It's easy, but there is a lot of room to perfect the gameplay of this build. I would say a glass cannon Annie is very possible, but it is also very difficult to learn because of how important careful positioning is. With this build positioning is still very important, but it is more forgiving if you take a little bit extra damage. Being more forgiving allows you to focus on other aspects of your play which should allow you to climb ELO. :D
But also, I think that Annie is a mage who has very efficient defensive scaling simply because she really does not have to worry too much about building any resistances due to the effects of her E. Basically Annie is able to become an effective bruiser without really building any resistance items (though Zhonyas is a possible option). Similar to how Ryze's passive allows him to build Frozen Heart for increased damage, Annie's E allows her to benefit particularly well from building Haunting Guise since health is just more effective on someone who gets free resistances.
I like to go into the utility tree for the CDR on summoner spells since Flash is so useful for your initiations. If you feel like being more bratty to your jungler and ask for blue buff then you can take Rune Affinity, but I personally choose to go for Culinary Mastery to help me sustain early - and you never know when a jungler will just want to take their own buffs! Honestly I think that in solo queue the junglers should almost always have double buffs unless another champion really benefits from the buff (Think blue on Xerath or Ziggs) since junglers are really poor in this meta
I think offensive tree is pretty standard.
Skill order
R>Q>W>E
Max your Q first since it makes farming easy and provides some great damage. Your W comes second because even though you get a lot of great stats from your E, the extra damage from W is probably better early on. Finally, you max your E last because eventually with this build you will start to stack up some nice HP which will energize greatly with the free resistances that you gain from maxing E (also, your E will almost be able to be on permanently with CDR).
Summoner spells
Ignite and Flash if you wanna play aggressively in lane get possibly get some solo kills.
Teleport and Flash if you wanna play a little more farm-focused in lane, but you can still go for some solo kills if the conditions are right. TP + Flash allows you to roam more so you get kills that way rather than in lane.
Item build
1.) ROA
You want to go for an early ROA since it gives you a lot of health and AP.
2.) Haunting Guise
Annie has some pretty high base stats so some early magic penetration can go along way for her. The additional health will also be amazing for her since she gets free resistances from her E.
3.) Lucidity boots
I think that CDR is really valuable on Annie because Tibbers is such a useful ultimate for pushing, shoving, and obviously team fights. The extra CDR also has the advantage of making her E up more frequently to get stun stacks more quickly and just give her those great resistances.
P.S I think that distortion enchantment is a must later on in the came since Flash is so great for initiations. However, Teleporting in with homeguards can be fun, so you can try that if you want.
3.) Rylais
Next is Rylais because it gives you a ton of CC. Now not only do you have great CC from your passive, but you also have a single target nuke slow (Q) and an AOE close range slow (W). Also, yet again the health that Ryalis gives you is extra efficient for Annie's durability because her E gives her so many free resistances.
4.) Zhonyas, Abyssal, Aegis (Pick 2)
A.) Zhonyas - If there is a key skillshot or ability (Zed's Deathmark) that you just feel like it's super important to dodge or the enemy just has a lot of strong AD, this is a great item. However, the active of Zhonyas might be a problem in that the purpose of it is to divert attention away from you when in many cases Annie would want to be attracting attention herself. Still, Zhonyas can be really good if you are one of the main sources for magic damage on your team and need to maximize your life.
B.) Abyssal - If the enemy team is stacking MR as a response to your team's AP then this might be really beneficial to your team. It's a pretty nice aura item.
C.) Aegis - If there is a really fed Xerath or Orianna or just AP champion on the enemy team that's really giving you trouble this might be a very helpful item.
Banner of Command - I like the new Banner of Command as well because it gives you a minion advantage in one lane that needs to be answered by the enemy team which just provides a little bit of extra pressure that might tilt the game in your favor
Locket - This good be a good choice if you want to be more durable and protect your team from magic damage. I still prefer Banner of Command for the active and the AP it gives in most situations though.
There is absolutely zero reason to get a Tear/Archangel/Seraph's on Annie. Annie gets free Qs to last hit with in lane, and doesn't suffer from mana problems anyways since she's more focused on burst in teamfights. Health and AP should be prioritized above all else, you get more than enough mana from a RoA.
On January 11 2015 15:16 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: There is absolutely zero reason to get a Tear/Archangel/Seraph's on Annie. Annie gets free Qs to last hit with in lane, and doesn't suffer from mana problems anyways since she's more focused on burst in teamfights. Health and AP should be prioritized above all else, you get more than enough mana from a RoA.
if you are playing bruiser annie you are not as focused on burst and will often run out of mana because you stay in lane/fights much longer. Plus the shield you get is really excellent for your tankiness.
