Ornn Counters: Who Beats Ornn

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch.

Ornn counters are top laners who deal damage based on Health or true damage, or who steal the resistances he stacks. He’s a 175 range tank who gets extra Armor and Magic Resist from every source, slows with a fissure, makes enemies Brittle with his fire breath, knocks them up off walls and calls a giant elemental for his ultimate. The picks that beat him ignore his defences rather than trying to punch through them.

Five matchups follow, each built from ability text on both sides. No win-rate data was used.

Ornn counters: Ornn, The Fire below the Mountain, splash art

Why is Ornn hard to counter?

Living Forge (passive): bonus Armor and Magic Resist from all sources, the ability to forge non-consumable items anywhere, and masterwork upgrades for himself and his allies.
Volcanic Rupture (Q): a fissure that damages and slows, leaving a magma pillar at its end after a short delay. Cooldown 9/8.5/8/7.5/7.
Bellows Breath (W): Ornn advances while breathing fire, and enemies hit by the last gout become Brittle. Cooldown 12/11.5/11/10.5/10.
Searing Charge (E): a charge that damages enemies on the way; if he hits terrain, a shockwave damages and knocks up enemies around him. Cooldown 14/13.5/13/12.5/12.
Call of the Forge God (R): a huge elemental that runs toward him, damaging, slowing and making enemies Brittle; recast to charge into it, redirecting it so it knocks up whoever it runs over next. Cooldown 140/120/100.

Ornn doesn’t need to win the lane. Living Forge multiplies his Armor and Magic Resist, so the longer the game goes, the less your damage does to him, and his masterwork items make his team stronger too. Meanwhile Volcanic Rupture’s pillar plus Searing Charge gives him a knock-up whenever he wants one. So how do you beat a champion whose whole plan is being too tanky to kill? You bring damage that doesn’t care how much Armor he has.

Which champions are the best Ornn counters?

Trundle

Subjugate (R) immediately steals a percent of the target’s Health, Armor and Magic Resist, and over the next 4 seconds the amount stolen doubles. Ornn’s passive inflates exactly those resistances, so Trundle takes more from him than from almost anyone else. Chomp (Q) slows and saps Attack Damage, Frozen Domain (W) gives Trundle Attack Speed, Move Speed and stronger healing while he stands on it, and Pillar of Ice (E) creates impassable terrain that slows nearby enemies. Careful, though: that pillar is terrain, and Searing Charge knocks up when it hits terrain. Place it behind him, not beside you.

Fiora

Duelist’s Dance (passive) reveals a weak point on enemy champions, and hitting it heals Fiora and speeds her up. Grand Challenge (R) reveals four of them at once and heals her team once she strikes all four. For a brief moment Riposte (W) shrugs off every hit and disable thrown at her, then stabs forward, and that stab stuns if what it caught was an immobilizing effect. Ornn’s Searing Charge knock-up or the elemental’s knock-up into a well-timed Riposte becomes a stun on him instead. Lunge (Q) and Bladework (E) keep the pressure on between his cooldowns. Honestly, she’s the one champion here who turns his engage into her opening.

Gwen

A Thousand Cuts (passive) adds bonus magic damage based on the target’s Health to her attacks and heals her for part of it. Snip Snip! (Q) deals true damage to anyone in the centre of its cone. Neither cares much about a tank’s resistances in the way normal damage does. Hallowed Mist (W) means she can only be targeted by enemies who walk into it, which forces Ornn to come to her. Skip ‘n Slash (E) dashes a short distance and grants Attack Speed and range, and Needlework (R) slows and applies her passive with every needle. In practice, Gwen out-trades Ornn harder the more Health he stacks.

Mordekaiser

His ultimate (R) drags one victim into another dimension and steals a portion of their stats. For a duel against a tank, that takes Ornn away from his team and makes him weaker while Mordekaiser gets stronger. Indestructible (W) stores damage dealt and taken as a shield he can consume to heal. Darkness Rise (passive) gives him a damage aura and Move Speed after landing three attacks or spells, and Obliterate (Q) deals extra damage when it hits a single enemy, which inside his ultimate’s dimension is always. Death’s Grasp (E) pulls enemies in an area.

Kayle

Divine Ascent (passive) grows Kayle’s Attack Speed, Move Speed and Attack Range as she levels, adding waves of fire to her attacks later on. Ornn wants to stall the game, and a stalled game is when Kayle is at her strongest. Radiant Blast (Q) slows, damages and reduces the resistances of everything it hits, which cuts straight into what Living Forge builds. Starfire Spellblade (E) adds bonus magic damage to her attacks, with an active that scales with the target’s missing Health. Divine Judgment (R) makes an ally invulnerable for a moment. The catch is the early game. She has to survive Ornn’s knock-ups first.

How do you play the lane against Ornn?

Stay away from walls and pillars. Searing Charge only knocks up when Ornn collides with terrain, and Volcanic Rupture leaves a pillar he can charge into.
Sidestep the last gout of Bellows Breath. Only enemies hit by the final flame become Brittle.
Trade before he finishes items. Living Forge multiplies his resistances, so he gets harder to damage the more he buys.
Watch for the elemental’s redirect. The first pass slows; the recast knocks up whoever it runs over.
Count Call of the Forge God. 140 seconds at rank 1 is a long time, and without it his teamfight engage is a single charge.

Which items counter Ornn?

He stacks Armor and Magic Resist, so penetration and Health-based damage beat raw damage. Black Cleaver’s Carve cuts his Armor by 6% per hit, stacking 5 times, and Blade of The Ruined King’s Mist’s Edge deals damage based on the target’s current Health. On AP champions, Void Staff brings 40% Magic Penetration, and Liandry’s Torment burns 2% of the target’s max Health per second for 3 seconds when your abilities hit. Mercury’s Treads give 30% Tenacity for the slows and stuns his team adds after a knock-up. For a broader list, check our LoL items database.

When is Ornn at his weakest?

Early, before Living Forge has much to multiply. A level 3 Ornn has few items and modest resistances, and the counters above can trade hard. Push your advantage there (his jungler will know it, too).

The second window is right after Call of the Forge God. At 140 seconds at rank 1 (100 at rank 3), a spent ultimate leaves him with one wall-dependent knock-up for the next fight. Funny enough, his lane is also weaker in open areas (no walls, no shockwave). Fight in the middle of the lane, not at the edges.

New to top lane? Our guide to LoL roles explains it. His skins are on the Ornn skins page, you can browse the full list of champions in our guide catalogue, and the Ornn ARAM guide covers how he plays without a top lane at all. Long story short, Ornn counters steal or ignore his resistances, and they fight him away from walls.

FAQ

Who counters Ornn the most?

Trundle and Mordekaiser, who steal his stats; Fiora and Gwen, who deal true or Health-based damage; and Kayle, who outscales him and reduces his resistances.