Welcome to my in depth Orianna guide! I'm Yeager, a high elo midlaner in league of legends consistently reaching at least master tier on EUW since season 5. I spend some of my free time creating high quality educational content to help you improve and become a better player. Why should you play Orianna? Ori is known as the queen of midlane because of her safe and strong laning phase that allows her to be blind picked, and do well into any matchup. She scales well throughout the game and brings a lot of damage and utility to her team. Her unique playstyle makes her hard to master, but once you get the hang of it, you will start seeing great, consistent results. If this sounds interesting, then Orianna might be the right champion for you!

Pros + Queen of midlane + No hard-counters + Brings a lot of utility & damage + Powerful zoning ability As previously mentioned, Orianna is a great pick in soloq because of her strong laning phase and teamfighting potential. She is a control mage that does well into all matchups, so there are no hard-counters, making her the perfect blind pick. Ori also brings a lot of AOE damage/cc and utility to her team with slows, speed-ups and a shield. Proper management of the orb can turn it into a powerful zoning tool, keeping enemies away from objectives.

Cons - Hard to master It may sound wierd but Orianna doesn't really have any real cons, which of course means no counters. Even the best soloq player in the world, Dopa(Also known as Apdo) said the same here. While she is somewhat easy to pick up, she does have a high skillcap. It can be quite difficult to keep track of the champion and the ball at once, especially during skirmishes or teamfights, so it will take a lot of practice before you can fully master her kit.

The absolute best summoner spell in the game. It can help you reposition for a beautiful, game-winning 5 man Command: Shockwave or let you escape and reposition when caught in a bad spot. As the midlaner, you are the ace of the team, so having a summoner spell like Flash is crucial so you can stay alive as long as possible. Always have this summoner on Orianna.

Allows you to recall early and teleport back without losing cs and gold, so you can stay even in difficult matchups. You can also help out your team around the map. Also a great choice against roaming champions like Taliyah, Aurelion Sol, Twisted Fate etc, so you can follow their ganks It's mostly used with Unsealed Spellbook.

My go-to secondary summoner spell on Orianna. She's a strong lane bully but she lacks that extra bit of kill pressure to finish off opponents early on. This works into most matchups but you should avoid taking it against safe champions that are difficult to kill, usually long range champions like Lux and Xerath.

Defensive choice with a much lower cooldown compared to the other summoners. Combining this with your Command: Protect makes you very hard to kill for any opponent. It's a great pick against champions with burst like Zed, Talon, Katarina and Fizz.

If the enemies are stacked with CC be sure to have this. Orianna isn't that mobile, so a mid + jungle duo with hard CC can easily put you down in the laning phase and teamfights. Examples could be Lissandra, Sejuani, Elise, Syndra and Twisted Fate.

Summon Aery: Has amazing synergy with Orianna's kit and aggressive playstyle in the laning phase. It's an early game focused keystone that empowers lane dominant champions with extra damage on auto attacks and abilities. Allies protected by Command: Protect also benefits from the additional shield strength through Summon Aery. Compared to other keystones, Summon Aery has a very low cooldown with reliable damage, so that makes it a perfect choice on Ori as it helps her towards establishing lane dominance more than any other keystone. Manaflow Band: Must-have on control mages as they are naturally a mana hungry class that will run out of mana fast if you are mindlessly spamming abilities. Orianna can get the stacks rather easily and benefit from the regen passive which will help out a ton as soon as it's available. Absolute Focus: Gives you a lot of AP if you manage to stay healthy. Orianna is very safe and hard to punish as most of her damage comes from her ball with decent reach, so ori will often be out of range from opponents while dishing out damage. That of course means she has an easier time staying healthy compared to a lot of other midlaners, so she can benefit more from Absolute Focus. If you value the CDR over AP, feel free to go for Transcendence as that's also quite good, since you never have to worry about overcapping with CDR. Gathering Storm: A scaling rune that's useless early but slowly ramps up and becomes one of the best runes in the game. This is incredibly powerful on control mages, which is a class that shines in the mid-late game teamfights. Since Orianna is also a lane bully, you can swap this for Scorch if you want more pressure early instead. Taste of Blood: The most popular choice in this tier among Domination users. Orianna has no built-in sustain, so Taste of Blood will make her trading potential better while also keeping her healthy. Ravenous Hunter: It's a scaling rune that requires 5 stacks so it obviously has no impact early. Once you do get all the unique takedowns(assists also count), is when the permanent sustain from this rune becomes godlike. You can easily heal up to full health from minions or jungle camps, and stay healthy for upcoming fights and objectives.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Clockwork windup (Passive): Orianna's autoattack deals additional magic damage. This damage increases the more Orianna attacks the same target.

Q

Command: Attack (Q): Orianna commands her Ball to fire toward a target location, dealing magic damage to targets along the way (deals less damage to subsequent targets). Her Ball remains at the target location after.

