Reworking Diana: An In-depth proposal (and I mean REALLY in depth)

Hi everyone! I’m Junielx, a Diamond 5 summoner and long time fan of Diana. I’m sure there have been plenty of ideas thrown around for a Diana rework. A lot of the ideas that I’m mentioning in this analysis have probably been proposed by the community before, but this is my take on the entire thing. The following is a cohesive, straightforward analysis of what I think the problems with Diana are and how to address them in her rework.

Abstract:

Diana has been a tough champion to balance since her release at the tail end of Season 2. On release, she was overpowered as heck, being able to delete anyone who didn’t have mr with relative ease while still being tanky enough to stick around and keep doing damage. We saw the Diana problem reach a high point during the early phases of Season 3 when she was a top pick in the meta. Players like Scarra were basically abusing her strong burst to get in, delete the enemy ADC, zhonyas, and then fight on. Basically, if you were hit by the Q as the adc or anyone else squishy, you were pretty much guaranteed dead and most teamfights would be instantly one thanks to Diana literally instantly removing one team member from the fight. Riot has responded to that by nerfing Diana’s damage to where this instant burst wasn’t possible anymore, but it has put Diana in an awkward position. Her damage nowadays isn’t high enough do to what she was doing before, but as a champion with no escapes and a pretty binary style of play (either go in and delete your target or don’t and struggle to do anything) she’s in a tough spot right now. Currently, Diana’s win rate amongst high elo players is at a dismal 42% (checked on Probuilds) and her usage rate in general sits at about 4%. Riot has stated that they do intend to rework her in the future, but no concrete news has come out of the pipeline yet, so I’m throwing in my proposal to see if people like it, and maybe Riot will take notice too.

Defining Diana

So before we jump into the nitty gritty of the rework, we first have to think about what role Diana plays in the team composition. As league has evolved, we’ve seen more and more that champions are designed with a role in mind instead of being just generalists that CAN fill a lot of roles, but aren’t completely locked into them. Older champions (like Gangplank and Lee sin) offer a view of the old style of Riot champion creation and the lack of a hard role for a champion, and I think Diana was created in the same mindset. Right now, she CAN be played in the jungle. She definitely has the kit to clear, but her efficiency at clearing and ganking are sub-par at best. She also can go in either the mid or top solo lanes, but again, following the nerfs, she does not excel at either, lacking the tools to go toe to toe with most meta picks nowadays. When she was meta, the preferred build for her was as a burst assassin, with zhonyas to wait out her CD’s and then reengage. Now that her numbers have been nerfed she’s bad at that role and doesn’t even have the jungling role to fall back onto since she’s bad at that too.

I propose that we push Diana into the role of a tanky AP fighter. We’ve seen the horrors of burst Diana in mid lane, and I doubt anyone wants to go back to that style of gameplay. The new Diana will be comfortable in the top lane and the jungle. She will be trading her burst for tankiness and more sustained AP damage. Diana will be more Maokai/Gragas and less Leblanc. I think that with her kit theme, base stats, and lore, her role as an AP fighter who can efficiently top lane and jungle should be the direction that her rework is focused on. So without further ado, let’s delve into what I think her skills should look and work like.

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Skill Rework :^)

Passive: Moonsilver Blade

In my opinion, Moonsilver blade should be the bread and butter of Diana’s damage. As a thematic skill, I LOVE the way the animation looks on this skill. Her third strike get’s her blade glowing white with lunar energy and the cleave that she throws out just looks so sweet. That, and the damage it procs is oh so satisfying. As an AP fighter, I think we should focus buffing the damage on her passive and increasing the base amount of attack speed that It grants. In addition to increasing the burst from the proc, I propose that Moonsilver Blade allow Diana’s auto attacks to inflict a portion of her ability power as on-hit damage. I envision Nashors becoming a core item on Diana, and players focus on getting items like Frozen Gauntlet, Wit’s end, and Trinity Force to syngergize with this new passive. Currently, many average Diana players completely ignore the power of her passive and instead just focus on landing her Crescent Strike and Lunar Rush to get off that burst. This mindset has been perpetuated by Diana’s past as a burst assassin who would rely on those two skills to bring the bulk of the damage and maybe finish up with her passive. As an AP fighter, Crescent Strike and Lunar Rush would set up for Moonsilver Blade, and not the other way around. Making Moonsilver blade the focus of her damage has important benefits not only thematically, but also for state of jungle Diana as I will detail below.

