Diana Build Guide by Shadow_Light

Introduction

NOTE: Updated now. Jungling Section is still outdated though. Next update is coming soon.

Hello everyone and welcome to my guide Diana - A new moon rises.
Since this is my first guide here on Mobafire it is probably not perfect so I would really appreciate if you leave a comment after reading with constructive criticism or possible improvements.
Please note that English is not my native language so if you find any mistakes in grammar or spelling feel free to leave a comment so I can correct this.

As the title already says this is a Diana guide and it will tell you how to build and play Diana as AP Carry in mid lane or as a jungler. I created this guide because I think I found a way to build Diana with damage and survivability and still having fun playing her. Please don't judge the guide from the Cheat Sheet and read the whole thing before voting. It wont take too much times since I tried to avoid walls of text.

Diana's Lore

For everyone that is interested in Diana's Lore that will tell you the origin of her weapon and her skills feel free to read it here. :D

Pros / Cons

As every other Champ Diana has positive and negative aspects that I will list here.

SPAAACE

Pros Great Damage Hight Mobility Non-CD Ult Shield Has a pull Very fun to play Is an assassin

SPAAACEEEEEEEE

Cons Weak before level 6 Nearly no CC (except a slow) No escape Skill Often focused in teamfights Squishy Often banned in rankeds Don't like her hair :/

Runes

Marks:

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: I prefer these Marks for more damage and combined with your items you will get a lot of magic pen.

Glyphs:

• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: These Glyphs will add more damage to your skills and also make your shield stronger.
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Choose these Glyphs for more survivability. The Magic Resist will help you in lane since you will normally have an AP Carry as opponent.

Seals:

• Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Diana can be a very mana-hungry Champ and these runes will help you out there especially late game.
• Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration: If you have too much mana problems especially early game you can also take these.
• Greater Seal of Armor: Offer more survivability and if you don't need the mana regen these are a great choice.
• Greater Seal of Health: Also good survivability. If you feel like you need more health go ahead and take these.

Quintessences:

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: I prefer these Quints on Diana because they just give you more damage that Diana needs.
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Also great Quints if you feel like you need more mobility.

Masteries

These masteries will give some damage as well as survivability that is needed as a melee assasin in my opinion. In the Defense tree I take Magic Resist over Armor because you will be facing an AP Carry in mid lane. Also the new Spellsword mastery is really nice on Diana because especially late game you will get off a few autoattacks in most fights and this adds some damage.


You could also go for 21/0/9 masteries like this ones or similar but remember that you will have less survivability that is needed on Diana.

Summoner Spells

Ability Explanation

Moonsilver Blade (Passive): This is a very nice passive. It will make farming easier as well as inflicting some serious damage to your enemies late game since it scales quite high with AP.
When last hitting minions with that be careful that you don't push your lane too much because you will risk getting ganked by the enemy jungler.





Crescent Strike: This is you main harass and damage ability. It allows you to be aggressive and harass your lane opponent even before level 6. Hitting your target with this skill is not that easy as it seems to be because unlike normal skillshots it will go in an arc towards a target location and explode there.




You're going to want to max out Crescent Strike before Pale Cascade and before Moonfall.

• Try to learn to hit land this ability as it is important for your ult
• You can use this skill to check bushes since it will reveal enemies hit for 3 seconds
• You can also last hit minions with this ability but care that you don't push your lane

Pale Cascade: This skill will give you some extra survivability. The shield that it grants you scales with AP and it can be used double in a fight since it will refresh as soon as all the 3 Spheres explode. You will also get a nice damage output with this skill when hitting all 3 Spheres.



You're going to want to max out Pale Cascade before Moonfall and after Crescent Strike.

• Make sure to activate this early enough when jumping into a fight
• The spheres deal AOE-Damage when they detonate so use this in teamfights to hit all enemies

Moonfall: This is an awesome chasing skill. It will pull nearby enemies towards you and slow them.



You're going to want to max out Moonfall after Crescent Strike and after Pale Cascade.

