Right! First of all I don't really like writing long detailed guides, but I always end up doing it for some reason. I watched the Champion Sneakpeak, the Champion Art Spotlight and finally the Champion Spotlight and I've been hooked ever since. Been playing Orianna since release with a few expection when someone else instant locked her in.

I always end up laughing when I see someone blindly following Phreak's build and going 0-8-2 because they have **** all idea of what they're doing. I decided to take a look at Mobafire a few days ago and realized there weren't any (imo) decent builds for Orianna, so I figured that must be why most people suck so bad @ playing with balls - see what I did there?

Anyways! This is my take on an Orianna guide with smart tips for someone who wants to give her a go or for someone who wants to see how other plays this awesome (relatively) new hero!
The guide contains two build - one for carrying and another for carrying while being very teamplay orientated. I normally play the first build myself, but if my team lacks a support I'll gladly go semi DPS/semi babysitter.

Orianna is not a support hero, there are far better options out there for supporting a team. However, does your team setup suck and you're without support - she can be quite helpful towards her team mates in a carry kinda way.

This guide contains two builds with similar masteries, which should go without much explaining. The choices are quite obvious and quite common. Most of the talents should be left untouched unless you want to run with either Ghost, Teleport or Exhaust (God knows why you'd do that.....).

If you run with Teleport you should build: 1/2/1/0.
If you run with Ghost you should build: 0/2/1/1.
If you run with Ghost AND Teleport you should build 1/1/1/1.

This is common knowledge and shouldn't really be new to anyone.

Also, never put points in Greed. Why - you ask? 1 gold every 10 seconds might seem awesome, but lets break it down real quick shall we? OKAY:

1 gold every 10 seconds equals 6 gold every minute.
After 10 minutes you've gained a wooping 60 gold! That's like 3 last hits.
After 20 minutes you've gained shocking 120 gold! The same as 1 assist.
After 30 minutes you've gained.. wait for it.. 180 gold!
After 40 minutes you've gained 240 gold! NOW WE'RE TALKING
After 50 mi... Yeah, you get the picture. So not worth it.

RUNES! I like Runes. I have many runes, but not enough rune pages to fit all my runes! :(

The runes I use for Orianna are again - quite common - yet some people seem to think all out flat AP runes are godlike. They're not. After 5 levels the AP/level runes outtrumph the flat ones and keep getting better!

Magic Pen Marks; because you deal nothing but Magical Damage. Even Orianna's auto attacks deal some magical damage.

Health/Level Seals; Orianna's pretty squishy. As mentioned earlier, there's no real way of escaping other than running or ulti'ing (and that can be quite dangerous!). Health/level helps your laning. Already from level 2 you'll notice your health bar growing larger, which is pretty sweet when you're farming.

AP/level Glyphs; As mentioned earlier. Scaling runse > flat ones. I'd not go for mana regen because once you get you won't have a lot of mana issues. I also tend to grab the golem buff as much as possible (hence 2 points in Utility Mastery) because it's awesome.

FLAT AP Quentessences; Yes, flat. I know, contradicting right. But the 15+ AP from level 1 is such a huge boost to your damage that it would be stupid to pass.

As one might've noticed. Both builds build around a core of and . You need Tear of the Goddess as fast as possible. If you're able to build up a lot of mana during laning phase, mid game and team fights/ganks is gonna be a lot easier for you.

Boots:

I'm using and that's for the simple reason that CDR is amazing on Orianna. The more you can toss that ball around the more damage you'll do. Simple as that. Now, in a perfect world you'd always meet teams who are too dumb to summon any heavy CC thus making Tenacity less effectful, but sometimes you end up against 5 people with a CC. The more experienced you are, the less likely you are to be a victim of such CC. If you're against such team, I strongly suggest getting because they are amazing and you can get better CDR elsewhere (GOLEM BUFF).
I don't recommend , because frankly, you have "a lot" of Magic Pen early game, and should you play against someone smart enough to build Magic Resistance, you can get better penetration elsewhere (MORE ON THAT BELOW).

