Since her introduction in Season 2, Orianna has been one of the most consistent and impactful mid lane champions in League of Legends. She has been played at the highest level of the competitive scene over many seasons. I like to refer to Orianna as the most well rounded champion in mid lane. She has one of the most unique kits, and has some of the most fun and impactful gameplay you will experience from a champion. In this guide, we are going to go over how to play Orianna both in lane and in teamfights, and how to carry your team to victory.

Art Courtesy of Pinterest by ptcrow

Let's go over the strengths and weaknesses of Orianna:

Strengths:

-Safe Blind pick

-Can be played in any team composition

-Safe laning phase

-Late game scaling

-Game changing ultimate

-Great at setting up ganks

-Excellent utility (shield, movement speed boost, CC)

Weaknesses:

-Immobile

-Squishy

-Requires team coordination

-Using her Ball requires practice to master

-Skill shot reliant

Summoner Spells

Flash: Flash is a must on most champions in the game, and Orianna is no exception. This is the best summoner spell in the game. Whether you use it to escape a bad situation, or to close the gap on a target, a well-timed Flash will be a game changer.

Ghost: Ghost is the most common second summoner spell used on Orianna. Orianna's W alone is not always going to save you or give you enough speed to escape or chase. Because Orianna is immobile, the additional movement speed will help you maintain proper positioning when fighting or retreating.

Exhaust: Running Exhaust is useful if you are in a matchup against someone with strong all in potential. Good examples include Syndra, Zed, Fizz. A valuable Exhaust right when your lane opponent jumps on you significantly reduces their damage, and will make it much more manageable to 1v1.

Barrier: Barrier is a great option against a lane opponent with strong burst potential. I would run this against opponents like Syndra or Brand who can very easily 100-0 you.

Cleanse: Cleanse is very useful against champions like Lissandra, Lux, and Twisted Fate who have low cooldown stuns/snares and can setup ganks for their jungler easily.

Ignite: While not the most optimal choice, it is certainly viable. This will help against opponents with high sustain like Cho' Gath or Vladimir. Most of Orianna's damage is going to come into effect later in the game when other summoner spells will be more useful. You can consider taking Ignite if you are confident you will dominate your lane and snowball.

Teleport: Teleport is a good option if you are against a lane opponent that will make the lane a farm fest, with the two of you will be shoving lanes back and forth. This will help you get back to lane and push the minion waves back. Teleport is also good against global ultimates, like Twisted Fate's Destiny for example. This will allow you to follow him and try to turn around his gank.

Runes

Reds/Marks: You will take Marks of Magic Penetration marks here. They are the most optimal choice for most mages, and will make Orianna's auto attacks and abilities do more damage.

Yellows/Seals: If you are against an AD matchup, then you want to go with 9 Seals of Armor. If you are against an AP lane opponent, Seals of Scaling Health are the best bet. The additional health late game is a lot more important than 9 armor will be, not to mention it won't be useful in lane.

Blues/Glyphs: The most optimal rune setup you will see for AP mages is 3 Glyphs of Magic Resist, and 6 Glyphs of Scaling Cooldown Reduction. This gives you 10% cooldown reduction once you hit level 18.

Quints: 3 Quints of Ability Power are the most standard. You could also go with 3 Quints of Movement Speed. These will help for dodging skillshots, and scales with your overall movement speed as the game goes on.

Masteries

Ferocity:
Tier 1- In the Ferocity tree, we put 5 points into Sorcery for the increased ability damage.
Tier 2- Feast for more sustain when killing minions.
Tier 3- You will see some variation when it comes to the next masteries in the tree, between Vampirism and Natural Talent. A lot of players will run 1 point in Vampirism, and 4 into Natural Talent. This is to get the added benefit of the spell vamp while still getting the late game impact of Natural Talent. You only end up missing out on 3 ability power by not using that 5th point. Ultimately choosing 5 points into either are both viable options, Personally, I would lean toward Natural Talent for the increased AP late game.
Tier 4- For the next tier the most popular choice is Double Edged Sword. With Ori, you should be doing damage from a safe distance and not taking much yourself.

