Diana Build Guide : Diana: The Moon's Vengeance (Solo Top/Mid/Jungle)

Embrace the Heresy!

Greetings Summoners! My name is KoriDjinn, and this is my first ever guide on Mobafire. This guide is on Diana, the newest champion as of 8/07/2012. I bought her as soon as she came out, since I had been fascinated by how she would turn out even before the release. Diana is a fantastic champion. She is fairly easy to play and lots of fun to play. She will make your opponents fear you and scream "OP!" in /all chat. Her login music is epic too.
I hope you enjoy reading my guide and please leave comments for things I could improve on. I am not a professional LoL player, this is just a guide based on my experiences. Feel free to adapt it to your play style!

Thank You!

Changelog/Chapters to Come

13/8/12: Guide available to public. Covers Solo Top gameplay.
22/8/12: Added mid lane build.
23/8/12: Warding guide complete.
30/8/12: Laning gameplay complete.
2/9/12: Jungle Build guide ready.

To come:
>Videos and pictures
>Flat AD Diana?
>Champion Match-Ups!

All About Diana

PROS

Fast, high mobility

Her passive, makes farming a breeze

She is a great harasser in lane, especially with [crescent strike]

Doesn't need lots of farm to be able to stay alive and damage opponents

Easy to play

Can be built many different ways being a hybrid champion

Dangerous all through the game

Excellent duelist in 1v1, especially with

Low cooldowns

Very fast jungler

Her joke is off the wall

CONS

CC is her worst nightmare

Champions with fast DPS will destroy her in seconds, especially if she has been slowed

She has no escape mechanism, which makes her weak to the previous two points

If focused in a team fight she WILL die

Hard to land her CC when ganking

Extremely susceptible to a nerf soon

When should you play ?

//You feel like playing her. Obvious reason.

//The enemy team doesn't have a huge, pack-load of CC.

//Your team needs a solid carry, assassin or jungler and they already have a tank.

//Your laning opposition is someone is strong against.

//You have decent knowledge on how to play her. Despite the fact that she is 'somewhat' easy to play, experience comes in handy. There's nothing more annoying than having a random summoner insta-lock a champ they have never played before and end up failing.

Build Explanations

Build 1: Solo Top Hybrid

This is my preferred build. It focuses on attack speed and ability power. This is best suited to solo top since it covers the components of a good fighter. It will let you harass your opponent and get fast farm at the same time. The runes and masteries give you sustain against other bruisy solo top champions like , and . This is also good for normal games where you might be laning with a buddy.

Build 2: AP Carry at Mid Lane

This build is dedicated to total AP damage so you can carry your team to victory. They're all standard AP carry items so it will scale well with mid-lane. We have all that we need for Diana to dominate as a mid lane carry: sustain, burst and survivability. The runes and masteries are similar to build 1.

Build 3: Jungle Diana

Since Diana is such a viable and fast jungler, I've included this build as well. It's a bit different than the lane builds since it covers life-steal and spell-vamp as well. This is also a hybrid build. The runes are somewhat similar to the previous two builds, but the masteries I have changed to fit in with the jungle scene.

Masteries

Solo Top Masteries

Mid Lane Masteries

Jungling Masteries

Runes

Solo Top Runes

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

Greater Mark of Insight: Diana does magic damage. Magic damage means magic penetration. Magic penetration means tons of damage dealt. These are great runes.
Greater Seal of Resilience: Usually top lane will have heavy physical damage dealing champions, like Jarvan IV and Irelia. Armor runes will prevent them from bashing you to death.
Greater Glyph of Potency: These are classic ability power runes. Having a good amount of ability power to start with will help you with early game.
Greater Quintessence of Replenishment: You will be harassing with [crescent strike] to keep enemies off your back and it also makes a good last hitting tool for the caster minions. With mana regen. runes, you can farm and harass with your abilities without getting too worries about running out of mana, especially if you a jungler runs in for a gank and you can't get away,

Other runes that work well with solo top Diana are movement speed quints, flat mana runes, and even more ability power quintessences.

Mid Lane Runes

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

These runes are almost identical to our solo top runes, but instead of armor I have picked magic resist instead. This will reduce the damage taken from the enemy AP carry in mid lane. Adding more ability power runes will also do justice to Diana.

Jungling Runes

Runes

Domination

Electrocute

Predator

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

Greater Mark of Alacrity: When jungling, you want to get through camps fast. Attack speed runes will allow you to do that and let you activate Diana's passive, [moonsilver blade] more often, giving as much AoE damage to the minions as possible.
Greater Seal of Resilience and Greater Seal of Warding: I've chosen to mix together both armor and magic resist seals for protection during ganks and shielding against minions. You can choose to switch these runes up for more magic resist, or more armor.
Greater Glyph of Potency: An obvious choice. You'll kick out more magic damage on ganks and against monsters.
Greater Quintessence of Vampirism: These quints give you a total of 6% life-steal, which is two dorans blades. And you get this at the start of the game for 'free'. This will allow you to have lots of sustain in the jungle and even ganks. You'll be able to save at least one health pot.

