Diana Build Guide by BroodlingX2

Introduction

I recolored Diana's splash art using GIMP. Feel free to copy the image. The resolution is pretty bad though because I grabbed it from Facebook. The original image is 1280x800 so if you want it I could find a way to send it.


Hi guys. This is a guide for Diana Mid. Use the GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS above, to get started.

Diana Is my favorite champion and I do really well with her. I have a good win ratio with this champ in ranked (65%).

Diana is a champion that I feel that I know inside and out more than any other champion in the game. Hopefully by the end of this guide, you will learn a thing or two about how to become a great Diana player.

Win Rate and Recent Games

Here is my current win rate and some of my recent games as Diana:

Pros / Cons

PROS:                                                                                CONS:                     
• lots of AOE                                                                       • sustain is an issue
• high damage output                                                          • Ult won't get reset if cc'ed mid dash
• incredible passive                                                              • cc means trouble
• good initiator after getting hourglass                                   • weak pre lv.6
• Ult can get reset if you land a Q first                                  

Summoner Spells

Main

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Flash is a must have on Diana. Diana lacks mobility at early levels, so if you get ganked, Flash can help you escape. You can also use Flash to get in range for a Crescent Strike.

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Ignite is my prefered second choice for summoner spells. It can give you the edge when going all in. If your burst damage doesn't finish off a target, Ignite increases the chances of them dying when they retreat.

Alternative

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Teleport is a good alternative to ignite, but in most cases I would take Ignite over Teleport. If you happen to take this spell, you can make some interesting plays after reaching lv.6. Just teleport to a ward near the bot lane if you see them overextended.

Runes and Masteries

I don't want to go too in depth about these, so I will stick to the basics.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration I like to only take 3 of these. I feel like they don't have a huge impact early game, even if you have 9.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed I like taking 6 of these because I find atk speed more useful than magic penetration. This gives an additional 10% atk speed, which makes cs'ing easier(passive is activated more often).

Greater Seal of Armor taking armor runes is smart because a lot of junglers are AD. This gives you some defense from early ganks.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist This is an obvious choice. Most mid laners are AP, so having starting magic resistance is important.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power Also an obvious pick. These strengthen Diana's ability power.


The masteries selected from the Offense Tree focus on additional atk speed, bonus ability power, and increased damage. The masteries from the Defense Tree focus on additional health, taking reduced damage, and health regeneration.

Items

Here, I would like to talk about some of the core items on Diana and when to get them.

Starting Build
I would recommend STARTING BUILD #1 when you are in a lane that you are confident in winning
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I would recommend STARTING BUILD #2 when you think that you will need more sustain
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First Back
or
On the first back, I would recommend getting either a Negatron Cloak or a Seeker's Armguard, depending on your lane opponent. Then rush a Zhonya's Hourglass or Abyssal Mask as soon as possible, which are built from the previous items.

After obtaining Zhonya's Hourglassor Abyssal Mask
and
I would then recommend going straight into a Nashor's Tooth for the next big item, while working on building Sorcerer's Shoes.

Mid-Late Game
or sub Void Staff for any offensive item/defensive item.
The next item that you should build would be a Rabadon's Deathcap. At this point, you should get a Void Staff or any of these items Frozen Heart Guardian Angel Rylai's Crystal Scepter Morellonomicon Lich Bane.

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Abyssal Scepter is a good item to rush if your lane opponent is AP, which most of them will be. It provides good magic resist and gives a decent amount of ability power. It also reduces the magic resist of nearby enemies, making your spells do more damage.

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Nashor's Tooth is one of the most important items to get on Diana and here is why. Nashor's Tooth provides ability power, which is great for Diana, cool down reduction, which means more Q's Crescent Strike and more ults Lunar Rush, and Nashor's Tooth also provides 50% attack speed and additional damage on auto attacks. This stat makes your passive devastating, especially now that it has an 80% ap ratio. This was to compensate for the Lich Bane nerf, but I don't normally recommend building Lich Bane every game anyways, so Nashor's Tooth is perfect.

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Zhonya's Hourglass is an important item to have on Diana. It gives loads of ability power and decent armor. This item has a unique active that lets you become invulnerable for 2.5 seconds. This active makes Diana a good initiator in team fights. She can Q Crescent Strike, ult Lunar Rush, pull everyone close with E Moonfall, AOE shield Pale Cascade, and then Zhonya's Zhonya's Hourglass.

