Annie - The Little Terror
Thanks to sweetochii for drawing this picture of AnnieIntroductionThis guide will be explaining how I build and play Annie and WHY. The most important part of a guide is the WHY. Guides are meant to help teach and to give new ideas, not as exact rules to follow when you play a champion. So teaching and giving new ideas to experienced players is going to be the main focus of my guide, there will be no 'tl;dr' version. If you want that, find yourself a different guide(Or I guess you could just skip down to the item list).
Annie is a great support caster, my playstyle is probably not the best but it is a style I enjoy and do good with. This guide will focus on how I play Annie. Most people would call Annie a heavy nuker and think you should focus on AP, and I disagree with this. Yes she has strong spells, but her AP ratios aren't the best. It is true that Annie is a great nuker, but pure AP is not the the way to go. My playstyle focuses on max CDR, in my opinion Annie's amazing strength comes from her ability to cast her Q every 2.6 seconds if you have 40% CDR.
*Note: Just because I said Annie is a support caster, that doesn't make her a true support champion. Such as Taric or Soraka. Her support role comes into play with her spammable slows(Rylais) and her reliable stuns.
AbilitiesPyromania(passive) - After casting 5 spells, Annie's next spell will stun the target for 1.75 seconds.
Disintegrate(0.6 ratio) - Annie hurls a mana infused fireball, dealing damage and refunding the mana cost if it destroys the target.
Incinerate(0.6 ratio) - Annie casts a blazing cone of fire, dealing damage to all targets in the area.
Molten Shield(0.2 ratio) - Shields Annie from harm, reducing damage she takes and returning damage from basic attacks.
Summon: Tibbers(0.7 ratio) - Annie wills her bear Tibbers to life, dealing damage to units in the area. Tibbers can attack and also burns enemies that stand near him.
Skill OrderThere are a few different skill orders you can do for Annie, I wouldn't say one is better than the others, it mostly depends on personal preference.
Order 1:
This is the typical solo middle skill set up.
Q - W - Q - W - Q - R - Q/E - Q/E
Then you would go R > Q > W > E
Order 2:
This is the typical stun start skill set up.
W - Q - Q - W - Q - R - Q/E - Q/E
Then you would go R > Q > W > E
Order 3:
This is an early molten shield skill set up, its good to build stuns faster, or to get extra defense to counter harass.
Q - W - Q - E - Q - R
Then you would go R > Q > W > E
Order 4:
This is a high damage output and push build.
W - Q - W - Q - W - R - E
Then you would go R > W > Q > E
The last skill order focuses on W over Q because it has higher burst possibilities. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are laning with someone who can burst as much as you, or unless you are laning against a really cocky squishy champion. It has less harass value, because W costs a lot more mana then Q so you cant cast it as much, but it has the chance of getting you extremely early kills. Again I do not recommend it, but I have tested it a few times and it seems to do good under the correct circumstances. It is a dual lane build ONLY. DO NOT try it if you are solo.
I recommend only using the starting stun skill order if you are laning with someone who can take advantage of it. They need to be able to do enough damage to get a kill, else it is wasted.
Summoner SpellsFlash - This is a spell that allows you to do a lot of clutch things with Annie, in the early lane phase one you get level 6 you can flash into range of your enemy and kill them. You can also flash over walls if you are being chased and going to die. You have no real escape spell, so this works great for both escaping and catching your enemy off guard.
Teleport - I love this spell, it is great to be able to back at the beginning without losing experience, and lets you get to lanes to defend them easily. It is also an amazing spell to set up ganks, just teleport to a ward and kill some people.
Ignite - This gives you a nice DoT and healing reduction, I personally replaced using
Teleport +
Ignite with
Teleport +
Flash, because I find Flash to be better in more situations.
Ghost - Ghost will allow you to chase if you need to, but also allow you to kite people that are chasing you.
Clarity - Do not use this spell. It is a bad spell for Annie, you might think it is good for any caster but that is wrong. With Annie you wont be spamming your spells enough early game to run out of mana fast, and if you do then
Teleport would be much better of a spell to use because you can back to get mana + item and get into lane quickly.
MasteriesThere are two mastery builds I like for Annie.