I also highly recommend the . Not only will these let you get around the map faster, but make your ganks more efficient. The ability to run up to an enemy and immediately get into melee range for your only CC ability, , makes you a big, big threat. If you want to play as an AP jungler, don't be afraid to take Ability power runes. Quintessences of Avarice will help you boost your gold income.

Summoner Spells

The best summoner spells on Diana are:

, in my opinion, is the best spell in the game. I can't bear to play a game without it. Since Diana has no escape ability, this spell will let her get out of sticky situations. Catch up to enemies for another or run away from an angry mob.

This is a boost in attack speed and ability power, key components on how we build Diana. I take this when I go solo-top. is steroids in a spell. In a 1v1 situation, pop this and you're sure to win. It also has a ridiculously low cooldown.

The and combo is arguably the best set of summoner spells in the game. I take this when I go mid lane, as it secures early kills and cripples an opponent such as .

Essential when you're jungling with Diana. I've seen a Diana take blue without a leash, but they had with them. It gives you extra gold when you use it and secures objectives like Dragon and Baron.

Other summoner spells:

: It's viable to solo top, travelling to wards and saving a turret. If you have a feeling you're going to be denied of farm early game, this will be useful so you don't miss out on anything.
: This is another great spell on Diana. It is crippling when used offensively, allowing you to hack them to death, but can also save your life.
: This is for those guys who can't juggle their mana. With this build, Clarity will become useless late game.
: For those who are new. Take this spell if you like it, but I have built Diana in such way that counters her squishiness.
: Since Diana is easily taken down with CC, there may be rare occasions where this will be helpful. Personally, I'd take a instead.
: Longest cool down EVER. You're Diana. You might not even die in battle. You won't need this.
: What? Why? I don't even...just leave this to bot to play with.
: You're not a support. can also check the brush.

Gifts of the Moon

In this chapter, I will explain what each of Diana's abilities do.

Moonsilver Blade: This is Diana's Passive. Diana has 20% increased attack speed. Every third strike cleaves nearby enemies in an arc for additional magic damage. This is an amazing passive and it works perfectly with attack speed. It makes farming heaps of fun, as every third strike will kill an arc of low health minions. This is solely what makes her a hybrid champion. The additional magic damage will also allow you to get that killing blow on enemies. Plus it makes Diana all silvery and trippy when it's available.

Crescent Strike (Q): Diana swings her blade to unleash a bolt of lunar energy that deals damage in an arc before exploding. Enemies hit are afflicted by Moonlight, revealing them for 3 seconds. What can I say about this awesome ability? With max ability power, Crescent Strike becomes a nuke. You'll burst your enemies down with it. This ability is a curved skill-shot. There's no need to freak out at the word skill-shot - Crescent Strike is easier to land than , and it's even more hilarious when your enemies run into it.

Pale Cascade (W): Diana creates three orbiting spheres that detonate on contact with enemies to deal damage in an area. She also gains a temporary shield that absorbs damage. This shield is refreshed if her third sphere detonates. Lasts 4 seconds. Pale Cascade's shield is a life saver. Pop it when you're running away or when you're chasing an enemy. And when all three orbs have exploded, the shield refreshes again. This ability is especially useful in the jungle. Just stand in the camp and watch the wraiths explode. However, the shield itself isn't very strong and a bit of a waste if you don't have all three orbs detonate.

Moonfall (E): Diana draws in and slows all nearby enemies for 2 seconds. This is almost exactly like [orianna]'s ultimate [commmand:shockwave], except it has a smaller range and it slows instead of stunning the enemies. You have to be in melee range in order to draw near an enemy champion. "TWILIGHT FADES!" This is more or less a utility spell, and takes practice to land when jungling. Timing makes the difference between getting a kill and letting your enemy get away.

Lunar Rush (R): Diana teleports to an enemy and deals magic damage. The cooldown is refreshed when Diana teleports to an enemy afflicted by Moonlight. This ultimate is crazy. At rank 1, this ability has a 20 second cooldown and if you inflict your enemy with moonlight first, you can use it again. It is a fantastic gap closer with it's large range. This is why your enemies fear you. They will do everything they can to dodge because it paves the way for Lunar Rush.

Skilling Order

Laning Skill Order

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

> > >

As with all ults, we always want to rank it up at levels 6, 11 and 16. Next is . This will be your main source of damage, so we take it first and max it as soon as possible. Next is which also outputs damage and gives you a decent shield, so we take this at level 2. At level four we pick up and max it last.

Jungling Skill Order

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

> > >

Jungling is slightly different. We start off with a point in so Diana can kill the jungle monsters with as little damage taken as possible. Next we grab a point for damage output. Third, we get for CC for an early gank. Put another point into , and after that . As soon as we get , we start maxing out . Pretty easy to do, and more jungling effectiveness.

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER-R-R-R-S

In this section, I will show you some of the combos you can use on Diana.

An easy combo for when the enemy is near your turret or they're harassing you during last hits. Pull them in then nuke them as punishment.

X100

Not a combo, but an obvious way to harass. Position the circle behind them so when they run back, they will be hit.

THIS IS YOUR SOLE KILL COMBO! This is the most obvious way to kill someone. Depending on how much life they have, and how much they are fighting back, you should get the kill. Otherwise throw an and in at the end.

