[Champion] Annie

Annie is still a badass. Still one of the most fun APs in the game imoimo.

V1.0.0.154:

Disintegrate:
Mana cost reduced to 60/65/70/75/80 from 60/70/80/90/100.
Incinerate:
Targeting cone is now attached to Annie.
Molten Shield:
Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds from 16.
Duration reduced to 5 seconds from 8.

V1.0.0.141:

Summon Tibbers:
Reactivating the ability while Tibbers is active now allows you to control your pet, similar to Alt+Right Clicking.
You will also see a self-only targeting particle when using this ability, depicting what command your pet is following.


V1.0.0.139:

Base health increased to 460 from 424.
Incinerate mana cost reduced to 70/80/90/100/110 from 80/95/110/125/140.
Molten Shield:
Fixed a bug where it was returning damage to turrets.
Duration reduced to 8 seconds from 15.
Cooldown reduced to 16 seconds from 30.
Mana cost reduced to 20 from 25.
Armor and magic resist bonus increased to 20/30/40/50/60 from 10/20/30/40/50.

V1.0.0.138:

Pyromania now works like other charged passives; activating a spell with the stun no longer builds a charge, but the number of charges required to energize reduced to 4 from 5.

V1.0.0.122:

Disintegrate
Damage reduced to 85/125/165/205/245 from 90/130/170/210/250
Ability power ratio reduced to .7 from .75

Incinerate
Damage reduced to 80/130/180/230/280 from 85/135/185/235/285
Ability power ratio reduced to .75 from .8


V1.0.0.120:

Fixed a bug where Molten Shield damage wouldn't trigger if the damage done to Annie was absorbed by other shields.

v1.0.0.118b

Restored old animation (skip hop run) to Annie.
Disintegrate
Base damage changed to 90/130/170/210/250 from 80/125/170/215/260.
Ability power ratio increased to 0.75 from 0.6.
Mana cost reduced to 60/70/80/90/100 from 60/75/90/105/120.
Incinerate:
Ability power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.6.
Damage reduced to 85/135/185/235/285 from 85/145/205/265/325.
Mana cost reduced to 80/95/110/125/140 from 80/100/120/140/160.
Summon Tibbers:
Mana cost reduced to 125/175/225 from 150/200/250.
No longer gives experience on death.
Gold bounty increased to 50 from 15.
Tibber's health increased to 1200/1600/2000 from 1200 at all ranks.
Now gains armor per rank: 30/50/70.
Now gains magic resist per rank: 25/45/65.
Lowered the duration to 45 seconds from 60 seconds.
Area-of-effect burn damage is now 35 at all ranks from 40/60/80, but now has a 0.2 ability power ratio.


V1.0.0.112:

Classic Skin Splash Art updated.

V1.0.0.100:

Corrected the buff tooltip on Molten Shield so it correctly states that all attackers receive magic damage.

V1.0.0.99:

Molten Shield now reflects damage to all normal attacks instead of just melee attacks.

V1.0.0.86:

Fixed a bug where using Molten Shield after respawning would not trigger the Pyromania counter.

V1.0.0.79:

Increased the missile speed for Disintegrate.

V1.0.0.75:

Fixed a bug that allowed her to double stun.

V1.0.0.63:

Basic attack projectile speed increased to 1200 from 780.

V0.9.25.34:

Summon Tibbers:
If Tibbers kills a sigil monster, Annie will now receive the sigil.
Disintegrate spell projectile changed back to previous look.

V0.9.25.24:

Incinerate ability power ratio reduced from 0.5 to 0.6.
Summon Tibbers ability power ratio increased from 0.6 to 0.7.

V0.9.25.21:

Summon Tibbers:
Improved AI to function better.

V0.9.22.16:

Infernal Guardian renamed to Summon Tibbers.

V0.9.22.15:

Summon Tibbers:
Reduced Area of Effect on Tibbers Burning aura from 400 to 350.
Disintegrate Damage increased from 80/125/170/215/260 to 90/130/170/215/260.

