Overview
Have you met my bear, Tibbers? Annie has long been one of the most commonly recommended champions for new mid lane players thanks to her straightforward kit and ability to just one shot enemy carries. Annie features an array of fire spells and the potential for a big AOE stun on her ultimate. Click here for the latest data on her best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Annie
You have a lot less kill pressure without your Flash up, so try to save it for big objectives. Sometimes it's better to take a death or let an enemy escape if you're able to keep your Flash for an upcoming team fight.
Enemies can see when you have your stun ready, so it can be beneficial to hide it by being one spell shy of the stun showing. You can then catch them off guard by using two spells in succession for the stun.
Strengths
Dropping Tibbers [R] onto a clump of champions in a team fight can stun them as long as you play around your Pyromania [P] properly. Bening able to manage when or when you don’t have your stun up is one of the keys to playing Annie properly. In lane phase, she is forgiving for new players because her Disintegrate [Q] refunds mana if it kills the target, though it’s her Incinerate [W] that is going to be the tool that will actually clear waves come mid and late game. And as long as you have Flash up, Tibbers is always going to be a big threat for any squishy champions on the enemy team.
Weaknesses
Annie’s damage is centered heavily around her ultimate, which means enemy teams that are careful to not clump are going to be able to mitigate a lot of her potential. Without Tibbers, her rotation of spells are lackluster compared to other mid laners and she’ll be easy to kill if she needs to walk into range to use them. And in order to drop a good Tibbers, she’ll often need her Flash up, which means the windows where she can guarantee a good cast are fairly limited throughout the game. Mobile teams are a nightmare for her to deal with, as are players who can anticipate her Flash and be ready to Flash her engage.
Game Plan
Early Game: You can farm very easily with your Q, but once opponents see that you’ve used it on a minion, they can walk up and threaten a trade. Likewise if they notice your stun was just used.
Mid Game: You want to look for kills with Tibbers whenever your Flash is up, or you can look for vision control in common spots where enemies might rotate through so that they can walk into your Tibbers range.
Late Game: Late game she is reliant almost exclusively on having Flash up to get anything done in a fight unless her teammates have engage that she can follow up on. It may be more effective to go for a stun on a large clump of front liners if you have good damage sources elsewhere on your team.
