Taliyah: Things I like and things I don't

I have been trying out this champion lately in comp stomp and normal games because, thematically, I really like her kit. I think she has the potential to be a really great champion. However, there are some elements of her design that are making her, at least for me, unrewarding and even punishing to play. So in this post, I want to lay out piece-by-piece what is working for me and what isn't in her kit.

Passive: Rock Surfing What works: This is great for getting back to lane quickly, or for roaming. Its synergy with her ult is obvious. What doesn't: The "near a wall or structure" part is extremely unforgiving. I think that her rock surfing should have a slightly (say 50%) larger distance allowed from walls, and it should also allow her a brief, maybe 0.5 or 0.75 second interval before it cuts out so that she can surf between small distances. Right now, she hops on-and-off that surfboard constantly when doing things like running through narrow lanes in the jungle. Also, since she is typically mid-lane, she doesn't get nearly the benefit from her passive when returning to lane since she can't follow the side/bot walls to her lane.

Q: Threaded Volley What works: When you hit someone with all 5 rocks, you feel like a rock star. What doesn't: First, this ability is extremely limited by the fact that minions block it. if you are mid-lane, you are likely vs. other ranged and/or mobile champions. It is very easy for most of them to stay behind the wave. Taliyah's wave clear is surprisingly poor if she wants to conserve mana. So she won't have a clear line-of-sight on her opponent unless she gets out-of-position herself. This could be helped if enemy minions were shoved back by Q, allowing her to get to champions hiding behind them. Second, the follow-up shots are often hard to land even without an obstructed view. Opponents with any sort of speed boost or mobility can sidestep in such a way that you simply cannot maintain the damage on them. If they close on you, the issue is made much worse because they can simply walk through to the other side of you and avoid all the damage. Third, the "worked ground" handicap reduces the mana cost by 50%, but the damage by 66%. So it is extremely mana inefficient to use this ability on worked ground, in addition to the incredibly reduced damage. Fourth, it is no good for wave clear. Every cast of Q effectively zones Taliyah: If she is standing in worked ground, the enemy laner is guaranteed to win any trade. There are a number of changes that could be applied to help this skill out. One would be to reduce the worked ground penalty into a staged system, so the first cast was 5 bolts, the second cast was 3 bolts, and then the third cast was 1 bolt. That way, she is not completely hamstrung. Another would be to greatly reduce the duration of worked ground to something more reasonable, like 30 seconds. Another would be to allow the projectiles to follow her cursor instead of firing always in the same direction -- "Threaded Volley" implies some level of aiming, but she doesn't thread anything with this skill. Finally, you could completely remove the worked-ground cast penalty and just lower the base damage of the skill slightly to compensate. Right now, though, casting this ability is almost always punishing to her.

W: Seismic Shove What works: This is a great CC skill with obvious synergy when used alongside Unraveled Earth. What doesn't: The targeting methodology for this is disruptively unique. This ability requires 2 clicks, making it incredibly awkward to use if a player has quick casting enabled. If targeting could be handled similarly to the "vector cast" spells, at least when quick cast was enabled, I feel that would be a tremendous help. Also, the damage is incredibly forgettable. Apparently, the damage budget for this skill is being eaten by its interaction with E, which is unfortunate since, especially vs characters with dashes, there is no real compensation for the loss of damage. More on that in the discussion of E. Other than those two points, this is a pretty good skill.

E: Unraveled Earth What works: It provides some much-needed zoning What doesn't: There is unfortunately a laundry list of reasons why this skill does not work. First, the range is very awkward. Her Q has a range of 1000, her W is 900, but this has a far-edge range of 800. That means she must close on characters if she has any intention of landing the initial cast damage. Additionally, since the field cannot be repositioned, just directed, it means she cannot protect herself from characters who are directly on top of her. Because of the nature of the shape of the field, people can just step through and fight behind her to nullify its effects. Second, the field lasts too long. There are only very specific circumstances that will ever allow for enemy champions or any minions to be damaged by the timed detonation. The field should last 2 seconds, 3 at the absolute most. Third, while knocking a character through the field seems like you gain a lot of damage, it is an illusion. The max theoretical damage of this ability is 720 + 160% AP, which is ridiculously good. However, the practical max damage is 540 + 120% AP. This is because if you manage to catch someone in the initial cast, then trigger 4 boulders, and hold them still long enough for the field to detonate, they will take no damage from the secondary detonation. Yes, they can take damage from that detonation, but only enemies standing over existing boulders take damage. So if a character already blew up all the boulders around them, they take nothing when the field ultimately explodes. Fourth, the max theoretical damages are a lie anyway. Because of the low max range of this ability, coupled with Taliyah's inability to cast the field under her, just in front, most likely the trigger damage is all she can hope for. Especially vs fast up-close or long-range opponents, it can be incredibly difficult to land the initial hit on this ability since they will be outside of the minimum or maximum ranges. This could be fixed by giving her the ability to move the field around, say 200 units forwards or backwards, so that she can be standing in it or poke at the range of her Q with a more vulnerable spot in front of her.

R: Weaver's Wall What works: It lets her zip around the map even faster, and it can provide some nice zoning from time-to-time, such as cutting the top- and bottom-lane enemies off from their turret. What doesn't: It is useless for escaping. I would argue that instead of being broken by damage, it should just be broken by the same rules as anything that would break a movement ability or a channel. So damage by itself shouldn't knock her off, but immobilizing effects or silences could. Also I would recommend adding some synergy with the wall and her Q, so that casting Q near her wall would automatically fire 5 projectiles since she could pull the rocks from her wall. That would allow the wall to provide some combat bonus other than the odd zoning case.

I love Taliyah's theme, and I really want for her to be a successful champion. Hopefully she can be tuned to make her more rewarding and fun to play.