• Make sure that you don't use this skill to early in a fight since it's more useful when the enemies attempt to run
• This ability will also interrupt skills like Master Yi's Meditate or Katarina's Death Lotus
• You can combine this skill very well with you Pale Cascade

Lunar Rush (Ultimate): This skill makes Diana an assassin. It is great for chasing and deals nice damage too. Compared to other Ultimates this one has a very low cooldown.



You're going to want to take Lunar Rush whenever possible.

• If you use this ability while your target is afflicted by Moonlight the Debuff that enemies get from your Crescent Strike it will have no Cooldown!
• Use this for chasing and initiating

Skill Sequence

You should start off with Crescent Strike to be able to harass my opponent. Then you want to take the shield for some sustain. I don't take a point in Moonfall before level 4 since it fits to your whole combo but is rather useless without your ult. You want to max out Crescent Strike as soon as possible for more damage followed by Pale Cascade for even more damage and some sustain. Since Moonfall is primary a Utility Ability it wont hurt much maxing this last.
Lunar Rush is your Ultimate and you want to take this whenever possible of course.

Items

These are the starting Items that I recommend you. They give you mobility that you will need as a melee champ and sustain to stay longer in lane.


Could be a viable starting Item too but it offers no sustain or mobility. Only take this if you are not against a skillshot-heava champion. Even if you aren't boots and health potions are still better as Starting Items in my opinion.





In my opinion a few Doran's Ring's on your first back are really useful. It will give you damage, health and mana what helps you early game. So if you just want some cheap power or are having trouble in lane I recommend you to pick up 1 or 2 Doran's Ring's on your first back.




Boots are very important because they will help you for a decent early game and are still useful late game. The Enchantment is a new feature added with the recent patch that makes boots even more useful late game.
You should normally get your boots after the double Doran's Ring's but you should know best when you need them. The enchantment should be bought late game because it is mainly for some utility and would delay your core build.


These are the boots that I take in 90% of my games. With that 20 flat Magic Penetration combined with your runes you will nearly deal true damage early game.


These are also viable boots because that magic resist will help you very much when laning since you are facing an AP-Carry in mid lane.
If you got Sorcerer's Shoes early game and you buy a Void Staff late game you can substitute them for Mercury's Treads if you need more survivability.


This is the only Enchantment that I would recommend you because the speed is essential for Diana's chasing ability late game and she can't make a good use of the other Enchantments.




Core Items are the Items that you want to buy in every game. They are so important that you should not substitute them with anything else.



A great early game Item. Health, Ability Power, Magic Penetration, all you need. This Item will help you very much early game and can be upgraded to Liandry's Torment later. You could also sell this late game but you will kinda waste the money and as Liandry's is a great Item it's normally the best option to buy the upgrade.
You should normally get this Item after your Tier 2 boots. You could also go for it earlier but you should not buy it before your Doran's Ring's.


This is really an awesome Item on Diana. You will get a whole bunch of magic resist to fight the enemy AP Carry and also Ability Power for more damage. The 3rd feature of this Item is and Aura that will reduce the Magic Resist of all nearby enemies by 20. As you have melee range you will always apply that Aura to your enemies what means you will deal even more damage.


The Infinity Edge for casters as it is often called. It gives and incredibly high amount of AP due to its passive that will increase all your AP by 25%.
You always need this item because it gives a huge damage boost that is necessary to quickly burst down your targets.


The rest of your Items is always situational. You have to the situation. I will list some Items now that are viable for Diana and that you can choose from.

Offensive

A great offensive Item. The best thing about it is the active that will deal 15% of the enemy's health as magic damage and increase all magic damage that they take by 20% for 4 seconds. This will add huge amounts of damage to your burst enabling you to assassinate everything.
Additionally this Item will also give you a lot of ability power for even more damage and cooldown reduction to spam your skills. With this item, blue buff and your masteries you will reach 39% Cooldown Reduction what is nearly cap


Another nice choice. Although it's passive got nerfed you will still deal serious damage on your autoattacks with this item. Combined with your passive and the Spellword mastery you will have a great additional burst apart from your skills. Late game when enemies are tankier this is really helpful because your skills may not be enough to kill them. The stats that this item gives you are also great because ability power is always welcome fore more damage and also mana to help you spam more and some movement speed that is not much but it's still nice to have more mobility.


