In-depth guide on Diana Jungle

Intro

Diana is currently a very strong jungler in every level of play. Since 12.1's patch where her passive's AP ratio and monster damage was buffed, giving her an above average clear speed she has made her way up the current meta. Its easy-to-learn kit makes this champion incredibly useful for people in the lower ranks, while still making it a go-to pick in higher elo.

My name is C3, and in this extensive guide you will find all the information you need to know to start playing Diana Jungle effectively. I will be talking you through Diana's kit and the best playstyles and builds for patch 12.3, as well as combos, clear paths and other useful tips.

Abilities

Having a good understanding of how Diana's passive works is great for clearing jungle camps or minions. As for her E ability, it's also important to know when E'ing a target not afflicted by moonlight is worth. The Ultimate is a very powerful move that can change the course of teamfights (or end them way faster), so mastering when you should use your R is key to winning fights, and may take a few games practice to understand.

Moonsilver Blade

Ability

PASSIVE: "Every third strike cleaves nearby enemies for an additional magic damage. After casting a spell, Diana gains attack speed for her next 3 attacks."

Diana's passive is a strong skill that makes her jungle clearing power very high. The extra damage and AoE makes it very easy to clear Wolves, Raptors and Krugs. When clearing jungle camps, especially in your first clears, it's important that you keep the bonus attack speed active for as long as possible. For example, at level 2, Rather than using Q and instantly E (or W) to burst the next camp, use your Q, attack 3 times then E right before Q's Moonlight wears off, then attack another 3 times and you'll have Q up again to loop it, keeping the attack speed up and clearing camps much faster. This also works on champions (if you're looking for an extended trade) and for towers, making Diana a very good split pusher and side laner.

Crescent Strike

Ability

Q - "Diana unleashes an arc of lunar energy, dealing magic damage and marking with moonlight for 3 seconds."

This should always be the first skill you learn as well as the first to max. It's low cooldown early game (compared to the other abilities) and decent damage allows for the fastest first camp clear. It's a great move for poke and when fighting champions, you wanna make sure you land it before engaging with your E - Lunar Rush to maximize damage and of course, to get the cooldown reset.

Pale Cascade

Ability

W - "Diana creates three orbiting spheres that detonate on contact with enemies to deal damage in an area. She also gains a temporary shield that absorbs damage. If her third sphere detonates, the shield gains additional strength."

This ability is Diana's only form of sustain. When engaging on enemy champions, you should always use this ability as you dash in with your E - Lunar Rush, as not only will it increase the damage output, but also tank some damage. As you land on the enemy champion, the orbs detonate near instantly giving you the second half of the shield while you're still on them and allowing you to sustain through the fight a bit longer (or disengage safely when trading blows).

Lunar Rush

Ability

E - "Diana becomes the living embodiment of the vengeful moon, dashing to an enemy and dealing magic damage. Lunar Rush has no cooldown when used to dash to an enemy afflicted with Moonlight. All other enemies will have the Moonlight debuff removed regardless of whether they were the target of Lunar Rush."

It's important to understand this ability. Lunar Rush has a great range, making Diana able to dash long distances into an enemy. It's the most important move to know when to use. If it's used on a target affected by Moonlight, you will get a cooldown reset on the move, meaning that if you land your Q on an enemy before dashing, you will be able to dash to them and then have your dash ready for another enemy. Knowing how to use this move alongside Diana's ultimate gives you a very powerful engage tool, capable of gathering up 4 or even all 5 enemy champions and damaging them all at once, and positioning them nicely for your team to finish them if done right.

Moonfall

Ability

R - "Diana reveals and draws in all nearby enemies and slows them. If Diana pulls in one or more enemy champions, the moonlight crashes down onto her after a short delay, dealing magic damage in an area around her, increased for each target beyond the first pulled."

Moonfall is a very powerful ability in teamfights. Its large AoE and crash speed, combined with Diana's long range dash makes this move insanely good at clustering multiple enemies together, heavily damaging them all. The fact that the more targets pulled beyond the first increase its damage, makes this ability force the enemy team to play more carefully, and not to stay close together as it's very hard to react to the engage when done right or from a blind spot. A 4-5 man moonfall will place the whole enemy team at very low HP leaving them vulnerable to Diana's allies or herself.



Runes

When playing Diana jungle, there isn't many options when it comes to runes. Over 90% of the time, you are going to want to use one of the Conqueror rune pages below. This is the best fitting rune for almost every matchup, however, other rune pages can be just as strong, or even stronger - it all comes down to preference or matchup.

