Annie is one of the original champions in League of Legends and while she seems like a champ designed for new players, the recent buffs from LoL Patch 13.3 have catapulted her into the pro meta in multiple roles.
Annie has not been the most popular champion in pro play. Overall she has felt like a champion for players to use when they're just starting out with League of Legends thanks to her simple kit. But after the LoL Patch 13.3 buffs she's so good, even pro players can't ignore her.
Annie has been pulled out in multiple regions as a pick in both the mid lane and the support role, making her finally a meta champion in the pro scene.
Annie Support: Her Most Popular LoL Role
While Annie is traditionally a mid lane champion, her buffs have made her a decent support champion, thanks to the low cooldown on her E (Molten Shield). The changes to her shield have lowered the cooldown considerably and at max rank it's a mere 8 seconds.
Check out the LoL Patch 13.4 Patch notes:
Add in Shurelya's Battlesong for the added movement speed and you've got one hell of a support. Players have also found the perfect champions to pair her with in the bot lane.
The first to play Annie support was none other than DRX's support Cho "BeryL" Geon-hee who is known for pulling out unique picks in the bot lane. While the Annie debut after eons didn't go as planned, the LCS took hold of the champion.
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Golden Guardians showed off just how strong Annie support could be against TSM, with bot lanerTrevor "Stixxay" Hayes getting a tripple kill.
Stixxay with the frontline Zeri! @Stixxay | #LCS | #GGWIN pic.twitter.com/K9KwfFzAUM
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 16, 2023
Annie's new and improved stats alongside aggressive bot laners like Kalista or Draven who love to move around works wonders. They can play aggressive without having to worry too much. Annie's shield also gives a burst of movement speed which is great for these champions.
Pairing Annie with Zeri is another popular option thanks to Zeri's passive giving her move speed when she is shielded. She'll be so quick you won't even be able to catch her.
Because of these reasons she's become an extremely valuable support pick in the pro meta, but she also had her first game as a mid lane champion not too long ago in the LCK.
LCK Pulls Out Annie Mid
Annie is one of the oldest champions in the game, but can you believe that she has never been played as a mid laner in the LCK before? Well, that has ended with Kwangdong Freecs mid laner Lee "BuLLDoG" Tae-yeong pulling out the pick against Gen.G on February 16, 2023.
BuLLDoG picked Annie in the first two matches of the series and while they lost the first game, he did have the most kills on his team. The second game was a win with BuLLDoG dominating on Annie. He was so good that Gen.G decided to ban her in the final match of the series.
Annie has had quite the resurgence in League of Legends thanks to the recent changes and to see her being played on the pro stage will only make the champion more popular in solo queue as well.