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Does Annie really need a nerf/rework?

FaildotEXE·4/2/2016, 4:07:54 PM·10 votes·1,343 views

Honestly, I believe she does. After both playing her for a while, and then playing against her I can say from both sides that she does. Yes, I know she's a beginners champion and what not. She's one of the oldest in the game. But there's parts of her that are just toxic. And makes playing against her just pure not fun.

I would rather play against a diamond Yasuo, then play against an Annie. She is that annoying.

Why?

Basically it comes down to that Free Stun as her passive, and the insane amount of damage added to that makes it near impossible to play against her at times. Especially in the early laning phases of the game. Im not a hugely good Yasuo Player, Im moderate at best and trying to get better. But I had picked him, and of course whats bringing this on is my lane opponent was Annie. I know Yasuo is squishy, and you need to time your wind walls right to block her stuns and what not.

But the problem is, if it was just a bug that was happening in game or if its a real thing, every time I tried to stop Annies stun spell with windwall, she would keep her stun for her next ability. As in, she goes in for her Q with the stun, I blocked it, then she uses her W still stuns me then sends out Tibbers and Im gone. Im not sure if that's a bug, or if that's intended but if so that's just cruel. She'd even do it diving under towers, with no minions. Just flashed, I throw up my wind wall, she walks behind it, Summons Tibbers, Im dead, she leaves. Over, and over. It was just pure not fun.

Now, what I really think she needs is to be retooled. She is a hugely powerful Burst Mage with instant cast's and a guaranteed stun after four casts. So she can farm up some minions, then stun you and get a free kill because you can't fight back against it. Honestly, I ask you, where is that fair? Ive even gone up against counters to Annie when I would play her, like Galio. Not even him building nothing but MR was able to stop her. She just laughed, stunned, killed.

I think she needs a new passive, for starters. Not completely gutting the stun out. Maybe it'd be something like, after charging up the stun she has 5 seconds to use it, then it gets put on a short cool down. If its not used, it doesn't go on cool down. That way she just cant keep spamming her stun, she'd have to be more strategic about it.

I do think her AP scaling should be looked at, she has high enough damage without the AP scaling. All you need right now with her is a rod of ages and you can roam the land in bliss nuking everything. And unless the entire team works to kill you, you wont have much competition. Say for high burst assassins, but even they can just be stunned mid combo and erased. Oh, I also forgot, if the team does go for her, you have to come at her from every concievable angle or else Tibbers will stun everyone and she can just get away. Maybe even make her ultimate something like visually throwing the Bear so we can see it coming and might be able to react to it. Instead it's just there and your done. And I know Veigar has an instant stun too, that's annoying as heck. But at the same time if your movespeed is high enough and your smart you can avoid it when he brings it up, or be a mobile champ like Zed and just get out of there.

I mean, this just be me still upset after getting stun spammed and nuked all game, but honestly. The only recent thing I can recall happening to 'nerf' her was lower her AA range.

But I want to know what the community thinks. Should Annie be reworked, or should she be left alone to be the little bastard child of Goldilocks and the devil?

12 Comments

Ruin Lance4/2/2016, 4:16:32 PM5 votes

actually the interaction with wind wall and annie's stun is intended. it's because the stun activates upon the ability hitting so she still keeps it. also annie is yasuo's possibly biggest counter, so you probably think that annie is stronger than she actually is. unless you're experienced with yasuo don't expect to win lane against an annie. even having near 600k mastery with him i struggle fighting people around my rank when they play annie sometimes.

i think that annie should have some changes though, flash+tibbers is undeniably toxic. i honestly don't think her damage would be a problem if it at least had more counterplay.

NoobieKnight4/2/2016, 4:18:37 PM2 votes

How to beat annie: Play an AP assassin into and rush Abyssal. Snowball.

xl Kirito lx4/2/2016, 4:21:36 PM2 votes

With regards to the first point, Annie stun is consumed when the Q hits the target. A very common trick is to throw out a Q, and use E to get the 4th stun stack. If I had to guess, you played Yasou, tried to rush a Zeal, and you took ignite against an Annie. Your idea of counters is arguable also. If you're playing any AD, you build a hex drinker. Or just play a long range mage, and stay well outside of her range.

Immobile mage. The only way she can get remotely close to someone is with flash.

SourAppleBlunt4/2/2016, 5:02:32 PM1 votes

You played yasuo most likely didnt build properly and got wrecked by an annie that is all... Shes fine you got beat move on.

Yordle Xayah4/2/2016, 5:06:14 PM1 votes

Annie has been the champion I absolutely hate the most for over 2 years now. It's just her face... her voice... the play style she has, etc. I don't know, it's everything.

Sire Hippington4/2/2016, 5:13:12 PM1 votes

to be honest, if annie opens with Q to stun vs yasuo, she's doing it wrong, bithe W and R can't be blocked by the windwall, so you can open with them and then Q while he's stunned.

The major problem about her is that you have no ways of outplaying her unless you have superior range. As soon as you enter her range, she will land her entire kit 100%, and there is nothing you can do about it.

CoolKnightST4/2/2016, 5:26:42 PM1 votes

She can get some improvements but the fact remains that some parts of her kit should remain the way they are mainly the fact that her kit should remain simple and straight towards while to master and gave decent rewards.

  • Passive: Their isn't a lot you can chance this in her current state. It originaly had a 2.25 seconds stun. It's now been nerfed to 1.75 seconds. Besides some bugfixed you can't really say this ability is overpowered in any way.
  • Q: This is an ability that should remain untouched. It's the perfect concept for new players to learn how to last hit with abilities. Maybe they can shift some of the power to one of her other abilities but other than that it's an solid ability. Changing it into a skillshot would break anything Annie stands for.
  • W: This is an ability that I feel could use some improvements. It's a solid ability and I wouldn't be worried if it won't get any changes. Something I was thinking about was that her W could push tibers towards. Just some kind of utility that would help to interact it more with her R.
  • E: This is the most unstable from all her abilities. It still has a strange function in her kit.
  • R: Most the AI that need improvements. The flash tibbers should remain since it's one of ther strengths that she can only use ones every 5 minutes. Many people hate her for this strength but it's the only way to ballance out a simplistic kit as hers. The only way to make an delay on her ult work is when you add an skillcap to Annie. That's a price that is just to high to pay.
JacobD4/2/2016, 4:13:24 PM1 votes

Annie's whole kit revolves around her stun. Not every champion should be too overly complicated.

Poriferaa7/10/2016, 9:39:49 AM1 votes

Annie in team = win

Zeal Seeker4/2/2016, 4:38:54 PM1 votes

Annie is being worked on at the moment along with the mid year mage update. The stun thing with windwall is intended, just like fizz, If annie uses q with stun and fizz goes untargetable, she keeps her stun.

MunchCrunchLunch4/2/2016, 4:50:51 PM1 votes

I mean i took 1500 damage from tibbers last game in about 2-3 seconds from an unfed annie. low cooldowns. high damage. and somewhat tanky because of her shield. and also her stun is plain bullshit.