Anivia

Anivia is a mid lane control mage who wins fights by denying enemies the ground they want. Her magic rating sits at a maximum of 10 and her difficulty at 10, which makes her one of the toughest mages to play well. Her damage is huge, but every bit of it depends on setting things up, managing mana and positioning carefully within her 600 attack range.

Her abilities work as combinations more than standalone spells. Flash Frost fires a slow ice sphere that chills anything it passes through and stuns in an area when it is detonated. Once that lands, the real damage follows: Frostbite hits targets recently struck by Flash Frost, or enemies standing inside a fully formed Glacial Storm, for double damage. Glacial Storm is her ultimate, a wide field of falling ice that slows everyone caught within it. The usual order of stun, storm, then doubled Frostbite removes fragile targets and tears apart clumped teams at chokepoints.

Terrain control and safety

Crystallize is the skill that pushes a decent Anivia toward excellent. Her temporary ice wall stops all movement, so she can cut off retreat paths, divide a teamfight, or block off a jungle entrance. Her passive, Rebirth, converts lethal damage into an egg, and she hatches from it with full health. Enemies who dive her without enough resources to crack the egg end up paying for it.

Anivia rewards patient, analytical players who like running teamfights as if they were moving pieces on a board. Her stats reveal the drawbacks plainly: an attack rating of 1, a heavy mana cost and no mobility. Once her wall and egg are gone, she is stuck in place and exposed.