Mastery Example #1 is a typical 'safe' build.
Mastery Example #2 is one I use if I KNOW I am going to be middle and want an experience advantage. It isn't much but it helps, especially if you can zone the enemy champion out fairly well.
*Note. Take
Improved Ghost over
Improved Flash if you want to use
Ghost instead of
Flash.
RunesMarks are usually the same for any caster
- Greater Mark of Insightx9 - 0.95 Magic penetration
Seals can be a little tricky on Annie, there are a few choices.
- Greater Seal of Fortitudex9 - 5.35 Health
- Greater Seal of Resilliencex9 - 1.41 Armor
- Greater Seal of Replenishmentx9 - 0.41 Mana regen / 5
- Greater Seal of Clarityx9 - 0.065 Mana regen / 5 per level (1.17 at champion level 18)
The reason you would take base health or armor is so you can stand more harassment, the health obviously helps more against everything, where as the armor helps against purely physical attacks. The mana regen, obviously never a bad idea to help you spam spells more. Considering you get mana back when your Q kills a minion, I am not 100% sure if I like base regen or regen per level more. Take what you feel would be best.
Glyphs can be tricky on Annie as well.
- Greater Glyph of Shielding - 0.15 Magic resist per level (2.7 at champion level 18)
- Greater Glyph of Warding - 1.49 Magic resist
- Greater Glyph of Focus - 0.65% Cooldown reduction
- Greater Glyph of Force - 0.17 Ability power per level (3.06 at champion level 18)
The magic resist would be to make you less likely to die in team fight situations(your spells have a fairly short casting range). It also helps you against early game magical harassment, and syngergizes extremely well with your molten shield to bring your late game magic resist close to, or over, 100 without having any items that give +MR. I personally go with per level over base.
Base cooldown Glyphs are an option to give you that early CDR advantage so you can spamm your spells more. NEVER go with CDR/lvl runes. They wont become useful until level 14, and by then you should have some CDR items, so they aren't worth it. Ability power Glyphs are also an option, your AP ratios aren't amazing, but you are a caster so AP is always good.
Quintessences are pretty straight forward.
- Greater Quintessence of Fortitude - 26 Health
- Greater Quintessence of Insight - 1.89 Magic penetration
The extra health will let you take more damage from level 1, which is always nice.
The extra 5.67 Magic penetration is amazing, if you add it to the 8.55 from your marks, and 15% from masteries, that equals a whole lot of damage. 30 average MR for champions means 25.5 when you take off 15%. With Magic pen Marks and Quints, thats a total of 11.28 magic resist left on your enemies(15.53 if they have base MR of 35).
ItemsStarting items for solo laneTypically I take
Boots of Speed + 3x
Health potions, but I am really good with conserving my mana. If you are fairly new to Annie, or if you don't always get the last hit off with your Q then you might want to consider
Boots of Speed + 2x
Health potions + 1x
Mana potion.
Starting items for dual laneWhen I am with another person I typically start off with
Sapphire Crystal + 2x
Health potions. Remember, if you are in a lane with another person you need to share the CS; Unless they are a champion who focuses on zoning the enemies or doesn't need much CS, like a support champion.
If I am solo middle I try to stay in lane until I have enough money to buy a
Tear of the Goddess.
If I am in a side lane, I try to stay until I can buy a
Tear of the Goddess and
Boots of Speed. But if you aren't getting money quick enough then skip the
Boots of Speed for now and just get the
Tear of the Goddess, you want it as soon as possible to build up the mana on it.
Items to get during the gameSo we made it passed the first 8-10 minutes, this is where the two builds converge.
Mercury Treds - If you are against a heavy CC team then get these boots
Ionian Boots of Lucidity - If you do not need
Mercury Treds then these are your next main choice, the 15% CDR is beautiful on Annie.
Mejai's Soulstealer - I personally never pick this item up on Annie, but if you are doing good and want it then go for it. The 15% CDR at 20 stacks is AMAZING.
Rylais Crystal Scepter - I love this item on Annie, the amazing slow mixed in with your periodical stun allows you to kite a single enemy champion for an insane amount of time. I usually rush this after
Tear of the Goddess +
Boots of Speed.
