Hello, and welcome to my second ever Mobafire guide, and my second ever guide for League of Legends. Attack Speed (AS) Orianna, you say? Really?

Orianna holds a special place in my heart. I feel an affinity for her mechanical nature, and she was the first "new" Champion I bought after starting LoL -- Vayne was already out, and Orianna was teased with a peek at the Ball. She is a sorely underutilised Champion, possibly because of her unique skill mechanics, all of which centre around the Ball. Usually I see Ability Power (AP) and/or Cooldown Reduction (CDR) builds that seem to largely ignore her passive, Clockwork Windup. I tried looking at other mixed Attack Damage (AD) and AP Champions like Kayle and Kog'Maw, building Orianna with the top-rated guides for one and then the other, but they felt just a tiny bit off, like something wasn't quite working right.

I thought I'd pick a few things that seemed close to what I was after, and see how it worked out. So far, it's been awesome, and tons of fun to actually play. Since I'm a very play-for-fun oriented player, that's what really matters to me. I can't promise you the best results in your Ranked queues, because it is not a place I have any intention of ever being on purpose.

It's worth noting that even though you surrender some of the bonuses to burst spell damage, as well as the potency of Command: Protect's shield by giving up such a tremendous amount of AP, the other aspects of Orianna's abilities (movement buff/debuff, throw) are not impaired. Command: Shockwave in particular still synergises extremely well with any Area of Effect (AoE) Champions, especially those with devastating AoE or multi-target ultimates that require as many enemies as possible to stay in range ( Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm, Morgana's Soul Shackles, Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy).

It's also a tremendous aid to those who can do insane damage and/or have a game-changing effect when two or more enemies are all bunched up in a tidy bundle ( Lux's Finales Funkeln, Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow). Even with a greatly reduced AP pool, Command: Shockwave still interrupts channels from your enemies, as well, so you can put a stop to Nunu & Willump or Miss Fortune right when they're about to really make your team pay for being too tightly packed.

Last but not least, as this approach relies heavily upon leveraging Clockwork Windup, Orianna's passive, it's a very well-rounded approach. The mixed damage types are harder for the other team to mitigate effectively, and the vastly improved AS allows unassuming Orianna to shred turrets and even pick up jungle buffs solo relatively early.

• + Unexpected mixed damage approach can throw the other team off, and is harder to mitigate
• + Extremely flexible
• + Actually makes use of Clockwork Windup for a well-rounded approach
• + Movement effects of Command: Dissonance and Command: Shockwave are not negatively impacted with the reduced AP
• + Shred turrets and runners
• + Be a serious threat even when low on or out of mana
• + Vicious late game

• - Higher offence at the expense of survivability; stay alert, stay alive
• - Lower burst spell damage, significantly less potent shield compared to AP builds
• - Exceptionally weak early on, requires much more skill to be competitive in lane; basically a Carry approach

The interesting thing, to me, about this build is that my runes are still pretty much ****, as I mentioned in my Lux guide that I whipped up the other day. So instead of actually using some and telling you that they were awesome, I can tell you that I've been loving this build with totally **** runes, and instead of embarrassing both of us by going over those, just say, here are my dream runes I'd use if I had them -- things can only get better.

As in my other guide, these choices are based primarily upon the Rune Tips page that Searz put together, going for an "S-Rank" of each type in an area I would improve on Orianna if I had the Influence Points (IP) to support doing so.

Greater Mark of Insight
Even though I'm going for an auto-attack build, because of the way Clockwork Windup operates, and the fact that I don't want to solely use auto-attacks at the expense of her very powerful activated abilities, I would love to be able to push magic damage a bit more. Being able to bypass some resistances is key to everything Orianna can do, regardless of build.

Greater Seal of Defense Greater Seal of Defense
I haven't felt that CDR or Mana Regeneration Per 5 Seconds (MP5) are huge problems for this approach. If I had the IP to get them, I'd drop either of those in favour of a bit more survivability by going with armour per level seals, to give a bit of a boost the whole game through.

Greater Glyph of Celerity
Since I'm not pushing CDR gear in this build (there is a bit of it, but it's not the focus), I found it helpful to get a bit of an edge in this arena. This is something I was actually able to partially recreate, as I've been buying up the runes to run Lux in the way I'd prefer, at the CDR cap.

