Taliyah is not that bad of a champion

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To be honest, I only played her briefly when she first came out, and do not remember how I felt about her W. Was it really that much different, in terms of satisfaction, from the current iteration's vector casting? Also, why did they change the mechanics of the W? Based upon what I read, the spell, ostensibly, does the exact same thing in both versions, original and current. What was the motivation behind the change?

This deserves its own post, but briefly:

1). W casting mechanics (assuming quick cast): Before: You press w, and after short delay knockup will happen, and you are locked out of casting other abilities for ~.55 seconds irrc. After first w press there was somewhat-clunky mechanics to input direction, but there is no rush as long as you finish your input in half a second. So she was not micro dependent, and power of her W did not depend on whether you can get input done .1 second faster. And there was range clamping -- if you try to cast it slightly out of range it'll cast at max range, which is usually what you want. After: You press w, move mouse, release w, then the timer for knockup starts. Slightly less clunky, but how good your w is greatly depends on how fast you can complete those motions (knockup target area is determined during first press, so your time to input commands adds to delay), so the usefulness of your w now depends on how fast you can input the command, every .01 second matters if targetting champions, so you feel very rushed AND Taliyah's power is more micro dependent. She already has very steep macro learning curve (which I enjoy) -- both her wall and her passive let you make macro plays, but can backfire badly if not done right (wall that does little good or messes up your team, and failed roams, respectively). So now her overall difficulty curve is higher (high macro AND not-low mico), so she had to be nerfed to balanced for LCS while she was OK power-wise in plat... but that's a smaller issue than how her new W feels compared to the old one.

2). W-E vs. E-W. Her E damages anyone knocked through the field it creates. So, using W knockup to knock someone through her E is a big part of her damage.

Before: If she wants to W people through E, due to lock up, she has to cast E BEFORE W. Which let her zone people -- her E was a big "don't stay near or you risk eating W and tons of damage" to the face sign, which gave it counterplay and was a great zoning tool that's easy to use -- and it's "threat" range was bigger than the E field itself, since you might be outside of E field, but if you eat a W, you'd be knocked through it. Or you could use W without E as a surprise knockup but without the extra damage.

After: You can cast E after W, effecitively creating a W->E damage combo which was not available before. To balance it, of course, the damage of getting knock through E had to be reduced. So now you are left with a middling damage combo, W->E, which is about same as power, but not as interesting, as lots of other have similar damage bursts. E does not zone as well, due to both lower damage, and it making less sense to cast E before W, as it telegraphs your potential W without adding to damage (you'd rather W->E if your W is not on cooldown). So, she lost zoning tool, and a big damage telegraphed threat, for a middling damage non-telegraphed combo, I found former much more interesting and rewarding than the latter... and more unque to taliyah as well.

Why it was changed: My guess is vocal complaints from people not liking her old W. It was clunky, yes, but something one could get used to. I think mechanically new W IS a little easier, but benefit for me pales in comparison to the two issues I outlined before.

What would I ideally see: -Knockup timer start the moment you press W. It is a huge deal, to make playing her feel less rushed, and less micro-intensive (she has plenty of difficulty curve in her macro). Range clumping would be great as well. The new vector casting I am a fan of IF it can be made compatible with this, it is a little easier than the old way of inputting W's direction. -W->E combo being impossible again and damage of getting knocked through E being correspondingly higher (whether through lockout on casting after W or another mechanics, I personally enjoyed the lockout, as it made playing her feel less rushed than other mages since you did not have to input commands as close together). This would give her back the zoning tool (E is now a big threat), while not raising her overall power. It would also make jungle Taliyah somewhat stronger, which is not her main play mode, but fits with her "always moving, always learning" theme very well, and I enjoyed playing her in the jungle occasionally in plat when comp/team would call for her skill set.