On January 11 2015 15:16 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: There is absolutely zero reason to get a Tear/Archangel/Seraph's on Annie. Annie gets free Qs to last hit with in lane, and doesn't suffer from mana problems anyways since she's more focused on burst in teamfights. Health and AP should be prioritized above all else, you get more than enough mana from a RoA.
if you are playing bruiser annie you are not as focused on burst and will often run out of mana because you stay in lane/fights much longer. Plus the shield you get is really excellent for your tankiness.
If you're playing bruiser Annie, you really shouldn't be spending 2700g on an item that gives you no survivability at all until it transforms into something that gives you a variable shield. That gold would be much better spent elsewhere for this playstyle. I'm not convinced that you need more than RoA mana to expand your base mana pool.
I've seen people go for something like Morellonomicon for the regen, but a Tear is a bit much.
On January 11 2015 16:33 Sufficiency wrote: Free Q -> free tear stack, I guess.
But in general I am skeptical. There is nothing she can do Ryze/Cass can't do bettr.
? Annie gives you the potential of having insane aoe burst engages. Ryze doesn't even remotely offer the same things as annie. Ryze's early game is super weak and he is more of a sustained damage type of mage ( even though he can burst like a monster late game ) and annie is the complete counterpart to that.
Cass on the other hand, is just meh vs all the gapclosers and high mobility champs that are played now.
Not saying i love annie top, just saying well... She offers a LOT that they dont.
On January 11 2015 16:33 Sufficiency wrote: Free Q -> free tear stack, I guess.
But in general I am skeptical. There is nothing she can do Ryze/Cass can't do bettr.
? Annie gives you the potential of having insane aoe burst engages. Ryze doesn't even remotely offer the same things as annie. Ryze's early game is super weak and he is more of a sustained damage type of mage ( even though he can burst like a monster late game ) and annie is the complete counterpart to that.
Cass on the other hand, is just meh vs all the gapclosers and high mobility champs that are played now.
Not saying i love annie top, just saying well... She offers a LOT that they dont.
I believe what sufficiency is saying is that if you want to build Archangel's on a hero you should not be doing it on Annie.
Finally, you max your E last because eventually with this build you will start to stack up some nice HP which will energize greatly with the free resistances that you gain from maxing E (also, your E will almost be able to be on permanently with CDR).
This seems like a reason to max E, y'know, not last. Unless you mean to say that you eventually max E as opposed to the alternative of not ranking it up at all ever?
This guide seems pretty minimal in content, and not a huge divergence from normal styles anyway. Is there a reason you forgo void staff completely? Haunting guise / optional abyssal 5th item is not really good enough on paper.
Archangel is a very cost efficient item when combined with RoA. A Tear lets her use her Q to poke without running out of mana which lets her bully many toplaners.
I agree, Forbidden Idol gives you more value for gold when you are buying it, but when you are aiming for a scaling build that includes RoA, Tear IS a viable item.
Annie Top is a lanebully that scales into a very tanky CC machine, not a burst-mage like Annie Mid/Support.
On January 11 2015 16:33 Sufficiency wrote: Free Q -> free tear stack, I guess.
But in general I am skeptical. There is nothing she can do Ryze/Cass can't do bettr.
? Annie gives you the potential of having insane aoe burst engages. Ryze doesn't even remotely offer the same things as annie. Ryze's early game is super weak and he is more of a sustained damage type of mage ( even though he can burst like a monster late game ) and annie is the complete counterpart to that.
Cass on the other hand, is just meh vs all the gapclosers and high mobility champs that are played now.
Not saying i love annie top, just saying well... She offers a LOT that they dont.
I believe what sufficiency is saying is that if you want to build Archangel's on a hero you should not be doing it on Annie.
Well, I just think top lane Ryze/Cass are better as "ranged AP bruiser" than Annie.
Why am I contradicting myself? Tear is an item that scales pretty hard but also gives more lane power by providing mana for harassment. Keep in mind that most Toplaners are melee champions. Those can be harassed over a long period of time if you got enough mana.
Now the question is: Morellonomicon or Tear?
Morellonomicon gives Annie more power in the midgame, but less scaling. Tear on the other hand is way worse for laning, but scales really nice. I would argue that Tear is already enough in the mana department and therefore I go for a better scaling over a stronger midgame.
