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PART 2: SPELLS/ITEMS
SPELLS
Easiest section ever.
ALWAYS this: ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FOpvqZ0.png)
NEVER anything else including this + Show Spoiler [Only use if you are a bad player] +
If your account is level 11 or under use ghost, only reason ever not to use flash. You need it to go over walls for smite steals, as well as flash ults.
ITEMS
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RqFTtdF.png)
Standard opening - You CAN open other things like Boots+Pots or Cloth+Post, but machete is the best option. Your 1st clear is largely AD based, so it will work well.
Look to get Spirit Stone, Boots, and Pots on your 1st back. If you have the gold for Spirit + Fiendish Codex (but not boots) I find it more effective to get the boots. Speed is what you want early.
Spirit Item Choices:
1 - Spirit of the Spectral Wraith - This is normally your go to Spirit Item on jungle Diana. Every stat works well, and with Diana's ability to powerfarm camps she can stack this to max AP very quick.
2 - Spirit of the Ancient Golem - This is actually not a horrible item on jungle Diana although it is a very specific one. Sometimes you will pick jungle Diana early and your team will completely ignore this and pick 100% glass cannons. When thrust into this situation sometimes it can be effective. Getting it allows you to build Sorc Shoes and still have the tenacity. The only thing that stops this from being more attractive is it has health over armor/mr. You get a fair amount of health from your W, so resistances are the key stats you are looking for. Only build this once you have some Diana jungle games under your belt and only if you get stuck in an all glass cannon comp (and aren't snowballing).
3 - Spirit of the Eldar Lizard: Don't build this unless you are trolling, and if you are trolling, stop trolling ffs.
Boot Choices:
1 - Sorceress Shoes - The far and away best choice. Flat magic penetration is a very effective stat on an assassin. These should be a high priority to finish, and never any later than after your Spirit item. However in games that are gank/skirmish heavy, it can be well worth it to finish these before your Spirit item is complete (but of course AFTER Spirit Stone). Getting a full Spirit item + Sorc Shoes is a major power spike in Diana's power, When you complete a Spectral Wraith with Sorc Shoes, you should be looking to make plays soon after.
2 - Mercury Treads - This is a great option vs CC heavy teams. Although the magic pen from Sorc Shoes is always missed, Merc treads are ALWAYS a viable option.
3* - Boots of Mobility - These boots are actually very nice on jungle Diana, as you can outrun most lanes when setting up your ganks. If the enemy team is playing super duper aggro and pushing all lanes these can be very strong. You can just go gank lanes back to back to back, as all your cooldowns are VERY low.
There is a * on that and it is this. If you are playing in lower brackets like Bronze or Silver these should be moved to an equal as Sorc Shoes. In lower elos like Bronze and Silver laners often lack A: Wards, B: Map Awareness and C: Paying attention to enemy items. This means many games have the ability to gank non-stop and just snowball like mad. Diana has a very strong mid game, and these boots can snowball you to the moon. When I played in Bronze and Silver, this is the boots I used 99% of the time. Later in the game you swap them out for Merc's or Sorc's, but they are very strong in the right elo.
4 - Everything else - The other boots in the game don't fit Diana very well, and should likely never be purchased.
Godly items
Lich Bane - In my opinion this is the single best item you can purchase on Diana. Every single stat is amazing on her, and she has a very unique synergy with the passive. With all her skills being low cooldown, you can chain massive amounts of Lich Bane procs.
One interaction I feel many people do not know about Lich Bane and Diana deals with her moonlight deubff. If you cast a Q (putting moonlight on the target) and attack very quickly after, the Lich Bane proc will be ready for another charge BEFORE moonlight wears off. Meaning you can get 2 procs on your Q>Ult all while keeping your ult on cooldown. Although this does not matter much vs champions who will not stay still for you Dragon, Baron, Towers, and Inhibitors all will stand very nice and still for you. This makes Diana with Lich Bane have amazing objective control and she can tear down objectives faster than any other AP mage besides Twisted Fate.
An example combo would be: Q>R>W>Q>R>E>Q>R>W>Q>R>R. That's 12 procs in a row. The longest c/d you have is 25 seconds. It's a nice synergy.
Nashor's Tooth - For the longest time I was not sold on this item until I watched Nightblue's stream, and saw the potential power of this item. It provides a bunch of desirable stats and the passive looks underwhelming but is actually very nice. It's very nice as Diana to have both this item + Lich Bane, but when on a budget one or the other will usually suffice. I usually build the Stinger 1st on this item, however if you need AP quick, going Codex first is fine.