Greater Quintessence of Insight
Here again, since this build is all about shredding the opposition with magic damage, I've elected to go with Magic Resistance Penetration (MRP) for my quints.

As I mentioned above, I've been running this build with great joy and success with total **** runes, so if there's any area of this guide where I'd say relax and follow your gut, or your heart, or whatever it is you think best, this is it.

Here, there is a bit less wiggle room. I go with a 21/6/3 approach, supporting the very aggressive sustained DPS-oriented approach while providing a bit of a boost to survivability. Since we are trying to create a fast-paced, sustained DPS auto-attacker, it's key to push as far down the Offence tree as one possibly can. Since I tend to blow Exhaust and Ignite in rapid succession when I see an opportunity to score a kill or an assist, I go with both of these Masteries.

The Ignite Mastery helps by boosting AP whenever it is on Cooldown (CD), encouraging its use and not punishing you too severely if you don't have it available. Since Clockwork Windup uses a portion of AP to calculate the bonus damage, every little bit extra is a boon. The Exhaust Mastery adds a bit more oomph to the spell, lowering Magic Resistance (MR) by 10, and extending the duration by a half second.

Other than pushing down the Offence tree to the capstone, I go with boosts to armour and MR from the Defence tree, and a dash of regen in the Utility tree.

Exhaust
While I do often use this as an offencive spell in conjunction with Ignite, it's not always necessary. This is worth noting because it is also a tremendously powerful escape aid, and a great way to neuter that Ryze who is about to blow all his CDs to try to burst you down to nothing.


Ignite
This is a great finisher for that Champion who thinks they can just get to their tower and be okay. In concert with the Mastery, it also boosts your AP by 10 when it is on CD, making it a great spell to burn any time you think you might get a kill or assist with it.

Since Command: Protect and Command: Dissonance combine to give Orianna such incredible escape utility, I've found that Flash is not as valuable; nor is Ghost. Also, though I generally favour Clarity with the Mastery for the value to a team, in this case, since Orianna herself has no real mana problems of which to speak once the Tear of the Goddess has been properly rushed, I find that this more aggressive approach has a greater effect.

The only real alternate I consider at all in this build is giving up Exhaust for Teleport. In one scenario, I may squeeze a Hextech Gunblade in there somewhere to give me an activated slow that covers the loss of Exhaust somewhat. In another, I try to touch the AS cap by building Black Cleaver at the end to try to backdoor turrets. However, in most every scenario, I prefer all the additional benefits that Exhaust gives to the Hextech Gunblade's activated, and being set up in advance to backdoor requires coordination with a set team, as this is not usually a role Orianna fills.

When I play Orianna with a more AP and spell-centred and/or Support-oriented approach, I tend to open with Command: Attack and Command: Protect, in that order, to get the Ball moving. This is especially useful for helping your lanemate if you are in top or bot. After that, I usually just rush Command: Dissonance to the top first, followed closely by Protect. It's important to understand that Protect can be used offencively as well as defencively, since it, like Attack, does damage to targets as the Ball passes through them to its destination.

However, since this build puts Orianna in harm's way much more often than a more skirting-the-edges-of-battle skill-oriented approach, I've found it more effective to raise Protect up along with Dissonance. In every situation, though I open with my first point into Attack, I raise it to the max last because it's more powerful for Ball moving utility than for actual damage.

If you are feeling a lot of heat early on, you may wish to push Protect to the max first, and then follow that with Dissonance as soon as possible afterwards. In any case, though, naturally you will want to raise Command: Shockwave at the earliest opportunity, at every opportunity; levels 6, 11, and 16.

Here is where things get specific. While there are some alternates you can roll with to support the way your game is going, the early build is always, always, always the same. Charging up a Tear of the Goddess as soon as possible is absolutely essential to nipping your mana problems in the bud.

Meki Pendant and Health Potion (x2)
This is the standard starting selection. This allows a bit of aggression with spells, and the Health Potions allow you to stay in your lane until you have enough coin to go back and pick up the next piece.


Meki Pendant (already owned) and Sapphire Crystal into Tear of the Goddess
The sooner you can get this, the better. Once you have it, do everything you can to charge it up by spamming your skills on minion waves and anything else that's handy. Before you know it, you will have a tremendous mana pool, and be able to spend most of the rest of the game focusing on how to raise your AS and AP instead of dealing with mana issues.

