Welcome to my first ever guide! I've spent quite a bit of time playing as Orianna, and want to show you how I like to build/play her. I know that I play her quite a bit differently then most people, but if you try it out I think you will like how much fun it is, and you'll surprise plenty of other Mages with your Magic DPS output. Read up and leave your tips and helpful suggestions in the comments!

Insanely fun to play with- - - - - - -Very difficult to get the hang of

A consistent threat at all levels- - - - - - -Can drop quickly if focused

A strong individual, and team fighter- - - - - - -Mana hungry at early levels

A lot of players don't know how to fight her- - - - - - -She talks like a total creep

One of the best tool kits in the game- - - - - - -People are gonna make ball jokes

Quintessences -Lets start out with our Quintessences. With 3 Quints of Transmutation, you start the game with 6% Spell vamp. Who doesn't love that? By time you make it to the end of the laning phase and its time to really make your presence known on the battlefield you will have plenty of ability power. The spell vamp will give you a little edge over your opponent, and keep you in lane just a little longer early game. Mid/Late game you will make your way to 26% life steal if you reach full build. With Orianna's powerful AoE damage, you can pull hefty amounts of health from the entire enemy team.

Seals -The Seals are pretty straight forward. Ability power. Do more damage. In the beginning of the round it will give your abilities a little bit more snap, which will give you plenty of harass early game.

Glyphs -Before you pick up Rod of Ages Orianna is pretty mana heavy. Her harass is pretty dependent on spamming her abilities and you will almost always running low. These Glyphs give you an extra 100 mana right at the start of the round, which is even to fire of an extra W for a kill or a getaway.

Marks -Magic penetration! Another pretty standard rune to have on an mage or caster. They build magic resist, you cut through it. The magic pen will give your ability power that extra edge to finish off kills and cut through creep waves.

If you would like you can also choose to go with straight ability power Quints, like most people do. But I like the sustain and the advantage you gain from surprising your opponents when you heal off of them.

Masteries are also fairly straight forward. The Offensive masteries are your standard AP Carry set. Ability power, damage increase, magic penetration. All good things. Everybody like the executioner mastery, because every likes to kill people. The cooldown reduction is especially important for Orianna because it gives you more and more opportunities to spam your abilities to harass, farm and send out waves of damage in team fights.

On the Utility side of the Masteries I make sure to go with the summoner boost because yes, I do use Clarity, I will explain later, and the extra 20% is a nice touch. The mana and mana regen both help with your mana dependency, and the extra buff duration really helps for when your jungler hopefully gives you blue. The movement speed is always a good thing, and there is no need for the ward bonus, because you can use your ball to check bushes when the enemies are mia.

This is where my build gets interesting. If you notice, my build have quite a bit less ability power than most Orianna builds that I see floating around.

The Ionian Boots are a pretty common item, cooldown reduction on Orianna is a big deal. With low enough cooldowns you will be able to spam your abilities at terrifying speeds.

I always make sure to rush Rod of Ages, so that I can get my ten minutes of stacks early. This is what gives my Orianna enough mana to move away from her addiction to blue buff and clarity, and enough health to keep her from being focused and taken down too quickly during team fights. I feel like you can wait until after you've got the rod of ages to get your boots. That is up to you, and will most likely change round-to-round.

The next item I go for is Malady. This is one of the items that is key to my Orianna build, and I will explain why in the next chapter. This gives you extra sting, and gives you another way to last hit minions and finish the lane phase very strongly.

One of Orianna's greatest roles in a team is her power as a mid-game duelist. Once you have picked up your Hextech Revolver you will be able to take down even the most formidable foes in a 1v1 throwdown. At this point you will be at an 18% Spell Vamp level, and with Orianna's ability to spam her abilities you will be healing and dealing damage at a quick enough pace to plow through enemies and creep waves to help your team, or push a lane solo.

She's a mage. Next stop Rabadon's. Its a standard item for AP carries. If you are attempting to play Orianna I'm sure you know why.

Wit's End! The next key piece to this Orianna build. I know it is a very odd item for an AP carry, but I will explain it in the next section.

If you have time, pick up Will of the Ancients. It will give you another piece of ability power, and 26% spell vamp is great when you are pulling health from all 5 enemy team members.

