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1. Introduction
Hello. I have been playing Anivia since January 2010 without pause. I am here to teach you how to play the correct Anivia. You must learn that what separates the good Anivia's from the great Anivia's is positioning. Not your walls or not your Flash Frost hits. Everyone screws up a wall sometime, when it's hit and miss.
Before you read, or skip to the itembuild, I would like to say this: Get Mejai's. Even if you are a novice. Anivia is a champion who generally dies the least of all champions. Use this to your advantage. Everything that makes someone a good player in League of Legends is what makes someone a great Anivia player. Map awareness, wards, positioning and getting a good teamfight going is all that gets you that 11/1/9 score that I am used to. If you master your positioning, you will get kills, you will win team fights and carry your way to victory. Good thing you bought Mejai.
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2. Summoner Abilities
Good in order of greatest to worst
Flash
Getting that last Frostbite in, getting to safety before turning into an egg. All that jazz. Before level 6, you're not doing a massive ton of damage (this does not mean you can't get any kills, hell no.) so you might aswell just play it safe and be gentle.
Ghost
What is this? Yes, the Ghost/Flash combo for ultimate mobility. Previous readers of my guide may have noticed my dislike for ghost on Anivia, but opinions change. And mine did about 3 months ago, when I started using the Ghost/Flash combo. Keep in mind though, when given the choice between Ghost OR Flash, it's still Flash over Ghost. In any event, the supremacy of Ghost comes around in every teambattle. Just open with it and you'll find yourself to much more easily do your combo's in quick and safe succession, without leaving yourself vulnerable thanks to the greater speed.
Ignite
I've found this spell to be less and less useful by the second. For survivability, you want to not be in the fray for too long. While I once argued that the Ignite range is just as high as the Frostbite range, therefore making it easy to combine both in one blow, it doesn't stand up to the Ghost/Flash combo.
Teleport
The cooldown is too long for my taste. I can see the many benefits of Teleport, but when asked, team fights are the most important part of a game. Anivia cannot push a tower too easily but can defend one easily. Honestly, I'm torn between getting this in the Good or the Fair section. Take it or leave it, some people can't live without Teleport so feel free if your that person.
Fair
Cleanse
My problem with Cleanse, and it is with most people, is that it can only be used defensively, unlike Ghost or Flash. While it obviously has a lower cooldown, I barely ever find myself in the midst of battle and getting out alive due to the absence of CC. No, only Flash can generally get you out of tight situations. That, or your dead and you've been clumsy.
Clarity
When I teach Anivia to newer players, they always really really want Clarity for various reasons. All they're telling me is they're not getting the Golem buff often enough. It's fine though, but Golem should be a priority. Barely any champion takes priority over you. If you think yourself experience, don't get Clarity. But I won't hate you for it.
Clairvoyance
A fair choice if mobility is not your playstyles handicap. I wouldn't take it over all the other great choices and leave it to the supportive champions. Some people take Clairvoyance with everything. If you are that person, I won't stop you.
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3. Abilities
Rebirth On dying, Cryophoenix will revert into an egg. If the egg can survive for six seconds, she is gloriously reborn.
You can see how far you are from being reborn by a blue orb coming down. The cooldown is ~4 minutes, remember this as well as you remember you have five fingers on each hand. You play AGGRESSIVE when you have it, you play DEFENSIVE when you do not. This is one of the reasons why you're always near someone. He can help you when you're defenseless, the egg is a great lure. You are ALWAYS either safe or guaranteed a kill when you're near a tower. They cannot kill your egg and survive the tower's damage at the same time.
Flash Frost Anivia brings her wings together and summons a single piercing lance of ice that flies towards her opponents, chilling and damaging anyone in its path. When the lance explodes it does moderate damage in a radius, stunning anyone in the area.
I can write a book on how to properly use this. At levels 1-4, don't waste your mana trying to hit champions, your frostbite isn't strong enough yet to follow up with and you're just going to waste your mana. The stun on explosion is supreme, and is one of abilities you have to run away from danger. The range is huge, and it's larger than the circle. Keep in mind that the edge of the radius is not the maximum range of where you can hit stuff. The explosion radius makes it even larger. The best way to hit a target that's laning against you, be it mid or sides, is to not move. He's probably always kind-of in range of it. Just auto-attack away, and fire it so, that Anivia won't move forward, and scare them away. They generally won't react fast enough because they're watching your movements, not a blue orb of death that looks very much like the rest of your physical attacks. I will explain how to use this in correlation with Frostbite, your nuke, in the Frostbite part.
