HELLO

This will be the first guide I've ever made. I don't mind criticism and complaints but I hope that they also have some constructive feedback on improvements that could be made for this guide.

I'm 3Radication, Smurf is ChickenNuggetss. I play on Oceania. Personally, I think its safe to say, I've played enough Diana games to understand the basic concept of her and more advanced tricks with her as well as developing my own builds for her that are decent.

In this guide I will be discussing the 'stuff' that most people normally discuss about however, I will be focusing more on Lane Matchups. I am trying to do as many as possible a day although I don't have much time. Health right now is the current meta! Building at least one tanky item is important in nearly every build now apart from ADC, so be sure to have at least 1~2 defensive items or you're gonna explode.

Diana is a tanky mage assassin. She is fantastic at locking down and killing a single person whilst soaking in some damage herself as well as dealing AoE damage. She is not quite considered an assassin because most assassins have an escape ability which Diana lacks.


Also editing my coding. Pictures are a bit strange yes. Will be edited!! Thank you!!

Added JUNGLE BUILD too!! Will be going in-depth on items soon!! MAJOR UPDATE COMING SOON

Hello!! DPS Diana is quite strong, and the saying 'DPS' still doesn't counteract the fact that she is still extremely bursty. She seems quite item dependant as well as being easily destroyed if you don't have enough defensive items. When playing DPS Diana, it seems that you'd most likely be duelling which occurs more often early game but also you're somewhat weak early game which isn't very good. And at the same time, you're a duellist so you will fall off. DPS Diana seems most appropriate in 1v1s, Dominion and maybe Twisted Treeline. As DPS Diana, if you manage... to somehow get the full build then you'd be extremely bursty, tanky and very very dangerous. As always, I still need to try this with real people and see how well she really does. And also I must see where her item status tends to be as DPS Diana during late game. Thank you!! I will be updating this more often.

#EDIT#

With the new update coming up it seems that you will only require to rush your Nashor's Tooth. Now you can get ridiculously powerful early~mid game depending on how fast you get fed... This is gonna be a formidable build and it will probably become a main build.

#EDIT#

DPS Diana is very very weak early game if you rush your Nashor's Tooth. To stop this, you need to get your Rabadon's first for more damage and then get your Nashor's Tooth.

Pros: Great Duellist Destroys Tower Extremely Fast Build is Tanky No one WILL escape Crescent Strike Extreme Nuke Superb Snowballer WITH items

Cons: Item Dependant Vulnerable to Crowd Control Risky Build (High Risk High Reward) Easily Countered with Attack Speed Slowing Debuffs/color] Weak Early

Paramount Pros: Great Chaser Good Tower Diver with Pale Cascade Deceptively Tanky Great Burst Easy to Get Used To Crescent Strike is Hard to Predict Superb Snowballer Skills have Low Mana Cost

Catastrophic Cons: Hard to Recover from Bad Start Skill Shot is Important to Land No Proper Escape Mana Problems Early if Spamming Skills Weak Pre-6

I have chosen the following runes for the following reasons.

The Marks of Magic Penetration along with Sorceror's Shoes, Haunting Guise and Abyssal Scepter will allow you to basically deal true damage to a wider variety of midlane Champions. It also allows you to deal more damage early game.

The Seals of Scaling Mana Regen allows you to have a nice sustain early and late game. As for late game you won't be running out of mana very often late game. Also as it is scaling the more you level up, less frequently will you have mana problems early game.

The Glyphs of Magic Resist allows you to sustain damage against other AP assassins/casters who often take the middle lane. This will increase your survivability and have better trades and take less damage from early squirmishes.

The Quintessences of Ability Power provides a decent amount of Ability Power early game. This will allow you to deal a bit more damage than the usual person unless the person also has runes which is highly likely.

Other Viable Runes

Quintessence of Ability Power

This quintessence is somewhat viable but you really want that better early burst at level 6 so you can get going quicker. But these runes can be quite viable for tanky Diana as you won't be investing AS much as the normal Diana build.

Glyph of Scaling Ability Power

Personally, Glyph of Magic Resist is better because most mids are now mages/AP assassins. But, scaling ability power glyphs can be useful once again if you're going tanky Diana as you won't be investing too much on ability power. The reason Glyph of Magic Resist is more viable is because you will survive better against other AP mids and allow you to get to level 6 with more ease.

