Want to try playing Mid but don’t know which champion to pick? What if we told you that there’s a beginner friendly champion that’s both strong and satisfying to play? In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get you started playing Annie, the Dark Child.

Annie is one of the easier champions to play in League of Legends. Her kit has strong burst and crowd control with very easy mechanics that make her a viable pick in any rank or meta. If you’re new to playing Mid, Annie is a great pick up that’ll help you learn the nuances and fundamental skills that you’ll need to succeed in the role. 

Champion Abilities

Annie’s abilities have a strong mix of burst damage and AoE crowd control that makes her a good fit with any team composition. Despite being a strong pick, there are still drawbacks to playing her. Like most mages, Annie lacks a true mobility spell or escape tool making her vulnerable if her abilities are on cooldown. 

Passive – Pyromania

After casting 4 spells, Annie’s next offensive spell will stun the target.

Stuns and other forms of crowd control are very important in a game like League of Legends. This passive gives Annie a lot of options when it comes to crowd control. You can use this on her Q ability for a single target stun, or on her W and R ability for an AoE stun.

Q – Disintegrate

Annie hurls a fireball dealing magic damage. If the target dies, Annie refunds the mana cost and reduces the cooldown of the ability by 50%.

Since Annie has a rather short range, this ability is great for last hitting minions. It’s also great for poking your opponents or setting up a kill when your passive is up.

W – Incinerate

Annie projects a wave of fire, dealing magic damage.

Apart from your ultimate, W is Annie’s largest AoE spell. And unlike her ult, Incinerate only has an 8 second cooldown which means you can use this a lot during team fights to deal AoE damage or to set up an AoE stun.

E – Molten Shield

Annie grants herself or an ally a shield for 3 seconds and 20-50% Move Speed decaying over 1.5 seconds. While the shield holds, enemies who attack it take magic damage.

A great defensive spell. The bonus move speed is nice since Annie isn’t very mobile plus the additional mini thornmail effect is pretty useful during duels.

R – Summon: Tibbers

Annie summons her bear Tibbers, dealing magic damage. For the next 45 seconds, Tibbers burns nearby enemies for 20/30/40 magic damage per second and his attacks deal magic damage. Annie can recast this ability to direct Tibbers.

If Annie dies, Tibbers becomes enraged, gaining 275% attack speed and 100% movement speed decaying over 3 seconds.

This is Annie’s signature ability. When paired with her passive, Annie becomes a monster during team fights. Tibbers also has a decent health pool so he can work as a secondary tank that can be useful when diving enemies camping under turrets.

Runes and Item Builds

Annie’s build path is pretty standard for mages. However, there’s a bit of variety when it comes to choosing her Mythic Items.

Starting Items

For your starting items, you’ll always be starting with a Doran’s Ring and some Health Potions. From health, mana regeneration, to ability power, Doran’s Ring has everything Annie needs to get started. The only other option would be to start with a Dark Seal but that makes you more of a glass cannon early on so we wouldn’t recommend going for it if you’re a beginner.

Mythic Items

Annie has some decent choices when it comes to the Mythic Item you’ll purchase. The best option would be to go for Luden’s Echo since it gives you more burst damage and additional move speed to help you get around. If you find yourself needing more mobility, another great option is to get Hextech Rocketbelt. Rocketbelt gives you an active dash which you can use to position yourself properly when engaging an enemy. If you need more crowd control, you can take Everfrost instead so that you’ll have an additional AoE stun. Everfrost is a bit redundant on Annie though since she already has great crowd control thanks to her passive. But it can be useful as a safety measure if you’re still getting used to landing her abilities.

Full Build

After purchasing your preferred Mythic Item, you should work towards building more AP items to increase your damage. Your next rushed item should be a Zhonya’s Hourglass to help you with your survivability. For boots, always take Sorcerer’s Shoes for its additional magic penetration. Next, you should buy a Morellonomicon for its anti healing properties. It gives your spells an additional kick and damage over time. Buy a Void Staff next for even more magic penetration. Finish your build off with a Rabadon’s Deathcap for sheer AP that will increase your damage overall.

Runes

For your runes, you’ll go with the Domination path for your primaries and take Electrocute as your keystone. This syncs well with your combos and will help you deal additional damage. Next take Cheap Shot to deal more damage to champions with impaired movements or actions, Eyeball Collection to increase your overall damage, and Relentless Hunter to help you with your roams. For secondaries, take Manaflow Band to help you regenerate some mana early in the game and Scorch for additional burn damage. For rune shards, take double Adaptive Force and either Magic Resist or Armor depending on your matchup. 

Useful Tips

1. Your ultimate can make or break a team fight so be sure to use it wisely.
2. You can keep track of Annie’s passive using the resource bar below her health bar. Make sure your passive is always up whenever you engage to guarantee a kill.
3. Annie is weak against slippery assassins who can easily burst her down like Zed, Ekko, or Fizz. Make sure to ban these champions so you won’t have to deal with them.
4. For summoner spells, take Flash and Ignite for the early game pressure. You can swap Ignite for Teleport if you want to have more presence around the map or Exhaust if you’re against a champion with a lot of mobility.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Annie in League of Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more guides on your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!