Come on Annie mains leave your comments(here's an Annie guide for u!)
If u are here for the pussy-easy win-standard annie mid then go away. We main Annie Support here(since she was popularised as a support in competitive play).
Annie is thrown around as a "support" for the longest time, instead as a support (the difference is the ""). The reason why is because people do not abuse her right. They build a ruby sightstone and then go full ap, ksing kills from adcs in lane and trying to carry as a secondary or primary mage on their team and then getting outcomped in terms of team comps. That's not the job of an agressive immobile control support mage. And yes, that's the name of those kind of support champions, similar to annie, brand and zyra: Offensive Immobile Control Support Mages(and Control is because they bring cc onto the table). They don't function like carries as a lot people think, but as supports that are agressive, squishy and pack a lot more damage than any other supports and combine that with their cc gives them the opportunity to support that way their team. Speciffically today, we are going to talk about Annie as a support champion.
Let's get straight into the guide( runes, masteries, build, tips and tricks for u and your adc, as well the adcs that synergise with her):
Runes:
1 Quin of 1 gold per 10 seconds 1 Quin of Armor per level 1 Quin of Mr per level 9 Seals of 0.25 gold per 10 seconds 9 Glyphs of flat ap 9 Marks of Precision(it gives lethality and magic pen)
Let me explain why i rush those runes:
The ap ones are understandable as well as the ar and mr per level quins. The gold quins however are purchased, because gold is very core on every support now. Believe me, u may think that is troll but if u think about it: 0.25 gold per 10 secs*9= 2.25 gold per 10 secs+1gold per 10 secs(from quin)+2 gold per 10 secs(from spellthief's edge)= 5.25 gold per 10 seconds(that's a lot of gold even if it seems small, making u get a lot more faster your items). The marks of precision however are very meaningfull in the laning phase, because the magic pen scales the on-hit magic damage or your abilities' magic dmg from spellthief's edge(whatever u use when its passive is active) and the extra lethality makes your autoattacks again a lot stronger-dealing more damage-harassing enemies free without wasting mana casting spells.
Moving on to the Masteries:
Ferocity: Sorcery: 5 points Expose Weekness: 1 point
Cunning: Wanderer: 5 points Secret Stash: 1 point
Resolve: Unyielding: 5 points Tough Skin: 1 point Veteran's Scars: 5 points Fearless: 1 point Swiftness: 5 points Keystone Masterie: Stoneborn Pact
Let me explain why i move onto the Resolve tree:
Instead of taking all the things in the Cunning tree(including Thunderloards), i grab defensive stats cause i'm squishy and i already have enough damage and on top of that. I grab stoneborn pact because it help me to support a lot more easialy my adc when i proc my stuns and not only be a high dmg jerk.
Summoner Spells: Flash+Exhaust
U should always grab exhaust never ignite. Exhaust helps u reduce the strength of your enemy in trades mainly the adc or to slow the movementspeed for an easier catch up. But, u may ask: "how do i counter healers without ignite?". That's a correct answer and that's why your stupid adc should take ignite when u want to sut down healers. Then u may ask: " What's about heal, that summoner spell is super core on adcs". Here's your fault. People think, for a long time now, that a duo lane without this summoner spell is impossible, but it turns out that their mind functions a little bit better than a rock(that's a joke not offense) because heal is supposed to be a defensive tool vs offensive lanes (for example: a tank engage supp like Leona or a displacement tank supp like Blitzcrank plus an Mf or Lucian). Healers like soraka can't play offensively if they don't have a strong dueling adc like Vayne(if she's played correctly) to sit back like a sissy and heal or shield while this adc goes all in, which this playstyle is very risky in the current meta. So probably u will see a passive and not often agressive laning phase by someone like janna, soraka and nami. So if your adc picks ignite will counter enemy heals anyways and if one of those three supports that i just said has as a partener an offensive/lane bully adc here's exhaust by your annie to stop them getting into your face, plus the adc has the heals by stoneborn pact already and if the adc picks relic shield, which works on them currently, they won't face any problem without the heal. Anyway, i present to u a list, that might helps u to understand when u should take ignite or heal as an adc with annie support, which she always should pick exhaust:
If u as an adc with annie supp or u annie supps with your adc, u should pick/tell them to take:
*Heal vs:
•Other offensive immobile control mage supports: Brand-Zyra-Morgana and maybe if u face Vel'Koz and Lissandra(no matter what adc they will have). • Offensive tank engage or displacement supports: Leona-Maokai-Nautilus-Sion-Tahm Kench-Blitzcrank and maybe if u face Malphite(no matter what adc they will have). •Trundle(no matter with which adc he's playing together). •Supports which they are tanks, but they can play both offensively and defensively: Thresh-Braum-Taric( when they are about to play offensively with an offensive/lane bully adc like Lucian and Mf or Draven unless they play defensively with an adc that requires safety in the laning phase like Kog'Maw, pick ignite). •Utility mage supports: Karma-Sona-Lulu-Rakan-Lux-Bard and maybe if u face Orianna (when they are about to play offensively with an offensive/lane bully adc like Lucian and Mf or Draven unless they play defensively with an adc that requires safety in the laning phase like Kog'Maw, pick ignite).