Cunning:
Tier 1- We take Savagery to make last hitting CS easier
Tier 2- This is a preference of play style. You can never go wrong with Secret Stash as the extra health and mana from potions are certainly useful for sustain. You could also go with Assassin if you like to duel and you are confident you can dominate your lane opponent without jungle interference.
Tier 3- We go 4 points into Merciless for 4% increased damage to targets below 40% health, and one point into Meditation for some increased mana regen.
Tier 4- Dangerous Game is the most optimal choice here. Getting that healing and mana back when you are in a close teamfight will be very crucial. Bandit is not really useful as this is more for support champions. Greenfather's Gift gets more use from junglers. Orianna doesn't sit in brush enough to justify picking it.
Tier 5- Precision is the best choice for the increased Magic Penetration.

Keystone Mastery:

Thunderlord's Decree- The best option for Orianna. It is very easy to proc using a Q>W>auto attack combo, or using E to call the ball back to you. This increases Orianna's ability to trade in early levels and gives you more burst.

Stormraider's Surge- I experimented with this mastery quite a few times. The first was by accident when I forgot to change my mastery page. This is actually a pretty decent choice if the enemy team has a lot of CC. You lose your trading potential and burst in lane but the movement speed and slow resistance is actually great if you are against a team that can really lock you down. This Keystone may be a great option over Thunderlord's for a more safe/defensive route.

Abilities and Skill Order

Passive: Clockwork Windup

Orianna's auto attack deals additional magic damage. This damage increases the more Orianna attacks the same target.

This allows you to trade quite well in lane by landing auto attacks combined with your abilities. Most mages auto attacks are not that great, but Ori's do magic damage and ramp up as you hit, stacking twice. In addition, late game your auto attacks will do significantly more damage.

Q: Command: Attack

Orianna commands her Ball to fire toward a target location, dealing magic damage to targets along the way (deals less damage to subsequent targets). Her Ball remains at the target location after.

This ability is what allows Orianna to move her ball to zone enemies and try and set up her ultimate. It deals less damage based upon how many targets it passes through, so you want to use this in lane in a position where if you move it for your Q+W combo on the enemy laner, they take the maximum damage without the ball passing through creeps.

W: Command: Dissonance

Orianna commands the Ball to release a pulse of energy, dealing magic damage around it. This leaves a field behind that speeds up allies and slows enemies.

This is a versatile ability because it not only slows enemies hit, but it speeds up you and your allies. This also does quite a lot of damage. If you don't have a blue buff come late game, it may be best not to use your W as a speed boost unless you are chasing and/or kiting. Using your W does a large amount of damage late game, and you won't want to waste the mana/cooldown on just a speed boost.

E: Command: Protect

Orianna commands her Ball to attach to an allied champion, shielding them and dealing magic damage to any enemies it passes through on the way. Additionally, the Ball grants additional Armor and Magic Resist to the champion it is attached to.

This ability is great to setup your ult. Placing the ball on an ally champion, like your front line for example, and having them initiate and then use your ultimate it will really setup a great cc lock/burst combo. This is also great for shielding your allies, and yourself. The ball will also increase the defensive stats of whatever champion it is attached to. The shield may mean the difference between life or death. Late game the shield becomes quite large. Another thing to note about this ability is when you call the ball to shield yourself or an ally it deals damage to any enemy unit on the way, and it also moves faster than your Q will move the ball.

R: Command: Shockwave

Orianna commands her Ball to unleash a shockwave, dealing magic damage and launching nearby enemies towards the Ball after a short delay.

