Proposal to Rework Annie (Including ideas)

DISCLAIMER: I'm relatively new to the forums so the formatting here might not be fantastic. While I am open to criticism on it, I'd like it if we could focus on the issue of the post, that being Annie being a bit too strong and potential rework ideas. Okay? Okay :)

Annie's kit in League of Legends is a little too overbearing. That was a pun. But in all seriousness, she's a champion with too much strength and not enough weakness; she's got incredible sustain and is easy to farm with using Q. Her stun can remain active as long as she needs it to be giving her too much zoning pressure against her opponents. Her damage numbers are way too high as of right now, being able to kill carries with as little as 2 abilities. Finally, she's much too tanky (as far as mages go) for most midlaners to be able to handle.

I've seen a great many people calling for Annie to be removed or nerfed. I think that both of these statements hold water, however a champion removal is far too overkill and a general nerf is far too vague. What I'm calling for is something of a rework. I think we should give Annie the "Veigar treatment."

Pre-nerf Veigar and present-day Annie are very similar. An AoE point and click stun with no wind up, 2 insanely powerful damage abilities, a good utility Q designed almost explicitly for farming and good mana sustain, making them both very safe midlaners. However, Veigar had his stun put on delay, and his damage numbers and ratios turned down to more reasonable levels. Why can we not do the same to Annie? Here are the changes to her kit that I propose:

NOTE: The main rework changes I propose are to do with her Passive and her Ultimate. The Q and W changes I've mentioned are just my opinion on how to make her more tolerable in lane, but they aren't my main focus here. Just wanted to put them out for consideration.

PASSIVE: I propose that, much like T.F's gold card, Annie's stun can only remain stocked for so long. This would mean that during lane phase, Annie will have to play more cleverly around her stun, and after it wears off, her opponents have at least a little time to breathe. > > Pyromania: After casting four abilities, Annie's next damaging ability Stun icon stuns enemies it damages for 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 seconds.

Q: I think that her Q is in a relatively safe spot already. It provides her with safe laning and were it not for her immense burst potential, I would be quite happy with it. So in order to tone down her early to mid game burst and zone potential, I propose to have her AP Scaling reduced by a decent percentage. This shouldn't affect her ability to cs with q much, if at all, but her opponents should feel much more secure in the knowledge that what should be an early game utility ability won't be hitting them quite as hard.

> Disintegrate: Active: Annie hurls a fireball at the target enemy, dealing magic damage. > Magic damage: 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+ 80% 50% AP) > RANGE: 625 > COST: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana > COOLDOWN: 4

W: So as far as I'm concerned, Annie's W is fine. Sure, it's a hell of a nuke and hasn't got any kind of wind up, but this should be her main source of damage outside of her burst. While I do think this ability needs to have its early game damage toned down a little, I think it would be better off as an ability with a travel time, instead of an instant cast. Or, at the very least, it needs to have some kind of tell other than Annie walking towards you. Because that's much too vague. People saying you can counter Annie by not being near her are essentially telling you to avoid cs and afk under turrets. Anyway. I'm just throwing that out there for consideration, but I'm not gonna enter it here. I'm also gonna go ahead and say we need to lower its scaling a little too just because her ability to two-shot carries right now is far too easy.

> Incinerate: Active: Annie scorches all enemies in a cone in front of her with fire, dealing magic damage. > Magic damage: 55 / 100 / 145 / 190 / 235 (+ 70% AP) > RANGE: 625 / 50° > COST: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 mana > COOLDOWN: 8 >

E: I actually don't have any problems with Annie's E and want to leave it as is. However, just to keep this proposal clean and consistent, let's put the E here anyway. Unchanged.

> Molten Shield: Active: Annie grants herself bonus armor and magic resistance for the next 5 seconds, while also dealing magic damage to enemies who use basic attacks against her. If Tibbers is active when Molten Shield is used, he gains the same bonus defenses, while also gaining 300 bonus movement speed which decays over 0.75 seconds. > Armor & Magic Resist: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 > Magic Damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 20% AP)

R: My biggest issue with Tibbers is that he has no wind up. I want to draw attention to a similar champion, Viktor. Viktor's Gravity Field is a fantastic example of a stun done right; it has good range and utility, as a stun should, it has counterplay options and it doesn't deal ridiculous damage. Tibbers has none of this. Instant cast and stun which deals ridiculous damage and essentially has a free sunfire cape attached to it. Therefore, I want to add a casting animation to Tibbers; I want to turn him into an ability similar to Heimerdinger's CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade: Annie tosses her toy bear into the air, much like Heimer tosses his grenades, and when it lands, Tibbers is summoned. This idea actually comes from the League Cinematic, "A Twist of Fate" (Timestamped link here for reference: https://youtu.be/tEnsqpThaFg?t=3m25s)

With this change, I think Tibbers' damage could remain as it is. It would just allow her enemies some time to react, is all. (Also, could we change the ability's name? Summon: Tibbers seems so out of place and boring)

> Summon: Tibbers Yay, Tibbers!: First Cast: Annie throws Tibbers to the target location, and he arrives in a burst of flame after 0.75 seconds, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies. He then remains on the field as a controllable minion for up to 45 seconds. > Initial Magic Damage: 175 / 300 / 425 (+ 80% AP) > Second Cast: While Tibbers is active, Summon: Tibbers Yay, Tibbers! can be used to move him to the target location. > Tibbers deals magic damage with his basic attacks, and is also surrounded by a flaming aura which deals magic damage every second to nearby enemies. > Magic Damage per second: 20 / 30 / 40 (+ 20% AP) > RANGE: 600 / 290 / 200 > COST: 100 mana > COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80

This is about all for now, though I'm more than willing to accept criticism and outside opinion. And, of course, while this has been mostly focused on Annie as a midlaner, it would give a much needed kick in the shins to her dominant play in support, as well. As it stands, she's far too powerful and aggressive as a support, with the damage and lockdown potential of Leona without the risk of having to go all in.