Sometimes an enemy is running away and your won't hit. Don't be afraid to use without the Moonlight proc. Pull them back in, then swing at them with . Note After Late August Patch: In early levels, landing Crescent Strike will be crucial. Don't intiate with Lunar Rush unless you are guaranteed for the kill.

This is the Monster Camp Juke (video on it below). If you're running away and your isn't up yet, you can use this. from behind a jungle camp. When the monsters are aggro'd and in vision, you can to them. You can also choose to juke them by then ing somewhere else. takes a short delay to hit the monsters though, so be prepared to take some hits.

A note about proc-ing Moonlight: Landing your is very important in securing a kill on an enemy. While it is ok to use your ultimate without it, you will be at a disadvantage when the enemy runs away/es.

A video on your standard kill combo (best watched on Youtube):

Solo Top Lane Build

This, ladies and gentlemen, is our core build.

I have tested this build out on many games and let me say that this is by far my favourite build. It has attack speed to activate as much as possible and ability power to boost the rest of Diana's skills. We have tenacity from our boots and a defense item with a passive that will definitely save our lives.

I always get this item. Always. Nashor's Tooth was made for Diana. A lot of people find Nashor's Tooth a bit of a ****py item, but let's break down the stats so I can prove to you that it's worth every penny:

60 ability power. An AP champion needs AP. Since can be built quite early in the game, you'll get an extra boost early on.
50 attack speed. This attack speed is way up there with and and boy does this make a huge difference on early game. Bam. Bam. Passive. Bam. Bam. Passive. Your farming will go off the roof, champions won't be able to avoid you putting damage on them and turrets will go down fast when you want them to.
10 mana regen. This might not look like such a great bonus, but paired with your runes, this will give you great sustain. Say goodbye to those mana pots.
UNIQUE Passive: 25% cooldown reduction. That is a whooping amount of cooldown reduction, especially since Diana already has such low cooldowns, adding this on top will let you everyone to death.

If that's not enough to convince you to get , let me bargain you with gold. If you are doing very good in lane and not being out-harassed, grab the . At recipe price it's only 250 gold. If you're doing very well, you'll be able to buy it straight off the bat. If you're not doing very good in lane, grab a instead. This item gives you cooldown reduction and mana regen, so you'll have more sustain in lane. The recipe price is only 420 gold. 's recipe price is 400 gold. Make one or the either, and soon you'll have it in your hands. It's that easy!

After you should aim to get Mercury's Treads. With Diana, tenacity is your best friend. give you Movement Speed 2 (which we all need), 25 magic resist and 35 tenacity. These boots will get you around the map and lessen the burden of CC against Diana. Unfortunately, tenacity does not stack.

Lich Bane will be built from , which I always grab for mana. Your will not only let you spam more in lane, but your auto-attacks will be amplified. But the best part is when it's upgraded into . This item gives you 80 ability power, 30 magic resist, 350 mana and a 7 movement speed multiplier. But that's not the best part. Even with all these bonuses that boost every component of Diana there is:

's UNIQUE Passive: When you use an ability, your next physical attack will deal 100% of your ability power as magic damage.

Now think about this. You are level 15. You have and your ability power is say 200. Auto attack your enemy twice, then activate . Diana's hands will glow gold, then attack your enemy. With both and activated on that third attack, you will deal 335 (from Passive) + 200 (from Lich Bane), total 535 magic damage. Repeat on ever second activation of to allow to cooldown. In short, you will be dealing TONS OF DAMAGE from just your auto-attacks!

This is a standard AP item. 140 AP and a 30% increase of your total ability power. You will definitely want this before or after . Deathcap will turn your into a nuke. Grab this ASAP.

This item is Diana's counter against aggressive DPS. You jump into a team fight to help out, your allies end up dying and now you have to run away. You are slowed by the tank and you are being chased by a with a . You will, and will most surely die, provided that your or isn't up.
If you keep failing to assassinate the members of your enemy team due to lack of defenses, I would suggest getting instead of . gives you a sturdy amount of mana, plus some well needed armor. Build this into a and you will get 99 armor, 20% cooldown reduction (which will result in max cooldown reduction from ), 500 mana and an aura that slows enemy attack speed by 20%. I know 20% doesn't sound like much, but it's better than nothing and the rest of it's components are just too good of bonuses to pass up on.
This item is usually taken by tanks. Don't wait for your tank to take it and benefit from their aura. Your tank won't be following you around the whole game in order to keep you safe.

The adds more of an on-hit edge to Diana, giving you magic penetration and attack speed.

Guinsoo's is a decent hybrid item, which gives you both ability power and attack damage. It's on hit effect gives you stackable attack speed. Take this if you are someone who likes more of an AD Diana.

Another beautiful hybrid item that will give you sustainability and render you almost unkillable in fights. If you want this, I suggest rushing it for early game sustain.

Trinity Force is like a goody bag filled with all types of candy. A bit of AP, some mana, some health, AD, attack speed and crit chance. It can also be built from your .

WoTA is a very beneficial item for any AP champion. 20% spell vamp and a total of 80 AP in your arsenal is deadly. Take this if you don't want

Another attack-speed item with an on-hit effect. With each hit it increases your magic resist, therefore paired with a rather attack-speed oriented Diana, this will synergise perfectly.

