Dancing with Death in the Moonlight

RoyceRollin·Mar 4, 2014·2 votes·693 views

Diana is what hooked me onto league. Vesh posted in a thread about changing diana into more of a bruiser I think this is the absolute wrong direction.

Problems with diana that I see: She can unload her whole kit on you if she lands one spammable moderately easy to hit skill shot. When she is strong this makes her a nightmare when she's weak there isn't anything else she can do. She has no escapes to speak of and her only cc ability pulls the enemy closer that she's running from. Her passive is a great part about her kit. One of the distinctions between good dianas and bad ones are the use of her passive during laning phase. The problem is it becomes extremely unreliable anywhere outside of laning phase and itemization for it is a trap in late game. You either build ap to make it worth getting off or tankyness/Atkspeed so you can get it off reliably but have it only tickle. The moonlight debuff and Her ult refresh is another distinctive mechanic. I always felt like there wasnt enough options with it though.

What I would love to see changed:

(P)Moonsilver Blade He passive ratio increased from (.6 ap) to (.8) ap Base damages increas from (15 + 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 at each level) to (25+10/15/20/25/30) at each level) Now reads "After three charges Diana cleaves nearby enemies on her next basic attack. Diana gains a charge every basic attack or consumption of moonlight.

(R)Lunar Rush Base Damage down from 100 / 160 / 220 to 50/80/110 CD increased from 25/20/15 to 30/25/20 No longer consumes all other moonlight debuffs.

Explanation: What this means is that Diana now relies more on her passive damage and has more decisions on how to proc it than just auto attack more. Lunar rush is now used for more than a way unload your whole kit. Now lunar rush can be used to dodge around a fight, chase down an opponent, charge up her passive faster on other targets before going for the back line or unloading on the carry then dashing around the moonlight charging up her passive before going back for the kill with a charged moonsilver blade again.

All the numbers could be messed with I don't think theyre right just the direction to go with them. Q and W could be tinkered with as well

TLDR Lunar rush no longer consumes moonlight debuff allowing diana to dash to multiple target but with less front loaded damage while moonlight consumptions also charge dianas passive faster. Bruiser diana is not diana. Diana should be dashing around in the moonlight using her moonblade to achieve her vengeance.

Anybody else like this idea? Other thoughts?

8 Comments

Nox AeternamMar 4, 20142 votes

Diana as a bruiser? Ick, no thanks!

I thought Riot was crazy about the Mid-lane assassin meta, why would they ruin one of the most fun to play?

I dunno that her ult needs changing really, I feel it would just turn her into a Master Yi (her combo becomes R, R, R, R, R, R, recall because I'm out of mana).. Maybe that's just me being a Yi-hater, but.. I dunno. I like her how she is. She feels like she has just enough mobility with being able to R onto a target once.

RoyceRollinMar 4, 20141 votes

Don't get me wrong I love diana but riot has talked about how she can't stay the way she is and be strong or they will have to nerf her. Theyre going to change her. How they change her is the real question.

"I dunno that her ult needs changing really, I feel it would just turn her into a Master Yi (her combo becomes R, R, R, R, R, R, recall because I'm out of mana).. "

I dont think it will be like Yi at all. It would be more like akali or yasuo. She gets multiple dashes but not invulnerable. Her R would be more for the utility than the straight up damage.

Nox AeternamMar 4, 20141 votes

I feel Riot will change her strength, but not her playstyle.

I think I'm just worried teamfights will become games of 'stun the Diana' because all she'll be doing is initiating with a Q, then diving in and dashdashdashdashdash doing Tons of Damage (copyright Morello, MMXIV) while nearly impossible to hit.

Also.. do we really want another Akali?

RoyceRollinMar 4, 20141 votes

Well thats why I said to reduce the ults damage by ALOT. I also dont know how she would RRRRR unless she hit that many people with her Q which means they were all sitting there to grouped in a huge bunch.
Akali's problems are her stealth and resets not her dashes

Nox AeternamMar 4, 20141 votes

I know it's her stealth that's the problems, I'm just saying.. She's annoying because she's so blasted hard to hit. I dunno, I feel like Diana's mechanic of 'tag someone, jump on the poor sucker, the blow them up and run away' is a good style for her. Very assassin-y. I feel like giving her that many more ults would change that and turn her away from the assassin style.

RoyceRollinMar 4, 20141 votes

It has very little counterplay though

My changes are to give her time where she's vulnerable and can get caught as she uses moonlight debuffs to help charge her passive before she jumps to her main target as well as outplay potential on her part for dodging abilities if timed right. Also opens up her choice on when she wants to use her sheild, use it to help her survivability early or for damage when she jumps on her target.

Gospel NoctisMar 4, 20141 votes

As seen on the real forums a vast majority of the people who care enough to post about it don't like the idea of bruiser Diana. If Riot has to shove her into a single role, even though Diana's entire point was to be a slightly tankier assassin, most people seemed to prefer that they just make her a straight assassin.

The big fear with bruiser Diana is that all they'll do is lower all of her damage numbers with a slight increase to shield strength or base numbers and all that will happen is that she jumps in, does mediocre damage, then dies. With assassin Diana you at least get the assurance that if you go in, you're probably going to kill someone, which is a lot more than a bruiser play style would give her.

My take on it is that I like her current playstyle, and I much prefer assassins to bruisers for exactly the reasons stated above. It would also be much easier to tailor her current kit into that of a straight up assassin. Lower shield strength and buff damage numbers, done. A bruiser play style would require a rebalancing of almost every ability.

Knight DevoutMar 4, 20141 votes

I thought about this too when Vesh exposed that issues with Diana's kit.

Personally, I think that Diana's kit should be more revolved around hunting down a single person at a time. Plus in your proposed change it's not clear when Diana has to stop Ulting...just when she ends her mana? :S If I were to change her kit someway, I'd increase the damage on Q : Crescent Strike, increase its cooldown, make the passive AS scale with level up to 50% (similar to Nasus), and allow Lunar Rush and autoattacks against champions (or jungle monsters) to reduce the cooldown on Q, similar to alpha strike.

The play pattern would change as follow. Diana is now much more exposed if she misses her Q as she has to waits more, and has no safe way to reduce that without going toe to toe with lunar rush. When Diana connects, and engages (which shouldn't always happen as she is now more gated by cooldown, eventually even by mana), she has to actively attack her enemy to keep her Lunar Rush(and Crescent Strike) damage up, so she has still the same damage, but the time gaps between she applies it are larger, unless she manages to stick to the enemy , in which case she make quick work out of him.