W

Command: Dissonance (W): Orianna commands the Ball to release a pulse of energy, dealing magic damage around it. This leaves a field behind that speeds up allies and slows enemies.

E

Command: Protect (E): Orianna commands her Ball to attach to an allied champion, shielding them and dealing magic damage to any enemies it passes through on the way. Additionally, the Ball grants additional Armor and Magic Resist to the champion it is attached to.

R

Command: Shockwave (R): Orianna commands her Ball to unleash a shockwave, dealing magic damage and launching nearby enemies towards the Ball after a short delay.

When playing Orianna, you will always be maxing the abilities in the same order. The only difference is at level 1, where you can either start with Command: Attack or Command: Protect. 90% of the games you will start with Q level 1 because of its damage, poke and waveclear, allowing you to better manipulate the opponent and the minion wave to your advantage. If you face champions that have a strong level 1, for example Viktor with his Siphon Power, then you can start with E level 1, as the shield and the bonus resistance will negate a lot of the damage, while you hit back with amplified auto attacks from your passive Clockwork Windup.

Command: Attack is maxed first because it's mana efficient. It's also her main way of repositioning the ball. Putting points into this ability will lower the cooldown of it, which is extremely important as all her other abilities are linked to the ball, so being able to reposition it more often, makes her a much bigger threat.

Command: Dissonance is maxed second. A strong AOE ability that scales much better than your Q in terms of damage. It's great for clearing waves fast but also for speeding up yourself/allies or slowing enemies.

Command: Shockwave is maxed third. Orianna's strongest ability which is a AOE shockwave that after a short delay, damages all nearby enemies, and pulls them towards the center of the ball. It's a powerful ultimate that has the potential to solo carry in teamfights, if you manage to hit multiple opponents at once.

Command: Protect is maxed fourth and last. It will temporarily shield the allied champion you target, and also give them bonus resistances. The ball will stay attached to the allied champion until you manually resposition it, or if they are out of range.

Lots of sustain with 3 charges that will be refilled at the fountain, so you never have to buy Health Potions again. If you're able to constantly trade with the enemy laner and abuse the Corrupting Potion active damage, then this is a good purchase. Always buy this as a starting item if you have potion enhancing runes from the Inspiration tree.

Packed with a lot of useful early game stats. Can be bought if you're not looking to play aggressive in the laning phase.

This is a must-buy on all midlaners, as vision simply wins games. It lets you know when you can play aggressive, when you should back off and avoid incoming ganks. You can substitute this with other items later on, depending on the state of the game but you should always have it as a starting item, so you have a safety net while laning.

The first big purchase on control mages as it's packed with much needed stats like AP, ability haste and mana which is enough to get champions like Orianna rolling in the early game. It builds from a Lost Chapter which is the absolute best laning component for mages. The passive of Luden's Tempest is also quite decent and can work as extra poke or waveclear while also providing you with some bonus movement speed to kite with in fights.

The second mythic item you can purchase if you're facing a tanky team as it deals damage based on maximum health. This is also the go-to item if you want to stack up on ability haste as the passive will buff all your legendary items, and also be able to deal with bruisers/tanks.

The biggest statboost item for mages that will increase your damage output tremendously and make you stay a threat throughout the entire game. It's usually bought as 3rd item(excluding boots) or later depending on the type of enemies, and how they are itemizing. If they are building magic resistance, you want a Void Staff first.

Bought as a counter to enemies stacking magic resistance. Enemies won't have that much MR early on, unless you're a full AP comp, so it's usually bought as 3rd item or later. Blighting Jewel gives you access to magic pen earlier on now so the build path is a lot better.

These are often purchased on Orianna because they have a lot of impact in the early-mid game. The flat magic pen is quite strong because squishy champions don't have MR items this early, so you will almost be dealing true damage to them. It's usually combined with Luden's Tempest and a Morellonomicon for a massive powerspike.

Buy these against opponents with heavy AP and CC. Even though Orianna has a shield and a speed-up, she's still vulnerable to CC as she is a squishy, so she will get deleted fast if caught off-guard. These boots protects you against some of the magic damage you take, and also lowers the time you are cc'ed.

Compared to the other boots, these don't give you any flat offensive/defensive stats. Instead, they are cheaper to buy, and they also give you cooldown reduction on summoner spells, which can be huge in the right situations.

Buy these against heavy or full AD team comps. The flat armor and passive helps you survive longer against AD threats, especially ADC players. Combing this with seekers armguard should be enough to shut down most AD threats in the game.

Usually bought as second item right after Luden's Tempest and boots. This item should only be bought if you're facing a team comp that relies a lot on healing like Vladimir and Yuumi. The component Oblivion Orb also grants grievous wounds now so you can get access to it very early on in the game without having to sacrifice a lot of gold.

