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Annie - Kit Update Concept

Stacona··9 votes·4,495 views

First off, I want Annie to have a visual update, she really needs it, I want her in-game model to make her look super cute and adorable like her splash arts! Right now she looks both outdated, ugly, and evil - Annie is not evil at all, her fire powers go out of control when she gets emotional and ends up hurting people (but she could also hurt those that hurt her).

For gameplay:

  1. I want to address game health issues here. Remove her reliance on Flash which also means removing Flash-instant stun-dead plays with no room for the opponent to react at all. Address this issue then she can get power to help her out.

  2. I want to introduce skill expression in her kit, but keep her kit simple, I like Annie's simplicity. I also want to preserve teaching mechanics, like rewarding the player for last hitting (with her Q), to teach players how to properly last hit minions.

  3. I want to remove an outdated mechanic and one that teaches players the WRONG way to play as a squishy, immobile mage. This is the thorns effect of her shield, her damage reduction shield should stay on her kit, but I do not like the mechanic of passively dealing damage with no effort on the player and this mechanic is teaching the player that they WANT to get attacked when you should be avoiding damage as a ranged mage; perhaps Tibbers only can keep the effect, but I rather have something that feels more active for the player.

  4. Make Tibbers more important to Annie's kit, less of a nuclear bomb and then just let him die, give the player reason to keep Tibbers alive.

  5. Make sense for Annie's stun, make her less bursty for more damage over time (not damage over time spells), this also helps the opponent not feel like they die from a single stun. This also helps in her short range and immobile ways to kill tanks, meaning she does not need to suicide to get to the enemy backline and can kill what is the closest to her.

  6. Have Annie gold reliant rather than level reliant, this opens (and let's her remain, but not very many discovered this) her ability to play in the duo-lane. So low base damages per rank for high ability power ratios, scaling with her item purchases, but out leveling everyone does not do much for her power.

Attack Range: 600 units Attack Speed: 0.644 +4% per level Movement: 340 units per second Attack Damage: Low

Molten Shield (Passive):

Annie and Tibbers gain a fiery aura around each of them, taking 15%(+6% per 100AP) less damage for 0.75 second upon casting an ability.

Tibbers deals 5/8/11(+5%AP) magic damage per half-second around him, increased to 20/32/44(+20%AP) while Molten Shield is currently active. This scales with Summon: Tibbers.

Disintegrate (Q):

Cooldown: 2 seconds; Cost: 25/30/35/40/45 mana; Range: 650 units

Annie hurls a fireball at the target enemy, dealing 50/70/90/110/130(+70%AP) magic damage, 180% damage against minions, and healing herself for 5/20/35/50/65 (+5 - 75%AP [based on level]) health over 5 seconds.

Direct executes refund Disintegrate's mana cost.

Incinerate (W):

Cooldown: 5 seconds; Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 mana; Range: 1000 units / 50 degrees

Annie unleashes a cone of fire in the target direction, dealing 100/135/170/205/240(+125%AP) to 20/27/34/41/48(+25%AP) magic damage based on how close the target is, executing small minions below 40% health.

If the flames strike Tibbers, then he is healed for 12/14/16/18/20%(+3% per 100AP) of his maximum health.

Pyromania (E):

Cooldown: 8 seconds; Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana; Range: 650 units

Passive: Annie's other ability casts grant a stack of Pyromania, up to 4.

Active: Annie and Tibbers glow red hot for 0.75 second. During this time and at 4 Pyromania stacks, Annie can consume the charge and the Pyromania by casting Disintegrate, stunning its target for 1.2/1.35/1.5/1.65/1.8 seconds, refunding the cost and cooldown of Pyromania in the process.

After 0.75 second, if Pyromania was not consumed, Annie and Tibbers let out a burst of flames around them, dealing 80/100/120/140/160(+85%AP) magic damage to struck enemies and consuming all Pyromania. If 4 stacks of Pyromania were consumed, then struck enemies are stunned for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds.

Annie is grounded while glowing red hot.

Summon: Tibbers (R):

Cooldown: 150/100/50 seconds (begins immediately); Cost: 100 mana; Range/Leash: 1400 units

Annie summons and enlarges her teddy bear Tibbers to the target location indefinitely until killed.

If Annie dies while Tibbers is currently summoned, then he becomes enraged for 3 seconds, healing him for 50% of his missing health and granting him 100% increased movement speed and 300% bonus attack speed towards Annie's killer, slowly decaying his health over time. If the killer is too far away, then Tibbers attacks the closest enemy instead, prioritizing champions.

