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Annie needs a small-scale Rework

The5lacker·4/5/2015, 3:30:48 AM·10 votes·3,619 views

So, Annie. When she isn't gutted she's generally dominating due to two things: Her incredibly strong, unavoidable damage, and her incredibly strong, unavoidable stun. With two near-instant abilities (that even hit after flashing out of) that deal impressive damage and can stun multiple crucial team members, Annie has typically been balanced with her short range. Which...doesn't work, because Flash exists, so functionally you can add 400 range to all of her instant AoE stuns. Laning against her is oppressive and noninteractive, and support Annie can both reliably farm Spellthief stacks with Disintegrate and her excessively long AA range and hard engage for her ADC while outdamaging them. She's a problem due to a number of archaic design decisions that need to be fixed before she'll ever have healthy gameplay. So, a Viktor-style rework: Retain her healthy strengths, cover her failed weaknesses, and grant her more options and counterplay.

Stats Autoattack Range 625 -> 550 (Notes: There is absolutely no reason for Annie to have a nonstandard autoattack range. She can already harass easily with Disintegrate, and this will curb her excess power.)

Abilities Passive - Pyrophobia

  • Annie's abilities mark targets with Pyrophobic for 7 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. Upon reaching 3 stacks they're consumed and the enemy is terrified, fleeing from Annie for 1.25/1.5/1.75 (Levels 1/6/11) seconds. If Tibbers applied the third stack they flee from him instead. After Pyrophobia has been triggered on an enemy they can't have stacks applied to them again for 7 seconds. Autoattacks refresh the duration on Pyrophobic stacks but don't apply new ones. (Notes: No more insta-stun, but now Annie is rewarded for successful combo plays and gets unique positioning capabilities with Tibbers. Notably, her passive plays like a combination of Vel'Koz's and Kennen's, though her own abilities contribute to it behaving a bit differently in the long run. Also of note, the CC lasts for the same duration at the same levels.)

Q - Disintegrate

  • Active - Annie hurls a fireball at a target that deals 80/120/160/200/240 (+65% AP) magic damage to them. If Disintegrate kills an enemy half of its mana cost and cooldown are refunded.
  • Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana
  • Cooldown: 4 seconds
  • Range: 675 (Notes: Annie gains some range and base damage on her Q but loses a bit of AP scaling. don't worry, it hasn't just vanished into thin air, she gets compensation. But for such a spamable ability, there was really no reason for it to hit so hard. Of note, with 40% CDR Annie can trigger Pyrophobia on targets with Disintegrate alone in just over 7 seconds, which is a pretty reasonable harassment pattern.)

W - Fireball

  • Active - Annie hurls a rolling fireball that deals 75/120/165/210/255 (+75% AP) magic damage to enemies it passes through.
  • Cost: 80 Mana
  • Cooldown: 16.0/14.5/13.0/11.5/10.0 Seconds
  • Range: 1050
  • Radius: 120 (Notes: Yes yes, I know. Fireball. How imaginative. She's 5, cut her some slack, I'm just surprised she knows the words Pyrophobia and Disintegrate. In all seriousness, though, this grants her some ranged harassment that enemies can actually dodge and react to. Plus, it's fantastic wave clear.)

E - Molten Shield

  • Active - Annie summons a shield of fire around herself, granting herself 15/20/25/30/35 (+10% AP) bonus Armor and Magic Resist for 5 seconds and summoning a burst of flame around herself that deals 60/100/140/180/220 (+60% AP) magic damage to enemies around her. While the shield is up, enemies that strike Annie are dealt 20/30/40/50/60 (+20% AP) magic damage. This damage doesn't apply stacks up Pyrophobia but it does refresh their duration.
  • Additionally, while Tibbers is summoned he gets a copy of the shield and blast himself. Enemies can only be damaged once by the blast even if they overlap.
  • Cost: 50 Mana
  • Cooldown: 15 Seconds
  • Range: 300 (Notes: See, did I let you down? It may be short ranged, but Annie gets the damage on her other abilities back and then some, on top of getting some unique defense scaling on AP. Yes, it's no longer up 90% of the time at max CDR, but that's a small price to pay and it means Annie has to actually consider when to use it as opposed to just hammering E to get her Pyromania count up.)

