There is a reason the Orianna is banned repeatedly in ranked, just as there is a reason why she is my favourite AP champion.

She is complex, and the sheer amount of what she is capable of will shatter your brain when you initially begin learning her.

If you have any knowledge of how to play ranged champions, and any driving force to support your teammates, you will find there is no better champion for the job.

Unlike my other builds, I will go into great depth with Orianna, to give you the best insight I can. She is so fun, she deserves nothing less.

Pros
Versitile
Very decent burst
AOE haste
AOE slow
AOE stun and knockback
Long range
All abilities, including passive, scale on AP
Shield and stat buff for self/ally
Able to farm minions comfortably, while harrassing enemies off-hand

Cons
Will usually be focused
Insane amounts of focus required to maximize potential
No hard CC despite Ultimate, IE: no stun/root

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - The best rune for an AP champion with a build revolved around solid AP and tankyness. These babies will make each little twitch of your ball sting.

Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration - Despite their earlier nerf, these are still the best mana regen runes for the job. At lvl 7 they are more potent than flat mana regen.

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - Makes your abilities more frequently useable, more potent than Glyphs of Celerity up until lvl 13. After that, the minor bonus you'd get hardly justifies the detrement you suffer early game.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - Flat AP. More potent early game until beyond lvl 10. Getting these will net you an early kill moreso than AP/lvl.

If you don't understand runes, check this guy's post out. It has helped me out with my rune pages immensely.
Competitive Rune Analysis

Focuses on offensive tree.

You have Utility Mastery for a reason, harvest buffs and use them when able. Don't forget to spam when you have blue, make it so your opponents can't breathe.

Orianna scales very well with AP. All of her abilities do damage, and benefit from it. With points set in the offensive tree, it will make each and every thing she does hurt just a little more.

- Insanely underestimated. This is what makes Orianna better than any other AP. It scales in damage with your item build. Your auto attacks will become more and more painful if you are skilled enough to land them. This puts Lux's passive to shame.

This should be levelled up first. Positions the ball for dmg, but all in all should be lvled first to minimize your mana consumption on harrassing

a very nice AOE burst, as well as very strong utility. I get it at lvl 2 to enable a double tap if I start winning my lane for dmg harrassment.

Very good utility. This allows you to play your ball off of your allies. Bear in mind whoever has the ball gets increased resists besides the initial shield. Also you can play spells off your allies as well. Level this up after Dissonance if you are laning with a melee champion.

Very powerful when used correctly, needs a lot of practice to use well. Combined with a dissonance follow up, this can devastate, especially when you hit a large portion of enemies with it.

Gets you moving about quickly. Allows you to cover more distance than you would with a flash, so it is better for chasing, or retreating. Orianna should push forward and backward, and support her teammates who do all the crazy stuff involving flashing around. You should be vigilant, and not have to have a flash in your back pocket to leap over a wall. Don't get in that position in the first place.

An alternate SS would be if no one on your team takes it. But that is a given neccessity for nullifying AD carries you burst in during teamfights, every team should have one, and if your's doesn't, don't hesitate to take this.

I've began to use this spell in combination with These two are very good at giving you that extra edge in your lane if you are solo.

Good if you are in the bottom lane. You will find yourself burning through mana faster in this position.

I'm not sure why people leave this item as it is. A tear does not raise up to +1000 mana, and then you get another +1000 mana from the item you build from it. UPGRADE THIS BAD BOY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I see many people playing Orianna, who are really struggling not only in the mana regen department, but also early game damage. Early game, try focussing on staying away. You see your enemies charge you, run away, you see your enemies fall back, advance. Bear in mind champion abilities, as well as enemy summoner abilities, you shouldn't have to worry about early game health. You have crazy range with your ball, with practice you should be able to damage enemies with them being able to harrass you minimally.

