Let me open this suggestion with a statement:
If a character tends to keep away, its because their options to hit an opponent with are either limited and/or bear an unrewarding risk.
As a ranno (& clairen) main the opposite is true and I wish to help Orcane mains to fit their character into the core of rivals and making him even more fun to watch and play against.
The answer to fix his current state is mobility and possibilities to setup advantages aggressively.
Sounds counterintuitive? Let me convince you:
Momentum:
Orcanes slippery mobility is one of his key attributes. Yet watching his mains play and trying him out for some extended testing, it feels sluggish to use his jump momentum in turnarounds since he doesn’t maintain his speed.
If he could jump out of it and keep full ground momentum in the air, there’s potential for a really cool variety in his agression mixed with potent ways to crossup balanced by his generally short reach.
Sidespecial:
His sidespecial also only really acts as a tool of recovery and while useful it removes a potential aggressive option because shields exist and its very telegraphed. The massive hurtbox is a considerable downside but fine if giving sidespecial the ability to jumpcancle (or hitfall) on hit and/or on shield (maybe depending if puddle was used or not). It would make it a good tool to break into character zones/go through projectiles and open up opportunities for more depth in his gameplan. (While it remains as easy to parry as it is now, retaining the hurtbox)
Normals:
His end of the tail sourspot dtilt seems very weak and the reward is generally underwhelming in comparison to other characters. A similar case can be made for his uptilt not working as a proper anti air against most if not all common dairs (zetterburn, ranno, krag, wrastor erc.) to have any real use as such. The endlag nerfs did not help when people are able to pressure orcanes shield and he has to rely on his amazing but stubby nair and parries.
As a clairen & ranno main and I feel he’s got very limited answers to my most common pressure since hes easily grabbed even if trying to play around me through movement.
Improving his movement surely could make him thoughter to hit but since hes wide, struggles to land and Im convinced most dedicated players do not like to play uninteractive and some only do so for the lack of good reward.
Since Orcanes other normals to cover certain areas are limited or less rewarding than most characters hits or puts him into high risk to loose the advantage and/or keep up the pressure (Fair for example being beaten out by many moves even if setup properly; most of my attacks just faze through with ease and hit him on reaction + its super easy to parry him)
Lastly some solutions for his biggest issues:
Bubbles and puddle bubbles are strong in a vacuum, yet do not function as good in reality due to the aforementioned issues, being dependent on other players reactions, movement, many inconsistencies in hitstun if hit (and how many have hit).
It feels sluggish for both parties, lacks depth and most of the time Orcanes do better when not using them leading to an overreliance of nair that gets them killed quite often. Prior to the vertical nerf, I saw some Orcanes using them successfully as an anti air or a way to restrict the opponents movement but its been rarely working now.
Rework would be to either rework puddle bubbles into a single multihit geyser to bring more consistency that could maybe even boost his mobility (superjumping, fazing through gaining momentum)
An on hand feature: Adding a limited stacking feature (wetness) on a very short decreasing timer for each bubble hit that increases the amount of hitstun and safety of the next attack. (The opponent is “heavier” and “acts slower” because they’re soaked)
The idea is to giving an incentive on a timer to hit the opponent to increase the reward to agression.
The geyser idea for boosting momentum/mobility/jumping sounds really fun to play with
Can second this it sounds really cool!