Hey everyone, I'm a dedicated Ornn player who has been playing the champion for the past four years, so I’ve developed a deep understanding of the champion and how to use him properly.

If you’ve never played Ornn and you’re reading this guide out of curiosity because you’re thinking about trying new champions, I highly recommend giving him a chance. He's very underrated because he's a tank and his gameplay might seem boring at first. However, he's one of the most unique champions in the game thanks to his passive, and he's also the tank with the highest skill ceiling making him extremely rewarding to learn.

This guide will be directed to any kind of player, whether you've never played the champion before or you've been playing it for a while but want to learn more about it.

This guide will cover: the logic behind rune and item selection, insight on how to use his abilities properly, and general guidelines on how to play at every stage of a game, as well as how to approach each lane matchup.

Season 2026:

16/08/2026: After some testing, I have decided to set Rejuvenation Bead + Refillable Potion as the standard item start instead of Doran's Shield + Health Potion. Rejuvenation Bead higher HP regen and the extra HP from Refillable Potion allows for a healthier early game.

13/08/2026: Despite the Sunfire Aegis changes, the item is still in the bad position it used to be. There are many other more useful and cheaper item options that greatly outvalue it. A 50% increase to the HP ratio of the immolate damage isn't good enough because Ornn still struggles with applying this effect for a meaningful amount of time that it would outvalue any other item effect, and even in compositions where he is able to apply it, the extra damage isn't more useful than other item effects that are able to completely turn a fight, such as Randuin's Omen slow or Knight's Vow healing and damage redirection. Moreover, the ratio numbers are still incredibly low (only 20 + 1.5% after the buffs) and with the increased cost, it's an even worse buy.

1. Ability tips

Living Forge (P):

This is one of Ornn's main strengths and most unique trait. It allows him to gain instantaneous gold advantatges in lane and to stay in the map for a very long time without going back to base. You can't forge consumable items like Refillable Potion or Control Wards.

- Always try to spend your gold as soon as possible during the laning phase: a single component makes trades much more favourable for you. Try to forge items between waves as to not miss any minion.

- You can pretend to forge an item in lane to bait your lane opponent into walking inside your Volcanic Rupture range.

- Try to upgrade a teammate who has a 1/2 stat item available in their inventory. Also try to prioritize upgrading teammates who are ahead. However, if you can't get near a teammate immediately and you think that you won't be to able for a while, you can just upgrade whoever is in range as soon as you can to get the extra statistics. Remember that Ornn increases his HP, AR and MR by 10% from all sources, increased by 4% for every item upgrade that you do, so getting them done early is also important.

- Don't forge an item immediately after using Searing Charge because the forging animation will get canceled due to a bug.

Volcanic Rupture (Q):

This abilities has two different uses. During the laning phase, it will be your main poking and farming tool, however, later into the game you have to think of this ability as a set-up tool for your Searing Charge knock up.

- If you hit an enemy champion with this ability, the pillar will stop travelling and will appear behind the first champion hit.

- Don't spam this ability too much or you'll run out of mana quickly, instead only use it whenever you have your other abilities ready to follow up.

- Ornn's pillar stays on the map for four seconds after appearing, however, if you cast Searing Charge right before it disappears, the pillar duration will be extended. You can use this trick to bait enemies into walking into the pillar thinking it's going to disappear.

- During a teamfight, do not think of this ability as an occassional damaging ability, instead try to predict where enemies will move towards and use your Volcanic Rupture in a way that the pillar appears in a choke point or in the main spot where the fight is taking place so that you can knock up as many enemies as possible with your Searing Charge.

- Before a teamfight occurs, you can throw it to make the pillar appear in a tight entrace. For example, when fighting for drake, if you have river control, you can throw your Q to make the pillar appear right in the middle of the river, making the enemies have to choose if they want to walk past the pillar risking an E knockup, or making them stack against the walls to the side allowing for an easy knockup with E as well.

Bellows Breath (W):

This will be your main source of damage. It deals a % of the maximum HP of the enemy champion being hit as magic damage, so enemies will have to build MR to reduce it. Try not to use this ability to last hit minions, unless you really have to, because it costs a lot of mana and it deals damage over time inconsistently over the duration making it hard to last hit minions with it. It's also one of Ornn's main survivability tools because it makes him immune to cc over the duration.

- You can cancel your W finishing animation with your Searing Charge if you buffer it, this will make landing E easier as enemies will have less time to react.

- Use this ability on reaction against hard cc effects, like Mordekaiser's Realm of Death or Zoe's Sleepy Trouble Bubble/ Lillia's Lilting Lullaby.