Use it to run away. When they're far or close, fire it and predict where to let it explode by pressing Q again. Chances are huge they'll be slowed and stunned for 0.75 seconds. You can even follow this up with a Frostbite while running away. You may think this is suicide, but think of it this way: he's chasing you, you're running. You suddenly Flash Frost and Frostbite his face, taking off quite a bit of health. Do you think he will continue his pursuit? You're pretty much bluffing that your allies are near you, and before you know it, he's the one running. Do not pursuit yourself unless you have allies with you or it's a deathtrap.
Note that it does damage when it goes through things, and the explosion itself does the same amount of damage. Always let it explode behind your target for it to take double damage and have it get stunned.
One more trick on how to get a runner. If he's still up close, just fire it at where you think he'll be running at (such as towers or other allies). More often than not, you're getting the kill because he went exactly where your Flash Frost did. It exploded in his face, and you just totally skillshotted his grotesque demeanor... I got carried away a little. On to Crystallize:
Crystallize Cryophoenix condenses the moisture in the air into an impenetrable wall of ice to block the movement of her enemies. The wall only lasts a short duration before it melts.
At rank 1, a well placed wall can still block off the smaller paths, such are the small ones the river area has on Summoner's Rift. This ability is incredibly useful, mostly a lifesaver either for you or your allies. It can also mean death for the other, it is so much fun placing a wall in front of a running enemy, block him off and have his face pierced by millions of blades. Some tricks and tips:
How to use this when you're running: place it exactly behind you and your enemy. To get this right, every pixel closer to your origin but not actually in front of you is better. If you do this in your enemies direction, but extremely close to you, you'll be bumped forward, giving you a minor speed boost. He of course will have to run around it, giving you valuable time to get away. The range on this is massive, and note that if a runner is really far away, placing it juuuust in front of him using your max range can even push him back. Follow up with a Flash Frost and let heads roll.
Remember that some champions cannot get through a blocked off path, while other, smaller champions, such as Teemo or Tristana, might still get through the small cranny. Take extra care when pursuing them, for you might just only block off your allies and let the enemy get away with it all.
The fun doesn't end here, you can also use this just to intimidate the enemy. More often than not, if you're solely defending mid tower for example, and there are four attacking, fire off a wall at a random position in front of them and they'll instinctively run back a bit, giving you time.
Also use the wall to get better results for your Flash Frost. It serves as a funnel for enemies to walk through. Throw up a wall, use Flash Frost on the side most likely your enemy would get through and it's a direct inevitable hit. Practice makes perfect.
Lastly, the wall is supreme for scouting and predicting ganksquads. Jab a wall in the brush, you can see who's hiding. Condense a wall in the jungle, see who's snooping around. If anyone's in there, follow up with Flash Frost and the grass blades won't be the only blades they see.
Frostbite With a flap of her wings, Cryophoenix blasts a freezing gust of wind at her target, dealing a medium amount of damage. If the target has been slowed by an ice effect, the damage they take is doubled.
Ah yes, the nuke. With a flap of her wings, Cryophoenix melts faces and let's Death do his bidding. This ability is why people should fear you more than the Grim Reaper. The range may be short, but let that not get in your way. If you hit something at max range with Flash Frost, you can still catch up to him and Frostbite.
The damage is terrible without the target being chilled, therefor should only be used when everything is on cooldown and the enemy has 2 millimeter left on his healthbar. He might still even survive.
I'll get ahead of myself and also explain great combo's with Glacial Storm, but let's start with Flash Frost. As said previously, you can catch up with pretty much everything that's stunned by Flash Frost and hit him with Frostbite. It does nuke-tastic damage at rank 3 and above. Chilled means anything hit by Flash Frost (the snare or stun), Glacial Storm, Ashe's frost arrow or Volley, Nunu's Ice Blast and Frozen Mallet. Probably a few more things, too. The external sources of frost aren't too important, and it's more luck if you see an opening to use it without any of your own abilities.
When you have Glacial Storm up and multiple targets are chilled, pick the target that is of greatest threat. It's a no-brainer, but people still go for tanks and the like.
