Orianna is an AP Mage that is highly versatile and has a kit that fits seemingly any situation. She scales extremely well throughout the game, has an extremely strong laning phase, and will devastate enemies health bars well into the late game. All of her abilities are AOE, and can be used to engage/disengage teamfights with ease. If you're looking for a strong ap carry that has it all, (but comes with an extremely high skill cap), orianna should be included in your lineup for both ranked solo queue and ranked 5v5.

Pros - All AoE - Strong cc - High ratios - Completely Unique Playstyle - Always useful - Super safe pick - Very rewarding

Cons - Hard to master - Susceptible to burst early on ( LeBlanc, Annie) - Positioning-Reliant - Main source of damage is from a skillshot. - Tricky Mechanics

Smart Casting is a NECESSITY in League of Legends. It gives you much faster reaction times and enables you to chain together your abilities so much easier. With Orianna, you have to be quick as your cd's are rather low in mid to late game fights. With smart casting, you can get those clutch saves with your shield, and time your Command: Shockwave so much better. Try it!

[runes=This is a standard AP caster setup. The Greater Mark of Magic Penetration give MPen, which increases our damage done by spells, by ignoring some of the target's MR. Along with our Sorcerer's shoes, this will allow our abilities to deal their full damage early game. The Greater Seal of Armor and the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist provides some defensive stats for the early game, and Greater Quintessence of Ability Power provides us with some much needed damage. With its defensive aspects, this rune set grants slightly more room for error, and is suitable for a variety of playstyles.

Other runes I'd possibly consider include Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration, Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power, Greater Seal of Scaling Health, and Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. Though having increased mana regen or ap would boost your landing phase damage and harass, you would be sacrificing vital defensive rune choices. I wouldn't really recommend them. Scaling Health seals are a fine choice however, and are quite nice if you are against a heavy AP team. As for the quintessence, it's more of an utility pick. The lack in damage can be difficult to work with, so it's a very situational and only grants you better roam and dodging of skill shots.

---

Masteries

Self explanatory. I take all AP and Magic Penetration bonuses in Offense with extra MoveSpeed, Mana Regeneration, and Buff Duration in the Utility Tree.]
This is a standard AP caster setup. The Greater Mark of Magic Penetration give MPen, which increases our damage done by spells, by ignoring some of the target's MR. Along with our Sorcerer's shoes, this will allow our abilities to deal their full damage early game. The Greater Seal of Armor and the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist provides some defensive stats for the early game, and Greater Quintessence of Ability Power provides us with some much needed damage. With its defensive aspects, this rune set grants slightly more room for error, and is suitable for a variety of playstyles.

Other runes I'd possibly consider include Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration, Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power, Greater Seal of Scaling Health, and Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. Though having increased mana regen or ap would boost your landing phase damage and harass, you would be sacrificing vital defensive rune choices. I wouldn't really recommend them. Scaling Health seals are a fine choice however, and are quite nice if you are against a heavy AP team. As for the quintessence, it's more of an utility pick. The lack in damage can be difficult to work with, so it's a very situational and only grants you better roam and dodging of skill shots.

---

Masteries

Self explanatory. I take all AP and Magic Penetration bonuses in Offense with extra MoveSpeed, Mana Regeneration, and Buff Duration in the Utility Tree.

---

Clockwork Windup is Orianna's passive. It's great for harassing your enemy in lane and does a surprising amount of damage. It stacks up as you keep attacking the same target, so keep this in mind when cs'ing as well.

Command: Attack is Orianna's Q and her bread and butter spell. It allows you to re position your damage and use your other abilities to their utmost potential. Even though in my guide we will be maxing W, which will be explained why later, you must always be wary of your Q's cooldown and where exactly your ball is.

Command: Dissonance is your burst, disengage, and slow all in one spell. It's great in all stages of the game, allowing you for excellent harass early, and do "tons of damage" late game. We max it for multiple reasons, which I'll explain later :).

Command: Protect saves lives, period. Not only is it a HUGE shield for low allies in fights, it's also a great engage tool by shielding your tank and letting him go HAM, giving you a perfect entry way to use Command: Shockwave

Command: Shockwave destroys the enemy team and wins team fights for you. It's a huge AoE knock up and stun and when combo'd with the rest of your kit, can potentially one shot enemy carries.

Grab your Q ( Command: Attack) at level one for checking bushes for invades, poking your lane enemy early on, and allowing for much easier cs. Next, your W ( Command: Dissonance) should be taken to further dominate your lane. Much like Lux, you only have 3 damaging abilities, except you have much more damage and AoE on shorter cool downs. After your W is maxed, proceed to max out your Q so you can position your ball quicker and allow yourself a *few* more mistakes. Just remember to keep auto attacking! Be wary of junglers, though.

High level and mechanically intune players, such as Faker will max w over their q, but why is that? Q gives you decent poke on a low cool down and allows you to position your ball much more frequently. However, maxing w has it's perks also. With blue buff, it's high mana cost doesn't really matter especially after your unholy grail is finished. Maxing w gives you very high burst, in fact, at rank 5 it does only 50 less damage than your rank 3 Command: Shockwave, not to mention it gives you a great slow and speed buff for teammates.

Doran's Ring + 2x Health Potions are the standard opening items on Orianna as they give you great sustain in lane and some nice early AP for harass.

Athene's Unholy Grail Gives you great stats that you'll keep throughout the game. MR to counter the common AP mid, CDR for extra DPS, and Ability Power for the damages.

Gives you better roam potential, allows you to dodge more skill shots, and much needed magic penetration to maximize your damage. Needed especially if the enemy team is stacking magic resist, otherwise, you can pick up Mercury's Treads if they have lots of cc and are focusing you.

Rabadon's Deathcap gives you a massive boost in your damage. Enough said.

Gives you stacking magic penetration with your Sorcerer's Shoes and absolutely decimates any kind of team, especially hp stacking ones.

Zhonya's Hourglass Another nice boost to your ability power and offers nice defense against burst. A 2.5 invulnerability? Yes please. Not to mention a great boost to your armor.

Void Staff is the icing on the cake. More ap is nice, sure, but with even MORE magic penetration you are basically doing true damage to the enemy team's carries as they normally do not build TOO defensive.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is pretty good in certain situations because it offers you a lot kiting potential and some extra health.
Rod of Ages is a nice alternative to Athene's Unholy Grail and is for less experienced players that need extra hp for defense. I definitely prefer unholy grail, but it's up to you!
Seraph's Embrace another possible alternative to Athene's. I only take Tear of the Goddess when against an AD mid, though.
Morellonomicon is yet another alternative for mana regeneration. Plus, it helps against healer mids like Soraka as grevious wounds will destroy them.
Guardian Angel is pretty self explanatory. If you aren't quick enough to Zhonya's Hourglass, or really need to carry your team, this is your best choice.
Banshee's Veil is great, and just like Rod of Ages, except it ruins champion's burst combos like LeBlanc's

Rod of Ages offers great health, mana, and sustain in lane. For less experienced Orianna players, or people that would rather be a little more tanky without CDR, this is a great item!

Will turn into Seraph's Embrace which gives you a nice shield for defense, a ton of AP, and a lot of mana allowing you to spam your spells.

This is pretty much my go to item against anyone AP. Gives you way more DPS in fights through cooldown reduction, extra magic resist against your ap counterpart, and a small boost in flat damage with 60 ability power

Orianna is a completely unique champion in League of Legends with fresh mechanics to bring to the table. Her excellent kit allows her to contribute in any situation! But how does she do this? Well, with her ball of course!

Her ball, which is mostly controlled by Command: Attack is vital to be able to do anything with her. You can also move your ball around with Command: Protect, and is very good for initiating on their team with Command: Shockwave.

Even after your tenth game with Orianna, you won't be perfect at her. Just try and practice focusing on many things at once, especially where her ball is. If you screw up your ultimate, you'll lose the team fight.

Harass Combo: Command: Attack aa Command: Dissonance aa Command: Protect
Teamfight: Command: Protect your tank/initiator, let him go in on the carries, Command: Shockwave then immediately Command: Dissonance for Tons of Damage!

Last hitting is AMAZINGLY EASY on Orianna. Make sure you farm like mad, especially with blue buff and farm your wraiths, wolves, and anything you can scrounge while you aren't roaming. A quick Command: Attack followed by a Command: Dissonance on the caster minions will kill those... Then you are free to Command: Protect for damage and then again, Command: Attack the melee minions.

Orianna is a great champion for both solo queue and ranked 5v5. She is a super safe pick, and doesn't have many counters. She can work in any team setting, it's just optimal if she has someone by the ball boy like Leona to go in on the carries for her. She can easily solo carry games, as her dps in fights is really crazy. She is also super useful in communicated games via ranked 5's. She is able to protect your teammates from danger and destroy enemies no matter what the situation is, so I really recommend playing her.

