This is more how I play heroes like Annie or Evelynn. Annie seems odd at first because she's so freaking straightforward, but you notice things when you play her enough.
One thing is when you have the stun, everyone backs off. Unless they're in a situation where winning seems the only outcome, they will stay away.
The second thing is that when you don't have stun up, people don't tend to understand that you can have stun up. What this means is that they fail to realize that you're only three or four spells from Tibbers wiping the floor with their flaming faces. I've won so many seemingly one-sided ganks from this it's not funny. Even when I can't stand up to all of them, I can still take out one or two with me.
It's so much fun doing that. 