Provides some some CDR and AP which mages loves to have, but it also gives MR and a spellshield. I buy this against champions like AP Gragas and Annie, because the only way they can kill someone, is by catching people off-guard, usually with Flash followed up by a full combo. Having this item forces them to waste one of their important abilities to get rid of your shield, and then their damage will be reduced to a point where they can't kill you, unless super far ahead.

Anti-AD item that's great into full AD teams or AD assassins in general. Against champions like Zed you can fully upgrade the item ASAP as the active will counter his ultimate Death Mark completely. Against other champions, you can get away with only buying Seeker's Armguard, and then upgrading it to Zhonya's Hourglass last after you got your core items, so you don't lose out on too much damage.

It's rarely seen on Ori since she already has a lot of built-in utility, so she isn't reliant on slows from items to stick to her targets like Aurelion Sol and Cassiopeia. With that being said, she can still make use of the item for extra tankiness and utility in fights.

A scaling item that provides you with a lot of mana and AP once fully stacked and transformed into Seraph's Embrace. Mana in general has been nerfed on mages and Orianna has always been very mana hungry so this is a good option to go for to ensure that you won't run OOM that often.

This item is focused around autoattacks, and is somewhat viable on Orianna because of her passive Clockwork Windup that makes her autos hit harder and scale better with AP. Personally i don't buy this item on her, but it can work against short range comps that are prone to getting kited.

There is a certain type of CC that you can't manually cancel with Cleanse and it's called Suppression. Champions that comes to mind should be Malzahar' Nether Grasp, Skarner's Impale, Urgot's Fear Beyond Death and Warwick's Infinite Duress. If you play against those, then Quicksilver Sash is the only item you can use to counter the ultimates, so you should consider buying it after Luden's Tempest if you think they will be a threat to you at some point.

As a lane dominant champion, you want to take advantage of your strong early game, and harass the opponent whenever you get the opportunity. Start by auto attacking the minions from the first wave, and get level 2 first. The passive Clockwork Windup deals so much damage early on, so always try to get autos between your abilities for maximum damage output. Use your ball as a zoning tool, and place it between the opponent and the minions. Whenever the opponents tries to farm a minion, have your abilities ready to threaten him, forcing him to make a bad decision. If he decides to go for the cs, he will lose a lot of his health. If he doesn't go for the cs, he will lose out on gold OR waste mana, so it's a small lead that will slowly build up. Mid is also the easiest lane to gank for a jungler, so obviously you want to have wards up all the time to avoid dying, and giving up all pressure. The ideal time to base is when the cannon wave is arriving because it will tank a lot of turret hits, making you lose a minimum amount of CS and EXP. Buy components towards the first big item Luden's Tempest or Liandry's Torment and always make sure to have a Control Ward on the map. Against skilled opponents it's very rare that you can get solo kills with Orianna early game, so in that case you can create a lead by bullying them out of lane and establishing a CS lead, or play defensive and scale up.

Midgame is usually when the outer turrets start falling and people begin to rotate around the map. This is where Orianna gets her first big powerspike with 3 full items, Luden's Tempest, Sorcerer's Shoes and Seraph's Embrace, so you should start looking for aggressive plays, either in your lane or other parts of the map. If the enemy midlaner is playing too passive, you should just shove in the wave and look for roams, or stealing away objectives/enemy jungle camps to set them further behind. Denying vision is key when it comes to snowballing leads, and turning it into a victory. Take out enemy wards and leave them in the dark, forcing them to take a huge risk every time they walk up to place new wards. If you somehow end up on the losing team: Don't lose focus because Orianna scales really well. She's good at stalling games with her waveclear and zone potential, so focus on doing that until you see an opening that you can take advantage of. People often make mistakes when they are ahead because they either don't know how to close out the games, or they underestimate their opponents. When they keep making mistakes and get punished for it, they will eventually lose focus, and that's when you can make your comeback happen. Even when behind, one good Command: Shockwave on multiple champions can turn the tables. Be patient and wait for mistakes that you can punish.

Late game for Orianna is all about objectives and teamfights. As Orianna you pretty much want to be constantly grouping with your team at this stage of the game. You can still go to other lanes to pick up big waves, but you should avoid splitpushing because it's not one of your strengths. Champions who are designed to splitpush will rip you apart in the sidelane, so prioritize grouping up and look for those teamfights where Orianna really shines as a control mage. The way you play her in teamfights is the same as most other mages. You need to stay with the backline with your ADC because you're incredibly squishy. Use your Command: Attack and Command: Dissonance to damage and slow enemies while waiting for the perfect moment to blow up the priority targets with Command: Shockwave. Peel for teammates if necessary, especially if your ADC is fed, as that extra shield and movement speed can help spacing better in teamfights. When fighting around big objectives like baron nashor and elder drake, use your ball to zone enemies away from entrances and force them to take bad routes, or give up the objectives.

