League of Legends: the three best beginner champions for new players
By Josh Tyler
2. Annie
"“Have you seen my bear Tibbers?”"
Annie is one of the most-often recommended League of Legends champions for new players, due to her straightforward kit. In the lore, Annie is a pyrokinetic child who is unstable, temperamental, and prone to violent outbursts. Her only friend in the world is her stuffed teddy bear Tibbers, but be warned he’s not friendly to everyone.
Passive (Pyromania) – After casting four abilities, her next offensive ability will stun the enemy (or enemies) hit. There will be a little bar above Annie’s model that counts how many stacks of the passive you have. Once you hit four, the bar will become purple at the end. This lets you know that your next ability will have the stun on it.
Q (Disintegrate) – Annie throws a fireball instead of an auto attack. This is really good for last hitting because it does more damage to the target, and if you do kill the enemy unit hit the ability will have a lower cooldown.
W (Incinerate) – Annie releases a cone of fire in a target direction. Make sure to keep your mouse pointed in the direction you want the cone to travel. Note that this ability has a short range, so it’s ideal to use it after you’ve stunned the enemy with your passive. That way you can walk back out of range before they can retaliate.
E (Molten Shield) – Annie gains a shield around her. Use it like Garen’s W ability to mitigate damage when you start a fight or when someone takes a fight you weren’t expecting!
R (Summon: Tibbers) – Bear hug! Annie’s little buddy Tibbers grows in size, dealing magic damage to the entire area he hits. After the cast, the big bear remains in battle and attacks whoever Annie commands him to. Just target an enemy and hit R (like you were casting it on that enemy again) and Tibbers will go fight them!
For new players you’ll want to build magic damage (also know as ability power). She loves items like Ludens Echo, Void Staff, and Rabadon’s Death Cap, which will increase the amount of damage all her abilities do. If you want, though, you can get some items like Rod of Ages, Zhonya’s Hourglass, or Banshee’s Veil to help you survive if you tend to die a lot.
As far as gameplay goes, early in the game you want to just spam your Q to last hit minions and get gold. Once you’re feeling confident, start trying to attack enemies when your stun is up. Once the indicator above your head says the stun is ready.
Throw a Q at them to stun, pop your E shield, and then W them and walk away. Do that a few times and you’ll chunk your opponent.
Once you have your ult, though, you want to make sure that you use it in combination with your passive stun. Annie’s biggest combo is to drop her ult with the stun charged on multiple members since Tibbers has a decently big area it hits that stun can hit multiple people. Use your ult to quickly stun enemies, then do the same basic combo as above (Q, then E, then W) and you’ll win fights easily!