Ask an Orianna Main - Completed
Hey everyone,
It’s our distinct pleasure to introduce Plasma Lemon, a Master level Orianna main who’s logged 1400 games on the Lady of Clockwork since Season 3.
We picked his brain about his intro to League, why he loves Orianna, optimal item builds, runes/masteries, matchups, and much more.
UPDATE - This AMA is officially closed, but Plasma will be checking back tonight and tomorrow to answer some more of your questions. Thanks for all of the great questions and a big thank you to Plasma Lemon for hanging out!
------How did you get into League of Legends?
A group of friends that I met on another game played League together, and they started telling me that I should try it. I had never played any game similar to League, so it took a few months of encouragement from my friends for me to finally try it. Before I knew it, I was spending all my free time playing it.
Where does your Summoner name come from?
So I came up with "Lemon" to use as my nickname for summer camp back when I was 9 or 10. After that, I started using "Lemon" in the usernames I created for various games and websites. One day I thought of "Plasma Lemon" and loved it. I feel that it's unique and interesting, and I don't think I'll ever find something better to use for my name.
What got you hooked on playing Orianna?
Playing Orianna forces you to keep track of more things than you do while playing most other champs. When planning your moves, instead of considering how your abilities will interact with the game, you have to consider how your abilities will interact with your ball, and how your ball will interact with the game. It adds a whole new layer of complexity.
Who is your go-to champion if Orianna gets banned?
If Orianna isn't available for me to pick, I try to look for another champion with a playstyle similar to Ori's. Lately, that champion is Lux.
If you could describe Orianna’s playstyle in a sentence, what would it be?
Orianna's playstyle involves considering all the different things you can do, and deciding which is most worth doing.
Suppose your Jarvan ults the enemy Kogmaw. You could shield Jarvan and ult to try hitting Kogmaw with it but you know Kogmaw has his flash up, and is probably watching for your ult. Or you see the fed enemy Tryndamere heading towards your team's Lucian. You could shield Lucian and help him kite the Tryndamere. Would it be better to focus on helping Jarvan deal with the enemy Kogmaw, or would it be better to focus on helping Lucian?
As you can see, when playing Orianna, it's not just about whether you hit your skills or not. It's also about hitting your skills in the best possible way they can hit.
What runes and masteries do you run on her?
Generally, my default runes for Orianna are magic pen marks, hp/lvl seals, cdr/lvl glyphs, and flat AP quints. You really can't go wrong with that page. For masteries, I always take 12 points in Ferocity and 18 in Cunning, with Thunderlords as the keystone.
What is Orianna’s core item build?
Orianna wants CDR+mana, and then she wants damage. Athene’s gives plenty mana, so it's a pretty good item for Orianna to rush. However, the MR given by Athene’s is not useful if you're laning against an AD champ, so you should buy Morello instead against AD.
But with just Morello, managing mana is hard. That's why it's not a bad idea to pick up a Rod of Ages before building Morello. If you complete the RoA and get it stacking up early, you'll hit a very nice spike with your power after finishing Morello. But you should only build a RoA if you're confident that the game is gonna last long enough for your power spike to show up.
After Morello/Athenes, you want Deathcap and Void staff (and you should upgrade your boots to Sorcerer Shoes somewhere in between). If you can get both of those, you will be able to do a ton of damage.
So if Orianna has a complete 6-item build, I would say that these four items should pretty much always be there: Sorcerer Shoes. Morello OR Athenes. Deathcap. Void Staff.
The other two items are situational, and can be any combination of these: Abyssal, Zhonyas, Ludens, Rylai's, Liandries, RoA, Banshees, GA.
What are Orianna’s easiest matchups? What are her toughest?
Orianna's easiest matchups are ones where she outranges her opponent, AND her opponent doesn't have any reliable way of getting close to her. The most noteworthy examples are Twisted Fate and Annie.
Orianna's toughest matchups tend to be ones where "staying back" isn't enough to avoid fights with her opponent, champs like Zed, Fizz, LeBlanc, Syndra, Ahri, Talon, Diana.
What is Orianna’s main job in lane? What about Teamfights?
In lane, Orianna's main job is to get the gold and experience she needs in order to be useful for teamfights.
If she can do more, like put pressure on her lane opponent, and roam to help other lanes, then of course that would be great. But keeping up in farm and experience should be Ori's top priority. Because if Ori can do that, then she's gonna prove to be very powerful in teamfights.
Orianna's job in teamfights is to use her skills in the way that best helps the team. Whether that's playing aggressively and looking to catch the enemy carries out with her ult, or playing defensively and help protect your teammates from being caught.
If someone is playing Orianna for the first time, what is the most important thing to bear in mind?
I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that that getting your spells to hit the enemies is just the first step to learning Orianna... Once you get that down, start paying attention to how you get your spells to hit!
What do you think is the most powerful part of Orianna’s kit?
The most powerful part part of her kit... I'd say it's how Orianna's ball is pretty much indestructible! Even if Yasuo intercepts the path of the ball with his wind wall, the ball just resets and goes back to Ori.
The only thing that limits the ball is the leash range. If the enemies want to walk somewhere, and Orianna's ball is blocking their way there is absolutely nothing they can do to the ball to move it. They can try to find Orianna, and force her out of the area so the ball resets to her, but the ball is invincible.
What do you look for in a high-quality Shockwave?
Generally, you're only gonna get one ult to use in a teamfight so when I'm looking to Shockwave, I'm looking to make it count. If I'm strong enough to kill the enemy carries with a rotation of my spells, then I'll always be looking for an opportunity to catch them out with my ult. But if I'm by myself, and hit all 5 enemies with a Shockwave, and none of the enemies even have to back, then that Shockwave didn't really count for much, even if it hit 5 people.
I would say that a high quality Shockwave is any Shockwave that turns the tides of a teamfight, and helps your team win a fight that they would have otherwise lost.
What’s a neat trick about Orianna that players may not know?
While you have the ball with you, you can press R, and flash right before the ult finishes casting. This can really catch people off guard, and if they were watching for your ult and ready to flash away from it if they saw it, ult-flashing on them can be your best shot at hitting them with the ult.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! If readers want to reach out, where can they find you?
Thank you for having me! I always love for a chance to discuss about my favorite champion. If any reader wants to reach me, coming to my stream - www.twitch.tv/plasma_lemon - is probably their best bet. And if they can't seem to catch me when my stream is live, they're free to send me a message on Twitch.
-----------Stick around in the comments and ask Plasma Lemon any questions you have about Orianna!
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