The usual Annie builds seem to be way to cliche, its like Rod of Ages, boots, and thats it. There's a tank guide on page 4 that uses that, there's 2-3 other annie guides on pages 2 and 3 that use that. Unless your getting your Rod of Ages in the first 10 minutes, its not really getting put to its full use. There has to be another way to play her. I think a REAL tank Annie would focus on lots of survivability and getting ganks and assists to stack up her soulstealer.

When I play annie I get atleast 2 kills in the first 10 minutes, and then by the time 15 minutes rolls around I have a Rod of Ages. With the same money a Rod of Ages cost I could get a Mejaj's Soulstealer (around the time I got a catalyst) and a Glacial Shroud, then by 20-25 minutes in, get a Frozen Heart?

Thoughts?

Then why not Banshee's Veil and Meja's?

Catalyst, Meja's, and then Banshee for serious team fighting? It seems like I always end up with around 8 kills a match, and 10 assists cause I am ALWAYS in a team fight.

soulstealer is fairly good on annie. i use it from time to time. it helps secure victory in some situations.

since the burst damage from mejai is so great, i use it to counter some carries like twitch or corki.

normally, i go a bit magic resist instead.

annie's specialty is aoe stun. she's one of the very few mages that can aoe stun. the nice thing about hers' is that it's instant and deadly.

in ocmparison, veigar is a trap that may or not proc. veigar's aoe damage is weak.
morgana's is melee range, easily avoidable, and has quite a delay.

Just played Annie with the typical

Catalyst
Boots
Rod of Ages
Finish Boots

Routine and threw in a banshees after that, went 5-0-10 with her, didn't really start pwning faces until after I got the Banshees and started getting agressive with her. For the first 20 minutes of the game I was mostly 0-0-2, soloing mid of course. (I always try to solo our lane if they let me, or if we have a jungle warwick, I'll solo)

What is it that people are doing that secures them at least ~2 kills in the first 10 minutes?

I typically do alright when the game is done; soloing mid in the beginning and helping the team with AoE stun/nukes in the end - but I can't fathom consistently getting 2 kills that early. Sure, I'll occasionally have that happen, but more times than not, it'll be because someone comes up to mid to help me with the gank...

Typical gear setup:
-Sapphire Crystal + 2 health pots
-Boots of speed
-Sorc Shoes
-Deathfire Grasp
-RoA
-Void Staff
-(Survival item: Banshee/Guardian)
-Zhonya's Ring (I don't think a games gone on long enough to actually complete this)