Diana Build Guide by Death_possum

Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to my Diana guide; Diana, Chosen of the moon - A jungle guide.

In my opinion, Diana is an amazing champion, I couldn't wait until she came out, and when she did, she was a lot more than what I expected, so i'm extremely happy to bring this guide to you, and hopefully it will help you in being a better Diana player. Please, read it all and enjoy!

Some things I need to address

There are some quick things I need to address for this guide and Diana.

Diana's Lore

The lore for Diana is amazing in my opinion, so I included it.

An unyielding avatar of the moon's power, Diana wages a dark crusade against the sun-worshiping Solari. Though she once sought the acceptance of her people, years of futile struggle shaped her into a bitter, resentful warrior. She now presents her foes with a terrible ultimatum: revere the moon's light, or die by her crescent blade.
Though she was born to the Solari, Diana's inquisitive nature set her apart from her brethren. She had always found solace and guidance in the night sky, and questioned the dominance of the sun in her society. The Solari elders responded to her challenges with only derision and punishment. Diana remained convinced, however, that if she could find evidence of the moon's power, the elders would listen to reason. For years, she studied Solari archives in solitude until she discovered an encoded message hidden in an old tome. This clue led her to a secluded valley on Mount Targon where she unearthed the hidden entrance to an ancient, sealed temple. Inside, among aging relics and faded murals, she found an ornate suit of armor and a beautiful crescent blade, both inscribed with sigils of the moon. Diana donned the armaments and returned to the Solari elders that night. She declared that the artifacts proved others had once worshiped the moon as she did. Her discovery of evidence challenging Solari dominion shocked the elders. To Diana's horror, they pronounced her a heretic and condemned her to death. As the elders prepared her for execution, Diana's anger and sorrow overwhelmed her desire for acceptance. She lifted her gaze to the sky, calling upon the moon for strength. Lunar power surged within her and she shattered her bindings. Raising her relic blade, she turned and slaughtered the elders. With the temple in ruins behind her, Diana resolved to destroy all those who would deny the power of the moon.

Pros and Cons

Pros: Fast jungle (With either Boots of Speed or Cloth Armor) Massive damage output, but still tanky enough to survive in teamfights Amazing ganks post-level-six Great gap closer Badass Damage doesn't fall off Is evil (evil is cool) It is hard to dodge her Crescent Strike, Due to its strike path

Cons: Hard to completely master CC Can shut her down effectively Gets banned in draft modes No escape No hard CC If she is built wrong, she is useless Not much of a team player

Masteries

I always take 21/9/0 masteries while jungling, as I get the damage from the offensive tree, and the armor from the defensive tree.

I take Summoner's Resolve for the smite gold, although you could not take it, and grab an extra point in Vigor . I take Hardiness and Tough Skin to neutralize damage from jungle creeps, and I take Bladed Armor for the little extra damage.

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Other choices:

Other options could be taking 9/21/0, 21/0/9, 0/21/9 or even 14/16/0. If you do want to try these, you will need to play around yourself, as I don't think they are nearly as powerful as my current ones.

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - These are great more for midgame than when doing your jungle route, though they do help. They are also useful for ganking. Other options could be Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power for more mid-late game power, you could also take Health or Armor, if so you pleased.
  
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power - The same reason as I take the Greater Quintessence of Ability Power. Some other options could be Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power, or again; you could take Magic resist or Mana related Glyphs.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor - Gives Diana a nice amount of armor for jungling and ganking. Other options could be Greater Seal of Health or Greater seal of Lucidity. You could also get mana regen Seals if you feel like you need the mana regen.
  
• Greater Mark of Attack Speed OR Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - These are both equal in usefulness in my opinion, where the Greater Mark of Attack Speed's make your jungle speed faster and the Greater Mark of Magic Penetration's make you more deadly later in the game (although, keep in mind these can help with jungling). Another option that you could roll with is the Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration, these in theory could be very good, although I haven't been able to properly try them yet.

These are the runes I recommend, feel free to make changes and suggest changes in the comments.

Summoner Spells

This makes for allot faster jungling, and an ok gold source. It is also good for stealing enemy buff's and even baron or dragon. I strongly recommend taking this always.


I use this over Ghost, for the jumping over walls, you can also use this to quickly catch up to your target and follow up with a Crescent Strike or Lunar Rush.

This can be very useful when ganking, or if you are versing someone like Dr. Mundo.

If you weren't taking Flash, this would be my first choice, it is amazing for ganking, escapes or just neutralizing an enemy.


Some people take this, if you would rather have a sustained speed than a quick jump take this.

This can be very useful to gank and defend or push. For ganking you can teleport into a bush via a ward and gank. But I think other summoner spells can benefit you a lot more.


This is really only useful for hybrids like Jax and Kayle, as they can use the attack speed and the AP effectively, Diana doesn't auto-attack that much so it's not very good on her

This is only really useful early game in my opinion, since late game the minion is quickly killed. Your also jungling so you wont be in lane much early game to use it.

This is only plausible when your going to counter jungle A LOT, and in any case, I would leave this to your support.

Just no.

You could take clarity, if you had a very mana hungry and mana dependent mid, and then give blue to them, although I just find that silly.

If you see that they have A LOT of CC on their team, and you feel you need it, take it.

I don't think is very useful at all on Diana, I would advise heavily on not taking it.

Ability explanation

• Moonsilver Blade (Passive): This passively increases Diana's attack speed, which is great for jungling, and every third auto-attack "cleaves" in front of her (Effectively an AOE auto-attack). If you don't auto-attack for a few seconds, the counter gets reset.
  
• Crescent strike(Q): This is Diana's "Bread and butter" ability, in other words, Diana's main ability. It is a skillshot nuke in a crescent shape, any target hit is afflicted with Moonlight.
  