Tibbers Stats: ~ 1500/2000/2500 health ~ 50/85/120 armor ~ 40/65/90 magic resistance ~ 60/80/100(+30%AP) magic damage per attack ~ Moves at 350 units per second

Annie can control Tibbers through holding down the ALT Key + Right-Clicking or by casting Summon: Tibbers again.

UPDATE NOTES:

Molten Shield: Cooldown removed from 10 static seconds No longer is always active; now will activate for 0.75 second (down from 3 second linger time) whenever Annie casts an ability to implement skill for anti-burst rather than always being up. Now the player can choose to rotate their spells for maximizing the shield duration or throw everything out for quick burst damage.

Damage increased to 5/8/11+5% AP per half second from 10/15/20+10% AP per second Increased damage during Molten Shield increased to 20/32/44+20% AP per half second from 40/60/80+40%AP per second (Mainly applies per half-second from per second, makes it easier to get the amped damage with the shorter duration spurts of Molten Shield.)

Disintegrate: Minion damage increased and reworded to 180% damage from 50% increased damage (150% damage), better help with last hitting in the early game.

Heal changed to 5/20/35/50/65 (+5 - 75%AP based on level) OVER 5 SECONDS from 4/8/12/16/20 (+1 - 30%AP based on level) IMMEDIATELY. This better clarifies its purpose of anti-poke sustain rather than in-combat sustain, which does not make sense for a burst mage to have in-combat sustain, helping her survive the laning phase without being strong against an all-in attempt. This also adds skill expression allowing the player to either spam Q for max damage OR hold off on Q for maximum sustain (heal over time, so using it again just resets the duration).

Incinerate: Minion execution changed from ALL minions to SMALL minions (just the bonus effect, will execute if it does enough damage based on the minion's current health still) Minion execution health threshold increased to 40% from 30% - easier to read for the player watching for one-third health when the health threshold is above one-third rather than awkwardly being below one-third of its health.

Pyromania: Base damage lowered to 80/100/120/140/160 from 90/110/130/150/170 Ratio increased to 85% from 65% (Her burst damage was looking a little too low, so this amps it up a little, focusing on ratios so she is building squishy and ensures she does not have a dominant early game.)

13 Comments

EkyonKun3 votes

Of all the Annie reworks I've seen, this is the only one that I think could have a place on the PBE, if just for testing purposes. Obviously this is a huge shift in playstyle, but it's not too far-fetched.

Psyrix1 votes

Lol, i really like this, might even make me consider playing her if this/something very similar to this was integrated.

Stacona1 votes

I like Annie in the duo-lane with Glacial Augment and then pick up Hextech GLP, Shurelia's Reverie, and CDR boots for 45% CDR and mana sustain, Liandry's Torment is thrown in there as well as the three main items, two of which also give health for the shield, I max shield second and W last - the anti-burst is a lot more useful, especially in this damage creeped meta. I play her as the farmer, with spell vamp mastery and your last hits, you can sustain up over time as if you have a doran's blade life steal - biscuits also help with sustain, but mostly just use for mana replenishing before Lost Chapter / Hextech GLP.

I like Annie, but she definitely needs a VGU, her ability kit with smaller changes to improve her laning (aka just survive laning, does not have to win it) and improvements to her gameplay to remove the need for Flash and remove the toxic gameplay of having Flash. If Flash was not in the game, Annie's kit is a lot healthier - so make a kit that does not use Flash at all and is not toxic with Flash in the game.

statelesskiller1 votes

my only real concern with this is annie the urf child. that 2 second cd on q is hella short, with 45% your looking at a almost 1 second q on a ability that heals her. making her deceptively tanky in lane. while also having a crunchy amount of damage. dependong on what her base mana and mana scaling looked like this could be acceptable. but it has a chance of being way to powerful

Stacona1 votes

Early game is low amount of sustain, it is there to get her through the laning phase, at no point is Annie going to become some super tank. If anything the AP ratio could be controlled through levels to tune the early game sustain better.

Cooldown is fine, this is intended to be more of a persistent damage dealer, sacrifice upfront burst for ways to survive the long fight through DR shields and heals and utilizing the stun better with spells being up more often.

FlameHalbrdOkido1 votes

If annie doesn't have any sustain now then theres no reason to give her sustain in an update, it doesn't make sense thematically or balance wise. It appears that you did it since her shield is now on a passive which she can't control and you wanted to give her a way to survive damage if needed. But a heal isn't the way to go. Instead u could link the passive's activation to her actions in combat, like many other balanced champions who have a passive shield there are some gating mechanisms that either make it difficult to obtain the shield or make the shield a last resort use, unless the champion is a tank. The key here is interaction with your opponent.

Have you thought about a mechanic like this: damaging a champion will reduce the passive's CD? And other mechanics along the same vein would work.

