Hello all, this is my first guide so here goes.

Orianna is without a doubt one of the hardest heroes to learn, as if the difficulty bar under her stats was not enough. Regardless of how tough she may seem to learn at first, I can tell you that after practicing with her everything will become second nature. That's why I am writing this, to help people get over her initial quirks and help master her.

As for the picture of Carl and Nirvana, well Orianna looks like Nirvana, plus there are other similarities.

Please let me know how to improve this guide.

FYI: CDR= Cooldown Reduction

Pros:

Really great zoner, can push solo lanes very well.
Portable wards, AKA her ball.
Ball serves as a great initiator in combat.
Can really turn team fights around.

Cons:

Requires mana management.
Ball use does require good amount of practice.
Being careless is more costly with her, trust me.

Runes are a simple caster set, allow me to splain:

Mark of Insight: Magic Pen, good for now and later. Since your ball does less damage for each target it hits, excluding dissonance, this helps you hit a little bit harder.

Seal of Replenishment: Most of Orianna's mana problems come from early game, this helps to soften that divide a bit.

Glyph of Force: Rising AP is always a good thing. In addition to the mastery, this will help your spells out when they start to matter.

Quint of Potency: Gives the right amount of AP to help you last hit minions with your passive, and also hurt champions early game also.

Simple caster build. Took most of the cooldown reduction ones to help avoid spending too much on CD in-game. Utility for the most part helps her out alot, giving her tools to overcome her mana problems, and to help with her escape tools (ie. Flash).

Offense is the most logical choice to put the rest in, since she really only requires the first 9 points into it.

Flash: The all purpose eject button. Saves your life when you really need it to. Orianna can kite pretty well, but this is there in case things go horribly wrong.

Teleport: I have found this spell to be more useful than most others, except flash. Getting to the front lines faster or to spots where you are needed. With the masteries listed, you will be using more often than others would like.

Feel free to experiment with other spells. These are the ones I find acceptable.

Ignite: Extra damage and reduced healing, not bad.
Clarity: Until you learn mana management.
Cleanse: Useful in conjunction with Flash for those GTFO situations.
Ghost: Useful when combined with Dissonace for real trail blazing.

Everything else, NO!

Clockwork Winding: This is your last hitting tool. You NEVER use Command: Attack to last hit or you will burn your mana early. This damage bonus is an inital flat amount plus a percentage of your AP, which increases as you attack the same target (stacking 3 times).

Command: Attack: First point should ALWAYS go in here. This skill has more value than you might think. Let me put it simply, its the I want to be there without getting my face kicked in button. Use this to be in places you want to be which would be too dangerous otherwise. For example, in the top and bottom lanes use this as your scouting tool for the brush. I cannot tell you how many times I have averted a gank using this. Don't put too many points into this early on since you really only use it to move the ball early game. Oh one more thing, it does less damage the more targets it hits.

Command: Dissonance: This is your farming, ganking, and burst tool all wrapped up in a neat little package. This is the first skill I max out because it helps you farm the gold needed to fund the rest of this war machine, lol pun. Not to mention that it makes a terrific harassing tool, slowing your enemies and speeding up allies. Launch the ball toward the enemy and quickly use this skill, it takes off a nice bit of health and you can keep doing it. Also use this for brush scouting. If you hit someone in the brush use Dissonance and quickly turn the tables on them.

Command: Protect: This skill saves lives and ends them. It passively gives armor and magic resist, and upon casting will shield them for some damage. It will also damage those who are in its flight path. Stick it to melee champs when they gank, and then use Dissonance for extra damage and give them the speed they need to catch the enemy (plus the slow for the enemy). Also make it a habit of using the auto self target, Alt+E. This will quickly bring the ball back to you, shielding you as well. This is mostly to prevent yourself from getting killed. More on this later.

Command: Shockwave: In my opinion, this is one of the better skills she has. This functions as a sort of whirlpool, popping people up and in the direction of the ball and sometimes over (dance party!). This is know as the You-are-not-going-anywhere button. The key to this is knowing the area of effect, its slightly larger than Dissonance. YOu need to time it properly, to the point where they are just about to leave the AOE in order to have the greatest effect. There is a slight delay on the spell, so that is why you must not wait till the last moment. Damage is nice too.

