Orianna has been an underplayed and under appreciated champion for a long time. I love playing underused champions to try to prove that they are viable, and I think that I have been successful with Ori. She provides tones of utility, damage, and cc to a team, and is one of the best laners in the game in my opinion. Orianna excels at shutting down the enemy mid lane, while supporting the carry on her team and providing strong aoe damage and cc to teamfights. She is great for escaping or chasing with your team since she can slow down everyone on both teams with a well places Command: Dissonance, and is a fantastic follow-up initiator if you have someone like Amumu, Alistar, or Wukong by throwing Command: Protect on them and then using Command: Shockwave after they initiate.

(p.s. This is my first Guide so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.)

Pros

great farmer with all of her spells
excellent at exchanging in lane because of her shield
great utility to her team with speed/slow and shield
never has to facecheck a bush
hard to gank because of her speed steroid and shield
great ganking partner if your junger has strong gap closers.

Cons

can be counter picked quite easily if you pick her too early
weak to teams with a lot of cc
requires a lot of practice to master because of her high skill cap.

I prefer to use a defensive rune set, because Ori get free defensive stats from her E, making her very tanky in the early game. Standard Magic penetration reds for damage, health per level yellows, because you should not be spamming to farm in the first few levels, and it really helps with your ability to exchange in lane. once you have enough gold, you should be basing to get chalice anyway. Flat Mr blues add even more tankiness to your early game. Finally, I use 2 Mr quints to round out your magic resist to 20 from runes alone, and 1 Flat Hp quint to give you a bit more tankiness. This runeset provides great harass and exchange potential in lane, and stays pretty good into the late game. If you find that you are having mana problems, you can use Mana regen/lvl yellows, but that severely cripples your exchanging power. I occasionally run 3 Mana regens and 6 Hp yellows, to give a good amount of both stats.

, and some good late game damage too. In the defensive tree, I take the 3 points in Magic resist, and then go with the health and armor masteries to provide maximum tankiness at level 1.

At the start of the game, you should always wait to take your points until you have to leash or if you spot an invade. More often then not I prefer to take a single point in E at level one to give you the extra armor and mr, but taking a point in Q is also viable, as it allows you to scout bushes and give your jungler a stronger pull. At level 2 you should take a point in either E or Q, depending on which skill you took at level 1. After this, W should be maxed, followed by Q, and then E. This sequence gives the most harass and farming potential, as eventually you will be able to farm the back wave by throwing your ball at them and popping W. If you find yourself taking more harass than you want, put a few more points into E before maxing any skill, as this gives you more resists and a bigger shield to block damage. Obviously, max your ult whenever its up.

The item build that I focus on being tanky enough to survive burst, while still being able to burst down carries really well.

Situational Items

This item is really good on Ori since she auto attacks for damage anyway, but to get it I feel like you either need to sacrifice your guardian angel or your void staff. This either makes me squishier than I prefer, or I just get walled off by people stacking MR If you are doing really well and not getting focused, then swap this in for your G.A.



Another really good item for Ori, but agian you have to sacrifice something for it. the best option I can think of is probably Rod of Ages, seeing as they give similar stats, but rod gives more of everything by late game, and she can already slow with her W.


Once again, a fantastic item for Ori, but you ahve to sacrifice another item for it. If you are getting focused completely, this in combination with G.A. can really get you out of a tough spot, and it gives a ton of AP to boot


Only if you are dominating.

Farming

Ori has excellent farming portential. With a few points into her she can clear the back wave with - . Once she is at max level and has a good amount of AP, she can farm by throwing through all of the minions and then using on herself to pull the ball back through the minion wave. positioning is important for this, as you have to make sure that your will hit as many minions as possible on its way back to you.

Exchanging

Orianna is one of the best laners and exhangers in the game for several reasons. For one, her auto attacks hit much harder than an average mid laner due to her passive. She can shield herself to block a large portion of the damage that her opponent throws at her, and she will also have higher resists than her opponent. When harassing, throw your ball either behind the enemy or lead them with it, hit them with , and then pop . You should also get in as many auto attacks as possible, since the damage increases with each hit. With this, your early exchanging power will almost surely win the lane. if the opponent is stupid enough to try to do harass you more than once, then punish them for it and assert your dominance.

Ganking

Orianna is an excellent ganking partner. This is because she doesn't telegraph that her jungler is near in order to get into position. To do this, when your jungler engages shield him with especially if he has a gap closer. This will put your ball in range to land your which will slow them and speed up your jungler. Finally, throw your through your opponent so that it is between them and their escape route. If they are not dead at this point, then wait for them to walk past your ball and then use to pull them back once again. Don't forget to auto attack as much as possible.

Harassing

When harassing, wait for your opponent to go for a last hit, and then lead them with your Command: Attack and pop your Command: Dissonance. This will take out about 1/4 to 1/5 of their health mid game, so do it often. Another strategy is zoning with your ball. If you nkow that your opponent is going to go for a last hit, keep them from getting in auto attack range with your Q. if they venture to close, punish them with W. One final trick is to throw your ball at their minions and leave it there. I can't tell you how many times I do this, and then when I don't immediately pop W, they just walk up to their caster minions thinking its safe and then I get to farm the minions and harass them at the same time with W.

Counters to Orianna

If you are forced to pick early, expect to see this guy. He can take your harass all day, and dish it out pretty well too. Where he really beats you, however is through pushing power. Galio pushes very hard, and untill you get a few levels in Command: Dissonance you wont be able to push back without eating your whole mana bar. When facing him, you should try to avoid his harass as much as possible while constantly auto attacking him or his minions to push back and keep the minions from your tower.


Orianna has a pathetic base armor rating of 11. While this is somewhat alleviated by taking early points in Command: Protect, he will still out damage you, and can just blink past your ball if you throw it at him to harass. If you are up against him, try making your E and your W every other level, and don't throw your ball around in lane. this will mean that you have the most armor possible for when he blinks to you, and after the silence you can pop your Command: Dissonance if he is still in range, and constantly auto attack him since it will still hit pretty hard. Also try to pick up an early Chain Vest for your Guardian Angel later, since it will help with his damage.

Champs that Orianna Counters

ect.
My Orianna build focuses on stacking Magic Resist early, meaning that most standard nuke mid lanes cannot touch you. If they try to exchange with you they will surely lose, since they do no damage early due to lack of enough magic penetration to counter your tankiness, and the fact that you have a shield that can still damage them.

Teammates to Look For

JUNGLERS
Jax Amumu Master Yi
these are all champs with strong gap closers, allowing you to throw your ball on them and let them take it in range for your other spells. this means that you can stay back and look passive until they are already on top of your opponent, and then hit them with all of your spells very easily.

Top Lane
Wukong Jax Renekton Irelia
Again, strong gap closers. Wukong is an amazing teammate for you because your ults synergize perfectly.

Supports
Sona Alistar Nunu & Willump
All of these champs have some kind of AOE component to them, meaning that they go well with your strong AOE damage as well.

AD Ranged
Miss Fortune Varus Graves
These carries have good AOE ults. Graves in particular is very good with you because he gets free armor and magic resist from his passive, and with your ball he is pretty much unkillable.

I hope you found this guide helpful and it leads you to sucess. Again, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated since this is my first guide. Please vote and leave a comment explaining why you voted the way you did. Thanks!