Introduction

Hey guys! This is my first guide. Yeah yeah, you hear that a lot, but we gotta start somewhere right? Anyway, I'm one of those noobs that waited all night JUST for the Diana patch to come and had enough ip saved up to buy her IMMEDIATELY to play her and I fell in love with her <3 Back to the point I never even made to begin with, Diana is a burst mage that excels at either solo top, mid or jungle. In this guide, I will be showing you some of my insight on how to play her as a jungler.

For masteries I build 21/9/0 with the basic mage offense build while taking some early def and hp on the defensive tree. I will expand on this more if asked but to be honest, I really don't think I need to.

Items

Alright. The most controversial topics about Diana, her items.

Most of you might have been wondering why my build does include any attack speed items as opposed to many of the current guides that do not include them. Honestly, although they are in fact viable, I don't think it suits Diana all that well. On another note, most of those guides include little to no defense or health items, which means the damage they THINK they will do in the fight will probably REALLY be 0 due to the fact that they'll die as soon as they get there. Diana is squishy enough, and thinking that she can stay in team fights long enough to get three strikes in to trigger her passive ENOUGH times to do SIGNIFICANT damage is just beyond stupid in my opinion. It's MUCH more reasonable to play her as a burst assassin based champ, that plans to go into the fights and deal massive damage to high priority targets and SURVIVE due to your health, mres, and def.

To start off I grab boots and three health pots as the standard cloth 5 isn't needed due to the fact of her W shield. On my first return, I'll usually take a doran's ring and and a mana crystal, but you can grab a double doran if you feel you need the extra health and ap early on.

You generally rush the Rod of Ages to combat the fact that to do damage, she needs to be close to her enemies, but if you feel like you're dominating the game, you can grab a Rylai's instead, but build into either one. It's crucial that you NEED some bit of early game health to stay alive when you gank. So many things can go wrong with the gank of you rush in and don't have enough health to survive an exchange or if your allies don't follow up so play safe and get the health!

Now i'll specifically talk about the items and other items that can be subbed in based on the game state.

Sorcerer's Shoes - Generally speaking, most burst assassins get this, but if you feel like your're having trouble with cc, or their ap carry is trouble for you feel free to get Mecury Treads.

Rod of Ages - This item, paired up with Rylai's is what enables you to rush into their team, do your job,(Assassinating high priority targets like their AD Carry or the enemy team mage) and stay alive if their team retaliates, long enough for your team to pick up the rest. ALthough this item is great, since you're the jungler and not the Ap mid caster, it might be a better idea to grab a Will of the Ancients instead to help your AP mid caster. I might save her money to build into her damage items first and help you win your games a lot earlier.

Rabadon's Deathcap - This item is a must to help her do her job, assassinate. Pretty standard for the burst mage concept so it's pretty self explanatory.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - This item is one of my favs for Diana. Not only does it give the health she needs to survive, but it also gives her a really good amount of ap too. On top of that, the slow debuff greatly increases your ganking potential and minimize the chances of your enemies getting away, EVEN if they burn flash. This, alongside your gap closing ult, will make it nearly IMPOSSIBLE for your enemies to get away.

Lich Bane - Alright, this is about as CLOSE as it gets to any of the other attack speed builds. Although in this build Diana doesn't CONSTANTLY attack, as soon as you ult in, you SHOULD always land an auto attack almost immediately. This item basically adds onto your burst with that ONE auto attack proc. The magic resist also aids on surviving the teamfights after assassinating your targets.

Void Staff - Standard for most ap casters. This is completely interchangable with Abyssal Scepter so only get this if the enemy team stacks MASSIVE Mres. Also, generally speaking, it would be a better idea to get Abyssal to aid your Ap mid Caster AND for the extra mres that will help you stay alive.