I like W's interaction with Tibber's, makes since and is a way to keep Tibber's alive and rewarding E's interaction with the Passive is great as well

Why not let E interact with W? Thats how the Annie works now.

Stacona1 votes

It helps her get through the laning phase, it also allows her to have less burst damage upfront by giving her a way to survive the long fights.

E still re-activates the shield. There are multiple different ways to use her E now, which is her skill expression - use to reactivate passive shield, use for more burst, wait and use for AoE stun, use for single target guaranteed stun. ~ W has multiple ways to use now as well since you can use it as chip poke damage, big burst by stunning the target and then walking up for max damage W, still using it for wave clear, or use it exactly how it is now at a mid range for mid damage

W is instant, by removing W from being able to stun we can give her more range on W and to balance out that range, there is damage fall off over distance (and damage increase for getting even closer).

the healing and range extension for last hitting minions from a far are the tools granted to help her through the laning phase, without making her dominant and win the laning phase. Giving her tools to get out of laning phase to reach her late game scaling, also her E being her stun allows her to have an escape as well to be readily available (as long as stun is not consumed).

I want Annie to be healthier for the game, which is tuning her burst and stun to be in a better spot, in return she gets tools to help her through the laning phase.

FlameHalbrdOkido1 votes

{quoted}

It helps her get through the laning phase, it also allows her to have less burst damage upfront by giving her a way to survive the long fights.

Have u thought about Q or W reducing the dmg of abilities it hits on its way to the target? Or have you thought about Q or W reducing the damage of the targets hit for a short duration? Either one could scale with her AP. I know you want to help her surive long fights, but Annie is a burst mage, not a battle mage, she's not meant to have sustain, as her main weakness is her squishiness. Now I kno u'll be all like its not a strong heal, but thats besides the point; any heal at all is putting her outside the definition of a burst mage without a very good reason, thematically or balance wise. We all want our favorite champs to be a bit stronger in some areas, but thats not the case for a reason.

Annie doesn't need a heal to help her get through the laning phase. She didn't need it b4 to work and she wouldn't need it for either this rework or Riots own rework. Additionally you should try to balance someone around having less damage and then giving them a heal. As a burst mage she doesn't use heals to survive them she either plays smart or dies.

E still re-activates the shield. There are multiple different ways to use her E now, which is her skill expression - use to reactivate passive shield, use for more burst, wait and use for AoE stun, use for single target guaranteed stun. ~ W has multiple ways to use now as well since you can use it as chip poke damage, big burst by stunning the target and then walking up for max damage W, still using it for wave clear, or use it exactly how it is now at a mid range for mid damage

this is cool, i think u did a great job with W and E

W is instant, by removing W from being able to stun we can give her more range on W and to balance out that range, there is damage fall off over distance (and damage increase for getting even closer).

...wut? I really don't understand why you decided to subtract things the kit already had and then add in your own necessary stuff. Annie has always been defined by her range of threat. Now I kno "this has always been like this" is a bad argument, and I am all for creative change...when its needed. This feels egregious... Ah let me slow down: whats are ranges of the low/medium/high damages? If the low damage is from 1000 to around 650 then i think it should be ok. But still 1000 feels like a bit much, additionally the split of damage leads to range numbers with decimals, hows a max range of 900 for and even split of 300 per damage amp sound?

the healing and range extension for last hitting minions from a far are the tools granted to help her through the laning phase, without making her dominant and win the laning phase.

ok i understand, the heal just feels really misplaced on Annie, and the range extension on W just feels like a bit much. I feel like the minion execution is a good move to help her in laning phase, and thats already a well placed compensation for this rework.

also her E being her stun allows her to have an escape as well to be readily available (as long as stun is not consumed).

good move.

I want Annie to be healthier for the game, which is tuning her burst and stun to be in a better spot.

agreed.

Stacona1 votes

Maybe a heal over time makes more sense for its purpose, clarifying it is meant to be anti-poke rather than strong during combat to the player. Same effects don't stack, just the duration would reset, granting the player more skill expression between deciding to maximize the heal or just spam out your Q for the fastest form of damage.

W range is for last hitting minions from afar - its effective range is its range now - but stronger when getting really close to the target - which can be done by using Tibbers to run out and blast flame around him to stun enemies and then walk up with the enhanced stun duration for the max damage (let's just say it is 350-400 range or closer for now, which is really close for a range mage, for max damage).

So more options of play - she can be more "safe" and have a lower damage output and play for the long fights, or get in close for the big damages for more commitment by the player for the bigger burst damages. Most importantly, I wanted to balance out the stun better and make the stun make more sense on annie's kit without drastically changing the kit at all.