Seal of Armor

This rune can be quite viable if you're worried you may be against AD mids like Talon. I personally prefer Seal of scaling mana regen because you won't need blue buff late game so it can be given to someone who needs it more and also because there is rarely anyone that goes AD mid. Also, even if there are some AD mids, some will still deal magic damage like Kha'Zix so Glyph of Magic Resist compensates for the lack of armor and Seal of Mana Regen is far more viable.

Crescent Strike (Q)
A brief idea of Crescent Strike: Crescent Strike is a skill-shot nuke. The enemy will either be hit by the arc of the skill-shot or the place of landing. This skill is extremely important because of numerous reasons such as: Dealing very high damage late game and refreshing your R if they have been revealed by 'Moonlight' Max this first for damage output.


Pale Cascade (W)
Pale Cascade is a shield that of course, absorbs damage and also deals damage around Diana. This combos well with Diana's R. It is probably smarter to activate it after using R because it occasionally scares your targets away. It now stacks when all 3 orbs detonate!! This skill makes Diana deceptively tanky and survive little squirmishes pre-6. You can also activate it just before a skill lands (if its a slow moving skill) and thus reducing the damage you take from it. Max this second for damage output and sustainability in fights.


Moonfall (E)
Max this last. It is basically for utility and securing kills for your team. Use this if enemy is escaping or to cancel channeled spells or reveal Teemos. It has a very nice slow too. It also lets you land your third hit quite often.


Lunar Rush (R)
This skill is like Akali's but with better range, AP scaling and base damage. It refreshes if the target is afflicted with Moonlight. You can basically get a squishy to about half health after using your combo (Q->R->W->E->Passive). I can not emphasise more on why you HAVE to land your Crescent Strike before hand. If the 2nd Lunar Rush can secure a kill... Go for it! Just don't kill steal off your team mates.


Moonsilver Blade (Passive)
This skill provides you sustained burst every 3 hits and can help you last hit minions too. Often when you go in for a kill you'd have done about 2 hits before your target starts running. I'd often pull them back in and you often can land your 3rd hit because of this. While they're slowed, your Q will almost be off cooldown and you can unleash your combo again just without E or W. A good item to build on Diana if you need to duel against some other champions that are fed would be . Although I do not recommend building this too early. Only build this when you're very fed. A better alternative would be because its got better ratio than your passive and will automatically be activated after using a skill. This skill also hits turrets and inhibitors as well so once again, if you have to backdoor, a Nashor's Tooth would be useful, but you yourself is a formidable force of your team.


This pretty much sums up all of Diana's skills. I chose my skill sequence by maxing Q first because it is your harass, execution, initiator and revealer. I max W second for the nice shield and its damage. I max E last because its already got a nice base slow and still pulls them in anyways. R is of course highest priority and put a skill point in it at 6, 11 and 16. Dianas skills synergize well with each other and often it will either deal massive single target damage or secure a kill. I will discuss about Teamfights in the Teamwork section.

Also combos include:

Combo 1

-> -> -> -> -> -> Killing Combo or...

Combo 2

-> -> -> -> -> -> After the Patch 3.7, it is recommended to use Pale Cascade AFTER Lunar Rushing because it now stacks. Although you can still cast Pale Cascade a bit earlier if you are getting harassed while trying to QR.

Poke 1

for Poking Pre-6

Poke 2

--> for Poking Squishy Targets Post-6, this is a very risky poke but often, you'd scare your targets because of the damage you deal.

**EDIT**
It is now recommended to use Pale Cascade AFTER Lunar Rushing to the target because the shield will now stack and doesn't refresh.

The 'nerfs' / 'buffs' on Diana isn't very significant although the buff on Pale Cascade will now allow you to survive even better, however they have toned down some of the damage for your Pale Cascade but it should not hurt you very much because it is only a difference of 30 damage. You will still be insta-gibbing targets. The lower damage on Moonsilver Blade will be toning down your lane pushes but it isn't very significant because it is only about 5~20 lower damage. Overall I find this is actually a buff.

