Talk:Orianna/@comment-4948122-20120508183728/@comment-3419132-20120509025457

[WARNING WALL OF TEXT] Well it will all boil down to personal appeal and what you are good at or prefer. Lets go champion by champion (based on the ones you listed)

Orianna

Orianna is a strong highly skill requisite mage that offers some of the best dynamics to both the laning phase and mid to late game team fights. Her damage is by no means low, it is all AoE, and one can be quite surprising with the ball. But before we get into that lets talk about, well, the ball. As you probably know all her abilities but her passive originate from the ball meaning that for you to deal damage and defend your allies you need to both manage and keep track of the ball. Think of Command: Attack, your Q, as your second move comand. Don't treat it like damage because early game its damage is rather negligable until later game. You use it to move the ball either to your opponent or to position it for a later attack or defense. The ball is Orianna's biggest and best mechanic as it allows for some real surprises with attacks and disruptions. However it is also where the difficulty comes in. The ball's movespeed is rather low and you need to compensate for that with preprediction of your target's movement and where you need it most. Failing to get the ball into position fast enough can result in your and sometimes team mates deaths as you can often save them or yourself by quickly giving a shield and then speed buffing the target for a quick getaway. Orianna's main damage comes in from Command: Dissonance and is what you want to level first. At rank 2 or 3 its early game damage can shred through health and the speed debuff helps stack your passive for heavy damage. Orianna's sheild and Ult give her a massive amount of utility as wel as possible burst damage. The great thing about the shield is that when it attempts to travel to your target it will damage those in its path. Positioning the ball a bit behind someone can give you some more damage on top of your Q-W burst as it will then be given back in your possesion ready to attack again. Finally her Ult. It is truly one of the greatest tactical ults in the game and can completly throw off a team's coordination. While its damage is rather low it is still a nice powerful additional hit that leads to more because of the toss and stun. I could give a million more words about her but I need to define other champs so all in all Orianna is a strong mage that needs a heft amount of skill and positioning to be at best use. Her utility is immense and she is a powerful mid.

Anivia

Anivia is a great mage that has a slight combo mechanic that is akin to Brand. She is a great team fighter as she can place down a poweful AoE and solo out squishy targets with a surprising amount of burst damage. Well lets go from ability to ability again. Her Q, Flash Frost, needs a bit of skill on where to aim and the positioning it takes. A well placed Flash Frost can stun multiple members of a gank or team fight and be just enough for a winning manuever. It does great damage and leads into her E. Hitting slowed enemy's with her E is what really hits hard. When slowed the damage is amplified and the slow is renewed. The only time this should not be used in a combo with her other attacks is when it is your only ability not on cooldown and you need to kill a champion. Otherwise save it for when your ult hits or your Q. One of the defining features of Anivia is the wall. Anivia actually can be compared to Orianna in 2 instances. 1: She has a rather high skill requirment and 2: Well placed abilities can lead to the turning of teamfights. A good placed wall can prevent an escape, gank, gap closer, and deaths as it can be used to wall off areas for just enough time to get away safely. Proper early use of her wall can also lead to people burning flash as you can make it seem as if your pressing an attack in the laning phase. Anivia's surviavbility with the wall, her stun, slows, and passive can lead to her really punching hard in a teamfight. Although she is considerably squishy, it may be best at times to possibly use your passive to your advantage for a kill that otherwise would have resulted in your death. Although one should ALWAYS take caution if it is on cooldown. Dont act like a coward but still know your limits. Again, alot more could be said but if you read this much have an internets -> (internets) Anivia is a strong mage that brings alot to the team.

And Lastly

Vladimir

Vlad has some of the best minion farming, sustain, and poking as a mage. His Transfusion allows him to exchange blows between one another in the laning phase with him coming out on top because of its solid damage and health return. Vlad's E, Tides of Blood, should be your main damage ability. Fully stacked, its a force to be reckoned with. Early game stacking of his E can lead to your health being drastically low. But it increases healing and regeneration so later early game, to mid and late the heal return from his Q and even Health Pots can be great. Vlad's sanguine pool gives him some great surviability as proper timing with it could save your from completly fatal strikes or that last edge in escaping. But similar to his E, overusing it will leave you weak and generally without an escape method. Before i get to his ult and other things, Vlad's passive is near to one of the best in game. Building raw AP will still grant you a great amount of health. But building a balance between the two, as well as buying items that grant both (ex: "Vladimir's" Cyrstal Cepter) will give him strong survivability for a mage as well as a very high pool of AP. Vlad's ult is less its delayed damge, but that window of opprotunity that allows you to dish out incredible amounts of damage. Vlad's ult can be said similarly for Orianna's as a well placed one will turn a teamfight because of the overhaul of damage on them. Vlad still has a strong skill gap as he was nerfed but do NOT let that get the best of you. He is still strong. He is still great. Like all three of these mages!

Well so if you actually read this whole thing I saw personally ( I have all three and can do great as any of them) I prefer Orianna. She is my second Main after Viktor and I love her to death. If you need anything else just ask :D