This is the upgrade of the Haunting Guise you bought early game. The health ability power and magic penetration is great for Diana and the passive is nice too. It will deal an additional damage to your target when using your skills that will burn a percentage of the targets health over time. If your target is slowed or snared the effect will be doubled. You can combine this with the slow from your Moonfall and also with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter if you want to buy it.


Take this item if your enemies are stacking magic resist what most enemies will do when a game lasts long.
You will also notice a nice damage boost since it gives you the highest Magic Penetration available and also 70 AP. As Magic Penetration is now applied before Magic Resistance Reduction after the recent patch it is also great together with your Abyssal Scepter.

Defensive Items

This is a very nice Item on Diana. You will get some AP, some more Health to survive when the enemies get stronger and a very nice slow to your abilities for chasing. It is great together with Liandry's Torment.
Take this is you need more sustain late game and if the enemies are always running from you.


I end up with this item in sever games. You will get a very nice amount of AP, some armor against Physical damage dealers and that active that can save your life in a fight. When activating this item you will become invulnerable for 2 seconds. And those 2 seconds can be enough in a fight to survive.
You can also use this active to survive skills like Karthus' Requiem and Vladimir's Hemoplague.
If you are having problems with physical damage dealers early game it is a good choice to buy it between your core Items.


This is a very nice Item late game. You will get much more Survivability since it gives you magic resist and health and also a very nice passive that will block the next negative spell casted on you every 45 seconds.
I recommend this Item for CC-heavy teams.


Cleanse as an Item. You will get some magic resist and an active that will remove any crowd-control effect from you with a 60 seconds cooldown.
Very useful if the enemy team has a Warwick, Malzahar, Urgot or maybe all 3.


Since you are a melee assassin you have to get close to your enemies what can result in getting focused and dying in teamfights. If that happens you can get this Item and you will have a second life.
It will also give you a bunch of armor and magic resist.

Smartcasting

Smartcasting on Diana brings a good advantages. Since you are an assassin you have to burst down your target quickly what gets easier with smartcasting. But it wont be that easy due to your Crescent Strike. Crescent Strike goes in an arc so you should only use smartcasting on Diana if you are a bit familiar with her Q because if not you will have a hard time with her since hitting your Q is crucial for a good gameplay.

Skill Combos

Gameplay

The early game is the hardest part for Diana. It will be difficult to farm since you will be facing a ranged Champion in most games. Try to last hit as much as possible and avoid getting harassed too much by your lane opponent.
Use your Crescent Strike to last hit minions that are hard to reach. Don't push your lane too much, try to always stay near your tower but not too near because your tower will take your last hits then.
If you can harass your opponent with Crescent Strike and always activate your Pale Cascade in trades. Be careful that you don't spam your skills too much because you will get mana problems.
Once you reach level 6 you get dangerous. Hit your opponent with Crescent Strike and activate Pale Cascade. If you can kill your enemy pull him back with Moonfall as he attempts to run and finish him with Auto-Attacks and Ignite. If not go back to safety or jump to an enemy minion with Lunar Rush and wait for your jungler to gank.
If your lane is going bad you can buy 1 or 2 Doran's Ring's.
Always Try to get the blue buff if possible. Most of the times playing aggressive is a good idea with Diana. You need many kills to get you core build.
You can also gank the other lanes to get more kills/assists and help your teammates.

This is where you start shining. You should have Rod of Ages by now and a Needlessly Large Rod or even your Rabadon's Deathcap if you are fed. As soon as you have Rabadon's Deathcap you will notice a great damage increase. This item combined with the survivability from ROA makes you a nightmare for all squishies. You have an incredible high burst power and a gap closer what means you can kill carries extremely fast. Always remember that. If you didn't have a really bad laning phase (what happens too) you should be able to win most 1vs1 fights. So if you see a possibility of getting a kill or assist without dying use it.
Keep laning and ganking until the teamfights start. Harrass your enemy and remember to get the blue buff if possible.
Normally you shouldn't engage in a teamfight since you are still kinda squishy. Let your tank initiate and then follow up with Crescent Strike and Lunar Rush. You will notice that you deal some serious damage to your enemies. It's important that you always focus the highest priority targets since you are an assassin and you can burst them down quickly.
If see a low health enemy running from a teamfight chase and kill them.
If you see yourself getting low because you are focused get out of the teamfight. Maybe you can jump towards an enemy minion with Lunar Rush or you just use Flash to get away.

