Why Annie is making a resurgence in professional League play in a unique role

Even though she’s one of the oldest champions in League of Legends, Annie hadn’t made an appearance on the professional stage in a very long time—until recently.

Over the past two days, the Dark Child has been seen in three competitive leagues and has become a niche pick for both pro players and solo queue enjoyers alike—but in a role that not many people would have expected.

The powerful mage is being locked in by supports like DRX’s Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee and Golden Guardians’ Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun, while also boasting a 54.79 percent win rate in Platinum rank and higher, according to U.GG. Although it might be surprising at first, her sudden rise in play makes too much sense once players factor in the recent buffs that Riot Games gave her in Patch 13.3.

Annie support meta, explained

In Patch 13.3, Riot made some changes to Annie’s Molten Shield, giving it a good amount of durability on top of having a relatively short cooldown at maximum rank. The shield also gives a movement boost, on top of reflecting a certain amount of damage to anyone that attacks the shielded ally.

As a result, Annie players are maxing out her shield first since she’ll be able to continuously feed her allies a shield during a heated early skirmish or a game-deciding teamfight.

She also has a relatively good amount of crowd control with her Pyromania passive since she can stun huge groups of opponents with a single cast of her ultimate ability or her Incinerate. By building Shurelya’s Battlesong as her Mythic, this tiny support can take the lead as she charges on ahead before setting her team up for a huge wombo combo.

Related: 10 best Annie counters in League of Legends

Additionally, she works exceptionally well with some of the game’s current meta AD carries, including Zeri, who gains movement speed whenever she receives a shield. The Spark of Zaun thrives on maintaining space and zipping around a teamfight, and with Annie’s constant shielding, she can move as quickly as she wants through Summoner’s Rift.

Kalista, on the other hand, will be looking for a massive combo with her own ultimate ability, Fate’s Call. She can throw her support into a team to knock them up, and then Annie can follow up by unleashing a devastating stun that can instantly win a battle in a matter of seconds.