This is the second draft of my first guide. The purpose of the guide, to provide a comprehensive introduction to a very entertaining champion, has not changed in the least. As such, the introduction, as well as many other parts of this guide, are copy-and-pasted from the original.

I simply hope it is much improved over the first draft, which can be found here.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION:

Orianna is, simply, the most versatile caster in the game. She has ridiculous cc (crowd control), ridiculous burst damage, even more ridiculous sustained damage, ridiculous zoning power, a ridiculous ability to push, ridiculous support power, and "sharp things." But she is also the most difficult champion to pick up in the game, even more so than Leblanc: and a million times harder to master.

This guide is only an introduction. It is, however, a very COMPREHENSIVE introduction. Like many guides, nothing in here is set in stone. Feel free to make any changes you see fit, but if you would be so kind tell me what you changed in the comments to help me improve this guide.

Pros:

• Excellent damage output, both burst and sustained
• Lots of cc
• Amazing juker
• Very, very good zoner
• Fantastic early, mid and late game
• Incredibly fun
• Hardest caster to master (more fun!!!)
• Her damage is entirely inconspicuous

Elementz phrases Orianna's strengths quite well when describing her on his tier list, saying that "[a]s far as AP carries goes she has literally every aspect you'd need on one on her." (Yorick Era, Draft Mode, found here)

Cons:

• SQUISHY
• Very very very very very mana-hungry
• Difficult to pick up
• Ult can be very hard to use and must be timed perfectly
• Predictable harass

Marks: The flat magic penetration from Insight is always useful. It is also pretty much a caster's only choice.

Seals: She has constant mana problems. Use Replenishment if you want to focus on your early game and (Greater Seal of) Clarity if you want to focus on your mid-to-late game.

Glyphs: Because Celerity is not good for her, as explained below, Focus and Force are really her only two options. NOTE: Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction is not an option because it gives you little to no CDR bonus early game and late game gives you two unnecessary % of CDR. You only NEED 15%, which you get with a combination of the masteries Sorcery and Intelligence and 9x Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction.

Quintessences: Early game especially, Orianna is SQUISHY. Thankfully, Fortitude solves this problem. You can use three of these if you want, or you can change them out for quints such as Insight or Potency. I usually go with 2x Fortitude and 1x Insight.

Frankly, I feel naked without teleport. It makes ganks so much easier, lets me be present at teamfights I would otherwise miss, and gives me a safety net for laning.

Flash is just about as good on Orianna as it is on Annie, if not BETTER. It lets you pick up those kills you otherwise couldn't get, and unlike on Annie, lets you run away from ANY gank or bad situation when combined with Command:Dissonance.

I do not think Clarity is strictly necessary on Orianna, as some do, but without it you can't really zone and will occasionally run into mid-game mana problems.

Ghost is a good substitute for Teleport or Flash. I like both of those spells better, but if you prefer Ghost that's fine too.

Ignite is amazing. However, it doesn't provide you with mobility like Teleport, Flash and Ghost do. Use at your own risk.

Clairvoyance is incredibly useful throughout all stages of the game. Whether you want it on Orianna is, again, personal preference. Like with Ignite, use at your own risk.

This spell is...meh. I've tried it in 5v5's, and it's ok, but any other spell listed above is better. Try it in 3v3's, though, where you don't need Teleport. It would be a good substitute for Clairvoyance.

Some combinations that work better than others:

I have two builds for this guide, Nuker and DPS. As for now, I have no intention of adding a third build to cover the other possible option for Orianna: Support. I believe that there are too many disadvantages to a pure-support Orianna. These reasons are listed below, as are explanations for the other two routes.




This is the most straightforward way to build Orianna, and perhaps the most effective. Since she can do ludicrous amounts of damage very quickly with her ball, this routes exploits the speed of her ball, or her burst damage. It focuses around stacking AP but mixes in a fair amount of survivability.




This build focuses primarily on synergizing with Orianna's passive, Clockwork Windup. It replaces survivability with a mix of CDR, AS and AD, but of course leaves in a substantial amount of AP. You have to play very safe with this build, because you are muuuccchhh squishier.

Your role in teamfights changes: you still have to be moving your ball around constantly, but you can deal tons of damage to their carry with your autoattacks while you do it. Think Teemo, if you had as sexy a ball.

You also become insanely good at pushing/backdooring with this build. This is the real advantage versus being a straight-up nuker.




