Diana Build Guide by cmoosewylde

Introduction

Diana is a fast jungler with potent ganks. I hope my guide is helpful to others who want to learn how to use her in the jungle. Any comments and suggestions are welcome, and I'll do my best to reply and respond to your thoughts. On to the guide!

spaaaaaaace

Pros + Very safe jungling with Pale Cascade + Strong ganks even before level 6, largely due to Moonfall + Strong in range and melee situations + Double dash with Lunar Rush to make ganks even stronger

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Cons - Squishy and easily focused down, even with Rylai's Crystal Scepter - A large portion of your damage comes from melee through Moonsilver Blade, so you have to put your squishy self in danger for kills - Chugs mana like Gragas at an open bar, so you NEED ancient golem or some mana regen items - Crescent Strike can be hard to land and takes practice, but is a must in order to get max use of your ult Lunar Rush

Changelog:
8/8/12: Started the guide!
8/9/12: Updated items as per community comments


Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Summoner Spells

Smite: Diana in the jungle should have Smite. I have seen some guides and players suggest that Smite isn't necessary, and I concede that Diana can jungle and gank without it. However, Smite not only speeds up the jungle clear time, but is so important for taking Dragon and Baron, not to mention counter-jungling, which I'll get to later.

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Flash will help you survive! The combo of Moonfall and Lunar Rush will likely mean that Flash isn't necessary to get kills. It is very useful, however, to save you in sticky situations. Diana has plenty of initiation ability, this is her primary escape abilty.

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Runes

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: The majority of your damage as Diana will be magic damage. Magic penetration is very important for maximum gankiness (that's a word!).
  
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Armor in the jungle is important at early levels. These seals plus your Pale Cascade will prevent you from needing the typical Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potions that many junglers need to start.
  
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power: These glyphs will begin to fuel the AP damage engine that is Diana. Even your passive is fueled by AP, so let's begin the damage dealing1
  
  
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: The big bad runes of potency: The Quints. With these babies, combined with your Glyphs, you'll be getting 26 AP just from Runes! That's better than an Amplifying Tome or Doran's Ring!

Masteries

We are going to focus the Offensive Mastery tree for maximum damage! Then, for survivability in the jungle, we'll put 9 points into Defensive Masteries.

Ability Explanation

• Moonsilver Blade: This is the secret to a large portion of the damage you'll be dealing as Diana. Most of our items are designed to increase Attack Speed and make sure you get those three hits each gank!
  
  

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• Crescent Strike (Q): Sometimes tricky to land, but always surprisingly damaging, Crescent Strike is an important part of your kit. Aside from damaging opponents, it applies a Moonlight effect. If you ult ( Lunar Rush) a Moonlighted opponent, then Lunar Rush has no cooldown!
  
  
  Casting and Effects
  
  

  Casting Crescent Strike can be tricky. It is sometimes difficult to catch fleeing opponents in the arc and takes some practice.

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  If you hit, however, not only will you do BOATLOADS OF DAMAGE, but you'll apply Moonlight to the target. Moonlight interacts in fun and exciting ways with your Ult Lunar Rush.

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• Pale Cascade (W): An offensive shield. No, really! This is a FREAKING OFFENSIVE SHIELD.
  
  How it works:
  

  Once you activate Pale Cascade, you get a shield as well as three orbs which circle you. Yes JUST LIKE MARIO KART.

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  The shield rocks because it scales with AP (that's why we buffed AP with Runes and Masteries, remember?!). As an added bonus, those orbs will detonate when they collide with an enemy (MARIO KART!). When all three orbs have detonated on your enemies, the shield FREAKING REFRESHES.

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• Moonfall (E): Adele can set the rain on fire, but Diana can call the FREAKING MOON TO THE EARTH. Well, at least she can channel some of the moon's gravity to pull enemies close and keep them from running away.
  

  Not only will Moonfall pull enemies to you (A BALLSY MOVE, BTW), but it slows their retreat. This is an amazing ganking tool. It also looks cool as ****

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• Lunar Rush (R): A Dash! A Double Dash! Ray, a DROP OF GOLDEN SUN! ... sorry. This will place Diana right on top of an enemy and damages them. It scales off of AP. The best part is that if the enemy is Moonlighted, then Lunar Rush has no cooldown!
  
  

  Hard to get a great still shot of Lunar Rush, but here's the FREAKING COLLISSION!

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Items (with new build!)

-> Since Magic Penetration is hard to come by and most of our damage is magic damage, these are the best choice. Another valid choice is Berserker's Greaves. The additional attack speed will help with your passive, but I have chosen the additional magic pen over attack speed since we get attack speed from several other items.

This is a wonderful item for Diana! Attack speed helps proc passive, ability power fuels damage, and even gives us mana regeneration! This should be your first major item after Sorcerer's Shoes.

Again with the attack speed and ability power! It would seem like we're gluttons for it, and we are. If that were it, this would be a great item, BUT THERE'S MORE. Malady does additional magic damage per strike and shreds the enemy's magic resistance. That's right, not only does it do EVEN MORE FRICKING DAMAGE, but it removes the enemy's ability to prevent our damage. I'm in love with this item.

lich band Not only does this increase AP, but your auto attack after a spell does damage equal to your AP. Since Diana is both an auto attack and an AP champ, this item just makes sense.

This item increases Ability Power and Attack Damage, allowing us to do more damage. It also gives SPELL VAMP and LIFE STEAL. Aside from the sustainability it gives, it comes with a cool active ability!

