User blog:Care Level/Let's talk about Diana.

First off, you're asking "who are you and why should I care what you have to say about Diana?" Well, here is my LoLKing, which'll show that I'm a 1350-ish ELO Silver player with decent Diana stats: I've got a 6 to 1 ranked record with Diana this season, averaging a 7.3 / 3.7 / 6 KDA, and in the last 7 days, as of this writing, I've won 11 of my 13 Diana games, averaging an 8 / 5.1 / 7.6 KDA.

So I guess I'm doing okay.

I'm not going to write about a specific facet of Diana; this'll be my catch-all Diana post.

= Let's talk about items. =

One of the first things I want to talk about is her build path: people swear by Hourglass, Deathcap, Void Staff, Sorc Shoes, Abyssal Scepter, DFG/Lich Bane. I'm going to say no, those last two items are wrong.

We'll start with Abyssal Scepter: back when Diana's build was cemented, she had a different role because she existed in a different game. Back then, Diana would engage fights, jumping into enemies with her ult, popping her Moonfall, and turning into a pretty golden statue in the middle of the enemy team. What's more important, though, is what her team would do: Rumble would drop his big, scary ult (which would force the enemy team off of Diana) and her big, tanky jungler would wade into the fight and drop CC (which would keep the enemy team off of Diana). The huge team-wide engage would mitigate the issues inherent with being a delicate mage in the front lines. The magic shred on Abyssal used to go great with that, and all Diana had to do after her engage was pick off the enemy with Q R L(ichbane) while they struggled to get into position.

But this is a somewhat different game; when was the last time you saw a team that could drop huge AoE threats on their golden Diana? No, Diana doesn't get to be the same champ, anymore, and, in her new role, Athene's is a better fit for her, in my humble opinion. Whereas, previously, Diana was expected to engage, do nothing (Stasis), and clean up, she now functions much better as an assassin/fighter. Athene's provides her the CDR to get her shield up more than once in a fight and to Q R multiple times in an engagement. Additionally, Athene's provides the mana sustain to allow Diana to continue to push; she's a very mana-hungry champion, especially when she's expected to use multiple rotations in a single fight. Yes, she loses some magic penetration, but that's okay: she can still burst down squishies or force them out of a fight, and she can push hard afterward.

In addition to Abyssal Scepter being outdated, I think Diana's perceived reliance on Lich Bane is overstated and that Nashor's (yes, Nashor's Tooth) is a better item for her in most cases. Lich Bane is a great item, don't get me wrong, but the two serve entirely different purposes, and Nashor's fills Diana's idealized niche better than Lich Bane does. We all know that Lich Bane is great for instant burst, but playing Diana as an instant burst champion is inherently divergent from her kit's strengths and weaknesses. She doesn't get an escape, but she does get a shield; why not stick around and use it? Nashor's, like Athene's, is better than Diana's traditional items for a role as a fighter, in which she currently excels.

Nashor's gives you a Lich Bane proc in the form of Diana's passive. You might not know that Diana has a passive and that's because, with Lich Bane, Diana should almost never actually make use of it in real fights. Every 3rd hit, Diana deals a flat amount + 60% AP bonus magic damage around her. Her passive also gives her 20% bonus attack speed (which will make you very concerned about your runes and masteries at level 1 if you forget about it), which reduces the effectiveness of AS items on her, but that's fine. With Nashor's, Diana's 3 hits deal 45 + 105% AP bonus magic damage, plus an additional amount (up to 250) based on Diana's level; that's an ultimate-worthy nuke and she gets it, passively every couple of AAs. You want this; it makes you an incredible duelist and a much bigger threat in sustained fights.

Nashor's also empowers Diana in the fighter role by giving her much-needed CDR, which means more gapcloses (Q R is up every 4-ish seconds at max CDR), more CC, and Riven-surpassing shields (Diana's shield is up 6 seconds after it refreshes, and the refreshed shield lasts for 5 seconds, giving it a whopping 1 second of downtime). It is very realistic for Nashor's Diana to go into a fight, Q W R E and kill one target, then immediately Q R onto another and kill it. The downside? You lose Lich Bane's instant, suicidal burst capacity, so you might not be as effective if your team is very behind (e.g. your frontline can't stand up to their damage, and now you can't instantly assassinate it, either).

What else would you want from it? How about extremely fast pushing and objectives? Diana's passive is great waveclear and procs on structures/dragons/barons, and so having it up that much more often means you can push that much harder. Want more benefits? How about this one: you have less raw AP than Lich Bane/Abyssal Diana, which can be great, especially considering that you actually have more damage potential. Why would less AP be a good thing? Because you can Q R to minions and then Q R again to fleeing champions, but you can't do this if your Q kills the minions. Less AP means more playmaking potential, and you don't lose any damage for it.

And, the last issue with Nashor's versus Lich Bane itemization: Lich Bane nerfs incoming. However, as a compensation buff, Diana's slated to receive an additional 20% AP ratio on her passive (60% -> 80% AP), which only makes Nashor's Diana even better.

TL;DR: there's a time and a place for Lich Bane (too behind to survive sustained fights), but it shouldn't be core. Abyssal is a relic from season 2 (AoE damage comps).

