@Meddler: Tibbers is Boring and Does Not Fulfill Annie's "Bear Mage" Identity

To begin with, Annie's in an alright spot as far as balance goes, for the most part. She's got a normal 51% win-rate. At the same time, she's banned a bit much, being in the top 20 (specifically #18) bans.

Despite being, for the most part, balanced, I find her to be completely unhealthy as far as champ design goes. Specifically Tibbers. I think Tibbers is a huge problem, and for a couple reasons. I find the fact that Annie is able to stun and burst an entire team with her rotation disgusting. Assassins can burst one, maybe two champions. Some champs, like Gnar, can stun an entire team. But to be able to stun and basically 100%-25% if not full out kill the entire team is so very unhealthy. Admittedly, the range is low, but the "flash Tibbers to kill" is such a boring and uncreative playstyle. At 6, Annie becomes a Tibbers bot, her sole purpose in the game to flash Tibbers.

My main gripe, however, with Tibbers is how totally front-loaded his damage is. I described how unhealthy it is from a playstyle perspective, but as far as identity goes, I think it's just dumb. When playing against an Annie, the fear lies solely in "when is the Tibbers coming out". The second Tibbers is on the field, though, no one cares. He either stunned a bunch of people or didn't. He sticks around for a bit, but doesn't really do much of anything. I find his most recent changes silly (the speed up and shield, and the lowering of aura damage), as Tibbers is strictly used for the stun.

Tibbers might as well be a giant meteor. If Tibbers was exactly the same, but instead of a bear, a giant meteor fell from the sky, he would still serve the exact same function. I think this is lame, and takes away from the uniqueness of Annie's character of, "Hey, here's a big scary bear! Deal with it!"

I find this completely unfun and a waste of Annie's identity. I feel a "Bear Mage" should be more focused on the Bear. Right now, Annie's more like a "Stun Bot" than a "Bear Mage". A more interesting use of Tibbers would be to have him be a huge disruption in extended fights. A fight against Annie shouldn't be planned around the "will she, won't she" Tibbers stun, but instead, Tibbers himself should be a problem the enemy team must deal with. I think taking out his front-loaded damage (and maybe even that stun), and instead making him a very strong pet (maybe half as strong as undead Sion, but lasting longer) would be both a healthier playstyle that would allow for a lot more creative play, and would also fulfill Annie's identity and make Tibbers a consistent threat rather than a stun with a bear.

My main suggestion is: keep Tibbers stun, but severely reduce (or even remove) the front-loaded bust from it. Instead, have Tibbers begin to get into duels with champions, tearing them to shreds, like, you know, a bear would. Right now, Annie's not a pet mage, despite what Riot wants her to be, and this would be the best change. He could either be controlled through alt, like he is now, or to reduce micro, have him automatically attack whoever Annie clicks. I think this would be a healthier change that would give him a commanding presence in teamfights that he sorely lacks (and surely deserves. A giant bear coming out of nowhere would be friggen scary, and should be, but right now, all that matters is his initial stun).

TL;DR: Annie is not necessarily super strong, but she's unfun to play against. Additionally, she lacks a core theme to Tibbers (he's less of a pet and more of an AOE stun, i.e. any random object--a meteor, a fireball, etc.--could fulfill his purpose). Her playstyle could be revamped and made better by making Tibbers a threat not based on his stun, but instead on being a big disruption in the middle of the fight, dealing out good DPS in exchange for his current front-loaded stun.

Additional discussion on Reddit here