Hi Palimpsest here. I am one trick pony Diana player and this is my guide to Diana mid.

Started from silver in 10 days I reached Platinum 3 on flex q playing solo only, and Platinum 5 on solo q also only solo. I have 70% flex q diana winratio and 64% diana winratio solo q.



I am not smurf. I played really good as Diana. Many times I carry games vs diamond or master tier players. Yeah i know it sounds weird. But my mmr in flex q is really high like Diamond 1.

In solo q I win almost every matchups vs platinum players when playing Diana(still im not good enough to carry every game). And I lose every game when I am playing some other champs ;)

I know how to easily carry from this lower divisions to platinum. Even tho I am not skilled player and my mechanics are awful. It is pretty easy to play decent as diana. Q is easy to hit at this elo, R and W are pointclick. It's still fun champ to play. If you like to 100-0 opponents. Besides she is the most sexy champion in game.

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Pros + Very mobile with Lunar Rush resets + Hextech Protobelt active + After 6 lvl huge kill potential + Strong vs melee oponents even before lvl 6 + Really tanky thanks to her Pale Cascade and itemization + Huge burst she can one shot anyone.. + ..or chase forever thanks to Lunar Rush resets and mana from RoA + Great splitpusher with Nashor's Tooth/ Lich Bane

Cons - Weak early vs ranged champions - Teamfighting can be difficult vs some comps - Zhonya is not a good item atm - Enemies can flash out your R

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SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Always take flash. It's your only escape tool especially early game. When enemy jungler gonna camp your lane. You can also catch people from far distance using flash+protobelt active+R. Most of the times it's not worth to burn flash for kill unless we are in late game and death timers are really long TELEPORT: With RoA build this is important spell. Because you can face some hard match ups. And when your hp is too low to survive. You just back and TP back to lane with refill potion and Catalyst. IGNITE: Ignite seems decent when you face melee match up. And you have some kill potential. Especially Zed, Akali, Katarina.

Rod of Ages This is our core item. When fully stacked it gives all stats Diana need. Large amount of AP and HP which you gonna need to survive. And we don't wanna build Zhonyas Hourglass(however we can if we need to engage for our team). So this, Hextech Protobelt and Morellonomicon give us a lot of defensive stats.

Boots of Speed You can build it before Hextech protobelt if you have free 300 gold.

Hextech Protobelt This item works really well with Diana kit. It gives you AP and HP. It's pretty cheap which is important. Maybe the most important thing is active from this item. You can catch people from far distance using this active+R.

Sorcerer's Shoes I build Sorcerer's Shoes in 99% of my games. However if enemies have a lot of CC or are full AD you can go Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads.

Rabadon's deathcap Another core item. Never skipped this. Diana has really good AP ratios so she benefit a lot from AP. I usually build it as 3rd item. Sometimes after Rod of Ages. Do not delay it because it gives you huge power spike.

Situational items:

Morellonomicon You can build it after Rod of Ages when the enemies have a lot of healing(Vladimir/Soraka/Mundo etc.)

Void Staff Get this item almost every game. sooner or later enemy team gonna stack Magic Resists. And there are many great MR items. Which is sad for Diana players. Even assassins or ADC can build MR items(Maw of Malmortius, Mercurial etc.)

Zhonya Hourglass It is not a good item overall. It provides only 70 AP. And we don't need this CDR that much while we playing burst assassin. Only active is good. If you need to be engage for your team then you can buy it. But usually you don't want to dive as first so...

Banshee's Veil I rarely take it. However it is decent item if enemies have a lot of AP damage

Standard final build:

You can go spellbinder build. It scales way faster. You get huge power spike after first item. With this build you are weaker late game. You can't spam Q that much because lack of mana from Rod of Ages. And you are not so tanky. I usually go with flash ignite when i go this build.

Your first item will be Spellbinder or Protobelt.

Spellbinder If you get a kill early or if you have 1250 gold at first back(for Large Rod) you can buy Spellbinder as first item. Otherwise rush Hextech Protobelt. A lot of AP and nice passive. However it is not giving you any defensive stats so you go yolo with this path. You want to rush it in this build or you gonna buy it as 2nd item.

Boots of Speed You can build it before second item if you have free 300 gold.

Hextech Protobelt You can swap this item for Luden's Echo. However Protebelt active is to good on Diana.

Sorcerer's Shoes I build Sorcerer's Shoes in 99% of my games.

Rabadon's deathcap It is your 3rd item. Always buy it.

Void Staff Buy it almost every single game.

Situational items:

Lich Bane This or Nashor's Tooth are good items if you want to splitpush. Both makes you great duelist. And you are gonna take turrets fast thanks to Nashor's Tooth attack speed or Sheen from Lich Bane.

Luden's Echo I almost never buy this item. But if you are snowballing really hard early you can buy it after Spellbinder or rush it as first item. If you are gonna get it skip Hextech Rocketbelt. Because you don't want to delay your Rabadon's Deathcap .

I am aware that I am not top tier;) player. My reactions are very slow. I can't move mouse fast and precisely at the same time. Still I beat diamond/masters players(on flex q) and managed to reached platinum easily maintaining this juicy 70% winrate playing Diana only.

