What is the counter-play to annie?

long ranged mages like lux

Annie still needs a nerf but basically Lux is the best bet.

Azir eats her in lane, like he does most people.

you know,

there was a time when QSS didn't have a damage upgrade, and then mages took it all the time.

now it has a damage upgrade and suddenly you wont?

lol.

--

serious answer:

the purpose of Annie (and Warwick) in the game is to answer several champions with "nope" abilities. Champions who's "outplay" tool are potent enough that they cannot be engaged upon unless they made a mistake and burnt their "outplay" tools.

how do you force an engagement on these characters? either they suck and you can bait / force them to use their escapes, or you have to use a bullshit cc character. which is the niche annie and warwick occupy.

As for answers to annie:

Range. Kiting with spells. Not bunching up. Out-rotating her map wise. Pushing on her with spells (she must burn the stun to push equally) and then punishing her with either a map rotation (lose CS to keep with opponent or stay and farm to risk opponent getting kills) or a damage trade if she pushes with her abilities.

and also, at all times, time her flash.

Doesn't even need to be long range mages, a ton of mages outrange her. Not including your typical long range mages:

You need to play carefully of course, and in certain cases there are conditions to approach (usually when you land a stun). But all of those champs have at least pieces of their kit that outrange Annie (Vik's lazer, brand W + Q, etc...) Her Flash + Ult combo is the big one and its definitely scary. Going tanky can usually mitigate deaths in lane unless she manages to get multiple rotations on you

not getting close to her. annie beats any mid laner that gets in the range of any of her spells. since after 1 item she can 100-0 your squishy ass without much effort.

Play Vladimir into her and keep Q-ing her and to zone her. She'll trade back but burn her mana without making much of a dent on you.

Before she hits 6, go back to base and buy a Negatron Cloak. She can no longer 100-0 you even with Tibbers unless she gets a good Gank. Whenever she has her Stun nearly up (watch the counters), step back and sustain your health back to full. Make sure to keep pushing her to the tower (when her Jungler isn't around) and then go roam other lanes; I recommend saving Hemoplague for your roams unless you can use it to kill her off.

Use your Pool to escape when you screw up (Tibbers has been nerfed and no longer has god-like AOE burst on impact).

In team fights, don't Commit (only poke with your abilities) until she goes in with the Flash combo on the rest of your team. Then run in with Ghost, use your Ult on what is left of her team, and go straight for her with all of your attacks.

range tankiness or Fizz

You can also do the same thing with Viktor (use your Q and E for aggressive trades early), rush Negatron Cloak, and then make sure you have close to full health when she has her stun up post 6 (you may need potions though). In team fights, don't use your full burst combo except on her or the ADC. If she doesn't go in, just poke at the other team with your superior range and firepower.

I'm bringing you from 0 to 1 because this isn't a bad post really. Your actually asking for help.

Helps out when you are facing another AP mage that is strong in lane phase.
Try to get the MR items first so you can survive the lane phase.

" Long raned mages like Lux"-Princess Kayden
Agree, Annie has one of the shortest AA in the game and needs to get into the other players faces to do anything so having a champion that has long range or harass benefits greatly.

In lane, an is your best bet. I'm not sure if is still good on mid mages since more go , but it does offer some MR. If you're AD, get a .

Out of lane, just stay out of range until she stuns someone else basically. I've had games where I'm the ADC standing off to the side of fights just so I don't get caught in CC and then coming in full force once they waste it on someone else.

Literally play any long range artillery/poke mage. Or play her biggest counter