Hi, my name is SasWatts and i am making this guide to Orianna because she is kind of an underplayed champion, and she doesn't deserve to be it at all:). Orianna isn't a commonly picked champion for new players, mainly because she is pretty hard to master and has no instant nuke potential like champions as Brand or Annie. I hope you can learn something from my guide and it will help you on your way to high ELO or maybe even towards level 30:)

This is my first guide, so please be kind in the voting/comment section and im fine with criticism, as long as it is substantiated.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE!!

I will try my best to do this guide in correct english, but if you still find some typo's/grammar failures, please be so kind to point them out in the comments.

Now, in order to play Orianna, you will have to buy her first (or wait for her free week, but if you are reading this you are probably planning on buying her). She costs either 4800 IP or 975 RP. Once you've bought her, i strongly recommend you play a custom or Coop vs. AI, just to get used to her playstyle (which is a lot different from other casters because her main damage comes from a remotely controlled object and not from herself) and to practice in keeping track of the ball, farming, and performing your combo correctly.
Now that you are familiar with the champion, we can start discussing more in-depth matters;)

---

• Great AoE synergy ( Amumu, Malphite )
  
• Immensely strong early zoning (if done correctly)
  
• Really fun to play
  
• Pretty strong kiting with the movement speed from Command: Dissonance and the shield from Command: Protect
  
• Strong against every melee champion (even with dashes/gap closers)
  
• Easy to trick people into thinking they can kill you while you are just having the edge thanks to Command: Protect and Command: Dissonance
  

• Pretty weak early game
  
• Extremely vulnerable against ganks without Flash
  
• Easily poked to death by high range champions like Lux
  
• Hard to master
  
• Most games you get more assists then kills ( i have had scores like 1/1/23)
  

Now this all seems like it is a champion that is really hard to play and takes a lot of time to master. I am not going to lie, Orianna is hard and it takes quite some time to master her completely (i still make mistakes myself), but in the end it all pays off. Everytime i have to play mid in either normal or ranked Orianna is my first choice because she is so much fun to play and synergizes in almost every team composition you can think about. If you start understanding the champion and benefitting from her strengths the most, the Pros are definitly overweighing the Cons.

The Runes I Use:









Now, in my opinion runes are a bit overhyped. Whenever i see people argue like "NO YOU SHOULD TAKE 8 GLYPHS IN THAT INSTEAD OF 9" i'm like dude, what does it matter, it is like .89 Magic Resistance. Still, there is a MAJOR difference between having no runes whatsoever and having a full jacked up runepage with the good runes for that champion. So, keeping in mind the differences are very small, i will explain to you how i think when i pick my runes.

{PLEASE KEEP IN MIND I HAVE MULTIPLE RUNE PAGES FOR ORIANNA}






Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

Orianna doesn't have great AP scaling on her abilities, which would make flat AP (ability power) or AP per level runes pretty useless. The main purpose of Orianna in lane is poking and wearing down your opponent. This is easier done with penetrations, thats why i also rush an early Void Staff (see items section). With these runes Sorcerer's Shoes aren't a direct need and you will do way more damage in lane, since the most AP carries do not have a lot of magic resistance.


Other choices:

Greater Mark of Ability Power
Can be used, although i do not recommend it (Read Above). This might be only viable early game, but later you are going to need that penetration if you want to go for Mobility Boots. If you are going to buy Sorcerer's Shoes anyway, these are more useful.

Greater Mark of Cooldown Reduction
Cooldowns are not much of an issue on Orianna. The cooldown on Command: Attack is fairly low on early levels and cooldown reduction will be a waste of precious rune slots.

Greater Mark of Health
No. (i hope) You are not planning on playing Tank Orianna, so these are giving you way to much tankiness. You either go for utility or damage if playing a carry, and tankiness would be a waste of precious rune slots.

Greater mark of Replenishment
Could be done, yet it is kind of an overkill on runes combined with your Greater seal of Replenishment's. I just like the Magic Penetration because of the extra damage it gives me, yet again it is your call what you do with your runebook.

---

Greater seal of Replenishment

Orianna NEEDS mana regen. Espescially early on, your mana will drain REALLY fast if you want to harass or even when you get an early gank from your jungler. With these runes a Catalyst the Protector will be enough later on to keep your mana up. These runes are aimed at early game, but still viable late game.



Other Choices:

Greater Seal of Ability Power
Same story as for the marks. The Ability Power scaling on her abilities is just not good enough to use flat AP runes, and you are wasting mana regen which is like water to Orianna.

Greater Seal of Mana
No. This might be good early game, but it only allows you to do two more spellcasts at level one. After that it will grow completely useless, considering you are getting multiple Doran's Ring's with the mana regen and you will probably get a Crest of the Ancient Golem from your jungler.

Greater seal of Meditation
LOLWUT?? If you are even considering these you should look at the champion description again.

Greater Seal of Magic Resist
Could be used, but if you REALLY want to go for Magic Resistance, you should probably go for glyphs. In my opinion you just SHOULD NEVER replace your Greater seal of Replenishment's with any other rune. Mana regeneration is just too much of a requirement.

