Introduction

For many seasons Orianna has been a strong pick in the mid lane throughout many different metas through Nerf’s and buffs. In this article I will do my best to answer 3 major questions, why mid lane? What makes it so that Orianna can be played in so many different metas? And finally how is Orianna used?

Image courtesy of Hannah515

Role

We most commonly see Orianna played in the mid lane. This is for a few main reasons. Firstly, Ori has a lack of mobility, what I mean by this is that Ori doesn’t have a dash or jump of any kind and has no hard cc before level 6. This means she can be a good target for ganks and because the top lane is a longer lane, it means if Ori was to push the lane she would be a lot more vulnerable to ganks. Where as in mid lane, it is a lot shorter distance to her tower so that if she was ganked there is a greater chance that she would escape.

The next reason is the strength of Ori’s ganks after level 6, the mid lane is the best lane in the game to gank from without teleport because of the fact that it is in the middle of bot and top lane meaning she can easily walk to either lane to gank.

One other role Ori has been talked about being played in is the support role as a sona-esque champion (team fighting ult, shields and poke in lane). However, the reason it is unlikely we will ever see Ori support be a meta pick is because of the unreliableness of her ult (it can easily be dashed or flashed out of) and unlike sona, once her ult is down the only utility she can offer is shields, slows ,and move speed boosts, where as sona can offer auras, slows, movement speed boosts and heals, making Ori support just a weaker version of sona support.

Meta

In competitive play, Orianna is often talked about as the fall back pick of many mid laners. This is because while Ori might not be the strongest champion in every meta the huge amount of versatility Ori provides makes her a very strong pick to fall back on if other mid lanners are banned out (I will explain what versatile Ori provides later). However there are some metas were Ori can be a weaker pick. One example of this kind of meta is the assassin meta, this is because Orianna’s lack of mobility and lack of hard cc when her ult is down can lead to Ori getting picked off easier than some other mid lanners.

To contrast this Orianna can be a very strong pick in a team fighting meta especially if the games go longer because of her high impact ult as well as her ability to burst out squishes such as ADC’s as it gets into later game.

How is Orianna used?

Earlier I talked about the versatility of Orianna, now I will explain what I mean by that. Orianna’s kit allows her to be used in multiple different team comps, for example Ori can be a strong pick in pick comps as she can put her ball on other champions such as a Rengar, Ori can put her ball on him as he is ulting and as he jumps onto one of the enemy’s champions she can then use her ult on enemy champion to try and burst them out with Rengar. This same idea can be used in conjunction with champions like Twitch, Leona, and Elise.

Another team comp that Ori can be very strong in is a protect the ADC comp which we saw Star Horn Royal club use at worlds to great success. The idea is to have your ADC play a hyper carry such as Jinx or Kog’Maw then keep them alive with champions like Orianna, Lulu and Janna. Orianna is very good in these kind of comps because of her shield scaling off of ap and the fact that she can use her ult and slows to peal very well for an ADC.

The next team comp I will talk about is the team fight comp. Orianna can be used very efficiently in this type of team comp because of her high impact ult. In team fights the three main ways Ori’s ult can be used are firstly to start a fight, because the team comp is built around team fighting their will almost always be a champion to put her ball on like a tank such as renekton or shyvana who can use their gap closers to get into the middle of the enemy to set up a ult for Orianna or like a champion like Lee Sin who can use his sonic wave (q) to get into the enemy team with the ball on him then Orianna can use her ult to allowed the rest of her team to go in.

The next way Orianna’s ult can be used in team fights is to zone, Orianna’s ult (by this is I mean by keeping the ball near the carries to stop them moving forward or they will get ulted) can be a fantastic zoning tool because it not only does it when combined with Ori’s Q and W produce a ton of burst but it also locks the champion up for a short amount of time, not something you really want to have to deal with as an ADC.

The final main way Ori’s ult can be used in team fights is to disengage. Losing a team fight and need to try and escape? Why not deal a bunch of damage to your enemy, slow them and stun them for half a second.

The final team comp I will talk about is the siege comp. The main reason Orianna can be effective in this team comp is because of her shield and the fact that she can use ult to disengage if jumped on while sieging. An example of how her shield can be used while sieging is to throw a Thresh lantern down in front of the tower then put the Ori shield onto the ADC so they can tank a few towers shots this is especially useful if the enemy has good wave clear because the ADC can get some free damage onto the tower.

One final note about why Orianna is used, One very favourable thing about her for some mid lane players is the fact that Orianna can farm very safely in mid lane because of her shield allows her to avoid getting poked out often. Which leads to Ori getting picked up by players who just want a safe laning phase.

I hope you got a better understanding of how to use Orianna in solo q and how she is used in competitive. If you have any feedback feel free to hit up my twitter @airlie_arran.

Thanks for reading.