Hello!

I attempted to make this guide for Annie since she was my main champion for a very long time. I did a lot of games with her and she's so much fun to play. Annie is a Caster DPS, a very strong Caster DPS. With an awesome farming ability.

Also, I want to help with this guide. Do not think that if you have the exact same runes, exact same masteries and exact same build that you will always dominate and win. You also depend on your team and other things. All I want to do is guide you into the direction of a good Annie.

I hope you will learn something from my guide,
and I wish you a good day futher!

P.S.: I put Force Comments on because on my last guide I just got downvoted by trolls for no reason. Just because they wanted too, and because they said their guide was better and they should be on 1#. So sorry if you don't like it, but just put whatever you like/dislike in the comments then. :)

In the time shortly before the League, there were those within the sinister city-state of Noxus who did not agree with the evils perpetrated by the Noxian High Command. The High Command had just put down a coup attempt from the self-proclaimed Crown Prince Raschallion, and a crack down on any form of dissent against the new government was underway. These political and social outcasts, known as the Gray Order, sought to leave their neighbors in peace as they pursued dark arcane knowledge. The leaders of this outcast society were a married couple: Gregori Hastur, the Gray Warlock, and his wife Amoline, the Shadow Witch. Together they led an exodus of magicians and other intelligentsia from Noxus, resettling their followers beyond the Great Barrier to the northern reaches of the unforgiving Voodoo Lands. Though survival was a challenge at times, the Gray Order's colony managed to thrive in a land where so many others would have failed.

Years after the exodus, Gregori and Amoline had a child: Annie. Early on, Annie's parents knew there was something special about their daughter. At the age of two, Annie miraculously ensorcelled a shadow bear - a ferocious denizen of the petrified forests outside the colony - turning it into her pet. To this day she keeps her bear ''Tibbers'' by her side, often keeping him spellbound as a stuffed doll to be carried like a child's toy. The combination of Annie's lineage and the dark magic of her birthplace have given this little girl tremendous arcane power. It is this same girl who now finds herself as one of the most sought-after champions within the League of Legends - even by the city-state that would have exiled her parents had they not fled beforehand.

"Annie may be one of the most powerful champions ever to have fought in a Field of Justice. I shudder to think of her capabilities when she becomes an adult." - High Councilor Kiersta Mandrake

Positives + High burst damage + Her stun can turn a teamfight + Awesome farm ability (Q) + Dominates mid most of the time

Negatives - Squishy - Easily focused - Needs a good team to dominate late - Hard to completely know her

Greater Mark of Scaling Ability Power Gives you more ability power, making your spells do more damage.

Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration Will help you staying in lane longer.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Will give you some defense against your opponent in lane.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power Makes you do even more damage!

Other Options:

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration Some people rather get Magic Penetration runes instead of AP runes, so these are a viable option too.

Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration You don't have to get Scaling just for Annie. It is a little bit better for mid characters. But I used this rune a long time.

Greater Mark of Ability Power Same goes for this rune, if you don't have Scaling just use these untill you can get them.

Offense:

Summoner's Wrath When your Ignite is on CD you will recieve 5 extra AP, which is quite nice.

Sorcery CDR is nice for Annie to either farm minions (Q) or spamkill an enemy.

Blast The more AP you have the more damage you will do. Enough isn't enough!

Havoc Increases your overall damage by 2%, which is pretty nice for an already bursty champion.

Arcane Knowledge Magic Penetration makes you ignore their resist and do even more damage to them. So ofcourse this is a must for mid.

Mental Force Increases your AP by 6.

Archmage Increases your AP by 5%.

Spellsword Provides 5% of your AP into magic damage for your basic attacks.

Executioner When targets are below 50% health you will do 5% more damage to them.

Utility:

Summoner's Insight Reduces the cooldown of your Flash by 15 seconds.

Meditation Gives you 3 more mana regen, Annie can be mana heavy if you're playing a bit to aggressively. With this you'll get your mana back faster.

Mastermind Reduces your Summoner's Spells cooldown.

Expanded Mind Gives you more mana per level (with a total of 180 at level 18).

Runic Affinity You have buffs 20% longer. (Blue & Red)

Flash Very usefull if you need to escape from a gank or if you have to close a gap.

Ignite Nice to secure kills or to irritate healing champions. :)

Other Options:

Clarity If you're new to this game, you can take this instead of Ignite but I recommend taking Ignite as soon as you can.

Ghost You can take this instead of Flash if you like Ghost more. This is your decision.

Teleport If you want to gank lanes, you can easily do it with this. It all depends if you like to roam or not, it can be usefull. But make sure bot/top ward the second bush so you can teleport there.


The Purple dots is where the purple team should put wards if you want to teleport gank.
The Blue dots is where the blue team should put wards if you want to teleport gank.
The Yellow dots is where you should put YOUR wards to avoid being ganked.

Early Game:

If you're against a counter play safe, otherwise just harass a little bit. Last hit minions with your Q and ward your bushes. If it's possible with your jungler ask for an early gank mid and use your stun to make sure she doesn't get away.

