Diana General Guide by Jairus

Introduction

Hi, I'm Gunn and this is my guide to Diana. This is my first guide. I have had a lot of success playing an attack speed Diana, and haven't seen any guides really representing it. I felt like someone needed to get this build out there.


Legend (for any terms/abbreviations you may not know)

Pros / Cons

Pros

• Good Damage Diana has both a great burst of damage from her abilities as well as solid sustained damage, thanks to her passive. Diana eats carries alive. If done properly they are often dead before they can react.
• Great Gap Close With Lunar Rush Diana can close the gap to her victim with ease. Once she does, it is very tough to escape her thanks to Moonfall, as well as the fact that she can immediately ult again.
• Tanky for a high damage AP Diana is fairly durable for the damage she puts out. Pale Cascade gives her that extra protection that similar characters are missing. Katarina is a perfect example.

Cons

• Range Diana is a melee champion and will primarily be facing ranged champions in the mid lane. This will affect you both in laning and team fights. The biggest challenge laning will be getting your farm without taking damage, and in team fights you have to get right in the mix to do your damage, where champs Like Brand or Lux can stay on the outside and chip away.
• No Escape Due to the fact that Diana has to get in the mix to do her damage, you will often find yourself wishing you had some way out. Well you don't. Sometimes if you are lucky you can ult to and enemies minion for a get away, but don't count on it. Despite her great gap close, she lacks any real form of escape.
• Weak until 6 Not going to get too many kills before she gets her ult. As long as you don't die or lose the cs battle, consider it a win.

Summoner Spells

Flash is a must have, but if you wanted to swap out Exhaust that's fine. I like exhaust because taking away damage from an enemy for a couple seconds will often make all the difference. Diana struggles 1v1 against bruisers like Darius or Garen. Exausting them will often buy you enough time for that extra burst of abilities that finish them off.
Ignite seems to be a popular choice. I don't use it because people don't often get away from me. Ghost is a great option for Diana, especially if you see yourself doing a lot of ganking. Also great for chasing down an enemy or getting out of dodge when you need to.
Teleport is another solid option. Great for helping other lanes or getting back to the fight in case of death or having to go back to altar for health or mana.

Spells

Moonsilver Blade
Dianas Passive, and the center of this build. Late game every third attack will be dealing over 600 damage, and the passive will activate roughly once every 2 seconds. This gives Diana solid sustained damage which compliments her burst nicely.

Crescent Strike
Diana's ranged/harass ability. This is not a difficult ability to land, but it may take some getting used to in order to land it consistantly. Hitting it is vital to your kill sequence. You don't want to ult in on someone unless they are afflicted by moonlight, and this ability is how you do that.

Pale Cascade
This is Diana's most underappreciated ability, and I think it his probably her best (aside from her ult, of course. There's a reason they're called ultimates.). Hitting all 3 orbs will deal about the same amount of damage as Crescent Strike, and the shield it provides is amazing. the fact that the shield refreshes if all orbs detonate is just icing on the cake.

Moonfall
Diana's only form of cc. Mostly used to pull escaping enemies back to you, but it's also great for pulling a number of surrounding units into your pale cascade. Fair warning though, when you do this they will most likely turn and focus you. So make sure they are on the low end of their health before you go attracting all that attention.

Lunar Rush
Great gap closer and decent damage, but the real kicker with this one is that it potentially has no cooldown (or rather the same cooldown as crescent strike.) This ability absolutely makes Diana what she is.

Skill Sequence

Diana only really has 1 skill sequence. The Kill Sequence.

Step 1: Hit enemy with Crescent Strike
Step 2: Ult in on enemy with Lunar Rush
Step 3: Auto attack and activate Pale Cascade
Step 4: If enemy tries to run, pull them back in with Moonfall
Step 5: If enemy is still alive when Crescent Strike is ready to cast again, hit them with it again, then ult them again. Activate pale cascade as soon as it is ready again as well.
Step 6: Repeat step 5 until dead. If your enemy is escaping, you can ult them before Crescent Strike has cooled down.

Items

Doran's Ring: Pretty straightforward starting item. Health and AP are nice and the Mana Regen is essential.

Sorcerer's Shoes: You didn't really need me to tell you to get these did you? Maybe you were thinking attack speed Diana would have Berserker's Greaves, you will have enough attack speed with Nashor's Tooth and Malady. Stick with the Sorcerer's Shoes.

Nashor's Tooth: Mediocre ability power, but this item is really for the CDR and the Attack Speed. Attack speed makes you hit your passive 1 or 2 more times in a battle, which will have a large impact. Also the 20% CDR will often allow you to use your Crescent Strike and Pale Cascade an additional time per battle.

Rabadon's Deathcap: Still love me some AP

Malady: This item makes your passive truly deadly. If your opponent survives your initial burst, this gives you the sustained damage to finish the job. This is something most AP characters are lacking. Oh yeah, it also shreds your opponents magic resist, deals 10% of your AP as damage per attack, and it's cheap.

