Arena of Valor (AoV) - Annette Hero Guide

A guide to Arena of Valor's Annette, the Diviner. Annette has a slew of slows and stuns as well as a healing passive ability to keep the enemy at bay and set up her team for success.


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Arena of Valor Annette

Annette Overview

Annette is a support mage who excels at controlling enemies with her magical abilities. She can chain enemies together with Wind Cuffs or slow them with Gust Force. With her ultimate, Hurricane Wall, Annette can push enemies away from allies and keep them separated with an impassable barrier of wind.

Strengths

  • High Control – Each one of Annette’s abilities allow her to obstruct enemy movement in some way. Be it through the stun of Wind Cuffs, the slow of Gust Force, or the knock-back of Hurricane Wall, Annette will have significant control over the battlefield and where enemies are able to move.
  • Respectable Damage – Not just restricted to controlling enemies, Annette can rip away chunks of their health as well. The 2% health drain to those caught in Gust Force can quickly weaken enemies, particularly when paired with items like Berith’s Agony.
  • Versatile– Annette can find success either roaming around the battlefield to set up ganks with her control abilities or sticking to allies to babysit them. Being flexible in her capabilities will allow the wind mage to find places in a number of different team compositions and can thereby be a consistently reliable pick.

Weakness

  • Very Squishy– It is natural for a spellcaster to have low defenses, and Annette is no exception. Should an enemy manage to get up close and engage her, there is very little that she can do to hold them off or survive the assault, short of blowing her long-cooldown ultimate.
  • Low Mobility – Not only does the mage have problems surviving enemy attacks, she can’t do much to get away from them either. Hurricane Wall is Annette’s only movement ability and, as her ultimate, isn’t something she can reliably use just to escape an engagement. Annette will have to rely on her control abilities to keep her safe in rough fights.

Hero Basic Strategy

Laning Strategy

  • Annette will most likely spend the game roaming the battlefield and therefore should start in the Abyssal lane for her first few levels.
  • Roam the map and look for enemies in vulnerable positions. Precise use of her abilities will make Annette very good at catching enemies and securing kills.

Leveling Progression:

  • Focus on Gale Force first and foremost. While Wind Cuffs is a powerful ability, it isn’t as useful as Gale Force, especially in the early game.
  • Take ranks in Hurricane Wall whenever possible. The ability is crucial in protecting allies and keeping yourself safe from melee attackers.

Battle Strategy

Solo Fights:

Annette should not be fighting people solo. Try to get out of there by slowing the enemy down with control abilities and booking it.

Team Fights:

Stay on the back lines, but close enough that you are regularly healing enemies with Whisperwind. Stun damage dealers with Wind Cuffs when able, stunning two together being the most ideal. Hit slower enemies with Gust Force to keep them in place and tear away at their health. If your squishy allies get targetted, hop on them with Hurricane Wall to keep them safe and provide a nice boost.

Escaping the Battle

Annette will have trouble escaping from fights, lacking much in terms of movement abilities. Slow down your pursuers with Wind Cuffs and Gust Force, using Hurricane Wall to leap over a wall if it is available.

Abilities

Arena of Valor Annette Passive WHISPERWIND – Passive – When a hero near Annette uses an ability, she gains a stack of Seal of the Wind, up to 15 stacks. At 10 stacks, when Annette or a nearby ally falls below 70% HP, the seals will be consumed to restore 275 (+0.3 AP) (+25 per level) HP to all nearby allies. This can only be triggered once every 5 seconds.
  • Try and stick near allies throughout fights in order to gather Seals of the Wind as often as possible and heal those injured as often as possible.
  • Though dangerous, being near enemies during a team fight can help you gather stacks as well
  • Heroes like Zephys who can constantly spam out abilities have good synergy with Annette because of Whisperwind.
Arena of Valor Annette Ability 1 GUST FORCE – Annette summons a whirlwind at the target location, dealing 55/64/73/82/91/100 (+0.15 AP) magic damage every 0.25 seconds for 2 seconds. The damage increases by 33% for every two hits. Enemies trapped in the center of the whirlwind take additional magic damage equal to 2% of their max HP, and their movement speed is reduced by 50% for 0.25 seconds (damage and movement reduction effect will happen up to 4 times).
  • This can both be used as a method of area denial or to chip away at the health of big, beefy units.
Arena of Valor Annette Ability 2 WIND CUFFS – Fires a wind orb that deals 250/280/310/340/370/400 (+0.3 AP) magic damage and reduces enemy movement speed by 50% upon hitting a target. The orb keeps traveling, and upon striking a second target, creates a chain that pulls both targets in and deals an additional 300/360/420/480/540/600 (+0.5 AP) magic damage. The targets are also stunned for 1 second.

