Diana Build Guide by Tsusho

Introduction

Hey Everyone. My name is Tsusho and this is my first guide on Mobafire. I decided to take a shot at making a guide for Diana because she is relatively new and I have varied a few builds while playing as her which I have personally found quite effective. Without further adieu, let us begin.

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Pros and Cons

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Pros + Highly mobile with Lunar Rush + Great AP ratios on each of her abilities + Strong shield with 2 procs + A refreshed cooldown on Lunar Rush

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Cons - Mana hungry early game - Tricky to maximize enemies hit using Crescent Strike - Vulnerable against CC with little of her own

Masteries

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: This provides you with a great early game AP pool, which will allow you to go for the early boot and 3 health potions instead of a Doran's Ring.
  
• Greater Mark of Ability Power: Like the quintessences, this adds onto your AP pool early game, which allows you to go for those boots and pots. Why these marks instead of magic penetration marks? I think that with Arcane Knowledge and Sorcerer's Shoes, you're given enough magic penetration to provide you with some solid damage. So in substitution, these marks give you a total of 5.3 more AP, a solid bonus at level 1 with already some magic penetration from your masteries.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These will allow you to have flat armor early game, giving you a defensive advantage over physical champions early game before you build your Zhonya's Hourglass
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: These will allow you to have a steady increase in magic resist over the course of your levels. This gives you some early game magic resist, but will show more resistence at level 18. This also allows you to grab a Lich Bane instead of a more magic resist-heavy item. You get the lich bane proc as well as some MR, which will close the gap between your flat armor and per-level magic resist when paired with a Zhonya's Hourglass.

Summoner Spells

Flash: This spell is a great utility. It can close the gap between a close call and a failed encounter, whether it be defensive or offensive. It will allow you to escape over a wall, or pursue to land a Crescent Strike or Lunar Rush to secure the kill. This is a must for any champion conquering Summoner's Rift.

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Ignite: For Diana in mid lane, this spell is great for dealing that extra bit of damage. While you don't have much CC, you'll need to be able to deal a lot of damage before the enemies escape your combos. This is the spell that will allow you to secure kills at a distance alongside your other abilities by dealing that little bit of extra damage over time.

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Smite: For jungler Diana, you'll need smite in order to clear the jungle faster, and also kill larger mobs (red buff, blue buff, dragon, baron) so that you don't take more hits than needed, and to also make sure your buffs and dragon aren't stolen.

Abilities

• Moonsilver Blade: This passive gives Diana 20% increased attack speed, and deal flat magic damage (+60% AP) every third hit. The flat damage increases over time as you level. This is a significant source of damage when you use Lunar Rush to catch up to opponents and also when you use Moonfall to bring them towards you. While your abilities are on cooldown, the proc on your passive is what will do the most damage to your opponents. There are a few things to remember with this passive. When ganking or entering teamfights, make sure to have the proc on in order to maximize your initial damage. Also know that the proc deals damage in a small area around you, not just to the target. Use this to your advantage when clearing jungle creeps to maximize damage dealt and also in teamfights to deal more damage.
  
• Crescent Strike (Q): This ability arcs out in a counterclockwise direction and explodes in a small area at the end of its trajectory, dealing flat magic damage (+80% AP). As the ranks go up, the flat magic damage value increases. This is your main damage dealer. With a short cooldown, there are a few things to keep in mind. Don't spam it during the laning phase if you are mid lane. The short cooldown tempts people to burn mana quickly since your skills are available to use. Try to reserve some of your mana and simply autoattack and work with your Moonsilver Blade to get CS and harass. As well, this ability afflicts enemies (champs and minions) with Moonlight, which is a proc for your ultimate. I will mention this proc and its utilities when we get there. One thing to consider when using this ability is the counterclockwise trajectory. Enemies are still hit when this spell is traveling to its explosion radius. Maneuver yourself into positions where you can use the arc to hit more minions, or guarantee yourself an easier hit on a champ. I typically max this first, when both jungling and mid laning.
  
• Pale Cascade (W): This ability shields you against damage and gives you three orbs that rotate around you. They deal flat magic damage (+20% AP) on contact with enemies. This ability is great for jungle Diana. The shield absorbs some damage while dealing some damage itself, and once each orb is used, the shield is reprocced and you'll get an additional shield. When laning, you'll soon notice that your Crescent Strike won't kill minions by itself early game, so this shield allows you to push forwards into enemy range, take those minions and also shield yourself from incoming fire. A very important note about this ability is that as a melee caster, you spend most of your laning phase near the middle in order to get in melee range of minions. This puts you in a rough position to be hit by ranged casters and also to get ganked. Paired with items (mentioned later) and defensive masteries, this ability allows you to take more damage while getting CS or escaping from a gank. Use this to your advantage while laning and jungling.
  
• Moonfall (E): This ability pulls enemies towards you in a small area around you, and slows them for a certain %. As the level goes up, the percentage of the slow is increased. This is Diana's only form of CC, and is useful when ganking in order to prevent escapes from enemies. You can also use it to help your escaping allies by pulling enemies towards you, and away from them.
  