Abyssal Mask: Whenever I switch an item out of my build, this is usually the first to go. The magic resist is good if the enemy is doing a lot of magic damage. Also good if enemy team has a lot of MR. With this item added to the rest of your build, you can negate up to 71 magic resist. (not including the 8% mp from your masteries) If the enemy isn't doing a lot of magic damage you can do without this item though.

Zhonya's Hourglass: Great Armor AP item. 120 AP, 50 armor and stasis passive make a truly awesome item. Enough said.

If the enemy team is one dimensional, and you don't feel the need for either armor or magic resist, (or if you just aren't being focused and prefer more damage over defense) I would substitute for one or two of the following items.

Lich Bane: If you're looking for extra damage, this item synergizes with Diana very well. May take a little getting used to, as with Diana the instinct is to hit the enemy with all your abilities in one instant. To maximize the effect of this item, once you ult in on someone wait for Lich Bane to cooldown before activating your Pale Cascade, then wait for it to cooldown again before activating Moonfall. (If you can. Don't let someone get away trying to maximize Lich Banes passive)

Rod of Ages: I recommend this item as a substitute to abyssal sceptor if you are against an ad heavy team. The health is more valuable than the Magic Resist in this case. I would recommend taking this earlier in your build than you would Abyssal Sceptor to give The passive time to reach full potential.

Void Staff: if you're up against a very Magic Resist heavy team and need the extra Magic Penetration. Pretty rare that I use this one. Only if the team has multiple tanks or one tank that is really causing problems. Even then only use it if they are primarily ad, otherwise Abyssal Sceptor has Magic Resist and still lowers enemies MR.

Gameplay

Early Game

Early on Diana is a little tricky to play. She will most likely be outranged mid. So while your enemy can sit back and safely farm, you have to get right up on the minions subjecting yourself to more damage. The trick is to keep moving, and last hit the minions, while keeping an eye on your enemy.

Do your best do dodge their abilities and stay outside their range. If you feel you're about to be hit pop your Pale Cascade to avoid some or all of the damage. If they start to get close hit them with a Crescent Strike. if they really come in either fall back to turret or come back at them activating your shield and attacking them. (hopefully with your passive) Which strategy you employ depends largely on the enemy champion and the situation.

Basically you want to chip away at the enemy whenever you can, but the main focus is getting your cs. do what you can to disrupt the enemies cs, but try to conserve your mana. Diana runs out easy early game.

It is vital that Diana gets the Blue buff. Diana is one of very few mid lane champions that can solo the blue golem at level 6 (though a little help doesn't hurt). Take advantage of this. Diana can be mana starved and will greatly benefit from the extra CDR. I really like to steal the enemies blue buff whenever possible.

Mid Game

As long as you play well, 1 of 2 things will usually happen when you hit 6. You will either start killing your enemy or he will go into defensive mode and hang by turret. You gain a big advantage over many champions with Lunar Rush but this doesn't mean you can play recklessly. You still have to pick your moment and hit your Crescent Strike, but once you do, swarm.

Little trick I picked up from my brother in law: If you narrowly miss with your crescent strike but hit a nearby minion, quickly ult to that minion. This usually catches your enemy off guard and you can hit them with Pale Cascade and a few good auto attacks. I don't usually try to kill with this unless they are already low, but it makes for some easy damage.

Now if your enemy starts hanging at turret and playing defense, push your lane and start ganking your other lanes or help your jungler do some counter jungling.

Important: Just because you aren't in your lane doens't mean you're not responsible for it. Keep your eye on the mini map and if you can't see your enemy call out your mias. Also don't get so caught up in your ganking that you let your turret take damage. make sure you check in and push your lane back regularly.

Late Game/Team Fights

Diana's main objective is to isolate and destroy the enemy carries. Thought it is easier said than done. Harass with your crescent strike until you see your opening. Be warned, if you do this too early in a team fight, you will be focused and destroyed. Do it too late and you let their carry hurt your team. Picking your moment is key.

If you are with a good team and they can separate the enemy, well that just makes your job easy. AD Carries should be your priority, but if you have an easy shot at the ap carry you can kill them just as quick. If you see a bruiser like Renekton below half health go for that as well. You are an assassin. If you see someone your burst will kill or almost kill, go for it. But don't jump in on a full health Olaf. That won't end well.

A nice bonus to Attack Speed Diana is that you go through turrets MUCH faster than a straight AP Diana, so get in there and help your AD champs take them down. You will be surprised how fast they drop.

Opponents

If you want to know who any champion is strong or weak against, I recommend lolcounter.com. Any specifics I would give would come from that website so I will cut myself out as the middle man.

In general Diana does well against ranged AP champions ( Ahri, Veigar, Ziggs, etc.) once she gets her ult. Until then you should be cautious

I typically have trouble with ad champions that go mid. Specifically Jayce and Talon.

Elise in particular, is really tough against Diana. Her spider can get you at turret, and if you go out to engage her you will lose. A decent Elise will deprive you of your farm, and even once you get your ult she is very tough to beat. Best suggestion is to either switch lanes immediately, or feel out the skill level of your opponent then switch if necessary.