What is Riot's stance on Annie?

Omiwom·Aug 1, 2015·2 votes·580 views

A lot of people hate this champ, myself included. Her kit is extremely oppressive and... is she in line for any changes?

16 Comments

IAMS4T4NAug 1, 20152 votes

no because

"shes immobile"

"she has short range"

"shes squishy"

"she has counterplay"

"she sucks in high elo"

"just build mr"

-scrubby annie mains who've abused her to diamond 1+

DreadlocksAug 1, 20152 votes

They can't make every champion difficult to play or this game would be a nightmare for new players.

The HeraIdAug 1, 20151 votes

{quoted}

They can't make every champion difficult to play or this game would be a nightmare for new players.

She is too easy for what see does imo. She gets a lot of utility and dmg simply for being there, and is incredibly good at abusing almost everything the opponent does.

DreadlocksAug 1, 20152 votes

That kind of the idea around easy champs. It teaches newer players about positioning and cooldowns etc. Think of champs like Garen, Master Yi, Fiora, Nunu, Warwick. Basically the entire starter pack. Despite being easy, they're still quite strong.

UltraSceptileAug 1, 20151 votes

{quoted}

That kind of the idea around easy champs. It teaches newer players about positioning and cooldowns etc. Think of champs like Garen, Master Yi, Fiora, Nunu, Warwick. Basically the entire starter pack. Despite being easy, they're still quite strong.

These champs all have a lot more counterplay than annie though. Being strong and being as cancerous as kalista in my opinion are two very different things.

DreadlocksAug 1, 20151 votes

I mean, thats your opinion.. I personally don't have a big problem with any of these champions. But many would say Fiora has the least counterplay.. Every1 is entitled to their own opinion, everyone has their own feelings about champs. And just because someone says "x is counter because of x" doesn't mean their opinion will change. Example. No one can keep me from hating katarina. I think shes the most broken piece of shit. She can be 0/7/1 be 2 items behind and get a fucking pentakill just because she cleaned up after her team. This is MY opinion, my feelings. People at higher elo more or less think shes garbage, and that i'm garbage for thinking shes so OP. She has counter play, stun her.

TL;DR its just a matter of opinion.

The HeraIdAug 2, 20151 votes

{quoted}

That kind of the idea around easy champs. It teaches newer players about positioning and cooldowns etc. Think of champs like Garen, Master Yi, Fiora, Nunu, Warwick. Basically the entire starter pack. Despite being easy, they're still quite strong.

That is true, but I just don't see why Annie has to be as strong as she is. Garen, fine, get hard cc, and kite, go for it, Yi, Hard CC he gets destroyed, same with fiora, Nunu you have to gank as much as possible, warwick is pathetic pre six so try to get rolling during his down time, but annie's only weakness is that if she is caught is a bad place, she dies, 50% of the time she gets a kill anyway, 25% you lose map presence to kill her and lose objectives, and the remainder their team follows and your team ends up losing the fight, but I just hate champs that all you need is an ultie to have an impact.

Yes I understand new players need mages to learn on, and ryze is not good for that in my opinion, but the game is balanced around ranked and LCS, and when you see an Annie constantly, and consistently having a significant impact compared to the other supports because of what she does compared to Janna/Thresh, and being able to beat an Alister in lane, I have an issue. But opinions are opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own.

God Bless.

DreadlocksAug 2, 20151 votes

They do balance around pro play, which is why the nerfed her auto attack range. Aside from that, I dont think shes as high priority of a support pick as someone like Thresh or Alistar right now.

AtheosisXAug 1, 20151 votes

No, but they also have said they don't like champs that lack counterplay. Getting flashed on and comboed 100-0 pretty much defines the term.

DreadlocksAug 1, 20151 votes

"getting flashed on" if a champion requires flash to do their job, their is counter play. Thats 5 minutes where they cant do their job. Meaning, use that 5 mins to your advantage. Flash anything would be considered OP to you with that logic. Think about it like this. Flash Malz ult? OP? no Flash WW ult? Flash Grag E, Flash J4 QE, Flash Gallio R. Using flash doesn't make things lack counter play. Its using the element of surprise to their advantage. Going back to my first point of playing around Cool Downs.

