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Annie Rework to Better Match Her Awesome Cinematic

Stacona··2 votes·3,028 views

Annie is great, but I do wish her in-game model was less evil looking and more reflective of her short story cinematic. Because Annie is not evil and is a good girl, but if you upset her / hurt her then she hurts you, but seeks to helps those around her by choice. She just ends up hurting those around her due to her powers and not quite being in full control of them which makes some people to treat her like a monster.

Things to address for Annie: ~ Give her tools to help her through the early game / laning phase while still being this little fire mage that is immobile and short ranged. ~ Force counter play. This means remove her ability to flash into instant stun, and in return she can have tools on her kit itself that allows her to make plays in some form. This a better design aspect because it means she does not need Flash to function and her play making ability is on her ability kit itself. ~ I would like to see Tibbers play a bigger role for Annie than being about drop the bear and let Tibbers die, Annie loves Tibbers and that should be reflected in her gameplay in some form. Same with Tibbers protecting Annie. ~ Remove Annie's thornmail effect. This makes no sense as a mage, but the shield makes a ton of sense, especially for a short range mage, so there is a better way to have the damage reduction shield and have a more active replacement for attacking Annie directly. Something like Annie's Q does bonus damage against enemy champions that recently basic attacked her for an example.

Overall, Annie will still feel like the same champion, but she should feel nicer to play as for the user and offer better counter play and clarity for the opponent as well.

If you have feedback or dislikes, then share your thoughts and let me know what is going on, the post cannot improve if you do not speak your mind and share your thoughts! Thank-you and have a nice day!

Basic Attack Range: 600 units Movement: 335 units per second

Molten Shield (Passive): Cooldown: 7 seconds (Affected by CDR, starts at shield break) Annie gains a fiery aura around her, granting herself 20%(+5% per 100AP) damage reduction, upon taking champion or tower damage this lingers for 3 seconds. This is 50% effective against minion damage.

Tibbers The Protector: If Tibbers is currently summoned then Molten Shield remains active the entire time Tibbers is alive.

Disintegrate (Q): Cooldown: 2 seconds; Cost: 35/40/45/50/55 mana; Range: 650 units Annie hurls a fireball at the target enemy, dealing 50/65/80/95/110(+55%AP) magic damage and healing herself for 4/8/12/16/20% of the damage dealt, 50% healing against minions and non-epic monsters.

Passive: If Annie was basic attacked by an enemy in the last 2 seconds, then Disintegrate deals 100/130/160/190/220(+110%AP) magic damage against those targets. Minions are always dealt this increased damage, upon reaching level 6 monsters are dealt increased damage as well.

Executing an enemy with Disintegrate refunds the mana cost.

Energized Bear: Disintegrate can be cast against Tibbers to grant him a surge of 80/95/110/125/140%(+10% per 100AP) bonus decaying movement speed and 100/150/200/250/300% bonus attack speed for 2 seconds. Disintegrate gains 325 bonus range against Tibbers.

Incinerate (W): Cooldown: 8 seconds; Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana; Range: 950 units / 50 degrees Annie releases a cone of fire in the target direction, dealing between 90/135/180/225/270(+105%AP) to 30/45/60/75/90(+35%AP) magic damage based on how close struck enemies were to Annie. Maximum damage occurs for targets that are closer than 500 range to Annie.

Healthy Bear: If Tibbers get struck by Incinerate, this heals him for 10/15/20/25/30% of his maximum health.

Pyromania (E): Cooldown: 6 seconds; Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana; Range: 600 units Passive: Annie's other ability casts grant a stack of Pyromania, up to a maximum of 4. At 4 stacks of Pyromania, Pyromania can be cast.

Active: Annie consumes all of her Pyromania stacks, after a 0.75 second delay, let's out powerful flames around her that stuns struck enemies for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds. Pyromania is placed on cooldown for 2 seconds if Annie uses Flash.

Teamwork Bear: If Tibbers is currently in play then the flames burst around him as well.

Summon: Tibbers (R): 120/90/60 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: 600 units; Leash: 1200 units Annie summons Tibbers at the target location, remaining in play for 45 seconds. The initial summon deals 120/160/200(+50%AP) magic damage to struck enemies within a 300 unit radius.

Tibbers... ~ has 1000/1500/2000(+250%AP) health ~ deals 50/80/110(+35%AP) magic damage for his attacks ~ deals 8/12/16(+15%AP) magic damage per second to nearby enemies around him ~ has 40/60/80(+20%AP) armor and 20/30/40(+10%AP) magic resistance ~ has 150 attack range and 0.625 attacks per second ~ has 350 movement speed, increased further based on Annie's enhanced movement speed

Annie can control Tibbers by either ALT+right-clicking or by re-casting Summon: Tibbers.

Angry Teddy Bear: If Annie dies while Tibbers is still summoned then he lives on for 5 more seconds, healing for 50% of his missing health and gaining 275% bonus attack speed and 100% bonus movement speed towards Annie's killer, if the target is too far away then Tibbers attacks the closest enemy.