- The Brittle effect reduces the tenacity of the unit affected by it. During a gank, if your jungler has cc, if you manage to apply Brittle to the opponent, make sure not to auto attack the enemy right away and wait as much as possible to let your jungler cc the opponent, so that they stay crowd controlled for as long as possible. This tip also applies to teamfights: if your team has a bunch of AoE cc effects, you can sometimes wait without attacking brittled opponents to see if they can get hit by cc so that they get stunned for longer.

Searing Charge (E):

This is your only form of mobility which means you'll have to use it carefully as it can leave you stuck to death if you don't use it properly.

- One trick that I constantly use in game to land the knock up more often is using the range indicator. Go to settings (In-game) > Hotkeys > Abilities and Summoner Spells > Normal Cast > Spell 3. Bind the combination of keys: Shift + E (or whichever key you use for using E). This way, when you're in game, when you press and hold Shift + E, you will see the range indicator without actually casting the ability. This will allow you to know when you're close enough to a wall in order to knock up the enemy.

- Be careful of using it when you are on a sidelane as wasting it to hit the wave could get you killed if an enemy catches you in that moment. This tip also applies to laning phase: this ability should not be used aggressively against the likes of Gwen or Riven, as they have high mobility and chasing tools and they can just run at you and kill you after that.

- You can knock up enemies through walls. If an enemy is standing on the other side of a wall that isn't too thick, you can use your E from the other side and the knock up area will extend to the other side. This can be useful in some scenarios and catches people off guard.

Call of the Forge God (R):

- This ability can both be used proactively and reactively. You generally want to start teamfights with this ability from a relatively safe distance to prevent the enemy from ccing you and stopping your R2 cast. If you can't engage on the enemy or your team happens to get caught first, you can use this instantly to stop the enemy team and disengage or continue the fight as needed.
- You can use Searing Charge immediately after casting Call of the Forge God to get closer to the ram and cast R2 faster. This is only used when chasing someone or when roaming mid/bot to surprise the enemy with a fast R2 cast. You can also do Flash + Searing Charge to cast R2 instantly, or just Flash to surprise and outplay your opponent. You can also use this trick to redirect R2 from a different direction by dashing to the side.
- It's important to remember and get used to the time it takes for the ram to reach you. This is because in order to land R2 more effectively, you need to be looking directly at the enemy champion movement to predict where they might move or dash towards, instead of looking at your champion to see when you can cast R2.

2. Combos

Level 2:

>
At level 2 you will have Q and W up, so your main combo to contest the wave will simply be Q - W - auto brittle.

Level 3:

At level 3 many possibilities for combos open.
1. > > basic attack (brittle) > back
E deals the same damage whether you simply hit someone with it or knock them up with the pillar. This combo is mainly used at melee range, and avoids overextending by going back with E at the same time you pass through them with it dealing its damage.

2. > > > basic attack (brittle)
This is your main combo. It relies on hitting Q which pretty much always guarantees landing your E knock up into W > auto. You usually hit this when you're a bit further away from the opponent and they have used some of their cooldowns.

3. > > basic attack (brittle) > basic attack (as many times as possible before enemy exits E into Q knock up range) > > basic attack.

This combo is a bit less used, and uses the tenacity reduction from brittle to dish out a little bit extra damage. By using Q after W, you slow the enemy a bit longer because of brittle, which allows you to hit the opponent with auto attacks a couple more times before knocking them up with E. After using E, you can hit the opponent an extra time with an auto before walking back safely.
There are more variations of these combos that are used based on the situation and the champion you're fighting, however these are the most useful combinations to know and the ones that deal the most damage.

Level 6:

At level 6, the most important combo for Ornn is unlocked: TRIPLE BRITTLE:

You can auto attack the enemy once after using Searing Charge before recasting Call of the Forge God for extra damage, however it's a bit difficult to do so I recommend new players to stick to the easier version.

- This combo relies on hitting the target with Q and them not running away quickly from E knock up range with a dash or mobility ability.
- You can 60-0 champions with this combo.

This combo is the easiest way to catch people from far away and lock them in a pretty much unavoidable CC chain that guarantees the triple brittle. However, you don't need to do it this way every time, you only need to land the triple brittle.

Another very useful combination to remember is the following one. This is a different and more easy way to land the triple brittle, but it can only be used when the enemy is right next to a wall:


This combo is really good because of 2 things:
- It's less predictable and gives less time to react to opponents. The E knock-up is almost instantaneous since you're really close to the wall and you can take advantatge of that by preparing your R before using it.
- Since you apply brittle to the opponent with your W before using your E, the E stun duration will be extended and the opponent will still be stunned for a short time after the knock-up ends which will 100% guarantee landing R2 recast applying the third brittle.

