A long Anivia guide from a Silver noob

Hi everyone, I'm just a random Silver player (I was Gold once, but fell in Silver again and again). Anivia is the most interesting champion to play, IMO, and I see a lot of players here in low elo trying to play her, and it tilts me that they fail so many easy combos. So I've written a teamfight guide with bonus tips, if you're interested. I consider myself mechanically decent, I know what to do in teamfights (I'm Silver mostly because of my horrible map control).

There are a lot of teamfight situations, and below you can find the most common ones. Go get some popcorn and enjoy! I know there are better players than me who will find a lot of mistakes here, but these are the strats that work for me best. Feel free to correct me if you have a better suggestion.

1. All players have decent stats, nobody is extremely fed. Stun the highest DPS enemy, maybe even attempt to oneshot him if your E cooldown isn’t a problem. Anyway, just keep him out of the teamfight. IMO, don’t use the wall for him, you need your W to zone off the enemies with a lot of threatening. Put your ultimate on top of as many enemies you can, but usually not on their backline-ADC/APC (as explained above, just stun him). You just can’t afford to waste an ultimate on a single person.

2. They have a fed, high-mobility champion. Think of Kayn, LB, Talon or anyone who can just walk from behind and oneshot things. Zone him with your wall, make him have to choose a longer route to your team (OK, you need wards and/or map sense). Put your R on the enemy team (this is especially useful in this scenario, since they’ll all be gathered tightly, thinking that their all-in assassin will engage and show them what to do and how to split). Don’t engage the fed enemy, you’ll just give his team enough time to melt yours. Just try to kill his team and then you’ll be 5vs1, ggez.

3. They have a fed ADC/spellcaster in the backline, well protected. Okay, this is risky. I’ve tried this, it worked, but maybe it’s just because I have a bizzare playstyle. Flash through the frontline, hard CC the fed enemy, don’t attempt to kill him, his team will 5vs1 melt you. Flash on him and GET OUTTA THERE, you did that to keep him stunned while your team engages (hopefully) and kills whoever they can. The fed enemy will most likely try to follow you, since you’re now lonely, effectively leaving his team with no carry in a teamfight. You might die, but when he returns to the fight after the chase, he’ll find his team dead and he’ll also be in a bad position.

4. They have a fed diver/juggernaut/tank. He will most likely try to engage, since he’s strong enough to survive and even oneshot someone (looking at you, Malphite). So stay away from the point where he’ll breach your frontline. Make YOUR team go zig-zag, so he can’t CC you all. Wall him off and, since the enemy team doesn’t have a reliable tank now, you can engage.

5. They are all fed. This is very situational. You need perfect mechanics and stun coordination. Never waste your Q when you don’t have to. Do your best to CC everyone. Put your R on top of them, and put a wall between them and your team. They’ll have to walk around the wall if they want to get to your backline, so it’ll be relatively easy for you to hit a Q, since you can predict their route. Focus whoever has the least HP+resistances. However, trying to kill them one by one won’t be a good choice, since they are so fed and can easily 4vs5 or 3vs5 while you’re busy picking one of them. Your motto is multi-target-AoE.

6. You (maybe + one teammate) are surrounded and far away from your team. The enemies will likely surround you from every corner. What you have to do is use every damage you have on the weakest one (aka the easiest side to breach). Use your wall creatively to prevent the rest from filling that gap. Now you can run to safety, your Q should be up as well, so stun them while they chase you.

7. They are all on top of you. Poor birb, you’re a sweet icy omelette now. Joking, there’s still a way to get out, done that too many times to say it doesn’t work. Pop a Zhonya if your team is nearby. If you’re solo (RIP game sense) and they go 5vs1 on you, pop your R on everyone to get a slow on them, CC as many as you can, and try to run away in a direction that they don’t expect, even if it’s not very logical. Then wall them off while they watch you walk through their base and escape.

Bonus: My idiotic 1vs1/1vs2 duel mechanics. I act like a tank. Don’t judge me. I know Anivia’s resistances very well and I know exactly for how long I can survive a close combat. I go in, pop my R on top of us and do my combos. I personally don’t like the spellcaster playstyle (where you stay in the backline and throw Qs and Es and zone with your R). My tactics are a good bait, since here in Silver/low Gold, a lot of people miscalculate your duel potential while you are in your R. It’s like a Trundle icy zone, but better.

My combos: pre-6: auto (they’ll think you’re going in and they’ll engage with all spells they have) > Q > auto > E > auto, with an Ignite and the original minion aggro they should be dead. Post-6: R on top of the enemy > Q+E at once, wall when they try to escape, then keep spamming Es. If they engage you (hehe Talon, hehe Zed), put R on top of you, stun with Q, E, Ignite, and they’re dead.

My easiest matchups: Katarina, Zed, Talon, Ekko (depends on the player), Lux (insanely easy, she’s squishy and you outdamage her, even if she has R), Veigar (same as Lux), TF, Jax mid, Ryze, and basically any ranged autoattack based champ (mid Ezreal, Quinn).