Hey everyone, I just came back from a 5month hiatus and recently picked up Taliyah. She's really fun but I don't feel impactful in any game I play. I usually lose lane really hard.. So what does she do? Waveclear? Roam? Zone?
I also remember that just before I went on my break her old W was really unique and fun. What happened to that? The new W feels clunky
Astôlfo21 votesNope, she got gutted to trash.
Dumbasses who barely played her, if at all, whined and cried to Riot that learning her took too much effort. So Riot pandered to them instead of people with a crapton of experience on her and made her braindead easy as well as generalist instead of specialist. So of course, as a result, they had to gut literally every single thing afterwards.
6.14 and onwards absolutely killed her.
W lockout removed - encourages burst mage playstyle, allows for W-E instead of E-W which is far harder to react to. Q bonus damage to minions - encourages splitpushing/incredibly fast waveclear playstyle, allows for easy poking/pushing/harrass. W casting method changed to Vector Cast instead of old method - makes it far easier to do.
As a result, damage and mana costs as a whole got completely fucking nerfed into utter trash.
Vistha7 votesEven reverting the Q nerf would be enough.
That's when her winrate went from a reasonable 49% to 43%.
XeroKimo2 votesLet's not fully revert that nerf, that really gave her too much early game power, like 3-4 q's kills melee and 2 q's for casters after first back is really powerful, almost gave her no point of using W and E during laning phase just cause shove wave and start poking enemy under tower with Q, if there was a scaling on it maybe, like 10%-50% from lvl 1-5
CppL4 votesNope, she got gutted to trash.
Dumbasses who barely played her, if at all, whined and cried to Riot that learning her took too much effort. So Riot pandered to them instead of people with a crapton of experience on her and made her braindead easy as well as generalist instead of specialist. So of course, as a result, they had to gut literally every single thing afterwards.
6.14 and onwards absolutely killed her.
W lockout removed - encourages burst mage playstyle, allows for W-E instead of E-W which is far harder to react to. Q bonus damage to minions - encourages splitpushing/incredibly fast waveclear playstyle, allows for easy poking/pushing/harrass. W casting method changed to Vector Cast instead of old method - makes it far easier to do.
As a result, damage and mana costs as a whole got completely fucking nerfed into utter trash.
She was top tier mid laner in high elo,thats why she was nerfed.Not because of the low elo.
Astôlfo4 votesShe wasn't top tier till Riot changed all those things because inexperienced people asked for them.
Hi lm Negan3 votesNope, she got gutted to trash.
Dumbasses who barely played her, if at all, whined and cried to Riot that learning her took too much effort. So Riot pandered to them instead of people with a crapton of experience on her and made her braindead easy as well as generalist instead of specialist. So of course, as a result, they had to gut literally every single thing afterwards.
6.14 and onwards absolutely killed her.
W lockout removed - encourages burst mage playstyle, allows for W-E instead of E-W which is far harder to react to. Q bonus damage to minions - encourages splitpushing/incredibly fast waveclear playstyle, allows for easy poking/pushing/harrass. W casting method changed to Vector Cast instead of old method - makes it far easier to do.
As a result, damage and mana costs as a whole got completely fucking nerfed into utter trash.
Taloyah doesn't need buffs or anything. She is super strong in the hands of a good player who spent time learning her. After the nerfs her waveclear is still better than tfs and her ultimate can turn around games in seconds.
She is just a situational pick. People with over 125 games on taliyah tend to have a 65% winrate or higher.
Ultîma3 votesTo be completely fair, it didn't make sense that her vector-casting was completely different than the other spells in the game that had that control scheme. Imo it should've been that way on release.
Astôlfo1 votesHer ability wasn't a linear line creation though. The point itself was set, hence, the double-click was far easier as well as logical once you learned how to use it.
Also, the vector casting method in itself has multiple huge flaws.
