Annie is great! But...
Let me start off by saying this: I don't plan to sit here and cry about another "OP" champion. In concept, I believe Annie is really great! She's powerful and straightforward, but also easily countered by long range! ....But that's exactly it. Currently, I don't believe Annie is in a very good place right now. She is supposed to be a short-ranged mage with tons of burst and situational CC. Right now, however, her kit is a mixed bag of all the strong mechanics in league. Allow me to elaborate:
For starters, her Q. I think the damage on this spell is fine. It really doesn't bother me. What DOES bother me is the range and the fact that it gives her constant, reliable last-hitting. As a short ranged mage, she shouldn't be able to almost outrange Caitlyn with her spells. More on this later.
Her W is totally fine. AOE, a bit of damage, reasonable mana cost. No problems here. :)
Let's be real, her E is almost completely useless. Other than giving the player another spell towards their stun, who actually uses this for anything? (Fast Bears OP????) This spell should be on a champion like Malphite, not a burst mage.
Her ultimate. Oh boy.
I love Annie's ultimate. It's strong, has a fair range, and does lots and lots of damage. It's also her signature combo: flash-Tibbers! No problems here either! :D
Ok, now we get to something really, REALLY annoying: that auto attack range. Look back at what I said about her Q. A "short-ranged" mage should not almost outrange Caitlyn. Just stop.
The passive! Let's be real, Annie wouldn't be half of what she is now without that stupid stun. I like the concept, but I think it could be improved upon.
So, you've heard my complaints. Thanks for reading this far! Has your day been good? I hope it has! Ahem...anyway, like I said, I don't want to be just another forum guy that cries about a champion and asks Rito to fix their lives. So, I'm introducing a new technique I learned in the snowy mountains of the West:
SOLUTIONS!!!!
That's right! I came prepared! Here's what I'm thinking:
Q - No changes to damage. Reduce range by about 1/4 and have it refund only the mana, not the cooldown. This will make her farming a bit more skill based and not spam based.
W - NOTHING! This is totally fine, like I said. If you want, we can increase the damage on this bad boy to compensate for some other changes.
E - Completely remove this. I suggest replacing this spell with something more movement-based to complement her strengths and get rid of unnecessary tankiness. Leave suggestions in the comments if you have better ideas.
R - Ok, hear me out: we buff this baby. That's right. I'll explain why in a bit, but for now, I suggest adding a 2 second stun on this and buffing the damage and range a tiny bit, while also reducing its cooldown. Also, adding a mechanic that rewards Annie for hitting lots of champions with this spell would be cool! (I.E reduce all cooldowns by 10% for every enemy champion hit)
Passive - Scrap the current one. We gave her ult a stun, which will compensate for this. I suggest replacing this passive with the following:
Annie's cooldown reduction applies to her summoner spells, but she may only have half of the max CDR(22.5%)
I think this new passive would make the flash-Tibbers more core to her kit and make it more forgiving to use on only one or two people. With the removal of the distortion enchantments on boots, this would give her a great reason to come back into the meta!
Finally, the auto attack range. Just nerf it to, like, 500. Don't take her ability to harass away, but at least make it "short-ranged".
And that wraps this up! I hope you got something out of this, and thanks for reading this whole post! If you've got any questions (especially rioters, you sexy things), leave them below, and I'll try to answer as many of them as possible!
Lots of love,
DarkFire Phoenix