This is what makes Orianna a game changer. This ultimate can turn so many fights in your favor. When I play Orianna, I hardly ever forfeit a game even if we are far behind. I know that one great shockwave can turn the entire game around. This ability might be the best teamfighting ult in the game. Once you get to late game and teamfighting, people will get lost in the chaos of teamfighting, and not pay attention to where the ball is, making it an excellent time to ult and catch as many of the enemy team in it as you can.

The skill order for Orianna is Q>W>E and take your ult levels 6, 11, and 16. We max your Q for the increased ball mobility and lower cooldown. We max Q first instead of W, because maxing Q reduces the cooldown of the ability to 3 seconds at max rank, while Orianna's W cooldown stays at 9 seconds regardless how many points you put into it. This will allow you to use your Q's more often for more damage while your W is on cooldown. E is a good one point wonder early on and once you hit late game and you have more AP, the shield will be much more impactful. In most cases, you will want to start E at level 1 for your shield. This will also allow you to trade a bit level 1, using your auto attacks. After that you can get Q level 2 and use it to zone your lane opponent from CS. At level 3, get your W and from there you want to max Q.

Items/Build Order

Starting Items

For starting items, the most optimal choice is Doran's Ring and two Health Potions along with the Yellow Trinket Warding Totem. This is the standard start for most mages. Doran's gives you 15 AP, 60 Health, increases your mana regen, and restores mana when you kill an enemy unit. The two health potions will help you sustain in lane. You could also go with The Dark Seal if you are confident you will crush your lane and snowball. At level 9, you will want to upgrade your Yellow Trinket to the Blue Trinket, Farsight Alteration.

Morellonomicon: In most cases this will be your first item. This item gives 20% CDR, 400 mana, and 100 AP. The passive Grievous Wounds on targets lower than 35% health is especially good against high sustain champions like Vladimir, Darius and Dr. Mundo. Overall this item is fantastic and is core on most AP mages.

Luden's Echo: This item saw use before, but after the Rylai's nerfs its becoming a more popular choice on Orianna. This makes your waveclear even more efficient and gives you +10% movement speed to better position yourself in teamfights. 100 AP and the passive will make your burst potential very high.

Rabadon's Deathcap: A core item on all mages. 120 AP, and 35% boost in bonus AP is tremendous and will really make it easy to burst down priority targets.

Sorcerer's Shoes: The most popular choice of boots on mages, the magic pen will be helpful for not only your abilities but your auto attacks since they also do magic damage.

Void Staff: This is best choice as your magic pen item. 80 AP, and the passive +35% magic penetration will help you shred tanks and ignore the small amount of MR that carries may build.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: These can be a great option if you need your summoner spells off cooldown sooner and you are need more cooldown reduction. Because you are building Morello's most games along with either Zhonya's or Abyssal, you usually hit your CDR cap at 40% and Sorc Shoes are the better option.

Abyssal Scepter: This is a versatile item, especially against an AP heavy team, or an AP lane opponent with high burst. This gives you more 60 Magic Resist, 60 AP, +10% CDR, and it gives you an aura that makes enemies take 10% more magic damage. This item is good to rush if you are struggling and behind in lane. Overall, it is a very solid item.

Zhonya's Hourglass: Great against AD lane opponents, and anyone who will look to all in you. The active on this item puts you in an invincible stasis. A clutch Zhonya's when you are ulted by someone like Zed,will really save you from certain death and could negate their damage entirely. Practice makes perfect with this item. The more you play with it, the more you'll know which matchups to buy it and when to activate it.

Liandry's Torment: This is another item more popular after the Rylai's nerfs. This also got some buffs to it. It gives 80 AP, 15 magic pen, and gives you 300 health making you a bit more tanky. Liandry's is great if the enemy team isn't building that much MR and Void Staff isn't necessary. The passive does percentage health based damage over time. I really like this item and find myself building it more lately.

Rod of Ages: This was more popular when Ori had mana problems early and this helped with that. I think now that she was buffed, this item is a bit overkill but it certainly has its uses. It delays your power you would get from your first item, but will help you survive. This may be a good option if you do not have a team with a lot of peel or protection and you want to be tankier.

