Diaochan: Letting it go with Diao Chan, the Crystal Queen

Build and Guide Diaochan: Letting it go with Diao Chan, the Crystal Queen

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build

Blizzard > Diamond Dust > Chilling Frost

Recommended Talents

Flicker, Heal, Daze, Endure, Purify

Items

Rea's Blessing, Enchanted Kicks, Boom Stick, Hecate's Diadam, Holy of Holies, Staff of Nuul or Frosty's Revenge

Arcana

Violate, Devour, Consume

Introduction
Diao Chan is a high-damage control mage, based around controlling the positioning of her enemies by slowing and stunning them so that she can kill with little resistance. Her area of effect attacks are also some of the largest in the game, allowing her a huge presence in team fights. You will have to plan to play her carefully, with precise positioning and safety as your primary focus. While you do some of the highest damage in the game, you lack any of the normal escapes a carry might have without talents. This will cause you to be the prime target in game for the enemy team's assassin.

Skill Build
Blizzard, Diamond Dust, Chilling Frost

As with most heroes, we max the ultimate first. As an ult, Blizzard has the ability to completely dominate team fights, or any area you use the ability in. Blizzard calls down a massive storm that slows, does massive damage, and provides Diao Chan with a massive amount of armor, making even her tanky to physical retaliation-- at least while casting Blizzard. Enemies should look to silence or stun an ulting Diao Chan immediately.

Diamond Dust is a medium sized AOE that after a short delay, freezes enemies in the target area. Frozen enemies take extra damage, so it’s a good idea to start a fight with Diamond Dust if the enemy is easier to hit. Feel free to start with Chilling Frost if you are having issues landing this ability.

Chilling Frost is Diao Chan’s bread and butter. This ability is what you’ll use to control the enemy in lane and poke them down, preparing for the Diamond Dust into Blizzard combo. If you hit someone with Chilling Frost, their movement speed is reduced. It will then mark the target for 5.5 seconds. If they are hit with Chilling Frost again, they become rooted for 1 second.

Recommended Talents
Flicker, Heal, Daze, Endure, Purify

Flicker is going to be a good ability regardless of who you are playing. Any ability that causes you to get out of a bad situation instantly for free is good. Just be sure you are good enough at controlling the direction you blink towards, and learn its range. It can get you over most walls, but not all of them.

Heal is a talent you can take if you're a bit newer to the game or just new to Diao Chan. It’s great later on in team fights, as it allows you to heal your comrades. In lane it is a tad less valuable since you only heal yourself, unless you are in a duo lane. All heal does is heal you 15% of your max health and gain 15% movement speed for 2 seconds. It's pretty good-- if Flicker wasn't that much better. Flicker is harder to control though, so feel free to take heal.

Daze Daze is a 0.5 second stun for nearby enemies and reduces their movement speed for 1 second. The stun is okay for getting out of situations, but the slow is kind of waste on you since you have so many already. However, I could see that stun being used with Diamond Dust, so it gets a mention.

Endure immobilizes your hero to become invulnerable for 1.5 seconds. This is a bit of a double edged sword, and should really only be played with a team member or two who is teamed with you in voice. You will need someone to save you when the enemies walk up to you during that 1.5 second freeze time. Though it can very well save your life if some assassin jumps on you. This is mainly to be used in safe spots. Inside your team, under a tower, etc.

Purify is one of the best talents for Diao Chan. Purify removes all debuffs and control effects on yourself and gains immunity to them for 1.5 seconds. Even with a 120 second cooldown it's probably the best on here if you don’t like Flicker. In which case, Flicker is the better one. This basically means you can get yourself out of like half the ult/cc combos in the game, and ignore anyone else who tries to cc you. This is a bit more advanced to take. You'd have to know when to use it, as blowing it the first second you take any cc or damage will probably be a waste.

Items
Rea's Blessing, Enchanted Kicks, Boom Stick, Hecate's Diadam, Holy of Holies, Staff of Nuul or Frosty's Revenge

Some will rush Frosty's Revenge as a way of adding more slows to everything Diao Chan uses while also adding to her low magic defense. However, I like to rush into Rhea's Blessing for some additional sustain with the magic life steal (+25%) and the large shield when your health drops below 40% (75 second cooldown). The only argument I can really find against rushing Rhea's is the cooldown on the shield being a bit high. However, id like to think that the life steal, especially if you are like me and like to stay safe until the lame game with casters. Rushing Rhea's will probably be better for saving from things like ganks.

Finish your enchanted kicks. Most enemies will be too busy stacking damage early to be able to deal with the +75 pierce, allowing you to do true damage to most enemies.

Boomstick adds +240 ability power. Abilities trigger a small explosion that deals 50 +50% ability power on a 5 second cooldown. This timing works perfectly with Chiling Frost, causing it to be our third item to buy.