Orianna is very item-dependent. She is essentially useless without farm. Granted, with this build she has a better early game (for the carry you are laning with at least), but you suck balls (their Orianna's, probably) for the rest of the game. This is assuming that you change your skilling order to max out Protect early, which opens up other cans of worms entirely.

Secondly, although her shield is very powerful, it is not Janna's insta-shield and requires lots of skill and/or foresight to make your carry want to thank you.

Besides, if you're good with your ball you should be shielding with Protect and saving lives with Dissonance anyways. You do not need to change your build to support your teammates.

You can try it if you like, but don't waste ELO on it.

I frankly do not see any point in filling out this section, as others before me have done it better.

For skills, look at Noitcurtsed's guide for Orianna especially: found here, it details the many uses of her ball and is a very good guide in general. Please upvote it, if you haven't already. It's outstanding <3

On the subject of other really good guides, give sua1ty's guide a look. It won't help you as much with the proper usage of your skills but details a very unique and effective way to play Orianna.

Those are not the only two awesome guides out there, of course, but they are the only two I will mention here for fear of boring the reader.

I disagree with one small aspect of Noitcurtsed's guide, however. Clockwork Windup is more effective early-mid game, this is true, but after level 10 the damage does not become negligible. The damage it does depends more on how you build Orianna than anything else.

NOTE:

Her passive, although it does not stack on turrets, deals damage to them!!!!!!!!! I need the exclamation points to describe exactly how wonderful this is. This is what makes AS Orianna good!

If you have trouble understanding it, think of it as an ability that deals extra magic damage with each attack, has a pretty bad scaling of .2, and deals more damage if she attacks something really fast.

(Corresponding to the first build above)

You always want to start the game with either a Sapphire Crystal or a Meki Pendant and health pots. From there, you will always want a Tear of the Goddess next, with Boots coming right after.

Next you can either finish your Archangel's Staff for a HUGE increase in damage, or you can build survivability/support with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter. But either way, you will finish one of those two items next and get upgraded boots (preferably Boots of Lucidity, but Boots of Swiftness and Sorceror's Shoes work quite well too) before finishing the other.

If you want, you can replace Rylai's with a Rod of Ages. This will give you more health and AP in the long run, but for it you sacrifice Rylai's passive, which is INCREDIBLE on Orianna. If anything, I would get it alongside a Rylai's, not instead of.

Next comes the Rabadon's Deathcap, which is the last item before the build branches off into situational items.

These are listed below:


These two are your preferred choices, one if they are AP, and the other if they are mostly AD
If you aren't comfortable with Abyssal Scepter, or simply simply need more survivability, go with this.
I <3 this item late game
I personally don't like this on Orianna, but if you need some extra CDR because you didn't go for Ionian boots, this works well for that.
Same as with Deathfire, except late game I like it even less.
Meh.
This one's pretty damn good on Orianna: even her passive procs spell vamp. It just doesn't increase her damage output immensely like Zhonya's or Abyssal Scepter do.
JUST DO IT




Early game is the same, starting with a Tear and level one Boots, but directly after you get your Tear you will build a Fiendish Codex into a Nashor's Tooth. From this item ALONE, you will reach the CDR cap of 40%, get a very nice bonus to AP, mana regen for your terrible affliction, and get a massive 50% AS increase!!!! Itemgasm!

Next comes level two boots. I highly recommend Boots of Swiftness.

After your Boots are finished, you will either finish your Archangel's, for the extra mana regen and AP, or buy a Guinsoo's Rageblade. But you must do at least one before you branch off into survivability items, which for you will either be a Banshee's Veil or a Rylai's Crsytal Scepter. After you get survivability, finish/buy the other item and work on a Lich Bane. Finish up your build with a Rabadon's Deathcap.

But honestly, after you get Nashor's Tooth, the build order is entirely up to you.

An analysis of other items:

It gives you almost no AP and the damage bonus is neglible, and the AS and the passive are both wonderful. It is still a very cost effective item, but is really good early-mid game, and at THAT point in the game you need to focus on solving mana problems more than anything else.
Get Lich Bane instead. More expensive but muuuccchhhh better.
Not bad at all on Orianna. I just like other items more.
No.
Very good on her. Again, it just isn't my personal preference.
If you need the cc reduction from Tenacity THAT bad, just get Mercury's Treads.
Viable, for sure. You want AP, but this item's is much cheaper than it's sister Arachangel's and it always tempts me.




If you get get mega-fed, this is the way to go. Play smart though because you have no survivability, but remember that the best defense is a good offense.

I <3 everyone who reads this guide and comments on it.