Ignite vs:
•Healing/Shielding(or both) enchacement supports that they don't have agressive tools: Janna-Soraka-Nami(no matter with which adc they will together).
Finally, let's move onto the build:
Starting Items: Spellthief's Edge+3 healing potions
Full build:
Redemption+Athene's Unholy Grail+Knight's Vow+Eye of the Watchers+Mobity Boots (which they will be replaced later in the game by a Liandry's Torment)+Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Item Order:
Spellthief's Edge-Frostfang-Boots of Speed-Sightstone-Eye of the Watchers-Mobility Boots(or Mobility Boots-Eye of the Watchers) and then: Rylai's Crystal Scepter-Knight's Vow-Redemption+Athene's Unholy Grail and later Mobility Boots will be replaced by a Liandry's Torment
The build combined with the runes and masteries grant u extra support capabilities like heals in the mid to late game and single target protection, while giving u enough damage(but not that much of course like annie mid) to support heavy engage-high damage team comps and still do annie things in general.
Guide further analysis:
Redemption+Athene's give u enough support capabilities. With athene's, 15% of the premitigation dmg dealt is converted as an extra heal whenever u heal or shield someone. So, the more dmg u deal as a support with athene's, make your redemption stronger. Not only to mention that the redemption's heal is affected by as much as triple the amount from healing and shielding amplifiers like athene's. Athene's also has a passive that grants u 5 ap per 25% mana regen. Athene's itself, Redemption and Eye of the Watchers have mana regen. U shouldn't also forget the fact that athene's and Eye of the watchers already give ap and combined that ap with the ap from Rylai's and the Liandy's later, as well as the ap from runes and the extra magic pen by runes and the Liandy's and your base dmg as annie and u already deal more than enough damage as a support. Knight's Vow, Redemption, Athene's Unholy Grail, Rylai's, Liandry's and Eye of the Watchers grant a lot of extra tankiness that u need to have, in order to be safe and not getting oneshoted when u try to utilise your kit in teamfights. At the end, you need tankiness because u won't deal insane dmg like annie mid to burst someone immediantly(so u aren't a big threat) and u are naturally squishy regardless. So a bit more hp, ar and mr will help. Don't forget lastly two other tips: the hp that u get from the Veteran's Scars(it's a mastery), as well as from your build, scals up the heal from stoneborn pact, making u, when u use your stun and the slow from rylai's to deal a bunch of dmg and start a fight, to support your adc even better. When u throw your ult and stun an entire team, u apply stoneborn pact to all of them and then u continue to extend the duration of it with the aoe slow from rylai's, procing from tibbers' aoe dmg and autoattacks, making adcs with runan's huricanee getting healed by the entire enemy enemy team when they autoattack, even if they do focus on one target during the teamfight.
However Annie is a very special support that only synergises with some adcs(the following list has adcs that ssynergise with annie's ult as well her stun)
Adcs that synergise with annie(tier presented in order):
•Mf •Jinx •Twitch •Ashe(she uses runan's well) •Draven •Ezreal •Lucian
Disclaimer:
The guide that i presented to u for Annie also works for similar champs to her: Zyra-Brand-Morgana-Lissandra. I didn't put Vel'Koz, because, believe me, he sucks as a support. He deals too much damage and doesn't have reliable hard cc. He better works as a midlaner and especially as an apc in the botlane. U want to utilise his ability to waveclear and scale up with items, as well be a massive lane bully.
I know that currently those immobile control mage supports, like Annie, aren't so great, because of soraka and janna, but believe me, if u follow tip by tip and my entire guide in general, i guarantee u having a lot of sucess vs them and even counterpicking them as well.
