Hello League Community,
I am an Orianna main. I just had a question regarding her build. She is considered a utility champion, but I tend to build her bursty as I feel that is more beneficial for my team. I was just wondering; am I not doing her justice by not building utility on her like 
and 
?
I recently got into a discussion with another player who was diamond and they believed I should always build athenes and ardent.
Thanks.
I never build Athene's on her, and definitely not Arden't Censer.
Morellonomicon is enough Mana/regen for her, and the loss in AP from taking Athene's in its place is too great. Remember that by building more AP, you provide a larger shield, deal more damage, and also effectively supplement your allies's damage. By dealing more magic damage yourself, the enemy team is forced to build more magic resist to deal with you, instead of the armor they could buy to deal with your adc and top/jung.
This feels like an attempt to push Orianna in to a supportive role and asking for unnecessary changes. Truth be told, Orianna is the last of her kind to exist in League as a utility mage. Everything about her is balanced, well designed and fine. So why force items like Athene's and Ardent on to her? She's got the right mixture of offensive and defensive power and still plays around her utility.
I agree she has some burst in her kit, but to say not building Athene's and Ardent on her is a waste is a pity. The way I see it, Utility Mages fall in to two different groups, Carry Utility Mage who play very much like Utility ADC, and the full on Utility Mage who end up playing supportively come late game like Lulu and Sona.
Orianna has always been widely regarded as being healthy and balanced. She can carry when her passive and utilities are put in to good use. Being a utility mage doesn't necessarily mean that after mid phase of the game, you start supporting more. It just means that your utilities become a much more integral part of your ability to carry. Give me a Carry utility mage over Mid Lulu anyday.
It's such a pity Riot doesn't want to enforce the concept of a Carry Utility Mage but allow such a thing a Utility ADC to be a prominent thing. Almost all utility mages have been pushed in to a supportive role to centralize them along with supports. Karma and Morgana used to be Carry Utility Mage, and now they're played Supportively 50% of the time, while the other 50% people will tell you to go something more staple like Ahri/Zed.
Honestly speaking, give me a Carry utility mage anytime over "overly unique" champions like Aurelion Sol/Taliyah.
Going back to your question, build AP if you're going Mid. Ardent Censer/Athenes are situational items and you're not doing injustice to Orianna for not building it on her.
"always build athenes and ardent." I do not believe that, specifically, buying Athenes and Ardent for two out of your three items is a good practice, much less "always"
Well the most obvious thing is that if one is playing Orianna, they are playing her mid lane and that means that two of the passives cannot be used. While that is not a deal breaker, it's something to take into account. But what is more important is the fact that Orianna is the mid laner and building utility items like these instead of damage items reduces her ability to trade back against the opposing mid laner and that Orianna may be the one that the team is relying on for being a magic-damage threat, depending on the team comp.
is something we need to look at in regards to how it works with Orianna specifically. Orianna's utility would benefit from Ardent Censer's stats but Orianna's utility is also increased through AP as well. On Orianna, the benefit to the shield from Ardent can be equaled by purchasing flat AP. Also we need to look at who she shields as well, and there is going to be many times where the person Orianna is going to want to be shielding is not going to be benefiting from the attack speed or on-hit effects. There is also the issue of this build doubling on mana regeneration items which is not something that I believe is necessary.
is more complicated an issue and is something that is outside my level and my level of experience with the champion to talk about in regards to Orianna. The fact is that Athene's is still significantly bought by players in higher elos and I cannot give any recommendation regarding it.
I think it's safe to say that the advice to specifically "always build athenes and ardent." is not quite reliable.
I'm sure a diamond can also depend on their adc to not fight in Melee range.
I personally play orianna so I can try and cover any potential mistakes my team mates might make. She scales super hard and can easily win a team fight on her own. If I use my whole combo and everyone is still past half health because I could've bought more ap instead of utility it's a sad feeling.
While I see the value in it I wouldn't bother unless you're duo with the adc or its someone you know will carry.
I run Athene's, but not Ardent. My reasoning is because I like to spam Q quite a bit, so like the mana regen + I play her as a more supportive mage anyways, so the item's passive is pretty beneficial for my team for the last bit of survival.
The combo Athene/Ardent is rather expensive, so you sacrifice a lot of damage in order to focus on her Shield aspect. If you aren't playing support, it kind of hurts your team just because the build path forces you to become a secondary support.
Personally, I don't think you need to run Athene/Ardent because Orianna herself hasn't really been changed throughout the patches, which means that her identity as a burst mage is still intact, therefore, she can run pure damage to wreck the enemy team. Your utility is destroying the enemy team :D
