Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Burn! - Annie support makes her return
Riot·2/6/2015, 3:35:43 AM·0 votes·17,969 views
Hey there, Annie support. It’s been a while since we’ve seen you. Sure, the Dark Child may have experienced some well-deserved rest after her prevalence in the Spring Split of 2014, but she’s back in a big way. After only a handful of picks in the last few months, she’s been all over every region for the past few weeks.
Why? Well, as Xpecial puts it, her “initiation is the best out of all supports, because it’s instant.” And right now, teams love heavy initiation.
Traditionally, it’s been a bit tough to get Annie out of lane in the lead, as sustain supports were more popular in previous seasons. She simply couldn’t poke down her HP-regaining opponents hard enough without first losing hers. This season, however, “Nami got nerfed a bit, Janna’s not as strong. With the non-mobility mids that are being played, it’s really important to have engage.“
Whereas previous splits had more of a focus on highly mobile mid lane champions like Zed or Fizz, the 2015 season has seen the rise of squishy, immobile damage dealers. Whether it’s the ever-present Xerath, Azir, or Orianna, the crazy fast stuns coming from Annie render many of them sitting ducks.
“Even with the mobility mids that are being played, they always feel really really squishy,” says Xpecial. “Unlike Yasuo or Zed, who are really hard to kill, [there are champions like] LeBlanc where if you stun her, she’s dead.”
That is, until Talisman of Ascension and Righteous Glory Made their way into the item store.
Spellthief’s Edge may be useful in lane, says Xpecial, but it falls off as the game wears on. “Early on, Spellthief’s is super efficient because it has natural gold over 10. Because I’m not sitting in lane the entire time, that’s really helpful. The AP and the mana regen is really helpful, as well. But then, in a teamfight, it’s not that useful.”
Once those brawls begin, he says, Annie needs a more reliable way to get near her opponents. In Team Liquid’s second game of Week 1, he picked up both Talisman of Ascension and Righteous Glory. As a result, he could get close enough to Flash into the fray and drop Tibbers to lock down multiple members of the opposing side.
Getting in there
“[I pick Annie] when the other team has champions who, when I initiate on them, I know they’ll die,” says Xpecial.
Traditionally, it’s been a bit tough to get Annie out of lane in the lead, as sustain supports were more popular in previous seasons. She simply couldn’t poke down her HP-regaining opponents hard enough without first losing hers. This season, however, “Nami got nerfed a bit, Janna’s not as strong. With the non-mobility mids that are being played, it’s really important to have engage.“
Whereas previous splits had more of a focus on highly mobile mid lane champions like Zed or Fizz, the 2015 season has seen the rise of squishy, immobile damage dealers. Whether it’s the ever-present Xerath, Azir, or Orianna, the crazy fast stuns coming from Annie render many of them sitting ducks.
“Even with the mobility mids that are being played, they always feel really really squishy,” says Xpecial. “Unlike Yasuo or Zed, who are really hard to kill, [there are champions like] LeBlanc where if you stun her, she’s dead.”
Gearing up
Annie’s biggest problem has always been her ability to get into the fight to land her full combo. With a rather squishy health bar and no mobility, it’s rare that she used to be able to get close enough to land her Pyromania-charged Incinerate on multiple enemies.
That is, until Talisman of Ascension and Righteous Glory Made their way into the item store.
Spellthief’s Edge may be useful in lane, says Xpecial, but it falls off as the game wears on. “Early on, Spellthief’s is super efficient because it has natural gold over 10. Because I’m not sitting in lane the entire time, that’s really helpful. The AP and the mana regen is really helpful, as well. But then, in a teamfight, it’s not that useful.”
Once those brawls begin, he says, Annie needs a more reliable way to get near her opponents. In Team Liquid’s second game of Week 1, he picked up both Talisman of Ascension and Righteous Glory. As a result, he could get close enough to Flash into the fray and drop Tibbers to lock down multiple members of the opposing side.
is back?
means that she has both an initiation speed boost and an escape speed boost from 
. I especially like picking her into Nami, since she can't fully heal off trades, and ebb and flow just costs too much mana for her to spam, compared to disintegrate.