This is where your damage output will reach maximum. You should have your core items and you should be building on your last 2 items.
You will also have some sustain with so many items and you should be able to assassinate every enemy carry.
The main focus is now on them teamfights as well as the Baron Nashor . Always keep this place warded.
You still shouldn't initiate in teamfights and remember that you always focus the most dangerous enemies. Remember that you are a good pusher. If you see a chance too push you should always do it late game because it could be the difference between a win and a loss.

Midlane Opponents A-H

Midlane Opponents I-M

Midlane Opponents N-Z

Jungling

NOTE: Jungling Section is currently outdated. Update is coming soon.

Jungling Section featuring ciNNEx:

Another way to play Diana is jungling. In this section I explain what Items, Runes, Summoner Spells and Masteries you need and also possible jungle routes.

Runes

Marks:

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: These marks will increase your ganking power, especially early game.

Glyphs:

• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: These Glyphs will help you to clear the jungle camps faster and give you sustain since your shield from Pale Cascade scales with AP. But mainly they will increase your damage mid/late game.

Seals:

• Greater Seal of Armor: These runes give you more survivability when jungling what is helpful because as a mage jungle Diana can't recover her life without Health Potions.
• Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Diana can be a very mana-hungry Champ and these runes will help you out there especially late game.
• Greater Seal of Replenishment: If you have to much mana problems early game with Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration you can also take these.

Quintessences:

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: These Quints will increase your jungling speed as well as your ganking power and your sustain. I think they are the only viable Quints for Diana.

Masteries

These are the jungle masteries for Diana. The only difference to the mid lane masteries is that you should take armor and Minion Damage reduction over magic resist for easier jungling. You should never take 21/0/9 masteries for jungling because you need the survivability since you can't regenerate your health like an ad jungler with life steal.

Summoner Spells

Diana has no escape skill so you should always take flash to save your life.



Always take smite when jungling! Even if you could jungle without it. Smite will increase your jungle speed and is needed to secure Buffs, Dragon and Baron. Always take that.

Skill Sequence

When jungling with Diana you should start with Pale Cascade. It makes jungling much easier.
After that take Crescent Strike for more damage.
If you are looking to gank at level 3 take Moonfall there otherwise put another point in Crescent Strike and take Moonfal at level 4.
You want to max Crescent Strike first because it's your main damage skill. After that Pale Cascade for the shield and some damage. And last [[Moonfall] Because it's primary a utility skill.
Obviously you take Lunar Rush whenever possible.

Items

The Items for jungle Diana are nearly the same as when mid laning. Despite it's often a good idea to get Doran's Rings or a gold gaining items since you wont have as much money early game as the laners.
For detailed information and explanation to the items click here.

Jungle Routes

1. Blue Buff

Initial Spawn: 1:55 Respawn: 5:00 Rewards: 92 G, 295 EXP, Crest of the ancitent golem

Start at the Blue Buff.Get a pull here and activate Pale Cascade as soon as the creeps start attacking you. Kill the Golem first and then the Lizards. Use smite for the Golem. You shouldn't need a health potion for the Blue Buff. After killing it you should hit level 2 and take Crescent Strike.

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2. Wolves

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn: 1:00 Rewards: 57 G, 148 EXP

After the Blue Buff take down the wolves. Use Pale Cascade and Crescent Strike to kill them faster and receive less damage. You shouldn't need a Health Potion here neither.

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3. Wraiths

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn: 0:50 Rewards: 47 G, 180 EXP

When you killed the wolves cross the mid lane and head to the Wraiths. Use a Health Potion here if you get too low.

