Welcome to my Diana guide! I hope you find this useful to learn and master Diana. Diana is a well rounded character with a lot of potential for engaging team fights by melting the backline and assassinating weak targets (such as the ADC). I usually play mid characters and Diana is definitely one of my favorite due to her burst potential, mobility, and deceptive durability.

IF THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS GUIDE, LET ME KNOW SO I CAN FIX IT.(:

Pros

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Good poke in lane
Good at zoning and harrassing, and thus good farm
Good assassin
Melts backline in teamfights
Tankier than most mid characters
Scales well into late game
Short ult cooldown
Aoe damage

Cons

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No hard cc
Melee character (easy to harass unless you can zone correctly)
Hard to escape ganks without ult Lunar Rush or Flash
All or nothing in teamfights (failure=certain death)
Low early sustain without potions

Diana has many skills that most other mid-laners do not possess. First of all, her ult, Lunar Rush, can position you extremely well in teamfights or even if you just want to burst an enemy. Also, her W Pale Cascade gives you damage mitigation from minions and champions alike. It also allows you to turret-dive safely. Her Q Crescent Strike is my favorite thing about Diana. It is a great poking tool throughout the game and your initiator mid-late game. Finally, her E, Moonfall, is an aoe slow which you can use to secure a kill, stop an enemy from running to safety, or even cancel a channeled spell or ultimate like Katarina's Death Lotus, Fiddlesticks' Bountiful Harvest or Crowstorm windup, or Karthus' Requiem. She has an outstanding burst with her skill chain, which I will talk about later.

Marks:

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For marks I would always take Greater Mark of Magic Penetrationx9 because it allows for more efficient magic damage all round, and allows you to be a threat to tanks as well.

Seals:

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Greater Seal of Armorx9 is a must in any situation. It mitigates the damage from ranged champs' auto-attack harass early game, minions, and towers. Also in mid or late game you will be taking damage from the adc and the other champions as well, so it's always helpful to bring along.

Glyphs

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Now for glyphs I would take Greater Glyph of Ability Powerx4 and Greater Glyph of Magic Resistx5 because if you're laning you want to mitigate damage from the opposing mid laner for safer farm while also having the few points of ability power you need to finish enemies with bursts.


Optional:
If you are against an AD mid laner you could either go all 9 Greater Glyph of Ability Power for more damage and more successful bursts or 5 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist instead of Greater Glyph of Magic Resist if they have an AP top like Teemo or an AP jungler like Evelynn, Elise, Shaco, Fiddlesticks, or Gragas because you won't need the magic resist until later in the game.

Quintessences

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The three quintessences I would take would be straight Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for obvious reasons: more damage. Yay!

I would definitely take Ignite and Flash for most cases.

Ignite allows you to finish off enemies early game if you didn't successfully burst them initially and it also reduces healing which is nice if you want to reduce heals like Dr. Mundo's Maximum Dosage, Soraka's Astral Blessing, Fiddlesticks' Bountiful Harvest, or Nidalee's Primal Surge. It will take timing and skill to know when to use ignite to stop these abilities because some of them are unpredictable. But generally, you want to use it on Dr. Mundo when he activates his ultimate, on Soraka or the adc when you initiate the burst, or Fiddlesticks when he starts his Bountiful Harvest, though if ignite is down you can just use Moonfall to cancel Bountiful Harvest.

Flash is necessary on almost all champions and scenarios at the moment. You can use it to escape, engage, close the gap, and kite. You can use it in sync with Ignite to earn early-game kills by getting the one extra auto-attack (keep in mind, this auto attack could be the one that procs Moonsilver Blade to do extra damage if you time it right)

Optional:

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You can take exhaust if you're against someone with no escape ability, such as Karthus or Malzahar. With Exhaust you can usually get in a few extra auto-attacks and an extra Moonsilver Blade proc, though I'd still usually take ignite. With Exhaust you can also prevent jungle ganks by using it and running away. Lastly, you can use it to completely cripple the enemy adc's damage during teamfights or ganks.



This is extremely situational. You would want this when laning against an all-in champion with a lot of burst like Katarina. Otherwise, you already have a shield so I wouldn't bother.



This can be useful if you want to roam more efficiently to gank or cover lanes. Or if you want to get back to lane faster.

