Annette — Patch 1.63 Verdict
[Liquipedia RPL: B | Web: C | Web: C | Web: B | Web: B] Pro play (RPL 2026): 38 picks, 57.9% WR, 19.6% pick/ban rate. Note: pro meta may differ from ranked. Ranked C on zathong.com. Ranked C on metatierlist.com. Ranked B on commonsensegamer.com. Ranked B on 1v9.gg.
Annette — Support Guide
Key Insights
- Whisperwind's burst heal fires automatically at 10 stacks but has a 5-second internal cooldown, so entering a fight at 6 or 7 stacks means no heal when it matters most.
- Wind Cuffs needs the projectile to pass through a first enemy and hit a second to trigger the pull and stun. Single-target hits are a consolation prize, not good value.
- When Annette is crowd-controlled, Wind Cuffs resets its cooldown instantly and she gains armor and magic defense. Use the reset before burning Sprint.
- Gust Force's damage ramps on ticks 3 and 5 (33% extra each), and the central zone deals 2% max-HP bonus damage. It performs best on enemies held in place by a W pull, not as standalone poke.
- Hurricane Wall cleanses all crowd control on Annette at cast. Burning Sprint before the ult when caught in CC wastes the built-in escape the ult already provides.
Strengths
Hurricane Wall blocks pathing outright, not just slows.
Whisperwind's 10-stack burst heal fires automatically when allies drop low.
Wind Cuffs CC-reset makes her survive dive-and-chain combos.
Gust Force's % max-HP damage stays relevant vs. any tank comp.
Weaknesses
- Wind Cuffs needs two enemies in line; good teams deny that spacing.
- No mobility without Sprint; getting caught costs 90+ seconds of it.
- Whisperwind's 5-second cooldown punishes rapid burst trades.
- Hurricane Wall targets a point, so long-range interrupts can deny her engage.
Matchups
Abilities
PWhisperwind
When Annette casts a skill, she gains a Windmark stack (max 10 stacks). When stacks reach 10, if Annette or nearby allies have HP below 70%, she instantly consumes all stacks to restore HP to herself and nearby allies (triggers every 5s).
1Gust Force
Annette summons a whirlwind at the target location, dealing magic damage every 0.25s for 2s (damage increases by 33% every 2 hits). Enemies at the whirlwind's center take bonus magic damage equal to 2% of their max HP and are slowed by 50% for 0.25s.
2Wind Cuffs
Annette fires a wind projectile in a direction, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies. If the projectile passes through a first target and hits a second target, it deals bonus magic damage, pulls both targets together, and stuns them for 1s. Passive: When Annette is stunned, this skill's cooldown resets immediately and she gains armor and magic defense for 2s (effect triggers every 45s).
RHurricane Wall
Annette dashes to the target location and summons a hurricane that knocks nearby enemies away and deals magic damage. The hurricane blocks enemy pathing. Allied heroes in the hurricane gain increased movement speed and attack speed for 3.5s (all crowd control effects are removed from Annette after casting this skill).
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Gust Force | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | 13 | · | · |
| 2Wind Cuffs | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | 14 | · |
| RHurricane Wall | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Golden Body
Protect
ProwessStandard Build
1
2
3
4
5
6Core Combos
The Standard Pull-Burst
21Fire W through the first target to pull both enemies together, immediately drop Q centered on their collision point so they eat ticks in the center zone while stunned, use this in any skirmish where two enemies are spaced within W's projectile path.
Ult-Open Full Engage
R21Dash into the enemy cluster with R to knockback and cleanse yourself, then immediately throw W through two displaced enemies before they scatter and drop Q on top of the pull; use this when your team is ready to commit and you need to be the one who cracks the formation open.
CC-Reset Chain
2R21If an enemy stuns you during or just after your first W cast, the passive instantly resets W, use R to cleanse and reposition, then fire the reset W into the now-repositioned enemies and layer Q on top; this is the combo that punishes teams that try to dive Annette directly.
Objective Setup Wall
R1Drop R at the back edge of the Dragon or Baron pit entrance to wall off the enemy's nearest flanking path, then place Q in the center of the objective zone, your team fights with speed/attack-speed buffs while the enemy cannot reposition through the wall; only use this when your team is already contesting, not as an initiation.
Expert Video Guide
Mustplay สอนเล่น ROV : Annette — Mustplay
Gameplan
Annette's first real power spike is level 4, when all three active skills are unlocked and she can run the full Q-into-W-pull combo in a river contest. Her second, more decisive spike is Berith's Agony completion. The cooldown reduction lets her cycle Wind Cuffs fast enough that a single reset from the CC passive can chain into a second cast within the same fight. She is strongest in mid-game 5-man objective brawls where Hurricane Wall can wall off two or three enemies at once. Late game she softens: if the enemy backline has built enough range to poke from outside her W projectile path, her impact drops sharply and she must rely on Whisperwind stacking discipline to stay relevant.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Spend the first two minutes in the side bush of your carry's lane rather than immediately roaming, stack Whisperwind to 10 using Q poke in the bush so you enter the level-3 skirmish with a full heal ready rather than zero stacks.