So that's a good bit about Diana's role as an AP fighter and why she's great at it (to reiterate: absolutely enormous sustained damage and gapclose, with respectable shields and CC), and why nontraditional itemizations supported her in that.

The other component of fighter builds is defense, and I haven't really talked about that, yet.

On the whole, Diana's defense itemization is like Riven's: she needs armor, MR, and effective health that comes in the form of a shield that she gets from building damage. Athene's, Hourglass, and AP items fill these requirements.

However, there's a huge question as to when one should get Diana's items, as they're all needed more or less right now.

Answers:

Against AP
Against an AP lane, I generally start with Chalice, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it lets you poke with Q, which you actually can't afford early on; I'll talk about that, later, but just trust me right now. You can't afford to Q early on. By 6, though, you'll want to be looking for kills, and that means poking with Qs before going all in on a ranged opponent (which most AP mids are). You'll either need extra mana regen or blue buff to do that; Chalice solves this problem.

Next, you'll probably want to rush Hourglass unless you're either quite ahead or expecting a long laning phase, because you're going to very much want Hourglass by the time team fights start. Otherwise, finish Athene's and go for Nashor's (starting with the Codex); take a point in E once you start building attack speed so that you can stick after your initial Q R to apply your passive as many times as possible.

Finally, proceed as normal into Deathcap and Void Staff. Build Deathcap first if you need more survivability (the AP translates into shields); go for Void Staff first if you need more damage.

Against AD
Against a melee AD lane (e.g. you're Diana top), Seeker's into Hourglass is perfect. You don't need to poke your opponent down with Q because trading in melee uses Diana's remarkably-efficient W and passive, so the mana isn't a gaping issue. This also means you have your Hourglass before teamfights break out, which is awesome.

After that, get into Nashor's, because it's your favorite tool for brawling in melee and it gives you the most free, sustainable damage via your passive procs; start with the attack speed.

Go for Athene's when you start having to deal with enemy AP.

= Let's talk about laning. =

The biggest thing for winning lane with Diana is this: don't push Q, don't push E. Diana's early Q is worthless tickling that costs way too much. I mean, look at the numbers:
 * Q (60-200 health difference + 70% AP for 55 mana)
 * W (146-410 health difference + 120% AP for 60-100 mana)

From a mana-per-benefit standpoint, W is leagues beyond Q until Q gets quite a few levels in it. Note that E isn't even on the scale because it's 70 mana for a rubbish pull and slow. Great for actually killing, but you're never going to get to that point if you spend all your mana wrong.

Literally, I have seen so many Diana players lose lane by touching the Q button when they shouldn't. Yes, you can land damage, but there's no reason to do that becuase their health will outlast your mana. Using and applying your W and passive effectively reverses that: your health and mana outlast your opponent's.

Once you get near 6, you're going to want to start poking your ranged opponent down with Q (you should have 3 points in it, so it's not total rubbish anymore) so you can Q R R Q them for the kill, but, until you can really think about killing your lane, play it safe and survive with W. Against melee matches, your W actually does damage, so just go with that.

Don't even bother putting a point in E early unless your jungler has good early CC and is going to gank for you several times before 6. Most of the time, I don't take it until I'm sure I can kill my lane opponent with it, or skirmishes are breaking out. You can't afford to E without killing something until you're rocking a couple of Doran's Rings and a Chalice or Athene's.

After 6, don't Q R R unless you can kill your opponent with the second R. Q R W is a big burst, and you'll shrug off a lot of damage from your opponent's counterharass. If you manage to charge up 2 hits of your passive before you go in to trade, you'll win them hard. And you can do this every 7 or 8 seconds (whenever you land a Q), as opposed to a Q R R every 25 seconds.

Some numbers you're going to want to know:
 * At level 6, your P(assive) Q R E R rotation deals 382 + 410% AP magic damage, plus an AA and ignite. That's when you have kill power.
 * Trading P Q R W deals 282 + 350% AP magic damage; your enemy needs to do more than 392 + 410% of your AP to out-trade you, because of your shield. No one has a freakin' 392 + 410% AP burst to trade with you, so you're going to win trades with P Q R W.

= Let's talk about teamfights. =

Diana has 3 possible playstyles in teamfights:
 * Jump on a squishy after your team's engage, blow them up or force them out with Q R and AAs, and then move to the next one, using Stasis if focused,
 * Jump on a squishy after your team's engage, blow them up instantly with Q R R, and back off or Stasis for cooldowns,
 * Engage for your team using Q R E and Hourglass, pray for your team to follow up quickly, and then try to pick off what's left.

Guess which one you don't want to be in SoloQ.

Whether you go with the first or the second depends on who's big on the enemy team, how big you are, how big your team is, and whether you build Lich Bane or Nashor's. If you're behind, you're going to try your hardest to go for the first, because you won't be able to insta-burst something, anyway. If you're ahead, you also want to go for the first option. However, if the enemy has a high-priority target (fed squishy baby carry), you want to assassinate them as best as possible with Q R R; if you can Stasis the anger of the enemy team, great. If you die for taking out their biggest threat, lol worth.

Only engage for your team if they fucked you in champ select; e.g. you play Diana almost exclusively, your team makes you jungle, and no one else takes a champ with hard engage because Renekton and Janna seem like good picks with a Diana jungle (yes I'm bitter).

= Let's talk about conclusions. = I'm bad at them.