Early Game/Laning Phase

In the early game, Orianna can handle herself in lane in most matchups. She scales very well and starts hitting her power spikes once she has a few items. Her base stats are low but her AP scaling is quite high. Orianna is very balanced in the fact that all lane matchups for her can maneagable. You just have to adjust your playstyle to your lane opponent. Orianna is very strong at zoning her lane opponent from CS with the ball. Getting used to the mechanics of her ball range, and using it NOT to push lane and kill minions, but rather to keep your opponent from CSing. You should get in the habit of killing minions with auto attacks, and not waste your mana on killing creeps with your abilities unless you are under tower or have no other choice. You will want to place the ball between your lane opponent and your own minions, so that when they go to last hit, they get punished with a Q+W+auto combo to proc Thunderlord's. This is especially abusable against melee champions like Fizz and Diana. They will be forced to take damage if they farm and will have to decide if they want to get chunked or miss out on the gold from the minions. Against other ranged mages, depending on the champion, Orianna can usually go even or outplay them.

It you play smart, ward, and focus on farming and making it to mid game, you are doing your job just fine. Before 6, Ori is good for short trades due to her shield and quick burst combo. Because Ori is immobile, pushing lane is not a great idea when your lane opponent is there. You do not want to overextend and risk being forced to blow a summoner spell or die to a jungle gank. Ori is great at setting up ganks after she hits level 6. Using your E on the jungler as they come in for a gank is a great opportunity to cast your ultimate when they reach your lane opponent. This should force them to blow Flash if they don't outright die from the gank. She also has good waveclear, so shoving lane and roaming is easy especially with her W movement speed. The main problem with roaming is you may need to roam to lane that has some CC to lock down the enemy laner as your CC is skill shot reliant and should you miss, you may have just wasted your time. Keep this in mind when you are considering if you should roam or not, and ask your teammates if the lane is warded. Your main goal here in lane is to farm up and work on getting your core items come mid game so you can help your team get objectives.

Mid Game

Mid game is when the first towers have started to fall, and you are now starting to group with your team trying to take more towers and neutral objectives. Objectives like Dragon and Baron are going to become more contested. At this point, Ori is going to be much stronger as she should have a few items. Depending on how the laning phase went for both you and your other lanes will determine what you should focus on. Did the enemy top or bot lane tower fall yet? Did your other lanes lose their tower? Do you have vision on Dragon/Baron? If you won lane and took mid tower, your best bet would be to roam to either top or bot and help get their tower. If you lost your tower, and if you are behind, it may be a good idea to just shove mid quickly and help your jungler gank top or bot and try and get towers that way. If you are contesting Dragon or Baron, this is a great chance to zone away the enemy team with your ball. If a squishy disrespects the ball you should be able to really chunk them and have your team pick them off. The flow of mid game revolves around trying to help the rest of your team gain map pressure.

Late Game/Teamfighting

Late game is when you should be finishing up your build, completing your 5th and 6th items. At this point you should always be with your team, and this is where Orianna really thrives. Your goal in teamfights is to stick by your AD carry at a safe range where you can get off your Q+W combos and shield your front line. Should someone jump on you or your ADC, you should shield whomever the target is. Orianna peels well for her team with her W and ultimate. In the midst of teamfights you are looking to pull off a huge Shockwave where you get priority targets. Blowing Shockwave on just the enemy tank/front line is not advised because you generally won't be able to one-shot them and you want to try and optimize your ult. People tend to get lost in chaotic teamfights and won't always have the awareness of where the ball is placed. This is a great opportunity to position it to try and lock down and burst the enemies' carries. This does not mean putting yourself in a dangerous risky position though. Let your front line do that and put the ball on them. Your job first and foremost is to stay alive and help your team. Hanging on to your ulti in an extended teamfight to get a group of 3 or more of the enemy team is a great idea. The more you teamfight on Orianna, the more practice you will get in feeling out the timing of using your ulti. It really is a game changer. Late game you can literally one shot an enemy carry with a Q+R+W combo. Landing Shockwave is crucial and can mean the difference in winning and losing the game.

