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Orianna Tips Needed

EkkoFroffles·9/17/2015, 4:17:23 AM·1 votes·1,472 views

Since she's free, so similar to Lulu, and another off-meta support for me to play around with, I decided to give her a go. Support, she plays a more mechanically intensive Lulu, just minus some utility. In other words, she feels like a harder to play, inferior version of Lulu. Still, I've grown to love Lulu since I learned her not too long ago, and was hoping there'd be some carryover from her to Orianna, given the similarities between their kits. And I'm after an assortment of champions for every other role besides support who can function sort of like a second support from that role. Orianna mid lane, with her utility, does a lot of support-like things. So I'm intending to play her there as well.

For now, since I've been playing her on a new account I've been power-leveling, I've just been doing co-ops since they're fast and easy IP/XP (especially with double IP/XP boosts). In my last co-op, I went mid and felt like I had no kill pressure, and found her wave clear ever so slightly lacking (though by no means bad). I had my masteries set up for support, though, and the only runes I have at the moment are AD, armor, and MR, so I'm wondering if that's the culprit.

Even so, some basic pointers for playing her mid (and support too, if anyone has done it) would be greatly appreciated. I already looked up about her wave clear and people just said to do what I'd been doing, QW. Though they mentioned possibly following that up with E to bring the ball back towards you, hitting more creeps along the way.

6 Comments

crazymage9/17/2015, 8:58:48 PM3 votes

So first I would like to say that I love Orianna but I think she is horrible as support. There are a couple of reasons

Squishy: Orianna is extremely squishy even with her command protect on her she can easily be singled out and killed.
Item dependent: Orianna scales extremely well into the late game with both mana and ap items however as a support these items become hard to get unless you snowball and without them she becomes useless.
Poor CC: While Orianna has a slow her only other form of cc comes at the cost of her ult. Unlike poke champions like Zyra or Karma she has higher base mana cost and is more item dependent for damage.

That being said Orianna is my favorite champion to play mid. She scales extremely well at all points of the game and her ults are extremely rewarding to hit. Playing her mid you should try to focus on zoning. For leveling I would suggest you start E then Q W. Max Q first so you can re position your ball quickly then max W for the damage. Needless to say upgrade your ult level 6, 11, and 16. In general it is better to let someone else start the fights and then use your ult, if people see it coming they and dodge it since it has a cast time. GLHF

Jungled9/17/2015, 4:26:10 AM1 votes

Hi there, I play Orianna support a lot so here are some of my pointers that may or may not help and/or actually be correct.

For starters. I think Orianna is one of the easiest champions to last hit with. So instead of mass wave clearing with your q, w combo, be nice and quiet and just use your autos. That way you can control the lane better as well. The biggest thing to learn with Orianna is to control your ball. At the beginning it's very easy to lose track of where you ball is and then missing secondary abilities to the ball such as your w and most importantly your ultimate. So learn the range of Orianna's ball, what it takes for the ball to return back to you and simply keep an eye on your ball. The key to a good Orianna is to utilise the ability for the ball to A, fly out to an opponent and B, to return back to you. The ball will hit anything in the path.

Orianna is exceptionally good at zoning. So if you're support that's one of the things you should focus on as support. Also have fast enough reaction to e your adc during fights.

Orianna has a lot of burst damage if you build AP. So a good Q, W, combo should do a significant amount to any squishy.

Orianna ult can cancel Urgot ult.

I honestly can't give you much help with mid lane Orianna, I hardly play her there. Good luck though.

Nick Valentine9/17/2015, 7:22:56 PM1 votes

I love playing Orianna in the mid lane.

Auto attack when it's safe. Especially if you're up against someone who has trouble dealing with it Syndra Katarina . Avoid it on champions who can trade with autos + skills because you can't do that as effectively ( Lux Viktor ). The reason I say this is because her early damage can be mediocre and if you want any kill potential the enemy will have to be quite low. But her mana costs prevent her from poking someone down so auto attacking really helps.

Command: Protect is an amazing skill. I love making this first in melee matchups. Using it on yourself means you can walk up to auto attack safely and most melee champions have massive damage when they touch you, this will save your life.

Miror B9/17/2015, 9:51:50 PM1 votes

See, I've mained lulu and find Ori to be waaay better as a mid-laner (not so much as a support, due to the aformentioned "squishiness" ). Unlike lulu, Ori is constantly a damage threat who if left unchecked can not only be annoying in team fights, but can actually score kills at a pretty decent pace. If you can, play her semi-aggressively and use lane-pushing to counter her weak-ish wave clear. Also, buy tons of wards (as much like lulu, she's pretty easy to be caught out/ganked in lane).

BeatRushVII9/17/2015, 9:55:18 PM1 votes

I've always been in the same school of thought as crazymage. Orianna support is just sub optimal compared to what else is out there. She doesn't have the innate damage or pre 6 hard cc of someone like brand. One of the reasons brand support works is because of his passive, fairly high numbers, and level 2 stun.

I really think it is best to take orinna mid lane, get last hits , maybe a kill or two and then play her with a focus on support if you want. She has great utility, and flexibility, so you can either try focusing on dedicated peeling for your carry, or sniping the enemy team with a well timed Q R W wombo combo.