I will be breaking down below in depth the rune choices, how they work and why they're the strongest. (If you already understand these, you may skip to the next point)

• Conqueror #1
• Conqueror #2
• Electrocute

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RUNE BREAKDOWN

Conqueror #1 / #2

The main path for both these rune pages is the same, this is because for most of your games this will be the best rune to go. Conqueror's stacking damage bonus is great on Diana as she can proc it very quickly. Triumph can be clutch thanks to its healing after kill and the bonus gold is a nice addition. Legend: Alacrity's stacking attack speed is very good on Diana, since her passive's 3rd AA gives a really good damage bonus + AoE, and you want to be proccing it as much as possible. It also helps a lot with faster clearing camps and minions. Coup de Grace should be your go-to for most matchups as its damage bonus onto low enemy targets will really help finishing off ganks and other kills in the game, though the other options are still reliable and are matchup dependant.

Secondary Paths for Conqueror

With conqueror, Diana can go any of the other 4 rune pages. If you don't understand runes too well, or aren't used to Diana yet, Inspiration is always the most reliable choice.

Inspiration: Is super effective for most junglers, Diana included. Magical Footwear's extra movement speed and free boots will make it a lot faster to get your first item. Cosmic Insight will lower your summoner spell cooldowns, as well as items such as Zhonya's or Rocketbelt by a decent amount.

Domination: Will increase your burst damage. Sudden Impact and Eyeball Collection are the best options when you're looking to maximize burst, as th ey increase your overall magic penetration and give you AP scaling. Relentless Hunter is a great choice as the movement speed it gives is useful for Diana to roam. Ultimate Hunter is also a great choice as the cooldown reduction can give you more chances to use Diana's R.

Sorcery: Can be used if you want to have better late game scaling. Absolute Focus is great for when you're engaging at full hp and Gathering Storm will make you a bigger threat the longer the game lasts.

Resolve: This rune is way better for when playing in mid lane, to avoid being poked out of lane. In jungle however, although not as strong, you can always build tankier items on Diana, (such as riftmaker or demonic embrace). Those items can scale really well when using this rune with Shield Bash and Overgrowth, and it can also prove very useful for a lot of Mid lane Diana matchups, but for Jungle it's not as efficient.

Additional Stats: No matter what rune page you go, +10% Attack Speed and+9 Adaptive Force should always be picked as your additional stats. The Attack speed will greatly increase your clears. Armor or Magic Resist is match up dependant, but when in doubt always go Armor.

The Electrocute rune page is mainly for when you're looking to go an assassin build on Diana. It can be very strong when the enemy team has 4+ squishy targets (I don't recommend using it if that's not the case), as if you get a lead early on, it will become very easy to snowball the game. Otherwise having the consistent stacking damage provided by Conqueror is preferred.

Summoner Spells

Diana can hardly benefit from anything other than Flash + Smite. Flash is necessary as Diana is an engage champion, so having Flash for engaging or disengaging afterwards is key to making her strong, as well as to save you from sticky situations.

Skill Path

When starting the game, Q should always be your first skill. It is the best for clearing whatever camp you start on. Whenever you clear your first camp and get level 2, picking W or E depends on what camp you will be doing next. For example, if you start red buff with a leash and will be moving on to raptors or krugs, W is a better choice, as you will be able to sustain their damage as well as damage all of them at once yourself, giving you a healthier clear. If your 2nd camp is something like Gromp though, E is better as you'll be able to consistently throw Q and E to keep the passive attack speed steady for a greater clear time.

You should always max Q first as its damage is great for poking down, and you need its CDR as early as possible to make sure you can get those E resets.

When it comes to the second skill, it's fine to max either W or E first. Getting W maxed earlier will give you a larger shield, making you slightly tankier as well as increasing orb damage output. If you max E 2nd, there will be a damage increase as well as a shorter cooldown which may be really good early on if you don't get a Q reset (or have already used both E's) and need your E to get back quicker. Personally, I prefer E max 2nd, but both are just as good and are completely up to preference.

• E max 2nd
• W max 2nd

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Item Builds

Diana has a very straightforward build. Most games you will want to build Hextech Rocketbelt as your mythic, but not necessarily first item. I'll be going more in-depth about each choice right below.

