- Massive burst damage.
- Scales well with ability power.
- Good AoE abilities.
- Powerful stun.
Cons
- Stun is unreliable, and unlikely to be able to used more than once in a major fight.
- Low HP.
- Limited chasing/escaping potential.
Recommended Summoner Skills
VS.
This one comes up quite a bit, and a lot of people swear by Flash, but I think that it really comes down to personal preference. If you have improved Ghost, I'd recommend that, otherwise Flash is probably the better of the two. Either way, you need one of these for escaping and chasing effectively. This is a perfect example of how a summoner ability can cover a defect that your character has, and you need to take full advantage of these skills.
Now the next question is what other summoner skill to take, because anything works well with Annie. This way, you free up your carries to take more offensive summoner skills.
If you are planning to go mid-lane, Annie is a good choice to throw Clairvoyances. This works especially well if you're planning to start ganking once you hit level 6 or 7.
This is a great skill late-game for finishing off base towers and full team fights, especially if there isn't a healer or support hero. Note that it doesn't help you much other than the health regeneration (you don't have much to regenerate though). The other buff Rally gives is to physical damage, something that you probably won't be using.
If you really want to gank constantly, I'd get Teleport and have a blast. Note that it does start to lose effectiveness late game once towers start to get knocked down, but at that point you can use it to Blue Pill back to base to heal and then Teleport back into the lane to continue pushing.
If your team is lacking pushing, Promote might be a decent choice. But in most cases, you're probably going to want to shy away from this particular skill.
If you're planning on taking Heal do yourself a favor and take Rally instead.
This can help Annie a bit to help get out of sticky situations, but this is another one that's probably better left to someone else.
Exhaust can be useful if you would like to be exceptional in a 1v1 situation. It can slow the opponent down long enough for your burst to be back up (yay short cooldown!) which could be just enough to finish whoever you're chasing off.
Item Build
Start of Game:
* Boots of Speed
* 2x Health Potions
* 1x Mana Potion
* Amplifying Tome
* Sorcerers Boots
* Blasting Wand
* Amplifying Tome
* Mejai's Soulstealer
* Sapphire Crystal
* Faerie Charm
* Tear of the Goddess
* Ruby Crystal
* Sapphire Crystal
* Catalyst the Protector
* Blasting Wand
* Rod of Ages
* Blasting Wand
* Archangel's Staff
Grabbing either Mejai's Soulstealer
or
Tear of the Goddess
(reducing enemy armor and magic resistance is always useful, but you aren't going to be using the extra attack speed and it is an expensive item)
Chalice of Harmony (This item is cheap, but the passive isn't too useful until later in the game where the spare regen is not as useful.)
Skill Build
1. Disintegrate 1
4. Incinerate 2
5. Disintegrate 3
6. Infernal Guardian 1
7. Disintegrate 4
8. Incinerate 3
9. Disintegrate 5
10. Incinerate 4
11. Infernal Guardian 2
12. Incinerate 5
13. Molten Shield 1
14. Molten Shield 2
15. Molten Shield 3
16. Infernal Guardian 3
17. Molten Shield 4
18. Molten Shield 5
NOTE: If you are having trouble getting Pyromania up quickly, invest a point around level 7-8 into Molten Shield. It won't be hugely useful, but it will help you get the Pyromania buff faster in battle.
IMPORTANT: Tibbers is controled by holding ALT+right clicking.
Early Game
Harass but be carefull with killing if you dont have a very good chance or a good lanem8. also try to get sololane because the awesome power you will have later if you are higher lvl then opponents.
Mid Game
Your absolute favorite period. save your pyromania for tibbers and go spanking. you will probarly get quite alot of kills out of your stun+disintegrate+incinerate.
Late Game
High HP tanks are very useful for you to lane with. Singe is useful for his ability to position an enemy, Sion for his ability to stun an enemy, and Alistar because he can do both!
The other major burst damage hero is a powerful lane partner as well. If you both blow all of your cooldowns at level 3-4, it might be enough to get a very early game kill.
Characters Good to Lane Against
ASAP will help you a ton. Having a consistant effect like that will help you scale if the game starts to drag on.