The best teammate to upgrade their item is whoever is strongest and has the most potential to win fights and carry the game at that precise moment.

When Ornn clicks on an ally to upgrade them, he will upgrade the item that is placed in or closest to their first inventory slot, so make sure to remind your teammates to place their preferred item for the upgrade there so that they can choose the stats that they want, or just in case someone wants you to wait before upgrading them because they want a specific item.

As Ornn, most of the time, the first item that you buy ends up being the one that gets upgraded, since you don't usually have 2 items before level 13 unless you're really ahead, in which case you should just decide based on the biggest threats on the enemy team.

1. Main rune page

Ornn is a late game tank, which means he will almost always run the Resolve rune path.


The best keystone for him is Grasp of the Undying. Ornn is especially strong in the late game, so our main objective is to reach it as safely and consistently as possible without falling behind. Grasp of the Undying helps us achieve that.



- Shield Bash is not good on Ornn because he has no shielding in his kit. It's also not worth taking either even if you buy Fimbulwinter because the frequency at which you can proc it (every 7,27 seconds at best) is way too long and not as impactful as constant sustain during the entire laning phase. You may also not be able to start using its effect until very late since you don't always buy Fimbulwinter early into the game.

- Demolish vs Font of Life:

Plates no longer fall off early, which lowers the value of Demolish. It’s mainly useful for split pushing and taking turrets quickly, which isn’t Ornn’s preferred playstyle. It also now requires three auto attacks on a turret to activate, making it harder to quickly proc it and back off safely. Also, with the changes to Demolish in the new season, the damage has been nerfed and the reduced cooldown doesn't matter for Ornn.

Font of Life, on the other hand, provides useful sustain during the laning phase and is occasionally good during teamfights as well because you can heal a teammate which can make the difference.



- We will generally take Second Wind because it's the most consistent rune that works in most situations.
- We will situationally take Bone Plating against all-in champions that can not easily proc it before going all-in. It's highly effective agains the likes of Riven, Shen, etc., because we will reduce a lot of their damage and Second Wind wouldn't do much in those matchups because we wouldn't be receiving constant damage from long range abilities.
- We won't consider taking Conditioning because there aren't many matchups where we can take it comfortably. You can consier taking it against Maokai or Singed since he usually stays proxy farming and you can't do much about it in which case you'd rather have better scaling.



- We will always take Overgrowth, it's the strongest rune out of the three.
- Since Ornn doesn't have any kind of healing or shielding in his kit, we're not going to consider taking Revitalize at all. It might seem useful at first, if you pair it with items like Unending Despair, Protoplasm Harness and Fimbulwinter, all of which are really good on Ornn and benefit from the bonus healing/shielding. However, Unending Despair damage and, in consequence, its healing too, scale off of HP, which means that having more HP will also increase its healing. When comparing Revitalize bonus healing with Overgrowth bonus HP, Overgrowth will always be more efficient in increasing the heal amount. Revitalize does increase Fimbulwinter shielding and Protoplasm Harness healing, however the difference is way too small to compensate for the higher base tankiness and Unending Despair healing that Overgrowth provides.
- I don't recommend taking Unflinching: the resistances are only really useful in the early game, you don't need them to survive, and the higher amount of HP granted by Overgrowth is just better.

1.1 Secondary rune path

Ornn used to run Inspiration secondary, since you could access free boots and mana regen through cookies. However, Biscuit Delivery no longer gives you mana regen, so instead of that, I recommend that you pick Sorcery secondary:

- Manaflow Band for the mana regen.
- For the other rune, Transcendence is the way to go, because AH is a good stat on Ornn and better than extra damage from Scorch.

2. Aery rune page

We choose this path against ranged champions, since we won't be able to proc Grasp of the Undying. The minor rune choices are pretty much set in stone: Manaflow Band, Transcendence, Scorch. The other rune choices are not optimal, or they straight up do not work with Ornn. For example, since Ornn doesn't have any AD or AP scalings, nor does he build any damage items, he doesn't benefit from Waterwalking, Absolute Focus or Gathering Storm. He also doesn't need Movement Speed so Nimbus Cloak and Celerity are not good with him either. Lastly, Axiom Arcanist doesn't give him enough bonus damage to Call of the Forge God and the R cooldown reduction isn't meaningful enough to consider taking over Manaflow Band

For the secondary path, we go Resolve and pick: Second Wind and Overgrowth. Second Wind is more impactful than Font of Life because it always stays active and gives more sustain.