V0.9.22.7:

Infernal Guardian Cast Range reduced from 650 to 600.

V0.8.22.115:

The Infernal Guardian, Tibbers, now dies after 60 seconds or when Annie dies.

July 10, 2009 Patch:

Reduced attack speed to be in line with other casters.
Infernal Guardian:
Reduced Damage from 250/375/500 to 200/325/450.

June 26, 2009 Patch:

Attack Speed reduced to be in line with other casters.
Pyromania stun duration modified to 1.75 from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5.

V6/19/2009:

Infernal Guardian:
Reduced cast range from 800 to 700.

Passive: Pyromania - After every 4 spell casts, Annie's next offensive spell will stun its target for 1.75 seconds.

This is what makes Annie a such a good champion. If you can get good at managing her passive you're on your way to mastering Annie. This passive also creates some interesting mind games you can play in lane and is what makes Annie viable late game as her stun can be used to both gank and also swing teamfights into your teams favor.

Disintegrate - Annie shoots a mana infused fireball, dealing magic damage. Disintegrate's mana cost is refunded if it kills the target

Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 Mana
Range: 625
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Magic Damage: 85 / 125 / 165 / 205 / 245 (+0.7 per ability power)

This is primarily used for harass in lane and for farming. If you use it for farming make sure that Disintegrate will kill the creep you target as the refund of mana upon kills is why Annie should never have a mana problem in lane. This ability is a single target nuke on a short cooldown. You want to max Q over W in lanes that are going to be harder as Q is your primary harass tool and will also make last hitting easier. Otherwise, if you expect an easy lane max W for more burst damage and thus more killing potential.

You'll usually max Q 95% of the time but max W can work sometimes too. W is more damage but Q has half the cool down and is helpful for last hitting and harassing.

Incinerate - Annie casts a cone of fire, dealing magic damage to all enemy targets in the area.

Cost: 80/95/110/125/140 Mana
Range: 625
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Magic Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+0.75 per ability power)

Get this at level 1 and charge up stun as soon as the game loads in. Annie is one of very few champions that can have a level 1 AoE stun and it grants you so much strength during level 1 fights or invades. It's basically an AoE cone that does more damage than Disintegrate and can be an AoE stun for when Tibbers is down. The cooldown is a bit longer so make sure you don't miss it! This spell is instant and the stun and damage applies before Annie even finishes the cast animation so you can pull off some really clutch plays with her W.

Molten Shield - Places a shield around Annie for 5 seconds that increases her armor and magic resistance, and also deals magic damage to enemies every time they use basic attacks on Annie.

Cost: 20 Mana
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Armor & Magic Resistance: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60
Magic Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+0.2 per ability power)

This skill is okay. It can save your life sometimes and is helpful for getting your stun up quicker. In some match ups I don't get this until level 8,With Annie you want as much damage output as soon as you can get it so maxing Q and W first is more helpful.

Sometimes I'll get E at level 4 just because of how much more aggressive this game has gotten and how many champions can easily harass Annie. It also helps to build your stun so getting this sooner = more stuns. There are still a lot of match ups where you can delay this until level 7-8. Also if you plan on roaming a lot early you're gonna want to delay this until level 8 or so.

Summon Tibbers - Annie releases her bear Tibbers from his toy prison, dealing damage to enemy units in the summon area. For a limited time of 45 seconds, Tibbers can attack, while continually dealing magic damage to surrounding enemies.

Cost: 125 / 175 / 225 mana
Range: 600
Cooldown: 120 seconds
Summon Magic Damage: 200 / 325 / 450 (+0.7 per ability power)
Continual Magic Damage: 35 (+0.2 per ability power)
Tibbers' Attack Damage: 80 / 105 / 130
Tibbers' Health: 1200 / 1600 / 2000
Tibbers' Armor: 30 / 50 / 70
Tibbers' Magic Resist: 25 / 45 / 65


Proper use of Tibbers is what will either make you dead weight or a huge asset to your team as Annie. Obviously you should put levels in this as soon as you hit 6/11/16. Tibbers essentially has a sunfire cape on at all times so you want to keep him close to your enemies while he's up. You can move Tibbers by Alt+clicking and you want to make sure you have him auto-attacking an enemy that you want to kill as soon as you drop him. Unless you're in laning or ganking just one person you want to try and get Tibbers to hit multiple enemies and you should also try to time it with your passive stun.