You can roam a little bit, or like I told you earlier, you can teleport gank. (Though I still don't recommend it, but whatever you like most) Be carefull that your mid opponent doesn't get fed in other lanes. ALWAYS call ss, even if you think she just recalled. Better safe than sorry.

Mid Game:

Nothing much changes here, but as soon as you go into teamfights. Make sure you have your stun ready. You can always use your shield to get that last stack right before a teamfight. Then you will also have a bit of defense if they focus you.

Use your Incinerate or Summon: Tibbers ability to AoE stun all or most of them. This can turn a teamfight around and make a losing game into a winning game. (I don't say it always happens, but it can happen if you do it right)

Late Game:

Late game you will be mostly doing teamfights, so don't run of alone into a lane. They chance you'll get ganked is big and if this happens more than 1 time you can cost yourself a winning game. Try to stay with atleast 1 teammate if you want to push and otherwise make sure you're near a turret.

If they dive you simply just try to stun them under the turret. You can also keep running around the turret if they're melee, they won't be able to hit you and take a lot of damage from the turret.

Pyromania is Annie's passive. Every 5th spell you cast is a stun, the stun stays for 1.75 seconds.

Use the stuns wisely! In a teamfight an AoE stun can turn it around pretty quickly!

Disintegrate is a fireball that refunds the mana cost if it kills a target.

Use this to farm minions! You can safely last hit minions and be sure you actually have the last hit because of this spell. You can spam it as much as you want aslong as you kill the target with it.

Incinerate is a high AoE (Area of Effect) damage spell

This is very nice to clear big minion waves. Especially late game because you'll 1shot them with your spells.

Molten Shield is Annie's defense spell

It increases her Armor and Magic Resistance for 20 (in the first rank) and will hurt enemies that are doing basic attacks on you while the shield is active. Be sure to use this in TF's if they're attacking you.

Summon: Tibbers is the most fun spell. TIBBERS!

It will summon the best bear of all times: Tibbers. He does a lot (and I'm not kidding, A LOT) of damage around him when you summon. He will stay there for 45 seconds and has a fair amount of health.

Doran's Ring For a little extra domination in early game. This item gives some nice stats for early laning. You can sell this later in game to buy a better item.

Liandry's Torment This will give you a fair bit of health and AP, together with some magic penetration. The passive is also very nice for harassing.

Sorcerer's Shoes I always take these on Annie because of the Magic Penetration on them. Together with Void Staff that you get you will ignore a fair amount of Magic Resist of the enemies.

Rabadon's Deathcap This is a MUST for Annie, the AP you get from this item is amazing. And you will do tons of damage because of it

Void Staff Apart from the 70 AP you get, you also have 35% magic penetration. This item will give you a sweet boost for your damage, especially with all the AP you already have.

Deathfire Grasp This item gives a lot of AP together with CDR and an awesome passive! This item is actually really usefull and it's recommended going for it.

Other Options:

Mejai's Soulstealer The extra AP is really nice, and if you roam a bit and get kills/assists you will boost your AP up really fast.

Abyssal Mask If their AP carry did get fed, you can always replace Void Staff with this item. Gives you a little bit extra magic resist.

For the same reason as above, if their AP carry is fed and you have mana problems you can get Athene's Unholy Grail instead of Archangel's Staff

Archangel's Staff This is a nice ending item, you probably wont come this far but if you do.. this item. Gives you a lot of mana and a bit of extra AP because you still don't have enough.

If you want some spellvamp you can always go for Hextech Revolver and build it into Will of the Ancients

Rod of Ages This is a very nice item for Annie, because she is fairly squishy the health does a lot. So if you want to be a little bit less squishy you can go this item.

- Farm with your Disintegrate ability, if you last hit minions with it it doesn't cost you any mana and you probably will have every minions in the lane.

- Whenever you have your stun and you want to nuke your opponent down, Flash to close the gap and use your Tibbers to stun them. Then you have enough time to do your Q and W while Tibbers is also doing tons of damage on them.

- Wards are your friends, look at the map screenshot I posted and place your wards! Make sure they aren't able to gank you.

Brand is one of Annie's counters, he has a stun of his own and is a little bit 'tankier' than Annie. Which makes it hard to nuke him down.

LeBlanc Same goes for her, she is one of the most powerfull nukers in the game. If you don't stun her on time you're dead.

Fizz He can dodge your stuns and spells with his jump. Which makes it hard to win lane against him.

Lux Can poke you more than you can poke her with her E ability. If try to dodge them all and barely take damage you should be able to win though.

Update 27/12/2012: Changed Mejai's to optional item together with some other items and changed the build. Also added Spellsword as mastery now. Also added Rylai's Crystal Scepter in the build. Fixed mastery description.

Update 27/12/2012: Added force comments, since I forgot. Though I mentioned it in the Introduction.

Thank you for reading this guide, I hope it helped you atleast a little bit! I'll answer question in the comment section and I'll update as much as possible! :)