Emberknife should be your first item in every game. It's better than Hailblade since Diana doesn't really struggle when it comes to chasing, so getting the bonus damage and damage reduction from Emberknife is a lot more useful than Hailblade's slow.

When you recall for the first time, you can get Hextech Alternator rather than Blasting Wand if you're sure that you're gonna be wanting to go Rocketbelt first item. However, Blasting Wand first keeps open the option of rushing Nashor's Tooth first item, which is great on Diana as it improves her jungle clear by a lot. You should try to identify if you're in a match where engage tools will be more useful early game, or whether you'll be having to outfarm the enemy jungler to get ahead. Whichever you rush, it's still good. You can also build Night Harvester, which has the same build path as Rocketbelt. Both these mythics are good, the basic difference is that multi-enemy R engages will be stronger with Night Harvester, while Hextech Rocketbelt makes it a lot easier to land engages overall, also allowing you to get out of red zones thanks to its mobility. Riftmaker is more useful when you play diana in lane thanks to its sustain, but I don't recommend building it in jungle often.

Sorcerer boots should always be your first choice, but you may go Plated Steelcaps or Mercury Treads if the enemy team is full AD or full AP respectively.

Zhonya's Hourglass is a great item to get early on Diana. She isn't very tanky, so most of the times when engaging the enemy team with your R, you're gonna be very exposed for a few moments, so, more than most other AP champions, you need Zhonya's to make sure you don't die as soon as you engage.

Shadowflame and Rabadon's Deathcap increase your overall damage by quite a lot, but depending on what stage of the game you're in and in your own teams' and enemy teams' composition, you may consider other items.

Lich Bane can make your 3rd AA do a lot of damage if you use an ability right before it, Morellonomicon is great against lifesteal heavy teams, Banshee's Veil when you want to avoid being CC'd or Void Staff when you want that flat out damage.

Jungle Clearing Tips/Paths

Diana is a weak early game champion. The low amount of damage and high cooldowns make her very weak when facing most other junglers. Not only that, but the fact that she doesn't have any CC as well makes her a very weak ganker. For that reason, you should focus on doing a full clear most games and rush level 6 ASAP. Fortunately, Diana has a very good early clear time to make that easier. In order to make the most of it, you should know the best paths you can do early game. Note that Diana can full clear at around the same time from both red and blue jungle starts, so it doesn't matter where you start (if you can get a leash from either top or bot lanes, then start on their side).

The first example will include extra tips for clearing each camp. The solo clears will have a video of a healthy clear with a decent clear time - the most suited for your games if you don't want to risk messing up your clear trying to do a faster time without enough practice. I will be showing those clears rather than the fastest possible because, even if you do a few mistakes, you should still finish with a decent time healthy clear, perfect for if you're starting Diana. As for the clears with leash, just follow the suggested path and you'll have no trouble doing a regular clear.

Red jungle start full clear with leash

1 - If you have a leash, start red buff, kite the red buff downwards towards krugs.

2 - Taking E second skill is faster for clearing them, but if you want a healthier clear, take W instead. You can smite the big krug, or you can also smite the red buff, it's whatever you feel like.(If you can manage the Q cooldown so that it's back up as soon as the red buff dies, you can learn E and Q+E over the krugs wall to begin the camp a bit faster).

3 - When nearly finishing krugs, start kiting towards raptors. Try to position yourself so that your Q can hit all raptors, and so your passive also lands on all of them, focus your AA's on the big raptor, your passive and Q (and W if u chose that 2nd) will make sure the smaller ones die without you having AA them. You'll hit level 3 here, so learn the ability left to learn.

4 - Path on to wolves, and same thing here, only hit the big one, the smaller ones will end up dying to your AoE. Kite up towards blue buff and Q it when the big wolf is nearly dead, then E to it.

5 - Here you have 2 options. You can either kill the blue buff and then move to gromp (or do both same time if you're confident) then arrive late at scuttle, or you can kite the blue buff upwards and be ready to use your smite to kill scuttle quickly as soon as it spawns, then circle back to gromp. Knowing which choice you should take comes down to understanding how your enemy jungler will be wanting to play or which side he started. Either way, it's no big deal if you lose scuttle aslong as you didn't lose time over it.

Red Jungle start full clear solo



NOTE: in the video above I did a few mistakes that ended up costing me about 7 seconds of clear time. Your normal clear time using this path should finish at ~3:22. Also note that this isn't the fastest clear path. With a Red start, you can finish a full clear at around 3:10-3:15 if done right using the route: Red>Krugs>Raptors>Wolves>Blue>Gromp. This is a lot riskier and you may fail if you don't have practice.