Damage 48 (+2.625 / per level)
Health 348 (+76 / per level)
Mana 250 (+50 / per level)
Move Speed 310
Armor 8.5 (+4 / per level)
Spell Block 30 (+0 / per level)
Health Regen 0.9 (+0.11 / per level)
Mana Regen 1.38 (+0.12 / per level)

Flash: Get this always as Annie. It's just way too good on her. Flashing in and then using Tibbers stun is just way too strong. Flash also has the added utility of letting you survive ganks, leap walls, and get better positioning in teamfights. With Annie this skill isn't just an instant "save me" spell but it also serves as letting Annie initiate fights by herself.

Ignite: This is usually the other summoner spell that I pick up on Annie. It just adds to her level 6 burst combo and is also really good for countering champs with healing and picking off low HP targets that would normally have gotten away. Typically this is the other summoner you want as Annie.

Ghost: Not viable on Annie. Flash -> stun is your initiation and it's absolutely crucial to have Flash. There is no debating Flash on Annie. Replacing Ignite with Ghost reduces your damage and kill potential especially in mid game and the mobility increase is not worth it imo.

Teleport: This spell is legit on Annie. It's best to run it in organized play. But even in solo queue using TP to get behind an enemy team's bot lane or their top laner can net you easy kills. You can also use it in conjunction with jungle ganks or counter-ganks to turn losing battles into winning battles for your team. It reduces your kill potential in lane however so it can be a bit risky but other than Ignite it's the best secondary summoner spell on Annie.

I don't run any other summoner's on Annie ever. You could maybe justify Exhaust but I would much rather get Ignite over it as it's incredibly rare that Exhaust would get me a kill that Ignite/Flash doesn't. Unless the other team is just running a comp where Exhaust would be good to have, don't get it.

I'm open to suggestions on Runes but what I've found to work pretty well,

9 Magic Penetration Marks
9 HP per level Seals or 9 Flat Armor Seals
9 AP per level Glyphs or 9 Flat MR Glyphs
3 Flat AP Quintessences or 3 Movespeed Quintessences

You shouldn't need mana regen as Annie because her Q makes mana mostly a non-issue in lane. The only time you're actually using mana is if you're harassing or if you're going to push the lane just before you back.

You can run MR Glyphs if you don't own AP/level Glyphs or if the lane is really tough. Against strong magic damage divers like Diana you probably need MR Glyphs but if you're against say Kha'Zix or Zed you can get away with AP/level.

Armor seals are also really viable. Even against magic damage dealers in lane because you'll still take physical damage from jungle ganks and enemy mid laner auto-attacks. Against AD mids having armor Seals is basically required.

MS Quints are solid on Annie because you have low spell range and roaming around the map is really viable on Annie.

May 27, 2013 update:

I really like Hybrid runes. Used to run AD or Armpen reds on Annie sometimes because 625 attack range is OP. But with hybrid pen you only lose out on approximately 2 MPEN and make up for it with 8 Armpen. If you're going to auto attack a lot in lane (and you should) hybrid pen is really strong.

Season 3 masteries.

Offensive tree is fairly standard.
You want the CDR on summoner's in the utility tree because you're really reliant on Flash. You want the movespeed because you have low range and no escapes. Buff duration because longer blue buffs means a stronger lane phase.

Starting items:
Generic is Flask + health pots.
Boots + 3pot actually still works on Annie since your spell range is low but you only want to do this in a lane you know that you won't get heavily harassed in.
You can't really open Faerie charm because you're not going to build Tear or Chalice on Annie since you have no really huge mana issues. If you want to build Morello's you can open Faerie Charm though.