• Pale cascade(W): This creates a shield on Diana and creates three orbiting balls around Diana, these balls explode and deal damage on impact to enemies. If all three balls explode, Diana's shield is refreshed.
  
• Moonfall(E): This is Diana's only form of CC. When activated is draws in a slows all nearby enemies around her, use this when ganking, but only after the target begins to retreat.
  
• Lunar Rush(R): Diana's ultimate, her gap closer, this teleports (although it looks like a dash) Diana to an enemy in a moderate range, if the target is afflicted by Moonlight Lunar Rush's cooldown is refreshed. When using Lunar Rush always try to hit the target with your Crescent Strike so you can use Lunar Rush ASAP.

Ability Sequence

You will want to get points in Diana's ultimate Lunar Rush whenever possible, obviously. Then you will want to make her Q, Crescent Strike, as it is Diana's main damage ability and as it leads Diana's ultimate Lunar Rush. Next you want Diana's shield; Pale Cascade as it gives her the sustainability she needs, some more damage and her E; Moonfall doesn't scale as well as Pale Cascade.

Tips and Tricks

• You can use your Crescent Strike to check bushes, or Fog of war for enemies.
  
• You can use your Crescent Strike>> Lunar Rush combo to escape from your enemies in the jungle. You can also use your Lunar Rush on a enemy minion in lane for the same thing.
  
• Once you reach level 6 while jungling, you can quickly jump over the wall to your target using the Crescent Strike>> Lunar Rush combo.
  
• If you ever have some extra gold while your at base, grab some wards, you can use them for map awareness, counter jungling or jungle defense.
  
• You can try counter jungling if you think you can escape without dying, or preferably not encountering the opponents.

Items

& x5 Take this option if you want to jungle with more damage reduction, also if they are an ad heavy team you can build this into your Ninja Tabi

& x3 Starting Boots of Speed and cloth armor, are roughly the same jungle speed (I haven't timed both yet but I intend to), I prefer the Boots of Speed option, as the movement speed helps with ganking.

I grab this, for cheap gold and AP, it also builds into my Deathfire Grasp.

OR The question is, what one do you pick? It takes some initiative on your part; When the opponents have a lot of CC, or are heavy in magic damage, choose Mercury's Treads. If the opponents are heavy in armor or auto-attackers, choose Ninja Tabi. In the case that it is even, I would choose Mercury's Treads, purely for the tenacity.

I absolutely love this item, it is incredibly under-used for some reason. It is great on Diana because it gives health and AP, as well as some much wanted magic penetration. All round; a must-have for Diana


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If you wanted some extra speed, grab these.

I would grab these if in the rare case, the opponents have not much magic damage, armor or CC (pretty much a tank team).

Diana's cooldowns are already super-low, especially with blue buff, but if you want some more, go ahead.


Very useful for getting to places fast, that's about it.

Good for AD Diana, but guess what? This is AP jungle Diana.


This is a must have. Get it first if you don't need the magic resist.

I normally get this after my Rabadon's Deathcap, this is an amazing item, just don't forget to use it's active. I think this is also a must-have, but could be switched out.

This is a tricky item, I put it in core because I usually grab it to counter the opponents AP carry, although it's more of a situational item than a must have.



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I don't usually get this, as I would prefer a resist item that gives more damage, it also it very expensive. NOTE: This is an extremely viable item, I just don't like it on Diana, just personal preference.

If I get this, I grab it in place of my Haunting Guise, as my second to last or last item

I haven't tried this yet, but it in theory is amazing on Diana.

I would get this, if you need to give your blue to your mid, if you want more mana regen or if you just can't get your blue for whatever reason.

Again, I don't usually get this, as the active is not that good on Diana, although if you need some more armor, sure get this.

If you are going to get this, get the Catalyst the Protector early, like in place of your Haunting Guise or just after/before.

Same as a Catalyst the Protector I would replace my Haunting Guise with this, I occasionally get this for the spell vamp, although I never build it into a Will of the Ancients

Grab this for some Magic resist and anti-CC if you want those, though I would get an Abyssal Scepter personally.

This is a great item, if you actually get to the point where you do end up having only 1 item space left, this is a great choice, but I would only get it if I needed the tankiness.

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Teamfights

Diana's main goal, and your main goal as Diana in teamfights should be to focus down the AD carry and the AP carry.

You should be using your Lunar Rush to jump and focus down the AD carry primarily, AP carry as your secondary target, then you want to focus the next most dangerous target, so if the enemy jungler is doing a lot of damage, focus them next. If the support is the most dangerous because they are keeping their allies alive, focus them next. If the opponents solotop champion is the most dangerous, there's your target.

Usually, this is my basic focus-order in teamfights, do not hesitate to change it according to the information above:
AD Carry >> AP Carry >> Support >> Offtank >> Tank

In teamfights, and before teamfights, you need to keep in mind two things;

The jungle

This is pretty simple, Diana is not to great at invades, as she doesn't have A LOT of early damage (like Ashe) and she doesn't have any level 1 hard CC, so unless your team is good at invading (High level 1 damage or level 1 hard CC), I would advise not invading.
Pictures below

This is my normal jungle route, you can change this if you desire.

Summary

Thank you for getting to this point in the guide, I hope you learned a lot and that the guide wasn't to boring, I hope it helps you a lot to improve.

I'll say it again; if you find anything wrong please do not hesitate to let me know, if these anythings you think I could or should add, inform me!

If you do downvote, please tell me why! I want to improve!

I hope you enjoyed, and if you did find it useful, you could rate (sorry if you have to comment, don't want troll downvotes).

Thanks
-Death_possum

Changelog

9/8/2012

10/8/2012