Moon Reborn: Ideas for Diana

Alright, I'm gonna start with this: Diana is my favorite champion. It's more than just I main her, or she's my go to, she's my waifu. I first started league in between season 2 and 3, right before Diana was announced. I only bought one champion and I never played pvp because I felt like I was never ready. Then Diana was summoned to the rift. I read her lore over and over, I consistently thought of different ways to utilize her kit, I saved up 6300 IP just waiting for the day she was available. I bought her right away, manned up and went to pvp, nonstop moon action

I only say this so everyone knows I'm not just talking about some champ that needs a patching up, I'm talking about the champ that made me want to play league.

With that out of the way, every post concerning Diana always circles the same thought, is she assassin or bruiser? Is she tanky or just an akali rip off?

To be honest, that issue is sort of what Diana is supposed to be. She's made to be a destructive force that tears through a fight. She's supposed to hone in on a target and melt them in the moonlight. Right now the things holding her back are her strengths (not trying to sound fancy). Although her kit says brawler, her playstyle says assassin. However, being a jack of all trades makes her a master of none. are a few assassins that get the job done faster, and more efficiently. (with his new update)are better at being bulky while dishing out the aoe damage for the team fights. In the end, Diana is a good champ, and still viable, but is outclassed by many champs in the same category. Many in the community have their ideas about how her kit should be changed to make her a brawler or assassin so she doesn't straddle the line. For me, her being a mix makes diana a unique champion to play, but the thing holding her back is her mobility being subpar and aoe being nonexistent.

I'm going to run through each of her abilities with my notes on how to tweak them to give Diana a dynamic playstyle and become a threat unique to her alone.

(Passive) Moonsilver Blade: This passive gives diana her unique dueling edge, however once in teamfights it becomes unnoticable. I believe the ap ratio this this skill is fine where it is at (it's pretty bursty atm), but adjustments to her other skills will be made. The tweaks to her main kit I envision will make this passive a true force and her main source of damage

(Q) Crescent Strike: Again, this unique skill shot gives Diana a cool laning phase and initiation, while being a good poke as well. The only criticism I've noticed about this skill shot is that its easy to land, while dealing a good chunk of damage. One of the options is just to slow the speed of the shot, which could be a quick fix, but I feel it would lead to future issues. Here are my thoughts:

*Remove the aoe burst at the end of the skill, lower the scaling (maybe even just make it a flat amount), but increase the range. The shot will then look more like a crescent moon (thin at start and end, but larger area in the middle) That way the initial activation will grow, so mid way it will hit the most targets, while the end it most likely will nip one. The ratio should be lower, because late game I've seen this ability (one made to set up her ult) chunk top laners by 1/4 of their hp. This change will weaken her early game poke a bit, but in team fights she has a higher chance of hitting targets. As for it being weak, don't worry there are big plans later.

(W) Pale Cascade: This is Diana's sustain/damage nullifier. This is the skill that gives Diana her ability to be a brawler, as well has easy wave clear. Although this skill could remain the same, I have an idea to make it more effective for the aoe assassin I envision for Diana:

*Remove the balls. The one complaint I hear about her shield is that for it being mainly defensive, it takes too long for the 2nd activation to appear in a fight. This is the way (I believe) Pale Cascade could be changed. After the first activation, a shield appears around diana to absorb damage, if the initial shield is broken, Diana releases an aoe burst with a refreshed shield(could be debated whether or not the shield should be refreshed) This way her shield becomes more offensive, in a fight if focused the burst aoe and 2nd shield happen immediately, but if not, if no one attacks Diana enough to break the shield, theres no aoe, damage output lowered, and no 2nd shield for safety. Raise the ratios, and make this skill about the power of her current Q, maybe even more. As a final thought on this, the aoe burst applies moonlight to damaged enemies. The reason behind this will come when we get to her ult.

(E) Moonfall: Diana's utility, and another ability that lands her in the bruiser category. However, I got some things to say about this:

*...I dunno. To be honest, this ability is fine how it is. If anyone in the community has gripes about it, feel free to say. Overall, I don't see it needing a change. Now it's time for the good part.

(R) Lunar Rush: Ah, here it is. The ability that makes Diana so scary. The ability to be used twice is nice, and the damage it deals alone is pretty good as well, but even with a 2nd cast this ability doesn't let Diana move around enough for what I envision:

*If used on a target afflicted with Moonlight, all other targets afflicted keep the debuff. In addition, when activated, Diana's next auto attack applies Moonsilver Blade's Cleave, as if it was her 3rd auto attack. In order to compensate for this extra mobility and use, Lunar Rush needs its ratios dropped like with Crescent strike. This change makes Diana's passive a much more important skill, and Diana's aoe damage will be raised drastically while her single target burst is lowered a bit.

With these changes, I believe Diana could fulfill a role as not bruiser or assassin, but as an AOE Brawler. Diana's current state is having her Q and Ultimate as her main sources of damage, with these changes her Passive and W become the main sources, carried out by her Q becoming more of a poke and Ultimate becoming more utility rather than burst. With the moonlight debuff remaining on marked targets, Diana can (in theory) ult every member of the enemy team, auto attacking in between, and dishing out huge aoe while still making her way to primary targets, and in the middle of a fight her shield giving her another round of aoe burst with her ultimate and passive. Although it lowers her single target damage a bit, her increased stickiness can mend it.

Even with changes like this, newer summoners can still use Diana the same way, the same playstyle since at the core she hasn't changed. With more experienced players, this extra mobility and utility open up many new opportunities to fighting styles, itemization, and counterplay.

This is just my idea to a kit for Diana to fix existing issues and making her a more viable pick in certain situations. Tell me what you think, im open to all ideas.