Another small thing that Riot ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO DO is add a notification/duration icon on the buff bar whenever the 3rd strike of Moonsilver blade is up. Currently, there is no indication that her proc is up other than the glowing blade. This leads to some confusion by both the player and the enemy as to when the strike will go away as the skill can proc even after the blade stops glowing. Adding that notification/duration icon on the buff bar for Moonsilver blade’s proc duration is something that I’m honestly surprised Riot hasn’t added yet.

TL;DR: • buff moonsilver blade to do ability power damage with auto attacks, hit harder with the proc, scale better with AP, and grant more base attack speed. This will be Diana’s bread and butter damage • Add a notification icon to show if Diana’s proc for the passive is up and its duration. Currently there is no notification except the glowing animation on Diana’s blade

R – Lunar Rush:

Now you may ask why I’m doing this out of order and drawing attention to her ult first, but I believe understanding the changes I’m making to Diana’s ult is crucial to understanding the direction of the changes to the rest of her kit. Currently, Diana’s ult is a point and click gap closer that deals AP damage upon impact. If enemies are struck with the Moonlight debuff that’s procced by her Crescent Strike, Lunar Rush refreshes upon impact with said enemies.

This has been the problem skill in Diana’s kit since her release. With higher numbers, this was the skill that was letting Diana delete the backline without counter play. The skill is not at all hard to land (it’s point and click). You just click on someone and boom, Diana is in your face ready to unload. Now that the damage on it has been nerfed, it’s just a weak gap closer that throws Diana into a battle without any way out. She commits 100% whenever she goes in and has to either kill someone or die trying to. There is no escape. In light of these glaring problems, here’s what I’m proposing:

Diana’s ultimate is now a skillshot. We keep the same range, but we make it a skillshot. The dash will be akin to Vi’s Q. It will be able to cross walls and give mobility to a champion that so desperately needs it. On cast, Lunar Rush will ALWAYS go the maximum distance unless you collide with an enemy champion along the way. I think the fact that it always goes maximum distance fits in with her lore of being blinded with such fury that she can’t control her power and hence doesn’t bother slowing down until someone stops her or she hits something. Lunar rush will be able to run through creeps and deal AOE damage in a straight line, helping her with wave clear. When Lunar Rush collides with a champion, it knocks them back slightly, just like Vi’s Q. Also like Vi’s Q, Lunar Rush can be interrupted by the standard gambit of CC and denial spells. An important feature to emphasize is that enemies who have been knocked back by Lunar Rush CANNOT BE KNOCKED BACK AGAIN for a certain period of time if hit by another Lunar Rush.

In order to compensate for the built in CC and ability to cast it at any time, Lunar Rush will have its base AP nerfed dramatically. I want Lunar Rush to be a gap closer with some initiation more and less of a delete button like we saw on AP assassin Diana. This is all about making Diana into that tough bruiser that’s more fighter and less burster. Furthermore, Lunar rush will also grant Diana bonus Magic Resitance and Armor when it collides with a champion. This will really solidify the fact that Diana is all about being this tough bruiser who’s in your face, fighting and tanking. She is most definitely not a glass canon. Granting the bonus MR and armor ONLY on impact with a champion also introduces an important avenue of counter play. Players who are good at landing their skillshots will receive the buff while players who miss with Lunar Rush will be out of position and totally punishable.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is Lunar Rush’s interaction with Diana’s Q, Crescent Strike and its debuff Moonlight. Currently Lunar Rush will ONLY refresh if the enemy hit already has the Moonlight debuff on them. What I’m proposing is that landing Diana’s Crescent Strike will apply the Moonlight debuff as usual. HOWEVER, landing a Lunar Rush one a debuffed enemy will no longer refresh Lunar Rush. Instead, the refresh will be procced by the 3rd strike of Moonsilver Blade on a debuffed enemy. What does this mean for Diana’s combo? Well first of all, it introduces many avenues of counter play into. Before, if Diana landed her Crescent Strike on a target, she could instantly Lunar Rush in, and then Lunar Rush again, because of the refresh, for some nice burst. This change to the Moonlight debuff’s interaction with Lunar Rush will mean that Diana will have to stick around for a bit and fight debuffed enemies and get that all important 3rd strike with her Moonsilver Blade. Again, this all goes back to making Diana less “burst” and more “fighter. Tying the Moonlight debuff to her passive emphasizes the “Fighter” side of Diana, while also rewarding her for sticking around and proccing her passive with a refresh of her ult.

In grand scheme of things, what does this allow Diana to do? Well, it gives her an out and a fair way of getting it. Diana’s biggest problem currently is that once she goes in, she can’t get out. It’s either all in, or don’t go in at all, and this is because of the way her current Lunar Rush works and its interaction with Crescent Strike. Diana’s current play style rewards players who can land the Q skill shot allowing them a refresh of Lunar Rush to burst the person down. But with the nerfs to Lunar Rush, this has locked Diana’s gameplay into a horrible situation where her skill play is rewarded with a gap closer that puts her into high risk situation without the potential for a “high reward” (read: kill) to compensate. If we keep the current refresh mechanic of Lunar Rush and Moonlight, Diana will become a Lee sin-knock off, being able to zip in on debuffed enemies, refresh her ult, and then zipping right back out quite easily. Thus, a change to the Moonlight debuff is necessary if we want to make Diana’s Lunar Rush a skill shot. I think this is a very smart and efficient solution that not only fits in with her fighter play style, but also gives the other players a chance to react. Players struck by the Moonlight Debuff will know that Diana needs that 3rd strike to go off before she gets a Lunar Rush refresh and can play around that.

With all these changes to Lunar Rush and the Moonlight Debunew Lunar Rush and Crescent Strike mechanics, here’s what I envision Diana’s Crescent Strike-Lunar Rush gameplay to entail:

Example Situation:

• Diana can uses Lunar Rush to get into a fight and knock back some squishies -> she hits her targets with Crescent Strikes, fights using her passive and drops down damage. Once she gets the 3rd strike of Moonsilver Blade off of a debuffed enemy, her Lunar Rush refreshes. From here, she can either use her ult to either pursue more targets, or to get out and let her teammates come in.

Changing Lunar Rush into a skillshot and tweaking how it interacts with the Moonlight Debuff gives so many more options to Diana. First and foremost, now she has the much needed mobility and CC to create big plays with her Lunar Rush. Secondly, the refresh mechanic on her Lunar Rush isn’t as brain dead as just “Lunar Rush to debuffed enemy and then do it again”. Her refresh is now tied to her Moonsilver Blade and in doing so, gives the opponent much more counter play against her, while still giving Diana a fair way of getting her refresh. The new interaction also fits in with her Fighter theme, which is a huge plus as well for anyone who cares about her lore and style. Overall, I don’t see her pre-6 laning/jungling gameplay changing much, but post 6, she will have the mobility necessary to get in and out. She’ll be more like champions who hit mobility power spikes at 6 like Ahri and Kassadin and while still maintaining a consistent play-style and identity.

And as one last stylistic suggestion, If Diana got reworked and this Lunar Rush mechanic were introduced, I say that you make her armor glow white with lunar energy if she procs the bonus MR and armor from landing the ult. This will make it clear to players that she’s currently buffed (and it would look very cool!)

TL;DR: • Lunar Rush is now a skill shot that does less AP damage and grants a bonus MR and Armor buff if it connects with a champion. The Moonlight debuff on Crescent Strike is now changed so that Lunar Rush only refreshes if Diana hits a debuffed enemy with Moonsilver Blade’s proc.

Q – Crescent Strike:

Ah yes, Diana’s “do everything skill”. She farms with it. She harasses with it. She needs it to proc the refresh on her ult. Basically, pre-6 Diana is completely reliant on this skill to do anything in lane. More importantly it applies the Moonlight debuff that is crucial to refreshing Diana’s Lunar Rush. As it currently stands, I like the way this skill works. It allows Diana to wave clear efficiently as well as harass rather well. For the rework, I propose nerfing base AP damage on the skill significantly. HOWEVER, as compensation for this nerf, I think we should change the way the Moonlight debuff works. In addition to the refresh mechanics I stated above, I believe the Moonlight debuff should also cause enemies struck by Moonsilver Blade’s proc to take more damage. This will further cement the fact that Diana’s damage depends on landing hits with her Moonsilver Blade passive. Moonlight will play a crucial role in helping focus Diana’s gameplay on getting procs of Moonsilver blade, further highlighting Diana’s evolution from burst assassin to fighter. With the new Crescent Strike, base damage will be taken away from the skill itself in order to buff the Moonlight passive and allow it to boost Moonsilver Blade’s damage

TL;DR

• Crescent Strike now deals less base AP damage overall • Moolight Debuff significantly changed. Now debuffed enemies take more damage from Moonsilver Blade proc. Also, when debuffed enemies are struck with Moonsilver Blade’s proc, Diana’s Lunar Rush will Refresh • When Moonsilver Blade hits a Moonlight debuffed enemy, the debuff is consumed. All other enemies will have the Moonlight debuffed removed regardless of whether they were the target of Moonsilver Blade

W – Pale Cascade:

I like the animation and look of this skill in its state. It definitely fits with Diana’s AP bruiser image and I think attention should be paid to its numbers more than anything else. I propose that the shield scaling on Pale Cascade should be buffed as well as the base strength. To compensate for this, the base damage of the orbs will be nerfed. Basically, make the shield strength stronger and nerf its damage. With AP bruiser Diana, I want to focus on shifting power to her tankiness/survivability and less on her ability to burst people down. In combination with the bonus MR and armor on her Lunar Rush, Diana’s tankiness will be a force to reckoned with.

More importantly, I believe that Pale Cascade should include a clause that allows the orbs to do double the damage to minions and epic monsters. As I will explain below, a Diana rework should make jungle Diana into a definitive reality, instead of being a weird off pick. I believe giving Pale Cascade this ability will be a welcome change to her kit and solidify her role as a viable jungler.

TL;DR: • Pale Cascade’s orbs now do double the damage to minions and epic monsters. • Pale Cascade’s shield strength and shield scaling are buffed. Pale Cascade’s base orb damage is nerfed.

E – Moonfall :

This is perhaps my favorite skill on Diana just because of how awesome it looks. Diana summons a moon sigil on the ground and pulls people in. It harkens to the whole “gravity” and “moon” theme of Diana and just looks cool through and through. However, when it comes to laning with this skill, results are much less than awesome. I think most Diana players will agree that they don’t even bother putting a point into this skill until at least level 7 since it’s tough to land without the gap closer from Lunar Rush, and doesn’t do anything in terms of damage. It’s useless when you’re trying to lane against your opponent and harass them, especially when that extra skill point could be used for a stronger Crescent Strike or stronger Pale Cascade. With the new Diana, Moonfall will be an integral part of her kit because of its synergy with her passive. Since new Diana’s passive is where a lot of her damage is shifted, Moonfall will be key to CCing your opponent and allowing her to deal the damage with her passive before they can get away.

I think we should slightly (VERY SLIGHTLY) buff the range on the skill. Nothing major, but just give her a little more leeway on it. In addition to this, the slow that it procs should also have a small AP scaling on it.

TL;DR: • Moonfall get's a small range increase • Moonfall get's a small AP scaling added to it

Jungle Diana:

I’ve put a section here specifically addressing jungle Diana and its fit with the game. Currently, the consensus among players with jungle Diana rangers from “It’s ok” to “It’s pretty bad”. Her clears are mediocre seeing as how she’s surprisingly fragile because of her need for AP to clear efficiently. She is completely reliant on blue buff because of her shallow mana pool and cost of her Pale Cascade to clear camps. Her ganks pre-6 are horrible and amount to little more than walking into lane, throwing a Crescent Strike at her target, and then leaving (lol). Post-6 her ganks are much better, but her build path does not allow her to scale well into the late game. As a jungler, she will not be able to hit the AP item threshold she needs to delete people, unlike if you played her mid. As tanky Diana, she can go in, splash around for a bit, and then die without killing anyone, peeling for anyone, or mattering at all. It’s a harsh world out there for jungle Diana.

With the changes to her kit, specifically her Moonsilver Blade, Crescent Strike and her W, jungle Diana will finally be a viable (if not preferable) thing! As it currently stands, Diana’s clears are very lackluster. She relies too much on her abilities to clear and can go out of mana extremely fast without blue buff. The reason for this is her reliance on Pale Cascade to safely clear her camps, especially in the new jungle. Pale Cascade is her highest mana costing ability, but needs to be spammed in addition to Crescent strike to efficiently clear. Many people therefore maxed Crescent Strike in the jungle for Diana in order to put more power on a more mana efficient skill. Crescent Strike also has more ganking power due to being ranged, leaving Pale Cascade a poor choice for being maxed in the jungle. A reworked Diana will opt to max W first in the jungle, since the bonus damage to minions will allow her to clear much more efficiently. In addition to this, there will be less reliance on Crescent strike to clear as well, since Moonsilver Blade will bring all the damage she will need. One or two points into Crescent Strike will be sufficient for jungle Diana since you will only need the Moonlight debuff it provides to buff your Moonsilver Blade damage. This way, two clear and distinct skill paths for Diana emerge. For lane Diana, you’ll want to max Crescent Strike first to get the most long ranged harass potential and increase the damage you deal to the other guy in lane with your Moonsilver Blade. For Jungle, you can max Pale Cascade first for the shielding and bonus orb damage to minions. Crescent can be maxed second as its raw damage is no longer as crucial as its Moonlight debuff it provides.

The new jungle Diana will play more like Shyvana and Warwick in the sense that her ganking potential increases dramatically post 6. Pre-6, she can utilize her passive and her W to farm the jungle efficiently and get that valuable EXP and hit 6 quicker. While the current jungle Diana plays similarly to this, limitations to her mana pool, ability efficiency, and raw stats stop her from clearing AND ganking efficiently. A reworked Diana won’t have these problems and because of her buffed Moonsilver Blade, changes to Crescent Strike, and changes to Pale Cascade. I believe this will make jungle Diana not only viable, but healthier and more fun overall.

Conclusion

Diana is an awesome champion, with a bit of an identity crisis right now. She used to be a burst assassin, but she was much too good at that and had to be nerfed. However, that nerf has made her mediocre to sub-par in every other role she could potentially fill. Her gameplay is currently stayle and predictable; her damage laughable unless you snowball like crazy. As you can see, my rework has addressed the major problem with her kit, her R, and proposed changes to fix it. In addition to that, I’ve proposed a gameplay direction for her that would solidify her role as a tanky AP fighter, instead of having her be a jack of all trades and master of none. Changes to her Moonsilver Blade and Crescent Strike have shifted her damage to her melee fighting and less to her actual ability damage. Changes to Pale Cascade in combination with the other changes also make Diana a very potent jungler as well. My proposed rework introduces avenues of counter play into her play style, while tuning her numbers so that she can fulfill her role much more efficiently. I believe that if Riot were to rework her with these suggestions in mind, that Diana will become awesome once more and just be more fun to play in general.