---
Abilities
- Pyromania (passive): After casting 4 spells, Annie's next offensive spell stuns the target.
- Gotta pay attention to stacks of this thing. Can be a great initiator or combo piece.
- Disintegrate (Q): Damages the target. Refunds mana if it kills the target.
- Farming tool! Practice for last hitting, too.
- Incinerate (W): Frontal damage cone.
- Pretty straight forward.
- Molten Shield (E): Shield granting damage reduction and damaging nearby enemies.
- Useful reactive tool, or before charging in on someone.
- Summon: Tibbers (R): Summons a giant stuffed bear she can control with R. Burning aura.
- GET 'EM, TIBBERS!
Annie seems to mainly go in the mid lane, but can also support with stuns and damage. I like that flexibility.
---
Music
What's something that fits a creepy kid? Well, not SUPER creepy. We saw how it's not like Annie is evil like "The Omen" or "The Good Son."
Ooh, I know! There was that Patience & Prudence song early in "American Horror Story" season 1. "Tonight, You Belong To Me."
It's a sincere, sweet song, but in certain contexts it can have majorly sinister undertones. I go with a Patience & Prudence Pandora station.
---
The Games
Game #1: I wanted to use my Q, Disintegrate, to practice farming. So much in LoL depends on the gear you can buy, and you buy gear by getting the killing blow on enemy minions. Annie's Q refunds the mana spend when you get that last hit. Seems a good time to practice.
Got my ass kicked this game. And I started out on the wrong side of a 2v1 lane, in the bottom, so it was all I could do to not die.
Also helpful: muting people who are jerks.
Still practice my positioning, and thought I did okay. There were only a few times where I got badly lost and caught out.
One of my lane opponents was a Sona. She was really tough to fight against. Kept their team healed up, and she was able to hang out in a bush and poke at me. Didn't really know how to counter it.
[Side note: my music choice may have been a mistake. It's a surreal experience to be getting destroyed to the tune of "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows."]
---
Game #2: In hindsight, I played last game on Annie the same way I did on Ashe. Poked from afar when the enemy got in range. It wasn't effective.
And that's because she's not a marksman like Ashe. Annie is a burst mage. She can do huge chunks of damage by comboing her abilities, but I can't be too cute with it. Did that way better this game, using blasts of her magic at once.
My other big change was actively using her passive. After four spells, her next spell stuns the target. I used that to set up those combos more safely.
Farming was better this game. Just gotta keep practicing over the long-term.
---
Game #3: A tough one. One of our teammates went AFK at the start of the game, so we were playing 4v5.
Worked on building on the prior game. Using my burst and stun combos, not getting wildly out of position to the point where enemies would pick me off. Felt pretty good overall.
---
So that's Annie! My first mage. All three games were losses, and all three felt absolutely fine. Just pressing "play" and getting over any anxiety about letting others down is a big victory. (Not to mention that the smaller parts of the game, like team fights, are super fun.)
---
Next time: My first melee champion. Garen, the Might of Demacia.
