League of Legends champion profile: Diana, the Scorn of the Moon

Lanes Diana players love

Lux – If you’re a Diana main, you’re licking your lips at the possibility of all-inning a Lux at 6. Yes, the early lane phase dodging all the Qs and Es will be annoying, but such is the life of playing the moon goddess. If you dodge enough poke, she’s powerless to stop your all-in, plus your W can interrupt her ult channel.
Ahri – She’ll out-push you, yeah, but your level 6 is far better than hers. Unless she manages to dodge all your Q damage with her ult (preventing your all-in) or charm you mid-dash, she’s a free lane.
Taliyah – Almost any immobile mage (and Taliyah is a good example because she can be a match-up in mid or jungle) struggles against Diana’s all-in. The only thing you have to do against Taliyah is make sure to avoid crossing her stones with your ult dash and you’ll be fine.

Lanes Diana players hate

Swain – He can out-push you in the laning phase pre-6 and his crowd control on his Q makes it almost impossible to CS. Worse yet, when you hit 6 (normally when you’d want to all-in) he can pop his ult and just tank all your damage. He’s basically unkillable in this matchup (Vlad has a similar problem, but he can’t push as hard early.
Ekko – He basically does everything that you can do (farm from range, do heavy burst in an all-in with plenty of survivability tools) but better. His dashes aren’t conditional like yours so he can actually escape, he has a better CC (his stun on W), and he has an ult that can let him dodge a lot of your damage.
Yasuo – The scourge of most mids, he can block your Q damage and basically negate your ability to pop him at 6, plus he has more mobility and trading ability early. Having said that, this is a skill matchup, so it is possible for a good Diana to outplay (using E to cancel his dashes, W to absorb his damage, etc.).

Tips for playing Diana

• You can cast your ult before landing the Q as long as you hit the target you’re dashing to with Moonlight before you arrive. In effect you can Q and then R while the Q is still traveling to get off your combo quicker.
• Your W (Pale Cascade) has no cast time, so you can also use it mid-dash. In addition, if you hit enemies with all three of the orbs circling Diana, the shield will be refreshed, so make sure to get all the damage out of the orbs to get extra shielding out.
• Although you’re going to get shoved in for most of the laning phase, you can start W in lane to shove the wave (and mitigate whatever poke the enemy throws at you) and then use Q to farm. In jungle, always take W first to mitigate damage from the first camp.

Tips for playing against Diana

• If you have a channeled ability, make sure to hold onto it if she has her E up, as it will interrupt the channel.
• Her damage is highly dependent on her landing the Q so she gets two charges of her ult onto you. Look to exploit the windows where her Q and W (shield) are down.
• Diana is melee and fairly immobile, so any champion who can poke her down or outshove her should take advantage of that weak early lane. Since she doesn’t have an escape unless she can dash to a jungle camp or minion behind her, she’s also very easy to gank.

Champion Difficulty: 5/10

Her kit requires a fair bit of mastery, such as how to land the Q and the R>Q combo, but it’s fairly intuitive to learn. Her playstyle is quite straightforward, your goal is to go in and blow someone up, similar to Kled.

Like Kled, getting good at this champion requires learning when and how you have windows to go in since you can’t get back out. She’s a fairly squishy champion, with a lot of carry potential, and a fairly linear kit. That’s why I would classify her as a medium skill floor and low skill ceiling champion.

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Fizz, Akali, Vi

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