Lastly, for the rune shards, we always pick AH, and double HP scaling. With HP scaling we outscale flat HP after level 7, and we generally don't need that extra HP during the early game because we aren't looking to fight heavily during the first few levels to the point where we would need it. As for the AH shard, I find it more useful than AS because it's a more useful statistic on Ornn. AS only helps in farming a bit better under turret during the early game and that's it.

Ornn is a champion that is very straightforward when it comes to itemizing: the only viable items for him are sheer tank items that boost his durability and tank stats and supportive items if extra tankiness isn't needed.

Armor items:

There are only four tank armor items in the game that increase the time we're alive with their passives: Unending Despair which heals you every few seconds; Jak'Sho, The Protean, which increases your bonus resistances; Randuin's Omen, which reduces damage from critical strikes; and Frozen Heart which reduces enemy AS.

Recommended items

Unending Despair:

When to buy?: If you're facing an enemy champion in lane which allows you to trade constantly and stand within the Unending Despair effect range safely, this is the best first armor item thanks to the sustain which greatly outvalues any other item. If there are better items for your first slot, you should buy it whenever you need more armor at any time. For example, if you buy Frozen Heart first, and you keep needing AR, you should probably buy this for your second or third item depending on the enemy composition: if you won't play teamfights front-to-back or you might get bursted, it would be better to go into Protoplasm Harness and then get Unending Despair.

Randuin's Omen:

The active is incredibly useful for us because it helps with landing our main combo, as well as hinder the enemy mobility during a fight which ends up being really useful. It's also the best individual AR item when it comes to raw stats. That's why it's also viable as a first item.

When to buy?: Buy this as a first item if both the enemy top and jg are AD and we need to play for short trades against the opponent or if the opponent is range/has a lot of poke DMG. If you don't buy it first, get it whenever the enemy team starts stacking crit chance.

Frozen Heart:

If you have a tank support on your team, ask them if they're going to buy this. It's often better to let them build this item since it's really cheap, it gives a lot of stats and a very useful passive. Meanwhile, you'll be able to buy items with better stats.

When to buy?: Buy Frozen Heart whenever the enemy laner deals damage through auto attacks, like Zaahen or Vayne. If the enemy laner doesn't deal damage through auto attacks but multiple champions on the enemy team do, buy it ASAP.

Magic resistance items:

As for MR items, there are three items that increase the time we're alive with their passives: Kaenic Rookern and Force of Nature. Spirit Visage is really situational.

Recommended items

Kaenic Rookern:

This item is our only good choice against most AP champs. The Shield is incredibly good: it's good against %max HP magic damage because the shield gives us more HP against magic damage without actually increasing our real HP. It's also good in lane because it allows us to trade without receiving any damage, making trades really favorable for us.

When to buy?: Whenever the enemy laner is AP, and we can't stack Force of Nature quick enough. For reference, if you would fall below 75% of your HP before activating Force of Nature, Kaenic Rookern would be better.

Force of Nature:

When to buy?: This item becomes better than Kaenic Rookern whenever the enemy laner has poison or burn effects, like Teemo, Singed, Cassiopeia. This is because we're able to stack Force of Nature relatively quickly into the fight, and the extra 70 MR reduces more damage than the Kaenic Rookern shield.

Spirit Visage:

This item is only good when you can really make use of it with an enchanter support. However, if there's no one on your team that can heal or shield you constantly, then it's not worth buying even with Unending Despair, this is because the difference in healing is too little and takes too much time to outscale other stronger items late game like Warmog's Armor. It's also not that good against AP damage simply because the other 2 previously mentioned items simply give a lot more resistances.

When to buy?: Whenever you have enchanters on your team and you're not going to be affected by enemy grievous wounds. Only buy late game.

General items:

These are items we will get every game due to their great efficiency.

Jak'Sho, The Protean:

This item is always going to be in our last build, however, getting cheaper items + components is always going to result in higher EHP and more tankiness than going for Jak'Sho, which is why we'll delay it until the very end of the game.

Protoplasm Harness:

When to buy?: Protoplasm Harness has been recently nerfed for tank junglers who rushed it 1st item, and it has sadly also affected our build path. This item is no longer viable as a 1st item rush, but it still remains as a really efficient item to have in the later stages of the game.

Against heavy AD comps:
If you buy Unending Despair as 1st item, the best time to buy Protoplasm Harness is at 3rd item. It's not better than Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart because we don't have that much armor yet at that point of the game making the Protoplasm Harness healing a bit worse than the stats provided by the other two items.

