Taliyah- What She Has and What She Needs
OK, I want preface this by saying even though my match history doesn't show a whole lot of wins, i really like Taliyah and i feel like she is a great champion, Riot just has to balance her a little more and make her work with herself. I want to go through what i feel like are her Pro's, Con's, and what can be done to help her after this weak of a release.
Pros
- She is unique in her art and gameplay
- She has a kit that fits a singular playstyle of a Zone Control Mage allowing for some common ground in builds.
- She has SUPER high base damage on her Q ability which allows for great trades w/Thunderlords and gives synergy to her kit IF you have Rylais
- She isn't limited in role, being both viable as a support and as a mid, and once and awhile top lane.
- Has one of the best walls currently in game, if not the best
Cons
- Dies to anyone with a dash
- Has a knockup that is more of a engage tool or a teamfight tool than a solo fight, that also silences you while using it
- Is gated by the fact you can't use a e/w or a w/e combo to consistently land her combos
- Is recieving targeted buffs for mid lane only and isn't promoting her anywhere else
- Kit only feels synergetic with a RCS built, without one her kit loses so mych synergy
- Can't for the life of her fight assassins that are even semi-competent since her 5 shot Q is super readable and easy to dodge without RCS
- Has too much power on her Q in relation to her other abilites
- Passive works like mobi boots making her lose a shit ton of power off it unless she roams
- Passive leaves her vulnerable to any champion who uses walls to thier advantage (i.e Vayne Poppy)
- Riding on ult is interruptable and leaves ult on a massive CD
- Is a zoning mage thats gated by her worked ground passive and early game CD
- Worked Ground is very underused and has much more potential
- Without others in a fight she has a hard time hitting super telegraphed abilities in 1v1 situations
Things that could be done without breaking her
- Allow her passive to not be interrupted by minions
- Take the self silence off of W
- Allow her to queue up abilities
- Move the massive damage on Q so that she can have better damage on other abilities
My Personal Idea what to do with her to promote her in other lanes
Ok, this might sound crazy, but increase the size of worked ground and keep the cooldown, let her shoot 3 shots on Q but increase the mana cost. Then Let her other 2 abilites gain BUFFS on worked ground and have them be weaker on the main ground. Examples include a larger radius on knockup on worked ground and for mines more damage a higher slow a bigger field or even the ability to detonate them early if they are on worked ground. This instantly synergizes her kit, keeps her powerful at zoning but gives her meaningful things to do on worked ground instead of feeling super nrefed. Damage numbers CD and all her stuff would have to be adjusted, but not by much, and it would make her so much fun to play. I may be a low level player with not a whole lot of games on her but i love champion design and i think we should try some new things on Taliyah.