League of Legends - Annie the Dark Child

Annie is one of the "starter" champions in League of Legends, and she's a great choice for someone looking to get started playing a traditional glass cannon mage. With her abilities you'll be able to stun and burn your opponents down into the ground, and her giant summoned bear Tibbers is a force to be reckoned with.

Annie follows your traditional fireball-wielding cloth caster found in many RPG's and MMORPG's - You don't want to be taking damage, but you'll be dishing it out in big bursts. You'll want to focus on building ability power items, such as the Archangel's Staff, Sorcerer's Shoes, Rod of Ages, and Zhonya's Ring. A great choice for your first item is Philosopher's Stone, as it will give you plenty of HP and Mana regen to get you going and a healthy gold trickle, then move up to Sorcerer's Shoes for some move speed and ability power, then move up to the higher ticket items. You're going to want to take advantage of Annie's passive skill, Pyromania, which will make every fifth spell cast have a nasty stun attached to it, leaving your opponent helpless for your massive burst damage. Let's take a look at Annie's skills one by one.

This is your bread and butter fireball spell, and you're going to want to max this ability as early as possible. For a very reasonable mana cost the fireball will roast a single target - great for both spamming on your opponents to keep them low on health and in danger of death, and for killing minions (You'll even have the mana cost refunded if you land a kill on a minion or champion with it, so use it professionally to snipe low-hp targets for absolutely no cost!).

The cooldown is quick and you'll be stacking ability power, so let loose this fiery doom every chance you get! Stack charges of Pyromania easily, then wait for your moment to combo this with Tibbers for a high chance at an instant kill.

A cone shaped fire blast that will nail anything in it's path, this skill is perfect for farming up waves of minions or letting loose after your opposing champion is stunned from a Pyromaniaed fireball. Simple, yet incredibly effective, you will probably be taking this skill to max after Disintegrate unless you're under some heavy melee duress - which brings us to our third skill.

Can't seem to keep those pesky rogues and tanks off you? A Molten Shield will make any melee hero think twice before charging you, as this shield will keep you safe from both magic and physical damage, as well as burning anything that attacks her with a melee ability. Great as a reactionary trick to being focused down, you'll add points to this skill as needed, and definitely have it up in the end-game as you'll want to avoid AOE damage in big team battles.

This is the ultimate ability of Annie and should be kept maxed out at all times once it is available to you at level six. Annie hurls her doll at a targeted area and brings her bear to life, a drooling mass of fur and fang that deals initial damage and has an aura that continually punishes anything foolish enough to stand in the wake of this burly monstrosity. Tibbers will attack anything you target as Annie, and if you save your Pyromania stun to trigger on a Tibbers cast, your opponent is in for some serious punishment.

Annie is the type of caster almost everyone in League of Legends needs to be careful around - with the ability to stun, deal incredibly high burst damage, and bust out her signature bear, she is a great character for anyone aspiring to learn the ropes of playing a ability-reliant nuker in League of Legends. So get out there and get ready for a bear-y good time as Annie, The Dark Child!