User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Annie, the Dark Child/@comment-5588011-20150729094313/@comment-1330314-20150729161756

I think putting Pyromania on a limited duration is necessary, as currently it gives Annie far too much free pressure at all stages of the game: going next to an Annie with her stun up is suicide in most cases, and so just by keeping it around she can automatically zone out most enemies. She'd likely have to set her stun up over the course of combat, but I don't think that's a bad thing, particularly since she'd have more opportunities to lay it down.

What you mentioned for Hot Potato involves several points of timing and decision-making, and for that reason I think using it in lane would definitely involve some level of skill. It's true that Annie would be really short-ranged (though that's an intended weakness), but Hot Potato's bounce would give her additional reach in lane, so she'd be able to manage the level of risk she'd want to take against her target, something she isn't too good at doing now due to the low decision-making on her kit.