A great trick is, when a champion is in range of your Frostbite, to just fire and immediately pop Glacial Storm on his position. If done fast enough, he'll be nuked in the fastest way possible.
The cooldown is very short. When you're in a fight, don't use Glacial Storm and Flash Frost at the same time. Having Frostbite up and the rest on cooldown is horrible. Don't go cooldown reductions for this reason, instead, time the abilities right so you can nuke stuff twice.
Thanks Kirtanei
If you have just enough mana for a Frostbite, throw off Glacial Storm. It'll take a second before mana is actually spent. So before it's allowed to tick, use Frostbite. It's a low-mana cost nuke that will scare the enemy off a bit before you use Clarity or recall to get mana. Or just if you want to take a breather and regain mana.
Glacial Storm Cryophoenix summons a driving rain of ice and hail to damage her enemies and slow their advance.
The chill effect it brings is instant, so if you don't see the large circle of frost yet, the enemy is already chilled. Once you're level 6, this is where you can now nuke as you please. A few tricks come with this ability, though I do want to specify something in bold letters first:
Do not forget to turn this off.
Anyways, Glacial Storm is horrifying to the enemy. You can use it to intimidate enemies attacking your tower in the same way as you intimidate them using Crystallize. Anything walking into it anyways should be Frostbitten to get the message. When you're comfortable with you manapool, don't be afraid to keep it on a little longer than the usual second. Hell, try it out at level 10 or so, when your mana shouldn't be the largest problem anymore. See how fast your mana is drained, it's actually not that bad. Always pop it on anything that has low life, the slow effect is awesome and you might just get the killing blow. I know, cheap, but we all know that we care little.
The damage is quite hefty when you're slightly fed. Add in a Flash Frost + Frostbite and they'll get the picture.
Always use it when you're being pursued, the same way you'd use Flash Frost. Follow up with a Frostbite if it's not too much trouble. All your four abilities can be actually used to get away. This is a great asset on how to get 0 deaths. Flash Frost to stun and slow, Frostbite to scare him. Glacial Storm if he still didn't receive the message, wall off if you running in the jungle.
Glacial Storm has a hidden range. If you have it up, and you're moving away, it'll deactivate if you're too far. The range is about as far as the range on Flash Frost. A quick tip against Heimerdinger, use it to destroy his turrets. Pop it, run off, get to max range, wait, laugh. You may have to blue pill, but it's truly worth it.
Don't be afraid to use Glacial Storm against creeps if nothing interesting is going on. Add in Flash Frost and everything except those cannon minions should be dead. Frostbite those cannon minions, it doesn't cost a lot of mana. You may not realize, but you're one of the fastest minion killers in the game, atleast in the later stages of the game. Large quantities of minions can all be exhumed of life by a simple Glacial Storm.
Lastly, if you have chosen Flash, you can use the Frostbite/Glacial Storm combo and kill off a low-life enemy in mere seconds. He will run away if you move towards him, but he can't outrun Flash. Flash > Frostbite > immediate Glacial Storm. He should be dead and crying for overpoweredness. That, or accepting you're professionalism. -
4. ItemsAfter Tear and Boots, I sometimes rush for the Mejai. You might want to get a Rod of Ages first, or atleast Catalyst, but I believe just leveling up and improving your spells and health/mana is enough to keep you in the lane. Just be cautious, and try to lane with something tanky. Sion is perfect. Or Taric. If you are mid, you may want to bring a Doran's Ring against strong mids such as Urgot. Or boots, to be fast enough to avoid his poison bombs.
Anyways, my itembuild in short:
Sapphire Crystal
Boots of Speed (I actually recommend opening with these.)
Tear of the Goddess
Sorcerer's Shoes or 
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Mejai's Soulstealer
Catalyst the Protector
Rod of Ages
Rabadon's Deathcap
Archangel's Staff
Any item that makes sense.
I have zero mana problems this way. Be sure to always get the Golem buff when it's up.
I strongly recommend you use Mejai. Even if you are a novice, you still should not die as much that Mejai would be made useless.
I went hardcore on comparing
Lich Bane versus 
Void Staff.
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5. Masteries + RunesRed
Greater Mark of Insight - No competitors on this one
Yellow
Greater Seal of Clarity - Strongly recommend this one
Blue
Greater Glyph of Force - More AP
Greater Glyph of Celerity - More CDR
Quintessence
Greater Quintessence of Celerity - Even more CDR
Greater Quintessence of Force - Even more AP
Greater Quintessence of Swiftness - Movement Speed? Anivia is slow.
