Combo Review #2: Orianna + Rengar

Hi everyone and welcome back to our second installment of the new Combo Review series! This week we'll be going over one of my favorite combos, the stealthy ball delivery system applied by none other than the most hated cat on the rift: Rengar!

Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome back to our second installment of the new Combo Review series! This week we'll be going over one of my favorite combos, the stealthy ball delivery system applied by none other than the most hated cat on the rift: Rengar!

How It Works

Normally, if Orianna throws her ball on an ally it is visible as long as the ally is visible as well. 

However, if the ally is stealthed, the ball also goes into stealth mode as long as the two champions remain within the range of 1100 units of each other and the target remains stealthed.

Why Rengar?

Front Line Beefcake

As a melee champion, Rengar receives bonus magic resist and armor. He also tends to build tankier than most other stealth champions late game, allowing him to solo jump into a pack of enemy champions with relative safety.

Exclamation Point of Doom

When enemy players see the exclamation point over their heads, players responsible for peeling immediately move towards the strongest glass cannon on the team (Rengar's primary target). However, by doing so they immediately place themselves in danger of getting Orianna ulted as well, resulting in catastrophic AOE damage.

Exclamation Point of Abandonment

After one or two times of getting five man ulted by Orianna right after seeing the exclamation point, players begin to realize that they should spread out when they see it. However, doing so often leaves the glass cannons to fend for themselves, a difficult task against a Rengar and an Orianna.

Invisible Gap Closer

Last but not least is the most obvious reason why Rengar is ideal, and that's because of the simple fact that he has an invisible gap closer that deals massive damage. This makes him an ideal candidate for the elevated position of "Ball Boy".

Alternative Champions

Orianna is irreplaceable in this combination. However, there are several other ball delivery systems that may be equally if not more effective including the following:

• Shaco - Easier to sneak up without notice, but isn't as tanky. Enemy champions are also less likely to clump together without the exclamation point.
• Twitch - This is usually a bad idea unless both Twitch and Orianna are very far ahead and you can reliably one shot and/or CC down the entire enemy team. Additionally, Twitch needs to stand in a straight line to maximize his damage, but if he's positioned in the middle of their team it's difficult to do so. He'll also probably die relatively quickly.
• Wukong - Arguably better than Shaco and Rengar, a nicely placed Wukong + Orianna combination is a two man wombo combo that can take down almost any team.

Potential Difficulties

The largest difficulty you might have with this combo is to ensure that the enemy team doesn't see you put the ball on the invisible champion, and also to make sure they don't see the invisible champion coming until it's too late.

Initiating champions may also have trouble with pink wards, which greatly reduce this combo's ability to catch and take out more than one champion without having the ball carrier suffer the same fate.

Lastly, displacement spells such as Azir and Janna's ultimates may cause Orianna's ball to ult in a poor location, resulting in a massive loss in overall damage.

Conclusions

This combination offers a huge amount of sneaky burst damage, and without the right team compositions to counter it, can quickly snowball out of control.

Good pink ward coverage is key to beating this combination, but even so, by the time you know it's coming it might be too late.

What do you think about the Orianna + Rengar combo? Comment below!