Fiendish Codex - This is usually the item I get after
Rylais Crystal Scepter, it can be turned into
Deathfire Grasp or
Morello's Evil Tome. If you decide to go for
Mejai's Soulstealer, I would skip this item.
Deathfire Grasp - Upgrade your
Fiendish Codex into this ONLY if you need the extra nuke.
Morello's Evil Tome - Upgrade your
Fiendish Codex into this if you don't need the extra nuke from
Deathfire Grasp.
Archangel's Staff - You can convert your
Tear of the Goddess into this at anytime you want, I typically save it for my 4th item, depending on how the game is going.
Rabadon's Deathcap - Bad AP ratios or not, 155 AP + 30% AP increase on all your AP is nothing to scoff at. Get this as your 5th or 6th item.
Zhonya's Hourglass - 100 AP and 50 Armor are both nice, but the best part of this is the 2 second stasis. Get this item when you think you will need stasis the most. You can rush it after
Rylais Crystal Scepter if you get focused a lot, or you can save it for one of your last items.
Banshee Veil - If the game you are in is heavy in the magic damage area, then replace your starting
Tear of the Goddess with a
Catalyst the Protector. Build it up into a
Banshee Veil, instead of getting an
Archangel's Staff.
Rod of Ages - I personally don't like this item on Annie, because its strength depends on how fast you can get it, if you are having a great game and can get it really early... Great! go for it. If you are having a kind of slow game though, I would skip it and go for something that gives instant gratification, so to speak.
Void Staff - If the enemy team is stacking an extreme amount of magic resist, then get this item. Otherwise ignore it.
Haunting Guise - Good for some early game boosts, but by no means is this an end game item. If you are having trouble getting kills or farming gold and want to try this out for a boost to your stats then go for it.
Lich Bane - Your spammable spells and fairly high AP can make this an extremely deadly weapon on Annie, but your attack animation and attack speed are so slow that it is almost not worth it in my opinion. Go ahead and test it to see if you like it, but it is not something that I use.
With masteries +
Ionian Boots of Lucidity +
Morello's Evil Tome, you will easily reach your 40% CDR, with
Deathfire Grasp in place of
Morello's Evil Tome, you will have 39% CDR, which will nicely round up to 40% when you get a
blue potion going.
Lane PhaseSolo MiddleIf you find yourself able to take middle as Annie, then it is time to laugh. Annie has amazing strength as a solo middle champion. Although playstyle will depend heavily on who you will be middle against. Most of the time you will be against some sort of low harass(save for auto attack) ranged carry, like Miss Fortune or Ashe. This is great for you, you can be as aggressive as you want and zone out these champions easily. Your attack range is 625, which means it is the longest base attack range in the game(Tristanas gets longer around level 9, and Kog'Maw has a longer range with Bio-Arcane.) you definitely want to use your attack range to your advantage. My typical playstyle is to build up a stun by last hitting minions with Disintegrate(Q), then what you have to do is start pressuring the enemy champion. Walk up close enough to auto attack them. If they run you can chase them out of experience range while damaging them, if they try to attack you... well you can stun them and hit them again then go back to safety. Generally you will always make it out better on these exchanges, and it is really nice to soften them up a bit so you can burst them down with a combination if they aren't careful.
Level 6 is when Annie gets REALLY deadly, more-so then most other champions in the game. If you softened up the enemy enough while you were level 5, then it should be easy to flash up and burst them with all your spells to get a kill. Typically I will want to have my stun charges at 4, then you R -> Q + Stun -> W -> Q. The reason I do it like this is so Tibbers has longer time to do damage, but if you notice the enemy champion has a good escape method such a flash or a jump, like Tristana, than you will want to initiate with the infamous Tibbers stun.
If you are paired middle against someone you don't think you can handle, such as Morgana, Vladimir or Zilean(for example). Don't be scared to swap with someone who is better equipped to handle heavy harass. If no one will switch, or if you don't trust other people to not feed(solo queue), your main objective here would be to farm creeps the best you can and to NOT feed. You have amazing range and a great last hit spell, just stay behind your minions and don't push by auto attacking. You will want the creeps to be near the middle or close to your tower so just last hit.
