Welcome, welcome, I'm an avid orianna player, and, after the changes, I felt that some of the other guides are outdated, and I have some controversial opinions about how to play her that have ultimatly lead me to success. They may sound idiotic or pointless, and maybe they are, but I would like it if you could try them before disregarding them.

This guide will cover two main styles of orianna play: Ap mid and support. I know that some people love to play her bot as the ADC, but frankly, I haven't had success in that role with her, so I am in no position to write a guide about it.

Orianna is an amazing champion that has the potential to do massive damage to the entire enemy team, and brings a lot of utility as a support as well. If you can learn how to play her, you WILL be happy you did so. She's a lot of fun, and her zoning is quite scary.

Without further ado, let us begin!

Orianna is a very unique mid that relys on using the ball to provide damage. There are two main approaches to playing her as a mid: Leveling her Q first or leveling her W first. After the changes, most people don't think of the first strategy as viable, but I personally have had success in doing so. Let me provide a little bit of math to try to show the pros/cons of each approach.

This is a quote from myself, outlining the math of each approach.

"Let's say you've leveled your W first over the q, and have W at rank 5 and Q at rank 2, with a blasting wand and a Needlessly large rod, rounding out at 120 ap.

Okay, the Q will deal 90+48
The W will deal 250+84.
The total combo will deal a base of 472, and will have costed you 160 mana.

Now, let's reverse it, and say that you leveled your Q first instead.

The Q will deal 180+48
The W will deal 115+84

The whole combo will have dealt 427 damage, and will have costed you a 120 mana.

In addition, you can use your Q way more often, making it MUCH better for sustained fights, and with this, you can deal damage without having much mana.

Let's look at DPS, just using the two skills.
Let's say it's a ten second window, and you are awesome enough to land ALL of your skill shots. Congrats, you rock.

In the first scenario, you can land exactly 2 ws and 2 qs (this is a ten second window.). That means you deal 944 damage. Grats. This will have costed you 320 mana

Now, let's say you leveled your Q first. In that same, ten second window, you can land four qs and 2 ws, granting you a grand total of 1310. A lot more. And this will have costed 340 mana.

Therefore, while the burst on leveling the W is more, the DPS and DPM are a lot higher, AND the burst is still pretty darn good if you level the Q first, AND the q can be used without a high amount of mana."

Okay, so let me give you a Tl;dr in the form of a pros/cons list.

Pros:
*Better mana costs early game
*A lot safer (you can buy tons of pots and such if you want, and you have a bit of money to throw around if you need wards or anything out of the blue.)
*Easier to do
*Provides way more damage over a set amount of time (bigger damage potential)
*Lower cd on q, meaning you can throw it around a lot (Like karthus's Q)
*Build DOES NOT rely on blue
*Build includes a philo stone, helping your income,

Cons:
*Slightly less burst
*Reliance on her Q
*It's HARD
*Her ult/w combo won't deal as much damage.
*Less over all aoe damage
*Less slow/speed on her W

This build focuses on early AP and mana regen, with a bit of late game tankyness and more damage. This build has great CDR, and does not require blue to stay in a good place mana wise. It doesn't even rely on athene's stacks.

-So what summoner spells do you use?-
Pretty standard. I go flash/ignite.

-so why do you get both a philo stone AND a chalice? Isn't that over kill?-
The chalice gives increased mana regen based on how much mana you are missing. That, in and of itself, is not usually enough to keep orianna's mana bar full. So there's two options:
1. Complete the athene's RIGHT AWAY.
2. Get alternate mana regen, so that it's affected by the passive of chalice.

In addition, with just 500 more gold, you get free tenacity and the mana regen more than doubles. If you ever find yourself running out of mana, buy this item.

With this build, the philo stone covers your early game mana regen, because your W won't be leveled, so the mana cost will be significantly lower. If you build in the correct order, you won't have mana issues throughout the entire game. Mana is stimulated at the points in which things start to cost more.

That is basically the crux of this build. I've found it very effective, and I encourage you to try the build before you decide that it's terrible.

