The best Annie build has helped the Dark Child be versatile enough to be picked as a Mid Laner and a Support in League of Legends 14.11. She is one of the simpler champions to pick up in the MOBA, especially if you are new to the role.
Annie has an incredible amount of upfront burst along with the tools to stun multiple champions. She is one of the best Mid Lane champions to climb rank with, in the lower tiers. She has a reliable laning phase, with some of the best tools to last hit minions and stay relevant in gold.
Annie has decent scaling as well, and she doesn’t fall off much in the later stages of the game. This makes her quite a reliable pick in the current League of Legends meta.
Contents:
- Best Annie build for Mid and Support
- Pros and Cons of playing Annie
- Annie tips and tricks for Early Game, Mid Game, and Late Game
- Annie counters, matchups, and champion synergy
League of Legends 14.11 Best Annie build (Mid/Support)
Runes
| Sorcery(Mid)/Inspiration (Support) | Domination (MId)/Resolve(Support) | Passive Stats |
|---|---|---|
| Summon Aery/Glacial Augment | Taste of Blood/Font of Life | +9 Adaptive Damage |
| Manaflow Band/Magical Footwear | Ultimate Hunter/Revitalize | +9 Adaptive Damage |
| Absolute Focus/Biscuit Delivery | +10-180 Health (levels 1-18) | |
| Scorch/Cosmic Insight |
Itemization
| Mid Lane Core Items | Support Core Items | Situational Items |
|---|---|---|
| Malignance | Zaz’Zak’s Realmspike | Rod of Ages |
| Sorcerer’s Shoes | Malignance | Archangel’s Staff |
| Stormsurge | Sorcerer’s Shoes | Cryptbloom |
| Liandry’s Torment | Rylai’s Crystal Scepter | Zhonya’s Hourglass |
| Shadowflame | Liandry’s Torment | Void Staff |
| Rabadon’s Deathcap | Morellonomicon | Hextech Rocketbelt |
Spells
- Flash
- Teleport/Ignite/Exhaust
Skill Unlock Priority
 Q: Disintegrate | 1 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | |||||||||||||
 W: Incinerate | 3 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | |||||||||||||
 E: Molten Shield | 2 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | |||||||||||||
 R: Summon: TIbbers | 6 | 11 | 16 |
Annie Pros and Cons in League of Legends Season 14
Pros:
- Annie is one of the easier champions to pick up in Riot’s MOBA. Especially if you are new to Mid Lane or in the Support role, she will allow you to pick up the various mechanics fast. Her kit is rather simple, and most of your gameplay will revolve around bursting down enemy carries and getting her stun on as many champions as possible.
- Annie’s build path is also rather simple with some room for situational items. You can choose to make her a bit tanky, making it harder for the enemy team to burst her down during a skirmish. She is rather easy to navigate in a fight, and changing up her build will not affect your playstyle much.
- Once Annie has her best build made, she will have an incredible amount of burst damage. She can delete carries if they are out of position with just one single rotation of her spells. Her damage and CC also lets her have good waveclear, and rather difficult to siege into if her Stun is up.
Cons:
- Annie’s lack of mobility makes it difficult to close the gap on the enemy or to escape from a situation where she is caught out. This makes her highly dependant on Flash and other items like the Hextech Rocketbelt. So if her escape tools are on a cooldown it’s very easy to focus her down during a gank or a skirmish.
- Even with tanky item options, Annie is relatively squishy. She can be killed very easily if caught by enemy CC. This makes her bad against match-ups that have a lot of backline threats and champions with point-and-click CC.
- Annie can be an underwhelming experience if she falls behind early. She needs to secure early leads and get ahead in both farm and XP. So if you are not gaining advantages and giving away free kills and Turret Plates, you are going to have a bad time in the game as Annie.
How to play Annie: Tips and Tricks for League of Legends Season 14
Early Game
- Mid Lane: Annie is pretty strong in the Early Game. So make sure to gain early advantages. As she has much lower cooldowns use her Q+W combo to harass the enemy Mid Laner when they walk up to CS. Keep pushing in the tower and roam to look for plays in other parts of the map to get the rest of your team ahead. Annie is great at roaming and setting up plays.
- Support: Annie can be very annoying to deal with in the Support role. She can keep harassing the enemy ADC to chip them out and force them to base often. She is also great at setting up ganks for her Jungler, making it quite easy to secure early gold and XP advantages for her lane duo. She pairs well with most ADCs in the game, but if you are a pre-made duo, make sure your partner picks an aggressive laner with a strong Early Game.
Mid Game:
- Mid Lane: Once Annie’s best build starts to come online she can melt through the enemy carries if she catches her with her CC. Her R+W+Q combo can melt the enemy backline making it easier to secure fights and objectives. If your Flash is up, you can look for opportunities when the enemy are huddled together to Flash in and stun them with all with your empowered R. However, make sure that your team is close enough to follow up when you pull this off.
- Support: From the support role, much of your playstyle will revolve around leaving your ADC in the Mid Lane and then roaming the map with your Jungler. So look to make plays, place deep wards, and help your team secure objectives. Annie’s abilities are great at zoning the enemy out from the pit making it harder for them to contest. In teamfights your strategy will revolve around tunning as many enemies as possible.
Late Game:
- Mid Lane: Annie has decent scaling in the later stages of the game. Her best build allows her to have enough damage to 100-to-0 even the most fed carries. So the late game will all be about choosing the right moment to go in with your R. And once Tibbers is out, use him to be as annoying as possible. Pilot Tibbers in a way that he soaks up enemy skill shots and even chips down the backline. This will make it harder for the enemy to engage on you.
- Support: Continue to place deep vision and destroy enemy Wards around the neutral objectives. Support Annie does not scale as well as Mid Lane Annie, so your relevance in fights will be around stunning the enemy team and not dishing out damage. So make sure you are timing your abilities well and help your team out around skirmishes.
Annie counters, matchups, and Champion synergy
Countered by:
Annie has a much tougher time in the laning phase against the above picks.
Favorable Matchups:
- Rakan
- Yuumi
- Maokai
- Vayne
- Zed
- Corki
- Akali
- Twisted Fate
- Veigar
- Ahri
Annie has a much easier time in lane when up against the above picks.
Champion Synergy:
- Miss Fortune
- Caitlyn
- Lucian
- Jhin
- Samira
- Jarvan IV
- Zak
- Malphite
- Amumu
- Vi
- Wukong
Annie’s kit pairs quite well with the above champion picks.
