Diana Build Guide by jts2

Welcome to my Diana guide.

After playing a few 5v5's with Diana, I've come up with a general build I use with her every game, and I always dominate. I hope my build works as well for you, as it does for me. Diana plays at her best when she's a tanky AP, able to hop around the battlefield and dish out huge damage to carries while soaking up some damage herself.

If you choose to downvote, please let me know why. Leave suggestions in the comments.

PLEASE READ MY GUIDE COMPLETELY BEFORE VOTING.

8/21/12
Build released.

8/22/12
Added Nashor's Tooth to the viable items.

KNOW YOUR ROLE.

Your role, as the super cool moon lady, is to annihilate squishies. Yes, it's true! But you aren't building carry. You're building Tanky AP!

These are your goals during team fights:

These are your goals as a jungler:

Pros


-Spammable ultimate, when used correctly-
-High damage, even with tanky items-
-Able to juke well when used right-
-VERY fast jungle clear-
-AoE Pull-
-Great ganks-

Cons



-Need to practice to master her-
-Must be in the middle of the action to do damage-
-Reliant on landing spells-
-Ganks go great, or fail completely-
-Usually focused quickly-
-Q is somewhat tricky to land-

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[Passive]Great damage, and good for jungling. Every jungler's dream passive. Increased attack speed, and an AoE cleave every third attack. Fantastic for clearing jungle, fantastic for farming, fantastic for team fights. A very good passive.

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[Q]A hard spell to master, but high damage and your nuke. Using this spell will take practice. I still miss people sometimes. If you manage to land it on someone, you can begin your nuke combo. Also very good for harass, and jumping from camp to camp or minion to minion with Lunar Rush.

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[W]An extremely strong spell in general. A shield, with three orbs around it. If you remain close to an enemy and your three orbs detonate, you get another shield. This is ESSENTIAL for jungling, and is maxed early for that reason - also deals great damage during ganks. Don't underestimate the power of this spell. It is EXTREMELY powerful.

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[E]Think Darius, but shorter range and AoE, not cone. Another strong spell. After a Crescent Strike and Lunar Rush combo, it's an easy kill secure after using this spell. Keeps them close. Learning the AoE on this spell is somewhat hard, it will take a few uses to get used to.

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[R]Your ultimate, and your second ability in your nuke combo. Use this spell to fly past the enemy line into the squishy you just hit with your Crescent Strike and just start demolishing them. Most people will **** their pants when you fly at them, and wont know what to do because they're already half health and you're in their face. Keep in mind this can be used to jump from camp to camp, as your cooldown resets when your jump to someone with your Crescent Strike passive on them. You can use this to juke, and hop from enemy to enemy as well.

Follow this ability order for maximum survivability and damage:

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A very strong early game rune for any AP. Used for obvious reasons.

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Again, obvious. Any AP can use these marks. Plus, since you won't be getting a Void Staff, these will help a bit.

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Obvious jungle rune. More armor against the camps, and late game survivability. These are not totally necessary and can be replaced. Your shield is effective enough.

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Great for any AP. Adds a great chunk of very needed AP late game. You don't build a ton of AP, so these will help.

My Choices
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Smite is needed by most junglers. A very good summoner spell for faster clears, and securing or even stealing Baron or Dragon. Also, you earn a bit of extra gold with the Summoner's Resolve mastery, so use it often!

Ignite is for the ganking power. A good portion of your damage is burst, and having the sustained true damage and 50% healing reduction is very nice. This can be replaced, however, if you don't like it.

Other good choices (replace Ignite)
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Flash is easily the best summoner spell in the game. Great utility, can be used for literally anything. Never a bad choice, ever.

Exhaust is for if you don't like Ignite, or your lanes all have one and you don't feel like you need one. Awesome for ganks, and shutting down carries.

My masteries are kind of all over the place, and for a reason.

The offensive masteries are for the magic penetration mainly, and the Butcher pertaining to jungling.

The defensive masteries are for tankyness and a little health regeneration to help out in the jungle. Magic resist and armor are a must.

The utility masteries are for the Runic Affinity mainly. Improved recall time, some mana regen, and mana help with spells.

This section is very important.

Have a question about what items I chose and why? Read on. I will explain everything.

Starting Items

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A simple jungling start. But you may be thinking, jts2, why Cloth Armor on an AP? Well, you see, later you will be turning this into the biggest douchelord item in the game, a Guardian Angel! YEAH!

Core Items

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You must keep these items in your build to stay tanky. If you stray too far from these items, you may as well go to another build. Why Abyssal Scepter in the core? Well, since you don't have a Void Staff, you will want the 20 MR reducing aura. The MR and AP are just the icing on the cake. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is for obvious reasons: HP, AP and a good slow. Guardian Angel is a VERY strong item, with good stats and a great passive.

My choices

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This is how I finish my build. Hextech Gunblade will keep you alive in fights, and will add to your auto attacks. Not to mention it's synergy with Lich Bane. After Lich Bane procs, you will heal for a pretty good amount next auto attack, in addition to a solid amount of extra damage. The active on the Hextech Gunblade is just a nice little bonus.

Other viable choices

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These items will cause you to lose tankyness, so be aware. Rabadon's Deathcap is icing on the cake for ANY AP champion, but not needed or recommended in this build. Grab this ONLY if you are totally dominating and your team needs more AP damage. Will of the Ancients would replace Hextech Gunblade if someone on your team has one as well and your team is heavy AP. You will be helping your team, and you will heal a LOT from your spells. Void Staff can replace Abyssal Scepter if they are building massively tanky and you don't need the MR provided by Abyssal Scepter. Nashor's Tooth is a good item on Diana because it synergizes well with her passive.

WAIT, No Gold per 10 as an AP jungler!?!?

No. If you are moving quickly enough, and ganking even semi effectively, you will be more than okay on gold. But if you are behind and ABSOLUTELY need it, pick up a Philosopher's Stone.

Suggestions? Please add them in the comments.

Basic Route

Simple. You can start at wolves because you are the moon Udyr. Actually, not at all. But you can start there, and kill them before blue arrives. A leash on blue is NOT required, but it helps. Fairly standard route afterwards.

What is the question mark above the enemy wraiths? Well, sometimes I like to be a jerk and run over and smite the big wraith on their side. Easy money, and an instant kill at within the first few levels. Plus it will make them mad. This, however, is a risky move, so only do it if you know where the enemy jungler is.

ALSO,

Warding dragon a few times during the match is necessary to make sure you keep control over it. You don't want the enemy jungle getting dragon after dragon. Not a good thing.

Ganking with her is EASY.

Provided you can land a Crescent Strike.

In that order. Landing your Crescent Strike is vital, as it allows you to dash twice with Lunar Rush. If you miss, you can still choose to rush in and do some damage just to scare them off, but you won't do as much damage (obviously). If they are low on health, just go for it.

ALWAYS keep in mind Crescent Strike's arc, and that you won't hit every single time. Mastering this skill takes PRACTICE and PATIENCE. It's not my fault, or my guide's fault, that you can't land it. PRACTICE.

Thank you for reading my guide.

If you liked it, please leave a comment and an upvote! If not, please tell why! Suggestions are always welcome.

Summoner name (NA) - Black Tides

SPECIAL THANKS to jhoijhoi for writing such an amazing guide on how to make a guide. I used her guide to make my Teemo build and this guide. View it here. I used some of her ideas and code and combined them with my unique ideas!