My Thoughts on Taliyah's Upcoming Changes
ZenonTheStoic recently made a post about some changes for Taliyah in 6.14. He says he plans to change her W to vector cast and remove the casting lock-out for its duration. As someone who has played a large amount of Taliyah, this leaves me with a few concerns.
Since the new kit isn't up yet on the PBE, there are a couple questions I have that were left unanswered:
- Will the cast still start when the location is chosen, or will it wait until a direction is chosen?
- How will the removal of the casting lock-out affect her play style?
The original version of Taliyah's W was designed so that you could choose a location first, the cast started, and then have time to choose a direction while waiting for it to pop. The concern I have here is that with the change to vector cast, this identity could be removed. I know in most cases this timing difference is a small fraction of a second, but the ability is already hard enough to land with its small radius and any delay could mean the difference between hitting or missing.
What I do like about this change is that putting it in the wrong location should be more difficult to do on quick cast. Sometimes, if you did the E>W combo too fast, or if you tried to start it while locked down, the first W click wouldn't register where you wanted it and therefore when you click your intended direction it would place the ability there instead. With the change to vector cast it just wouldn't cast at all in this scenario instead of going on cooldown.
I have mixed feelings about the casting lock-out as it is now. It was there for a good reason on release: so that W>E is not a reliable combo. Instead, players right now need to use E>W if they want to maximize their damage, which is a riskier combo to say the least. But what is most frustrating about the current version of the kit is the inability to use summoner spells during the lock-out. Trying to use Barrier or Flash while your W is casting feels awful when you can otherwise move around freely. I would be fine with the casting lock-out on her usual abilities if we were given the chance to still use our summoner spells defensively when our W cast goes wrong.
Back to the larger issue at hand here, the removal of the lock-out will allow for the W>E combo. Currently, Taliyah plays like a control mage: harassing with her Q at range, and zoning the enemy laner away when her E is out. The way she is now, she has to lay out her E, then wait to try and get a combo with her W; I believe this is the way she is meant to be played. However, I am afraid that with these changes she will play more like a burst mage than a control mage. She can just fish for hits on the W until it lands, and when it does, she can unleash her full combo for an easy kill. I like the risk of the current lock-out for this reason alone; the combo feels fair to play against and feels great when it hits.
Pros
- Harder to mess up W placement in certain situations
- Allows for summoner spells to be used with the removal of the lock-out
Cons
- Could be difficult for current Taliyah players to get used to vector cast
- Potential delay on W cast
- Play style shift from control mage to burst mage
What I Would Like to See
- Remove casting lock-out only for summoner spells
- W cast still starts when a location is chosen, not when a direction is chosen
