Thoughts and Discussion: Annie
For the record, I do really love playing as Annie and she is a very fun to play champion and has that simpler (a little too simple however, but we will get into that later) than someone like Veigar who has a higher skill difficulty to play in comparison. Also support is my main role so this support Veigar and Annie, I am not going to devalue mid Annie, just support Annie will still be a thing as well.
Things about Annie:
~ Her simple nature, can be tweaked to be less one-dimensional however creating more personal player expression this way, is great.
~ Annie has a good barrier of entry for new players, this includes things like being able to initiate and make plays with her stun and down to last hitting properly with her Q resets.
~ Who doesn't like Tibbers?
~ FIRE! For all those pyromaniacs out there!
~ Annie is just so adorable especially holding little Tibbs-Tibbs <3 and then she MELTS YOUR FREAKING FACE OFF WITH FIRE!!!
~ Annie suffers with lack of proper counter play; her stun should probably not have an infinite duration (can lead to buffs this way, like less spells for the full charge; and/or basic attacks against significant targets refresh the timer duration) and removal of instant stuns (so some kind of delay on all of her abilities, travel time counts as a delay like how her Q works now).
~ Move Tibbers more towards making Annie like a puppeteer mage so that Tibbers' lifespan is significant rather than being used like a suicide bomber stun bot. Something along the lines of Tibbers himself is a greater threat with his initial nuke being removed.
~ Create a kit for Annie that makes better sense with having a stun, because right now it is mostly to stun an enemy to allow Annie to take her time to kill them from her burst damage. So not remove her as a burst fire mage, but have the burst function in such a way that it is more of a quick burn on areas so that the stun makes more sense for Annie and offer better counter play all at the same time - this can also help Annie's waveclear and range issues to help her in the mid lane as well.
~ Annie should be fun to play as while remaining completely as an immobile, high damage, play making fire mage; with a huge emphasis on not feeling Flash reliant at all which means Flash is greatly nerfed on her power which makes her stronger (Flash was a great crutch, but we need to move in a direction that removes it from the game completely rather than keep it around forever). Also another huge emphasis on adding proper counter play and having the opponent feeling that Annie properly outplayed you and not instant stunned by her Flashing over a wall into your demise.
NUMBERS ARE EXAMPLES ONLY! THEY MEAN NOTHING IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS!
[Pyromania is currently 4 abilities + next damaging ability.]
Pyromania (Passive): Ranks: @1/7/13 After casting 3 abilities, Annie's next damaging ability will stun enemies for 1.5/1.75/2 seconds.
Pyromania lasts for up to 6 seconds at full charge if not consumed.
Disintegrate (Q): Cooldown: 4 seconds; Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana; Range: 625 units Annie hurls a fireball at the target enemy dealing 60/90/120/150/180(+60%AP) magic damage and igniting the area underneath in flames for 1.5 seconds dealing 30/45/60/75/90(+30%AP) magic damage over the duration.
Direct executes from Disintegrate refund the cost and 50% of the cooldown.
Tibbers gains 60/70/80/90/100% bonus attack speed against enemies in the flames.
Incinerate (W): Cooldown: 8 seconds; Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 mana; Range: 950 units / 45 degrees Annie sends out a cone of flames in the target direction, after a 1 second delay the flames heat up the ground for 1.5 seconds dealing 90/135/180/225/270(+120%AP) magic damage over the duration while grounding enemies.
Tibbers heals for 20/25/30/35/40%(+5% per 100AP) of his maximum health over the duration while on the heated ground.
Molten Burst (E): Cooldown: 20 seconds; Cost: 60 mana; Range: 600 units Passive: Annie and Tibbers gain a Molten Shield of 16/22/28/34/40% damage reduction for 3 seconds upon casting Molten Burst. Casting Annie's other basic abilities reduce this cooldown by 2/3/4/5/6 seconds.
Active: Annie and Tibbers let out a burst of flames around them after a 0.5 second delay that deals 8/9/10/11/12%(+2% per 100AP) max health as magic damage (max 300 vs monsters) and briefly knock-back struck enemies 400 units.
Afterwards Tibbers gains 300% bonus movement speed that rapidly decays over 1.5 seconds.
Summon: Tibbers (R): Cooldown: 130/100/70 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: 1000 units Annie throws her teddy bear Tibbers through the air to grow massively in size for the next 45 seconds and landing at the target location. Annie can control Tibbers with ALT + Right Clicks or by recasting Summon: Tibbers.
Tibbers has 1200/2100/3000 health, 30/50/70(+20%AP) armor, and 30/50/70(+10%AP) magic resistance. Tibbers deals 40/60/80(+25%AP) magic damage for his attacks and Annie's abilities apply a mark to struck enemies for 1.5 seconds, Tibbers' attacks will consume the mark and deal 80/120/160(+50%AP) magic damage to and around the target instead.
If Annie dies while Tibbers is currently active then he becomes enraged against Annie's killer for the next 3 seconds doubling his movement speed and attack speed before bleeding out.
(The Molten Burst around Tibbers can apply Pyromania's stun. If Pyromania was applied to Molten Burst then the stun occurs after the knock-back [which is a very brief duration and a more significant knock-back distance, the only real lock down for Annie would be her stun passive only].)
