you'll get a sure kill.

Make sure that your enemy laner doesn't follow you. It could turn your invasion into a sure death. Also, if you can have your jungler help you with this invasion, you'll maximize the odds of killing and taking the red/blue buff for yourselves.

The reason why doing this in blue is more risky is because it's closer to enemy lanes and it isn't so important for junglers who prefer to start in red buff (though a blue buff start benefits every jungler).

Annie

Pyromania

Annie's Power in this Stage:

Your main objective as Annie should be:

Examples of match-ups stronger than Annie in this phase:

Ziggs

Syndra

Zyra

Jayce

LeBlanc

Annie

Rod of Ages

Disintegrate

Disintegrate

Pyromania

Summon: Tibbers

Incinerate

About Roaming: In-Depth Analysis

As the AP Carry going midlane, one of your duties is to roam when possible. You should gank other lanes with the help of Pyromania and Summon: Tibbers. Ask if there are any Sight Wards placed, and try to follow un-conventional pathings where people usually ward (for instance, go through the enemy's jungle behind Dragon/Baron instead of walking through the river).

It's worth to burn Flash in order to get in range for a gank, but be certain that your teammates are following and are aware of your presence. Ping several times to warn them as you come, don't just assume they'll pay atention.

The opposing AP Carry will do two things: either push hard and try to get your turret or roam as well. If you roam too much and don't get kills, he will gain advantage since he'll free-farm and you can lose your lane turret. If you're too obvious in your pathings he may follow and ambush you.

It's usually a good idea to follow your enemy laner if you know where he's going. As soon as he leaves the lane, push hard the wave towards his turret, then follow him. Be careful so you don't facecheck bushes. Annie is really good at counterganking thanks to her AoE damage and CC: and you really can't blame your teammates of feeding your laner if you just sit in the lane and farm, while they're being dived 3vs1.

Consider building a Kage's Lucky Pick if you think that you need to roam a lot to compensate the lower gold gain.

If you got managed to wipe an enemy lane, try to push fast to get a turret or another map objective, like Dragon . You shouldn't try to get a neutral objective before clearing it with a Vision Ward, or the enemy may just wait for the right time to steal it.

Annie's Power in this Stage:

Your main objective as Annie should be:

Examples of match-ups stronger than Annie in this phase (roaming):

Twisted Fate

Pantheon

Ahri

Evelynn

FAQ

Q: Why Liandry's Torment? Annie is a burst mage, this is an item meant for poke mages.

Liandry's Torment

Teemo

Singed

Vladimir

Kayle

Haunting Guise

Sorcerer's Shoes

Needlessly Large Rod

Liandry's Torment

Disintegrate

Pyromania

Liandry's Torment

Deathfire Grasp

Annie

Updates

April 24, 2013 - Beta guide created and published. Fixed Glyphs (SAP instead of FAP). Added a couple of sections (Stages of the Game, FAQ) that shall be updated pretty soon.

April 25, 2013 - BBCode and format update in order to get less hate. Also rewritten a few chapters. Added Thanksgiving section.

April 26, 2013 - Fixed some more typos.

April 27, 2013 - Major updates. Rewritten some sections, added a question on FAQ, added Early-Game and Champion Selection information in Stages of the Game.

April 29, 2013 - Updated and revised item-path in cheat sheet. Removed Barrier from Summoner Spells and put Teleport instead. Updated Items and Stages of the Game chapters. Masteries revised and updated.

Credits and Thanksgiving

// SPECIAL THANKS: Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.