Especially with a tanky Annie, which does not aim at bursting people down but rather plays a role similar to Shyvana, Mundo and Maokai in S4 or Zac, Shen in S3: Providing CC while being durable in teamfights with constant damage output.
About your slightly different role for Annie Top (compared to mine): There are a other factors like teamcomp, strategy that play a role here. Therefore I can't say which one is better in general, I can only say we both have our prefered playstyles.
Tear is a terrible item. It is a mana item that is designed to power up as time goes on and spending a chunk of money on non-combat stats is pointless on Annie who is not a champion whose power scales of mana the way Ryze, Kassadin or Anivia do. If you are desperately in need of mana in lane for whatever reason, you can either buy a mana pot or just learn to manage your spells better.
Annie has no MS boosts, a conditional defensive steroid but has no way of actually being a frontline champion, no sustain, and is reliant on Flash for initiation. Her role as a tank is as effective as using a Randuins rush Katarina who uses Shunpo's blink+damage reduction to initiate. Not to mention Tear Annie is just asking to be blown up.
You can run weird stuff in your solo queue or 5s with friends, but that's about all it is. Weird stuff. It's still ineffective and a waste of the champions potential.
Some combination of DFG/Hourglass/Rylais -is- a legitimate build on Annie, but the playstyle isn't that much different from normal Annie, and the DFG should tip you off that your'e still focused on burst initiation.
That's the closest thing to "bruiser Annie" that has been proven at a competitive level, in this case LPL.
@MoonBear: From your wording alone it seems like you don't know what you are talking about. I already explained why tear is a strong item and what her role is (in my way to play her top).
You don't seem to understand what a tank needs to offer to be viable. Why do you even compare an AoE stun to a Katarina shunpo + randuins? I bet you can do better than that.
By the way, every defensive steriod is "conditional".
Everyone else in this thread seems to agree that Tear on Annie is awful. A lot of the players are long time TL posters and recognized for playing at an acceptable (Plat+) level. In addition, the empirical record of professional games on bruiser Annie reveal that no one has built Tear. The last 2 months of probuilds data indicate no one has built Tear on Annie in SoloQ either. I'm sure Suffiency could pull data and discover that in aggregate, Annies with a Tear built early have lower winrate than baseline Annie.
Saying the final build of Tear synergizes well with RoA ignores the fact that 1) You lose a ton of gold efficiency building more mana than you will ever need 2) You lose a ton of power by sinking gold into something that's totally useless until it is fully bought and fully stacked
Champions that built Tear (Ryze, Kassadin, Cassio, Anivia, etc) deal with these issues because 1) They actually need giant mana pools 2) They can actively convert mana into damage whether through direct mana scaling (Ryze, Kassadin) or damaging spells that are gated by mana rather than cooldown (Cassio, Anivia)
I'm sure Tear on Annie is passable (i.e. better than Ravenous Hydra) enough that you can have fun and get by. However, if you're going to convince us that Tear on Annie is actually a good idea (i.e. worth passing up RoA/Rylais/Liandries/Deathcap/Void/Hourglass/DFG/Morellonomicon/Sorc Shoes) you're going to have to post some more evidence than general theorycraft.
Is archangels really that cost effective if you don't need the mana?
It definitely won't be cost effective until you fully stack it, and even then I don't think it's impressive enough to justify delaying your powerspike so much.
Annie is a champion that should have a powerful spike in mid game. But you won't get that spike with both tear and RoA.
If you assume that you have absolutely no need for the mana/regen, Seraphs gives an ROA Annie about 144 AP at level 18, and at full effectiveness the active shields for 710, but we can really probably expect it to shield for more like 500. Makes things easier. It costs 2700g.
Rylais is about the closest comparison to that, at 100 AP 400 HP for 2900g, plus the slow. But it has the added effect of doing something prior to a 2k gold investment.
You could also compare it with Liandry, which would probably be similar to the Rylais comparison.
Another way to compare it would be to compare with Void Staff.
Deathcap by itself gives about 156 AP. Void Staff basically always outdamages Deathcap on every champion. I haven't ran numbers for Annie specifically but I'd be willing to bet this is true for her as well. So Void Staff probably also outdamages Seraphs, at 2295g, letting you start building some defensive item, and again has the added advantage of doing something prior to a 2k gold investment.
So, no, if you're not getting anything from the mana regen, Seraphs is likely not a cost efficient item at all, or at least not until very late in the game.
As an addendum, I'm also very very skeptical as to how Tear could possibly be a good item on Annie, and am looking forward to clarification on this.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MiRPE4u.png)