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Rabadon's Deathcap is another core item to have on Diana. It gives the same amount of ability power as Zhonya's Hourglass (120 AP) and its unique passive increases ability power by 30%. This makes all of your abilities very powerful.

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Void Staff is a powerful item to have on Diana. It gives additional ability power and its unique passive grants 35% magic penetration. You can choose to build this as your last item or earlier, if you think the enemy team has a lot of magic resistance. If you don't feel like you need the extra damage, this item can be substituted for other items below.

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Frozen Heart is probably the situational item that I find myself buying most often. It gives a lot of armor, cool down reduction, and slows the attack speed of enemy champions. I like to take this as my last item for teams that have 3 champions that do AD damage, for example: AD top, an ADC, and an AD jungler. If you already have Nashor's Tooth, this item makes your cool down reduction at its max 40%, (20% from Nashor's Tooth and 20% from this item) which means faster spells.

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Guardian Angel is an item that I like to build if you are important in team fights. Say you get fed during the game. You are the most damage dealing champion, so your life is important when fighting the enemy team. This item gives a good balance or magic resistance and armor and also revives you if you happen to die in a fight.

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a good item to build for more health. It also applies a slow to targets that are hit by your spells. This makes chasing targets easier. Since your Crescent Strike can hit multiple targets, Rylai's only applies a 15% slow to the target you hit. This is also true for Pale Cascade.

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Morellonomicon is an item that I like to pick up when I see multiple enemy champions with life steal. If an enemy champion is below 40% health, their healing is reduced by 50%. This item also gives descent ability power and 20% cool down reduction(again, if you have Nashor's Tooth, you will be at the max of 40%).

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Lich Bane is a good last item to buy on Diana. I prefer buying it later, as opposed to buying it early on. It gives good ability power and makes your initial burst very powerful. This makes assassinating a priority target faster. This item recently got a nerf, so it is not as effective as it used to be on Diana, but you can still build it.

Spells

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Moonsilver Blade is an amazing passive. The first part of the passive gives Diana Increased attack speed, which is nice. The next part of the passive lets Diana do bonus magic damage every third auto attack. The bonus AP damage has an 80% AP ratio! This makes Nashor's Tooth an essential item to have on Diana so you can do more damage with the passive more often. This part of the passive also works on turrets.

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Crescent Strike is Diana's Q. This is also the ability that you should always max first. this ability is an AOE nuke that deals good AP damage and also reveals enemies for a few seconds and also marks them with moonlight. This ability is used in combination with Diana's Ultimate, Lunar Rush explained later. In the beginning, it can take some time getting used to the arc that Crescent Strike has, but once you learn to control it you will be fine.

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Pale Cascade is Diana's W. This ability should be maxed second. When this ability is activated, Diana is given a shield that has orbiting balls around it. these balls can be detonated by hitting an enemy champion. The balls also do some damage. If all of the balls detonate, Diana's shield will be refreshed. This makes Diana pretty tanky late game.

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Moonfall is Diana's E. Max this one last. This ability slows enemies and draws them in closer to Diana. You can use this spell to keep enemies from escaping from you. It can also be used to slow enemies who may be chasing a teammate in danger and can also be used to cancel channeling spells.

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Lunar Rush is Diana's R. This ability works hand in hand with Crescent Strike. As I mentioned earlier, Crescent Strike marks enemies with moonlight. If you use Lunar Rush on an enemy with moonlight, the mark will be consumed and the cool down for Lunar Rush will be refreshed( works on creeps and monsters too). This feature makes it easy to keep up with a fleeing target. Important: it is possible to Crescent Strike and then Lunar Rush before Crescent Strike hits the target. You can still get a cool down reset on Lunar Rush if it is done within a very small timeframe(like .3 seconds or something small).

Basic Spell Combo

This is the basic spell order that you should use when engaging an enemy champion. Although, if you think that the champion will not run, hold off on using Moonfall until they try to. Also, Moonfall can cancel channeling spells, so this is another reason to hold off on using it right away.



Late game, your can change you spell combo to look like this. You may want to activate Moonfall before Pale Cascade so you can draw everyone in close, which in turn, makes your shield hit more people and the refresh on the shield is faster.

After this combo is complete you have two options:
1. Assuming that your Lunar Rush got reset, keep auto attacking until your Crescent Strike comes off cool down. Then you can use Crescent Strike and Lunar Rush again, then activate Pale Cascade again when it comes up.