Matchups

Syndra

This is a manageable lane before level six. Syndra is going to try and poke you with orbs and try to setup her stun. It is important that you not stay lined up with her orbs and risk getting stunned, she has very high burst. If you dodge her stun and it goes on CD, that is your chance to punish her. After level 6, this lane gets real scary. She will look to all-in you and one-shot you if you misposition. She also sets up ganks well for her jungler. Pay attention to how many spheres she has, because even if you dodge her Q's she can still hit you with them with her ult, increasing its damage by a large margin. Two things you have going in your favor is that you outscale her and she is even less mobile than you are. You both have good wavclear. She is a good roaming champion as well, so do be careful if you try and follow her not to get blindsided. Barrier, Ghost and even Exhaust are all good options against her. Ghost will help you dodge her abilities, Barrier will help with her burst, and a well timed Exhaust will reduce her damage significantly. Play this lane safe and farm up, and you will be way more relevant than her as the game progresses.

LeBlanc

LeBlanc players will look to play aggressive and snowball early. Before 6, I find this lane to be Orianna favored if you play it right. Pay attention to her Distortion locations. After she comes back to her initial spot, you want to use the ball and chunk her then. You want to try and dodge her chain at all costs as it will setup her combos and can set-up for her jungler during a gank. After level 6, you need to respect her all-in potential even if you are ahead. LeBlanc may very well be the best roaming mid lane champion in the game. She is super mobile and you need to be very careful if she roams not to blindly follow. Your best bet will be to call MIA and either shove lane or take a safer route than just walking down river to follow her. You don't want her to get the jump on you. I would take Ghost in this matchup as being mobile will help you avoid her abilities. Once again, in this matchup you outscale her and she won't be able to one-shot people come late game.

Cassiopeia

Moving around and being unpredictable is the key to this matchup. She is a skillshot heavy champ. Movement speed Quints may be a good idea in this matchup, as well as Ghost. Your goal is to not get hit by her Q, which puts a poison DoT on you which also gives you a debuff that makes her E, Twin Fangs, hurt a lot more. Twin Fangs has a low cooldown and she will be able to spam it on you, doing pushing you out of lane. Your W will come in handy here to speed you up or slow her down, giving you distance to prevent her from spamming E on you. If she misses her Q, that's your opportunity to trade. Keep in mind her W will also allow her to spam E and do more damage but only while you stand in it, unlike the Q which has the poison stay on you. Remember that her ultimate will only stun you if you are facing her, so try and have Ori face away from her when moving around. The Rylai's nerfs have hit her hard and she won't get as much AP. She is also very squishy and early on she is going to be slow and easy to hit. She also has a strong late game but she is medium range and you want to look to catch her in a Shockwave and blow her up.

Viktor

Viktor is immobile and has medium range. His harass is also quite strong. Before 6, this lane is pretty even. It's more about who lands their skillshots. Viktor has a quick burst combo with his auto attack-Q-enhanced auto combo, which procs Thunderlord's. Try and stay just out of that range and abuse him with the ball to zone him. After he uses his Death Ray, he will be susceptible to trades. Once Viktor upgrades his E with his Hextech item, his waveclear is going to be tough to deal with. He will one-shot a caster minion wave with one Death Ray, and severely chunk the melee minions. He will be able to shove the lane more efficently than you around this time. I would suggest trying to keep him behind and make it difficult for him to upgrade his E. It costs 1250 gold, so it's a steep back for him. Don't let him free farm and ask your jungler to help starve him. After 6, his ult has decent upfront burst, but has a lot of damage over time. You do not want him to keep the Chaos storm on you. Viktor also has a strong late game, and he puts out a lot of damage. The good news is he is easily focused due to him being so immobile, does not have reliable CC. Try and catch him out early and CC lock him. Ghost is the best option against Viktor to keep yourself in proper positioning and staying out of his Ultimate.