Ultimate - Summon Tibbers

  • Active - Annie throws out Tibbers, who impacts an area after a short delay, dealing 175/300/425 (+80% AP) magic damage to enemies he lands on. Tibbers is surrounded by an aura of flame that deals 20/30/40 (+20% AP) magic damage per second to enemies around him and lasts for up to 30 seconds. Tibbers' aura doesn't apply stacks of Pyrophobia, but it does refresh their duration. Tibbers' attacks deal magic damage and do apply stacks of Pyrophobia as well as Annie's other spell effects as a single-target, single-hit ability.
  • Tibbers' Health: 1200/2100/3000
  • Tibbers's Health Regen: 5% Max Health per second
  • Tibbers' Magic Damage: 80/105/130 (+20% AP)
  • TIbbers' Attack Speed: 0.625
  • Tibbers' Attack Range: 150
  • Tibbers' Armor: 30/50/70
  • Tibbers' Magic Resist: 30/50/70
  • Tibbers' Movement Speed: 400
  • Cost: 100 Mana
  • Cooldown: 120/100/80 Seconds
  • Range: 800
  • Impact Radius: 300
  • Aura Radius: 300 (Notes: Tibbers gets a few new toys to play with. In addition to no longer being slow as molasses, Tibbers gains an AP ratio on his attacks, health regen, and strong synergy with Pyrophobia, allowing him to quickly apply stacks himself to terrify enemies who even think about causing Annie problems. Of course, this comes at a cost. He loses 15 seconds on his base duration to limit the "Oh she still has Tibbers up" moments, especially with his newfound regen, and has a delay before impact roughly the same time as Nami's bubble. Nevertheless, these changes drastically increase Tibber's relevance, and basically make him a full-fledged tank.)

17 Comments

Lord Dusteon4/5/2015, 4:08:14 AM3 votes

I don't really have much to say other than I'd prefer playing this Annie over live.

ItsStout4/6/2015, 2:18:25 AM2 votes

Ahhh, long time no see. How's it going man?

Now, on to this. First off, this is CERTIANLY better than current Annie. More fun for both the player and the enemy, less "free", snowbally, instant 5 man stun. I still think her play pattern with this would suck, especially in toplane (although that AA range nerf does fix alot of that issue). I feel the change also improves her waveclear substantially, and offers some other harrass (depending on the speed of Fireball). But... I don't know.

To me, it feels like the patchwork that was given to Veigar and Mordekaiser (except that Annie is strong). Sure, it fixes some issues but... Is there much to her? Honestly, alot of Annie makes no sense to me in kit and theme (her lore, why is she the "dark child" if she's basically just a pyromaniac, not a Satan worshiper although one can dream and the mechanics, or lack thereof, of Tibbers...).

What I'd like to see is a champion who has a very core and dynamic pet/champ relationship, something like what we see in DOTA. I want to see Tibbers as less of an AOE damage buff minion tied to some burst damage and a stun, and more like an actual member of the team while still being heavily tied to Annie. Of course, doing something like that would be immensely difficult to do.

JustMyBassCannon4/6/2015, 3:22:39 AM2 votes

Molten Shield actually having a use other than stacks? *gasp*

Annie's kit having more range and counter-play? *gasp*

Alright, enough of the sarcastic gasps, it's a good idea, we get it.

BronzeVOnly4/6/2015, 4:00:09 AM1 votes

" Autoattack Range 625 -> 550 (Notes: There is absolutely no reason for Annie to have a nonstandard autoattack range. She can already harass easily with Disintegrate, and this will curb her excess power.) "

Hey hey, it looks like someone is posting a rework without actually playing the champion! Surprise surprise.

Annie cannot harass as a mid since nearly all mid laners have much longer spell range. She needs her long AAs or she has NO harass in lane.

Done259/1/2015, 7:40:31 AM1 votes

So good. All of my support.

Blazing Tenshi9/1/2015, 11:10:35 AM1 votes

No ty. As long as assassins get to 100-0 people and Vaynes get to tumble dodge everything then 2 shot you I want Annie to counter them.