Boots of Speed into Berserker's Greaves
It's worth heading back to base to pick up Boots as soon as you have 350 gold after you've built your Tear of the Goddess, if you haven't got the coin for Berserker's Greaves all at one go. I had considered Sorcerer's Boots, but looking into how Magic Penetration works on the League of Legends Wikia site has led me to favour pushing AS to the limit as early as possible in order to start getting some on-hit effects, and raising the value of Clockwork Windup to boot (no pun intended).

Amplifying Tome and Dagger (x2) into Malady
From here, it's up to you a bit. If you feel you need a bit more AP to finish someone off by boosting your spell potency before pushing your AS up some more, go for the Amplifying Tome first. Personally, I go with both Daggers first, to keep going on the path to rushing the AS up as soon as possible. In any case, Malady is extremely inexpensive for what it gives you, and with your already respectable AS at this point, you will make good use of its passive.

Vampiric Scepter and Rejuvenation Bead into Emblem of Valour Emblem of Valour
Around this point in the build, it becomes very helpful to pick up a bit of Life Steal (LS). For this reason, I go with the Vampiric Scepter first, whenever possible. In concert with some decent AS by this point in the build, it helps to clear minion waves and recover your Hit Points (HP) more quickly, as well as leveling you with some Experience Points (XP) and gold. That's a much more useful choice than just heading back to base over and over. However, Emblem of Valour gives a pretty significant LS boost, and has an aura effect to support your team, as well, so I would suggest heading back to pick it up as soon as you've gotten the difference in cost from your Vampiric Scepter saved up.

Emblem of Valour Emblem of Valour (already owned) and Recurve Bow into Stark's Fervor
This is a great pick for this build, reducing enemy Champion armour significantly with an aura, as well as sharing a portion of the AS boost that Recurve Bow provides with your teammates. It also bumps the LS up a notch further, and shares that with your teammates as well.

Dagger (x2) into Stinger
This is interchangeable with the Fiendish Codex that I cover next, as both are required to build Nashor's Tooth. Personally, as you can probably guess by now, I favour pushing AS first. It helps improve the value of Clockwork Windup further still, and makes your on-hit effects from Malady and Zeke's Harbinger pay off more frequently as well.

Meki Pendant and Amplifying Tome into Fiendish Codex
This is a great little niche addition to the build. A dash of CDR, a bit more MP5, and some AP all help you be more aggressive more often with your spells. This means more Command: Protect to let you finish up a gank on the winning end, more Command: Dissonance to help you chase or escape, and more Command: Shockwave to frustrate your foes further. It's also key to the next item.

Stinger (already owned) and Fiendish Codex (already owned) into Nashor's Tooth
You know Baron Nashor, right? Giant purple lizard, never happy to see you? His teeth are pretty handy, and they don't expire like the buff you get from defeating him. The unique passive more than doubles the CDR that your Fiendish Codex gave, as well as nearly doubling the AP boost. It also bumps the AS a bit more, to +50 from +40, and it gives a tiny bit more MP5, though this should be trivial by now.

At this point, you've only got one slot left, so you can't really grab pieces and roll them into your final selection. There's also a bit of wiggle room near the end, here.

Phage or Giant's Belt into Frozen Mallet
I like this piece because it lets me chase runners very effectively as a team fight breaks up, or slow them down if I am in the unlikely position of being too low on mana to pop off a Command: Dissonance. It also gives a tremendous amount of extra HP, which, in concert with Command: Protect, is usually enough to let me escape anything but a 3-5v1 bad matchup with lots of Crowd Control (CC) keeping me from acting or moving.

Tear of the Goddess (already owned) into Archangel's Staff
Finally, or before that if I find I am still sputtering out of mana by midgame (shouldn't be, but sometimes I am), I finish off the Tear of the Goddess with one last upgrade. This bumps the MP5 up a not insignificant amount, and provides a noticeable bump in spell damage, as well. Depending on my mood, and the turns of the game, I will sometimes build this as soon as I'm done with the Berserker's Greaves. Often this is in order to max out Command: Protect sooner, and play a more supportive role while I keep farming gold and xp to finish the build.