Flash

Ignite

I often take Flash and Ignite as my Summoner Spells as Diana because as I towerdive a lot, I may need to flash out of turret range to survive or when I only just miss out a bit of health of the target, I can ignite them, securing a kill. Flash is also useful to escape as Diana has no actual escape apart from Lunar Rushing a jungle camp across the wall which may be time consuming because Crescent Strike interrupts movement.

Other Viable Summoner Spells!

Barrier

Barrier can often save your life in sticky situations or help you in trades in lanes as well. Against champions with Damage over Time spells, Barrier can be useful. Barrier is also useful to take in some turret damage so you can survive after you turret dive.

Exhaust

Exhaust is also quite a good Summoner Spell. It is useful against attack speed. Exhaust is also useful for chasing if you have burnt your your ultimate and it is on cooldown (used it twice in other words).

Ghost

Ghost is also a viable Summoner Spell, either allowing you to run away better (thats if you aren't within range of their crowd control) or even help you chase down fleeing opponents better. This spell is somewhat viable on Diana but I still prefer Flash and Ignite. It is useful for Summoner's below level 12 (the level in which you get ignite).

Cleanse

Cleanse is also quite a viable Summoner Spell. It can get rid of exhaust, slows, stuns and many more and even ignite!! This Summoner Spell is more on the defensive side rather than the offensive side. I don't recommend getting cleanse though unless you are against a champion with a lot of crowd control.

The above is probably the Summoner Spells you may get for Diana. The ones I haven't put on often means that it probably isn't useful but if I do find it useful I will add some more onto this chapter too.

#EDIT#

Health is the current meta. IT IS NECESSARY to have at least one item that provides health. Whether it Rod of Ages/Rylai's Crystal Scepter or even a Warmogs, being tanky is important!!

sight ward

Crystalline Flask Start

This start is quite sustained and allows you to harass with your Crescent Strike and still have a decent amount of mana to get a kill by level 6. If they do not have a jungler (which is possible in Normals) you can get 2 more pots instead of a sight ward. You can get mana pots instead if you know it is someone you counter or is a squishy that you can burst down easily by 6. If you have already ran out of mana even with the Crystalline Flask and Mana pots then you either have been spamming your Q too much or engaging in squirmishes too often... So don't spam Q on minions... Only for occasional pokes.

Abyssal Scepter

I recommend this item for numerous reasons. It lowers magic resistance and along with Sorceror's Shoes and Haunting Guise (30 magic pen and you lower 20 magic resist) you'd basically be dealing true damage on your target if they have not gotten magic resist. This makes life easier for you, knowing whether or not to use the second Lunar Rush or the next Crescent Strike will execute your enemies. It also provides a nice amount of ability power and magic resistance. This will make you have a higher chance of winning trades and raise your survivability against other AP mids like Akali. Definitely a recommended item. If they don't have any AP champions(supports don't really count) you could either build a Mejai's Soulstealer or rush your Rabadon's.

Rabadon's Deathcap

This item pretty much speaks for itself. Massive ability power and you gain an additional 30% AP for your current AP which is pretty nice. Please note that firstly, it is a unique passive so therefore does not stack with itself. It is not smart to stack Rabadon's because it is quite costly and its smarter to build a Rabadon's, Deathfire Grasp and Zhonya rather than 3 Rabadons. If you do want to stack AP... you can at least stack Zhonya's because of the extra armor it provides.

Mejai's Soulstealer

For those of you that don't know. Mejai's Soulstealer is an item that grants 8 Ability Power for every stack. You gain one stack on an assist and 2 stacks on a kill. You can have a maximum of 20 stacks which is a hefty 160 Ability Power and along with its normal stats it gives 180 Ability Power!! You either get this early and make sure you snowball or not get this item at all. Also do not get this item if you know you will die a lot because you lose a third of your stacks upon death.

Lich Bane

Lich Bane is quite a good item. It provides a nice amount of mana and movement speed along with a nice amount of ability power. Its got a very good passive which is... Every time you cast a spell your next basic attack deals 50 + 75% of AP. This is very good once you have an Abyssal Scepter with a Rabadons. This item also stacks with your passive although it is rare to have your 3rd hit on the same time as you proc your Lich Bane. But if this happens it will deal massive damage. Lich Bane proc's on structures too. You can rush a Sheen but rushing a Lich Bane is stupid.