Xerath

Before 6, you want to dodge his Q. Moving unpredictably is going to be your best option here. Movement speed Quints are a good idea and so is running Ghost, just like with Cassiopeia. Xerath can shove lane fast and poke from a very far range. This lane really relies on who can dodge who, and who gets jungle assistance. He is highly immobile, and his E stun can be blocked by minions. Post 6, he has a lot of kill potential. If you get chunked pretty bad and get low, be prepared to dance around his ult shots. It may be a good idea, if you are forced to back, to go back further than your turret so he loses vision of you. He is an easy lane to gank and placing the ball on your jungler for your ult combo will really CC lock him. He is not particularly strong at roaming but he will shove lane hard and he sieges very well. He is also difficult to siege against, so you may want to look to take him out before trying to get towers.

Synergies

In this section we will go over champions that synergize really well with Orianna.

Alistar

Alistar is the first champion that comes to mind when I play Ori that I want on my team. Placing the ball on Alistar and having him Headbutt/Pulverize wombo into your Shockwave will literally wipe the enemy team off the map. Alistar peels extremely well and can protect you and your ADC. I would say he might be the best champion Ori synergizes with.

Hecarim

Hecarim is another great champion to have on your team. Hecarim, like Alistar, wants to dive the enemy team and hit them all with his ultimate. Not only that but he is CC immune during it, which is great for putting the ball on him and ulting. The two of you have massive AoE that will delete an enemy backline before they can react.

Malphite

Noticing a trend here? Champions who dive the enemy team do very well with Orianna. Malphite cannot be CCd when he ults and, if you execute Shockwave right after Unstoppable Force, the enemy team will get deleted before they can react.

Rengar

Rengar also dives enemy backlines, but he is able to do so using stealth. I really like having a good Rengar on my team for surprise ganks and being able to ult after he jumps in and Bolas a priority target. While maybe not as wombo combo as the previously mentioned champions, he does have CC immunity in his kit and can usually get to the enemy backline without issue.

Tips and Tricks

- Use your Auto attacks: Most mages auto attack damage is negligible right? Well Orianna's do magic damage and scale off of 15% of her AP. Orianna's auto attacks also do more damage the more you hit your target, stacking up to two times. This will come in handy both in lane and out. Come late game, your auto attacks will be doing around 200 damage. Be sure to weave in your auto attacks in between abilities!

- Peeling with Shockwave: This is a crucial skill that comes with knowing the range of Shockwave. Shockwave will pull enemies toward the middle of the ball, which will be useful when trying to get away. If used properly this will effectively pull them away from you if the ball is placed slightly behind them when you ult.

- Quick Thunderlord's burst: If you are not quite close enough to auto attack to proc Thunderlord's, a quick Q+W combo followed by calling the ball back to yourself with your E is a quick three hit combo that will proc it without you having to be very close at all. This is even easier to do with the W slow.

- Flash ulti: When the ball is in your possession, you can catch the enemy off-guard with a quick Flash-R combo. What you want to do is activate your ult animation before you flash, and the Shockwave will execute at your end location.

-Hiding the Ball: Ori's ball can be hidden in terrain. This is a great way to catch people off guard especially in the jungle. By placing your ball in a wall, enemy carries may walk right into range for you to burst them down and catch them out.

Here I hide the ball in the jungle terrain. Veigar comes walking in and cannot see the ball when it is placed in terrain. I move the ball and get a quick Q+W+auto Thunderlord's proc burst combo on him before he can even attempt to dodge.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my guide! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section and I would be happy to reply. I hope this guide helps you improve your Orianna gameplay!

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