For sure I know how you can reach platinum elo even if your mechanics are awful just like mine. My "guide" is for those of you who are stuck in lower divisions and want to know fast and painless way to platinum.

They said that there are no simple rules to just win games which is applicable to all of your games. It is probably true. However there are a few rules which I obey playing Diana mid with some success.

1. MINDSET

This one is the most important. You need to have this mindset that every game your teammates gonna feed. All of them. If you are lucky only 3 people will feed. But most of the time 4 of them will be waaay less useful then opponents(your janna will facecheck bushes but enemy Tresh will maintain vision, your adc will be afraid to shoot but enemy Cait will be fed, your jungler won't gank you, but he will come to your lane while you are at base and he donate kill to your midlane opponent etc.).

You need to have this in mind before game even start. So you will not be surprised that it's 8 minutes in game and while you are 3/0 surviving that enemy jungler camp. Entire score is 3/11, your bottom turret is already down and enemy bottom moving to mid. Thanks to this mindset it will be something normal to you. And you will not be upset because of your teammates. And that is a huge factor to win games. I know it is hard to believe but even in this case game is still winnable at this elo. As long as you don't start tilt and focus on your game.

Mute all. Immediately as the game start. If you want to win games do it. Those guys won't help you to win games. But often they gonna tilt you by writing some useless things. You can mute pings aswell. For me spam pings are not that annoying. And I only mute them when someone start to spam pings only to annoy others.

2. LANE PHASE

How to play lane phase. It mostly depends or your lane opponent. But there are some ground rules. In most cases you are not gonna be able to kill your foe before 6 level.

level 1 to 5 NO KILL POTENTIAL:

You need to get level 6 asap. Farm as much as you can. Stay in lane untill you are level 6. Ignore or mute pings. Don't help your jungler. Most likely he will be useless regardless if you come and help him or not. And if you leave lane you are sacrificing gold and experience. The most important things to you early game(especially experience).

So do we need to push lane or not? Be aware(Mindset!) that you are playing 1 vs 2 lane(maybe even 1 vs 3). Junglers at this elo loves to ganking mid(not your junglers). So always ward left or right bush(they usually ganks from there). And stay close to side which you warded. Always use your ward if it's up.

I tend to push lane most of the time. Keep enemy hp/mana low(poke from Q trade with W). So without minion advantage he can't fight you. It is pretty good if enemy jungler is not strong early ganker. It can be good vs champions like Master yi, Sejuani, Nidalee(unless she don't hit you with spear), Tryndamere etc. It's extremely risky versus champions like Xin zhao, Lee sin, Elise or other junglers that can easily solo you at early levels.

You want to be as healthy as possible while your oponents is low on health or mana when you are close to level 6. You can poke him from distance with your Q if it's ranged enemy and you can go for close range trades with W and Q and E if you are against melee opponent. In this case you can all in on him if you have Ignite(but remember there is probably enemy jungler around so you need to be fast and confident that you can kill him in sec.)

From level 6 KILL/ROAM POTENTIAL:

If you are 6 before your laner. You can try to all in on him. But always check hp and mana bars before you all in. Don't forget about mana. You can go in even if your enemy is way higher HP then you but he have no mana to fight. And remember unless you saw him somewhere else, enemy jungler is around so you need to kill fast.

What I do from there, obviously depends if i am more or less fed than opponents from other lanes(they usually will be fed).

At first back always buy control ward and change your trinket to Oracle Lens. Place control ward in river. So you can see enemy jungler or bottom if they move. You can even try to ambush someone but only if your jungler is close to you or if enemy jungler is on the other side of the map or if you are fed and enemy jungler is not a damage dealer. While roaming remember to clear vision with Oracle Lens/Control wards.

So I am lets say 10 level 3/0. While enemy botlane is 5/0 Kalista 7 level and 2/0 Janna 5 level. Am I stronger? Remember that levels are very important. Yes i am waay stronger. Can I kill them with little help from someone from my team? Easily. Can I kill them 1 vs 2? Well it will be really risky. It depends. They summoner spells are probably up. But if your summoners are up you can clear vision. And maybe someone gonna facecheck bush.


I roamed and I killed can I back to mid?


Short answer: no. If you only kill and didn't take any objectives(turret/herald/dragon) from that kill. It is almost empty kills. If you roam to bottom. And your adc with your help took 2 kills and is now 2/3. He is just worth more gold now. Believe me 5/2 enemy adc gonna back to lane and kill him again.

So first of all you are trying to take kills. Or at least take something from that kills. The most important objective is bottom turret. If you destroy it, it opens map for your team. You can place deep control wards, your bottom can leave botlane and stop feeding but rotate and take other turrets/ojectives, you can go splitpush bot etc. From there you can win game by splitpush only. Or by catching people and taking turrets. So always try to take turret after kills or at least deal as much damage to it as you can. If drake is up you can also take it. Always take something from kills after your roam. If you only roam and kill be aware that it was not worth at all.

Please keep in mind that this "guide" is made for low tier elo. So if you gonna face some higher then plat tier players. Some tips are probably not gonna work. Like mindset that enemies jungler is always close to mid, like ambushing, pushing lane etc.