16 Comments

LuaDotExe5 votes

I personally consider Annie to be one of the healthier champions in the game. Although I disagree with the rework, there's an interesting thing here. The interactions with Tibbers are interesting, but I think that Annie's kit should focus more on the fire mage aspects rather than Tibbers himself. After all, her pyromaniacal tendencies are the centerpiece of her lore-- not Tibbers. I've seen a couple of your reworks around; although I haven't commented yet (particularly because most of my points are usually already mentioned), I'm starting to see a trend where you try to bring a character in a direction, but leave behind the characters' original identity.

I feel as though moving her stun onto her E removed part of the prior-mentioned identity-- although this time it's more kit specific. You're inherently removing her Flash-Tibbers combo, which not only guts a lot of her teamfight power, but also her engage power, which is partially the reason you pick her. Not only that, but a good Flash-Tibbers feels very good to use, and by removing this, there's on less enjoyable thing about Annie. Arguably, it's not that toxic, either-- it consumes a 300 second cooldown, and she has an indicator for whether or not her stun is active.

Her Q is rather disgusting with these changes; on a 2 second cooldown, and with the ability to fully restore mana-- as well as HEALING now, it becomes even more oppressive than her current. She takes on an Aatrox-esque ability, now; it's a good chunk of damage, and also can act as passive bonus healing. Reducing the damage against minions hurts her ability to last hit with it-- which is the entire reason the mechanic exists, and contrasts heavily with the prior change. The new effect on her Q doesn't make much sense, either; her current E is to protect her when people get on top of her, but now you're adding incentive to people hitting you, which is the exact opposite of what you want as a mage. The Q interaction with Tibbers is super strong, which doesn't make sense when the ability is a 2 second cooldown. Using Q on Tibbers probably won't affect your damage, considering it's such a low cooldown.

Your W is narrower, and has a farther range; I disagree with this, since the main purpose of her current W is to be able to stun multiple people at once. However, this again becomes unimportant because of your E change. It doesn't make much sense for the damage to increase when you're closer to them-- you're a mage who tends to hover around the backline or the far end of the midline, meaning being in front of people for maximum damage is the opposite of what you want.

More on the E: By having E be in an AoE around you, you are, again, forcing Annie to be right in peoples' faces, which is the opposite of what you want. Annie is supposed to be the basic learn-to-play-the-game mage, and having new people see that the basic mage wants to be up in peoples' faces isn't exactly wonderful.

There aren't too many Tibbers changes here. One thing I will say, though, is that by adding that extra layer of complexity (ooo cast abilities on Tibbers, spooooooooky), you're pushing her farther away from the "intro mage" gameplay design that surrounds her.

If I were to be honest, this kit looks like it turns her into a battle mage. She doesn't play the same anymore; you want to be up in peoples' faces, and a bulky battle mage build would probably be better, since then you can actually tank the damage to send out your empowered Q. I understand you were trying to keep the Thornmail-ish effect of her current E (and searching for a more actively engaging version of this effect isn't necessarily a bad thing), but my main issue with the effect is that it doesn't make sense on her in general. After all, she's a burst mage with slightly higher bulk than others, but has incredibly low mobility, and packs a nasty stun. Current Annie is also picked because she excels in picks/catching enemies due to her stun synergizing with Q range, her Flash-Tibbers combo, and her W being a conical damage spell. By requiring people to already be nearby her in order to utilize her E, she loses out on that fantasy.

NotSpecialDude3 votes

As someone who is invested into Annie as she is now, I think this isn't the best rework.

Her q is toxic. It's vlad's q on steroids.

Her passive is a malphite type passive That encourages pausing between trades.

Her w is actually kinda nice.

Her ult is ok.

Her e is ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. To begin with, it requires so much effort to cast (cast q or w 4 seperate times, cannot be stockpiled, .75 sec delay) but the kicker of a 2 sec cooldown on flash kills it. Annie can't engage with this ability because any squishy target can GTFO before annie can stun them. And the cherry on top, it doesn't do damage.

Annie as she is right now has a major weakness. One that keeps her balanced. She doesn't have range. Anything that enters within Annie's q range is liable to instant bursting. Outside that range, however, annie is worthless. All the champs that counter Annie, do most of their damage from a safe distance, whereas most of the champs Annie counters can't do meaningful damage out of her range.

This rework makes Annie much easier for the latter category to approach and fight, but nothing changes for the former. In fact, Annie's counters become even stronger since the threat of a flash stun is removed. All this rework would do is make Annie worse.

Stacona1 votes

Do you now know what her shield does now? It is literally the same thing but removed the thornmail damage and moved it to her Q instead for a more active version of it. She is actually healthier here as her upfront damage is lowered, but she still has strong damage over time.

I want to remove Flash interaction and give her a way to make plays on her kit itself, which is by using Tibbers for the offensive stun, and without Tibbers it is a defensive stun to keep her alive, especially by throwing Tibbers a Q to enrage him which makes Tibbers a lot more impactful on the kit than just being used as a bomb.

I gave her stuff to help her through the laning phase, traded burst damage for some sustain on Q and 50% more W range, but the added range only does a little bit of damage while the meat and potatoes damage is still within the same threat range. Her threat range is still within 600 units so she is a short range mage, but she has elements within her kit to help her get through the laning phase.