Our final on-hit item. Madred's gives you armor, attack damage and attack speed, plus it does magic damage equal to 4% of the target's maximum health. A great item for shredding tanks.

I've seen some Dianas take this for more attack speed. The results were very pleasing. The extra 12% movement speed will let help you get away or chase down enemies.

I find this item to be wonderful when playing as an assassin. It gives you mana, health and magic resist, and the spell shield that blocks a spell every 45 seconds. You'll be able to get into a fight, kill someone, get out, job done with no losses.

An all-round defensive item. This gives you magic resist and magic resist, plus it revives you every 5 minutes. To make full use of this passive, get this early.

I really like this item. It's got strong defensive stats to counter any squishiness, plus it's active can turn a chase around.

Make rage. QQ. It's as an item. Take this if the enemy team is focusing you hard with lots of CC.

If you want to be a much more tanky , or if the enemy just has too much AP, you can take this item. Gives you movement speed, magic resist and a huge amount of health regeneration.

The early magic penetration will be useful if you harass a lot, but you'll be sacrificing tenacity to do so.

I took these when I first started playing Diana since attack speed synergised well with her. These will give you an early game advantage, especially if you're doing very well. If the enemy team has very little CC (lucky you!) then these will be handy.

These boots will provide early survivability against any bruiser who is harassing you too hard e.g. . These boots are also the cheapest to buy, so getting as soon as possible will give you mobility and defense.

Do remember that you can SELL your boots later in the game. If you're running low on gold due to lots of physical harass, then getting Ninja Tabi for the movement upgrade early will be better than waiting for something else.

Early Game

Mid Game

End Game

Mid Lane Build

Here is the build I take when playing AP Diana on mid-lane.

Oh, . The wonders you work on Diana. As a melee AP carry, you'll often find yourself in situations where you can't farm effectively because of repeated harass. With being your only ranged attack, you'll probably resort to farming with this. Getting a early will solve your mana issues. Get help from your jungler and rush a mana item if you're not using . This is the first item you should complete after your boots, as the proc can apply more damage to minions if you haven't been able to farm well.

is your go-to source of sustainability as an AP carry. This item gives you a total of 80 AP and 20% spell vamp (the passive applies to you as well) and an aura that benefits your whole team. With this item and your early , you will be stacking heavy amounts of ability power to kill your enemies with. You can choose to take a early if you're being harassed too much in lane.

This is our main tanky item. With another 80 AP and 500 health, you won't be two-shotted down anymore. Plus it's passive is great because it gives you a slow so you can catch up to enemies. Depending on the situation, I like to take this either before or after . This gives me health, but spell vamp will let me regain health quickly. Always take this item. It's probably the best early-mid game defense choice for Diana.

The holy grail/crown/jewel of mid-lane AP carries. Not much to say here. 140 AP and a 30% total AP boost is amazing. To make the best out of this item, try and buy at least one ability power item before so it can improve your overall ability power.

My personal favourite regarding magic resist items on carries. Distinctly known by it's spell shield that reactivates every 45 seconds, it's also built from catalyst the protector. Catalyst gives mana and health, and restores it ever time you level up. Taking catalyst the protector early let's you live much longer, and in late game you can turn it into a defensive item if you don't want . Take this to counter any fed AP carry who is driving your team insane.

I find this item expensive and it takes a while before you actually benefit from it. However works very, very well with Diana as it gives her mana, health, ability power and restores it every time you level up. Replace and with this.

Being a flat AP Diana, magic penetration only makes you deadlier. If enemies are building magic resist against you, take this.

I haven't tested this item out yet. Getting a will solve any mana problems. Charging it, then taking later will give you maximum results.

100 AP! 50 armor! Active puts you into a stasis! A fantastic item that boosts your AP even more. Take this late game.

Along with another massive boost in ability power, 's active lets you take care of any tank with a score of 5/0/500. A good item to crash his party and anyone else you want to burst down.

A rather 'meh' item. Gives you 50 ability power with a bonus 35 tenacity. You might want this if you prefer . Not a bad item, not fantastic either. We only want this for the tenacity :P.

Everyone enjoys more cool-down reduction. gives you some desired AP and mana regen and 15% cool-down reduction. It's active lets you take care of any massive healing trolls and tanks.

I love this item. It's a blue buff in a cup. Well, as a cup. If you prefer mana regeneration over flat mana, I would take this. This is built from , a cheap and useful item early game.

I see many Dianas take this. It's like with an aura and magic resist. If your enemies aren't stack lots of magic resist, then this is a better option than .

I've discussed this in the Solo Top Build. Since most people don't take , this item will replace it.

It's got all-round defense and Zilean's ult. In late game, respawn times will be longer and taking this well help you finish off an ace.

An odd item to suggest for a carry yes, but when you think about it, gives you health, health regen, mana regen and cooldown reduction. The active has a low cooldown and acts as a mini-.

Part of our core build when playing Solo Top. Easily one of the coolest defensive items in the game. Take this if the AD carry is getting on your nerves or is doing tons of damage.

Quite and obvious choice for when , or has 3 phantom dancers and an . Laugh while you watch them kill themselves.