Deathfire Grasp

This item is also very good. It would be smart to use this on your opponents before hand (it deals 15% of their maximum health!) and then unleash your combo afterwards. There is many reasons for this because after you cast the spell of Deathfire Grasp it makes all magic damage on that target increase by 20%. This can either be used on the carry or you can use this on the tank to allow ease in killing the tank rapidly. Although I highly recommend using this on the carry.

Nashor's Tooth EDITED

This item is now very viable. Provides DPS, Ability Power and On Hit Ability Power. This synergizes well with both your passive and Spellsword. Each time you autoattack three times it will deal 60% of your ability power + 60% from the 3rd hit from your passive. This item is now very viable after the 3.8 PATCH.

Zhonya's Hourglass

This item is quite useful. It provides high ability power along with some armor. It is quite useful because when you go to burst the carry down the enemy team may start focusing you down but you'd have used your Zhonya's so the champions with skillshots will have wasted most of it although I discourage you being the initiator and rather get the tank to be the initiator. Otherwise follow the offtank Diana build if either your team has no tanks or you have to constantly initiate.

Void Staff

Void Staff has a nice amount of AP and a very good passive. However, the passive will only be useful if you're against champions with high magic resistance or ones that build it to counter you. But if no one is building magic resist (and I can tell you that when I play Diana in normals no one builds magic resist) then don't build Void Staff. Void Staff is gold efficient if your opponent has more than 100 magic resist.

Haunting Guise

This along with Sorceror's Shoes and Abyssal Scepter will allow you to deal your full damage on most of your opponents. The total amount of magic resist that you ignore is 30 and along with Abyssal Scepter aura they lose 20 so it adds up to 50 magic resist ignored. This item will let life become easier for you too because of the bonus health. You can build it into a Liandry's Torment for more damage as well but Liandry's Torment's passive isn't too useful on Diana because she mainly bursts her targets down but it would help with Diana's pokes and along with Rylai's, the passive doubles because the target is slowed.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is quite a viable option because of many reasons. It allows you better survivability, makes you stick to your target and provides a decent amount of Ability Power. Once you get Rylai's Crystal Scepter, you will get kills far more often and sometimes escape from sticky situations. I highly recommend this item.

Ohmwrecker

Ohmwrecker is quite a good item for Diana now. When you play Diana, you may find yourself towerdiving quite often or even, dying to turret aggro after a turret dive... Ohmwrecker is useful because of this. It also provides nice ability power, health regeneration and a decent amount of health! It is useful to buy Philosopher's Stone early for that extra gold.

Rod of Ages

This item is also very good for Diana. Rushing a Catalyst the Protector allows you to sustain your lane even with harassing opponents and also the Rod of Ages retains that passive which is good as well. Rod of Ages also gets its own thing. The Rod of Ages has base health and mana of 450 and base of 60 abiliy power. Every 1 minute you get 20 health, 20 mana and 1 ability power. This stacks to a maximum of 20 so it requires 20 minutes to finish your rod. At max stacks it provides 650 mana and health and 80 ability power. This will make you tanky as well as have a decent amount of mana so you shouldn't have mana problems. You do not lose stacks upon death which is good too.

Recommended is Green
Situational is Orange
Not Recommended is Red

Diana excels at bursting down carries out of position but is definitely not an initiator. Good initiators are tanks like Alistar and Malphite whereas Diana is deceptively tanky and can be built as an offtank but never ever initiate with her. A good Diana will not initiate but rather harass with her Crescent Strike. Also as Diana, you can duel with people easily because of your passive but even when you're fed, don't try and duel with naturally strong and tanky champions like Darius or even someone like Olaf. Diana joins into the fray after the tank has initiated or when you know its safe such as when everyone has burnt their crowd control on the tank. Diana also excels at guarding the outskirts of the teamfight so if anyone tries to escape, she will burst them down. Also, your orbs on your Pale Cascade deals area of effect damage so a smart strategy as well if people are bunched together would be to activate Pale Cascade then Q>R to a squishy then activate Zhonya's Houglass.

Also of course focus any squishies for easy kills and also make sure you do kill them if they have quite a game-changing ultimate like Sona or Nami!! Sona also can heal her whole team at the same time so make sure you either burst the supports down or the carries down then join back into the fray picking off the fighters and tanks.