End of laning/midgame/ganking/team fights/profit:

Now, the smart obvserver might've noticed the first thing I rush after a Tear of the Goddess is . This is because the core items don't boost you AP in any way and you won't actually do enough damage by just stacking Mana. Sadly, not all champions are awesome like Ryze. The Deathcap provides almost 200 AP itself and boost all of your following AP items, which makes it such a mad thing to build. Some say it's stupid to rush, but considering you'll be low on AP after building the core items, you'll need a good boost and you'll need it FAST.

If you're following build 2 you'll see I'm also starting to build around. The health just makes you harder to take down in team fights, which can prove VERY useful when playing against someone smart enough to take you down. Some people don't fear you because all you do is play with balls, these people are stupid.

Next up is and this is mandatory on any carry. Really. If you're not building this **** you're pretty dumb. Shouldn't bother explaining why I build it.

I round off with an . By the time you reach the end of the build, you'll have a lot of Mana so this is just another GREAT boost. I don't support rushing Archangel's, which is also why it's sort of in the end of the build.

"But lol you suck you only build 5 items we have 6 slots I don't like your build":

Aww, I'm so sorry for being smart enough to leave a slot open. Most of these items are rather expensive actually and unless you're a great farmer (which Orianna is, more on that below) or getting insanely fed - it's actually gonna take some time to finish. Hell, some games I don't even get to finish my before winning (or losing - it happens..).

The 6th sloth is essentially my ward slot. If your team is good, they'll all purchase wards and place them around the map. I love being on teams where people are smart enough to do, sadly, sometimes I end up being the only ward buyer so I tend to leave a slot open for that. I'll list some other decent items which can either replace some of the mentioned above ( Doran's Ring or Soul Shroud before anything else, lol!).

Other cool items which can either be placed in sloth numero 6 or replace something you don't like!!! (Soul Shroud):

- If your laning phase is awesome. You're rocking CS, got a few kills, denying your enemies XP and generally being super awesome I can strongly recommend weaving this one in somewhere in the core of the buid. You'll get plenty of kills and assists later, so it's totally worth it. Should you max it (some games finish before you get all 20 stacks) the CDR is amazing and makes it worth dropping Ionian Boots of Lucidity or whoring Golem buff.

- If you're against players smart enough to build plenty of Magic Resistance. Keep in mind this is a %-reduction. The more magic resistance they have - the more you reduce. No point building this one if 1 guy on the enemy team has build a Banshee's Veil just don't focus that guy.

- While the cooldown is long and unreliable, this is actually pretty sweet and can turn the tides of a team fight. Should you die within 2 seconds, you'll revive and do some great damage with your sexy ultimate. Not the best defensive item out there, but definately something worth considering.

- You're fighting a Vladimir, Karthus and Katarina. Your Banshee's Veil is just not enough. This is what you shall be looking for. It's an awesome, but mostly overlooked item, which has a good offensive use, but alsoa great a defensive one.

- you become literally immune to everything for 2 seconds! Need I say more? If you're running around with a $1000 bounty, you should totally get this one. Lol.


Now, I havnt mentioned Rod of Ages anywhere and there's a reason to that. I like the item, I really do, but it's really expensive and takes a lot of time to build up *hint* so does Archangels *hint*, thus in order to get the full use out of this ASAP you'd have to weave it into the core before Deathcap and I just don't see that happening.

PROTIP: Health Pots, Wards and Elixir of Brilliance are good. If you're standing in well with ~500 gold. Buying an Elixir, 2 pots or a ward is NEVER a bad idea. The Elixir is really, really good if your laning is not going as well as you'd like it to. It's a great boost.

Also once/if you reach the end of the build. Elixirs are your friends. Buying Oracle's Elixir when there are no stealthers on the enemy team is NOT stupid. If you find their wards and ruin their map awareness - you're more likely to win. Get that?

This fancy little ball can do a lot of tricks. Orianna can use this bastard to deal great, great damage and protect her from taking a lot of damage.

