League of Legends - Annie Guide

Annie is a nuke caster based around the element of fire. She can summoner her pet Tibbers to aid her on the battlefield and has a strong shield to protect herself. Annie has fairly low cooldowns, is a powerful laning champion and potentially has an area of effect stun, giving her great utility in both 1v1 and team fights.

This Annie guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Annie, it is recommended for people just starting to use Annie.

Abilities

• 
  Pyromania (Passive) Annie has a very powerful passive and gives her the stun she needs to unleash her combo of spells. It is great for zoning enemies in the laning phase and also can be turned into a nice area of effect stun with the use of Tibbers in team fights.
• 
  Disintegrate Annie's primary attack spell, it has very low cooldown and has nice base damage and scaling. It also allows Annie to stay in lane for ages at a time allowing her to get some strong early game farming (due to its ability to refund mana on a kill).
• 
  Incinerate Annie's 2nd offensive spell, it is great for farming mid-late game and also provides a useful spell to build up her passive as it does not require a target to cast. While it is a nice addition to her combo of spells it is the most dangerous to use due to its short range. It is best used after you have stunned your opponent.
• 
  Molten Shield A strong defensive ability that should always be active mid-late game. With full cooldown reduction this shield is only down for around 3 seconds. Like Incinerate it can help Annie charge up stun on her way back to lane. Molten Shield is also very effective at hiding Annie's stun.
• 
  Summon: Tibbers (Ultimate) Tibbers combined with the stun from Annie's passive is devastating in both 1v1 situations and in team fights. Tibbers can also be controlled after cast using "ALT + Click". Allowing him to harass a single target, tank a turret as needed or scout out an area. Tibbers also has a fairly low cooldown, making him available for most team fights.

Ability Order

Annie's abilities are best leveled: Ult > Disintegrate > Incinerate > Molten Shield

Disintegrate is maxed first as it is a powerful last hitting spell and also provides Annie with a strong form of harassment. Taking Molten Shield at level 4 is important to help charge up Annie's stun as needed. Incinerate should be maxed second to allow Annie to farm mid game while also increasing your damage output. Molten Shield is left till last as it only requires one point to be effective however if you need more defenses you can drop an extra point or two into this skill earlier.

Runes

Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Mana Regeneration Per Level
Blue (Glyphs) - Cooldown Reduction // Ability Power
Purple (Quintessences) - Health // Ability Power

Magic Penetration Marks are a no-brainer choice on Marks to increase your damage output. Seals should be mana regeneration to maintain your mana levels throughout the game. Running cooldown reduction Glyphs allows you to use your spells more often, leading to more overall damage output and more stuns, alternatively you can run Ability Power to have strong early game harassment. Running Health on Quintessences, gives you the ability to start with many different items, but you can also run Ability Power.

Summoner Spells

 

Best Summoner Spells:
-Flash
-Ignite

Flash and Ignite are your best options for summoner spells in regards to Annie. Flash gives you the escape mechanism you need or allows you to Flash in to land a massive Tibbers stun on an enemy. While Ignite compliments Annie strong 1v1 damage and gives the extra boost to damage throughout the game, being related to fire it also just feels at home with Annie.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Teleport
-Ghost

Your other options for summoner spells are Teleport and Ghost. Teleport is nice for added map control but you sacrifice either an escape ability or extra damage through Ignite to take it. Ghost is nice replacement to Flash if you prefer it as an escape spell, but Flash is much stronger on Annie.

Masteries

Annie uses a typical caster setup of 9/0/21.

The offensive tree offers ability power, cooldown reduction and spell penetration.

While the utility tree offers all the important caster related masteries. These include mana regeneration, movement speed, increased buff duration, cooldown reduction and the all important reduced summoner spell cooldown.

Item Build

 
Final Item Build:
-Sorcerer's Shoes
-Rod of Ages
-Rabadon's Deathcap
-Rylai's Crystal Scepter
-Abyssal Scepter
-Zhonya's Hourglass

Steps/Reasoning:
-Start with a Mana Crystal + 2 Health Potions, due to Annie's passive mana regeneration beyond runes and masteries is not needed, this starting item allows you to grab an early Catalyst and giving you some health regeneration through the potions.
-First trip back you want to look at building Boots of Speed and Catalyst The Protector.
-Next get your Tier 2 boots (Sorcerer's Shoes) while also building towards a Rod of Ages.
-Your second item should be Rabadon's Deathcap, giving you a strong Ability Power boost.
-Your next item will depend on the enemy team. If you some defense against casters build an Abyssal Scepter. Or if you want some general survivability and added team utility (through the slow) consider building a Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Your 3rd option is a Zhonya's Hourglass which offers some armor and the ability to become invulnerable.

Alternatives:
-Banshee's Veil (Great counter to crowd control heavy teams).
-Void Staff (A must have against magic resist stacking team).
-Mejai's Soulstealer (Annie dominates the early game, if you do well consider building this).
-DeathFire Grasp (The active is a great addition to Annie's combo).
-Moonflair Spellblade (If the team has slows and silences).

General Annie Tips

• You can use your Molten Shield to hide your stun from enemies.
• Against solo targets you can stun with Q effectively to ensure you hit Tibbers. If there are multiple enemies use Tibbers to land your stun.
• Use Incinerate and Molten Shield on your way back to lane to charge up your stun.
• Always ensure you build up your stun and keep it up when pushing or you are anticipating a fight.
• Don't forget you can control Tibbers using "ALT + Click", you can send him on towers or to harass an enemy champion.

Early Game (Level 1-6)

• Last hit with your auto-attacks and Q. This will keep your mana high and makes Annie one of the best laning and early farming champions.
• Once your stun is active you can use it to zone your enemies, preventing them from last hitting effectively. This works extremely well in a side 2v2 lane as landing a stun on the enemy will result in significant damage.
• Concentrate on keeping the enemy low and your mana high, this will ensure you can grab a kill at level 6 with Tibbers.
• You should not have to recall at all during this stage.

Mid Game (Level 7-12)

• Now that you have Tibbers you can really start utilizing your full spell combo to bring down squishy champions.
• Support and gank the side lanes if you were in middle lane, your stun should guarantee kills and if you can land Tibbers on both the enemy side laners, you can get some nice double kills and potential towers.
• You can start using Incinerate to farm up during this stage.
• Be sure to always have shield up (or be ready to cast) when enemies are around, try activate it as late as possible to ensure it remains up for the duration of the fight.
• Be careful when committing to use Incinerate on an enemy, it puts you in harms way.

Late Game (13-18)

• Try to maintain an active blue golem buff during late game.
• Always have your stun and Tibbers ready for team fights, you want to try stun as many people with it as possible.
• Keep your shield up every time its off cooldown now, it gives you great extra survivability.
• Don't forget that Tibbers can be used to tank towers after you have aced the enemy team if there is no tank available. 

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