Diana Build Guide by LastBreath2008

Introduction

Where can I even start on this champion? Love playing her, but I hate facing off against her. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way with a multitude of champions however. I apologize for straying off the point a bit, but let me make this as simplistic as possible for everyone, though do take note that items are easy to obtain it boils down to your knowledge and experience with the champion that gets you through the situations. With that in mind I will be explaining to the best of my abilities my very first Diana guide! In fact this is my first guide on Mobafire and I hope that it provides you with some type of insight.

I personally recommend reading the tip on farming as this becomes crucial!

A big thanks to jhoijhoi for making such a simplistic guide format to utilize.

Pros / Cons

Masteries

Like most Ability Power Champions, you want to take a similar route in masteries. You don't have to use these exactly, but I find these to be the most optimum. This overall tree provides you with the basic need of scaling ability power, ability power penetration, a bit more damage itself and the main goal of utilizing Magic Resistance with a bit of additional Health as this will allow you to start with above 500 Hit Points allowing you to purchase boots as your first item without needing to worry about level one Hit Points.



Similar build structure, but this simply allows you for the extra blue buff length as well as a bit more movement speed. In most cases I often don't find the need to utilize more movement speed, but I recommend +2% Movement Speed over +3 Mana per five seconds as I feel that ultimately that is just wasting skill points.

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Potency: With three of these particular quints you start off with twenty-one (21) ability power. This gives you some nice extra damage early game.
  
• Greater Mark of Insight: Magic penetration is great to have on any Ability Power based champion. Combined with Sorcerer's Shoes, Abyssal Scepter, Void Staff, and finally Arcane Knowledge from your mastery table you do shred through magic resistance. The 8.5 Magic Penetration along with the twenty from your boots and finally lowering the opponents Magic Resistance with Abyssal Scepter could easily equate to true damage!
  
• Greater Seal of Resilience: Armor. Armor is generally all around a good thing to have. This makes you a bit more tankier early games that scales well with your mid/late game items.
  
  
• Greater Glyph of Warding: This is where your early game power comes into play. With this you start with fifty plus (50+) Magic Resistance in lane. Most Ability Power champs will run penetration to cut a bit off that off, but at this stage the reduced damage allows you to harass with a bit less worry.

The only difference dwells within the quintessences. If you feel that you need a bit more movement speed then this should suffice as well as keeping with the general theme without sacrificing too much.

Skill Sequence + Escapes

In my personal opinion, her shielding ability becomes a very valuable tool early game and late game. This tool also makes farming extremely easy, which will be explained in the Farming section of the guide. The reason in which I recommend alternating between these Diana's Crescent Strike and Pale Cascade is due to the fact that this allows you to escape sticky situations and farm without worrying to much about harass from your opposition. Along with the Magic Resistance you have early game, this shield proves even more protection. Don't be afraid to harass but be weary of your mana!

Escapes

• Diana is crafty in terms of escaping. Of course with your summoner spell Flash, you can clear walls, but her ultimate can do exactly the same. If you find yourself running through the jungle, use your Crescent Strike to hit a Jungle Creep over a wall, or Baron, or even Dragon to hop across to safety. Sometimes you can hit a minion that's in lane from behind a lining to bridge across. Finally jumping simply to a minion with using Crescent Strike into Lunar Rush into Crescent Strike again on a line of minions can prove to be a nice get away tool as well!
  
  Lastly once you do this enough times, you can juke our opponent by using your Crescent Strike and not hoping over a wall, or doing so to flash over later. All about the mind games!

Farming *Important!*

In my opinion Diana is extremely easy to farm with. At later points in game the easiest way to farm utilizes the following skill sequence:

Running into the middle of a large group of minions and utilizing your Moonfall skills clumps all within range into one nice pile. Utilizing Pale Cascade, your orbs hit every single minion on top of Diana three times. Depending on far you are into the build, this can clear out the minions or allow a simple Crescent Strike upon yourself to clear the remaining or a simple couple of auto attacks to activate her passive.


When given the time, always remember to clean out both Wraith Camps if possible, if not make sure you clean out your own. This helps give you a bit more gold and experience! The easiest way to do this is utilizing your Crescent Strike to strike over the wall and leaping to a revealed target utilizing your ultimate Lunar Rush.

Item Explanation

Boots of Speed: Why do you get this first? Being able to maneuver around mid lane is what will also help keep you out of harms way from skill shots. With your mastery page and Diana's basic stats, you won't need additional Hit Points at level 1.
Mana Potion x2: Now you don't have to get two. I play a bit more aggressive and often find myself low on mana. If you are the type of player who can converse nicely then I would recommend two health potions and one mana.
Health Potion x1: Allows you to stay in and helps in clutch situations. This could be the difference in dying from an ignite! See the notes under mana potion for a secondary option.

Kage's Lucky PickKage's Lucky Pick: The reason I recommend this as your first item is to help give you a bit more Ability Power and to increase your gold income a bit more. Over all its a nice first item and helps build into a Death Fire Grasp late game which should allow you to accumulate some nice gold interest till then.

Negatron Cloak: This should be your first defense item starting on your first major item. This will place you close to one hundred magic resistance if not slightly above. This can be substituted in place of Kage's Lucky Pick, getting the Pick second. This just ensures that your opponent champion is doing less damage allowing you to harass and farm more freely.

Sorcerer's Shoes: This doesn't have to be your third purchase. This can easily come after your Abyssal Scepter but I recommend this as your third purchase for simple penetration. Combined with your runes this gives you some nice poke and farming potential. See the section on farming above for further details.

Abyssal Scepter: This should be your first main item. Why? This provides magic resistance for you to shut down your lane and allows you to deal more damage because you are lowering your opponents magic resistance on top of the penetration. Big money big money.

Zhonya's Hourglass: This gives you everything you need on this champion! The extra armor raises you above one hundred twenty and gives you a nice ability power incrementation. This item becomes a life savior if you are focused to heavily, but also acts as a good initiator tool. Diana can charge in through a skill set, draw a target back then hourglass for your team to finish up the rest.

Void Staff: If you thought you were doing damage, then you are about to be amazed. With this item your damage output just becomes crazy. If someone is attempting to counter you with this build at this point, with your penetration of twenty eight, +10% magic penetration, and lowering their magic resistance by twenty, then they are leaving themselves prone to the AD Carry. This simply ensures more damage output regardless of what is being made!

Deathfire Grasp: Having a Kage's Lucky Pick for so long pays off in terms of extra income. At this stage you can build into a Deathfire Grasp to allow yourself an easy kill. At this stage you can burst down almost any champion you desire. Remember to prioritize the carries if you are able to get to the back line! If you find yourself taking too much damage at this point, consider building a Guardian Angel in it's place.

Guardian Angel: If you manage to get this far into the game, this is the last item you should purchase. This provides you with even more armor and magic resistance. Between Zhonya's Hourglass and this item, you shouldn't really fall in battle. You can choose to build this earlier if you wish.


With this particular build, you have: Cooldown Reduction, Magic Resistance, Armor, Magic Penetration, and a nice source of damage. Of course with all games, you should build accordingly depending on the situation however I feel this covers most of the mainstream problems.