Let's Talk About Diana
Hello Everyone,
I've recently been exploring various champions to try and tease out their strengths and discover their weaknesses and Diana just happened to strike me as a character of interest. Diana at first glance appears to be a bruiser mage with increased durability to help her survive the engagements, however I have determined that, while she excels at engaging a single target and doing fairly high damage, she is incapable of disengaging or surviving any length of time against tanky bruisers or two+ targets. This makes team-fights incredibly difficult as you often engage, burst, Zhonias, and then either you have wiped the enemy team or you are dead. Her kit also stresses the use of auto-attacks to engage the passive damage bonus, but requires multiple auto-attacks before you deal that extra burst of damage. This is counter-intuitive since you either burst the enemy down with excessive AP, leaving you with low resistances, or you build tanky and deal very little damage. Her high mana costs also make it very difficult to harass the enemy opponent in lane or clear jungle effectively without constant use of the blue buff.
Analysis: Q - This is a powerful tool for dealing damage at moderate range on a relatively short cooldown. The high mana cost of this skill often makes it difficult to use repeatedly without draining your supply. When combined with Lunar Rush (R), it resets your ultimate to allow for a quick recast of your primary mobility tool. I do not think players are rewarded enough for landing this skill, as the firing arc is abnormal and is actually relatively difficult to land unless you are already on top of your target. W - This ability gives Diana a small shield that is replaced once all three orbs are detonated on a target. This is meant as a jungle clearing tool as well as provide some additional defense while engaging an enemy. Personally I think that the cooldown on this ability is a little high, considering that the defense it provides is relatively low. Either the shield needs to have its value increased, or the cooldown needs to be lowered. E - This ability allows Diana to stick to her target for additional time and disrupts any channeled abilities by pulling targets closer to Diana and applying a moderate slow for a couple seconds. This ability, while useful against immobile champions, deals no damage and applies a relatively weak slow in terms of duration and strength. I always have felt that this ability either needs a passive associated with it or needs to affect Diana's kit in some other way to make it easier for Diana to stick to a target (to make use of her passive). Just in general, this ability does not deserve to be on such a long cooldown for how little it actually impacts the game. R - This is Diana's primary method of mobility. It does relatively good damage and charges the target and can be reset if cast on a target that has been recently hit by Q. While I think this ability is in a relatively decent spot, the 100 mana cost per cast becomes rapidly overwhelming in extended engagements. Combine this cost with the cost of Q and you run out of mana after only a few short casts.
Summary: Diana is a powerful champion who has potential to annihilate a defenseless target with relative ease, however if you engage a target for any extended periods of time, you will likely be unable to survive long enough to escape, or have any mana to continue the fight. Diana has been pigeonholed into an expendable bursty assassin that should be able to take out the opposing carries before rapidly being killed, yet her kit suggests a bruiser-like design.
For the life of me I can not seem to be successful with this champion. She is out-competed by many junglers and has a relatively difficult time in lane with significant mana issues. By the time I finally have enough ability power to start trading effectively, I am not tanky enough to deal with enemy carries.
What do you think? Do you have any suggestions to improve her kit? Do you think I am completely wrong? I would like to hear your feedback!