As if Diana's ganks weren't FREAKING AWESOME enough, Rylai's Crystal Scepter means that every single spell slows enemies. It also buff's Moonfall's slow by an additional 15%. They aren't getting anywhere! Oh! Did I mention that it also increases AP and gives a FREAKING TON OF BASE HEALTH!

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So the issue I'm working to correct in this build was very constructively brought up by Enaio. Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen shut down a large amount of the damage from the attack speed build. That means one champ, most likely the tank, can really screw your day. So I've included an alternate build (chosen from community comments) to deal with this issue while remaining frighteningly effective.

Ramza73 suggested these for a more survivable build, and I don't disagree. These guys mean that you can dive into battle all day and make it out in one piece. Thanks for the idea!

This was on the old build, but picking it up earlier makes Diana much more tanky. We haven't sacrificed AP though, so you're flinging damage everywhere and NOBODY CAN FREAKING KILL YOU!

Another staple. I've included it in this build for AP and damage output potential. A couple of people suggested against it, but the damage potential, especially in this build with Rabadon's Deathcap, is nothing to scoff at!

Diana is a hybrid AP/AD champ, and this item really shines on her. Especially since we've removed a lot of her attack speed with this build, the Life Steal and Spell Vamp, combined with the extra AD and AP afforded by this item, become even more important.

Thank you Enaio, TVGuy, and Ramza73 for this suggestion. Adding this item to the build makes Diana a FREAKING DEATHDEALER! Seriously. Try it. Its amazing. Thanks for the great suggestion.

I'll be honest, this is the item I was least sure about. I was like WHY ADD ITEMS WHICH DON'T CONTRIBUTE TO KILLING EVERYTHING?? Then I tried it. I added either armor or magic resist through the game depending on which enemy was picking up the most kills. Then I finished it last. I was like OMFGWTFBBQ! I CAN KILL EVERYTHING EVEN LONGER AND NEVER DIE!. I dove turrets, dove Baron, dove the spawn platform, dove teamfights, dove the PENTAGON! AMAZING! Ramza73, can I have your love child?

Jungling

Starting Items: Boots of Speed and 3 X Health Potions. This will give you the speed you need to get through the jungle quickly, as well as provide for health regen while you take the route.

• 1: Ancient Golem("blue buff). It spawns at 1:55. Have a teammate hit it once and run off. This is called a leash. ancient golem will chase the first person who hit it, giving you time to attack it without retribution. Once it begins to attack you, activate Pale Cascade. AS SOON AS your shield fails and you begin taking damage, pop your first health potion. If you need a second, don't hesitate. Pretend you're Gragas and the pots are tiny keggers... Smite him to finish him off and move on!
  
  
• 2: Wolves You'll hit level 2 after ancient golem , so take a level in Crescent Strike and DOMINATE WOLVES . Then leave. Like you did last Thursday! I was hoping for at least some cuddle time. Anyway...
  
  
• 3: Wraiths are no problem. Crescent Strike them through the wall before you get there and then activate Pale Cascade and engage the BIG WRAITH FIRST! This is important. Don't waste your time on the little wraiths. Beat the **** out of the big one and your passive Moonsilver Blade and FRIGGEN OFFENSIVE SHIELD Pale Cascade will nearly decimate the little suckers. One more Crescent Strike will likely take care of all three (maybe a couple auto attacks, too...).
  
  
• 4: Twin Golems Skip LIZARD ELDER (Red Buff). Yes! SKIP RED BUFF and go on to twin golems. Take them down with all of the spells and skill you've learned thus far. Do not use Smite! Save it for the lizard elder . You'll probably have to use that last Health Potion here.
  
  
• 5: Lizard Elder Blast into LIZARD ELDER (Red Buff) with a Crescent Strike and throw everything you have at him. Smite HIS A**, use your Pale Cascade and own him!
  
  
• 6: Wraiths should have respawned by the time you're done at Red Buff, so take them one more time. By the time they're done, you should be level 4. Congratulations!

How do I gank? (Spell Combo)

Jungling is comparatively easy. Once the Runes and Masteries are right, then figure starting items and route. Now you're level 4 with Red and Blue Buffs.

Before we begin our discussion of positioning (which is SO FREACKING IMPORTANT!), I want to talk about combos. Diana's spells interact with one another in FUN AND EXCITING ways, so let's go learn about them!

The following combo is Q > R > W > E > R. This combo is your primary order of spells when ganking. I will SHOW AND TELL you why!

Always begin your gank with Crescent Strike.

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Then follow up with Lunar Rush. This will put Diana right on top of your opponent.

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Immediately activate Pale Cascade to shield you during your gank.

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Auto attack them so much! Try to get your passive to proc, then Moonfall when they try to run away.

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Keep auto attacking them! Remember that Lunar Rush is off cooldown because we used Crescent Strike to initiate. Now you have it to jump them again if they start getting away! One more Lunar Rush and a couple auto attacks should take them down!!

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How do I gank? (Positioning and Map Awareness)

Ganking the lanes is the hardest part of jungling. Where should you be and when? That is the big question here. I'm going to help you answer it!

First we'll look at each lane and define Easy, Moderate, and Difficult Gank positions. Then I'll tell you how to approach each one.

Special Thanks

That is J319. She helped me put the guide together, spent hours taking screenshots and allowing me to kill her Hecarim for the action shots. She is pretty awesome and deserves lots of love.

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.