Team Guide by Saltie

Introduction

In this guide, Orianna is built as a high AP harass champion, and Soraka is a heavy support. It will feature an in-depth analysis of both champions.

Here's the video form of the guide:
Here is the champion spotlight for Orianna, courtesy of Riot Games:

Pros / Cons

Soraka

Pros:
- Fantastic late-game heals
- Virtually never runs out of mana
- Can stack Mejai's Soulstealer from anywhere on the map.
- Can easily prolong an allied push

Cons:
- Works best if your Orianna isn't a baddie
- Very gankable
- Terribly low health until mid game

Orianna

Pros:
- High damage output
- Rewards players who can aim their skillshots
- Very long range
- Great 1v1 champion

Cons:
- Dependent on all abilities
- Not a lot of defense
- Very elaborate skills

Summoner Spells

Soraka

Clairvoyance - A very useful spell for spotting ganks (Soraka's worst nightmare). It's saved me hundreds of times.

Clarity - Mostly used to keep Orianna's mana up. Also, your Infuse will mostly be used for keeping enemy champions at bay, not replenishing mana.

Orianna

Ignite - Let's face it, Soraka does hardly any damage. But we'll forgive her since she's keeping you alive. That being said, your abilities coupled with Ignite gives you maximum damage output when laning with Soraka.

Flash - As a defensive tool, it allows you to make quick escapes over walls, or just put distance between you and enemies. It can also be used offensively to catch up with other players, giving your ball significantly more reach.

Runes

Soraka

Massive AP. Yes, you will be very weak early in the game. After building up your cooldown reduction, and getting a few stacks on Mejai's Soulstealer however, your low health won't matter. As long as you stay near teammates, you will be able to heal through just about anything.

Orianna

A common rune page for AP casters. Ability power, Mana per 5, and magic penetration will all strengthen your offensive spells, while movement speed benefits both chasing and fleeing.

Masteries

Masteries are usually the most unique part of any build. Most people know which are important, and then bicker about the filler points. I will explain some of the smaller choices for each champion here.

Soraka

Archaic Knowledge - While you are by all means, a support character, 15% magic penetration is still very useful when you are harassing with Infuse, and Starcall.

Good Hands - Wish is one of the most important abilities you have. The faster you can recover from a death, the sooner you will be able to use it (if needed).

Why not invest more in Meditation and Expanded Mind? - there is no need for additional mana masteries as Soraka. If you are ever low, you have both Infuse and Clarity to restore mana.

Orianna

Meditation - Even though you are laning with Soraka, you will still run out of mana. Meditation alleviates some of the dependency on Soraka, letting you cast more spells.

Perseverence - If Soraka is doing her job, you won't be dying very often. That means Good Hands is nearly useless. The only other useful mastery at this tier is Perseverence.

Starting Items

Soraka

Amplifying Tome - This, in conjunction with your runes, gives you a ton of ability power. More importantly, it builds into Mejai's Soulstealer, a key part of Soraka's build.

Health Potion - A little redundant on a healer right? Well, not entirely. Since you are starting with Infuse, you won't have your heal until level 2, and even then, it won't be very effective until at least level 4. It's very important that you stay in the lane until level 6.

Orianna

Ruby Crystal - You will be the main source of damage in the lane, and need to be aggressive. The bonus health from this gives you more survivability, and also ensures that Soraka can get a heal off before your opponents do too much burst damage. This also builds into a catalyst the protector later.

Early Items

Soraka

Mejai's Soulstealer - This is the most important part of Soraka's build. As soon as you hit level 6, and have 800 gold (enough to upgrade your Amplifying Tome), go back and buy this.

The key to building Mejai's Soulstealer, is Wish. Watch every lane carefully, and use your ultimate right before a teammate scores a kill. The heal will grant you an assist, and give you an easy stack. DO NOT use Wish to save allies who are being idiots, at least not at the start. It is more important that you save Wish for building Soulstealer, so that you can be more effective during the mid and late game.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - The second component to Soraka's build is cooldown reduction. This cheap early item fills that role.

Orianna

Catalyst the ProtectorCatalyst the Protector - Builds into Rod of Ages later, and the passive takes some of the stress off Soraka's job. This is your first priority.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - More cooldown reduction means more balls in your enemies' faces. Grab this after your Catalyst the Protector.