By the fourth item, we’re looking at stacking more of that sweet Ability power and Hecate's Diadem is perfect for that. It adds +200 ability power with a unique passive of adding +35% of your ability power and +75 more magic pierce. If you wanted to hit harder with your spells. You got it.

Holy of Holies is to help with the scaling of enemy assassins and carries. If anyone has huge burst they are laying on you every fight, you can build this one earlier, probably before Hecate's. It adds a whopping +400 ability power, but also the unique passive of +1400 maximum health. This will allow us to survive any burst that was causing us trouble at this point of the game.

Staff of Nuul adds +45% magic pen. I am confident in my positioning to risk a tankier item here for what I feel will add significantly more damage most of the time. However, lots of people will get Frosty's at some point of their game. Sometimes, even as their first item. I am not a fan of the passive that adds a 25% slow on abilities. I feel like our built-in kit does that well enough already. It does add +220 magic defense though. So, you could build this versus heavy magic damage threats instead of Nuul.

Arcana
Violate, Devour, Consume

This one is a bit different than what the game recommends. For reds it states Enlightened for Diao Chan, but I think +4.2 ability power and 2.4 Magic Pierce is better than +5.3 ability power from Enlightened. Magic Pierce can be huge on people who go full damage. Like we do with Diao Chan in this build.

Devour is alright, if you don't have this Arcana feel free to replace it. Really 9% Magic Life Steal from the full set isn't an extreme amount of sustain, but purple Arcana does not have any other Ability Power options.

Consume +5.9 armor per is great for surviving early. More magic life steal is okay, but were mainly after not getting range attack poked out of lane with the armor. Stacks decently with your ult as well.

Early Game
Early game Diao Chan is going to be a real target. I generally follow the rule of playing safer then you feel you should, as a lot of people will feel stronger from their last game. Remember, Daio Chan early is slow, with no escapes. Farm as much as you can, help in ganks, but do not get greedy. Do not over-extend. You cannot allow yourself to fall behind as Diao Chan, or else you will become that person who dies at the start of your team fights or alone, and that generally leads to a lot of blame from teammates.

Middle Game
Assuming you were not fed by the enemy laner, this is where you should start to be able to actually make some plays. Your lack of escapes will be made up by having team mates in your area, or preferably, right next to you. Feel free to test the waters. Unless you are in a premade group, you never know how an ally will play. Don't throw yourself to the sharks if you aren't sure your ally will pull you out. Or, never do. It's never a bad idea to play safe as long as you are doing something. Playing too safe to the point where you don't assist your team is an issue, though.

Late Game
You should now focus on remaining behind your teammates and hitting the enemies with your long-range abilities. Whittle them down and land your stun when you can. This will allow your team to engage and win fights. During fights, after a bit of CC has gone down, feel free to ult. Don't rush it, though. In most cases, the moment Diao Chan ults, someone will attempt to stop you. This is where things like Flicker/Endure are extremely useful. Anyone attempts to jump on you, and you either gain 1.5 seconds of time for your team to react, or flicker out of the engagement.

FAQ/Tips
Diao Chan’s ult gives her 350/440/530 armor. If the enemy magic damage has died or fled, you can basically ult in a fight for free. Just beware cc from the enemy stopping you.

Diao Chan’s Chilling Frost root is a great way to lead into Diamond Dust. This doubles as a great way to start your ult in lane.

Matchups
Valhein, Easy

As long as you play this correctly, Valhein cannot beat you in lane. He has las range, and no form of escapes. Keep him slowed, keep him at a range, and deny him as much as you can.

Ormarr, Easy

Ormarr has an extremely short range. Now you probably won't lane against him, but as far as jungles go, as long as you aren't over-extended you should have no troubles stopping him in his tracks before he can reach you.

Mina, Easy

Mina is one of the easiest for you in the tank role, as you can kite away from her. This is assuming she isn't using Flicker to get to you, of course. If she manages to get in range, you are also one of her easiest targets. So, it is better to say Mina is one of the safest jungles or tanks for you to be against, assuming you are playing super safe. The moment she gets in range, this becomes a hard matchup.

Grakk, Hard

You know how you already don't have escapes? Well, your ult makes you stand perfectly still. Grakk has the ability to pull people with his chain. See where this is going? You basically become an unmoving target.

Krixi, Hard

Krixi hits hard, has a better CC, and more range. She is the poke harass version of Diao Chan. Instead of being a control mage, she seeks to do damage and retreat over and over.

Zill, Hard

Zill has the ability to blink a short distance on a 10 second cool-down. He has a 50% slow on a 5 second cooldown. His ult makes him un-targetable, and unable to be attacked. Basically, he has the ability to get close instantly-- which is bad for us. Slow us more than we can slow him, also, very bad. And, if we decide to ult, go and make us unable to hit him! Basically, there's nothing besides playing super safe that will save you versus a Zill.