Taliyah: The Disconnect and the Stoneweaving Fantasy.

TL;DR The removal of Lockoutand double cast from 's W makes her feel disconnected from her character.

Hello people of Gameplay,

A handful of you probably remember me as the "Taliyah W targeting indicator guy." Today, I want to talk about as a whole and how her character has a disconnect between her kit and thematic. I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

Many of you probably don't remember how was around her time of release. For those of you who do, you probably know what I'm going to talk about. Back when she was released, her W spell "Seismic Shove" was a two-cast spell. Cast once to target an area. Cast twice to choose a direction to throw an enemy in. Currently, it's a Vector spell. Hold down W and drag the mouse to cast all in one action. This is where The Disconnect begins.

The Fantasy. is said to be a novice Stoneweaver. A trainee in using her powers to control the Earth itself. This is shown in the cinematic Riot has recently released. She is featured in the cinematic doing all sorts of extraordinary feats. However, if you look closely, she is seen straining herself in order to control the Earth. This is what makes "Taliyah." She's inexperienced, so she's going to have difficulties trying to do too many things at once when it comes to her powers.

https://media.giphy.com/media/l0HUkHwT7X0mpQwIE/giphy.gif

The bodily motions shows the amount of strain she has to go through.

The Disconnect. Remember how I mentioned was inexperienced and has to strain herself in order to use her powers? I feel like this is no longer the case in her kit. Around the time of her release, her W "Seismic Shove" fulfilled that fantasy. Firstly, it was a two cast spell. It made the player feel like they were actually controlling the ground by selecting an area and then pulling it through a second cast. It felt unique and nice. Now, it's a single cast spell that just feels like is summoning a rock to bounce out of the ground.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o752aOsIutxGC9pBe/giphy.gif

Secondly, her W had a unique mechanic called Lockout. It basically prevented from doing anything WHILE casting W as seen above. While it may not sound fun, it delivered the fantasy that she is a novice Stoneweaver. It also proved to be a great mechanic for the balance of her kit, but I wont get into that. During W, she's trying to lift a giant portion of the ground which will cause her to strain a lot. It makes sense that she's unable to do anything else other than walk around during the time she's trying to lift a giant portion of the ground. Seems familiar?

https://media.giphy.com/media/26gN0EObQusUAxUg8/giphy.gif

What am I getting at here? To sum it up, the changes to 's W removed a thematic aspect of her character and kit. Her whole theme is based around a shoddy Earthbender, yet she's able to perform 2 other actions at once while trying to lift a large piece of the ground upwards. I believe that ZenontheStoic got her kit right the first time. After the many nerfs and changes, it just makes me a bit sad that 's kit strayed so far from her initial character.