Talk:Orianna/@comment-25796537-20151204231940/@comment-5955640-20151205001543

Actually she's more a secondary support for one Janna or Lulu is not an option (or in Janna's case suboptimal). Early game you can be a decent poke support or a defensive support as she actually has the most consistent defensive measure out of every support. The protect ball gives 10-30 bonus Magic and Armor resistance on it's target for as long as you stay in range and not cast Q.

It has a static amount of damage it blocks on cast but that's icing on the cake. Two damage sponges in one spell.

Once you start buying mana and mid game takes place you actually start fufilling the role of granting your team initation and mobility. The potential becomes a lot more simiular to Lulu as you'll want to cast multiple spells on one person but unlike Lulu it requires the management of the ball. If you throw the Q out to do damage you'll have to W as well and if the enemy is pushing through you can cast E on yourself so that the ball does damage on it's return. After that you can probably cast Q again.

Cast E on a tank and then wait for the tank to throw himself at the enemy. When that happens you stay in range and ult so the ball sets your whole team up.

Your marksman is trading and chasing opponents. The combination of E and W along with any mobility item activates or the Icy ghosts basically lets you control mobility.

Orianna is a utilty mid. That's why she's almost never seen as a support because no one likes playing support but everyone loves utility so she goes mid because it's not impossible to make her a good APC either.

Orianna's niche is a mid utility mage but a mid utility mage is just a support with items.