• Lunar Rush (R): This is Diana's ultimate. It allows her to quickly dash towards any enemy in a large radius, dealing flat magic damage (+60% AP). The cost and cooldown of this ultimate are very very low. Use this to your advantage when jungling especially. Don't be afraid to use this ultimate to clear minions since its cooldown is so low. Also keep in mind that when procced with Moonlight, your ultimate is immediately cooled down. This creates an avenue of strategies and techniques that create a great utility for Diana. When jungling, you can use Crescent Strike over a wall and proc the minions with Moonlight. One of the effects of Moonlight is that you can see the mobs that it afflicts. So, you can then simply use Lunar Rush over the wall to get to the mobs, and kill them. Whenever your Q is off cooldown, hit the mobs, and immediately use your ultimate again to deal that extra damage. You'll find that your clear time for buffs and each jungle camp to be much faster when you can use this combo to initiate a camp from a distance, and also deal extra damage.
  
  In the case that you are pursuing in a jungle or a lane with minions, there is a combo that can help you close ground and reposition yourself better for the kill. Using your Crescent Strike, you can use the maneuver above to cross over walls to close gaps between you and the escaper. You can also use it to simply get further ahead, as this maneuver carries you farther faster than running. In special cases where the escaper is out of range of your Lunar Rush but there are camps or minions in between, you can Crescent Strike the camp or minions to proc Moonlight, use Lunar Rush to advance to that camp or minion, and then promptly Lunar Rush again in order to get to your opponent. This allows you to close huge amounts of distance in very little time to secure your kills.
  
  If you are escaping, simply use this maneuver to create distance. If there are enemy minions in your lane behind you, where you need to escape, then use Q > R to escape that way. You can escape over jungle walls in this fashion as well. And also like Katarina's Shunpo, you face the direction that you dash in. Which means if there are multiple enemies on your tail in close range, and you're in a near futile position, you can attempt to juke by using your R (or Q > R, if time permits in this situation) to the furthest champ and turning in the opposite direction. Hopefully they don't respond as quickly to a full direction change and you'll get away safely.
  
  One last thing to keep in mind about this ultimate is that you're not limited to the Q proc in order to use it. Its cooldown is very low without the proc. When you need to use your ultimate, don't worry about the Q if its a last resort, just go for it.

Ability Sequence

Items - Mid vs Jungle

• : This item begins the real variation I am establishing with Diana as a mid and jungler. Many would choose to build a Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi in order to make Diana more tanky. I think that with my item choices, rune choices, and mastery choices, these boots are the way to go. The magic pen on these boots are a necessity when running flat AP marks instead of magic pen marks. The beauty of going Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potions is that you have early game tankiness from your masteries and early game AP from masteries and runes too. With boots, you'll be able to run faster through the jungle, and escape more easily from death early game. As a melee caster, you'll be in tighter positions mid and while ganking, so you'll need the speed. A balance of this speed, tankiness, and AP is needed in order to make Diana a great AP carry. So building into these boots mitigates for the lack of magic pen and you'll get to be more nukey later on because you have that extra AP from your marks.
  
• : This item works wonders for Diana. Building a Catalyst the Protector allows for you to have an advantage of health and mana over your laning partner, and as well it grants great sustain when you level. This item increases your sustainability and also your survivability by building health and mana, and the finished product will only allow you to further boost not only these two factors, but also AP as soon as you finish. This item is integral for your survivability as a melee caster, since (again), you'll be in the midst of enemies whenever you want to gank or push. Since it is so important AND it requires time to reach its maximum potential, this item is bought pretty early into the game, before Sorcerer's Shoes are finished.
  
• : This item provides a great amount of AP to Diana and the passive will only help her AP further. After building a whole Rod of Ages, your AP may be a little behind due to the money spent on a bit of sustainability. This will close the gap between you and the enemy AP carry.
  
• : After your Rabadon's Deathcap, the game should have progressed to a point where the enemies are starting to get the core items in their builds too. As you are becoming stronger, so are they. This item will allow you to slow them in their tracks, making it easier for you to pursue kills. It also adds a great deal of health to your already large health pool, to again add to your sustainability. Now that team fights will have started to become more prevalent, you'll be faced with more and more CC and DPS from the enemy team and you'll need to make sure you still come out on top.
  
• : An endgame item for Diana. This can be switched Lich Bane in order to compensate for any lacking armor or magic resist that you need to survive. The beauty of the hourglass is that it offers 50 armor, protecting you from any AD that will be coming your way. It offers 100 AP, which is a great amount, perfect to add to an already massive pool that you will have developed. And the unique active is great since again, you are a melee caster. By using your Crescent Strike > Lunar Rush Combo, you'll be in the face of the enemy in mere moments. You can truly engage with that combo and pop Pale Cascade, pull remaining enemies with Moonfall, and then proceed to use your active to stay alive. With a blue buff at this stage of the game, your cooldowns will have nearly refreshed already as soon as you leave stasis. This allows you to further deal AoE damage in teamfights and you've not yet been touched by the enemy team. This is a very powerful tool for initiation, and you have the DPS to back it up.
  