These are the preferred boots of almost all AP carries. The early magic penetration you get from these boots are desirable, however you are sacrificing tenacity. These are the choice of boots for a low CC enemy team.

These boots work well with when a bad laning phase. If you are not getting any farm and taking way too much harass, take and run around ganking. Assists and kills let you catch up to your opponent. You can choose to sell these later.

Early Game

Mid Game

End Game

Lane Gameplay

Original art by IronStylus. Colour manipulation by WConman88.

EARLY GAME

Your Goal: Farm as much as you can, harass your opponent, then go in for the kill once you pass level 6.

STARTING ITEMS

Best items for solo top, or when laning against any skillshot champion.

I prefer taking two health pots and one mana pot, rather than three health pots.

The ideal start for mid-lane as it gives you AP, health and mana regen.

A good choice for early defense against heavy damage dealing opponents.

For simplicity, I usually take and pots with me when going top lane and for mid lane.
You should be constantly farming in early game. Last hit minions to gain as much experience as possible and so you won't push the lane too hard, thus enabling an easy gank on you.

OH GOD KORI HELP I'M BEING BULLIED OUT OF LANE!

Your Problem:HI I'M DIANA AND I'M A SQUISHY CHAMPION SO I'M GETTING SMASHED TO PIECES.
How to Counter this: If your lane opponent happens to be someone who can harass at melee range and then get out quickly e.g. , then building armor ASAP will be your best defense.

Your Problem: HI I'M DIANA AND I'VE BEEN ZONED OUT OF FARM.
How to Counter this: Buy GP10 [5 gold per 10 seconds) item. Nope, these aren't just for supports. If you actually happen to be denied of gold, then pick up one of these items. Viable picks are [[kage's luck pick]], philosopher's stone and .

Your Problem: HI I'M DIANA AND I'M 3 LEVELS UNDER MY OPPONENT.
How to Counter this: Levelling up is all based on kills. Things dying around you. Sounds grim. An easy way to catch up is to gank another lane. Ping it, explain your situation to your team, then go grab a kill or assist. Either will mean experience. However, try not to KS (kill-steal) your ally if it's obvious they will get the final blow.

Your Problem: HI I'M DIANA AND THE JUNGLER WON'T GANK MY LANE.
How to Counter this: Is your jungler doing very well? Getting lots of kills and hardly needs any minion kills? Ask for a round in the jungle. Jungle monsters give you more gold than minions, so try grabbing the small golems whenever they respawn. You can also aid your jungler to counter-jungle. Simply being there will give your experience, plus he'll have a bodyguard.

Don't forget to get Dragon with your jungler as soon as possible! The early boost in your gold income is highly beneficial.

MID GAME

Your Goal: Time to get some kills! Rouse up the team-fights, push down turrets and keep farming!

DIANA'S ROLE IN TEAMFIGHTS

[

Red for enemy team. Blue for your team.

As we can see in this poorly done diagram, a teamfight has broken out in the river! here, foxfire there. Where does Diana stand?

should not, will not and will never initiate a team-fight. That is, by far, the worst thing you can do on such a champion. , who will probably always be a big threat, will be two-shotted down in a 1v3, perhaps even 1v2 if you aren't lucky. Wait for your tank to initiate, then stay a bit back from the fight itself.

Pick out targets who are out of place. In the diagram we can see out of position. Being a squishy target and too far out of range from her team-mates, Diana can choose her as the first target. Depending on the player, you can go in with an ally (here it is ) or duel her. Either way, you should win.

Pick on the squishy targets. Yes, bully them for their weaknesses. Another route to take is to kill . Not only is she slightly away from the rest of the fight, which makes her an easy target, but without the support, the enemy team lose an advantage. With , getting to should be easy.

Focus the carries, not the tanks. It's tempting to dive straight into battle and hack at everyone around you. However, while you're shredding the tank, the enemy carries will kill you themselves. After we have taken out , we jump onto . Your team should follow in with destroying the carries first, so everyone gets a bite out of him.

Your team is there to support you, but not support you in rash decisions. Deciding to dive face-first into the below-50%-health while the rest of his team-mates are surrounding him is not smart, and chances are that if your team dives in with you, they will die too.

Pushing down turrets is important too! Don't push a lane alone if you aren't certain of where each and every enemy is on the map. I've been in situations where I was quietly pushing top lane when 4 enemies come out of nowhere, CC me and then I died. There's safety in numbers!

LATE GAME

Your Goal: Grab Baron, finish your build, WIN THE GAME.

SOZ BARON WE ONLY LIKE YOU FOR YOUR BUFFS

The best time to get Baron is after 30 minutes, winning or losing. The only time you would desperately need to steal him is if a) the enemy team is at Baron already or b) you really, really need to because you fear the other team will take it at the 30 minute mark. Both are usually unlikely to happen.

Note: After laning phase, you should always have Baron warded. However, the need to ward him is lessened slightly if a team-mate has , but this is not an excuse not to ward!

Here I will quote Palthios in his Spin to Crit Reborn guide:

The best time to Baron is right after a team fight. If you get at least 3 kills and the other two retreated to base, that's your chance to get Baron. But you have to do it quickly. 2 members of the enemy team cant win a 2v5, but its entirely possible for them to steal Baron from you at the last second. Especially if one of them has Smite."