Doran's Rings are incredibly good on Annie. Most games you'll get 1-2 on your first back unless you just have a huge surplus of gold from a first blood or something.

Boots are almost always gonna be Sorc shoes. Homeguard is good but if you run TP/Flash you want to buy Distortion boots (even without TP distortion boots are solid due to Annie's reliance on Flash). Mobility boots are really strong for roaming if you plan on roaming a ton.


Viable Items:

In a lot of games you will probably rush this item. It's just the best item in the game for burst casters. Once you have NLR and I believe 3 points in W you can usually insta-clear the caster minions. If you manage to first back with 1600 gold buying NLR can be incredibly strong. The only time you wouldn't rush this is if you're going against an AD lane or if you're rushing Abyssal because you're against a high magic dealing champion (especially an assassin such as Diana or maybe even Akali). There are some people who prefer DFG rush over Dcap but that's really all down to play style preference.


This item is vital. It's required in every game as Annie. Buying Zhonya's isn't a question of "If" it's a question of "When." Against an AD lane like Zed, Talon, or Kha'Zix you will probably first buy this after building armguard. Even if the enemy team is kind of light on physical damage this item is essential because it sets up so many plays. You can pull of some really risky Flash->Tibber stuns followed by a quick Zhonya's so that you won't insta-die after you blow your load. Because Annie has rather high cooldowns on everything but Q getting a Zhonya's usually results in a lot more team fight damage since it'll shave 2 seconds off QWE cooldowns.


DFG is fine on Annie. It used to be a shitty noob trap because you didn't need the mana regen and it really hurt to not use it at the start of your combo. Now it offers no mana regen, gives CDR which you love, and gives a ton of AP. The active also deals %-max HP instead of %-current HP so it doesn't hurt quite as badly to use this after your stun (although you end up missing out on the damage multiplier). Not something you're going to rush unless you want to do an Abyssal+DFG rush build (which is honestly still viable on Annie).

The nice thing about DFG is that Annie loves CDR since lower CDs means more Tibbers which means more ganks. Fast DFG or DFG rushing can work really well in match ups where you don't need to build tanky. The thing that sucks is that while you really like CDR most of the really good CDR items come with mana or mana regen which are two stats you don't really want on Annie.


Very very strong. Ideal for roaming and ideal for added early game damage. Getting this right after Deathcap is probably the most damage per gold you can achieve during early team fights but it leaves you very squishy. There are some games where you can get this as a second or third item and other games where you might want to want until your fourth or fifth item to pick this up. Regardless if the game goes long enough you're going to pick up Void Staff as the 40% spell pen is simply irreplaceable.


If the enemy team is low on MR and you don't like DFG then this item is good to go with your Zhonya's and Abyssal. Semi-tanky Annie is pretty much the most ideal way to play her imo since your late game damage suffers a lot more than other AP mids. Rylai's adds lots of CC (Tibber's AoE applies it so as long as he's alive you have a permaslow walking around the map), a significant chunk of health, and decent AP. There are much better items to get on Annie first but this one isn't that bad for super late game. Usually this will be your fifth item if you don't feel you need BV or Warmogs.


Really strong item on Annie still because Abyssal has 650 range and all of your spells are 625 range. Which means that all of your spells take full advantage of the MR shred that Abyssal applies. The MR you get from Abyssal is also really helpful and makes this item incredibly strong when laning against champions like Diana who can kill you easily if you mis-position. Other items probably take precedence but if you want to play tanky Annie this item is ideal.


Been playing around with this a bit more. Against an AD lane I still like rushing armguard into Zhonya's and against most magic damage dealers I like rushing Abyssal. But you can build this still. Typically going 1-2 Drings into RoA can be incredibly powerful if you get ahead with an early kill or something. And RoA is really nice on Annie since you typically want to build tankier than most other mages to begin with.


