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Taliyah Q rework

John McFee·4/30/2017, 6:35:57 AM·2 votes·900 views

First things first: I have never played Taliyah, or if i have I don't remember it. That being said, after her initial round of nerfs (and subsequent buffs), it's been a long time since I have seen a Taliyah be a threat midlane...or get picked for that matter. According to Champion.GG she has a decent win rate, but a very low pick rate; I have a few ideas as to why this is the case:

  1. She doesn't fit the roll of Control mage; with just her Ult, and maybe her W, being the only part(s) of her kit that feel like it/they truly belong to the control archetype. There are simply better/safer control mages to play in meta like Orianna or Anivia.
  2. Based on her numbers and recent games that have been played with her in it; she does enough damage to be more than useful. Problem here is, her damage is primarily burst due to her E W combo being able to do most of the work, with her Q for clean up if they aren't squishy/behind enough get one shot from her E W.
  3. Her Q feels wonderful...unless you use it over the worked area, then it feels like ass because you get so little damage for so much mana comparatively.
  4. As far as Control mages go she is probably the most vulnerable to ganks and AD assassins. Anivia's Q can be an almost instant stun; Lux and Morg have an instant root; and the list goes on.

So here is my proposed solution: upon first cast of Q, it behaves as normal. However the worked ground behaves more like a section of ground with large rocks torn out of it, i.e. very uneven and hard to walk through; however rather than being a % slow, a new form of crowd control: Limited, based on champion level or skill level, a maximum movement speed can be obtained while moving through the area but does not interfere with dashes/flashes/etc. However due to the fact this is only a minor annoyance to most, but a major hindrance to specific champions like Hecarim, or Rammus; the worked ground can be flattened by walking through it (I am open to thoughts about how that works i.e. just x seconds of walking or more like Yasuo passive, based on either hampered or unhampered movement speed). Lastly should Taliyah cast Q on the worked ground, she is unable to pull any rocks, but instead throws a small cloud of dust; this blinds champions (in a similar manner to Graves and Quinn) and deals a minor DoT to units in the dust cloud but the cloud slows drastically after the first unit hit.

This could help her fit the role of Controller better and make her Q feel better to play with and against. Taliyah has to choose to either cast her Q on or off worked ground for its damage or utility; and her opponents have think carefully about whether to engage her on worked ground to mitigate some of her damage or on unworked ground to avoid her blind, as well as whether they want to deal with being Limited before or after the engagement. To compensate for the increase in utility to her Q, the damage on her E W combo would need to be nerfed slightly. Any comments or thoughts on what I have proposed would be welcome. wishes for a Red to appear

3 Comments

UnboundHades4/30/2017, 6:39:55 AM1 votes

taliyah doesn't need changed tho

SEKAI4/30/2017, 6:53:59 AM1 votes

The worked ground is supposed to let her last hit and conserve her mana while doing so, as well as allowing her to poke, it's not just bad.

You are also not meant to put that much focus into her Q, in actuality, her real lane strength lies in W and E. Q is cool to add damage and to clear waves, but what earns her the lane presence is W and E.

As for worked-ground management, unless you're chasing down an enemy and you have to burn Q without any other consideration, otherwise generally try to use first Q a bit off to the side of the lane. This allows you more spaces to all-in Q if you have to in the middle of the lane, which is generally how duels happen.

The worked-ground also gives her a slight MS boost when she's walking on it, it's not much of a help, but it makes a slight difference when chasing enemies in lane during early phase.

What's preventing her from being more picked is her general mechanics, a bit too hard to get around due to how "wave-y" it is. Like, her entire kit is all skill-shot, and are also all very different skillshots in terms of purposes and what you should be aware of when casting them. But otherwise she has her niche, she can get across a good portion of the map in mere sections, and can wall off in order to protect objectives and allies or create arenas of slaughter if she lands it correctly. She can prevent chases or escapes via dash if she could corner them with her E and W, and besides her mana cost, she's relatively save during laning thanks to Q (with or without worked grounds).

Oh and, her Q is a beast if you can proc it with something such as Rylai's or Luden's.

But this is all imo from my rather barebones experiences with her in blickpicks.

...............

EDIT: if anything, change her W, or at least how it's cast. I am not sure what's actually wrong there but her W always feel VERY unnatural to cast, especially when you're desperate to land that clutch EW combo, and many times it doesn't seem to register commands well.

Chimp Joker4/30/2017, 6:54:38 AM1 votes

She's fine as she is right now. In fact, the way riot left her currently feels like a crime for being so awesome. The worked ground is annoying, but it forces the player to carefully choose when and where to use the skill properly. Even then while she's on worked ground she gets a slight increase in movement speed and the cost of another Q is refunded by 50%. And the cooldown of a rank 5 Q is so good I'd argue to say that she may not even need morellos as a first item and instead just rush ROA. I understand that using Q while on worked ground feels a bit underwhelming but these other factors makes up for the lack of damage.