If your team is doing especially well, then an obvious time to take Baron is after an ace. This will leave you with a bit more time in your hands.

If you decide to take Baron without knowing where the enemy team is, send a scout to run around the nest and up and down the river to make sure the enemy team isn't hiding anywhere.

Jungle Build

TANKY DPS JUNGLER

In the current meta, the jungler becomes a tank or offtank late game. If your team isn't tanky enough, or you simply enjoy playing an attack speed oriented , this build is for you!

I have already explained why this is such a fantastic item on . Build from first if you are falling behind on farm or if you need better ganks.

A standard on most junglers. It builds from philosopher's stone which you'll need for more gold, and the active speeds up a gank, or works as an escape mechanism.

This will be your main source of tankiness and I love this on . It gives you 500 health, 80 ability power and a slow. Must have stuff.

This is the go=to item for all hybrid champs. It provides massive amounts of sustain with life-steal and spell-vamp, plus the AD and AP is a great bonus.

This item will be your next source of tankiness. It grants 350 health, 75 armor and 25 health regeneration. The active slows all nearby enemies, granting a clean get away if you're getting chased.

OTHER ITEMS

This gives you both attack speed and magic resist. With it's UNIQUE passive, stacking magic resist, this gives you more defenses and the ability to deal out more damage.

Great for shredding magic resist, plus it's cheap. Replace this with if you're not getting as much gold as you need.

This is a much better choice for teams with a fed AD carry, lots of attack-speed or just a . Absolutely love this item on any mana user for defense and cooldown reduction.

This is quite a situational item. If their tank has a ton of HP but almost null magic resist, this will be a good item in conjunction with . A bit expensive to build however.

Riot has stated that this item was made for melee ranged AP casters. Since Diana fit this role, this is a wonderful item for her. It gives 70 ability power, 57 magic resistance and an aura that lowers all enemy magic resist by 20.

THE AP JUNGLER

is one of those few AP junglers who are actually rather good in the jungle, e.g. , and . This is focused on fulfilling the original role of as an assassin and having as much burst as possible.

I've already spoken about how wise it is to get this item. With jungle , she will spamming her abilities quite a lot. Getting an early philosopher's stone will help you cope with any mana issues.

My best suggestion is to rush this item whenever you can. The gold you collect from the jungle is fairly low, so try and save it up for an early . If your team is doing very well, then you can get this later on. This just bursts with . So much burst. So much.

Another item built from a GP10 item. gives you a very good cooldown reduction and more ability power so you can spam your spells more. The active adds to your combo so you can quickly burst down opponents.

Building a quick gives you more sustain during ganks and when clearing camps. You will want something to help you regain health.

I don't usually take GA for the active. I like it for it's all round magic-resist and armor. The active is just a good bonus - you can get duel someone and eventually get away alive.

WHEN SHOULD I TAKE WHICH BUILD?

There are times during jungling in which one build will be more favourable than the other.

When to take Tanky DPS build?

I personally think the fighter build works out a lot better when the enemy hasn't decided to invade your jungle, you have farmed up very well and your team is just doing good in general.

When to take the AP Assassin build?

A much better build if you have to balance a specific lane. AP Diana revolves around early ganks and lots of damage from alone.

Tanky DPS Purchase Order

Early Game

philosopher's stone

Early Mid Game

oror

Late Mid Game

Late Game

AP Assassin Purchase Order

Early Game

philosopher's stonekage's lucky pick

Early Mid Game

or

Late Mid Game

Late Game

WRIGGLE'S LANTERN

Introducing: ! Yes, that's right: it's a lantern for jungling! It can do anything an everything! You heard me! Anything and everything!

A very special situational item. Most junglers love to take this for it's versatility, however I have found that taking this on when faced with a tough jungling phase it shows it's true colours. is super cheap to build. It makes clearing camps a breeze, is basically an infinite ward and gives you 12% life steal.

The passive is extremely useful for when you and your team want to get an early Dragon. Being denied of farm? No problem! A level 6 Dragon should fix that up.

If you do take this, you don't have to keep it throughout the whole game. When late game comes around, you can sell it to complete something else in your build.

Mate, you forgot the boots

Actually, I'm going to cover that right now.

Taking this early game increases your gank potential, but taking this is also very situational. Take when:

I do not keep my . When mid/late game rolls around, I usually sell them for , or .

HELP KORI! THE ENEMY UDYR KEEP STEALING MY BLUE!

Dragon Lady stole every camp in your jungle before you even knew it?

Manbearturtletigerphoenix keeps picking you off during ganks?

Don't worry fellas. I've compiled an alternative early game build for when you're not doing so good.

Tanky DPS Build

for sustain, a ward and quicker camp clearing.
for a cheap form of attack speed and ability power.
for a fast tank item with an aura.
for mana and armor.

AP Assassin Build

for sustain and cheap AP.
for removing debuffs.
for a truckload of mana regeneration.
is built from kage's lucky pick, AP and cooldown reduction.
for a pretty standard set of defenses.