Personally I think that Lich is hilarious on Annie. I mean, part of it is kind of trolly but at the same time you have 625 range so sometimes blowing your shield and then autoing an enemy can be decent poke during mid and late game stand offs. It's probably something to round out your build in the late game if you don't know what else to buy for your sixth item. You usually can't abuse the passive since you're a burster that casts all four spells at once so at most you'll only get two Lich Bane autos off a team fight. Still this item can be hilarious if you build it early. But probably not very ideal.


If you wanna take tank Annie to the next level these two items can be kind of fun. GA can work well too but I typically prefer Warmogs or BV since you already have Zhonya's. Usually you're not gonna build this stuff but there are games where getting straight defensive items can be ideal.

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Meh. Haunting Guise early is good because Annie likes all of the stats it gives. Health, AP, MPEN. Liandry's not as good unless the enemy team is health stacking since you don't re-apply it all that well and you can't really abuse the double stack that much. A lot of times if you buy Guise it's to give yourself a quick power spike before a gank or before trying to force a 1v1 with your lane opponent. Then you'll just sit on Guise for the rest of the game and probably sell it for something else rather than building Liandry's. You could go Guise->Rylai's->Liandry's though if you're hellbent on building Rylai's on Annie. But it's usually gonna be better to just get Dcap and Abyssal+Zhonya's.


Items to never buy on Annie:
Will of the Ancients - You don't need spellvamp you're fucking Annie. You have a million CD on every spell that isn't Q.
Athenes - The CDR is fucking awesome! The mana regen from Chalice is wasted on Annie though.
Morellonomicon - Viable because of its cheap cost and the really beneficial stats it gives (75 AP+20% CDR for 2200 gold is really good). But you don't need the MP5 and frankly there are other items which are more vital on Annie.
Archangel's Staff - While Seraph's active is pimp as hell on Annie you take about eight years to charge tear. And you don't need the mana or mana regen.

tl;dr generic item builds
+ Show Spoiler +

This is an alternative way to play Annie. Link to the guide on SoloMid can be found here. I've tried this a few times and it works out really really well in solo queue especially against a mid laner who doesn't roam that well (or if your opponent has shit map awareness and just doesn't roam at all).

You run Hybrid Pen marks, Armor seals, MR glyphs, movespeed quintessences.
You go 9/0/21 masteries.
+ Show Spoiler +
Skill order is WQQWQRQEQ after level 9 R>W>E. You want to dish out as much damage as possible so you don't level E until 7-8 (this works on regular Annie too but is especially important in this build).
Start boots and 3x health pot + 2x mana pot. First buy you pick up mobility boots and alacrity upgrade to give yourself crazy move speed for roaming the map (this takes advantage of Annies high base damage). Then prioritize damage getting Dcap/Void as fast as possible (follow up with DFG+Zhonya's). You don't ever have to go for kills on enemy mid although if your jungler ganks or they present themselves obviously take them. You want to keep an eye on top and bot lane and roam to gank as often as possible. Even if you don't have ult up WQ with a stun is usually enough to get a kill or blow summoners to give your laners a huge advantage.

During mid game you basically roam as much as possible. You don't give a shit about farming mid and you don't give a shit about the mid outer turret. You just roam around the map and kill things like the demented satanic little girl that you are.

Full credit goes to "Moonlight Drive" for this build linked at the start of this section.

Brand & Cassiopeia

I hate both of these match ups as Annie. I'm grouping them together because I handle both of these the same. These two champs are very aggressive laners and they both have AoE spells that out range Annie's spells. This makes laning against them a bit of a hassle. I max Q over W for more harass rather than more burst damage. With both of them you want to dodge their AoE spells. Brand's AoE leads into a nasty combo that can do a ton of damage even at early levels and Cass's AoE leads into a flurry of spells she can spam at you. For the first five levels you want to just stand a bit behind your caster minions to try and stay out of range of their spells and use your autos to last hit the enemies melee minions. Both of these champs tend to push lane while trying to harass you so let them and get your farm when lane pushes.

Once you hit 6 laning against Brand can get a bit easier as you can now kill him when your stun is up but Cass is, imo, just as hard when you hit 6 as she is at early levels. Regardless, hitting 6 without dying or getting significantly zoned means you can usually scare them or kill them. Just don't get stunned by either of these champs and do your best to dodge + farm and you should be okay.