A-H Matchups

Ahri

Easy-Medium

Akali

Easy-Medium

Annie

Medium-Hard

Anivia

Easy-Medium
.

Brand

Medium-Hard

Cassiopeia

Medium-Hard

Cho'Gath

Medium-Hard

Diana

Hard

Elise

Medium-Hard

Evelynn

Easy

Fiddlesticks

Easy-Medium

Fizz

Easy-Medium

Galio

Medium-Hard

Gragas

Easy-Medium

Heimerdinger

Medium-Hard

I-NMatchups

Janna

Easy-Medium

Jayce

Easy-Medium

Karma

Easy-Medium

Karthus

Easy to Medium

Kassadin

Unknown Seems HARD

Katarina

Easy as hell

Kayle

Easy - Medium

Kennen

Medium - Hard

Kha'Zix

Easy - Hard

Leblanc

Easy - Medium

Lissandra

Easy - Medium


More COMING SOON!!!!
I may have missed some champions. The ones I have missed will be the fact that they hardly ever lane at middle OR if they do lane at middle they are basically free food for you.

There are numerous ways to get out of a bad start as Diana but it is not too easy.

Offtank

Recommended if you're Dying too often. Often, building as an offtank is quite simple and increases your survivability by a lot. The difference between the 'Classic' Diana build and the 'Offtank' Diana build is you're investing mainly on healthy ability power items and ability power items with armor like Iceborn Gauntlets and Zhonya's Hourglass.

Kill Stealing

THis is not recommended. You will starve your carry or your fighters out and you might end up losing whilst you're fed. You should only get the assists unless you actually done about 3/4 of your target's health. But if your team snowballed to the point that the other team is helpless, you can go for some kills. By 'extreme' snowballing it is when you get about 30 kills by the first 20 minutes which is doubtable but has happened to me before as Riven (normals). That is the only time you should kill steal.

Ganking

Ganking is often a great solution if you know you will not get fed in your lane or you are getting denied. Example of a lane you may get denied would be against Mordekaiser. So get your jungler to hold your lane in case they push it hard and get the turrets while you gank and you yourself go gank bot/top although bot is a far better lane because of all the squishies unless top also has squishies too you may still snowball your way to victory!

Jungle Creeps

You can ask your jungler if you can go use the jungle instead of laning because you are getting denied hard by a Diana counter. This will often allow you to get back into the flow because of the high gold and experience the jungle creeps give near mid game. Also, this will allow you to gank more often because you know your jungler will be on your lane.

Those are some ways to get back into the flow if you're behind. I will make more soon.

Farming is an important part of Diana. Without much farm early game you won't be able to do much. There are a lot of things I must say about farming. Last hitting is extremely important, and Diana has one of the lowest base damages! If you're against stronger champions like Mordekaiser who counter you, you may need to farm with your Q instead... Which will result in heavy mana problems, but if you can ask for blue then that would be great. Farming with Diana is somewhat easy, the following is what your creep score is expected to be.

10 Minutes: 50~75 CS
15 Minutes: 100~125 CS

I won't be going any further because you will probably be roaming and ganking lanes. Every kill is worth about 15 Creeps and you should have 5~10 kills by 20 minutes in Normals and about 2~5 kills in ranked. So if you have the benchmark CS I have stated here, you are doing well in your farming. Do not worry too much about CS if you are against strong harassers or Diana counters like Mordekaiser.

Classic

Why did I choose these items?
Theres always a reason.

MORE COMING SOON

A quick definition of Early Game for beginners is quite typically 'The Laning Phase'. This is where you go to a lane by yourself or as a duo with a partner (SoloMid!!, please don't ever duo mid). Your goal Pre-6 as Diana is to farm as much as you can by last hitting minions. Read the above chapter for farming tips. Also another important point as playing Diana is be careful of the opposition's jungler. You will be ganked a lot if you push the lane too hard. After you're level 6, you should have gotten a kill in lane. Also, when you try to get the kill in lane, be sure their jungler is not there or if your jungler is waiting in the brush, go for the kill. You will be ganking as well after level 6. A lane that is quite suitable for ganking is bot lane unless they have disruptive supports like Alistar. Ganking top lane is really quite dependent. Often a top lane will be a tanky bruiser or other casters/assassins, if it is a tanky bruiser or someone that can 1v2 or runs away easily then I recommend you not to gank. Examples of No-Ganks that can retaliate are like Riven and Darius but they'd often run away the moment they see you coming. An Example of a person that can run away easily is Wukong. Be sure to return every time you've finished a gank. Often, the person that is laning against you will be pushing your lane very hard, thus getting a tower for their team. Be sure not to leave your lane empty!!! Also it would be nice if you had a blue buff, to continue being able to gank and not having too many mana problems.

