E and W are the most important things to have early game for support. You're not looking for damage through abilities, rather through your autoattacks and innate. This guide is really good. Oh and at the person who said you're giving up too much damage.. Thats the point of being support.

You wont earn enough gold as a support to buy a decent amount of damaging items, so the point of a support is to passively gain gold and use their built in abilities to help the team. Because of this, champions with base defensive stats to share (Ori's E), Hard CC (R), and soft CC to buff allies/debuff enemies (W).

Any support champion will do more damage built AP, unless you're an idiot you understand that. But in 5v5, 1 person wont get farm. That person becomes the support, and Ori works great without much farm.

I played support Orianna in ranked:) my Diana was 10/0/6, and I got kill late game in team fights:) I did used my own supports build, not this one, but I do like the idea of her as support:) Orianna is great ap mage, but I never been able to play her quite well that way, while as support i rock with her:) pretty nice build though, but I will stick with my own, still good job:) Sup Ori is awesome:)

Nice guide! Helped me with finding the best items for her. :) I played Orianna support before I read any guide on her. Everybody told me it's not good for serious games, but I think she is really one of the best supports in the game now and I really don't understand why a so small group of people play her like this. :D

Command: Protect scales with AP... and end game you have 80 AP... your shield maybe viable for early game, but late game you bring next to nothing to the table with this build. I seriously don't like support Orianna and I refuse to play her that way, but two things you left out about Janna is that she has her Howling Gale which has an extremely good knockup that has 1700 range. Also, Monsoon can be used to initiate, retreat, or heal every member in your immediate vicinity.

By no means have you sold me on why Orianna should be played as a support especially when you consider the amount of damage you could be doing and how much more you could do to save your teammate's lives if you built AP.

In reference to what Bluetapeboy said:
Rylai's is week on Orianna, you're right about that and I don't really suggest it. WotA is good on her, but only if you actually do damage. With the minimal damage Command: Attack and Command: Dissonance have in this build it really wouldn't be worth it at all. True, it will help out the rest of your team, but idk, doesn't sound like it would give her any measurable amount of sustain at all.

To dieatze:
You haven't seen a build like this in competitive gaming because there are many better supports than Orianna.

Sorry to come down on you rossplatte but I don't think you have priven in any way that Ori should be a support. I have a support build in my guide but I don't even endorse it because I really don't feel she should be played that way. The only reason I have it is for is someone wants to try it out for the hell of it... not for any type of serious play.

yea but otherwise i like everything else in the guide, except for one thing -

the 6th item

i personally feel supports shouldnt get a 6th item, well, because they're there to buy wards, lol. i just think randuins doesnt fit in well with orianna, and the locket would fit her better, a quick locket+E shield is a LOT of damage shielded, and the aura is nice when your just poking right before a teamfight, along with the fact that it's cheaper.

i also think you should list things like WoTA as your skills are AoE, but it would also affect your AP carry a ton as well as other teammates who use magic damage alot (kog,corki, urgot, jungler/solotop, etc)

i also see why rylais might be good, but orianna already has a slow she can use with her ball (W) which is stronger :P

Thx for your good criticism, it is a good hint. I will explain why I prefer E->W->E:
Early level up is very fast you will get level 4 after about 3 minutes in lane. So you have your Q early enough for agression. On the other hand you dont need your Q for escape when you get an enemie gank, because you speed up your carry. BUT if your own jungler gives you an early gank you are right, than you should go for an early Q.
So thx again for your hint.

seriously

ball at level 4?

you should get your ball much earlier, atleast lvl 2, maybe even level 1. your ball has MUCH more use to be that ignored. acts as a ward(less money spend on wards, can check bushes easily, etc), easy to harass their carry with, push lanes when needed, position to speed/slow... etc. its very hard to use your W effectively without having your Q.

i suggest E->Q->E->W, E->Q->W, or Q->E->W. Your slow/speed isnt as important to get before lvl 1 in ball for the same reason sona gets her Q before E - orianna is a very aggressive harass-based support.

just my 2 cents. played support orianna before, and just saying, you NEED your ball before level 4. must.

Waow...
I just tried Support Orianna in some games and I'm impressed she really is good.
Thanks for opening my eyes!
just wondering why she doesnt have a place in competitive gaming yet.

Pretty nice and Handsome guide i wish i could see more support Oriannas ingame.