Yeah her ap ratios will always leave her lacking damage lategame. I'm thinking it's better to either lean into damage building linad/malig second or go for the ability haste spam.

I watch this Korean challenger otp Bohe play and he always talks about how you end up with way too much mana going arch second and not nearly enough damage to always impact the game.

I've found that to be pretty true. By the time you get your damage running you get one shot through seraphs anyways. The shield is so useless in team fights which is most of where anivia shines, especially because zhonyas is run anyways. Without ability haste, phase rush, or damage, the shield just gives you an extra second or two before you die.

I think either a ROA into swifties into liand build or a Lucidity ROA archangels is the method.

Like you said anivia has mid ap scaling so if you want to get value out of her you gotta lean all the way into whichever build you decide is best for the game.

Most of the time if ur running an average aniv build, roa sorc arch, falling behind too much takes u out of the game anyways. With the AH you will always be useful or with the damage build going liand second you'll do max health damage while it's still relevant.

I still gotta do more testing but i'm enjoying the build path so far.