Teamwork is extremely important and wins games in solo queue. Mentality in solo queue is probably the biggest and most helpful point, yet the hardest one to grasp in my opinion. The ability to make 4 people think like you do, the ability to blend yourself into the other 4 people so that you might actually be a team. It starts in champion select. I don't care if someone picks Karma, as long as they are completely confident in their ability to do well let them play what they want. Don't "OH MY GOD NOT HEIMERDINGER" when they ask for mid. Let people play what they're good at. If you truly belong at a higher Elo than you are then you will get there. You can carry a game as support, it's just more challenging and you have to be precise about what you do.

The absolute most important thing though is this: NO RAGING. The second you say something like "You are so terrible why are you in ranked?" or something even less friendly your teammate instantly plays worse whether or not they admit it. Instead of putting your teammate down try to give helpful advice. "Stop feeding" is not helpful advice. "Play passively" isn't either. Typically what works for me is saying "Just cs until I gank for you." That statement goes hand in hand with my next point.

Every loss is your fault. This is a philosophy that I adopted and after doing so I quickly raised 200 Elo. Some of you might say "But Ucazean, I just went 30/0/5 and I just couldn't carry! I had a 0/X/0 on my team!" I don't care. It's your fault. You should have prevented their team from capitalizing on your weak link, whether that be by warding for him, ganking for him, or just plain out sitting in his lane with him as a support. Do something to fix a mistake. If you don't you're in no place to point a finger and say "Your fault." This philosophy is taxing on oneself mentally because it's hard to see how to do better when you have double CS of your lane and you go something like 10/0/10. While you played well, their team played better. Maybe after your third kill you should have tried to give your kills away to give weaker players gold. Maybe the 10 assists you have you should have stolen the kill to keep the gold where it will be in use (away from your weaker players). They don't call it Solo Queue for nothing.

One of the most important mechanics to Orianna is having good positioning and Gragas has the ability to force you to be out of position. During laning phase you can start 2 HP potions and Doran's Ring while maxing Q. If Gragas opts to try harass with his Barrels instead of clearing the wave use your abilities to shove him to tower. You also have a Range advantage and harass him with your auto attacks/passive pre 6.

Since you won't be needing any Magic Resist against Zed you can starts Doran's Ring and rush into a Tear and another Doran's Ring instead of Chalice. The HP from 2 Doran's Ring would help you survive his burst damage as well as the Mana Regen would be beneficial as you won't be getting a Chalice. If you feel the need to you can also rush a Seeker's Armguard after Tear.

Syndra is very problematic for Orianna due to Syndra's ability range and poke. Start Flask 3 HP potions in this match up and rush Chalice for the Magic Regen as you will needing it in this lane. Try focus on farming and surviving the lane as well as watching for her burst combo at level 6. Use your Flask and Potions to keep your HP topped off and avoid getting killed.

Similar concept as to laning against Nidalee. You can bully and kill Ahri in lane by maxing W over Q. Ahri does have a lot more trade potential than Nidalee does so make sure you dodge her Orb and Command Protect through her Foxfire.

Start Doran's Ring and max W against Kassadin. You obviously have a huge advantage early on having wave clear and auto attack harass. Use Command Protect on yourself when you see him trying to Q you and you won't be harassed down at all. Look for kills on Kassadin before he hits level 6 before after that you will be in trouble.

Start Doran's Ring and do everything you can to bully out Fizz. Orianna has everything in her kit to shut down Fizz in lane. Maxing Q in this match up to zone Fizz and harass with auto attacks. If you see Fizz trying to dash into you just use Command Protect on yourself and trade him back as he walks away. You will be able to win trades against Fizz and keep him down pre 6.

Ziggs is a great counter to Orianna as he is able to out push and out harass you with his long range bombs. The best you can do is try to dodge his skill shots as he lobs out seemingly endless pain, also, consider maxing q and trying to out farm him.

Warding has changed in S4, allowing everyone on the team a chance to allow vision for their allies. As Mid, you should always take the free ward trinket at the beginning, and upgrade it in the later stages of the game. Not only do you constantly try to keep this ward up somewhere on the map, try to also buy extra wards for your team to control objectives and jungles on both sides of the map. As Mid, you should ward key areas for your team.
A ward by the enemy wraith camp is a great spot as it stops river pressure, shows your team where the enemy jungler is, and allows you to "steal" their jungle camps if you get ahead of your lane.


On the other side of your lane, opposite of the enemy wraith camp, warding the "banana bush" is equally effective for you and your team. Though it's usually only necessary to ward the enemies' wraiths, this is a useful spot as well.

That's it for now I hope you enjoyed my super in depth Orianna guide! It's my second guide and I'm still super motivated to put out new content so stay tuned! Please feel free to criticize my work and vote on it, will be constantly looking to update it when I come across something to add. Thanks Again!