Diana [Gameplay Update Ideas]

Stacona·Jul 21, 2014·5 votes·485 views

These ideas are to make Diana more unique, make her more useful pre-6, more impactful in teamfights, and give her a slightly more unique identity and get her away from an AP assassin because if Diana was an AP assassin she will just be like Akali 2.0. I will treat these ideas like one of my champion concepts.

Note: I do play Diana now and like playing her, this is what I would like to see from her to help her be more viable in higher elo, especially in competitive play to see her played in the LCS.

Moonsilver Blade (Passive): Every 3rd attack cleaves nearby enemies for 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 105 / 120 / 135 / 155 / 175 / 200 / 225 / 250 (15 + 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 at each level) (+80%AP) magic damage and lower Pale Cascade's cooldown by 3 seconds. The counter will reset if Diana hasn't attacked for 3.5 seconds. In addition, Diana permanently gains 20/30/40/50%(@levels 1/6/11/16) bonus attack speed.

Crescent Strike (Q): Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds; Cost: 45 mana; Range: 830 units Diana unleashes a bolt of lunar energy that travels in an arc. Enemies struck take 60/90/120/150/180(+65%AP) magic damage and are afflicted with Moonlight, granting sight of them for 3 seconds.

Pale Cascade (W): Cooldown: 10 seconds; Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 mana; Range: 200 units Diana gains a temporary absorption shield and creates three spheres that orbit her, both for 5 seconds. The spheres detonate on contact with an enemy unit, dealing 20/30/40/50/60(+15%AP) magic damage to all nearby enemies for each orb (60/90/120/150/180(+45%AP) maximum damage).

If all three spheres detonate, the shield is reapplied and the duration is refreshed. This second shield stacks with the original shield. Shield strength is 40/55/70/85/100(+30%AP) [maximum shield of 80/110/140/170/200(+60%AP)].

Lunar Rush (E): Cooldown: 26/23/20/17/14 seconds; Cost: 50 mana; Range: 825 units Diana becomes the living embodiment of the vengeful moon to rush at an enemy and slow the target by 55% for 0.5/1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5 seconds.

When used to teleport to an enemy afflicted with Moonlight, Lunar Rush's cooldown is refreshed and the Moonlight debuff is consumed. All other enemies will have the Moonlight debuff removed regardless of whether they were the target of Lunar Rush.

Moonfall (Ultimate) (R): Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: 500 units Diana draws in all nearby enemies to her location, dealing 150/250/350(+70%AP) magic damage and stunning them for 1 second afterwards.

So what I did was increase the attack speed bonus her passive gives at later levels, or at the same levels that you put points in her ultimate to be specific in order to get more passive procs off in the later game and in teamfights. Her Q was obviously left completely alone and has not changed, but I lowered the damage on the orbs of Pale Cascade to compensate for the ability to lower the cooldown from Moonsilver Blade (her passive) moving this ability to be a better ability to tank out fights for staying in fights and less about bursting out targets. The biggest changes I have made was swap Lunar Rush and Moonfall around, so what this does is give her the mobility she needs to make plays pre-6 and actually be able to do things in the early game instead of being a farming punching bag for her first 5 levels, I removed the damage on her Lunar Rush but everything else remains intact including the interaction between Lunar Rush and Crescent Strike's moonlight marks. So for Moonfall I increased the cooldown and cost to match that of an ultimate, but I doubled the range of the ability from 250 to 500 units since this ability happens a lot less often and I also gave it damage and buffed the slow % and duration to help it be a lot more impactful and be this super great initiation tool similar to Orianna's Shockwave. Another thing to point out is that the vacuum would be a lot stronger than what it currently is now, just this is something I cannot describe in a tool tip.

Overall I turned Diana into more a mage bruiser / mage tank initiator that wants to jump in, start a fight, and be constantly attacking to get as many shields and passive procs as possible to live as long as possible while also dealing a bunch of AoE magic damage, and moved her away from being less like Akali 2.0.