One, the vertical knockup was lost. Two, it FORCES a human delay inherently onto the ability. This is because the W has a 1-second delay from the start cast until it actually pops out. With the old casting mechanism, the 1s timer would immediately start the moment you clicked down. With the vector casting method, it forces you to wait until the dragged mouse is then let go before it starts said timer. The human delay caused by that is incredibly large. Three, none of the other vector casting abilities were massively critical to their kit in sense of timing and positioning in a way their entire major combo revolved around it, hence, exacerbating the already absurdly long delay time even further and making it even more of a problem. Four, because it forces you to drag and drop, you no longer had the freedom to change direction mid-1s delay. With the old casting mechanism, you had the full time until the 1s was up to decide which direction you wanted to push it, if at all.
Ultîma1 votesI'm not going to disagree with your opinion on the matter (idk why you're getting downvoted), but saying that timing isn't critical to Rumble's ult or Viktor's E is just so, so wrong.
Astôlfo1 votesRumble's ult is a massive AoE down a line. Viktor's E is a double-hitting delayed nuke on a line. Taliyah's is just a small circle pad. And the entire point of her W was to throw them into her E, except pre-lockout removal, the only way to do that was E-W which was incredibly broadcasted. Even with the lockout now gone, you have to time the W precisely as well as the E to actually get the desired effect or they just move away before it even pops out.
Viktor's and Rumble's can be used freely by themselves and instantly and immediately apply quite a lot of damage (and in Rumble's case, a slow as well if I remember correctly). Sure, you can use them in a combo, but you can just drop it down to finish someone low health off near instantly, especially post-Rylai's.
The damage on Taliyah's W is meaningless and the ability itself takes over 1 second now (1s delay from mouse drag release + human delay from dragging), but the ability location is pre-shown at the start of the ability cast 1s before it goes off. Meaning most competent players can just sidestep it.
Hrd2H1t13 votesRiot really needs to revert her to her 6.11, she was completely fine back then but now shes gutted.
Virtual Binary9 votesshe sucks
Handy Sandy 4 votesShe's hard because rocks
xxxMadLionxxx3 votesWhen she was released, I wanted to main her, but I found she was both weak and clunky. So dropped her.
VexingRaven3 votesI have honestly not seen a single Taliyah since her release.
TyroneWatermelon2 votesI have honestly not seen a single Taliyah since her release.
That's a lie.
Alienfreak101 votesThat's a lie.
actually neither have i.. and im gold 1. i just remember seeing nerfs a week later and then no one has touched her since. just like azir... lol
Zedex3 votesShe's got nice gank potential and waveclear, but I felt matchups were unfavorable to her. Go figure, Riot nerfs her for being too good at certain things yet Lux has had a 53% winrate for a year and is far easier to play and win as.
Wonderlands2 votes"So what does she do? Waveclear? Roam? Zone?"
Yes....yes she does all 3 of those. Q for wave clear, passive and ult for roaming. Her CCs for zone-ing....
LegendaryLemur2 voteswhy not both
bad arcade kitty2 votestaliyah is pretty strong currently
MLDzXnRRR2 votesShe is a pretty good ganker.
Swarovsko4 votesShe used to be a pretty good ganker*
Alien Kink VR2 votesSwarovsko1 votesYou must be good at her or the enemy team had no wards, which i doubt. I too end games with around 10 kills and assists with her (played her a lot because when I started I used to end games with 4/12/7 lol), but I still think she's not as good as she should be. Her ult at rank 1 has a garbage range and 180 sec cooldown which is absurd for something that doesn't even deal damage. Her ult starts having a good range at rank 2/3 which is usually after laning phase so not as useful.
Alien Kink VR1 votesI agree, she could be stronger. I'd like to think Im good at remembering where the enemy JG had last shown up, but that works well with any midlaner in my favor. I like Taliyah and Ryze as my "safe" picks because they can deal pretty well with anything in lane and have tools to help others. Shes not a nuke, her sustained damage is pretty meh rn, but god damn is she disruptive and mobile.