If you buy Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart as 1st item, these two items grant high amounts of armor really early (the number is even higher due to the item upgrade at lvl 13). In this case, Protoplasm Harness will be viable as a 2nd item buy (because the heal scales with your bonus resistances) in situations where we don't get to heal much with Unending Despair, so the heal from Protoplasm Harness will be a bit better. However, I don't recommend buying this item until a bit later into the game if you know for sure that you will be hit with Grievous Wounds before its activation.

Against heavy AP comps, Protoplasm Harness will always be bought as 3rd item, and in mixed damage comps, we will get it 3rd or 4th depending on which threats exist on the enemy team and if they have grievous wounds or not.

Last/situational items:

Warmog's Armor:

If the enemy has a lot of armor pen, it's best to buy this item for more HP instead of another armor item, because armor pen will lower its value.


Thornmail:

This item is really situational, since it's really inefficient to build and most of its gold cost is focused on the Grievous Wounds passive, that's why it's only worth finishing as a last item. We also have to make sure that the champions on the enemy team that heal do auto attack us during teamfights, that's why it's not even worth building against champions like Swain, Cassiopeia or Aatrox.

Abyssal Mask:

This item is not worth considering at all to buy early against AP damage. It can, however, be a useful item late game as last item if we want to boost our team a bit more, obviously only when our team is mostly AP.

Support items:

Support items such as: Bandlepipes, Knight's Vow, Zeke's Convergence and Locket of the Iron Solari can all be built last or even a bit before, if you are really ahead or if you think you just need to make your team survive and you're not going to be targeted.

Bandlepipes: this item is generally good when your team has 2+ champions that can benefit from it.
Knight's Vow: this item is the general support peeling item that you can build. You can put it on both the ADC, if you think he really needs to survive and he's going to be the main carry, or on any bruiser that's going to go in first with you and receieve a lot of DMG, as well as deal a lot too which can heal you quite a bit as well.
Zeke's Convergence: can be built as well mainly for the R cooldown reduction, but the slow can be good as well against immobile teams.
Locket of the Iron Solari: if your whole team is vulnerable to big AoE damage combos from the enemy team.

During the early game it's important to play as consistent and as solid as possible to guarantee a good transition into the mid game where you will be looking to impact the map with your R.

- Focus on CS and taking short and safe trades.
- Don't spam your Q since you will be running out of mana quite fast. Instead try to use it in conjunction with your other abilities since they deal more damage. To follow up on this advice, preferably save your Q to farm melee minions and not ranged minions, since they give less gold.
- Try to maintain the wave on your side of the lane where you can more easily knock up the enemy with the walls near your turret. You will also be able to farm more safely and scale.
- Don't be afraid of trading with the enemy. This depends on the matchup, but Ornn is a really strong laner despite being a tank thanks to his W damage and his passive. Whenever you have your W up, you can look to trade if the enemy wastes any CD, and you can also get out safely with your E.

The way you're going to play the mid game is going to depend a lot on many factors such as gold lead, composition, power spikes etc. However there are some general guidelines you're going to want to follow:

- Try to get as much XP as possible:
Whenever you don't have your R up and there isn't any big objective coming up, you will generally look to stay in a sidelane getting as much XP possible so that you can get your upgrades as soon as possible.

If you have your R up:
Whenever you have your R up, you should take a look at the map every so often to look for potential plays. For example if you're in toplane at minute 15 and you have just finished shoving the wave, or if you're coming out of base, you can look to roam mid or even go bot and use your R from river. Even if you don't have your R up, if you're coming out of base in the mid game, it's recommended to walk to toplane through midlane and hover for a few seconds around there in case a fight starts. If nothing happens, you can simply walk back top through the jungle and you don't miss any CS.

- Ganking with Call of the Forge God from outside vision is something many enemies don't expect, and with the instant slow your allies can easily follow. Most times, you will burn their summoners or get the kill with the R knock up.

- Group with your team for objectives
Whenever there's a big objective coming up like Drake or Herald you should save your R to fight it so that you maximize the chances of you winning the fight. Ornn excels at teamfight and playing with the team, so try to group for big fights. Ornn doesn't really excel at splitpushing since he can be easily kited and he doesn't have the ability to force trades with the opponent in side or to easily take turrets. He also has 1 single mobility ability on a relatively long CD which makes him vulnerable.

If you have TP up however, you can push the opposite side of the map and join the team with TP before the fight starts to have maximum impact.