Talk:Diana/@comment-8100976-20150208182708/@comment-5606883-20150216142954

And your experience would be right! Atleast in 96% of the games you see her in. Diana is going to be less effective as a "tanky assassin" compared to either a dedicated tank or assassin. That will always be true because of the concept of a "hybrid" champion. If you were to, for example, build Kayle with an AD/AP (hybrid) itemization mix; she will have less burst damage than AP Kayle but deal a higher amount of DPS, and vice-versa will deal a lower amount of DPS than AD Kayle but AD/AP (hybrid) Kayle will deal more burst damage. There are both trade-offs and strengths to being a hybrid.


 * The central point is this: Hybrids have the strengths from both roles, however they are almost always less effective at either role when compared to a champion that is specifically dedicated to either role.

In my experience, getting a RoA early doesn't immediatly brand Diana as a "tanky assassin" or "tank." Instead it gives her insurance for the game. When you start a game you don't know if you're going to completely dominate the enemy team or if your team is going to be neck-and-neck equal with the enemy until the end (you may have presumptions about how a game will go but having a "good feeling" is hardly scientific =P).


 * So if it turns out your team is equal to or behind the enemy team after 15min or so and it becomes appearent that your team needs a disrupting tank and initiator; Diana can still fulfill that role without much (if any) gold loss. That's b/c the RoA fits in a "tanky Diana" build perfectly fine.


 * If it turns out that you start dominating your lane or your team gets some other apparent advantage and being an assassin would be best for your team; Diana can still fulfill that role! The items that AP assassins will want/get still fit in the build. Like... what are the universally needed items for AP assassins (taking into account that DFG is gone)? Deathcap, Zhonyas, and Void Staff usually- and that's just 3 items which means you still have room for your choice of boots and another item!

The way I see it, atleast, is that you aren't sacrificing anything  important  (as in "game changing") as a 100% assassin Diana by getting a RoA. Besides Deathcap, Void Staff, and Lich Bane every strong AP item also gives a secondary defensive stat (Nashor's Tooth is an exception I guess, though that item isn't used by many champions atm). So you're going to buy items that make you "tankier" at some point, anyways. So thats what RoA is, just another AP item that also gives a secondary defensive stat.

Tl:Dr--> The Rod of Ages should be thought of just like Zhonya's Hourglass is thought of- a good item to rush to prepare for and counter AD threats. Rod of Ages is an item that allows Diana to prepare for every game of League itself because LoL is an unpredictable game in regard to each individual match (i.e. you don't know immediatly when a match begins if your team is going to dominate an easy win or struggle to stay even with the enemy team). How does it help her prepare for that? By giving her both health and sustain, two things that are among the most useful stats for a catching-up/struggling team, along with a good chunk of AP to help her remain a threat in fights.