[2.0.0] Annie Guide - Bear-tastic! Learn Pyromancy with Annie Mid

Who am I?

I am Twilight, a 9-year League of Legends player and now playing Wild Rift in the SEA server. Currently, I am Emerald 1, and I am part of the Top 100 Annie players in the server leaderboards. I mainly play mid lane with Annie and Twisted Fate as my two-trick champions.

My Overview page!

My Most Played page! Ignore the Akali winrate >:[

Welcome to my Annie guide for Wild Rift, Patch 1.1!

Note: This is an extensive guide, and I mean walls-of-text kind of extensive. If you just want the gist of things, I have summarized as concise as possible all the necessary information above. Read on for the tips and tricks, game plan, and further explanation on some sections above.

Pros:

• Easy to learn and play, with a decent skill ceiling for mastery
• Not a contested pick because of better mid laners like Orianna, Zed, and Seraphine
• High damage and good stun duration (1.75s Pyromania stun duration at Level 11)
• Can teach the fundamentals of mid lane gameplay
• Cute and cheap skins!
• Free champion given in the first 10 levels

Cons:

• An honest character; is very predictable
• Gets harder to cheese with at higher levels of play
• Short effective range compared to other mages
• Immobile champion; relies heavily on Flash

Who is Annie, exactly?

• In-game, Annie is a burst mage. As a burst mage, her role is to deal as much damage as possible while setting up opportunities for her team to follow up.
• She is a weak champion in the first few minutes of the game, so your job is to scale into the mid and late game with items, gold, and experience.
• You should play the game with a calculated mind. Know your damage, powerspikes, and remember to farm well. Plan all your movements and decisions. You will be a terrifying force in the midgame if the enemy team is not careful.
• She has no mobility besides Flash, so knowing the best time to use and not to use Flash is crucial to her gameplay and not feeding.
• Compared to the rest of the mid cast, she has weak waveclear. Make sure to get items to support her waveclear later in the game.

Early Game

• First 3 minutes of the game should be focused on getting your first core item. Do not miss a single last hit, and only leave the lane to help your jungler if he is fighting someone in the river or jungle.
• Place your first ward either on the enemy blue buff, red buff, or on the Raptor camp (birds camp, nearest to the river) at 10 seconds in-game timer. It doesn't have to be at the brush, it just needs to be able to see the actual blue/red buff monster.
• Check your map every few seconds. One helpful trick in developing this habit is to look after every other minion kill/death.
• If there's a skirmish, help your team. Early game leads in Wild Rift are devastating and can snowball immensely.

Mid Game

• I consider the mid game to occur between 5 minutes to 10 minutes of the game, and it is presumed that you already have your Rod of Ages and at least a Boots of Speed . Start looking for kills against your matchup if it's not a difficult one.
• Keep an eye out for roaming opportunities after pushing the lane. They usually come in the form of the enemy team going farther from the safety of their lane's outer tower.
• Help your jungler in ganking other lanes. Play with your team, help them get gold and experience to capitalize your lead.

Late Game

• I consider late game as any point in time after 10 minutes, because you should have your core items done at this point in time.
• At this point, if your team does not have a Sweeping Lens (red trinket) or only has one Lens, get one. Use it to clear enemy wards with your team, as well as finding a good spot to surprise enemies with a full combo.
• Always keep your  Pyromania up. An Annie without her stun is a vulnerable one.
• Start looking for big stuns with either Incinerate or Summon: Tibbers . Stun as much enemies as possible, focusing on their ADCs/marksmen/mages.
• During teamfights, do not stay in front. Allow a beefy fighter/tank to charge in the front lines, while you fight from front to back and go for their squishies like ADCs.

Some Notes before Reading:

Note that in this section, Long Sword stands for auto attack, which is done by pressing the Attack button.

Use Molten Shield during combos in one of two situations:

• after every combo to gain a shield before they recover and retaliate from your stun, or;
• before your 4th Pyromania stack to prepare a stun and gain a shield as you approach your target.

Basic Electrocute Proc (no stun)

Long Sword → Incinerate → Long Sword  

This is useful in the early stages, where the enemy stands within your Incinerate range for long enough.