Mid-Game Items

Soraka

Soul Shroud - An incredible item for Soraka and the last piece to your cooldown puzzle. After Soul Shroud, you can max out your cooldown reduction(40%) with one of the following: blue buff, Elixir of Brilliance, or a 20-stack Mejai's Soulstealer. It's also going to give Orianna 10% cooldown reduction, and 12 mana per 5.

Aegis of the Legion - A great defensive tool that works well with other support-oriented items.

Orianna

Rod of Ages - A fantastic item for any AP champion, this will give you very high health and ability power. It's important to get this as soon as possible so that it's passive will grow early. In some cases, you may even be able to skip your Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and get this extremely early.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Another high health/high AP item. The passive snare also works incredibly well with Orianna. Since every one of her abilities has some form of AoE, you can slow entire groups of enemies.

Late-Game Items

Soraka

Abyssal Scepter - Ability power and magic resist for survivability. The debuff, in addition to Starcall, is going to make Orianna hit champions insanely hard.

Will of the Ancients - When combined with the bonuses from Soul Shroud, Aegis of the Legion and Consecration, you become a walking buff-mobile, vastly improving any friendly champion nearby.

Orianna

Rabadon's Deathcap - More AP means more damage. If you get this far into a game, and Soraka has finished her items, God help your enemies.

Lich Bane - You will be using your abilities very often. This ensures that even your auto attacks will proc Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Clockwork Windup, and the 7% movement speed is just icing on the cake.

Void Staff - This brings your magic penetration up to 48. With Soraka's Starcall and Abyssal Mask, this will make your opponent's magic resist hilariously low, almost to the point of overkill.

Soraka's Skills

Consecration

Consecration(passive) - Increases surrounding allies' magic resistance by 16.

Starcall(Q) - A shower of stars falls from the sky, striking all nearby enemy units for magic damage and reduces their Magic Resistance by 8 for 8 seconds This effect stacks up to 20 times.

Astral Blessing(W) - Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring health and granting bonus armor for 4 seconds.

Infuse(E)- Restores mana when used on Soraka. If cast on an allied champion, restores half that mana to them and half to Soraka. If cast on an enemy champion, silences them for a few seconds and deals magic damage.

Wish(R)- Soraka fills her allies with hope, instantly restoring health to all allied champions.

Soraka's Skill Sequence

Soraka doesn't really have a skill sequence. Instead I'll use this area to discuss some of the finer details of her abilities.

Starcall is fantastic for farming minions late game, but does very little when you first pick it up. One of it's most useful attributes is that it can reach over walls and hit stealthed units. That means if you are running around spamming Q and it activates, there is probably a ward, champion, or pesky mushroom nearby.

Astral Blessing is a great heal. Even if you and your team are at full health, it can still be a useful tool. Casting it on a siege minion will not only heal it, but also give it armor. This significantly increases the time you can spend hitting a tower before your minion dies. You can also deny minion kills on enemy players by healing the minion at the last second, throwing off their timing. Just make sure you don't do it too often or you will have to start sacrificing Infuse to keep your mana high.

Infuse is easy to learn, and difficult to master. during early game, you want to try and use it on enemies more than allies. Silence casters or aggressive melee champions. Mid game and late game, you should be at the back of team fights. Obviously if an enemy is in range, silence them. If not, replenish someone's mana.

In layman's terms, use Infuse every single chance you get, preferably on your enemies. Also try and keep Orianna's mana above 30% at all times. Use your Clarity if she ever goes below ~10%.

Wish was already explained in the item section, but here's a refresher. DO NOT use it to save morons. Until you have a few stacks on Mejai's Soulstealer, your ultimate is pathetic. In many cases, it still won't save them. Use Wish right before friendly kills to grab free assists, and build your Soulstealer.

Late game, you should have enough AP and cooldown reduction to blow Wish whenever you need to. If you finished your items, the cooldown on Wish is only 60 seconds. Even if you only have a 50% success rate, you're still saving one idiot from getting killed every 2 minutes. I'd call that a damn good deal.

One last note... Junglers and stealth champions are your worst enemy. Use Clairvoyance every chance you get. In many cases, Orianna will be much more confident than you. If you don't feel comfortable, stay back and let her push alone. The closer you are to your tower, the better your chances of survival. Losing out on a wave of minions is preferable to being that guy who fed early game.