Orianna's main trading and waveclearing combo. You will be using this most of the time when harassing the opponent, and zoning them away from the minions or objectives. When trading during the laning phase, it's important to make use of your auto attacks, especially on Orianna as her passive Clockwork Windup increases its damage.


When you're trading with the opponent pre-6, this is the go-to combo. Command: Protect damages enemies on the way back but also negates some of the damage you receive. You will only get the shield once the ball is attached to you, so time it when you're about to take damage, as it can have a travel time depending on how far away the ball is. Weave in auto attacks to maximize your damage output.


Orianna's full combo post-6 that should be used when you're going all-in for the kill/s. Before using this combo, you should keep in mind what kind of movement abilities/summoner spells the opponents have up, so they don't dodge your ultimate. The reason Command: Shockwave is used before Command: Dissonance is because it gives the opponent less time to react, but also because it puts everyone hit within range of Command: Dissonance so they take guaranteed damage while CC'ed.


I almost never use this combo but it's still possible so i will include it here. It's a high-risk cheese strategy that can be used to surprise your opponents since they will have no time to react. You use Command: Shockwave while the ball is attached to you, and then Flash right after on top of the enemy.
So when can you use this? When the opponent is within kill-range, but they have summoners or movement abilities available. You wouldn't be able to kill them with a normal combo since they would dodge it, so that's when the cheese strategy can do work.

- This is part of why Orianna can be such a strong lane bully. Her autos scales with AP and deals more damage on subsequent hits on the same target. This combined with the low cooldown on Summon Aery, gives you so much pressure early game, so abuse this as much as possible in combination with your abilities.


- Structures(For example turrets) can hide the ball, so you can use it to surprise the enemy.

- First level in this ability can help you farming caster minions if you somehow are getting shoved in levels 1-3. Hitting the minions once, will let you kill them with only 1 auto attack after a turret shot.

- Deals less damage when it passes through enemies, so if you want maximum damage, place it away from the minion wave, so the damage doesn't get reduced while it's travelling towards the enemy laner.

- Has a pretty low cooldown, so you can reposition it quite often. Zone the enemy as much as possible by moving it in-front of them, so they have to think twice whenever they want to farm a minion. You can also place the ball at entrances around objectives to keep enemies away, and force them to make bad decisions.

- You NEVER have to facecheck with Orianna because the ball gives vision. Use it to scout bushes or other areas in the fog of war.


- While in base, use this ability to speed yourself up and get back to lane faster.

- It can also be used on allies to rotate faster around the map, or simply to kite opponents.


- While the ball is attached to an ally, they will receive bonus resistances, and a temporary shield. The ball will also stick to them until you input another command, or if they are dead/out of range. If you have someone who can engage and deliver the ball on top of 5 enemies, for example Malphite or Zac, then use Command: Protect to attach it, and let them do the rest.

- Be sure to have self-cast E on a shortcut (I use alt+E) so you can bring the ball and shield to you faster, instead of having to mouse-click on your champion.

- If you attach the ball to allies who are hidden, for example Evelynn and Twitch, the ball will also become invisible for enemies.

- The low damage from Command: Protect can help you farming caster minions under turret early game. After damaging the casters with it, they will only need 1 auto attack after a turret shot.


- You can use Command: Shockwave when the ball is attached to you, and then Flash right after to catch enemies by surprise, leaving them no time to react. Can be useful if the enemies have summoner spells or other movement abilities up.

Freezing is a advanced technique that lets you deny your opponent exp and cs if done correctly. Freezing a lane means that you kite/tank the minions without letting your tower hit the creeps. You need to make sure the enemy minions always beat yours. After the enemy killed your entire wave, you let 2-3 of the enemy creeps live, and kite them until the next wave is here. When the next wave arrives, the wave will freeze right outside of your turret range.

By doing this, you are safe from jungle ganks, while your opponent takes a big risk everytime he overextends for a cs.


You can Freeze the wave when you and the enemy are even or ahead, and it can be used to help you win back the lane after you screwed up and died. You can attempt to freeze the wave already from level 1, leaving your opponent vulnerable to jungle ganks or be within your kill range, if you are able to kill them. When you get a lead, and you can solokill an overextended enemy laner, that is exactly when you want to freeze the wave. You force the enemy midlaner to either be in your kill range, or miss a ton of cs and exp, putting them further behind.

Freezing a wave is a great way to snowball a lead, if you have no objectives to fight for, such as dragon, herald or towers.

Here is a youtube video that explains wave management very well. I recommend watching the entire video. All credits for this video goes to Blitz Esports LoL

Thanks for reading my Orianna guide. Hopefully you learned a thing or two, and if you still have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.