~ Stacona

EDIT: Crescent Strike: Cooldown lowered to 9/8/7/6/5 from 10/9/8/7/6 seconds Cost reduced to 45 from 55 mana Damage lowered to 60/90/120/150/180(+65%AP) from 60/95/130/165/200(+70%AP)

Lunar Rush: Added a 55% slow for 0.5/1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5 seconds in addition to dashing to the target (Lunar Rush is still damage less)

Moonfall: Removed the 40/55/70% slow for 3 seconds after the vacuum effect and added a 1 second stun that happens to units that were vacuum'd by Moonfall

18 Comments

PokladnicaZlaJul 21, 20143 votes

Seems good and all

I think ita better than assassins Diana,hope a RIOTer sees it :)

StaconaJul 21, 20142 votes

i just like it because i didnt change anything about Diana's kit i just emphasized her strength to engage and stay in fights as long as possible- as well as by swapping her two utility spells around she now has her mobility pre 6 to actually do things as either mid or jungle diana, and then when she hits 6 she has this powerful vacuum and and powerful slow to make plays early on and engage and initiate teamfights late game but the most important thing was move her away from being like akali and make diana more unique- while you can still build diana full damage and try to one shot people, this update makes diana better with either a mage-bruiser building between AP and tanky items or going full tank and getting as many moonsilver blades, pale cascades, and crescent strikes off in a fight or skirmish as possible

Diana x MeJul 21, 20141 votes

She needs something more. I think Lunar rush needs more reward for landing q then just a refresh since she is now very ult reliant. So I suggest adding a passive in which it rewards you for continuously getting the refresh without missing on champions. So I was thinking it would be cool to fill up a moon so at no stacks you would be at a new moon which would wax and at 4 stacks would turn into a full moon. So quarter moon is just a refresh, half moon could slow or deal bonus damage, waxing crescent moon could stun or deal percent health and full moon could deal true damage on next passive proc or ult or something.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

StaconaJul 21, 20141 votes

The cooldown refresh allows for stickiness with Diana to remain in combat, its actually very strong in itself just the ability to stick to your target with dashes, and then in combat you see how many Moonsilver Blades, Crescent Strikes, and shields (Pale Cascades) you can get off... Basically I would like Diana to move away from high burst damage to burst people out and be more about sustain damage and persistent damage with passive, q, w and win drawn out fights while also setting up fights with your utility of Lunar Rush and Moonfall, and staying in combat to maximize your kit with Lunar Rush resets with moonlight marks... She now has one really strong impactful CC spell which is really all you need with less short term upfront damage but more long term persistent damage- but if there were to be something like a slow added to Lunar Rush then the slow would need to be removed on Moonfall (Moonfall will gain something like 0.5 second stun after the vacuum effect like most displacement abilities then) so would you prefer 1 powerful AoE slow on the ult or a slightly weaker single target slow on lunar rush?

Diana x MeJul 21, 20141 votes

This looks good on paper but in practice and play you have to realize that it's going to be different. The stickiness helps but you will not have your passive and spells up every time you gap close. I realize you want to get rid of the front loaded damage. However now she is forced to build tank stats or blow up upon contact with the enemy. Thus AP will not be as prevalent so damage will be minimal due to the fact that itemization will be very poor. So she needs something to compensate for it.

StaconaJul 21, 20141 votes

I was going for more AP tanky / Mage-Tank builds as this will define Diana much better than being an AP assassin since another AP assassin will just be akali 2.0- so more uniqueness the better- that being said, adding more utility to Lunar Rush will be fine, i just want to avoid adding damage so that this ability is used for the utility rather than burst and allow her damage to be in the in combat persistent form with passive, q, w (even though Q can be a good poke tool, its low cooldown at max rank allows it to have good persistent damage)

KhodexusJul 22, 20142 votes

Why not let all her damaging abilities apply the moonlight debuff (as a thematic counter to Leona getting sunlight debuff off of all her abilities), that by itself, I think, would be a solid buff to Lunar Rush without adding damage, as you could intersperse Lunar Rushes with her all three of her abilities to stick to the target better, then hopefully have the cooldown on crescent Strike up in time when you need to chase or escape.