- →Once you hit level 3 and have W, look for the river bush ambush angle: position so that the enemy jungler's expected path puts them in line with the enemy laner for a clean W through-pull, triggering the full stun-into-Q combo.
- →Do not use Sprint offensively in the first five minutes; save it as a guaranteed escape from any overextension since you have no baseline mobility and an early death is a disproportionate setback on a roam economy.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →Take control of objective timing: be at Dragon or Abyssal Dragon with a full Whisperwind stack bank 20 seconds before your team contests, so the passive heal fires the moment an ally drops below 70% HP in the fight.
- →Look for two-man clusters on the enemy team in mid-lane skirmishes, Berith's Agony should be complete by now, giving you the cooldown to throw a second W within the same fight window if the first is CC-reset.
- →Use Hurricane Wall to cut off enemy retreats toward their tower rather than reactively for peel, at this stage you want picks, not just protection, and a wall across the retreat path while your carry chases is often a free kill.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →Your primary job in late-game teamfights is identifying the exact moment two high-priority enemies, typically the enemy carry and their support, are within W's projectile line, which requires you to circle the fight's edge rather than dive in immediately.
- →Hurricane Wall's pathing block becomes most valuable at the final Lord contest; cast it to bisect the pit entrance so the enemy cannot collapse onto your Lord-tanking frontliner from multiple angles simultaneously.
- →If the enemy has built enough range that your W is being dodged consistently, shift into a pure Whisperwind-management mode, stay within heal range of your carry, keep stacks at 10, and let your frontline create the W opportunities rather than generating them yourself.
Pro Tips
- →The Wind Cuffs CC-reset passive fires even if the enemy CC was applied before you cast your first W, meaning you can intentionally walk into a Grakk hook zone with W already aimed, take the hook, get the instant reset, and fire W into the enemy cluster that forms around Grakk after he pulls you in.
- →Whisperwind stacks persist through death timers on the respawn screen but reset on actual respawn, this is not relevant in the fight itself, but it means you should dump stacks into a heal before recalling if an ally is low, rather than banking them through a base trip you were planning anyway.
- →Hurricane Wall's allied speed and attack-speed buff applies to any ally inside the storm ring, including your own jungler if they happen to be in range, position the cast so the ring's inner zone covers your carry's likely chase path, not just the initial knockback point, to maximize how long they benefit from the buff.
- →In the laning phase, you can use Gust Force in a bush that the enemy pathing must cross to reach Dragon, effectively turning the objective approach path into a tick-damage corridor, enemies who don't notice the AoE on the bush's exit point will take 2-3 ticks plus the center-zone max-HP bonus before the fight even starts.
Annette is the right pick for support players who feel boxed in by pure peel-and-heal roamers and want their positioning to physically change the shape of a teamfight. The single most important thing to master is not Hurricane Wall. It's Wind Cuffs: specifically, learning to spot the exact moment two enemies are in line and firing without hesitation. Players who get that one mechanic down will find Annette's 57.9% win rate is a floor, not a ceiling. She rewards the map-aware, draft-conscious support player who already knows what they're doing in Diamond-plus. If you're still learning roam fundamentals, build those on a simpler hero first.
Annette — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Annette good in the current ROV patch?+
Annette is a solid B-tier pick this patch with a 57.9% win rate. Respectable, but her 6.3% ban rate and 13.3% pick rate suggest she's valued without being dominant. She performs best in coordinated draft environments where her team can build around her W-pull windows, which makes her stronger in Diamond-plus lobbies than in lower-ranked play where her mechanics are more likely to go to waste.
What is the best build for Annette?+
Start with Gilded Greaves for mobility and tenacity, then go Ring of Terror into Berith's Agony as your core CDR items. Those two let her cycle Wind Cuffs fast enough to chain the CC-reset combo. The Aegis and Gaia's Standard give her the survivability to stay in range for Hurricane Wall engages, and Mail of Pain punishes enemy basic attackers who try to dive her directly.
How do you counter Annette?+
Deny the two-in-line positioning her Wind Cuffs pull requires. Spread out horizontally when she's in a fight so her W projectile can never pass through one ally into another. Heroes with long-range point-and-click CC like Aleister are particularly effective because they force Annette to spend her CC-reset W defensively rather than offensively, which strips her of the combo she's built around.
Is Annette hard to play or good for beginners?+
Medium difficulty, and that rating is almost entirely carried by Wind Cuffs. The two-target pull mechanic requires positional reads that take real game-time to develop, and without it she is a significantly weaker hero. Beginners who have mastered basic roam timing and objective control will find her passive and ultimate straightforward, but getting full value out of her requires experience reading enemy spacing in real time.