In this guide, I will be going over a fun strategy that you can use while playing Anivia as a support. Understanding this strategy will require going over important features of wave manipulation and power spikes, which will benefit anyone looking to expand their understanding of the game. Lastly, the emphasis will be on understanding both the theory and execution of this strategy, but I will also briefly cover how Anivia functions as a support in general so that you have some sense of what else you bring to the table with this pick.

Let's fly right in!

Basic League Theory

Before diving right into the strategy, let's go over some common and important pieces of League of Legends theory that went into this strategy.

The first thing to go over is the concept of a level 2 powerspike. Hitting level 2 before your opponent is a great way to gain a lead, since having extra stats and an extra spell means you can generally zone them off of CS and win trades while you have the level advantage. As a support, you generally want to be using your auto attacks and sometimes your spells to hit the wave and fight to gain this crucial level first [1]. Note that you don't want to push the first wave too hard in most cases, since letting them set up a temporary freeze outside their tower makes it hard to capitalize on gaining this advantage. Also, be aware that the first wave and the first three melee minions grant you level 2, so you should watch those melee minions in the second wave closely and position to capitalize when you get the level up (or fall back if your enemy is winning the race).

Next, let's talk a little bit about basic wave management. One thing you need to know for this article is that if there are two waves hitting each other (not cannon or super minion waves), and they are left to their own devices, then the wave closer to its home will push toward the enemy over time [2]. The other thing to bear in mind is that two regular waves will not kill each other in lane before the next pair of waves arrives (which is part of why waves behave the way they do in general).

The Freeze Cheese

Now let's discuss the strategy itself. The general plan has three steps, and it's very simple:

1) Stall your first wave with Crystallize (your wall)

2) Auto-attack the enemy melee minions in the second wave to hit level 2 first

3) Take a level in Flash Frost (your stun) and aggressively go for a kill with ignite

Now let's go over the nuances. The first thing to note is that in step (1), you want to use Crystallize two times. The first time should block the corridor the minions go through by the inhibitor turret, and the second time should be in between the wall and the outer turret (you can also place your body in between the shorter gap to stop them from squeezing through that way). The second thing to note is that, as normal, you don't want to push the wave too hard or you will just send your minions to the other side of the river and blunt the effect of your level 2 all-in (as we discussed in the previous section).

You also do not want to let the enemy push you in too hard, or you will have to tank a lot of damage to keep the wave held, or else be forced to let it crash and reset. There is a lot of middle-ground that can work, just keep the minions somewhere in between your tower and the river. The last thing to note is that you can go even more aggressive than most supports when doing the all-in at level 2 thanks to your passive, Rebirth. Even if you don't get the kill, just trading your passive (and nothing more) for most of the enemy's health will put your lane at an advantage.

It's also worth discussing what happens if the enemy simply backs off in anticipation of you hitting level 2 first. While less viscerally satisfying, this is also a big win for your lane, since you can keep the enemy zoned off of CS while your massive wave slowly rolls into their tower. If your jungler pathed bottom, you can potentially execute a dive with this massive wave [3] (they can also gank when you initially stall the wave after their first buff if they started bot side, as is usually the case in the current meta).

Finally, here's a video of me performing this technique near the end of 2016. A lot has changed since then, and the execution is not perfect, but the basic strategy is all there. Of course, Vayne has great synergy with Anivia since she is able to easily combo off of Crystalize with Condemn (Anivia is very easy to chain CC with in general, too).

Anivia Support

Back when I was first experimenting with this strategy, I did a little bit of research to see what others' approach was on Anivia support. There are only a handful of guides and resources out there, but I found this one pretty helpful for developing my playstyle (again, note that a fair amount has changed since 2016). Also, while there is evidence of people using Crystallize to stall the wave dating back to at least 2010, I never found someone attempting the "freeze cheese" strategy.

The best resources I have found are simply the ones for Anivia mid. Notably, I highly recommend checking out Froggen's "Pocket Picks" video and Phroxzon's League of Legends 101 Champions Series video. These videos are chock-full of tactics that you can use as a support, too, and these options are a large part of why she can still be effective on a support's income. One other resource that I highly recommend checking out is SSJSuntastic's article "Top 10 Spells Janna Can Block With Howling Gale." All of the dashes and channels that Janna can interrupt can also be stopped with Crystallize (as implied by Aldwyn47 and Froggen) and is just another part of why Anivia has so much versatility.

Let's talk Season 8 runes. First off, I recommend taking Electrocute as your keystone in order to maximize your kill potential. Electrocute will actually proc if you connect Crystallize, Flash Frost, and an auto attack. Flash Frost + auto attack will not proc Electrocute on its own, since while Flash Frost provides two instances of damage, it is still damage from the same ability (and Electrocute requires damage from three separate abilities or attacks). Crystallize does do a small amount of damage, however, so Crystallize + Flash Frost + auto attack will trigger it! The rest of the runes are somewhat flexible, but this is the page I recommend to maximize your level 2 all-in potential.

Another route I have experimented a bit with is going for Glacial Augment as your keystone. While incredibly clunky, Anivia's auto attack outranges everyone at level 1 except for Caitlyn and Ashe, which makes trading and zoning with Glacial Augment very easy. I also generally recommend using a slow to set up hard CC skillshots and approaching with W-Auto-Q or even Auto-Q-W is much more consistent with this page, especially with bonus speed from Approach Velocity. The major downside, of course, is that you may lack the damage to kill the enemy off of the all-in.

In addition to her unique and nuanced tactics, something Anivia also offers a ton of raw damage. Glacial Storm is an incredible DPS tool that can easily take waves and epic monsters, provided you have enough mana (build Tear of the Goddess), so you might consider playing her to cover a team with defecits in these areas. Additionally, her combo with empowered Frostbite is no joke, making her both potent at DPSing the frontline as well as deleting squishies. She can also provide standard support-style peel for her ADC with all the CC at her disposal, but I generally find this to be harder to identify and execute than just using her spells offensively or on neutral objectives. Nonetheless, it is yet one more potent option available to you.

That's all for now. I hope you learned something, whether about league in general or Anivia specifically, and I wish you the best of luck using this strategy out there on the Rift.

References

1. This concept is discussed by support content creators a lot. Here's one example of menohaxor discussing and advocating this strategy.

2. This is what SRO calls the "even minion rule."

3. See Leaguecraft 101 Episode 11 for more details.

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