Zhonya's Hourglass - This is an amazing item on Diana. While the stats are all very good, it's the active that has great synergy on Diana. In the late game there is often opportunities to engage on a whole team with Ult>E. However you will instantly die if you do so. In comes the Zhonya active, giving you enough time to get another round of cooldowns and escape.
The downside of this item is that one of the components is a 1600 gold single item, often a steep cost for any jungler. Thus there is many games where you will have to sacrifice a lot to get it, and it's why I don't always get this item. In games where saving up 1600 gold is just not an option, this item can be easily skipped. Do not be afraid however to get a Seeker's Armguard and sit on it for a long time, finishing your Hourglass 5th or 6th item. The Seeker's Armguard is a very good item and worthy of a slot on Diana for most of the game on it's own merit.
In a perfect world, you always build this item, in reality I only find myself finishing this in LONG games. It used to be 100% vital to get this fast on Diana jungle, now not so much. It's still a godly item, but no longer a true requirement and brings less than Lich Bane or Nashor's Tooth do.
Great items:
Abyssal Scepter - A golden oldie on Diana. This item for the longest time was the only item that provided AP + MR and sync'd well with her kit (the Athene's CDR is a waste), still even now it provides 20 more AP and 5 more MR than Twin Shadows. Add in the MR debuff aura and you have a great item for a close ranged AP Assassin. This is always a solid choice on Diana, and you won't go wrong with it.
Void Staff - When you are snowballing hard and getting lots of kills, this item rocks. You will not often to get to build it out of the jungle, due to a need to build hybrid tank/AP items, but if you are strong, use this to cement that lead.
Banshee's Veil - This item rocks on Diana IF you have or plan on going Zhonya's Hourglass. When Banshee's + Zhonya's you will be a god at starting teamfights, and will often be able to suck up lots of punishment and survive. If you are NOT building Zhonya's, I would not suggest this item.
Liandry's Torment - This is sort of a weird one. While Liandry's itself is only a mediocre item on Diana, the Haunting Guise it builds out of is very strong. Haunting Guise is a great item to get early on jungle Diana, but if you don't don't finish it out until later in the game, the burn passive is not that amazing on her.
Guardian Angel - Armor, MR, and a Revive passive? Sounds great to me! Dive and die, and follow up with another dive. GA is strong as a 4th-6th item on Diana.
Ok items:
Rabadon's Deathcap - The single largest AP item in the game does well on Diana. The two things that stop it from being a better item is that it build out of Needlessly Large Rod and also that it has 0 defensive anything. This item has one single use on Diana. When you A: are very fed very early and B: happen to go back with 1600+ gold early on. Any other situation is too risky.
Deathfire Grasp - This has the same limitation as Deathcap. No defense, and builds out of Large Rod. On top of that the gold spent on CDR will feel wasted.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter - This item is gated by the fact that the slow does very little for you (Q and W are multi-target).
Health is not that amazing on Diana, and the AP is good but not enough to outweigh the other stuff. If this was not the largest single health item with AP (not counting stacked ROA) attached to it, it would be lower.
Morellenomicon - This is a 100% situational item. Only build this for the AP/Healing debuff. Great vs things like Mundo/Tynd/etc. Other than vs those types of opponents, would be considered a poor item choice
Twin Shadows - Originally I thought this might be a godly item, but with Nashor's/Lich Bane + Spirit + Boots being so critical to get 1st, by the time you get this it's pretty lackluster. The CC is very nice, the move speed is great as well as AP + MR, but the timing is what holds it back.
Don't build these
Hextech Gunblade - You are not a hybrid assassin. You are mainly AD pre level 6, and almost all AP after level 6.
Rod OF Ages - This item takes too long to get going from the jungle, brings a ton of useless health, and provides WAYYY too much mana for Diana.
Athene's Unholy Grail - The AP is cool, the rest is not important. 2600 gold for 60 AP is A LOT.
Ohmwrecker - It has AP, or I would not even bother listing it. Not useful for a jungler.
Will of the Ancients - Spellvamp has always been lackluster on Diana. The only single target damage you do is auto's and ult, neither a majority of your damage mid to late game.
Mejai's - Don't
That's it for a bit, did i miss anything?
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
I think your Rylai's description is cut off a little bit.
Also why do you hate on CDR but like Nashor's Tooth? Isn't it really important to keep your Q CDR low, and doesn't it indirectly make you tankier by decreasing your W downtime? Is Nashor's Tooth really worth it against champions (as opposed to the faster clear)?