1 - For a fast and healthy clear you'll be wanting to start raptors, take Q first and start kiting them towards the red buff.

2 - Take E and start Red buff. Kite it down towards krugs, or if you can manage your cooldowns, drag him into the bush then Q+E over the wall into krugs as it dies.

3 - Smite the big krug, then move up to raptors.

4 - Move on to wolves and kite them upwards and start blue buff.

5 - You got 2 options while fighting the blue buff here. Either finish it off then move on to the river to be on time for scuttle spawn and use your smite on it then circle back to gromp, or fight blue buff + gromp together, and move on to scuttle a few seconds late.

Blue Jungle start full clear with leash

1 - Start blue with your leash, Q first as always and start kiting it towards gromp.

2 - Throw your Q at the gromp when it spawns, finish off the blue buff and learn E. Kite the gromp toward wolves. (You may smite gromp or blue buff here)

3 - Only hit the big wolf, as the other 2 should die around the same time as it thanks to your Q and passive AoE.

4 - Move on to raptors, you can easily hit a Q on all of them from the right position, when coming from wolves.

5 - Kite them downwards to red buff. When doing red buff, if you want to slightly speed up your clear time, kite it to the bush closest and time it so when it dies, your Q is up, so you can Q-E to krugs. (You may use your second smite on either big krug or red buff)

Blue Jungle start full clear solo



NOTE: For the faster, riskier clear try Blue>Gromp>Wolves>Raptors>Red>Krugs.

1 - For a healthy decent clear, start Wolves, Q first and kite them towards the blue buff.

2 - E and W are both great to pick 2nd here. W will make your clear a bit healthier, but in the video I went E 2nd (and still ended up with a decent health bar). Smite gromp or blue buff here as well.

3 - Move on to raptors, take the blast cone behind blue buff. Start the raptors, and kite them down to red buff.

4 - Do the red buff and then follow on to krugs.

Combos

Rb = Hexech Rocketbelt, Zh = Zhonya's Hourglass

Diana's combos are easy-to learn, easy-to-execute. The more advanced combos may take some practice to pull off, specially in-game, but once you get used to them and start doing them consistently, it will help you immensely in climbing up the ranks. I will post a clip of each combo and mechanic done by me in practice tool for visual aid. Slow down the videos if you need.

Basic Combos

Level 3 Combo -| Q + E + W + AA | - Basic trade combo and early level engage.



Level 3 Combo with Follow -| Q + E + W + AA + E + AA + AA | - Basic trade/Combo. Use your second E to follow your enemy if he's low HP or doesn't have any moves to trade back with. Land as many AA's as you you can to try and finish off the kill. Can also be used to engage a different enemy.



Level 3 Trade with Disengage -| AA + AA + Q + E + W + AA + E | - Attack nearby minions twice to stack your passive, then engage on the enemy with Q+E+W, proc your passive AA on them and disengage with E.



Extended E -| E + Flash | - Use this to gap close into E range.



R Reposition -| R + Flash | - Use this to reposition your R to surprise your enemy or hit more enemies with the CC. Can also be used to stay close to your enemy if he flashes out of your initial R position.



Medium/Advanced Combos

Minion chase engage -| Q + E + E + W + R | Q + E into a minion to gap close, then engage the enemy with E+W+R. This can often catch your enemy off guard, specially in lower elos.



All-in Burst -| Rb -Q + E + W + R + AA + E + AA + AA | - Rb to gap close into Q range, then E-W-R all at once and AA, use 2nd E to stay glued to your enemy and AA twice more to proc your passive's damage.



All-in Extended Combo -| Rb + Q + E + W + AA + R + AA + AA + E + AA + AA + Q | - Rb to gap close into Q range, then E-W to the target and AA him, then use your ultimate to keep him close and keep AA'ing. E to stay glued and continue to AA and finish off with Q if needed.



Extended E surprise engage -| E + Flash + R + W + Q | - Use this combo to surprise an enemy or multiple enemies from great distances.



Teamfight engage -| Q + E + W + E + R + (Zh if needed) | - Q-E+W into the nearest enemy, then E into a more centered target to hit the most enemies with your R. Use Zhonya's if needed so you don't get focused on.