Dual LaneAnnie is an AMAZING solo middle champion, but there are champions who might need middle more, and there are champions who could make solo middle harder for you. In these cases, do not be scared to take a side lane with a partner. Annie works amazingly well with other champions. The threat of her stun makes Annie very scarey to her opponents, most times just walking up to an opponent with your stun visable will be eough to make them back off. Because of this fact Annie is a great zoning champion and is able to babysit a melee team mate who might have a hard time farming otherwise.
Never focus solely on zoning, you also need to get some of the CS so you can buy your items. Just remember to share, we both know you could get any last hit you want with your Q, but your team mate needs to farm as well.
Once you hit level 6 it is never a bad idea to roam a little bit on Annie and try to get in some ganks, but if you see that your team is pushing to the enemy towers don't waste your time. You wont get any ganks off this early if the enemies are sitting under their tower.
Team FightsThere are two different ways your team can fight, they can wait for your Tibbers stun to initiate, or they can initiate and you can follow it up with a Tibbers stun to disable a lot of enemies mid-fight. It really depends on the situation and what kind of initiator you have. With Tibbers up, use him to chase the enemy carry around by ALT + Clicking on the enemy carry, early to mid game this will be a lot more effective then it will be in the mid-late to late game.
After the initiation, just stand back and fire off your Q spell like a machine gun, and remember to use your W to hit as many people as you can when your stun is up. You will want to focus on their squishy champions first, your spammable nukes can easily get any squishy DPS champions out of the fight, just make sure you don't get yourself killed trying to reach them.
Chasing / Getting ChasedThis area is where Rylais really shines, a constant slow mixed with your stun is amazing for chasing down single target enemies. No one should be able to get away from you, unless they have a great escape spell. Remember to never chase TOO far, or else you could find yourself very dead very quickly. How far you can chase safely usually depends on how good you are at the game, and how good the enemy team is. Remember to not be too greedy, there will always be more chances to get the kill.
If you are getting chased by the enemy there is one important thing you must remember,
NEVER STOP CASTING. You should figure out how to use your smart cast, so you can cast without clicking, it will help a lot in these situations. Use your Q to slow the faster champions, or ones who have a slow of their own. Use E to take less damage(obviously), and every time your stun is up, use W to stun as many people chasing you as you can. If all else fails, use your flash to flash
OVER a wall. If you need to use it to pop 2 feet ahead or else you will die then do it, but always try to save it for going over walls because that will make you the safest.
If you are being chased by a single enemy champion, your slow + stuns should let you kite them easily enough. Most of the time you will either make the enemy start to run, or if they are greedy you will get a kill.
*Note: Had you made the choice to not get a Rylais, or if you do not have it yet, the same main idea still applies.
NEVER STOP CASTING, it will save your life.
Other Useful Tips for Playing Annie- The best part of Annie is the mind games you can play with people, especially early. Everyone is so scared of your stun that they will instantly back away from you if they see it up and ready. Use this to your advantage.
- Annie is great at baiting, keep your Pyromania at 4 stacks if you are low life. Then when that greedy noob tries to tower dive you because you don't have your stun up, you can instantly get it up and stun him or her under the tower. (Works best early - mid game)
- Annie is a weak tower pusher alone, but Tibbers changes that all around. Tibbers lasts 60 seconds, and with max CDR he is on a 72 second cool down. So don't be afraid to use him to help push down a tower.
- The tower targets Tibbers over Minions, so make sure you try to run Tibbers in to attack while the tower is focused on a Cannon Minion. You can also use Tibbers to intercept the next wave or two of enemy minions, this will let your own minions put some hurt on the enemy turret.
- Be careful when using Tibbers to push a tower, his passive AOE damage can aggro a tower onto Annie if an enemy champion gets hurt by it.
- Blue buff from the Ancient Golem is amazing for Annie early - mid game. Molten Shield is one of your best abilities to help you get the buff.
- With 40% CDR your molten shield has an 18 second cool down, and lasts 15 seconds. Wiith a mana cost of only 25 there is no reason you should not have this spell active at almost all times when it comes to mid game and later. 50 MR and Armor are amazing for you, and the damage to physical attackers will help you kill off people who try to target you.
- NEVER STOP CASTING!