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On March 13 2014 02:32 GrandInquisitor wrote:Show nested quote +NOTE: You can cast this while Q is in the air, land before the Q, and still get the reset. See attached video starting at 24s. Wait what? I've watched that video and still don't understand: if you cast ult while Q is in the air, you get the reset regardless of whether you or the Q arrives first? I thought there was a timing where you had to throw Q and then arrive with your ult at the same time the Q hits.
From how I understand it you can hit your R first before the Q hits and get the reset still. If you notice, there is about a 0.5-1 second internal cool down on R where even if they are debuffed by Q, you can't recast R yet. It is during this internal cool down that I believe the game checks if the Q debuff is on them and if R should be reset, thus you have a small window for hitting it before Q lands.
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Also Liandry's has a passive, not an active.
Why don't you like CDR on her? Means more shields, and more Qs indirectly leading to more ults. Sure it doesn't help your passive but it boosts your damage slightly, your mobility, and your tankiness.
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On March 13 2014 04:54 GrandInquisitor wrote:
I think your Rylai's description is cut off a little bit.
Also why do you hate on CDR but like Nashor's Tooth? Isn't it really important to keep your Q CDR low, and doesn't it indirectly make you tankier by decreasing your W downtime? Is Nashor's Tooth really worth it against champions (as opposed to the faster clear)?
I like Nashor's for the AP/AS/Proc. The AS means more passive procs, AP is AP, and the proc adds a nice bit of extra damage. The CDR could be almost any stat of equal value and the item would still be very nice on her. Nashor's like any item is not for 100% of games, but it's strong vs champions and monsters. Runes/Masteries/Nashor's is 90% AS buff, your passive will be going off like crazy.
On March 13 2014 06:54 Alaric wrote:
Also Liandry's has a passive, not an active.
Why don't you like CDR on her? Means more shields, and more Qs indirectly leading to more ults. Sure it doesn't help your passive but it boosts your damage slightly, your mobility, and your tankiness.
Will fix. CDR is cool, but it's in no way a priority stat. CDR has the side effect of running you OOM often. Diana does not have a ton of mana, and building mass mana (ie: Tear, ROA) is an overkill. The + mana on Lich Bane is nice because it helps you get more cycles off, but not enough where it's too much mana like ROA. CDR with a blue buff is nice, but as a jungler I cannot count on having all the blues, I normally hand off 3rd+ blue to mid.
On March 13 2014 02:32 GrandInquisitor wrote:Show nested quote +NOTE: You can cast this while Q is in the air, land before the Q, and still get the reset. See attached video starting at 24s. Wait what? I've watched that video and still don't understand: if you cast ult while Q is in the air, you get the reset regardless of whether you or the Q arrives first? I thought there was a timing where you had to throw Q and then arrive with your ult at the same time the Q hits.
Works like this.
Your ult has a faster animation/travel time than Q by a decent margin. Meaning you can throw a Q, ult, get to your target and do the ult damage BEFORE the q lands, the q hits, and you get the refresh.
It's confusing because they way the mechanic is explained in game is the moonlight has be be present first, however as long as the timing is close you will still get credit even if you arrive before the Q.
That clear it up?
Edit: if anyone has a links to decent (ie: small) pics of the items to throw with the it let me know. I didn't want to have to screen, resize, and upload all of them on top of writing this.
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Diamond, do you prefer getting nashors or lich first and why?
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On March 13 2014 15:43 deathray797 wrote:
Diamond, do you prefer getting nashors or lich first and why?
Lately I have been rolling Nashor's 1st however both are solid options. I tend to go with Narhor's however because it's a better standalone item, Lich Bane really needs some AP behind it for those procs. However there is many times where I get the sheen before Nashor's is done and sit on it for a bit.
One way to determine for sure is how the game is going. Slow farm fests favor Nashor's, skirmish/gank heavy games tend to favor Lich.
Edit: Been playing a bunch of Diana jungle lately, she feels stronger than ever. With taxing being an accepted thing you can get some massive gold on her. Twin shadows so far not as amazing as I thought it might be.
+ Show Spoiler +
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Hey everyone still have the rest coming up, the last couple days have been a bit busy so bear with me. I also have been wanting to hammer out some more jungle Diana games on the live patches before I hit the playstyle section.
Very soon (not today however), sorry for the delay!
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I think I played with someone camping this thread yesterday night, a great jungle Diana, can't remember his name though
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On March 17 2014 00:27 The_Unseen wrote:
I think I played with someone camping this thread yesterday night, a great jungle Diana, can't remember his name though
Cool to hear, was curious if it has been helping anyone.
I'm going to hold off the rest of this until 4.4 hits and I have jungled Diana in it. Not sure how the Lich Bane nerfs are going to effect her.