Here are some good alternate pieces to consider depending upon the way the game is going, as well as a few pieces I had thought might be good, but turned out to really not be very useful at all:

The Black Cleaver
This is a decent replacement for Frozen Mallet if you find you do not need any extra help with the ranged slow, or the extra HP. It helps mix up your damage types a bit more, and works as a great partner to Malady by helping your entire team do quite a bit more damage to your target, regardless of their damage types.

Use this when:

• You are a master of slowing your enemies with Command: Dissonance, and don't need Frozen Mallet's slow
• You think extra HP is for sissies
• You like the neat little animation when you land a hit
• Your team sees you are building an AS/on-hit approach, and asks you to get some armour shredding love in for them
• Someone else on your team is already doing mass slows ( Anivia, Ashe, Nunu & Willump)

Hextech Gunblade
This, too, is a decent replacement for Frozen Mallet in certain situations. It has a clicky effect that functions as a partial spare Exhaust, and if the LS you're getting from your Zeke's Harbinger isn't enough, this could be a good stacker. It also gives a tremendous AP boost. However, I wouldn't suggest swapping it for Zeke's Harbinger because your entire team loses a substantial amount of AS, and for this Orianna build in particular, this makes everything else less potent.

Use this when:

• You are a master of slowing your enemies with Command: Dissonance, and don't need Frozen Mallet's slow
• You want to reserve Exhaust as a more defencive escape assist or burst damage neuter, but still have an activated slow
• You want to drop Exhaust for Teleport to help your cross-map mobility
• You aren't stealing enough life to tickle your fancy
• You have an artistic appreciation for a robot buying a gun

Quicksilver Sash or Banshee's Veil
Either of these are reasonable swaps for Frozen Mallet, which is more of a frosting piece than a cake piece, no pun intended. Either one is good if you are facing heavy magic damage or getting CC ganked a lot, but by later in the game, it's probably better to pay the extra for Banshee's Veil over the cheaper Quicksilver Sash in order to still have a bit of spare HP floating about. If you find yourself getting ganked and focused too much even by mid-game, it's probably worth picking one or the other of these up earlier in the build.

Use one of these when:

• You are a master of slowing your enemies with Command: Dissonance, and don't need Frozen Mallet's slow
• You are tired of getting CC ganked
• You like bubbles or clicky Cleanse

Guinsoo's Rageblade
This isn't quite a Bad Idea, but it's a bit closer than some of the other choices above. As a replacement for Frozen Mallet it is passable, bumping you a bit closer to the AS cap when fully stacked. Since Orianna can initiate well from cover by spamming a few spells to disorient the enemy, you can get three or four stacks before you even start auto-attacking. On the other hand, in my games at least, late-game ganks from cover aren't really that common. Maybe it happens more in more serious games. I wouldn't know.

Use this when:

• You are a master of slowing your enemies with Command: Dissonance, and don't need Frozen Mallet's slow
• You want more on-hit stacking effect icons on your screen
• You want to be closer to the AS cap without giving up too much
• You are angry

Wit's End
While it seems like a reasonable replacement for Malady, with a much more defencive focus, such a use would fall under Bad Ideas. The entire focus of the build is sustained mixed DPS, and surrendering your ability to burn down an enemy Champion more quickly in order to survive their damage for a longer time is not really worth it. This is a best-defence-is-a-good-offence approach, and Wit's End doesn't fit nearly as well.

As a replacement for Frozen Mallet, it's a bit less repugnant, but personally I would still recommend embracing the brutality of the sustained DPS mindset, and this does not really help with that. It's worth considering over a Banshee's Veil or Quicksilver Sash, however, since it does a bit of extra magic damage, and can help you shrug off burst spell damage that may come in by surprise in the middle of a partial team fight.

Use this instead of Malady when:

• You don't understand me anymore
• You want to try Bravery, but don't want to fully commit

Use this instead of Frozen Mallet when:

• You are a master of slowing your enemies with Command: Dissonance, and don't need Frozen Mallet's slow
• You keep dying to magic damage, and want a bit more resist
• You feel your magic damage output with Clockwork Windup on your auto-attacks needs a bump

Phantom Dancer
If you're feeling silly and just want to push past the AS cap for giggles, then this is probably more your speed than Frozen Mallet. It's not really very useful, though, since it will put you past the cap, and the movement speed bonus is excessive with Command: Dissonance around. The crit boost hasn't got much value, either, since this is not a crit build, and it's not being raised anywhere else. In general, I would call this one a Bad Idea.