I also really like the idea of 4 stacks with a crescent/half/gibbous/full motif, adding a little utility each time she manages to successfully rush, and being able to use 3 different abilities to apply moonlight would enable you to actually build that up, especially if using Lunar Rush consumed all moonlight debuffs on all targets.

StaconaJul 22, 20141 votes

The stacking mechanic offers a whole new mechanic to Diana, but the most important thing to note is it makes Diana too complex for players and creates too much going on, stacking mechanics could be something like Vlad's E where the health cost and base damage goes up by 25% for each stack his E has, when a stacking mechanic has something different for each stack its too much for the player to think about especially during the heat of the battle. Another point is that it is harder for new players to learn the champion where league was originally created to be simplistically complex for the MOBA genre so that it is easy and simple for players to get into league and they stick to playing the game cause it is very complex and takes time and skill to learn and master (and other factors where it always changes and new content constantly gets added keep people interested too).

Only Crescent Strike adding the moonlight mark is good because it is a skill shot meaning you have to land it to get a dash refresh and this allows counter play where the opponent can make a conscious decision to try to dodge Crescent Strike, also its pretty hard to dodge point blank so once you are in melee range you are almost guaranteed to get another moonlight mark. Moonfall and Pale Cascade cannot really be dodged, you can avoid Moonfall if you try to predict it by flashing away instantly, since you do have a brief second to react because of the animation on Lunar Rush.

As I stated here "Let me know what you think with this idea: Lunar Rush, besides for dashing to her target, will also slow her target by 55% for 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds Moonfall will then no longer slow her targets afterwards but instead it will stun its affected units for 1 second after the vacuum effect" I am okay with adding a slow on Lunar Rush, and the duration is really low at rank 1 because this ability will be used for the mobility but if you want CC then you can put points into it for the slow will actually do something. Another change could be lower the cooldown on Crescent Strike slightly but then the damage will need to go down slightly to compensate since more Qs can come into play. The problem with adding the slow to Lunar Rush is fear in making Diana too strong...

KhodexusJul 22, 20142 votes

I never suggested making a different effect for each stack, I was thinking of a scaling effect. Obviously the first rush wouldn't have it, but even with nothing but scaling slow, it could be a useful addition to her kit.

Mostly I just like the idea of using 4 moon phases as a debuff/ability icon. I'll let you know if I come up with a better idea for how to implement it.

...

Actually just had one. What if instead of tying it to the moonlight debuff, make part of her passive grant her a moon-phase 'buff' each time she uses an ability. Every one of her abilities (except maybe her ultimate, cause you don't necessarily want to make the player want to wait on using the ultimate until they've got max stacks) has a minor effect that scales with her current level of moonphase. Could also potentially have the buff consume itself to use a full-moon version, making you have to start over.

With Lunar Rush, the scaling could be on the slowing amount, maybe cap out at a full on snare for the full moon.

Crescent Strike could add a scaling DoT to the moonlight debuff, and the fool moon version could do additional instant damage when the debuff ends/is consumed for Lunar Rush.

And Pale Cascade could expand the damage radius of each orb exploding, with the full moon version causing the orbs to chain their explosions together (even if all three don't touch an enemy).

EDIT: I do like the Lunar Rush Slow, and Moonfall Stun idea (both Diana and Leona get to stun with their ults, definitely a nice thematic there).

Do you like my idea? Rather than a flat 55% slow, it could be like a 40%/55%/70%/snare, scaling with the moon-phase. Or something.

StaconaJul 22, 20141 votes

A snare would be too powerful, as I am worrying about a slow being too strong, i am just hoping having a very brief duration slow in most of the game (assuming people don't max Lunar Rush first) that there is proper counter play to playing against a low duration slow, but i wanted to add the extra utility to mostly support a full tank build, the only problem is if a damage build abuses this slow- but then again Diana will die really fast too so i guess it would be high risk, high reward- there is a very fine line between making a champion competitively viable and overpowered- but adding hard CC to an ultimate with a proper cooldown is fine, but adding mobility and hard CC as a basic ability can prove problematic (Leblanc, Kassadin, etc.)

KhodexusJul 22, 20141 votes

Well, one thing to keep in mind, is that a snare on a melee attack isn't nearly as strong as a snare on a ranged attack, because there's alot most champions can still do to you if they're snared inside melee range, while alot of champs are kind of screwed if they're snared at long range.

Also, to avoid snare/slow spamming with multiple uses of Lunar Rush, you could make it so that added effect can't be reapplied within say... 8 seconds of it being applied once?

Also, it'd be a trade off, because, yes, you can get that hard CC on a basic, but then you have to build up your stacks again by using abilities. So even though it's a basic, it's still not going to be spammable, plus you give up the full-moon effect for a different ability by using it with Lunar Rush (until you build up the stacks again).

At least that was my reasoning. Kinda threw this together so it could probably use some tweaking, but I think, even with different numbers/effects, the idea is a good one at it's core.

StaconaJul 22, 20141 votes

I kind of wanted to avoid changing mechanics about Diana, because right now her mechanics are the same as they are on live, just the way you would play her is different which is the point of a gameplay update; whereas for reworks is when mechanics and abilities start getting drastically changed- basically i want players who like playing Diana now will still love playing Diana after and do not feel like they need to change the way they play her at all, but the way they build her may need to be tweaked to fit the appropriate update because what i have done is still allow for lunar rush to reset with consuming moonlight, she still has a slow, and still has a vacuum, still has the same dash, same shield, same unique skill shot Q, same kind of passive, yes her passive now gives her more shields but this still doesnt change her mechanical play- everything i proposed changes the way she should get played and adds uniqueness to her and emphasize on her strengths which is jumping in, initiating fights with her vacuum, and stay in the fight and toughening it out as well as being sticky with landing crescent strikes and getting your resets on lunar rush

tl;dr: the stacking utility idea isn't bad, but it may just alienate Diana by adding another mechanic to her play that wasnt originally there

KhodexusJul 22, 20141 votes

I play Diana, and I've always thought it'd be nice to have some kind of moon-phase mechanic as it would enhance her character. Only just now I actually realized what that mechanic could be.

I think your base ideas is good (though I've seen it multiple times before), but there's a reason Riot hasn't implemented it yet, thus I thought something that still retains the themes, but is a little more 'drastic' a change might be in order.

My idea isn't really a full kit rework, just an addition that compliments her existing statistics, and with your proposed changes I think it works even more-so, because having a stacking self-buff that allows for every 4th/5th ability to have a slightly more powerful burst effect works alot better for a sustained fighter than for a burst assassin.

StaconaJul 22, 20141 votes

it works with her theme, but i dont think she needs a drastic change because she is just on the brink of being considered viable so a few minour changes is all she needs- she can be impactful at the start of the game with her lunar rush pre 6 and impactful late game with her ult being good to start fights

KhodexusJul 22, 20141 votes

Just because she doesn't need it, doesn't mean it wouldn't still benefit her greatly. I think Diana players would get behind it alot. I know I would.

StaconaJul 22, 20141 votes

Okay, so i thought about it more and realize it cannot be done unless you remove Lunar Rush ability to reset which i think that is a core aspect of her gameplay of landing her Q to get a zero cooldown dash- the other option would be have the moonlight debuff be able to work on either Lunar Rush and the buff being consumed will reset the dash cooldown, and units with the moonlight mark has the buff consumed and are knocked back by Moonsilver Blade (passive) but this will lower the damage on moonsilver blade if it happens to compensate for the added CC

KhodexusJul 23, 20141 votes

I honestly do not understand most of this comment.

What does Lunar Rush's ability to reset have anything to do with Diana tracking a 4 stage buff on herself that adds a little bit of potency to her powers and a 'powered up' version when blowing that 4th stack?

In fact, my version ONLY works for Crescent Strike if you KEEP the moonlight debuff...

Only possible reason I could see that they wouldn't work together would be if you wanted to grant the moonlight debuff off of every damaging skill, and you've already said you don't want to do that.

Please clarify here?

StaconaJul 21, 20141 votes

Let me know what you think with this idea: Lunar Rush, besides for dashing to her target, will also slow her target by 55% for 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds Moonfall will then no longer slow her targets afterwards but instead it will stun its affected units for 1 second after the vacuum effect