• : Lich bane has a great passive for assassinations. You do a solid amount of damage already with your combos, but with a Lich Bane, you get AP added to your pool, magic resist to sustain against AP carries, and you'll probably be able to proc the Lich Bane passive twice in one assassination. It is simply like adding another one of your passives to your damage output. The movement speed bonus will also allow you to close distances faster, and paired with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, nobody should escape.

• Philosopher's StoneKage's Lucky Pick: These items will allow you to get some gold every 5 seconds in order to substitute for the amount of creeps you'll be missing compared to a laner. The stone will provide you with some needed health regen and mana regen that you'll need early on in the jungle, and the pick will give you some AP to give you a small boost, while also providing you the benefit of gold.

• : For mid lane, if you're losing your lane and you simply don't have enough sustainability, buy one or two of these early game in order to get some mana regen, AP and 80 health. This will provide a small, needed boost for you to close the gap between you and your opponent.
  
• : This is a cheaper substitute for a Lich Bane. If you're in dire need of magic resist, and don't have a huge budget, try going for this. You get a nice amount of AP out of it, and you'll use the aura to its maximum potential if you're in the middle of teamfights all the time.
  
• : If the enemy team has a lot of CC and you can't deal with it, get this instead of Mercury Treads. You'll get AP and tenacity out of it which should help your situation. You'll still want the magic penetration from Sorcerer's Shoes, so that should never be substituted.
  
• : This is an optional item if you are nuking really well. I don't like to use it because it doesn't offer any sustainability, but it does boast 15% cooldown reduction, which is great on your low cooldowns, a lot of AP, and an active that will help lots with your assassinations.
  
• : This is an item to get early-mid game if you are getting fed and surviving well in engagements. It will give you a well deserved boost to your AP if you are getting many stacks, which will add onto Rabadon's Deathcap greatly, but I don't tend to buy this item since you have to know you are far far ahead in order to ensure it was worth the investment since it offers no sustainability and can fall flat if you die many times.

Laning, Jungling and Teamfights

Farming in lane for you is easier than most AP casters since your passive allows you to grab minions by doing extra damage at no cost of mana. Simply time your attacks well so you can deal as much AoE damage with your passive as possible. When you have mana to spare, or have to keep a distance to keep safe, use the radius and arc of Crescent Strike to get CS. If you are in a big group of minions, a close range Crescent Strike works too. You should also use Pale Cascade to grab a shield and deal some more AoE damage against minions for some fast clears.

When jungling before level 6, initiate with your Crescent Strike, and pop your Pale Cascade before taking any damage. The second shield should proc while dealing some extra damage, and your passive should take care of the rest. Use potions when necessary, and get your gold items as soon as you can to have more sustainability and some extra DPS.

After level 6, initiate a camp with Crescent Strike from a distance, then you can Lunar Rush into the big creep in the camp and follow up with Pale Cascade. This should clear camps even faster, and still allow a use of Lunar Rush if you need it. When fighting bigger minions (baron, dragon, red/blue buff), you will probably be able to use your Crescent Strike more than once, so remember to re-use it, re-proc Moonlight, and use Lunar Rush again for fast clearing.

When ganking, remember to have your passive procced and ready to deal extra damage, typically you should land a Crescent Strike, Lunar Rush towards them, use Pale Cascade, and repeat. If they are escaping from you, you can then use Moonfall to pull the back in and continue your hurt.



There are two ways you can approach a Teamfight, and they are typically split into 2 parts of a match if you follow this build.

Early-Mid Game: In the early / mid game, you'll still be quite vulnerable to damage, and throughout the game you'll be vulnerable to CC. At this stage of the game, you are a typical AP carry that tries to avoid damage while dealing as much of it as you can. Try to reposition yourself to get advantageous positions after using a Lunar Rush, soak up damage with Pale Cascade and only use Moonfall when you know you can secure the kill for your team. Poking with Crescent Strike from afar does a lot of damage early-mid game since you max it first too, so that is typically your best bet.

Mid-Late Game: At this stage of the game, you will have gotten some sustainability, and be able to take a bunch of hits. While I don't advise initiating all of the time, you are a heavy bruiser in a teamfight that can soak a lot of damage for your team. Use your Zhonya's Hourglass to stay alive in the midst of combat while waiting for your cooldowns to refresh. Use Lunar Rush to your team's advantage by sniping the squishier carries on their team since you are so mobile with your ultimate. And always remember to continue using Pale Cascade in a teamfight to deal that extra damage and take more too. It's no use off cooldown in a teamfight.

Thanks for Reading!

I hope to add some images or videos to the guide for clarity, and I will answer any questions you have. I hope everything is clear and you enjoy your time play Diana.

See you on Summoner's Rift!

~ Tsusho

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.