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Diamond, you mentioned playing Diana top against a friend playing Renekton as an example for her deceptively strong trading thanks to her passive. Do you have any general experience with and advice on playing her top that you could share?
After seeing this thread I decided to play Diana jungle for a bit; I'd played almost exclusively top for quite a while before that. I must say I really enjoy jungle Diana; she's uncommon (which I generally enjoy) but very much viable, and the specific runes you suggest do work very well.
But I don't see how you could stand up to top laners, especially bullies such as Renekton, pre-6. Do you still max W for top? Do you try to trade aggressively or wait for certain cooldows/combos? Or do you just play cowardly (sacrifice CS and recall if needed) until 6 and suicidally (all-in every time you hit a Q) after 6?
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I'm a god awful top laner so take what I say with a MAJOR grain of salt. But when we played this matchup quite often it came down to Diana's W. If renek could avoid it and engage AFTER the shield was down he would eat her alive, but with the shield up she got enough passive procs to slide it in her favor.
I think she's a very poor top atm due to her mana requirements for laning being quite high. This was not as bad when you could afford an early flask but now with top being rush to tank stuff, she does not do well with it.
I would likely max W in a melee trade heavy lane, but Q otherwise. The problem with maxing W in lane is the cost gets WAYYY to high.
All in all, I would not pick her in top lane at this point.
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Thats why you get flask+2 dorans rings in lane, never have mana problems again!
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got my first pentakill as Diana (I have had over 500games in ranked with no penta) so I'm extremely happy.
Faced Fizz (whom I hard counter), dominated him in lane, and proceeded to wreck the enemy adc / jg and got fed to 27 kills / 8 deaths by end game score. The only problem was the fed Shyv on the enemy team, and when Shyv is so tanky, you really don't want to focus him down even if he is snowballing.
My end game build was Lich, Deathcap, Zhonya, Sorc boots, Void Staff, and GA.
GA and Zhonya synergies on her so well. Her cooldowns are short enough that she can use them after 1 of these items, so she effectively has 3 lives in teamfights.
She is insanely strong right now in the right hands.In the hands of a skilled user, she effectively has 2 dashes (2 dashes is almost a necessity nowadays), her skills are very strong with good scaling, and is slightly tanky with a reliable CC and shield. She's pretty much a better version of Akali (stronger, tankier, better CC) with a Q and W that does AoE damage, while Akali's damage is only single-target except the weak-E. Akali is only better at escaping thanks to the shroud.
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On September 15 2014 03:39 parkufarku wrote:
got my first pentakill as Diana (I have had over 500games in ranked with no penta) so I'm extremely happy.
Faced Fizz (whom I hard counter), dominated him in lane, and proceeded to wreck the enemy adc / jg and got fed to 27 kills / 8 deaths by end game score. The only problem was the fed Shyv on the enemy team, and when Shyv is so tanky, you really don't want to focus him down even if he is snowballing.
My end game build was Lich, Deathcap, Zhonya, Sorc boots, Void Staff, and GA.
GA and Zhonya synergies on her so well. Her cooldowns are short enough that she can use them after 1 of these items, so she effectively has 3 lives in teamfights.
She is insanely strong right now in the right hands.In the hands of a skilled user, she effectively has 2 dashes (2 dashes is almost a necessity nowadays), her skills are very strong with good scaling, and is slightly tanky with a reliable CC and shield. She's pretty much a better version of Akali (stronger, tankier, better CC) with a Q and W that does AoE damage, while Akali's damage is only single-target except the weak-E. Akali is only better at escaping thanks to the shroud.
Ew.
Urgot is also insanely strong right now in the right hands.
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Diana is not a better version of Akali. Diana initiates a fight, Akali finishes one.
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Diana is really bad right now. You have to absolutely snowball the game to be effective.
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On September 15 2014 11:22 Sufficiency wrote:
Diana is really bad right now. You have to absolutely snowball the game to be effective.
She's serviceable. The problem is, if you miss a Q in a teamfight, you're pretty worthless unless you have zhonyas and you go in to setup a combo. Even then your impact isn't that high like that. If you land 95% of your Qs she's certainly not awful (lol i know).
She's a good pocket pick specially vs Fizz who's fairly common.
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Whoops wrong thread hah sorry.
If there's anything I can say here about Diana is I kidn of wished I played her and didn't pick her up post nerfs where she was batshit OP.
I watched an old video awhile ago, and even her E literally looked like a vacuum.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/x3humRX.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mBpLmtu.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RFzSwzP.png)