2. Activate Lunar Rush immediately after using your first Lunar Rush. Do this when you are securing a kill.

Lane Match Ups

The following are what I believe to be lane rankings vs. Diana. Note: These are based on my own experience so other people might disagree with my picks for each category. If you want another list of champion ranks that isn't mine: click here...

Easy Lane Opponents

For the most part, you can easily win against these champs. Just don't play too aggressive or push up to hard because you will then be vulnerable to ganks.

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Medium Lane Opponents

These lane opponents are somewhat hard to deal with, but If you play passively, you should be fine. A lot of people have trouble against Mordekaiser, but I don't find him that hard.

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Hard Lane Opponents

These lane opponents are difficult to lane against. You will almost never get the upper hand, so I would recommend playing passively and having your jungler gank. When I vs. Heimerdinger, I don't usually die and sometimes I get kills on him, but I will usually lose lane because he pushes really hard.

Great Tips/Tricks and Things to Know (Video Included)

I made a video that goes along with most of these tips.
                  

•  [In Video] Before you are ready to use Lunar Rush, auto attack a minion twice, so your passive is ready to activate (Diana's blade will be flashing). This makes your initial burst more powerful when engaging an enemy champ.

• [In Video] I mentioned this earlier, but it is a good tip. It is possible to Crescent Strike and then Lunar Rush before Crescent Strike hits the target. You can still get a cool down reset on Lunar Rush if it is done within a very small timeframe. It is also possible to use your Lunar Rush first and then use Crescent Strike mid dash and you will still get the cool down reset. This is very difficult to pull off, however, so I don't recommend doing this.

• Diana's Crescent Strike can reveal targets in bushes(grant vision). However, it will not reveal invisible targets like Akali, Twitch, or Teemo. It will reveal Evelynn though.

• [In Video] If you find yourself in trouble, Diana can use her Crescent Strike over a wall to reveal a jungle monster and then use Lunar Rush to dash to it. You can also use this technique if you are chasing an enemy champion. if there are enemy minions in front of you , you can Crescent Strike and then Lunar Rush to the minion to get closer to the fleeing target.

• Sometimes, you might want to use Crescent Strike at max distance even if the enemy champ is right in front of your face. Consider this scenario: You just dashed to Ezreal and you are about to use another Crescent Strike. Your Crescent Strike goes off right in front of you right where Ezreal would have been, but he uses his Arcane Shift to teleport away. If you had used Crescent Strike at max range, it would have had a better chance at hitting Ezreal, despite his teleport.

Warding locations

One of the main causes of death for me in the midlane is from ganks. I rarely get killed in a 1v1 fight with the mid enemy champ. Warding is super important and can literally save your life. Knowing where to place wards is also important. There are more effective locations than others.

Here are some good locations to use Stealth Ward:




I found a really good video describing warding locations (not mine).

Don't Like Nashor's Tooth?

Some people prefer to not build Nashor's tooth when they play Diana. Not having this item makes Diana more of an assassin and doesn't focus on sustained damage. Here are some of the things that can be done if you chose to not buy this item.

Changes to masteries:
switch out the 6 Greater Mark of Attack Speed runes for 6 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration runes.

Changes to items:
after getting an Abyssal Mask or Zhonya's Hourglass, you can go straight into a Rabadon's Deathcap. Void Staff is an important item to have if you are playing Diana this way. It lets you do more damage late game. I would probably go with Lich Bane in the place of Nashor's Tooth for maximum burst, but you can take any offensive or defensive item.

Changes to masteries:
This is optional, but I think putting 4 points into Sorcery rather than in Fury would be a good idea, since this build doesn't rely on attack speed. The extra cool down reduction would be useful.

Summary

1. I hope you found this guide useful. I am planning on including more information in the future. I was also kind of general when describing lane match ups. I might go into more detail when I have more time. I will also eventually add in some of my recent games and some of my stats.

2. Diana is an underrated champion and not many people play her, but she is a very fun and powerful champ to play. If you can master her abilities and build properly, you can carry games when the rest of your team fails you.

3. Although, I'm glad that not a lot of people play Diana because it makes it that much more impressive when you do good and kill everything in sight, lel oh lel.


4/30-added pictures of spell range to Spells category, random warding video, summoner spells.
5/1- additional info in wards category including images, changed up masteries, updated spell combo.
5/2- improved items category, started a new section about Nashor's tooth.
5/5- added in win rate and some recent games.