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4. Red Buff

Initial Spawn: 1:55 Respawn: 5:00 Rewards: 82 G, 263 EXP, Blessing of the Lizard Elder

Next is the Red Buff. Normally you need a Health Potion here. Always use your skills to clear the camps faster. Depending on you fast you were your smite should be back up to finish Red Buff. Now you should hit level 3. If you wanna gank now take Moonfall otherwise put another point in Crescent Strike.

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5. Double Golems

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn: 1:00 Rewards: 60 G, 156 EXP

If you have enough health left kill the Double Golems. After that you should recall and buy Items cause normall your health wont be high enough to gank. After that you should gank often and kill any jungle camp that is in your way.

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1. Wolves

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn: 1:00 Rewards: 57 G, 148 EXP

Only start at the wolves if you team will help you a bit. Then you can clear the wolves before the Blue Buff spawns. Otherwise take the Route 1. You shouldn't get a pull. Hit the wolves first and immediately activate Pale Cascade to have it back up for the next camp. Now your teammates should do some damage on the wolves to help but not kill them since you will lose experience and gold.

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2. Blue Buff

Initial Spawn: 1:55 Respawn: 5:00 Rewards: 92 G, 295 EXP, Crest of the ancitent golem

Now the Blue Buff. Get a pull here. Use Pale Cascade and Smite. Kill the Golem First. You shouldn't need a Health Potion until now. Once you hit level 2 take Crescent Strike.

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3. Wraiths

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn: 0:50 Rewards: 47 G, 180 EXP

When you killed the Blue Buff cross the mid lane and head to the Wraiths. Use a Health Potion here if you get too low.

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4. Double Golems

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn: 1:00 Rewards: 60 G, 156 EXP

Next is the Red Buff. Next are the Double Golems. You kill them before the Red Buff on this Route to have your smite back up for it. Use a Health Potion if needed.

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5. Red Buff

Initial Spawn: 1:55 Respawn: 5:00 Rewards: 82 G, 263 EXP, Blessing of the Lizard Elder

Now the Red Buff. Normally you need a Health Potion here. Always use your skills to clear the camps faster. Your smite should be back up to finish Red Buff. Now you can either gank or recall to your base and buy items. After that you should gank often and just kill any jungle camp that is in your way.

Warding

Wards win games. Warding is always important no matter if you are jungling or mid laning. I made a map and coloured all important warding spots for mid laning or jungling.

Explanation:

• Red: Probably the most important warding spots. Make sure that you always have at least a Sight Ward there to protect Dragon and Baron Nashor or a Vision Ward in order to destroy the enemy ward.
• Green: Important when mid laning to protect yourself from enemy ganks.
• Blue: When jungling you can ward here to protect your Buffs.
• Pink: Ward here if you are counter jungling.

Conclusion

If you got this far in my guide you it's finished now. Thanks for reading it and don't forget to comment and vote. I appreciate any kind of feedback and suggestions for this guide. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or PM me if you want.

Credits and Thanks

Credits to ciNNEx for the jungling section.

Thanks to jhoijhoi for the Making A Guide Guide, for the temaplates and for the line dividers.
Thanks to Xenotechie for reviewing my guide. You can find his Review Shop here.

A big thanks to effinvices for the awesome banners in my guide. :D
You can find her shop here.

And of course thanks to you for reading this guide! Thanks to everyone that voted or commented for my guide and helped me to improve it.

Scores

If you want you can send me your scores with this item build and I will add them here.

My Scores:



Score by ciNNEX:



Score by Krad420:



Score by RobotboyX2:

Changelog

• August/9/2012 - Guide released
• August/22-26/2012 - Minor Updates, added more skill combos and items
• August/27/2012 - Reworked Jungling Section
• September/1/2012 - Added Screenshots for all skills and videos for the skill combos
• September/2/2012 - Wow my guide reached #1! Thanks to all voters for that. :D
• September/8/2012
  • - Added banners!
  • - Remade the jungling section again cause the formatting was bad and didn't fit all screens.
• September/14/2012 - Added a second Item build on the cheat sheet as well as in the Items section
• Season 3 Update! Jungling section still outdated but the next update will come soon
• May/15/2013 - Bugfixes