Her Q should be targeted, but there are ways to add some type of skill mechanic to it without changing how it works. Make her stun her own ability then we can buff up her other abilities since the stun is in a controlled space. Her damage reduction shield just gets used to reduce upfront burst for 3 seconds anyways, so moving it to her passive with the same downtime makes it the exact same type of ability, actually better since there are more ways to counter the shield where as now she will always have that 3 seconds of tankiness at the start of every fight, it is not much of a decision making spell which is why it should be the passive and the stun the active ability.

ZaneShadow3 votes

I mean, she has a pink back pack. She isn't all that evil looking. Also, I love her kit to death (a firey, bear filled death). She was my first Main and I really learned a lot about league while playing her. Don't play her as much any more, but Every time I do now I still want to shout TIBBERS!!!!! as loud as I can because of how much I love throwing that bear at people. I wish her E would last longer with more ranks in it since it is the last thing you max anyways, just for tank tibbes builds, but besides that I lover her kit.

Stacona2 votes

She plays the same her, just more competitively viable and less noob stompy at the same time by helping her survive the laning phase. Remember this is survive the laning phase, not win the laning phase, just quality of life buffs and changes to help her actually get to late game while also addressing some slight game health issues with Annie while playing against her - like flash+stuns and surprise burst when ahead. I am fine with Annie having a lot of damage on her kit, and this should increase it slightly, but more damage a couple of seconds in the fight rather than all at once.

Kaioko3 votes

You've just made her Q and W absolutely completely ridiculous along with a completely unhealthy passive that will allow her to counter any mid lane burst mages.

Stacona1 votes

It is the same duration and downtime that her shield has now.

Q does less damage unless empowered which even then has less base damage for more ratio, but the empowering effect is an active version of her thornmail damage, it is more focused damage than split damage.

Her current W is only short ranged because of the stun, but this W still encourages Annie to get up close and personal to deal any significant damage.

Her shield is probably more balanced as you can poke it away first and then go all in on her, right now she can just mitigate the burst. The duration and downtime are the same as it is now.

Kaioko3 votes

No it's not remotely the same -- her current shield doesn't get additional damage reduction based on her AP

Q you might've lowered the damage slightly, but you halved the CD and gave it sustain potential while giving it 25 additional cast range while increasing the damage vs minions at all times and greatly increasing it vs champs that have attacked Annie. That's so many buffs all in one ability right there.

W would be fine in theory but the cast range is already 625 as it is (same as her auto and Q) so getting to 500 range is not exactly that hard for her to do. Especially with a 600 range AOE stun that lasts 2.5 seconds on a 6 sec CD before taking into account CDR. You could stun for 2.5 seconds every 4 seconds easily with annie with that Q CDR being what it is.

Stacona1 votes

Nah, it just scales on her rank instead. It is about the same damage reduction on a realistic ability power value.

Q does increased damage to minions because it should not be hard to get the last hits with it no matter the skill level of the player, Annie should still be an introductory champion (only a problem if the ability was an AoE, but it is single target). And Q's damage is higher overall, but less upfront burst which allows the opponent to react to what is going on, hence to why that is healthier gameplay because the opponent can properly react and is not instant doomed between less burst, but more damage over time, and having the stun on a delay allows the opponent to properly react and offer that proper counter play that she lacks.

Solve those game health issues and we can give her buffs to help her make it out of laning phase and towards late game, like SOME health sustain (it is not as much as you think, even with the empowered damage) to help deal with poke and the damage reduction shield has better counter play as it means the opponent can poke it away first and then go for the all in offer more skill to it than what it has now - the duration and downtime are unchanged. A good Annie usually maxes her shield second, after Q, to keep them alive since it offers anti-burst to make up for her short range.

The DR shield ends up at 40% DR, in this scenario it has 50% DR at 600AP which is her end game build, up to a maximum of 55% DR, but at that point the enemy also has a ridiculous amount of damage so the damage reduction increase by very, very late game does not matter a whole lot because it means she might live an extra second. The only difference is that ignoring Tibbers now has MASSIVE consequences for you and is something your team has got to take down since he is protecting Annie, especially since the concept introduces Tibbers playing a majour role for Annie rather than currently where he is only about his nuke and gets ignored by Annie and the enemy pretty much.

hsojbabe2 votes

riot already addressed that Annie isn't going to get work done. I think I remember reading that shes fine now and they dont wanna change her

Stacona1 votes

She needs some changes to help her out, help her through the laning phase, and create healthier gameplay against her. Changes like this updates her and not create a new champion, she will still play the same and still be Annie.

Alohaxrick1 votes

Her abilities are fine, gameplay-wise. I would love to see her get a VGU.

Stacona2 votes

VGU is Visual and Gameplay Update. Something that makes her less evil looking and more sweet would be nice <3

AlexOPENFIRE1 votes

her Quotes and her design is just amazing and so iconic , that any change to it , would bother many players , she is just Too cute , maybe update her abilities , but not her appearance , one of the best looking and sounding champs in the game , her voice actor has done a GREAT job and should not be undervalued Annie

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