Extra stuff that you can build if you have the extra cash:
Exilir of Brilliance
(Cheap, can provide some decent damage...if you ever find yourself going around ganking at a low level, this can be a good item)
Exilir of Brilliance
(Cheap, can provide some decent damage...if you ever find yourself going around ganking at a low level, this can be a good item)
Zhonya's Ring
(Pricey, but provides a ton of extra damage)
Soul Shroud (If you're in a game that goes on forever this might help out, cooldown reduction is always helpful because it can let you get off another damage burst faster and having the additional health can keep you alive long enough to actually get that burst off)
Extra stuff that you can build, but you probably shouldn't:
Sheen (because you spend so much time casting you aren't going to be attacking inbetween unlike other casters. In addition, you don't have a good enough base attack for that to really matter. However, if you're planning on doing something silly like Battle Annie...)
Soul Shroud (If you're in a game that goes on forever this might help out, cooldown reduction is always helpful because it can let you get off another damage burst faster and having the additional health can keep you alive long enough to actually get that burst off)
Extra stuff that you can build, but you probably shouldn't:
Sheen (because you spend so much time casting you aren't going to be attacking inbetween unlike other casters. In addition, you don't have a good enough base attack for that to really matter. However, if you're planning on doing something silly like Battle Annie...)
Abyssal Scepter
Chalice of Harmony (This item is cheap, but the passive isn't too useful until later in the game where the spare regen is not as useful.)
Skill Build
1. Disintegrate 1
2. Incinerate 1
3. Disintegrate 24. Incinerate 2
5. Disintegrate 3
6. Infernal Guardian 1
7. Disintegrate 4
8. Incinerate 3
9. Disintegrate 5
10. Incinerate 4
11. Infernal Guardian 2
12. Incinerate 5
13. Molten Shield 1
14. Molten Shield 2
15. Molten Shield 3
16. Infernal Guardian 3
17. Molten Shield 4
18. Molten Shield 5
NOTE: If you are having trouble getting Pyromania up quickly, invest a point around level 7-8 into Molten Shield. It won't be hugely useful, but it will help you get the Pyromania buff faster in battle.
IMPORTANT: Tibbers is controled by holding ALT+right clicking.
Early Game
Harass but be carefull with killing if you dont have a very good chance or a good lanem8. also try to get sololane because the awesome power you will have later if you are higher lvl then opponents.
Mid Game
Your absolute favorite period. save your pyromania for tibbers and go spanking. you will probarly get quite alot of kills out of your stun+disintegrate+incinerate.
Late Game
Stay behind your team to not be the first target. unleash tibbers with a stun and then just do your dmg. you are still a VERY good nuke.
Characters Good to Lane With
Characters Good to Lane With
High HP tanks are very useful for you to lane with. Singe is useful for his ability to position an enemy, Sion for his ability to stun an enemy, and Alistar because he can do both!
The other major burst damage hero is a powerful lane partner as well. If you both blow all of your cooldowns at level 3-4, it might be enough to get a very early game kill.
Characters Good to Lane Against
Melee, generally low health characters can help you with early game harassment and possibly an easy kill.
Twitch, Tristiana, Twisted Fate, Teemo, Sivir>
Ranged DPS heroes without reliable slows have trouble getting away from you or chasing you down.
Characters Bad to Lane Against
Alistar
Although melee, he has boatloads of health, the ability to heal, and his ultimate ignores everything you can throw at him.
Soraka
Unless you destroy her in one blast, she can just back off and heal herself.
Morgana Hex
Black Shield will make you rage very hard. It's not as powerful as it once was, but it's still enough to cause you major problems.
Judicator
Her ability to go invulnerable and heal can make her very difficult to lane against.
Ranged DPS heroes without reliable slows have trouble getting away from you or chasing you down.
Characters Bad to Lane Against
Alistar
Although melee, he has boatloads of health, the ability to heal, and his ultimate ignores everything you can throw at him.
Soraka
Unless you destroy her in one blast, she can just back off and heal herself.
Morgana Hex
Black Shield will make you rage very hard. It's not as powerful as it once was, but it's still enough to cause you major problems.
Judicator
Her ability to go invulnerable and heal can make her very difficult to lane against.
