Annie’s adjustments were classified as “nerfs” in the LoL patch 13.3 summary, however she is now the champion with the greatest win rate in both mid and support roles
Patch 13.3 of League of Legends has undoubtedly been an interesting release. Along with several nerfs to powerful champions, one specific nerf, or big tweak, has transformed Annie into LoL’s strongest champion on the patch.
Annie has always been seen as a rather basic and simple-to-play mid laner, a champion that is extremely accessible for beginner players. Aside from a few one-trick players, she was mostly used in lower rankings and by inexperienced players.
Because of this, Riot decided to give her some quality-of-life changes, which is expected to be buffs (even though they listed it as nerfs) in Patch 13.3.
While it was most likely a visual error, this has to be the first time in League of Legends that a nerf has propelled a champion to an almost 57% win rate.
Annie’s win rate climbed by over 10% between Patch 13.1b and Patch 13.3, according to League statistics OP.GG. Annie has struck this new patch hard, with a 55.97% win rate in mid and a 54.97% win rate in support at the time of writing.
Annie’s most significant modification is an improvement to her passive, which will now be completely stacked upon starting the game and respawning. Aside from that, the developers improved her shield, Molten Shield, by raising its AP scaling, decreasing its cooldown, and introducing a spell retaliation passive. Tibber’s health resistances and mov speed have also been significantly improved.
If her win rate continues to rise as people spend more time on the patch, she may need to be hotfixed to make her more balanced.