---

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

I take Magic Resistance on Orianna because of her early squishyness. Orianna is vulnerable to early poke and her damage trades will not go well if she doesnt have a little defence. I tend to take these runes only if im up against another ranged poke heavy opponent.


Other Choices:

Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration
This is a possibility. If you want to go all-out agressive on a champion like Diana or AP Sion who will have a lot of trouble closing the gap towards you, you might want to take this. DO NEVER EVER switch out your Magic Resistance glyphs against a champion like Lux or you will die a very painful, feeding death.

Greater glyph of Replenishment
Although you should have enough mana regeneration from your Seals, this is an option. There are people who prefer to be able to cast an ability every time it is up. Your call. Again, i would not take this against a high range poke heavy champion, unless you are a dodge-master ninja.

Greater Glyph of Health
If you do not like your magic resistance because of minion damage, you could consider taking this, although i recommend taking Greater Quintessence of Health's if you want the health, and still keep your magic resistance cause it is just too good for damage trades.


Greater Glyph of Armor
You might think: "Oh! Armor! That is good so minions won't damage me!". Well, you might have a point, but it is not worth it compared to Magic Resistance glyphs. Minions will only be a major factor at early levels, after that in mid game your armor will grow useless, you will get more health and minions will start to be less and less of a damaging factor. Your magic resistance is just better overall.

---

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed

These are in my opinion the best quints for Orianna. The mobility it provides you with is awesome for kiting and poking with basic attacks, empowered by Clockwork Windup. Combined with the movement speed from Command: Dissonance you can escape sticky situations while still being able to poke and harass your opponent. Now that is what they call a win-win situation:)!


Other Choices:

Greater Quintessence of Health
As mentioned earlier, these are good if you want to be able to ignore minion aggro. Still, i do recommend keeping your movement speed. By taking health, you are giving up a MAJOR factor in your playstyle, which is mobility and slipperyness (hence the Mobility Boots, mentioned later in the "Items" section).

Greater Quintessence of Scaling Magic Resist
After reading my Glyphs section, you might think this might be viable. Well let me tell you, it is not. It is just an overkill on runes, you dont need it at all. It is way better to just go with Movement Speed or depending on the situation, Health or Magic Penetration.

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration
This is good if you are looking to play like a normal AP Carry. In my opinion, when you use this, you are throwing away Orianna's most useful abilities, which are kiting and poking.
I would recommend this on any other caster (combined with a different rune page build), but just not on Orianna because you are wasting so much potential.

---

Well, that concludes my Rune Build for Orianna. Of course there are way more combinations and options (i have seen AD Orianna's), but these are just my preferred runes.

MY MASTERIES:

My items are mainly focused on dealing damage with penetrations while still remaining durable. I'll try to explain them to you one by one.



This is is a good start because along with your runes ( Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed) you are immediately very mobile and you can poke away your opponent with basic attacks, especially if they didn't start with boots. The potions are there to be able to recover from ganks and just heal up if you took a little too much damage from minions or your opponent.




Now, this is probably the part where most people are like "What? Mobility boots on a carry?".
This is very understandable and i will try to explain it to you. Orianna is a heavily item reliant champion, and you will not get your first items by just standing in lane. Therefore you should gank other lanes, and i like the mobility boots because of the speed it gives me, it just gives you that slight edge of being in a lane earlier and taking people by surprise.

You should be able to buy a Doran's Ring and Mobility Boots(1125 gold) on your first teleport back. If thing are not going well, just buy the Mobility Boots or if things are going COMPLETELY HORRIBLE just buy one Doran's Ring and wait until you have got 650 gold.


catalyst the protector OR ?
I have had questions from people playing Orianna like "Why don't you buy a hextech early?". This is simple, this build doesn't give Orianna great early damage. The Hextech Revolveronly works if you have a lot of nuking potential or just a lot of damage, and this build details Orianna as none of that. I like the catalyst the protector more because it gives mana and health, and if you get it as early as level 10 you will have profit of it throughout the entire game.
kage's lucky pick
When you are going back with around 1500 gold, you have two options: Either go for the catalyst the protector and go for more tankiness, or buy the Kage's lucky pick and start your Deathfire Grasp immediately. It is all up to you, and a bit how the game is going. Maybe you have ganked bot and top and gotten 3 kills, you can maybe even buy both. I like to go for the catalyst the protector because it gives me tankiness in lane, but kage's lucky pick is fine if you buy the catalyst the protector shortly after.



This item is probably the core item of your build. It gives you quite a bit of Ability Power and a SH*T TON of magic penetration. I get this around mid game, where my enemies start showing the first signs of real magic resistance. Try to get this after your catalyst the protector and/or kage's lucky pick as fast as possible in order to start doing damage.

]
Good for burst. Shoot someone with it and directly after that follow up with your standard combo. You might consider not buying this if the opposing team doesn't have strong HP stacking bruisers/tanks.

[icon=Rabadon's Deathcap size=60