AtheosisXAug 1, 20151 votes

Actually all those things similarly lack counterplay but the difference is that they don't tend to lead to you being 100-0'd. Malz can't reliably land his full combo out of flash and besides it can only kill one person, and the rest of those are nowhere close to being on par damage-wise. Annie can nuke a whole team out of flash, and can kill a single target who is at full health with literally no skill involved. None of your examples are comparable.

DreadlocksAug 1, 20151 votes

I find that they are very comparable. The fact that you would be grouped up enough for her to kill your entire team is absurd. I'm not denying that flash tibbers is strong, I'm just simply stating that its not a reason to nerf her. Many champions can punish mistakes of teams. I could simply say that being grouped up close enough for her to ult your entire team is your teams fault. Spread out, have more vision etc. If she catches your entire team with an ult tibbers and penta kills your team. 1) lack of positioning 2) lack of wards 3) Not writing down flash timings 4) Poor drafting (not enough tanks) Like I said, Flash tibbers is strong, hense why it was very popular in the LCS. (Support annie with RG) But it doesnt yield a nerf by any means.

AtheosisXAug 1, 20151 votes

Well, it's not like she has to catch all five members of your team. 2-3 people is enough to pretty much wreck your team overall. The point is that her combination of ease of use and ability to almost single-handlely win team fights is a little out of whack.

UltraSceptileAug 1, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I find that they are very comparable. The fact that you would be grouped up enough for her to kill your entire team is absurd. I'm not denying that flash tibbers is strong, I'm just simply stating that its not a reason to nerf her. Many champions can punish mistakes of teams. I could simply say that being grouped up close enough for her to ult your entire team is your teams fault. Spread out, have more vision etc. If she catches your entire team with an ult tibbers and penta kills your team. 1) lack of positioning 2) lack of wards 3) Not writing down flash timings 4) Poor drafting (not enough tanks) Like I said, Flash tibbers is strong, hense why it was very popular in the LCS. (Support annie with RG) But it doesnt yield a nerf by any means.

Yes, a lot of other champs can punish grouped up players, but how many of them give you literally zero chance to react? Orianna and malphite are two prime examples of severely punishing grouped up enemies, but let's look at their weaknesses. Malphite's ult is almost undodgeable and has decent base damage but doesn't do much damage allowing you a slight chance to escape, or if he's full AP he's going to put himself in grave danger when smashing himself into five enemies. Orianna's ult W does a shit ton of damage and is almost a guaranteed win in teamfights but generally will not oneshot enemies (unless 10/0). Also ori's other damaging abilities can be dodged.

Annie's ult is a huge ass stun, longer than any knock up, and even when behind can still oneshot an adc or if she's 0/15 it will chunk them for 60-70% and rest of her team will jump you. Neither of the other champs can do that much damage when behind. And nothing she uses can be dodged. Which makes laning against her as any melee other than an extremely tanky bruiser with high as fuck base damages a living hell. Ori I can side step her orb and counter attack, annie just infinitely zones me with a 1.5 second stun for the entire laning phase and if I even get in range I lose 40% of my health.

DreadlocksAug 1, 20151 votes

Having this kind of stuff is "IMHO" needed. Things like Maokai, and Vi are good for slippery champs like Ezreal. Infact, Maokai was specifically picked to counter AP runeglaive ezreal. All's im saying is, with the amount of mobility being created. Having a reliable way to lock someone down is almost needed...

ErockandrollAug 1, 20151 votes

I doubt that Riot will do anything to her until after worlds, since shes such a staple pick as a support. You might nerf her Nuking power while keeping the CC intacked. That would at least remove some power from Mid lane Annie.

She is an older champion and I would think she's due for a rework, but there are other champions ahead of her at the moment. So we are probably talking about next season then.