I am running AP blues and CDR quints. I like the mix more than lots of CDR or lots of AP, but feel free to rune whatever you feel is necessary.
Masteries: 9/0/21
I think this build is one we can all agree upon. The Offense tree requires no more explanation. The Utility tree is pretty damn obvious. Mastery in LoL is pretty boring as of March 2011 because there aren't any other interesting choices. Oh well. Change your summoner spell specific masteries to the appropriate ones ofcourse. Feel free to swap Expanded Mind with Awareness, or even give both two points.
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6. Skilling Order
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 
x x x x x 
x x x x x 
x x x x x 
x x x
Frostbite needs to be rank 5 as fast as possible. You do this, so that you may deal great damage after your Flash Frost or Glacial Storm. Leveling up Flash Frost is a bad idea because you will only do damage with one spell, if you hit that is. Frostbite is rather worthless at low levels.
Never skip a rank on Glacial Storm. Flash Frost is quite powerful at rank 5 too, don't underestimate it at that point. Underestimate rank 1 though, don't rely on any kills with it. Crystallize rank 5 is ridiculously huge, it's a one-point wonder though. The second rank is nice because you get to block off all jungle paths with it. Rank 5 even blocks off the river if placed well at the sides. Hilarious results to be ensued.
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7. Working in the team
It's important to know that you should never be alone come midgame/endgame. Never defend any tower alone unless it's mid, which is relatively safe. Even when you're at 15/0, heavily fed and can dispatch anything that comes at you, never go for a 2v1 or even 1v1. Do not panic when you're attacked by heavy damage dealers like Twitch, Teemo or Ryze. They die instantly and are actually walking free kills. Any Twitch ambushing you is a dead Twitch ambushing you, as long as you don't panic or run away. Flash Frost. Frostbite. Storm. Wall. Frostbite. Dead Twitch. Never jungle or push towers. You can't push towers, at all. Always stay with your team, follow them around. Don't be a hero. Don't take initiative. If your team isn't pushing, don't show them how. You'll die. At all points must you know your boundaries. You are still very brittle and can die easily if you give them the chance. Never give them that satisfaction. Stay behind your tank. Target low health champions, you excel at that. Use your wall effectively to scout for ganksquads. Use your Flash Frost through trees to stun things unseen. Never accept tower damage, don't try to kill things that are at a tower.
Stay with your team, if someone alone is being ganked, help them by pinging out a route they should be taking, so that you can help them by scaring the pursuers off with a wall or storm. I have saved so many allies I lost count.
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8. Laning
Top or Bottom
To effectively lane top of bottom, our partner should be able to stun or snare. Wait for them to stun, then Flash Frost and Frostbite they're faces. Tell them when you have no mana and discourage them for attacking when this is the case. Be sure to harass so you can freely creep. There's nothing worse than a Xin who's not afraid of you.
Examples of great partners to lane with are:
Blitzcrank - Can pull and stun things, doing lots of damage along with your own nukes. Anything pulled can be considered dead. Let him initiate his pull, there's nothing worse than throwing a Flash Frost, missing because he was pulled at the same time and then having nothing to chill him with (provided you don't have Glacial Storm yet).
Morgana - If she hits her trap, the enemy is in for a world of hurt.
Ryze - If he hits his trap, the enemy is in for a world of hurt.
Rammus - His spin attack is a great initiative for hitting your Flash Frost.
I can continue, but you get the idea. Anything that can stun or slow is awesome. It is however, better to lane with something that can soak some damage.
Mid
Soloing mid is fun because most opponents are low-health champions such as Teemo, Twitch or Ashe. Be aggressive, you can take off half they're life with a well planted Flash Frost and Frostbite. They'll run. You'll get XP and they will not. Remember to lure them to towers, even to kill you. Most players forget Anivia has her egg. They'll go too far, and die by the towers while you are gloriously reborn. Play defensive when you don't have an egg. Mid is very dangerous otherwise. Be sure to help out top and bottom once you have Glacial Storm. Look for half-health enemy champions that are in range of you jumping them from the river brush. Don't make it too obvious for the mid player, he might warn your target of their impending doom.
