Diana is a Top Tier Jungler. She is the first official announced AP Jungler in the League of Legends and is therefore not dependent on tanky builds. Diana is easily one of my favorite champions to play due to how mobile and fluid her playstyle is. So this guide will show how to jungle Diana as well as gank and counter jungle.

Pros:

• Excellent Counter Jungler due to AP
• A built-in AS-Steroid with bonus AoE Dmg on each 3rd hit
• Can donate blue when Philo is built
• Has a Gapcloser without CD - Q into R
• Nice CC with taunt into slow - E
• Fast Jungle Clear because of AoE Spells
• Can easily snowball if doing well

Cons:

• Mana hungry
• High Skillcap

Chronicle
1.0 - 10/08/12 - Guide released

My masteries are purely preference.

I also tested 21/9/0 and 21/0/9 and have to say, that you also can be successful in the Jungle with those, while going 21 in offence increases her late game potential but I like a spread between all three trees, getting the best of each. Also with my masteries you'll be the most durable in the Jungle and early teamfights.

These runes are optimized towards having most of my offensive stats ready for mid to lategame.

The mix between Cooldown Reduction and Bonus Movement-Speed allows me to gank easier and move faster through the jungle. You can also switch the glyphs with AP/lvl or/and the Quintessence with flat AP ones.

Smite is an obvious pick. Flash is one of the best spells in the game so also a must-have.

Diana has increased Attack Speed. Every third strike cleaves nearby enemies for additional magic damage.



This skill is very strong as it gives a constant attack speed boost in fights as well as doing high base AP AoE damage on each third hit plus it has a 0.6 AP Ratio which is not to underestimate. This passive honestly makes or breaks this champion due to the fact of making an real advantage of this, you need good positioning and correct timing.




Diana swings her blade to unleash a bolt of lunar energy, afflicting enemies with Moonlight and dealing damage in an arc before exploding.



A great and in my opinion rather underrated skill. It can be used to check brushes or to harass an enemy and to initiate a gank in combination with her Ulti as a Gapcloser without CD. You will max this skill by first and use it also to clear the jungle very fast. From lvl 6 on you can jump over walls by hitting first your into the jungle camp and porting to it with your ulti Your Crescent Strike has a 0.8 AP Ratio.



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. This shield is refreshed if all three spheres detonate.



What makes her also a great jungler is her . It's a shield-on-cast with a 0.4 AP Ratio (x2), which also provides noticeable damage (+ 0.2 AP Ratio per orb) and refreshes when all three orbs are destroyed. Use it wisely, so you can let it refresh immediately after the shield is destroyed. You will skill this ability once at level one for more durability and max it last.




Diana draws in and slows all nearby enemies.



Nice 2in1 CC - Taunt and slow! It makes your ganks more successful so skill it at least at level 4. I don't know yet if it can abort enemy abilities like if you'd stun them or knock-up but I guess it does.




Diana teleports to an enemy and deals magic damage. Lunar Rush has no cooldown when used to teleport to a target afflicted with Moonlight.



This is why they call you Akali 2.0 - It's indeed pretty similar to Akalis Ulti with the difference, that it doesn't stack up.
It doesn't go on cooldown when used in combination with your Q before. The range of this skill is also the biggest gapcloser in the game. If you choose my suggested masteries and runes, you'll almost get every running-away enemy. This skill has a 0.6 AP Ratio.

Skill your W at level 1, then max Q and get one point in your E at level 4 (or earlier if you are going for an early gank). After your Q is maxed, max your W while getting a point in R whenever possible.

Example Final Builds if you're..:

Snowballing:
OR

Versus High AP / CC:
OR

Versus High AD / CC:


Versus General High DPS:


Note that you can also skip building your if you are far ahead the enemy team and don't donate blue buffs early.

Starting at wolves with help from your team is becoming more and more accepted and it shouldn't be too hard to ask them because it helps your jungle clear time immensely.

Blue comes right after which is no surprise for an AP jungler. Make sure you don't activate your shield until after the golem has started attacking you.

Next is wraiths camp, where you can throw in your Q over the wall and pop your W afterwards. You will probably need to pop a pot or two once finishing the wraiths camp afterward.

After wraiths you can rush to the ancient golems camp, again throwing your Q over wall and wait for your Smite coming up from cooldown again.

Your smite is up and Red buff is calling you. Once you finish, wraiths will be back up and you can hit level 4 to start looking for opportunities to gank.

Surprisingly Diana has no trouble with clearing camps later into the game and will easily match or beat the enemy junglers cs.

Counter jungling has fallen out of favor due to the risks it requires. Along with the changes to the jungle it rarely makes it worth it to counterjungle. In any case there are a few things to know about the enemies jungle. Learn which champs start at blue and remember that their blue will spawn around 7 minutes. Warding their blue bush can lead to an easy smite steal but make sure that they aren't taking your blue first.

If the enemy tries to invade your blue and your team is outmatched by their level 1 teamfight try not to lose heart. Consider trying to take their blue with your top lane or accept your fate and farm the small camps.

This point in the game is the most crucial for the jungler. Ganking is a skill that takes practice and when done correctly can give your lanes huge advantages over their enemy.

Remember that if you take the kill and your laner dies NOT to push the lane. Last hit as closely as possible but if you think that pushing to tower would lose the enemy some experience and gold make sure to ask your laner first if they are okay with it.

Ganking bot lane can come from 3 different angles: the tribush, the river and through the lane. Ask your bot which of the three angles the enemy has warded and whichever one isn't warded that's where you can gank from. Obviously if the enemy is pushed up to your turret you could go for the quickest route and catch up to them along with your bots cc. The saddest thing I see is when a laner initiates long before you have arrived once you red ping. Make sure you hold the red ping until you are close enough because it is true that red pinging can change the behavior of your laner and give away the gank.

Ganking mid and top early is one of the best ways to get ahead because it is rarely warded at the start of the game. Of the two, ganking top is much easier due to the length of the lane.

Ganking with Diana pre level 6 is not as hard as you would think due to her E ability. Trying to land a Q before getting off your E is not recommended due to the delay it puts into catching up to the enemy which can lead to a failed gank most of the time.

Your job in a team fight depends largely on the situation of your team and what role needs to be filled at what time. If you see a Xin jump onto your Ashe do not think it is time to dash onto the enemies squishy way in the back and abandon your team mate. While at the same time if you see a long stand off do not think it is your job to initiate the team fight especially since Dianas Q does decent damage in a poke-off. I don't think champions should be restrained by their role. To do well in team fights takes good judgement and fast decision making. The best way to win a team fight is to take advantage of the enemies mistakes. Waiting for them to leave an opening or mess up an initiation is usually the best course of action.

In closing, I hope you've learned something about how to jungle Diana as I've found her to be one of my favorite champions as well as one of my most played due to the fact she is very viable at high level play due to her skillset and playstyle. I hope you've learned something from this guide and I hope to have another guide within the next 14 days (apparently Draven is really underrated so it might just be that). Happy jungling!

Here you can see a screenshot of my match history while I created this guide: