Annie Build Guide by Aerylion

Introduction

About Me

Welcome Summoners! I am Aerylion and am here to share my build of top tank Annie with you. I enjoy trying picks that aren't usually played in top lane or considered meta and checking if they have potential!

Why Top Annie?

Top Annie is a great choice when you have an AD assassin mid and need more AP on your team. Annie has a great potential in all stages of the game and her poke can bully people in melee champs in top lane easily. At 6 you have a huge burst potential which can cause people to back or kill them. AP Tank Annie provides great team utility and stuns and team fights and her Molten Shield (E) Gives her extra resistances with a low cooldown.

Pros / Cons

Pros

Huge Burst Potential
Good Farming and Poke
Great at all stages of the Game
Great in Team Fights

Cons

Squishy until Defense Items
Without Pyromania Very Easily Ganked

Runes

This Rune Set up can differ in situations and you can have a separate rune page when facing magic damage champs but this set up can apply to all matchups. The Magic Penetration from marks increases your magic damage by a percentage early game and the ability power quints scale the damage of your Disintegrate early game for easier farming and poke. Armor Seals help against AD bruiser tops and scaling MR runes help late game in team fights vs the AP champs. The Scaling MR runes are also good in the late laning phase vs magic damage champs.

You can replace the Scaling MR runes for Scaling CDR runes to cap cdr, just make sure you pick up magic resist boots so you still have those extra resistances.

Masteries

21/9/0 Helps Annie Be Tanky while also maintaining a high damage output throughout the laning phase.

Offensive Mastieries

Take double edged blade to increase the damage of the burst combo at level 6 and Sorcery for the much wanted CDR on Annie. Devastating Strikes helps early game and is more effective vs late game tanks and bruisers who have built resistances. This combined with your runes gives huge kill potential in lane. With the Double Edged Sword, Executioner and Havoc Talents your damage is increased 4.5% all the time and 9.5% when the enemy is below 50% health.

Defensive Masteries

These Defensive masteries reduce early game damage and increase health so you can spend more time in lane and be more tanky against trades and ganks.

Spells & Abilities

Optimal Spells

I don't see any reason in not taking this spell, Annie has no escapes and this can be an initiation and escape tool. Flash +Burst Combos can win team fights.
This gives you a huge amount of kill potential at 6 and before 6 also. Before 6 you can poke them down then try to finish them off and at 6 your whole combo + ignite will destroy the enemy.
Another pick instead of ignite this can help you teleport to a bush in bot lane and use your burst combo to help get the ADC fed while also helping to secure a dragon or tower. This also can help you get back to lane faster if you die or back for more CS.

You can take other spells like heal if you really think you should, but they don't provide a benefit towards Annie like the ones above.

Ability Order

Disintegrate Is maxed first easier farming as its mana is refunded and cooldown reduced when it kills an enemy.
Incinerate IS maxed second if you need more damage since it is AoE and is useful in teamfights since it can proc your stun ( Pyromania). Note that leveling this up will not lower cooldown but increase mana. Molten Shield is a very viable second max because of this.
Molten Shield Is maxed second if you need to be tanky because it provides a good amount of resistances because it does not provide any innate damage from its passive. It also is more effective late game when you have more CDR.
Summon: Tibbers Points should be taken whenever possible as it is your ultimate and does a huge amount of AoE damage that can proc your Pyromania.

Items Reasons

On the Start of the Game

Doran's Ring is a great start for Annie as the passive it provides can refund a good amount of mana and it also provides extra mana regenation on top of that. It also gives health and ability power which are great for top Annie.

Crystaline Flask is a less common start on Annie but provides the same things in different ways. The regeneration provides Annie with an extra 360 health to stay in lane and 180 mana.

With the 5.1 Changes upgrading your warding trinket is extremely cost effective and I suggest doing it as soon as possible. With effective warding you can have 2 wards up all the time, maybe even 3 if you have time. Warding the river bush and tri-bush in the top lane will show if the if the jungler is coming through any of the bushes for attacks. If the jungler is someone with invisibility I suggest going with the greater vision trinket instead.

Early Laning Phase

Blasting Wand & Catalyst the Protector Will build into your first item Rod of Ages . Try to get this as soon as possible so your Rod of Ages can start scaling.
With this also get the resistance for the enemy laner Negatron Cloak vs a magic damage and Glacial Shroud vs a physical damage laner. Glacial Shroud gives CDR Mana and Armor and will build into your second/third item and Negatron Cloak provides alot of magic resist which will also build into your second/third item. Whenever you get a chance pick up some Boots of Speed

After the Laning Phase

During this period you should be trying to finish your 2nd and 3rd items. This easily can vary per game but here are some tips. Always finish the defensive item that helps in your lane. For instance Frozen Heart vs a riven and Abyssal Mask vs a Teemo. Then upgrade your boots into either Ionian Boots of Lucidity or Sorcerer Shoes . After This if the ADC or AP mid is fed you want to build the other Item that you have yet to build. If they aren't fed and you are having a very good game or laning phase start a Rabadon's Deathcap. After this finish Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Why These Items?

Rod of Ages 650 Health And Mana Once Fully Scaled. Also has 80 Ability Power. Even though the Passive becomes a little irrelevant out of lane this item is core for a tanky AP mage.
Frozen Heart Provides 400 Mana, 100 Armor, and 20% CDR which is extremely useful. The 100 Armor helps you agianst ADCs along with its passive aura which slows their attack speed by 15%.

NOTE- If you need more Damage and can spare the Armor, Zhonyas is also a great choice which allows you to go in burst the ADC use the active and wait for your team to catch up.

Abyssal Mask A Unique Aura that can help all magic dealers on the team while also providing you with magic resist and Ability Power. Score.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity vs Sorcerer's Shoes
With Abyssal Scepter it can make sense to get Ionian Boots of Lucidity to have a higher Tibbers and shield uptime. Sorcerer Shoes will be a plain dps increase that will make you more effective on people who stacked magic resist. While sometimes their squishies(which you will be focusing to burst) will build some resistance this is not always the case.
Rabadon's Deathcap With the Above items you will be tanky, with this you inrease your burst. Full build with Rylai's Abyssal and Rod of Ages you will get over 100 AP with this passive which is huge.
Rabadon's Deathcap vs Seraph's Embrace
With the Mana you get from FH, Rod of Ages, and Seraph's you are guaranteed over 120 AP from the passive. Here you are trading the 30% more AP passive for the Mana shield. IF you want to be more tanky stacking a Archangels can make use of all the early game mana we buy with this build.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter Health.Ability Power. A Slow Passive The Reason combied with rabadons this provides a decent damage increase extra tankiness and a slow to keep on enemies. All around Win. The Slow passive is to people with the tank trees however because of the Swiftness and Tenacious talents.

Laning Phase & Team Fights

Laning Phase

During the Pre 6 Laning Phase Annie has the same role as teemo or another ranged top champ, poke whenever possible and farm. Use your q on minions to farm and also stack up your passive and once your stun is up go in and poke with your Q and W. Using this idea often will be really effective in zoning the enemy, sometimes even having your stun available will make them back up from farm. Poke with you Auto Attacks also as mana costs are very high if you dont actually kill the target. At 6 (or before 6 if possible) try to burst the person down with your combo.

Annie is easily ganked without her passive up. However if you use your shield, Q and W you will be able to generate 3 stacks while running back to your tower. If you are at 6 a Bear AoE stun combo can destroy the enemy jungler if he had the nerve to gank lower then full health.

Team Fights

During Team Fights your role is to go in and engage on the squishies of the enemy team, preferable the ADC/Midlaner or a full damage jungle. Try to stun as many people around your targeted enemy to get the most of your stun and damage. Your tankiness allows you to take some damage and get in the middle of the team fight. Flash AoE Stun Combos are extremely powerful engages if you can pull them off. When the team is near baron/dragon your AoE Stuns are gold since they are trapped in the circular cage the monsters are in.