Annie/Strategy

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Skill usage

• Annie's strength as a mage comes from her decent laning phase with Disintegrate allowing her to last-hit without mana problems, and her exceptional AoE damage potential from Incinerate and Summon: Tibbers. Her Pyromania allows her to lock up multiple targets in an area for a decent amount of time with her Molten Shield giving her both a convenient way to charge it and a good defensive boost.
  • Annie's weaknesses include her short spellcasting range, which makes it difficult and risky to land a combo on the key targets in a fight. Pyromania is Annie's only form of crowd control, and while it is charging up she is very vulnerable to getting initiated upon.
• During the laning phase, try to find a good balance between storing your stun for use on the enemy champions, and continuing to use your spells to maintain a strong creepkill count.
• If you expect a level 1 teamfight, a good tactic is to use Incinerate 4 times to get a stun ready before you leave the fountain. This can help turn the tide of an enemy invade or supplement your own to get you first blood.
• Whenever you respawn or Recall to the fountain, use Incinerate and Molten Shield to gain charges on Pyromania.
• Sometimes it is smarter to approach an enemy with 3 Pyromania charges instead of 4 to appear vulnerable. You can then quickly charge the stun with Molten Shield. It can also allow you to break Banshee's Veil with a weaker spell before using a spell (especially Summon: Tibbers) that stuns them.
  • This can also be an effective strategy to lure enemies into a false sense of security.
• During the laning phase, use Disintegrate to last hit minions since it refunds its mana cost and halves its cooldown when it kills a unit. Use this to quickly stack Pyromania.
• Disintegrate can be used once Pyromania is available to lock down a single target, as it is a targeted ability, saving more powerful abilities for follow up.
  • It is often better to use Incinerate to stun as its effect is almost instant, compared to Disintegrate which has travel time and a disjointable projectile. On the other hand, it can be easier to miss if you misjudge the range.
• While Incinerate can take down groups of low health minions early game, positioning the cone so that it also routinely damages the enemy champion can be very useful. Dropping their health like this can be followed up with a big Summon: Tibbers+ Pyromania burst for the kill.
• Don't rely solely on Molten Shield to keep you alive. Its damage isn't great for countering AD carries with life steal, and early game its defensive properties are minimal at best. It is mainly used to charge up a stun.
• When you have 3 Pyromania charges you can cast Molten Shield while Disintegrate is in mid-flight to prime the stun and land it when your Q hits.
• Annie's Summon: Tibbers can be controlled, like most pet units, by holding Alt or activating the ability again before moving.
• Summon: Tibbers or Incinerate used in combination with Pyromania results in Annie having an AoE stun effect.
  • Incinerate can be used as an AoE stun in replacement of Summon: Tibbers, guaranteeing Tibbers to land and damage all the intended targets.

Build usage

• As a mage, Annie benefits greatly from ability power, cooldown reduction, and mana-pool and regeneration bonuses. But because her abilities are relatively short ranged, she may also want to build some defensive stats - health, armor and magic resistance.
• Disintegrate can quickly build up mana in items like Tear of the Goddess or Archangel's Staff.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a great item for Annie, as the health and area of effect slow allows Tibbers' AoE damage aura to constantly apply the slow debuff, making Tibbers excellent for chasing and kiting.
  • Combined with this, Liandry's Torment can help in extended fights as Tibbers' aura does constantly apply the health burn.
• Rabadon's Deathcap works well for Annie as a purely offensive item because of her high AP ratios.
• Abyssal Scepter is a good option for Annie when the enemy team has lots of magic damage. It provides magic resistance, but still contributes to her burst potential with AP and a magic resistance reduction aura and since none of her abilities exceed the 700 range, she can capitalize the aura to its full potential. 
• As Annie's ranges are very short compared to other mages, Boots of Mobility can be an excellent choice for roaming to other lanes or closing the distance on key targets.
• Rod of Ages can be a good choice in giving Annie a bit of extra durability to accommodate her abilities forcing her to be relatively close to the action.
• Aether Wisp and its build paths, Lich Bane and Twin Shadows can be viable options for providing a slight increase in mobility and an extra burst on autos or chasing potential respectively.
  • Note that Annie has a very long basic attack range, which coupled with her low spell range means Lich Bane is particularly easy to use.
• Distortion can supplement the Flash and Summon: Tibbers initiation combo that Annie is feared for by decreasing the cooldown on the spell and providing a small boost in mobility.
• Because Annie's Molten Shield reflects back auto attacks as magic damage in addition to armor and magic resistance boost, a Thornmail works relatively well on her (especially against a basic attack or attack damage heavy team).