It is still probably best to stick with Ignite and Flash.

The spell we want to max first is Lunar Rush because it drastically increases its base damage and reduces its cooldown. Extremely helpful; your highest damaging spell AND you can cast it twice in a row with a successful Crescent Strike.

The second thing to max is Crescent Strike. Not only does it reduce its cooldown to a stupid amount at max rank, but it scales beautifully. (60/95/130/165/200)PLUS 70% AP. That means at level one, it should deal 95 base damage with Doran's Ring.
Remember this is the spell you want to initiate with, because it marks the effect moonlight, which is great for a couple of reasons.

First, it allows your ult Lunar Rush not to trigger a cooldown when used on an enemy afflicted with it.

Second, it can be used to check for enemies in brush or behind a wall since it reveals them.

Third, you can use it to illuminate an enemy monster in the jungle when trying to escape. Use Crescent Strike on a camp, then Lunar Rush away from pursuers.

When you use Crescent Strike to poke enemy champions in lane, it is likely that you will hit enemy minions as well, earning you easy farm.

Using Crescent Strike correctly will allow you to hit all 6 minions in a normal minion wave at once.

The third spell we want to max is Pale Cascade. Not only will it do more damage, but it will increase the shield as well. Even though upgrading Pale Cascade doesn't reduce its cooldown, the cooldown is already generally low at 10 seconds base.

The reason we want to max Moonfall last is because it doesn't increase the time of the slow, it only increases the effectiveness slightly (35/40/45/50/55%) which is not noteworthy enough to make it feasible. Plus the interrupt effect for channels is accessible at rank one.

Skill Chain

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Diana has such a great burst, and all of her spells can be used in a small amount of time.

First, auto attack twice so that your Moonsilver Blade is ready on the first attack.

Then:

+ Auto-attacks and if necessary.

All the while Moonsilver Blade and Lich Bane should have been procced once or twice during the burst depending on how long the poor lad lasts. Crescent Strike should be up again if the enemy survived your burst while they run away. Use it and Ignite to finish them off.

You can use Lunar Rush twice if you land Crescent Strike. Just remember you will incur a relatively long cooldown after you have used it for the second time.
Only engage with Lunar Rush if Crescent Strike hits the enemy you want to burst! Otherwise you will deal significantly less damage and most likely will not kill the enemy.

Also, if you are convinced your second Lunar Rush won't finish an enemy because they have a good escape spell like Flash, Shunpo, or Rocket Jump, use the second Lunar Rush AFTER they use that escape spell, then use Moonfall to further hinder their escape.

Most enemies would be smart (or dumb) enough not to try to fight you because of your shield from Pale Cascade. If you burst correctly, Diana is one of the scariest champions on the field.

You can use Crescent Strike to farm efficiently if you must, but most of your farm can easily come from Moonsilver Blade and Lich Bane. Pale Cascade is also a great minion-clearing tool.

Here is a list of common enemy mid-laners and the difficulty of laning against them with Diana on a scale of 1-10 with explanations:



6. Nidalee is hard to lane against as Diana because she has moderately better sustain than you, she has crazy poke, and her ult's W Pounce makes her hard to burst. Also, she can regenerate your pokes with Primal Surge. The good thing is she has less farming efficiency as you, so the best thing to do is stick with/behind your minions and just farm, poking when possible (although she will be auto attacking you if you come close to your minions, just try to zone her with Crescent Strike). If she gets low enough from your pokes, you can probably burst her down, just remember to ignite early so her Primal Surge is crippled. Once she gets her ult, it will become difficult to burst her. If you get caught out from your minions use Pale Cascade to mitigate some damage from Javelin Toss.



2. Karthus is quite easy to lane against, but you need to be careful of his Lay Waste bombs. To farm safely, you may need to float around your lane waiting for an enemy minion to become low enough for a single auto attack, using Crescent Strike when necessary to poke or get a few minions at once. Not to mention he's incredible easy to burst (especially early game) and the only thing that he can use to escape is Wall of Pain, which won't be helpful to him because your Lunar Rush automatically teleports to the enemy. Also, when he casts his ult, Requiem, you can use Pale Cascade to soak some of the damage. It may be smart to use it near enemy minions so that all three orbs explode and you gain a larger shield. If Karthus casts Requiem while alive, you may also cancel it with Moonfall.