Swarovsko1 votesLol Taliyah and Ryze ''safe'' picks? I only pick Taliyah when I want to troll tbh. Played her once in ranked and I had to focus on EVERYTHING (watching mini map 100% of the time just to know when to roam and when to not, trying not to feed a thirsty Yasuo, try to give my adc as many kills as possible when i roamed, trying to win lane, trying not to spam Q so i could trade better etc...). It's like you have to play like a Diamond and need to be focused about everything, and that's too much pressure. I ended up the game winning 7/4/17 with my adc and support fed af thanks to my roams, which was nice but I felt so much pressure that now when I play Taliyah i just play her in normal drafts trolling around without caring about anything. I feel like Taliyah is not champion that everyone can play: she's exclusive to those who always pay attention.
Alien Kink VR1 votesI think the same can be said of Twisted Fate, but as a general recommendation its something really good to work on. I went from a low silver to gold 1 in a season by working on nothing more than awareness, vision, and rotations.
Ashaya2 votesShe's definitely not super weak or trash in my opinion. But takes a lot of practice to pick her up. After the changes to her W I had dropped her for a while, but after long enough I picked her up again and just played game after game because I enjoyed her kit so much until I felt comfortable with the new W.
Overall, her strength doesn't come from lane, but from her ability to roam.
Early levels are the hardest, but once you hit level 3 and have carefully managed your mana and Q's, you can fish for W's until you score a hit to blast them with E-Q which can do most of a mid laners health. Also, you don't need Q to wave clear if you place your E effectively so that both procs hit the wave.
But, yeah... I'm rambling, so, best thing she can do is clear waves with a quick w-e-q combo and roam bot or top for quick kills or flashes at level 6. She's fast, and has one of the best ultimates in the game for blocking off escapes and zoning.
two cents from a Taliyah player!
Prestige AkaIi2 votesI think she may be a little weak atm in lower elo's since all of her nerfs but in my experience she's still a really good control mage that can sway teamfights in your teams favor. She's actually considered one of the best champions in the game if you take the time to master her (not quite gp and azir level, but high up there).
Noblewind2 votesShe's super hard to play effectively and the kit in general is just unreliable in terms of consistency.
She's more reliable if you aren't the bulk of the your team comp's damage and you play more of a utility role. W is extremely strong during fights and her zoning is amazing.
inplane2 votesTo be fair, she's the jack of all trades. Has everything but good at nothing. There's really no reason to pick her unless you find her fun or you just like her as a character.
You can pick any other control mage and put in less effort to do just as well if not better. 
, 
, 
, 
, or 
can do her job at a better rate. 
can roam much better than she can. 
has the burst and mobility.
AquariusGine1 votesShe's so fun! But I can't make her work like other mages.
Got any tips?
MrBuffington1 votesPractice; what others are saying about the nerfs are true, but you can make any champion work with enough practice.
I suggest watching high elo players to pick up tips; pick a favorite pro (ie. Faker, Bjergsen, etc.) and look up a VoD on youtube; alternatively you can go on a channel like best one trick ponies on youtube and find a good Taliyah player.
As far as builds, I generally check op.gg for what's the most popular/common build/runes/mastery set ups, which give you a good starting point for how to build the champion (In my experience, the Korean server has the "optimal" set-up, but keep in mind there are some variations on meta between regions, in addition to certain builds working better for certain skill levels, so I also check the NA server and judge for myself what I think would work for me). Basically the goal here is to avoid pitfalls and traps as far as builds, less about finding some perfect, cookie-cutter build (since a "perfect" build is situational).
She was one of my if not my favorite champion on release; ever since they changed her W to vector cast I actually can't play her (I've spent a lot of time trying to learn Viktor and Rumble with no success; if I ever dedicate myself to midlane again, Taliyah is one of the champions I'll put a lot more time into, but I just don't have the time or motivation to practice her right now; still salty about the change, lol). General tips from when I played her:
SpookyNeedle1 votesShe's really hard and rather weak
TyroneWatermelon1 votesToo much damage dependancy on full hit Q,and useless Q while on worked ground
The Space Cowboy1 votesBasically if somebody sucks you can really punish them with your super strong q over and over again until they are low, then knock them through your mines for the win. However this rarely happens. Instead you get jumped on harder than 
in a bad matchup and look like a tool.