Passive: The cooldown of this ability is instantly reset when Annette is stunned. She also gains physical and magic resistance and a shield for 2 seconds (60-second cooldown).

  • Be sure to aim at groups of enemies to ensure the stunning effect and additional damage. The ability is much less effective when only hitting once.
  • Keep in mind that the ability can only damage two targets when casting. Be careful not to let minions or monsters get in the way and take the bullet for the target.
    • Positioning yourself behind one minion and aiming for a hero, however, is a simple way to snag someone
  • Wind Cuffs is Annette’s best escape tool if being chased by multiple heroes
  • Immediately casting Gust Force after Wind Cuffs is a great way to chunk down enemies’ health.
    • Wind Cuffs is also great for setting up large AoE abilities from your team
Arena of Valor Annette Ultimate HURRICANE WALL – Annette dashes towards the target location and summons a hurricane. Nearby enemy heroes are knocked back and take 400/600/800 (+0.5 AP) magic damage.
The hurricane also creates a barrier for 2.5 seconds. Allies within the barrier gain 40% movement speed and 30/40/50% attack speed. Enemy heroes cannot enter the barrier. This ability also instantly removes all control effects on Annette.
  • Use this over your squishy allies to protect them from assassins or melee heroes while additionally granting them some nice buffs at the same time.
  • Be careful not to knock enemies out of your allies’ AoE abilities
  • Hurricane Wall can knock away unstoppable enemies like Y’bneth or Rourke, so saving it for those ultimates can save your team
    • Similarly, using it to nullify a team fight ultimate like Lauriel‘s Smite can also prove very effective

How to Counter Annette

  • Annette is extraordinarily squishy and thereby very vulnerable to being burst down. Try to tear Annette down quickly to get rid of her protective influence quickly.
  • Be careful when targeting Annette with disables, as she can benefit from them. Wind Cuffs refreshes and she gains a great deal of survivability when stunned.

Hero Item Build

SG Recommended Build
Arena of Valor Essence of the WindEssence of the Wind Arena of Valor Gilded GreavesGilded Greaves Arena of Valor Frosty's RevengeFrosty’s Revenge
Arena of Valor The AegisThe Aegis Arena of Valor Medallion of TroyMedallion of Troy Arena of Valor Berith's AgonyBerith’s Agony
SG Recommended Build
Arena of Valor Essence of the WindEssence of the Wind Arena of Valor Gilded GreavesGilded Greaves Arena of Valor Frosty's RevengeFrosty’s Revenge Arena of Valor The AegisThe Aegis Arena of Valor Medallion of TroyMedallion of Troy Arena of Valor Berith's AgonyBerith’s Agony

See all of Annette’s item builds.

Hero Arcana

  • When looking to improve Annette’s utility, players can use arcana sets like Indomitable, Guerilla, and Focus to give Annette a bit of durability, movement speed, and cooldown speed.
  • If instead of utility you are looking for magical power, sets of Violate, Devour, and Hex are some of your best options.

Hero Counters

Arena of Valor Tank Tank

Tanks can be weak to Annette due to her ability to peal away a percentage of their health with Gust Force. In addition, Annette isn’t terribly weak to crowd control and thereby can fight them relatively safely. Use Wind Cuffs and Gust Force together to harass whittle away their health from afar.

Arena of Valor Warrior Warrior

Warriors have the capacity to be a problem if they get close, their damage hard to deal with. Luckily, they will be unable to approach if casting Hurricane Wall, so use it to protect yourself from any who try to approach.

Arena of Valor Assassin Assassin

One of the biggest threats that Annette will face. Their burst damage can tear Annette down before she has a proper chance to respond. Try to pin them with Wind Cuffs and hide behind your friends for safety.

Arena of Valor Mage Mage

Ranged heroes like mages will be a bit of an issue, as they will be able to attack Annette from the other side of the Hurricane Wall. Keep your distance, only approaching if an ally is with you for damage.

Arena of Valor Marksman Marksman

Another threat due to their ability to attack through the Hurricane Wall. That said, marksmen should be one of the first targets in fights as taking them out will greatly hinder the enemy team’s damage.

Arena of Valor Support Support

Supports aren’t the best target in fights, they not able to do much on their own. Pin them down and help attack when your team is engaging, but keep focus more on enemy damage dealers if you want to properly assist the team.

▼ Hero Class Guides
List of Item Builds
AoV WarriorWarrior AoV TankTank AoV AssassinAssassin
AoV MageMage AoV MarksmanMarksman AoV SupportSupport

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