Jungle Gameplay

Initial Spawn: 1:44

Respawn Time: 1 minutes

Inital Spawn: 1:44

Respawn Time: 50 seconds

Initial Spawn: 1:55

Respawn Time: 5 minutes

Initial Spawn: 1:55

Respawn Time: 5 minutes

Initial Spawn: 2:30

Respawn Time: 6 minutes

Initial Spawn: 15:00

Respawn Time: 7 minutes

It is a good idea to remember the initial spawn times on each of the monster spawns. On more competitive play, remembering respawn times is crucial.

JUNGLE ROUTES

The Blue Buff Route

One role of being the jungler is being able to predict the outcome of each lane. This is a slightly more aggresive route, with a gank right after blue buff.
Tips:

-Take first
-If ganking top, enter in through the tri-brush (refer to my warding guide for where)
-Since you'll be ganking and roaming a lot, taking early is beneficial

Passive Farming Route

This is the best route for when you want to rush level 6 for better ganks. Spend all your time farming as fast and as hard as possible. A much better route for when your team is coping in all lane.
Tips:

Wraiths Route

So sometimes no one wants to leash for you, or you just want to try this out. The idea behind this is to rush level 3 from the smaller camps and grab blue buff by yourself. Completely possible, however a bit slower.
Tips:

EARLY GAME

Your Goal: Try your hardest to rush level 6. It is your job to protect each lane and remind your team-mates not to overextend.

Being a jungler is not an easy job. You have to keep up in levels, protect each lane and gank anywhere that needs help. Communication is absolutely vital as a jungler.

STARTING ITEMS

x5

Your most sustainable set of starting items. Almost every jungler gets this. This will allow you to stay in the jungle longer and have enough health for a gank.

For the ganking jungler. If you have a feeling that your team is not going to have a good time in lane, take this and gank as much as possible. can survive with 3 pots if she has a hard leash on blue buff.

I like this for passive farming, perhaps starting at Wraiths. It provides lots of health regeneration, and lets you get your philosopher's stone quicker.

Another good option for passive farming. Combined with your masteries and runes, this will give you a total 19% spell-vamp straight off the bat. However, ganking and dueling with this item will result in certain death.

Pick your starting item and go to your camp of choice, most likely blue-buff. If the enemy jungler is buff reliant, consider invading their jungle and stealing it. You can give blue to your AP carry and red to your AD carry.

is not a god-tier jungler. She is, sadly, quite blue buff dependent and without it or mana items, she will fall behind in experience.
Her ganks are mediocre, if not awful, before level 6. She makes up for this with her super-fast clear speed, thanks to her AoE , for a shield and her arc'd passive, .
Because of 's increased attack speed even early game, she makes a great counter jungler. Take wards with you, have boots and make sure is ready for use. Kill your camp of choice, but leave one minor monster behind. This will delay the spawn time, and when the enemy jungler comes to clear the camp, they'll see one little monster and have to wait longer for it to respawn. Umad?
Once you hit level 6, you will be a ganking god. Complete your GP10 items and spend the rest of your time ganking, ganking, ganking and taking blue buff.

BALANCING A LANE

Thanks to stonewall008 for this video.

It's blind pick. You chose to jungle. In loading screen you see that no one has and there isn't a either. You have soloing top with and . As the jungler, it's your job to make sure survives his lane and the enemy does not farm out of control.
When someone in doing bad you'll almost always see them at their turret. That's your chance to gank the lane. The reason why having a jungler is so great is that there is a punishment to overextending. Repeated bullying against a single lane will help your team in the long run.
Remember: A gank with no kill doesn't mean it's an unsuccesful gank! Forcing the enemy out of lane will let your team-mate get more farm and do some damage on a turret.

MID GAME

Your Goal: Start building your core items. Jungling phase should be over. Catch up on any farm and help out your team-mates. Ward Dragon at all times.

There isn't much to say about mid game. If your early game was significantly good, then you will have a much easier time mid-late game. If not, this is your time to come back!
Mid game is also and important stage to get down primary turrets. However, you should never rush this process. Why? Once a turret or two is down, allies and enemies will start to roam, rather than focusing on farming as hard as they can. Try to delay turret destruction until you and your allies all have their primary items.

TEAM FIGHTS WITH JUNGLE DIANA

Fighting as Tanky DPS Diana:

Be in the middle of the fight
As you are not the full-tank, don't initiate
Your job is to wreck havoc and kill anything in sight!
Protect your squishier allies, as you have the ability to do so

Fighting as AP Assassin Diana:

Similar to how your should fight when playing as lane
Being a jungler, you will have less items, and this means you'll deal less damage. Save your time to hunt down low-healthed run-aways
You're the 'KS-er'. I'm not saying KS. If it's obvious an ally will get the kill, leave it. But if they run just out of range, your job is to clean up.
Know when you are losing a fight and ping to get your allies out.

It should be general knowledge by now that you should never focus the tank. Your job as , and the rest of your team, is to succeed in killing that or who has a score of 11/1/5. As an assassin, killing the carry may sometimes mean dying yourself. However, League of Legends is a team game, and getting that much needed shut-down means one point to your team!

LATE GAME

Your Goal: Keep Baron Nashor warded at all times. Start building defenses so you can survive final fights. Win the game!

