Initial Response to Taliyah

As we all know, today, Riot released the new champioin, Taliyah the Stoneweaver, onto the live server. I personally am super impressed with how well-designed of a champion she is. I think that she is perhaps in the best state that any champion has been in on release. Her kit is very unique and versatile as well as being one of the most satisfying to play in the entire game; I mean, who doesn't love the feeling of controlling the Rift itself and pummeling opponents with a barrage of rocks? That being said, I feel that there are a few minor tweaks that would improve the player experience and make Taliyah less rough around the edges (I'm sorry, at least I made it this far without any rock puns). First, I think that her passive is a great mobility tool for her, but sometimes it feels awkward; like, it doesn't detect a wall when she's clearly near one, and there are some glitches where it will deactivate as she enters brush or fog of war. Second, let's talk about her Q, one of my new favorite abilities in the game. While on Worked Ground, using her Q refunds half of the mana cost; however, that doesn't mean that she can use it if she has half of the mana normally required to cast it. It would be my recommendation to make it cost half the mana rather than refund it. I think this is important because the 1 stone and mana reduction is clearly meant to both encourage caution as to when and where she creates Worked Ground as well as to not make Worked Ground either too disadvantageous to Taliyah or too pointless where it might as well not be a part of her kit. Casting Q on Worked Ground can be used to get cheap poke, last hit, or keep the player from worrying about landing multiple rocks. Having it refund mana rather than just making Q cost less reduces Taliyah's playability while low on mana and takes away some of the advantage of playing on her Worked Ground. Finally, her W is a major part of her kit as it is her only form of hard CC as well as a means to make use of her E. While the mechanic of allowing the player to choose which direction to knock her targets is important and one-of-a-kind, the current method by which the player chooses which direction the knockback goes prevents the player from casting other spells until the ability has "detonated". This reduces Taliyah's ability to weave her spells together (I'm not apologizing for that) in addition to making the W feel clunky. Other than those things, I think that Taliyah is a superb champion (easily in my top 5 favorites) and is a great addition to the League of Legends.