This is a basic guide to help anyone that is trying to jungle Diana. She has good clear speeds, good dueling, and is very fun to play. In a world dominated by bruisers, Diana is a solid AP alternative in the jungle. She is a strong early game champion with great burst damage and mobility while offering a small amount of CC.




AP champions are typically not very popular in the jungle, with tanks and bruisers being favoured in the current meta. Diana is one of the few AP champions that can jungle and still hold their own versus strong enemy junglers. Diana works best when you focus on farming, as her pressure early on in the game is quite weak due to an unreliable form of CC and fairly low burst damage. Once she hits 6 she can be much more impactful, and her engages in team fights can be extremely critical with a good R -> E -> Zonhya's combo.

Riot's Description:

Diana’s high area of effect damage and defensive abilities make her an ideal jungler. Pale Cascade creates three orbiting spheres that detonate and deal damage to any enemy that comes close, while protecting her with a shield that absorbs any incoming damage. If all three orbs are detonated, the shield effect is refreshed, allowing her to absorb even more punishment. This destructive shield, combined with a cleaving attack from her passive, Moonsilver Blade, helps her deal out significant damage to multiple targets as she quickly tears through jungle camps.

Pros

Fast clear speed

Doesn't get bullied despite being AP

Great engage tool with R -> E combo

Cons

Blue dependent early game

Is not a tank

weak ganks until level 6

Jungle routes

Path 1:

Path:

Blue -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Mini Golems -> Red -> Wraiths -> Gank or continue farming
Skill Build: W->Q->W->E

Diana's early ganking is pretty abysmal as she has no way to close in to the enemy targets. She can glue on to them quite nicely however with her E and Red buff, but she will realistically not do anything more than blow a flash early. Blowing flashes is definitely a good thing and well worth your time, especially if you can return later and kill them when their flash is down, but there are multiple champions that would be able to secure a kill the first time around. Farming is always a good choice on Diana, so long as your lanes aren't getting destroyed.

Path 2:

Path:

Ancient Golem -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Lizard Elder -> Gank Mid -> Wraiths

Skill Build: W->Q->E

With this path, you'll get level 3 as early as possible. With double buffs and a point in your each skill, you are able to gank very efficiently. However if there is no gank opportunity soon, skill W as your third point and continue to farm and skill Moonfall at level 4.

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Early Game

In the early game, you want to focus on farming your jungle until level 3 or 4. I suggest using one of the routes above. Always make sure to look for opportunities to gank and gank the lanes that need it most. Lanes that have opportunities to gank are lanes that are pushed towards your side, have summoner spells on cooldown, and your laners have sufficient resources (HP, mana, cooldowns) to follow up on your gank. Lanes that need ganks are lanes that are behind either from the lane match up, or assistance or level one fights in the enemies favour. Don't worry if you're unable to get good ganks off in the early game - that is not Diana's strong point. Farming the jungle is an effective use of your time if you feel as though there is nothing else for you to do. Look at Tactics section for how to gank efficiently. Counter jungling is not the best option for Diana either as she has no escapes, but can at least check bushes (read the Tactics section for counter jungling info). In addition, if one of your laners require you to hold the lane while they back, do so as well. You also want to control both your blue and red buffs, as well as the enemies. Timing the respawn time or knowing the general respawn time of these buffs are crucial for doing so. Control of Dragon also becomes a big factor and whenever your team has a safe opportunity to do so, you should take it. Oracles is also a great buy early game, especially if you get ahead and have Mobility Boots. Being able to deny the enemy vision allows you to do much more over the map, such as sneak dragons, gank, and counter jungle safely.

Mid Game

The mid game is quite similar to the early game. However at this point, you are farming less, and you have to be in position to gank and contest Red and Blue buffs, Dragon, and Baron. The same things you do to control those, applies in the mid game, time the respawn of the neutral objectives and buy wards to make the job safer. The power of Oracles persist in the mid game.

Late Game

The way you play late game depends on how you've built. If you have a large number of AP items, you should focus on hitting the carries with your Q-R-W-E combo and bursting them down. If you're more tank orientated, you can do the same but be more brash about it, or you can attempt to peel alongside your own carries. One thing that you should be doing (as long as you have your Zhonya's) is looking for mini engages. Diana's R-E combo is like an easily controlled mini Orianna Ult, look to catch as many people as possible in your E and then use your Zhonya's to allow your team time to follow in before you're immediately bursted down.

Counter Jungling

Diana can be a safe counter jungler to an extent, since Crescent Strike has a fairly low cooldown, and you use that to check bushes. When counter jungling, you must be aware of where the enemy jungler was last seen, and the status of your lanes. If creep waves is pushed towards your side, it is more likely you can caught in the enemy jungle. You should almost never attempt to counter jungle if you do not have an idea where the enemy jungler is and if there is a ward where you walk through to get into their jungle.

Team Fighting

In team fights, your primary goal to tank damage and be as disruptive as possible. Pretty much, your one and only job is to Lunar Rush then use Moonfall to pull as many people as possible to initiate a GOOD fight for your team. A GOOD fight for your team is when your team is both in position to follow up, and have the proper cooldowns (i.e ultimates, flash) to follow up. Afterwards, just try to do as much damage as possible while staying alive and being disruptive.

How to Jungle Efficiently

Jungle efficiently with Diana is pretty straight forward. With blue buff you can spam your abilities, but without blue you can simply use W and rely on your Passive to clear in good time. If you have a decent amount of mana you can also throw in some Qs, but don't do this if you're mana pool is on the low side. Don't use Pale Cascade before you draw aggro, or you should will reset before it takes the max possible damage it can.

How to Gank Efficiently

Pre-Level 6:

When ganking try to come in from a good angle behind them. Walk up and hit them with your skills and apply red buff while side stepping. Use Moonfall to draw them back towards you when they are running away from you, don't use it when they are running towards you, or beside you, you won't be making good use of it then.

Post-Level 6:

Now you want to hit Crescent Strike then Lunar Rush. If you aren't able to do that, you can do that on a creep and get in closer range, then continue ganking as it it was a pre-6 gank.