Teamfight R reposition engage -| Q + E + W + R + Flash + (Zh if needed) | - Engage into a near enemy with Q+E+W, then use R Reposition to hit as many enemies with it, then Zhonya if needed.



Matchups and Synergies

When it comes down to jungle matchups, a lot of the time it all comes down to outpathing and outsmarting the enemy jungler rather than a direct matchup. However there are a few specific matchups that are worth being aware of and are worth banning when playing Diana Jungle.

With synergies, there are a lot of team comps and specific champions that pair well with diana. Of course though, a lot of the possible combos and synergies can be more situational than others, and there are a lot of possibilities when it comes to wombo's, too many for me to cover, so I will mention a few strong and common synergies.

• Ban Worthy
• Best Synergies

Master Yi

Champion

Master Yi is an incredibly hard jungler to deal with as Diana. As soon as he gets first back, he will be able to kill you very quickly without you being able to do very much because you don't have any sort of CC to lock him down. He will beat you early game as well as outscale you, so if you face him, make sure you can have your team support you for scuttle contests and drakes. Zhonya's hourglass is a great item against master Yi. You can use it when he uses his Q to avoid it's damage, and prevent him from AA'ing you and lowering his Q cooldown. Make sure you save your ultimate for when his Q is on cooldown so he doesn't iframe it.

Trundle

Champion

Trundle is known for being one of the best junglers in a 1v1 early game, so obviously that already makes him a threat to Diana, who isn't very strong early. This champion however, using pillar can easily block off your way back and gap close rapidly, and if he does get close to you in a 1v1 situation, there is nothing you can do except flashing away. You will never beat this champion in a 1v1 at any point of the game, but you may outscale him, and have a lot more impact in teamfights, so play around that.

Warwick

Champion

One of the scariest champions to 1v1 overall in the game. This champion will beat you in a 1v1 at any point in the game thanks to it's massive lifesteal and ramping up attack speed at lower hp. Avoid him at all times. Warwick has a very slow clear though, both early and as game progresses, and has a lot less teamfight impact since it's a single target champion, so playing for late game scaling is a good option against warwick. Morellonomicon is also a must buy when facing warwick (or simply oblivion orb).

Kha'Zix

Champion

Kha'zix is known for being one of the most agressive junglers early game. Since you're weak in a 1v1, he will look to invade your jungle all the time and kill you. For this matchup you have to be very aware of what paths he is taking and when he could possibly be invading your side of the jungle. Make sure you counter invade when you see him somewhere else on the map. If you don't let him get fed early on, you will be able to kill him later into the game. If he gets fed early game however, you will have to be very careful when moving around the map.

Shaco

Champion

It's shaco, ban him for your mental health's sake.

Yasuo

Champion

One of the most known and flashy synergies with Diana. Diana's Ultimate pairs extremely well with Yasuo's ultimate, since when pulling enemies together, there is a slim window where they become airborne. This makes it one of the easiest ways to engage enemies as Diana can easily dash into a lot of enemies, and Yasuo can follow up from anywhere nearby in an instant. Yasuo's Last Breath will keep them airborne for the full duration of Moon fall, making them take the extra damage from it, as well as do it's own damage to all of the enemies caught by it.

Renekton

Champion

Renekton is a champion that usually starts falling off the later the game goes, but when paired with Diana, can keep it's full potential throughout the whole game. When Diana manages to gather multiple enemies with her R, Renekton is able to dash in using his E and quickly hitting his Q on multiple members, dealing massive damage to everyone in a large area and completely melt their HP bars.

Aphelios

Champion

Aphelios is a champion that scales very well into the late game. One of his highest skill cap moves to hit, Moonlight Vigil, is made so much easier when pairing it with Diana's gathering power. One of the most satisfying things to watch in LoL is his ultimate hitting multiple members at once, and absolutely shredding them. If Diana can put them all together for Aphelios to land his ultimate, then the fight turns into a blood bath.

Yone

Champion

Similar to yasuo, Yone can easily combo his ultimate with Diana's, greatly extending the airborne time of anyone unfortunately caught by both moves. The difference, however is that Yone can't follow up as fast as Yasuo, or as accurately (since Yasuo's is autoaim on everyone), but on the other hand, unlike the other options, either Yone or Diana can be the one engaging first, and the other can easily follow up no matter what. Anyone caught by both is bound to be deleted.

TL;DR



Best Overall Runes

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Spells

Skill Priority

Q

Best Overall Build



Thank you for reading!