6. Katarina has infinite sustain because she doesn't have any type of energy output and she makes more successful trades than you. Also, she can dodge your poke or escape your burst with Shunpo. The best thing about laning against her though is that you can cancel Death Lotus with Moonfall. Just stick with minions and poke her as much as you can, while using Pale Cascade to absorb damage from Bouncing Blades. Before she has her ult, she may try to burst you. Just attack her back and don't forget to use Moonfall. You should make a better trade, although you may have mana issues while laning against her.



7. Yasuo can be complicated because he can absorb damage from your poke with Way of the Wanderer. He may also even block your Crescent Strike with Wind Wall. You have to be careful while laning against him because his poke is more frequent than yours and he can easily chase you down. He also has no energy/mana, which means he has infinite sustain as well. The best thing to do is float around and use Crescent Strike to farm. He should be up against his minions so he should be caught in the blast as well.



4. Kassadin can be a nightmare for mid laners but Diana is a pretty good counter for him. Since you are both melee range champs, you should be able to zone him very easily. Just be careful when he has Nether Blade up because he can sometimes make better trades than you unless you watch your Moonsilver Blade stacks. I can't stress the idea enough that you MUST signal MIA very soon if he left lane. If he gets fed, you won't be able to fight him because you have no hard cc and he has an easy escape with Riftwalk, which he can also use to escape your burst. Just use your second Lunar Rush after he uses Riftwalk.

Starting Items:

x2

This setup is the most common for AP mid laners at the moment. If you are against a champion with infinite sustain, you may want to take the following instead:

x2

This will allow you to stay in lane longer and keep your health up as well.

If you are laning against an AD champ like Riven or Yasuo, then you can take this instead for early defense, though I still prefer to take a Doran's Ring:

x3

First Back

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+ resupply on Health Potions and Mana Potions if needed.

This will give you more sustain and help you maneuver easier.

Rush

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You should be able to get this shortly after level 6. You may already have a kill by this point too, but this is when Diana gets scary. It amplifies your burst immensely. After you get this, if you get fed, get an early Needlessly Large Rod to snowball even more. I usually take Rabadon's Deathcap with it but if you need armor get a Zhonya's Hourglass (I recommend getting this item later anyway) or if you usually want to burst a single person you may get Deathfire Grasp.

If you don't get fed early upgrade your boots to Sorcerer's Shoes and save up for a Blasting Wand. Then build a Rabadon's Deathcap.

Finish upgrading your boots before building any core item after Lich Bane anyway!

Situational

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Though you will still always want to get Lich Bane first, in some cases you may need to build other items after that instead of straight damage. For example, if the enemy mid laner is fed early you may want to consider getting armor or magic resist. You don't need to build the full items, just sufficient enough that you won't have many problems with dying easily. You also might want to build boots right after if the enemy jungler ganks a lot.

General Build

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This will not be the perfect build for every game, but it should be good for MOST games with Diana. It is balanced between defense with armor from Zhonya's Hourglass and the health from Rylai's Crystal Scepter and damage with the other items. Plus, with so much AP, your shield from Pale Cascade is much higher. You should be able to assassinate any enemy in the game efficiently with this build, unless they have a good amount of magic resist and survivability.

After full build

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Don't forget to upgrade your trinket like I always do, get an enchantment on your boots (whichever you prefer, I prefer Homeguard or Furor), and make sure you always have the two elixirs active when you return to base; you have nothing better to spend your money on anyway. Also don't forget to try to have blue buff and red buff as much as possible.

Diana is a beast in teamfights. If you get fed enough, you may even be the initiator of them.

Basically what your goal is as Diana is to eliminate high priority targets like the ADC or the APC.

The squishier the better. Use your combo on the enemy backline and use Moonfall to allow your team to secure kills on fleeing enemies.

Diana works wonders with allies who have hard cc and/or engage techniques like Leona, Blitzcrank, Lee Sin or Thresh. While the backline is disabled, Diana can swoop in for the easy kill.

Be cautious because you may become a high priority target if you do well enough. Although Diana is quite durable, she unfortunately isn't invincible.

Thank you for reading my Diana guide, I hope it brings you joy and kills alike. She really is an incredible champion and is very fun to play with little weaknesses. Good luck out there and happy hunting!

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