Farming:

The Ball is a pretty sweet farming tool. If a lane is being pushed too heavily or you just need to farm a bit while the enemies are ressing you've got a sweet 3-hit combo to clear a minion wave! Basically, you hit 'Q' and aim for the spot with most minions clunched up together and send The Ball through as many minions as possible. True, The Ball does less damage for every target it hits, but minions have **** all HP anyways. Hit 'W' real fast and watch a huge amount of money appearing in your bag! Hit 'Alt+E' to send The Ball back through all the minions and attach to yourself - BAM! More gold, but wait, some of the bastards didn't die. Rinse and repeat and they'll be dead.

PROTIP!!!:This is also a great way of stacking your Tear of the Goddess while standing in the well. Command The Ball back and forth to earn some stacks free of mana cost, well, lol, they do cost mana but you'll regen it PRETTY DAMN FAST standing in the spawn!

Chasing/Being chased:

Rule #1: Never chase an enemy into fog of war/a brush - unless it's a secure kill! Nah I keed, it's stupid but I do it anyways. If you aim The Ball a few feet ahead of the champion you're chasing he/she will not only take damage from The Ball pass through them, but also the initial hit from when The Ball lands, yeap, true story. The Ball also functions as a mini-ward. It will not reveal anything within the bush, but it can show if any enemy is standing where The Ball lands. It's therefore smart to send The Ball towards the brush the enemy is running for. Chances are someone is hiding there and OH SNAP, you can run without being hurt. (this can also be used to enter brushes at level 1 and make sure you're not getting instat raped)...

Rule #2: If you're being chased, don't stop and cast spells, just keep running - unless you're Orianna!! If you're being chased, shooting The Ball towards enemies, hitting 'W' as it lands untop of them to slow down the bastard, 'Alt+E' to return The Ball will actually do quite a lot of damage. I've killed many ******s this way because they were stupid enough to chase me through half the map while I just DPS'd them down.

PROTIP!!!: Command: Shockwave serves also a good purpose while fleeing and chasing, chances are the guy you're chasing will be flinged towards you and the guy you're running from is gonna be slowed down.. a lot!(sadly, it's unreliable.. YOU JUST MAY end up flinging him away/towards, but in 81 games as Orianna I've only saved 1 Teemo this way, thus it's actually quite rare. Either that or RNG has been kind to me).

This is starting to look like an endless rant. I'm gonna slow down a bit.

The Ball is an amazing tool in team fights. As you might've noticed my skill sequence is different from being carry only to being carry/babysitter. While semi babysitting I level up Command: Protect faster than while carrying only. This is because the shield, armor and magic resistance is pretty damn good in team fights;

Shen is running in, command The Ball to protect him as he'll take quite a lot of damage. Command it around a bit and back to protecting Shen as he might need it!

You and Ashe are defending mid turret while your team is on their way. Kassadin and Xin Zhao looks rather hungry trying to push your turret. Out from nowhere comes Singed trying to Fling Ashe out of turret! Command: Protect Ashe, hit 'W' and watch her get away. She might die, but lol, you did all you could to save her.

There's a huge team fight incoming. It's time to use your amazing Ultimate. Malphite is charing in using his ultimate hitting all 5 enemies, well done, sir! Command: Protect him quickly, once they all get down hit your Ulti. WEEEEEEE! Up they go again. Kill them.

If you don't have such an awesome tank, using your ultimate as a mass CC to initiate is quite smart. It can also be used to defend turrets. If you're alone vs. 3-4 pushing a turret, fling em around and watch them either die or run off like babies.

PROTIP!!!: This is not really a protip.. But it doesn't belong anywhere else. When fighting someone, spamming your 'Q', 'W' and 'Alt+E' combo is the way to go. Whether you're against 1, 2 or 5 people you should always have the ball flying around hitting the guy your team is nuking. Remember to aim either behind or infront of the target depending on which direction he's moving to ensure he'll take damage from the hit.

June 15 2011: Finally decided to publish this.
June 15 2011: Did you notice how I said 'The Ball' throughout the guide?! Awesome huh!

EDIT#1: screenshot incoming shortly