Basic Combo with Electrocute Proc (stun)

Incinerate Pyromania → Disintegrate → Long Sword  

Incinerate should use up the stun passive because it is instant in the cone that it hits. Reposition when needed, then throw a Disintegrate and an autoattack to proc Electrocute.

Full Combo

(Flash →) Summon: Tibbers Pyromania → Disintegrate → Incinerate → Long Sword (→ Ignite)

Flash at the start of the combo if you're engaging from the backlines and want to close the gap between you and their ADC/marksman.

Start off with Summon: Tibbers , because his circular AoE is effectively wider than Incinerate . Alternatively, you can use Incinerate as your stun if you prefer more consistency and ensure they won't have more time to escape.

You can exchange the sequence of Disintegrate and Incinerate , as long as both will land on your target. There is the option to top the combo off with an Ignite to finish the enemy off as they run away.

Pyromania

• There is a visual indicator both on your character (white swirls around Annie) and below your health bar. The 4th bar goes purple instead of white, signaling that your passive is ready to stun enemies.
• In the midgame, you can prepare your stun by liberally throwing out your abilities. Disintegrate is best for this because it has a short cooldown. You can include your Molten Shield if you're in base, but not outside because of its long cooldown.
• Pyromania stacks disappear on death.

Disintegrate

• Disintegrate will be your main lasthitting tool against minions, as it deals good damage and has a longer range than your autoattack.
• Disintegrate has a small hitbox that can actually hit two targets at once, given that the space between them is very small, almost as if they're stuck together. Try this in Practice Mode and aim at two extremely close minions! It will allow you to kill two minions at once. (Note that this does not double the mana cost and cooldown refund.)
• Never use Disintegrate as a stun proc. The projectile doesn't travel as quick as others, and consumes the Pyromania stack regardless if it lands. Only stun with  Disintegrate  in adequately close ranges without enemies bodyblocking for your target.
  

Incinerate

• This will be one of two primary ways for you to proc your stun.
• Incinerate is NOT a projectile, meaning it can stun Yasuo and Braum even if they use their Wind Wall or Unbreakable ability in your face.
• Early game, use Incinerate to waveclear sparingly. You'll get more AP later to clear waves faster and have more time to roam.

Molten Shield

• This ability shields for a small amount, but the skill grants a stack for  Pyromania . Get 3 stacks of Pyromania , then if you want to get close for a surprise stun, pop a Molten Shield and cast your Stun ability of choice: Incinerate or Summon: Tibbers .
• In skirmishes, give  Molten Shield  to your engage support/tank or your marksman if you're not under attack to protect them from lethal damage. Sometimes the shield can save a sliver of health, on top of dealing damage against them with its reflect damage.

Summon: Tibbers

• Tibbers can be controlled by tapping and holding the Ultimate button, then moving it towards a target, similar to how target lock works with your own Attack button.
• Summon: Tibbers is not just an AoE damage/stun ultimate, but he is a solid body and an extension of Annie. Here are some uses:
•     He can tank tower shots during a tower push/dive. Note that Tibbers dealing damage to an enemy champion in tower range will shift turret aggro on you, so run away from tower range and then allow Tibbers to tank the tower after you kill the enemy.
•     He can tank minions and monsters. Make good use of him by doing so, and if you just killed your enemy laner after a combo, use him to push lane.
•     One nice but unlikely thing that can happen against a Blitzcrank is if he Rocket Grab the Tibbers instead of you. Tibbers can bodyblock Rocket Grab if the stars align, because you cannot order Tibbers to move like Annie.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading my first guide for Wild Rift Guides!

What drove me to write this guide was not only so I can note down all my knowledge on Annie for further study, but also to introduce one of my all-time favorite League champions (that isn't Ekko) and how I had fun with her climbing from the lowlands of Bronze up to the borderline high-elo ranks of Emerald and Diamond.

I want Wild Rift to grow into the competitive game that it was set to be, distinguishing it from its mobile competitors, and writing guides for everyone is a step towards that. Rest assured, this won't be the last guide from me.

Hopefully this guide has taught you well, and best of luck on the Wild Rift!

Changelog:

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