FlameHalbrdOkido1 votes

{quoted}

Maybe a heal over time makes more sense for its purpose, clarifying it is meant to be anti-poke rather than strong during combat to the player. Same effects don't stack, just the duration would reset, granting the player more skill expression between deciding to maximize the heal or just spam out your Q for the fastest form of damage.

Annie doesn't need any more help in the laning phase than what u have given her. She survived up till now without a heal and doesn't/wouldnt need one now. Additionally no type of heal no matter how you implement it will ever make thematic sense on her. Her anti-poke is her passive u have made for her.

W range is for last hitting minions from afar - its effective range is its range now - but stronger when getting really close to the target - which can be done by using Tibbers to run out and blast flame around him to stun enemies and then walk up with the enhanced stun duration for the max damage (let's just say it is 350-400 range or closer for now, which is really close for a range mage, for max damage).

the range of W is 625. If ur adding the range of flash - u shouldnt cause flash isnt always available when W is. I think setting each damage range to 325 units is a good idea, cause that means the medium damage range is 650. I still think u should let other abilities proc the stun tho, even if u have to give W a travel time.

Stacona1 votes

UPDATE NOTES:

Molten Shield: Cooldown removed from 10 static seconds No longer is always active; now will activate for 0.75 second (down from 3 second linger time) whenever Annie casts an ability to implement skill for anti-burst rather than always being up. Now the player can choose to rotate their spells for maximizing the shield duration or throw everything out for quick burst damage.

Damage increased to 5/8/11+5% AP per half second from 10/15/20+10% AP per second Increased damage during Molten Shield increased to 20/32/44+20% AP per half second from 40/60/80+40%AP per second (Mainly applies per half-second from per second, makes it easier to get the amped damage with the shorter duration spurts of Molten Shield.)

Disintegrate: Minion damage increased and reworded to 180% damage from 50% increased damage (150% damage), better help with last hitting in the early game.

Heal changed to 5/20/35/50/65 (+5 - 75%AP based on level) OVER 5 SECONDS from 4/8/12/16/20 (+1 - 30%AP based on level) IMMEDIATELY. This better clarifies its purpose of anti-poke sustain rather than in-combat sustain, which does not make sense for a burst mage to have in-combat sustain, helping her survive the laning phase without being strong against an all-in attempt. This also adds skill expression allowing the player to either spam Q for max damage OR hold off on Q for maximum sustain (heal over time, so using it again just resets the duration).

Incinerate: Minion execution changed from ALL minions to SMALL minions (just the bonus effect, will execute if it does enough damage based on the minion's current health still) Minion execution health threshold increased to 40% from 30% - easier to read for the player watching for one-third health when the health threshold is above one-third rather than awkwardly being below one-third of its health.

Pyromania: Base damage lowered to 80/100/120/140/160 from 90/110/130/150/170 Ratio increased to 85% from 65% (Her burst damage was looking a little too low, so this amps it up a little, focusing on ratios so she is building squishy and ensures she does not have a dominant early game.)

FlameHalbrdOkido1 votes

{quoted}

UPDATE NOTES:

Molten Shield: Cooldown removed from 10 static seconds No longer is always active; now will activate for 0.75 second (down from 3 second linger time) whenever Annie casts an ability to implement skill for anti-burst rather than always being up. Now the player can choose to rotate their spells for maximizing the shield duration or throw everything out for quick burst damage.

great idea, ups the skill factor i like it

Incinerate: Minion execution changed from ALL minions to SMALL minions (just the bonus effect, will execute if it does enough damage based on the minion's current health still)

another good idea don't want her taking cannon minions or super minions too easy

Minion execution health threshold increased to 40% from 30% - easier to read for the player watching for one-third health when the health threshold is above one-third rather than awkwardly being below one-third of its health.

this is a no go, she'd be 2 good in the hands of an experienced player at clearing waves and gaining a gold advantage

Stacona1 votes

The execution mechanic is just for last hitting from afar since the damage falls off so much - 40% health of a small minion is less than 200 damage, it is not that high, it just helps the player last hit from safety - to clear waves you have to get within your attack range for damage that you really notice (so the same as it is now).

So she can play it save and last hit from afar with the execution aid, or get in really close for E+W / W+E AoE to clear the wave - E is risky as it resets your stacks to zero and ensures you have no stun, so the enemy can jump on you with your escape being down (also reduces your threat with no stun), so at the end of the day she really only has her W for waveclear which is what she has now.

I think wave clear is mandatory for waveclear, and it is not bad for the game, just depends on how it is implemented. In this case Annie needs to place herself at risk to clear the wave with her short range or give up her stun with her W to quickly kill the wave, but that exposes her to being jumped on and dying with no stun to defend her.

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