Use this when:

• You feel like shattering the AS cap
• You want two swords crossing in your item pool, not just Malady one way and Nashor's Tooth the other (Mobafire's Malady graphic is reversed from the in-game graphic).

Probably the one thing that separates a mediocre Orianna player from a good or great one is the capacity to track and manipulate two totally separate zones of control at one time. A less proficient player will usually move the Ball towards their enemies with Command: Attack, and then back to themselves with Command: Protect, sometimes with a Command: Dissonance in between. While this is not an inherently bad play, this approach is naturally very limited if it's the only real play you make.

Orianna is better than this. Here are some points to consider and mull over while you move O and her Ball around the battlefield. Putting these into words and getting them out of my head helped me to really advance my play with her; I was more or less doing these things to begin with, but thinking about them consciously has allowed me to focus and improve on them deliberately, and really move to the next level.

• Pay attention to the arrow that hovers near Orianna when she does not have the Ball; it shows which direction the Ball is in relation to her, as well as how far
  • Green arrow: The Ball is close
  • Yellow arrow: The Ball is a bit farther away
  • Red arrow: The Ball is near the limit of its allowable distance from Orianna -- if she keeps moving away from it, it will teleport back to her
• Practise playing by holding the Ball as infrequently as possible, to force yourself to increase your awareness of where it is at all times, separate of where Orianna is
• The Ball can be moved from a much greater distance than the range of Command: Attack; if there is a Red arrow pointing to Orianna's left, you can fire Command: Attack at the outer limit of its range to her right, and the Ball will cross a tremendous distance, hitting everything hostile on the way -- but your opponents will have PLENTY of time to dodge it
• Hide safely in your own wave while you shred theirs with Clockwork Windup OR
• Out-zone your opponent in mid by pushing the Ball well past their Creep wave, and attacking the wave with Clockwork Windup from the rear, keeping them out of XP range
• The Ball travels from where IT IS to where you send it, not necessarily from where YOU ARE
• The Ball is fast, but not Finales Funkeln fast -- if you keep it closer to enemies, it becomes much harder, if not impossible, for them to avoid getting hit by Command: Attack and/or Command: Dissonance and/or Command: Shockwave
• Keeping the Ball on the other side of their Creep wave allows you to get AoE last-hits by calling it back to you with Command: Protect
• If they start to come at Orianna, maneouvre her so that she is directly opposite the Ball, with them in the middle, then fire Command: Protect if they are still coming

Once you've got Command: Dissonance maxed, Orianna can do a lap through the jungle very quickly. Starting at the blue buff Golem, running on to the wolves, and then across mid to the other side, the trick is to use Command: Attack to initiate, then use Command: Dissonance to wipe out or nearly wipe out all the less powerful Neutral Creeps, and then start moving to the next point. If the mobs aren't dead, just run anyway, and call the Ball to Orianna with Command: Protect to finish them off as you approach the next battle site. While you will need to stand there to finish the blue and red buffs, if you start on one and end on the other, this is not an issue.

You can also assist your team's jungler, if you've got a Champion who is better suited to true jungling, by tossing a Command: Attack into their wraith or golem twin fights as you pass by, or giving them a Command: Protect shield and a Command: Dissonance speed boost. Just try not to actually get the killing blow in any case, as this will have a negative impact on your jungler's take.

As far as laning goes, you can really out-zone your opponents by leaving the Ball between them and the minion wave battle, keeping them out of XP range. If they start to move in, just fire off Command: Dissonance; this will at least slow them down if they're coming for you, in which case you can just Command: Protect yourself and get away clean. If they're just testing you, it can discourage them from pushing.

If you are in top or bot, you can also leave the ball in the brush while you Clockwork Windup the Creeps. This gives you some vision to avoid ganks, and is also great for mind games; move it around a bit with Command: Attack, and then bring it out of the brush to bump your opponents. Watch them jump as they react to what they think is a gank, and giggle. Later on, after you've done this a lot, watch them underreact and get nailed by an actual gank from one of your real teammates.

