Annie, the dark child.Runes, Masteries and Summoner skills.My masteries are set to the standard 9-0-21.
I recommend Magic pen marks, Health based on level seals, flat cooldown reduction glyphs and flat health quins. I'd consider mana regen or flat mana runes as an option as well. To help compensate along with your masteries for her mana issues and possibly keep you from having to do golem as often. Leaving that buff for another team member.
I personally pick ghost and ignite as my summoner skills. Ghost as a defensive and offensive tool. If the enemy is playing cautiously whenever you have a stun up especially in the early game you can use ghost to clear the gap and burst them down. Saving your ghost to escape ganks and other sticky situations is another reason this summoner skill is so damn useful. Ignite simply extends your burst damage by being another damage spell. I've often found it to be the difference between a kill and an opponent getting away. Flash, cleanse and exhaust are also solid options imo. I've noticed some annies prefer flash over ghost. One of the biggest differences I find is in situations where you use your ghost or flash to get into stun range when laning earlier in the game. Ghost unlike flash can do wonders when you have fully bursted them and they are now trying to flee. A last Disintegrate or Incinerate could be all you need to finish them up. Also as means of escape I find ghost more useful when making a get away over a long distance. Flash on the other hand is a solid option worth considering.
Skills and Skill orderPyromania - Her passive pyromania is what makes annie so deadly. Every 5 spells gives annie a free stun. Her molten shield, disintegrate last hits and occasional Incinerate are your means of charging these stuns. Use incinerate before recalling back to base if you need to recall and use incinerate and molten shield while on the platform at base. Your mana will ofc regen while your there.
Disintegrate - A ranged attack with an ap bonus on a low cooldown. Make sure to take advantage of its mana refund whenever it results in a kill. Great early game for farming and working up stun. Use this as your stun early game on single targets because its range is further then incinerate. After getting your stun on them get into incinerate range, incinerate them, then back off unless staying will result in a kill. That is especially important when soloing mid.
Incinerate - A cone shaped attack based on ap. Surprisingly good farming tool mid/late game. Early game before tibbers you can use this as your stun when trying to catch two stuns at once.
Molten shield - Raises her defense and magic resist for a certain period of time with a rather long cooldown. I often find myself using this to charge stuns. When your taking damage activate it.
Summon: tibbers - an aoe attack that summons a pretty bulky companion. Better then incinerate as an aoe stun and a real nuke in team fights. This should become your primary stunning skill once you hit level six.
Skill order for me is often disintegrate first, then incinerate. I level the two skills evenly and pick up tibbers at level six. From there I'll place a single point into molten shield and get back to leveling disin and incin. I place points in tibbers whenever I can. Throw any last points into molten shield.
ItemsStart with Either doran ring and a health potion or Amplifying Tome.
Your boots choice varies from game to game. I often go with Sorcerer's Shoes though.
Mejai's Soulstealer comes highly recommended from me. Even during my more mediocre games I usually keep 8-14 stacks. making it a very gold efficient item.
Void staff is a good choice on annie. ap and a ton of magic pen.
Zhonya's Ring provides a ton of damage and a useful ability. worth picking up.
I personally like to buy an item that will help keep you alive. Most teams will try to focus a well fed annie, especially if they notice your working up stacks on a mejai's. Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Guardian angel and Rod of ages are examples of items like these. padding your health/defenses while providing kill power. If your planning on getting yourself a rod of ages I would recommend buying it sooner rather then later.
Tricks and tips- Golem can do wonders for you.
- Let team fights develop for a bit. Try to catch as many as possible with your tibbers stun.
- When soloing mid lane dont forget to do simple bursts in level 2-5. Disintegrate then Incinerate. This will get them into range of a ghost > Tibber stun > incinerate > disintegrate > ignite at level six for a kill, or it will result in a kill earlier then that.
- keep banshees veil in mind. you can keep your stun count at 4 and use Disintegrate to reach your stun and pop the veil, then tibbers.
- molten shield doesnt make a massive difference but it is worth throwing up during team fights. Annie is often focused on being a squishy caster capable of dealing high damage and stunning multiple targets at once.
- sometimes its best to use a stun to get away or help a team member get away.
- annie makes a great mid.
- as mentioned earlier you should cast spells before recalling and while on healing platform.
- If your going mid and the enemy champion recalls from your damage or dies I usually go gank another lane if I have the mana, hp and a stun. Your auto attack is one of the weakest in the game. pushing that turret wont result in a whole lot of damage to it or a turret kill (unless tibbers is up.)