Kassadin

He just straight up shits all over you. I really don't know how to beat this lane if the enemy Kass is good. His Q outranges yours and silences you. If you use spells to try and harass him you just feed his E which hurts a lot and slows you. I've tried doing both my standard build and RoA build, not sure which one is better. Boots means you can harass a bit easier, if I get Q'd by Kass I can sometimes chase a bit if he doesn't have boots and then Q him when silence is down. This doesn't work that well though if enemy minions agro on you.

Just play safe and get your farm. If you hit 6 before him and think you can gib him do it. Cause after 6 he's going to be incredibly difficult to lane against. Try to ride your advantage pre-6.

Orianna suggested by r.Evo

I haven't gotten to play against Orianna since her most recent nerf. Since this match up was already "close" I would imagine that Annie is now a stronger laner than Ori. However, you should be careful because an Orianna that can hit her QW can out harass you if she's smart. Her Q still outranges all of your spells but if she misses a Q it means you can do free harass. She also has a very short auto attack range of 500 meaning if she goes to auto attack you can get a spell off on her. Just be careful to avoid her ball and you should be able to win lane against her. Addendum, no one plays Orianna anymore but she's still good. Lane is honestly even now so long as you don't let yourself get zoned (basically don't play like a pussy).

Xerath

He's OP and just straight up outlanes you. There's not much you can do about it other than dodge his Q. If you can dodge Q, especially if he's trying to stun you, then you might be okay. But pretty much anytime he gets ult if he stuns you once you're dead. Just wait for him to get nerfed. He beats pretty much everyone in lane but Annie especially has issues with him due to her short range.

Talon
Only champion that I'm adding for Season 3. While Annie has a lot of trouble with tons of ADs that go mid along with a bunch of new APs that have come out since Xerath, Talon is a total cunt. You can't beat him in lane. At level 6 you can actually kill him but it's very likely that he'll jump, silence, and kill you first. If you can catch him off guard you can win but if he plays properly you don't have much of a chance without jungle aid. Just far with OP auto-attack range and play passive pre-6/when you don't have stun up.

Note: These are the champs I have the most trouble with as Annie, any suggestions or additions to this list are appreciated.

Additional note: Morgana will outlane you too. But she outlanes all APs so I felt no need to put a section on her. You basically just try to get farm and if you get the chance to go gank you take it.

v.1.001 - Added AP quints as a viable choice. Expanded the masteries section to mention neutral monster buffs a bit more in depth. Changed "Bad Matchups" to "Tough Matchups." Added Orianna as a Tough Matchup.

v.1.002 - Clarified a few things and just added extra info in general. Updated the Brand/Cass section.

v.1.003 - Added a screenshot to demonstrate viewing Annie's Pyromania stacks when playing against her.

v.1.004 - Updated masteries to include neutral monster buff masteries. Added a screenshot of masteries page.

v.1.005 - Updated Runes as I now use flat AP quints. Thanks to those who suggested them.

v.1.006 - Updated patch history and skillset to reflect her nerfs from most recent patch.

v.1.007 - Updated runes and the Orianna section.

v.1.008 - Update for new masteries, added Xerath to tough match ups cause he's a bullshit champion.

v.1.009 - Some general updates to various parts of this guide.

v.1.010 - Updated for Varus patch.

v.1.011 - No one plays Annie. Update for Season 3 anyways. Annie fotm incoming as visual re-work approaches.

v.1.012 - Updated for new spell icons. Visual update looks really good although she's pretty flashy. Sad news is that Frostfire Annie no longer has black swirl when her stun is up and in fact the stun particle is way more noticeable on Annie now. Otherwise the upgrade looks pretty slick and the new voice acting is solid I guess.

v.1.013 - Update hybrid pen runes over AD/Armpen runes as an alternative. A few touch ups.

v.1.014 - Added "roaming Annie" section.

v.1.015 - General touch-ups plus new banner.