After you get your initial You should have decent mana regen for spamming repeatedly, as well as AP to make each twitch of your ball send enemies reeling. After that build another for even more pain, then start with your . This item will start raising your AP/Health/Mana early game, so you get the maximum benefit later. Another possible course of action is to build catalyst the protector first, as the health will give you a bit more survivability, and the mana will work with

As your enemies start attempting more brazen ganking attempts, your juking may not be enough to avoid the damage, and the health may be warranted at this point. will come next. This is when you start becoming a problem. With so much health, in addition to your continued efforts to avoid damage, you will be a royal pain in the arse. The slow will make getting kills seem like child's play to you if your allies are worth their salt. After that, boost your AP with a , following up with magic pen if your enemies are getting lots of magic resist, or if they are instead trying to rely on killing you as a means of dealing with your damage.

Focus on your last hits. Don't just auto attack minions. Get the gold from each minion death. Orianna still has insane range with her abilities so keep the ball slipping to and fro to dissuade enemies from getting close. Once you get , you will be able to do fairly decent burst. Stay away, don't let yourself get hit. Remember you have an AOE slow/haste if you are jumped, including a shield if you are lvl 3/4, depending on when you wish to get it.

Orianna does surprisingly well fighting jungle minions solo. I definately would not suggest jungle with her, but if your allies are not making the effort as the game progresses, don't be afraid to walk in and 2-shot wraiths or wolves with and . Also, rotation of all your non-ult spells can handle blue buff and even dragon at lvl 10+ with fairly low health loss on your part and with early game equipment.

Command: Protect opens up all the world to you. Use it on melee allies, and just leave it on them. Learn to play the ball off of them. Give them a burst of speed if they are chasing with Command: Dissonance, this can be used in reverse if you are helping them escape. Command: Shockwave can be used with the ball on an ally to throw a target they are ganking over their head, doing significant burst and slowing the retreat even more. Remember to re-activate the shield portion of Command: Protect when it's active, moving it around if there is an opportunity to get damage with it. ALSO remember to use it if an ally is low health and ignited or under some similar DOT so that the shield will save them.

Command: Dissonance is very awesome. Use it on yourself to get a speed boost when returning to your lane. Placing Command: Protect on an ally running in front of you, THEN bursting your Command: Dissonance will give you BOTH the speed buff when traversing the map. Use it when the ball is on an ally running away from opponents, use it when an ally is attempting an engage on opponents and he needs that extra burst of speed. Use it directly after Command: Shockwave to apply that crazy double burst and slow.

Command: Attack is used for mobilizing your ball. Use it for getting the ball in position to burst enemies at a comfortable distance. Bear in mind it can be used if your Command: Protect is on cooldown to land an emergency Command: Dissonance for yourself or an ally. Check brush with it, scouting ahead of your team as well as yourself as you move along. Bear in mind its vision range is not that long. In the top and bottom long grass sections for instance, if you pop it in just a teeny bit into the grass, enemies could still be hiding on the far edge, out of the LOS.

Command: Shockwave A spell that takes much practice to fully master the knockback effect. Use it in combination with Command: Dissonance with a fleeing ally, to toss his opponents backwards, away from him. This may take a bit of practice, and remember to use Command: Attack to line up this particular maneuver instead of Command: Protect.

Clockwork Windup is very underestimated. You always want to be avoiding taking damage, and if you are succeeding in that task, focusing this passive on someone will tear up their health surprisingly fast, especially as your AP begins to rise. Never forget to auto attack when you are focusing down an enemy. Firing all your burst from a crazy safe distance might make it so you never ever take a scratch, but landing those passive hits will get you WAY more damage output, and secure kills you otherwise may not have achieved.

Remember, as your build progresses, you will become a priority target. Bear in mind to stay safe, scouting will become of extreme importance.

Orianna is probably the most fun AP champion I play. In the lineup if she's available and we have some decent melee carries on our team, I will most often take her. She synergizes very well with supporting melee champions.

When I initially tried playing her, she made my head hurt, and I would die repeatedly for stupid reasons. Tailoring this build, and developing this playstyle, it was like a light came on in my head. Suddenly I am able to do crazy things with Orianna. I would recommend her to anyone looking for a challenge to be bested. She has the potential to rock this whole game.

Thanks for taking the time to read, hope this helps you. They'll come apart so easily, you won't be able to put them back together again.

Please vote if you find this helpful, horrible, solid, or arousing. Also I would be interested to hear feedback from people who try this build.