[Patch 3.14] PreSeason 4 General Discussion - Page 101

I'm not saying she's OP, I'm saying she's frustrating to play against. Part of it comes from her being strong against my champion pool in general (eg. not just laning): after Morgana was permabanned my mids have been Swain, then Viktor+Orianna, and I'm currently failing at playing Diana (who'd probably do better though), so I tend to dislike champions like Lux, TF or Anivia who after some time (from first back to post-6 depending) can simply negate my presence if they so wish. Anivia's ult's effective range also means that unless you flash or get the jump on her you should never be able to approach her as Jax/Irelia/etc. since she'll make you slower than her before you reach gap-closing range.
I'd rather play against Morgana or Syndra because I find their match-ups to be more interactive for my champions.

I'm not saying that Anivia doesn't have a high skill-ceiling, however when people are saying "X champ has such a high skill-cap wow!" when they see a pro play it or something, they often confuse it with skill-floor. Zed for example had a very high skill-ceiling from release, but because he was broken and, even after nerfs, didn't need to use his shadows for more than gap-closing and could faceroll and still do well, his skill-floor remained low and most players who picked him up as FotM were not playing a high skill-ceiling champ, but a low skill-floor one (not that they are mutually exclusive, they're pretty much independant and compatible). For the record that's also how I feel about Riven, with more bullshit added, or a splitpushing Vlad.

Anivia has a higher skill-floor than, say, Annie. She's squishy, and if you don't know how to abuse tings like her passive or the basic workings of her wall, you'll harm you rather than simply be ineffective.
However, once you've got the basics down you have a champion who, while suffering from several hard match-ups (assassins, long-range cc, etc.), has base damage strong enough that her Q ~= 2 spells early game, and added with her E's mechanic you'll lose any trade you initiate if hit by her Q.
When you're bootless and you need to get close to hit her, it's not that hard for her (sure, I wouldn't have these issues if I were playing Lux), and post-6 she has a ~800 effective range to slow you, reach you thanks to the slow and get a chilled-E off as a 700-range point'n'click. Depending on match-ups and jungler she can't necessarily abuse it too much in lane, but during the midgame it's still enough damage to make anyone back out if caught before a skirmish.

Then, when you're trying to push, she denies you a lane. Remember how people were more annoyed than thrilled by the prospect of a 40% CDR Lux being able to clear a wave before it even reaches the tower, every 30s, basically stopping any push? Anivia kinda does that (even more so now that homeguard boots are in the game). Sure, you can splitpush and all, and you'd better draft around that because unless you've got Malphite and jumps to avoid being split in 2 under tower by her wall you're not engaging her team.
There are comps who splitpush because they're weaker in straight teamfight than the opponent and they planned around it. When Anivia's here, you splitpush because she's potentially weaker in teamfights so she denies you any by herself.