Diana Theorycrafting

TL;DR AP/AS/CDR vs. Armor/MR/Mana/CDR/AP Assassin build vs. Fighter build Which role does she fill better? I make the argument that she fills the Fighter/Mage (sustained damage can tank) class better than the traditional Assassin/Mage (bursty AP glass cannon) class. What are your thoughts?

Ever since the AP item update Nashor's tooth has become a core item on many an Azir and Diana. In pro play you almost always see it being built as her first item because the additional attack speed increases her passive proc and the CDR allows her to spam abilities. Something I always found interesting though, is that her passive gives her a natural permanent 20% increased attack speed. I always thought that was weird, because if they wanted her to have more attack speed why wouldn't they just increase her base stats right? After digging into it a bit I began to wonder if Riot intentionally wants to steer her away from attack speed builds. She has extremely low base attack speed, and is in a big tie for the 4th lowest attack speed in the game. Meaning that any additional attack speed buffs will have a smaller benefit on her than any champion with higher base attack speed. To make up for this she has an additional 20% attack speed at all levels via her passive. Because she cannot build AD like most fighters, she relies on the high level 1 attack speed to proc her passive and last hit minions without using her spells, which without items quickly drain her mana in all stages of the game.

After playing over 200 games on Diana I tend to think that her passive damage is not intended to be spammed as often as possible via attack speed builds, but is meant as a way to last hit minions in lane w/o mana and as an opportunistic way to deal a huge burst of damage if timed with a successful Q skill shot. Instead of prioritizing AS/AP/CDR I am starting to think she is best if you spread her build over Armor/MR/Mana/CDR/AP. This would be in line with her "fighter" title as her primary role, as opposed to her current mage/assassin role. I mostly play her top, and have experimented with tank items like Frozen Heart and RoA for the CDR, increased W shield value, and increased mana pool for sustained combo spam. At max CDR and level she can pull off her Q R combo every 3.67 seconds, which when she is tanky + Lich Bane can be considered a sustained damage (definition of a fighter) as opposed to the traditional glass cannon assassin build that she is most commonly seen with. Also, the longer you survive a fight the more you can proc her passive. So if you compare the amount of passive procs she gets from surviving a fight 10 seconds longer with no AS items to dying quicker with AS items they may actually be pretty similar.

Discuss.