CAN WE BUILD DIANA AS A GLASS CANNON?

DON'T

A smart, well co-operating will always target first. With her level notoriety in the LoL community, it should be obvious everyone wants that shut-down gold. Building with only offensive items is not smart. However, there are plenty of items for that offer both damage and resistances.

Thanks to StoneWall008 for this video! If you want a professional opinion on jungle ], this video is for you.

Ward It Up!

sight ward

Son, put them wards up! They save yer lives son.

This section covers warding, specifically where to ward when playing . Wards are probably my favourite consumable in the game. Drop 'em where you need 'em, and you won't be surprised when enemy drops in to say hello.

An overall image on where to ward:

Image was taken from jhoijhoi's guide Malevolent Morgana. Original source from Your Tryndamere Resource, by Apotheosis.

KEY:

Red: For protecting Baron and Dragon. Always have them warded.

Blue: To protect you in whichever lane you're in.

Yellow: To protect your jungler.

Orange: To counter jungle and keep track of enemy movement.

Probably the most essential place to ward when at top lane. Gives vision of Baron, the river and the pathway into the jungle. Place a here so you'll see jungle or other wards.

Another popular place to ward. Less vision, but you'll be able to see inside the brush.

Enemy tribush at top lane. Ward this for vision of incoming ganks.

Your tribush. Once again, to avoid ganks.

abusing the brush too hard? Ward one, ward both.

It is essential to ward mid-lane since it is the most exposed. Try to ward the brush from the lane, rather than going in face-first.

It's helpful to put down a in this specific brush. Enemy wards could be hiding there or even 's shrooms.

Totally optional, but I've seen people ganking from this pathway rather than the brush. If they decide to crash the party this way, ward it.

Warding your blue buff will prevent someone else from stealing it. If someone's roaming around your jungle you'll be able to see that too.

Red buff. Same as with blue. If you have stolen the enemy buff in the beginning of the game, you'll want to protect your own. Use s for your buffs in case the enemies have warded your jungle before you have.

Not really part of your 'jungle', but warding here mid-late game prevents enemies from ganking.

Warding enemy blue. This also lets you stalk your enemies in terms of where they are headed next.

I got disrupted by as I was heading to enemy red...

Nek minnit I was first blood :(

Despite the commotion, I managed to ward the red. This is for the same purposes as I would ward their blue.

I think she loves me.

Warding dragon. A pretty obvious place to ward in order to protect bottom lane and the objective. Put a here to wipe out any other wards.

If you have a feeling the enemy team is at Baron, you can ward it like this. Vice versa when getting Baron: stand at the edge of the nest and ward the path behind it.

Using to clear out wards will benefit your team, plus the extra 25 gold you get for killing them is a nice bonus. Teams usually have an 'Eye' or 'Scout' to do this job, usually the tank.

For maximum trollage, ward their base like this.

If the enemies have unfortunately broken your defenses down, ward here to see through the Fog of War.

Credits

I have somethings to say before I finish up. I'd like to thank:

jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here. I also borrowed the warding information from her Malevolent Morgana guide.

IceCreamy for his wonderful and effective How to use Columns guide.

My brother stormcannon aka for being in the videos.

The League of Legends website for full information on Diana's abilities and ratios: Diana, Scorn of the Moon

Another thanks to WConman88 for letting me use his picture in the Lane Gameplay section. He makes such wonderful LoL art manips, please give him a look.

Thank you Stonewall008 for letting me use your videos! He is an amazing jungler and has jungling videos for every champion (including ).

Thank you for helping me make this guide possible!

Patch Notes

v1.0.0.146: Diana was nerfed.
>Base Health Regen reduced to 7 from 10
>Damage on reduced to 70/110/150/190/230. AP ratios reduced to .7
>Damage from orbs with reduced to 20/34/48/63/76
> cooldown increased to 25/20/15
What did this patch mean for Diana? I didn't find this to be a drastic nerf. Her jungling speed has slowed down a bit because of the reduced damsge from . Overall, she is still a very strong champion.

Diana: The Moon's Vengeance (Solo Top/Mid/Jungle)

Diana: The Moon's Vengeance (Solo Top/Mid/Jungle)

Choose Champion Build:

Spells:

Flash

Surge

Ability Order

Moonsilver Blade (PASSIVE)

Crescent Strike (Q)

Pale Cascade (W)

Lunar Rush (E)

Moonfall (R)

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Ability Order

Moonsilver Blade (PASSIVE)

Crescent Strike (Q)

Pale Cascade (W)

Lunar Rush (E)

Moonfall (R)

Spells:

Flash

Smite

Ability Order

Moonsilver Blade (PASSIVE)

Crescent Strike (Q)

Pale Cascade (W)

Lunar Rush (E)

Moonfall (R)

Embrace the Heresy!

Changelog/Chapters to Come

All About Diana

Build Explanations

Masteries

Runes

Runes

Runes

Runes

Summoner Spells

Gifts of the Moon

Skilling Order

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER-R-R-R-S

Solo Top Lane Build

Mid Lane Build

Lane Gameplay

Jungle Build

Jungle Gameplay

Ward It Up!

Credits

Patch Notes

League of Legends Champions: