Why Taliyah is Better than you Think She Is

Taliyah is a champion who's had a bit of a rocky release (pun unintended), but I've been playing her a lot and I really feel like she's a strong champion. Her low win rate right now isn't representative of how good she really is because people just haven't figured out how to play her yet. So, here's why she's actually a really strong champion once you learn her. First off, my first few games with her were awful. All I did was stay in my losing lane and feed my opponent kill after kill. Then, I started to realize just what Taliyah can do to get herself fed, and oh boy once that boulder starts rolling it just doesn't stop. Here's some tips to doing well with Taliyah: 1: Use the worked ground to your advantage. Her Q spawns an area of worked ground below her. When on worked ground, she gains a nice movement speed buff and her Q will refund half its cost, but it will only fire 1 rock instead of 5. Stand on the worked ground and max Q first for it to be very short cooldown (with 40% CDR, you can probably get it to the point where, as soon as a group of 5 ends, another starts) and to be very low mana cost, basically giving you free farming. Stay off the worked ground when trading to boost your damage output, but stick on it if you're low on mana and trying to deal sustained damage. It also helps kiting and the movement speed can be pretty good for outrunning a jungler if you're ganked.

2: Use your E and W together. E will slow enemies hit, making it easier to land your W. Also, lead your W so that they have to notice it and adjust their movement to dodge it. If you can E W combo someone, you'll be ripping through health bars like a snow plow rips through snow.

3: Roam. A lot. Taliyah has VERY good roams, probably among the best of any mid laner. Really, only someone like a TF will be able to keep up with the global pressure your ult provides, but he can't also wall off the enemy's escape route. Any time your ult is up, look where you can go to gank, push up the wave, and go there. Run along walls to get the movement speed boost from your passive and then hit the ultimate when you can block off the entire lane that you're ganking and you'll minimum force a flash (or maybe multiple if going bot lane) only to reactivate the wall to drop it and kill them anyway. Taking smart roams to other lanes can help push you ahead, because she does have a fairly weak lane until she gets her items, but also push your allies ahead. 4: Build Rod of Ages and Rylai's Crystal Scepter. These items, plus Liandry's Torment if you buy it, will give you over 3k HP. That's a ton of time to reposition yourself after ulting. Rylai's slow and RoA's passive are also very good, Rylai's allowing you to easily kite enemies with Q and the worked ground and RoA allowing you to heal up after you outrun them by spamming that Threaded Volley. 5: Play smart. Play safe pre-6, then roam everywhere. If you haven't fed your opponent, you'll get ahead at this point. If you have fed some, you can catch back up if you play it safe and don't fight them.

6: Always, ALWAYS take a look around before ulting. This is hugely important. Good walls either cut the enemy team apart or cut off their escape. Bad ones do the same, but turned on your team. When in doubt, ult a distance behind the enemy team. If you don't have RoA and Rylai's, you're dumb and probably going to die doing this. If you do, this is a great way to flank and remove the enemy ADC's teamfight safety. Proceed to burst them down, then run like heck toward your team to the side of the enemy team while spamming Q every time it comes up. But, the other thing is that ulting a distance behind the enemy team guarantees that you won't cut any of your team apart or cut off any of their escapes. Ulting between them and not riding it can be good for giving your allies an easy escape that the enemy team now has to either flash or dash over to continue the chase Take a second just looking at where you'll go and see if it's where you want to be to do what you want to do before using the ult. I often mouse over it and click on it so I can see exactly where I'll go and exactly how it will impact a fight in a split second. When you know, you won't screw your team over, use it. Ulting a fair distance behind the enemy team is often the best place to go. You'll cut off their team while only putting yourself at risk, and probably be able to burst the enemy ADC down before he can escape or kill you. This is often going to turn the enemy team's attention on you, which you can handle if your teammates are fed enough to manhandle them if they do, which you should always guarantee your ADC is by ulting bot every time it's up and doing smart roams.

7: Always play a few games with her before going into ranked. This should be obvious, but as with any champion, play her in normals for a little while before going into ranked. Make sure that you can not only do well, but do well consistently. Really, using the wall right and getting her roaming down pat will allow you to carry many games, even when your team is behind.

8: Run Flash and Teleport. Ignite doesn't really do much to help your lane phase. Barrier can be good if they have someone like a Zed mid, but Teleport is in general better. If you play smart, you should at least not die in most trades. Then, Teleport can be used to get back into lane quickly and easily.

For the build, I usually run a standard mage rune/mastery page, picking up the Thunderlord's because the extra damage it adds to your burst combo is nice. Items I always rush , then . From there, it's situational. can all be good choices. For boots, you have for roaming more, for repositioning in teamfights, or for magic penetration that will, with Abyssal Scepter + Void Staff, make you deal basically true damage to squishies while also making building magic resist futile.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found it helpful. I know she isn't seen as great right now, but she certainly is pretty strong if you play her right. I've taken the time to learn her and she's definitely a great champion once you do. Pretty much, just don't be an idiot and she's pretty amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if high ELO Korean players start picking her up because of her roaming capability; we all know how much Koreans like to roam. If you disagree with my opinion, try her out and use these tips. Play a few games with her and you'll start to play her better.