Orianna's Skills

Clockwork Windup(passive) - Orianna’s autoattack deal additional 5/10/15/20/25/30 (+0.2 per ability power) magic damage every hit, subsequent attacks on the same target within a few seconds will add 15% more damage per hit. This bonus stacks up to three times.

Command: Attack(Q) - Orianna commands her ball to fly towards target location, dealing damage to targets hit but doing reduced damage for each additional target hit. Her ball remains behind at that location afterwards.

Command: Dissonance(W) - Orianna commands her ball to emit a magnetic pulse, dealing damage to units around it. Afterwards, the ball leaves a field behind for a few seconds that speeds up allies and slows enemies.

Command: Protect(E) - Orianna commands her ball to fly to and attach onto an allied champion, dealing damage to enemies it passes through and shielding the allied champion when it arrives. (The allied champion the ball is attached to gains bonus armor and magic resistance)

Command: Shockwave(R) - Orianna commands her ball to emit a shockwave after a short delay, flinging affected enemies in the vicinity into the air a set distance towards, and possibly over, her ball.

Orianna's Skill Sequence

Managing your ball is crucial to playing Orianna, even at level 1. Sending your ball into enemies is easy, but keeping it near them can be difficult.

You want to max out Command: Attack (Q) first, since it is your primary source of damage. Since you have Soraka, your mana is basically unlimited, meaning you can use Q on enemies as you please. Not only will this keep them away from Soraka, but it also keeps enemy players away from minions, denying them experience.

At level 2, you get Command: Dissonance (W). This ability deals damage in a small circle around your ball, wherever it may be. It also speeds up allies, and slows enemies. Using this with Command: Attack will cause a large amount of damage. The downside is that Command: Dissonance is a huge mana drain, even with Soraka. That being said, do not harass with this. Instead, use it to slow chasing enemies, or as a finisher. This is your next priority after Command: Attack.

At level 3, get Command: Protect (E). It is a moderate shield, with a fair amount of resistance. All you do is select the ability and click on the champion you would like to protect. Your ball will move toward the selected ally, dealing damage to enemies in its path.

Command: Protect is also a decent farming tool. You can use Q to hit a wave of minions, E on yourself to bring the ball back through the wave, and then another Q for a third hit on the group. Command: Protect will seem weak in the early stages of the game, and it is. This shouldn't worry you too much though, since Soraka can protect you better than a lone shield. Your other abilities are far more useful. However, it can still be used end game for moderate damage, and save an ally from the occasional poison or Ignite.

At level 6, you will get your ultimate, Command: Shockwave (R). This is by far the hardest ability to master on Orianna. In a circle around your ball (much larger than your W), enemies will be thrown toward the ball, and take massive damage.

This is very important and should only be used at the end of a fight. When the enemy is running away, let them run into your ball. When they pass your ball, use your ultimate. This will send them flying toward the ball and into you, allowing you to finish them off or continuing fighting.

In team fights, you may send your ball into the group of enemies and hit R without the intention of flinging them a specific way. This ability does massive AoE damage and can be used to make or break a team fight. It is also a fantastic control mechanic when paired with a similar champions' ultimate (such as Nunu, Gangplank, Amumu, Fiddlesticks, etc.).

Final Thoughts

Soraka

You ARE the team. You are a walking, healing, aoe buffing, ray of hope, and you are useless on your own. Always follow a teammate and you will do great. Stray from the path of support, and you will quickly become a feeder.

When you start a game, pick the lane closest to the Ancient Golem . Between a push, you can grab the blue buff (with Orianna's help), which lets you use your abilities as often as you want. Orianna can harass on top of a tower ten time more effectively if you have the mana regen and cooldown reduction from the blue buff.

Orianna

In most Orianna guides you are prompted to get at least one powerful defensive item. While I tend to agree, it is actually not required when you are partnered with Soraka. Her support allows you to to go balls-to-the-wall, with little to no effect on your survivability.

Your job is to do maximum damage, and maintain lane control; all at a safe distance. This never changes. You are the AP carry, and Soraka is your figurative bellboy. Never let her die, do your best to stay with her at all times. If you have to go back, make sure Soraka does too. She can't hold the lane without you anyway. At least not until late game.

Champions that best compliment the twin terrors:

Amumu
Blitzcrank
Brand
Galio
Nunu

Thank you for the interest in my guide. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please leave them. I will do my best to reply.

Update, here are the 6 first games that we have played where we have strictly followed this guide:
When I post the video we will have a larger pool of games to show.