I won't go into as much detail in this guide, as I already offered an in-depth comparison between the two. Instead, I'll include a pro/con list

Pros:
*Higher burst damage
*Better gank assistance
*Better slow/speed, making the harass more safe
*Absolutely no reliance on command attack, you can just hit command dissonence in order to pull off your damage.

Cons:
*less damage over time
*Relys on blue
*Mana hungry without blue
*WAY bigger cooldown on her command attack
*less lane sustain

-Summoner spells-
Again, flash/ignite

This is basically a generic orianna build (Post patch), and frankly, I prefer the first one. But this build is what most of the community views as the most optimal. You can do great with this build too. But I still urge you to try the first one.

Okay, so orianna is not accepted in the 0 cs meta like some other people are. However, she brings a lot to the table, and once again, I will quote myself and offer a comparison between her and support nunu.

"Let's compare orianna support to support nunu.

Their passives:
Orianna gets free ranged damage that has recently been DRASTICALLY increased for support builds in the recent patch. Great harass for a support.

Nunu gets a free spell if he attacks enough. It's nice, but it puts him at a lot of risk, and he's not really mana hungry at all, so it's not really needed.

Orianna's wins.

Their Qs.
hers is a free bush checker and ward and petty damage dealer.

His is a free heal that can only be used on himself, and, again, requires you to go at risk AND is really hard to use without stealing a bit of cs.

Hers wins

Their Ws.
Her's is a strong speed/slow that can be used on the entire enemy team if you combo it with the ult, and is on a low cd and basically is a free shurelias but can be used at really long range on anyone if you attach it to the tank and/or to a person who's diving the turret. Great move for helping a carry in lane to escape ganks or to slow them for your ganks.

His is an amazing steroid for the ad carry that raises movement speed and gives up to 65% attack speed. Basically forever.

Hers is good, but he wins

Their Es.
Hers is a strong lane shield that adds MR and armor and does damage on the way their.

His is a nice attack speed and movement speed slow, with a bit of damage added in.

Tie again.

Their Ults:
hers is an amazing interupt that basically allows your team to land aoe moves like crazy and can be attatched to the tank for easy innitation, and synergiezes SUPER well with people like alister, or malphite, or viegar, or anyone with any sort of aoe. It's amazing.

His is a slow-damage that is EXTREMELY high risk, and most of the time will be interrupted unless you use it in lane or in a bush strategically. Can be epic, but most often it gets shut down.

Hers wins.

Over all, she brings a lot to the table compared to other non-heal supports. "

So, let's list pros and cons:

Pros:
*Good early game harass on her passive
*good natural attack speed for pushing towers
*Free wards with the ball
*Good sheild with damage and passive armor and mr
*Good speed/slow that can be attached to the tank for easy usage
*Great range on her ball tether
*Slow/speed is great in lane for saving the carry from junglers
*Amazing ultimate that can be chained with her slow and that WILL win you team fights if you coordinate it correctly

Cons:
*no sustain in lane for the carry
*Very squishy
*Brings no offensive steriod to the carry
*Team will probably rage and flame at you

-summoner spells-
This really depends on the situation/carry. Flash is a must though. As a support, one of your biggest jobs is NOT dying, and every good orianna uses her speed and shield on the carry.

I also like CV, because it means that, with your ball, you can get great sight. Sometimes, if your lane is going good, you can get away with JUST cv and the ball, no wards in the bushes. But that's the exception, not the rule.

Exhaust is also good, because it allows the carry to swoop in and kill, and synergizes well with her W.

Now, let's talk about building a frozen mallet on orianna. This is my own, personal idea, and people generally think it's really stupid. However, with her good attack speed, squishyness and good attack range, that mallet helps cc like crazy and keeps her alive. As a support item, you pay to get ANOTHER slow that helps set up your first one. Try it sometime, and you will be surprised at how much utility it brings. The mallet is entirely optional, but do note that building her without any hp is a REALLY bad idea.

Once again, I ask that you try the unorthodox build before you flame it.

Orianna is an awesome champion that is extremely versitile. I personally have enjoyed learning her, and am simply sharing the strategies that have brought me success. I urge you to try my fanatical methods and see if you find success too.

-Signed-
Koechophe