I am currently a 1700 Orianna player, even post-nerfs. I mained her with a a 70% win ratio in season 1, and plan to do the same throughout season 2. Orianna is a viable pick in all elo ranges at the moment, even after her range nerfs. Her laning phase has taken a rather large hit to its dominance from those range nerfs and mana cost nerfs. This means you must play her more cautiously and focus on farming rather than harassing them down. She shines in mid-late game because of how her kit is set up; allowing her to do extreme amounts of damage and keeping the enemies grouped together, all while giving her team utility with her shield and speed up. Overall, I think she is a solid champion, but requires a good amount of practice to understand and utilize the ball correctly.

A MUST for pretty much all AP carries; provides a solid boost to damage throughout the entire game.

or First rune for more sustain in lane and second for more damage mid-late game.

or Like the above, first setup gives more survivability in lane and second gives tons of late game damage.

Gives Orianna some early game damage and scales decently into late game.

Masteries should be the standard 9/0/21. The only questionable difference is either 1/1 greed and 2/3 meditation, or 0/1 greed and 3/3 meditation. I have started to use 3/3 meditation more often after the nerf because of her increased mana costs.

A must have on pretty much every champion in the game.
Extremely strong for finishing off enemies while abilities are on cooldown and add to your combo's damage.

The skill sequence on Orianna is debatable. You can max either Q or W first. The reason I have always maxed my W first is because of the fact that it does stable damage, and doesn't decrease based on how many objects are hit. Another key reason I max W is because the increased slow allow you to get in extra auto attacks as the enemy attempts to run away. This does NOT mean that maxing Q is unviable, as many other Oriannas that are high elo do max her Q first.

+ 3 Gives lane sustain and the much needed movement speed to avoid harassment and ganks, while providing a nice offensive synergy with her auto attacks and passive.

Early Game Goals:

This gives Orianna early game damage, survivability, and sustainability.

Mid Game:

This gives Orianna and all other ap carries the immense amount of damage that they need at this point in the game. Having the deathcap makes her a huge teamfight presence in the case of dragons or an early baron attempt.

Late Game:

or This is dependant on whether or not the other team has a good amount of CC.

At this point people WILL have Magic Resist, and this combats that extremely well. I often make this directly after deathcap, before upgrading my boots because this + deathcap leaves you with 400+ap and the penetration makes you absolutely the most terrifying player in the game.

This allows Orianna to pump out her damage, and in the case you get engaged upon by a gap closing melee, you can be well protected as your team can assist peel the melee off of you.

This can be made before zhonya's as they both provide protection from the opposition. This should be a guarantee buy if they have a suppress champion. If they do not have a suppress champion, but have a game changing ult like you definitely want to have this item.



Viable Items

+ 3 Still start with the almighty boots/pots.


The item i used to rush on pre-nerf Orianna. This item will delay your damage output for quite a bit of time BUT it allows you to have a great amount of hp throughout the entire game and gives a solid amount of AP/mana.

This gives a huge damage boost early game. The reason I grab these early compared to the first build where I don't buy them at all is because of the fact that I get void staff second in the first build. When starting with rod of ages, your void staff will not be able to be bought for a long while, so the magic penetration is needed at this point in the game.

Still need the deathcap to have a healthy amount of AP.

Once you buy the void staff, you can actually sell your sorcerer's shoes and replace them with or .

At this point in the game, buy what is needed.

Orianna is not that strong in lane anymore after the nerfs so play it cautiously and farm with your powerful auto attacks. Focus on not missing any cs and pay attention to the opposition's playstyle. If they are a passive and you see them harass you all of a sudden make sure to be aware that it is very likely you are getting ganked. Use your to speed yourself and slow your enemies that chase you and accordingly. At level 8 you should be able to farm the caster minions with a + combo. You should be able to win the CS battle against pretty much any other caster in the game by focusing on your last hitting. Ask for the second blue buff if you can as that makes you extremely deadly in lane.

Once dragon fights start to appear you should be extremely powerful and have an immense amount of utility. If the other team is doing dragon and you can catch multiple people in a + + combo, your team will indefinitely win the team fight.

As late game rolls around and you have 400-500 AP you should be the biggest threat in the game. You want to position yourself on the other side of walls if you can and shield your initiator. Once they engage you want to position the ball where you can catch as many people as you can with your devastating .

Orianna excels at pushing towers down as a team with her tremendous poke damage. Constantly harass them under their tower as your team slowly destroys it. Also remember that does do a solid amount of damage so abuse it when finishing off low players.

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