Skill Sequence

Early on you'll want to take the point in W to stay alive in the jungle. You'll usually take two points by level 3 to help you clear the jungle with minimum damage. After this second point, you'll add one into your E and then you'll prioritize your Q as that is where most of your damage will come from early. The rest is pretty self explanatory but if you have any questons about my Sequence feel free to comment and ask. If I see an overwhelming amount of questions ill expand further on this.

The general combo will Be Q R R W E which will deal the most amount of damage in the least amount of time. Also this sequence will allow a bit of time to pass before you can reused your Q. If you feel like you can wait for your Q cooldown. DON'T use your Ult the second time and wait till you can q a SECOND time before you can ult again.. and again. c: LOL

This latter sequence goes as follows:

Q R W E ..wait for Q coodown Q R R E


Summoner Spells

Although your ult is an excellent gap closer you really have no escape after you DO close the gap. Imagine yourself in a situation where you JUST assassinated their ad carry early game during a gank, but went TOO far into their turret range and wont be able to take those last two turret shots. The solution? Flash c: The only other choice is Ghost, but it isn't as nearly as good as flash, for Diana anyway.

For your second spell you should ALWAYS take smite if you're jungling. This is just an absolute must for Diana with this build and no other questions about it. Although I plan to make other builds for Diana in the NEAR future, this is a jungling guide only for the momment so yeah, stick to smite.


Ranked Play

Please realize that the idea of rushing into 5 enemies with your ult is usally VERY stupid. In ranked play you must keep in mind that you NEED some other type of initiation before you can do your job. In ranked play, skilled players will WAIT for you to ult into them and cc you as soon as it's too late to escape. Keep this in mind and be CAREFUL with your ult. Don't just rush into anything that moves. Not much else to say. This is a Diana guide, not a how to teach you how to play ranked guide.


Pros / Cons

Pros

- Great Early game and late game damage

- Awesome shield that does damage and refreshes

- Strong ganks due to amazing gap closer and her E

- Unique skill shot Q that enables you to catch players off guard.

- Double gap closing ult... op hacks bruh

Cons

- Her Q MAY be hard to master at first

- Must be near enemy team to do significant damage due to her ult

- Lacks AMAZING CC besides her E


Creeping / Jungling

My jungle route begins at wolves. Ask your solo top and mid to help you guard your blue buff and help you dps the wolves for minimum damage. Note: Make sure to take aggro of the wolves to keep them at the base, you do NOT want to be wasting any time chasing leeshed wolves. After this you head straight to blue buff. Ask for a leesh and activate your W as soon as the the monsters aggro you to make full use of your W. After this point you'll wanna head to wraiths, and then back to the wolves. At this point, you should be level 3 and have a decent amount of health and mana. If all of your lanes are pushed then recall at this point, if you see some ganking opportunities, gank at this point. Always prioritize ganking top OVER bot. Many people make the mistake of wasting their time at bot when the enemy support have usually already warded at this point in time. This means you'll be wasting CRUCIAL amount of early game time walking all the way bot for nothing while you could've been at top to gank an UNWARDED lane.

After this point you can either go back into jungle and grab your red, or continue ganking for your teamates. Be sure to gank often though, even if it isn't to kill. This helps get rid of summoner spells early on before you can actually go in for the kill. Make sure to advise your team mate/team mates that you're only going in for some damage or to get rid of summoner spells as they might commit to a fight you guys obviously can't win or chase them into turret range.

Diana's only mean of real cc is from her E, which has decent range but usually isn't enough to do the job. This means you'll have to wait for level 6 to get any REAL ganks to happen so advise your team this beforehand but reassure them that when you DO reach level 6, you'll bring the enemy team hell with your double dash ulti c;.

When ganking at level 6+ you'll usually want to lead with your q to be able to refresh your ulti right away, but sometimes it might be a better idea to Ulti into your target and E before they have a chance to get to their tower. Also, you might miss your Q since it might be hard to land for newer players, so you'll give away your position too early and fail the gank completely and waste your time.

If there is anything else SPECIFIC you want to know about jungling in general or about Diana as a jungler you can comment and ill be sure to look at it c: