How to make Diana a Fighter? - Part 1

Hi All,

So I've recently been having some very interesting conversations with members of this subreddit about a “fighter” Diana. To give you some idea of my experience I am a 31 year old who has been playing online games since I was 13 (yeah I'm old but that also means experienced xD). I have been part of paid and unpaid beta tests for years, most notably on Legend of Mir, World of Warcraft (from vanilla to wrath), Aion and Dragonshard, and spend a fair amount of time on PBE on League (time and kids allowing xD). Because of this I understand Meta's and balancing pretty well, as well as what makes a champion suited to a certain style of play/build.

With this in mind I've decided to put forward some idea's around Diana to turn her into a TRUE AP diver. Please note these are not all being put forward with the suggestion that they all take place together, but rather that one or two of them could be used to build the types of things that will enhance her as a “fighter” while limiting her as an assassin. I know that will likely upset some of you that love the assassin Diana playstyle, but in truth its like going full AP Malphite; you can do it and it can work, but not what he was meant to be.So first off what is it that is needed to be a fighter? Well if you look at AD fighters you'll see they have a few of things in common.

Items that allow scaling through tanky stats or passive/base scaling (Titanic, Steraks, Trinity Force, Black Cleaver)

Abilities that synergise with the items for their class (AA resets, On hit application, scaling from tanky stats etc)

Armour/MR/Shield Shred through abilities and/or items.

So what does Diana need to be a fighter? Well the things I'm going to look at are:

Abilities (and scalings)

Items

Naturally I can't fit all of this in one post as it will just be too long, so will do items in a separate one in the next few days xD

So lets start with abilities. Diana's abilities work on the basis of jump in and do damage. Her passive rewards attack speed, as does her E passive, her Q is poke and vision, her W is her defence, are E active is her CC, and her R is of course her engage. Really these abilities are ALMOST perfect for a fighter, but are lacking a couple of things that you can see in the points above.

With this in mind these are the changes I would look at for her abilities. Again note I am not suggestion ALL of these at the same time, but some as needed. Numbers would of course need tweaking so don't judge on the number but on the IDEA xD

> Passive - Moonsilver Blade: > > Innate Removed > > Passive changed to a spellblade proc (after casting a spell the next AA procs) > > Damage scaling reduced from 80% AP to 50% AP Mana regen changed to 10% of missing mana

This change will reward both CDR and reduce Diana's requirement for attack speed without removing it completely. Changing the mana regen to missing mana also reduces Diana's reliance on AP to maintain her mana pool.

> Q - Crescent Strike: > > Active damage base damage reduced to 50/70/90/120/150 Active Scaling reduced to 60% AP scaling Moonlight Effect changed to: Targets are afflicted with Moonlight for 5 seconds giving vision of them for the duration. Taking damage from Diana during this time will cause Moonlight to erupt in Moonfire, burning the target for 30/45/60/75/90 damage over 3 seconds and reducing their MR by 10% (stacks 3 times). >

Again here we are reducing the requirement for AP, a reduction in burst, and instead adding extra sustained damage in the form of MR shred and burn damage. This will also promote a CDR based build over huge AP stack builds. Also for those Lore buffs, remember when Diana kills the elders? Moonfire baby xD

> W – Pale Cascade: > > Active shield scaling changed from 30% AP to 20% AP + 10% Bonus HP > > Active Damage scaling changed from 20% AP to 15% AP +7.5% Bonus HP >

Here we've again reduced Diana's reliance on AP, while now introducing HP as a beneficial stat for her damage and shielding.

> E - Moonfall: > > Passive removed > > Active range increased to 300 units > > New Effect 1: Grants 30%/40%/50%/60%/70% bonus attack speed for 5 seconds > > New Effect 2: Grants 40%/55%/70%/85%/100% bonus MR and Amour for 1.5 seconds >

So here we've reduced the passive attack speed (as our passive doesn't need it anymore) and instead added some scaling towards Armour and MR to allow more tankiness when we go in. However, this scales based on the MR and armour you already have, meaning the benefit you gain from it is dependant on building something tanky. Other ideas I had was for this to apply Moonlight, but I felt that would be too much. Again, tweaking required xD

> R – Lunar Rush: > > Moonlight consumed on all targets removed > > Does not reset on Moonfire > > Base damage damage reduced to 100/140/200 > > Range reduced to 700 units >

So this is a change a LOT of Diana mains cry out for. Call it mobility, escape, outplay or just an ult that works better, it seems the right way to go. However this would HAVE to be changed alongside the Q changes as you will realise pretty soon. Yes the range is reduced, yes the damage is less, but having it reset without removing moonlight from EVERYONE would be massive. This still wouldn't give her perfect mobility as remember Moonlight can become Moonfire now which of course would not reset her R, but it would also mean to make use of this change Diana players would have to THINK about when to use their AOE, not just go in and blow everything. Positioning and timing will be key to making this succeed which is why there is the reward

So those are the idea's I had for Diana's transition to being a fighter. I've stayed away from base stats for obvious reasons and given a short explanation for each change. I would consider moving some of the stuff around like putting the MR shred on E and the attack speed on Moonfire, and tbh this is more about changing the components and scalings to fit a fighter than getting all of them perfect. It;s the IDEAS that matter xD. There are other options, and I look forward to hearing all your thoughts.

I'll try and do the item one soonish (kids allowing) and hope you all enjoy!

– Loki –