Supporting

• While Annie has been traditionally played as a solo lane champion, she can also excel as an aggressive support alongside a marksman in a duo lane. The combination of a long duration AoE Template:Cctip from Pyromania, instant casting or targeted damage spells, and her high basic attack range makes Annie a great threat even without gold and items.
  • However, Annie provides no sustain. Poke-based champions such as Caitlyn, Ezreal, Sona, and Karma can chip away at Annie and her laning partner's health from outside her range.
• Since you will not be taking last-hits, charging Pyromania is not as simple in the support role. With its low manacost and disposable nature, Molten Shield should be used to make sure Pyromania is ready as much as possible.
• Spellthief's Edge and its upgrades serve Annie well, since she can easily proc the gold bonuses with her long range basic attacks. Frost Queen's Claim's active is a great way for Annie to get close to targets for her combo, or simply buy time til she can charge Pyromania for more crowd control.

Recommended builds

Countering

• All of Annie's spells deal magic damage, therefore any form of magic resistance will mitigate her damage significantly.
  • Banshee's Veil offers a spell shield to negate 1 spell from Annie. Its magic resistance and health will help tremendously in surviving Annie's burst, while possibly blocking Annie's initiation. As such, it is a recommended buy if going against Annie.
  • Quicksilver Sash is a cheaper alternative that allows you to cleanse her stun specifically instead of just one ability; however, it does not prevent the damage.
• Do not underestimate the damaging aura from Annie's Summon: Tibbers. The longer the fight lasts, the more damage you will take from it.
  • Avoid focusing her Tibbers when attacking Annie. Tibbers has a lot of health and damage, and killing Annie kills Tibbers as well. Focusing Tibbers allows Annie to finish you off with her spells if she is ignored.
    • Do not disregard Tibbers completely, however. Its attack damage and damaging aura can easily put a tense fight against Annie in her favor if left to attack you.
  • Alternatively, use ranged attacks and abilities to kill Tibbers while keeping out of range of Annie's spells, the advantage to this being that Tibbers will most likely be easier to kill.
  • Tibbers is considered a minion therefore  Smite and champion abilities that work on minions and monsters only (such as Syndra's Force of Will and Nunu's Consume), will work on him as well.
• At lower levels, a  Cho'Gath that uses  Smite and  Feast can kill  Tibbers immediately, and gain a stack of health.
• Be alert for the visual effect that appears when the stun from Pyromania is ready.
  • Because Disintegrate refunds mana when used to last hit minions, be cautious around an Annie using autoattacks on minions. She is likely to have 3 stacks on Pyromania and is waiting for someone to engage her. She will cast Molten Shield, allowing her to stun on her next spell.
• Molten Shield acts similarly to Thornmail. Be careful when engaging her if you are using a champion that relies on auto-attacks.
  • It can sometimes be hard to see the visual effect of Pyromania if she has her Molten Shield up.
• Despite Annie's long basic attack range, powerful stun, and powerful burst in spells, Annie's spells are short-ranged. As such, long range mages such as Lux, Morgana, Ziggs, and Xerath, and long range marksmen like Caitlyn, Kog'Maw or Tristana can easily zone Annie out and prevent her from using her spells effectively.
• If there is an Annie on the enemy team, avoid being clumped thogether with your team. Some Annie players are known for making unexpected Flashes when they have their stun ready, casting Summon Tibbers and stunning your entire team. This can be potentially game-breaking, especially if the stun affects your allied carries.
• Don't be deceived by Annie's lack of Pyromania stacks, she may have three of them and she is just baiting you on thinking that she does not have enough stacks to stun you. This may lead to unexpected kills.

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