As hinted at in the Introduction above, Orianna is a tremendously valuable team player. Here are a few things you can do to help your team in varying situations:

• Gank Initiator: Send in Command: Attack just past your target (in the direction you expect them to run when they see an odd-man rush coming their way), and immediately fire Command: Dissonance to damage them and, more importantly, slow their escape.
• Tank Support: Possessing the Ball gives improved Armour and MR. Hand it to your tank any time, and stay close enough to let them keep it. Command: Protect adds a damage buffer, and also gives you a zone of control immediately around your spearhead, allowing you to Command: Dissonance if they need to back out, and/or Command: Shockwave with them as the epicenter if you need to break a channel or just want to disorient the other team.
• Late-game Turret Defence: Command: Shockwave can wipe an entire triple-strength Creep wave in one shot. Command: Dissonance can help you get there very quickly, and as soon as you are in range, you can push the Ball ahead with Command: Attack to fire the ult as soon as possible.
• Ultimate Combinator: Hand the ball to Fiddlesticks, Amumu, et al; let them Flash in and use their respective ultimates, and immediately fire Command: Shockwave followed by Command: Dissonance. This bunches them all up, disorients their escape (if they can move), and slows them dramatically once they're free. Oh, and it hurts.
• Travel Agent/Escape Artist: Use Command: Protect to put the ball onto the teammate who is at the head of your merry band, running towards whatever it is you're all running towards (or away from). Then use Command: Dissonance to speed them up, and everyone else who is following right behind them. Also handily slows enemies, if you're running away, more than towards.
• Right-click to Win: Clockwork Windup, an underutilised passive on an underutilised Champion; build for it as described herein, and shock the other team by repeatedly shredding their homes and loved ones. When they start to realise they need to run away, push the Ball past them with Command: Attack, then throw a Command: Dissonance to slow their escape and damage them. If the ball is still on the other side of them, fire Command: Protect to nail them again for still more damage.
• Baron/Dragon Thief: Since the Ball can be where Orianna is not, and passes through terrain without issue, it can be used to steal (or just check) Baron or the Dragon from the safety of the other side of the back of each one's little cul-de-sac.
• Short-range Clairvoyance: Command: Attack is a great way to check brush for ganks. It also makes traveling through the jungle safer and faster; push the Ball through some brush with Command: Attack, and then hit Command: Dissonance. If you hit enemies, consider Command: Shockwave if you have caught just one wannabe ambusher or a couple enemies returning to base at low HP, or if you've run into the whole other team, to give yourself a bit of an edge and a better chance at getting away. Even if nobody's there, Command: Dissonance when the Ball is right in front of you as you are running will give you a speed boost, getting you there faster. The Ball can also move in any direction without Orianna turning that way, or breaking stride; trick enemies by running past brush and unexpectedly nailing them in their hiding spot with Command: Attack.

Most Orianna players that I've seen (granted, this is like two other people, ever) tend to focus on AP and burst spell damage, with a more potent shield. This is a perfectly viable approach, but her spell damage is frankly underwhelming. She is much more about the ancillary effects of her Command: Dissonance and Command: Shockwave abilities, and since those aspects of each of those skills are not impacted in any way by giving up AP, this approach allows you to use her as a great and often unexpected source of sustained mixed damage.

As I've mentioned herein and elsewhere, I am a play-for-fun gamer. I have no interest in Ranked progression, but if you use this build in your Ranked games, I'd love to get your feedback and thoughts on how to improve it for more competitive play, with the caveat that the key goal is to do an unexpected and hard to mitigate Clockwork Windup-centric approach. How would you make yours? Post a brief comment, or write a more thorough guide and link it below!

It's been said that Orianna is not a viable Champion. This is like saying a Ferrari is not a viable car. Both take skill to use to best effect, and that requirement does not mean they are inherently inadequate. Quite the opposite, in fact. I hope you've enjoyed this guide, or at least gotten some ideas of your own to try out on her, or with similar mixed-damage Champions, like Kayle, Kog'Maw, Tristana, Shaco, etc. I love writing, so it would be great if you loved reading what I wrote. Please leave a comment, and vote with your conscience! Thanks in advance for your time and your feedback!