The key to this Orianna build!

Orianna's passive ability "Orianna's basic attacks do bonus magic damage. This damage increases the more Orianna attacks the same target"

So, at base damage Orianna's attacks do a minimum of 50 bonus magic damage, plus 15% of her ability power. Lets do the math. With your ability power at 310, 15% is 46.5.

Now we add that to the 50 base damage, So 50+46.5 = 96.5

Now we add our key items. Malady adds bonus magic damage of 20, and Wit's End adds another 42. Which means altogether your basic attacks are doing a total of . . .
96.5 +
20 +
42 =
158.5 Bonus magic damage every single time you basic attack someone. When you add this to your 90% increased attack speed you become a Magical DPS machine. Not to mention your amazing utility and magic damage from your items. With the toss from your R, and the slow and damage from your W, you can mow through enemies with ease.

I put a point into my Q and E for ball control at the very beginning of the round. Your Q is the easiest way to move your ball around the battlefield. I would never level anything else first. Next I level the E so that I can bring my ball back to myself. After the first point in E, I leave it their for last. If you want to play support Orianna, you might level differently. The last thing I put a point into is my W, however I max this first. With W maxed, at level 7 you have a combo of 475 Magic Damage between your R and W. If you have already picked up your malady you can turn turret hugging into a quick kill in a quick combo and a few auto attacks. Next I max my Q for the lower cooldowns, so that by Mid-Game you have picked up Hextech Revolver and will be able to out duel anyone on the battlefield, and cause massive terror in team-fights.

Flash

. Everybody uses it, and its a great idea on any kind of carry. You guys all know why you use flash.

Ignite

. If you have mastered the ability to control your mana, taking ignite with you will help you deal out damage and finish off those foes that try to escape.

Exhaust

would not be a terrible decision. However, Orianna already has a slow that can be cast from her ball at a range, and it should be enough to give you enough time and damage to finish off your enemies.

Clarity

Orianna can be mana heavy if abilities are spammed, and if you are having continuous mana issues, taking clarity with you can help you around the learning curve, however! Ignite is a better option for really making your presence felt on the battlefield.

In early levels, the best way that I have found to farm with Orianna is to wait until the minions are full health and then swipe your Q across the wave to finish all of them at the same time.

After level 7 or 8 minion farming with Orianna because so simple its almost sad. Use your Q to throw the ball through the minions and into the back row of casters. Keep it close to the front row of minions and hit W then watch the entire wave explode.

After you have picked up Malady your auto attacks have enough speed and sting to last hit minions in order to conserve mana if needed.

Orianna's toolkit is not only a great set for her, but comes into play in several ways during a team fight.

Offensively your ultimate is a great help in a team fight. It helps you do plenty of AoE damage while also throwing their entire team out of place. The best ways I have found to use this are to throw an attacker of of your ADC if they found their way into the middle of the fight, or to grab the enemy ADC or mage and toss them into the fray, where they will be taking the AoE damage from the entire fight.

The other piece of your toolkit that will be very helpful to your team is your ability to save an important team member from death. You can use your E to shield a team member who is low on health, and then your W to give them a speed boost out of the fight, and slow any enemies who might try to follow. Since I max my W first, you are giving a 40% speed boost while also slowing enemies by 40% if they step into the AoE.

The other advantage you have as Orianna is the ability to control positioning of the enemies during a team fight. Throw your ball into a position that forces the enemy team to group up in a bottleneck, or keep them away from important team mates. It will only take a couple of times in order for the enemy to learn that if they go near your ball they will be taking over 300 magic damage being slowed for your team to hopefully focus them down. After a couple mistakes you will be able to move the entire enemy team around.

Try it out! Give yourself a couple rounds to get the hang of this kind of build. Let me know what your think after you spend a couple rounds listening to people rage about how Orianna just took them down with her auto attacks. You're going to have the power to spam damage from your abilities, and throw out insane DPS purely from auto attacks. Orianna has a toolkit of CC, quick damage and a self-shield. When you add 158 magic damage from each auto attack, you become unstoppable.

Leave your thoughts and comments! Let me know what you would do different, and what you liked. If you leave good feedback I will update it in this guide or make another with your ideas in mind! Thanks for reading!