Diana is one of the most fun AP carries in the game. Her Crescent Strike is a unique curving skillshot; her Pale Cascade can be used to trade and jungle; her Moonfall is like a mini Command: Shockwave and her Lunar Rush is a long distance gap closer (and KS tool...). Her full combo is devastating to enemy squishes and can easily one shot them with the right build.

I am currently seeing many Diana players rushing Nashor's Tooth and Malady. While these will proc your passive more, they are not optimal. In my opinion building AP with a Lich Bane just gives you more burst and survivability overall on top of a stronger Moonsilver Blade.

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Pros + Insane amount of burst if you hit your Q + AoE pull in and Slow + DOUBLE shield + Quick clear time + Post 6 kill potential very high + Low cooldowns

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Cons - Missing your Q is punishing - Early rank Moonfall cooldown is very high - Cannot jungle without blue - low invasion resilience - Pre 6 ganks are meh - Mana issues without RoA

Thanks to jhoijhoi for her awesome guide template which you can find here

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: More AP = simply more damage. You could swap these out for Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed if you desire
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: This gives you around 9ish magic pen which should be enough early on until you get your Sorcerer's Shoes
  For jungling you want Greater Mark of Attack Speed to proc your passive more
  
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: Cooldowns = more crescent strikes and more lunar dashes. Lessens the waiting time in between combos.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: These scale really well and equals greater seal of replenishment by level 6 allowing you to live without the blue buff.
  For jungling you want the standard Greater Seal of Armor for the armor against camps

Note for jungling to replace 9 in Utility for 9 in Defense picking up Summoner's Resolve , Tough Skin , Resistance , Hardiness and Bladed Armor

I found going down 21 in the AP side of the Offense tree is really the only way to go with any AP carry. The 9 in utility gives you a mana increase, a 15 second cooldown reduction on Flash, increased buff duration for blue and the all important 2% MS buff that could save your life.

However against an aggressive laner such as Pantheon you could swap out utility for defence.

• : The only viable starting route nowadays. Mobility is one of the most important stats in League of Legends. It allows you to escape a gank, catch up to a opponent and roam around the map without losing too much creep score.
  
• Catalyst the protector: Mana, health and constantly replenishes both. A great item for the lane and jungle.
  
• : Rush this item to get it to it's full potential as soon as possible. This item gives you AP, mana and most importantly, because you are melee and will be diving into the enemy team to instagibb their Kog'Maw, survivability. Now you may be asking, why not get Rylai's Crystal Scepter instead? Compliments of "Vulpes Zerda" here is the maths:
  
  Basic stat cost
  AP = 20 gold
  Healh = 2,6
  Mana = 2
  
  Rylai
  Cost = 3105
  Stat cost = 2900
  Slowing component costs 205.
  
  RoA
  Cost = 3035
  Stat cost (initial) = 3420
  Stat cost (after full growth) = 4808
  Stat cost on manaless champions (full growth) = 3238
  
  TL;DR RoA is more cost effective than Rylai's Crystal Scepter even without charging.
  
  You can find the post here
  
• : Here is the centerpiece of this build. Lich Bane offers so much in terms of burst damage along with movement speed. Stack this on top of your passive and their AD carry will be crying as they watch their death timer slowly tick down.
  
• : Swap out your Boots 1 for Boots 2 around this point. You didn't really need them because you already had Lunar Rush to gapclose, but the magic penetration is starting to be needed.
  
• : At this point I get a Nashor's Tooth. As said before this procs your passive more, increases Lich Bane damage with its' AP and also gives a whopping 25% CDR. I usually purchase the Stinger part first but that is my opinion.
  
• : Icing on the cake. This brings Diana's AP to around 550.
  
  This means that Crescent Strike will be doing 700 damage; Pale Cascade will do 200 damage per orb (600 total) and Lunar Rush will do 550 damage (1010 total). Also don't forgot that Lich Bane procs for 550 physical damage and your Moonsilver Blade will do 620 damage.
  
  A full Q-R-W-Lich Bane-R-Passive combo will do 700 + 600 + 1010 + 550 + 620 = 3480 Damage!
  Factoring in resists which would approximately half that it still does 1740 damage which, in the words of Phreak is "Tonnes of Damage"
  
• The last item is your own choice. Remember to build according to the progress of the game and your opponents' damage sources.

Ignite: Great for increasing your kill chance in lane.

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Smite: Replace with Ignite when jungling. Remember to time for the killing blow.

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Flash: The best escape spell in the game. A must take.

Burst Combo: This is your primary combo to instagibb carries.
Crescent Strike -> Lunar Rush -> Pale Cascade -> Lunar Rush

Finishing Combo: This is used to kill escaping enemies that are out of reach of your Crescent Strike
Lunar Rush -> Pale Cascade -> Crescent Strike

Sustain Combo: This is what you use against tankier enemies
Crescent Strike -> Lunar Rush -> Pale Cascade wait until Crescent Strike is active again and repeat. Never let your Lunar Rush go on cooldown.

Remember to weave autoattacks in between abilities to proc your Lich Bane and your Moonsilver Blade.

Your skill order is the same except you take a point in Pale Cascade first. Take Boots and 3x Health Potion

1. Wolves - Turn on your Pale Cascade and start attacking them. Use your W when possible. Get your mid lane to damage them (autoattack from a range) but be sure they don't leash it and cause the wolves to go run around erratically.

2. Blue buff - Get mid to autoattack it once and walk away. Continue to attack it and spam Pale Cascade when possible. Smite when low enough to finish it off. Level your Crescent Strike

3. Wraiths - Spam attacks Pale Cascade and Crescent Strike until they are dead.

4. Red buff - Same as above. Level your Crescent Strike again.

5. Golems - Same as above. Smite if its up, if not save it for wraiths.

6. Wraiths - Smite the big one if you have it and finish off the rest. Take a point in Moonfall so you have an opportunity to gank.

You now have 3 options:
a) Recall
b) Continue jungling
c} Go gank

Remember that your pre-six ganks are not very good. Your dueling is also very bad before level 6 so don't pick fights with enemy junglers such as Lee Sin or Dr. Mundo. Post 6 Diana is however a completely different story. Ganking lanes should be a million times easier with a double dash in Lunar Rush and dueling against other junglers should result in them being bursted down.

Lastly always always always Smite Dragon and Baron Nashor. Not doing so could result in it being stolen.

As an AP Assassin your duty is too kill their highest damage dealing character. This is usually their AD or sometimes AP carry. Your job is a whole lot easier due to your dash allowing you to bypass the opposing teams' pesky Olaf, Dr. Mundo or Shyvana

Who could your target be?
AD carries:
Kog'Maw
Corki
Ashe
Vayne
Graves
Varus
Draven
etc.

AP carries:
Karthus
Morgana
Zyra
Diana
Ahri
etc.

Anyone who is squishy and does damage is your target.

Hitting your Crescent Strike is essential to burst them down. Follow up with your main damage combo. Your Rod of Ages should make you tanky enough to survive. If you get killed after you kill their carry then you have already done your job and eliminated a higher DPS target than you. However if not, turn on the next priority target and so on. Keep in mind that with Diana you will be getting a lot of killing sprees. It isn't worth it to die to a 0/11/5 Tristana in exchange for your 600g streak.

Although your ult can be easily used to kill secure, its not worth it if the target isn't affected by moonlight and Lunar Rush goes on cooldown. You never know when you'll need it.

That concludes my first MOBAfire guide on Diana. Remember to upvote the guide if you liked it and leave a comment for some constructive feedback.

Captain Asia