The transition of early game to mid game is when either team has taken down one or two turrets. Basically, after they have taken these turrets, many things can happen. More ganks on that lane, or the laner of that lane will leave to gank. So mid game is basically where ganks are occurring more and more often. This is where you excel the most. You will be counterganking a lot of lanes and roaming a lot, but as the above chapter had noted, do not ever leave your lane empty. During mid game there is an exception. If the other mid has gone to roam as well then you can push that lane or leave your lane empty although pushing that lane may be a smart idea IF you have warded your lane (You should have warded both river entrances however in Normals you may not have). Also, be sure to get someone to hold your lane when you go recall/gank if the mid is still at their lane.

The transition of mid game to late game is when one of the teams has decided to group up and gank people one by one. This is often followed by the opposition doing the same and then all pushing at mid. The team who groups up first often has an advantage. Your role is to burst the carry down or any squishies like Sona. Also, your job can also be to protect the carry if your support is up in the teamfight as well. If the assassin comes to burst your carry down, you can pull them away from your carry and burst them down before they can do anything. Often, before teamfights start, you will be trying to deal as much damage as possible and if someone or anyone is out of position and a bit far from their team, you should burst them down, signalling your team to kill them too when you Lunar Rush them thus making the teamfight a 4v5 as the enemy team comes to save their ally. You are also quite useful in doing AoE damage with your Pale Cascade and often hitting the whole team with your Crescent Strike nuke. Also you will have objectives soon such as getting Baron Nashor. You will be pushing as a group of 5. Often when there is a teamfight, one team will score an ace and there will be 2~3 people surviving on the team that won the teamfight. You will often be a survivor. When you have scored an ace, you will be pushing that lane to the inhibitor. Teamfights often occur on mid and sometimes you might need to push top or bot if they haven't got the inner turrets yet. You shouldn't worry about your own lane because with my guide of course you will have dominated that lane. Be sure to roam behind the tank as a group, never go by yourself into the jungle unless its been warded.

Tips Crescent Strike into a wraith camp then using Lunar Rush is often quite useful for escaping. Smartcasting Diana's Crescent Strike is often quite useful for faster reaction time. Use Moonfall to disrupt channeled abilities, E.G Meditate or Absolute Zero. Timing Lunar Rush carefully, can allow you to dodge skillshots such as Trueshot Barrage or Final Spark When already on an opponent, always use your Crescent Strike full range so you wont miss and/or you can hit more targets. It is important to predict enemy movements because Crescent Strike is a curved skillshot and there is often a higher chance of missing but harder to dodge for enemies. Crescent Strike does not reveal stealthed units.

Tricks Crescent Strike reveals units inside brush, so its useful to use this to check for ganks. Moonfall can be used to reveal Teemos :D Pale Cascade orbs can detonate all at once if you are surrounded by people, a good way to deal tons of damage in teamfights could be to Q-R into the middle then W then Zhonya. This is very risky though. Lunar Rush is a dash not a blink, a blink is like Flash or Arcane Shift. So therefore if you Lunar Rush into a Event Horizon, this can often end up with you stunned at the location, and if you do Lunar Rush into a Veigar through Event Horizon this usually spells death. Diana's passive Moonsilver Blade works on turrets too! This allows Dianas with Nashor's Tooth to take down turrets like a Yi!

All this should help you with your journey as Diana! I will be constantly updating this and adding more and more information and will continue doing the lane matchups today also I will make the offtank parts of this guide soon!! Thank you for reading! AND REMEMBER To... Shine BRIGHT like the MOOOOONLIGHT!

-Please Read-

Adding pictures soon! (Hard to screenshot at the moment. Sorry for delay.)

Added new DPS Build, still testing, thinking whether or not if its viable.

JUNGLE BUILD COMING SOON!!!