Doran's Ring: I start with this because the stats are just too good to miss. Hp for survival, AP for your spells and passive, and mana regen.

Tear of the Goddess: Since you will be using your skills OFTEN, it helps to have an item to reward that. Before you know it you will have reached the cap for it (1000 mana), then you can build this into Archangel's Staff.

Catalyst the Protector: This comes second after tear, since the extra health and mana are pretty much gravy and the passive is pretty nice. Build this into Rod of Ages.

Boots: For her I choose the Ionian Boots of Lucidity for cooldown purposes. With cooldowns you can use her skills more often thus filling the Cap on Tear and Archangel.

To be honest I never had a fight go on long enough to build the other items in this set, but here goes anyway.

Deathcap: Massive AP, what's not to love?

Banshee's Viel: Tankier stats and a Spell Shield in case you find someone who REALLY does not like playing with dolls. Also since she is kinda squishy this helps to avoid the first CC to spell your doom.

Frozen Heart: Really just an extra slot item, use this for adapting to the fight. I just choose frozen heart since I dont like melee people, and I love extra mana and CDR.

Early Game: Start off by last hitting mobs with the help of your passive. Use Command: Attack to scout the brush before you start to avoid giving them first blood. Once you get Dissonance, start harassing the enemy champs by using your Q>W combo, Attack and Dissonance. A word of warning, be SMART! Do not spam this or you will run out of mana. Try to gauge where they are most likely to run and then hit them with it.

Mid Game: Most champs would gank other lanes at this point, but you don't. Truthfully Orianna works best when she is backing someone up. She has many tools to help prevent your lane from getting ganked, and tools to get everyone out. Continue pushing your lane until towers start falling down. If you feel you must gank, do it will a melee partner, the Protect>Dissonance combo really kills enemy champions.

Late Game: By now you should have enough Hp, Mana, and AP to start participating in teamfights. The important thing to remember is to use the ball to initiate. Throwing the ball out there does help ward the champs away, since no one wants to be pulled in or slowed. Once the fight starts, try to keep the ball the the middle of the action. A handy combo to learn is Attack>Shockwave>Dissonance. This pulls everyone into the middle and slows them down, plus it also deals a nice chunk of damage to all.

-Use Command Attack to scout potential ambush points, namely brush. It saves lives!
-Attack>Dissonance is a great harassing tool, but don't go trigger happy or you will burn through your mana.
- When laning it is best to "set" the ball near high traffic areas of the lane. This way you can spring Dissonance when enemy champs get close.
-Another important thing to note is that your ball has a flight speed. The ball does not instantly teleport to where your courser is, it takes time to get there. This means that if you try using Attack when the ball is too far away, odds are your opponent will dodge it in time. Keep the ball set in high traffic areas and within a relativly close distance to your opponent. This way as you push, the ball has less distance to travel, which makes it easier to hit your opponents.
-USE PROTECT! This skill saves lives. You will be surprised how often you can save someone with Protect>Dissonance, even your self.
- If you are being chased by an enemy, to slow them down aim the ball a little bit ahead of them and then use Dissonance. As I said before, the ball has a flight time, you need to aim it a little bit ahead of where your opponent is going if you want to hit them, otherwise Dissonance will miss.
-Attack>Shockwave>Dissonance really helps those team fights. Pulling everyone together and slowing them, plus some nice damage, really changes the pace of the battle. YOu can also combine this with with a Tibber's stun for more insanity (any AOE nuke will do, just as long as its quick enough).
-If the enemy runs away do not try to chase them with your ball, you will NEVER catch them. The flight speed is too long and gives them enough time to avoid the area of effect spells it uses. You are better off sticking it to an ally and helping them chase the enemy down.

So there you have it. I only found all this out after lots of practice, plus genius :). Hopefully this will help the lot of you perform well if you choose to use her.

THANKS FOR READING!