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Thoughts on Taliyah's E Ability

HexaDecimel··53 votes·5,153 views
Champion Reveal: Taliyah, the Stoneweaver

Now this isn't really about the function of her E but more so about the appearance of Unraveled Earth.

Riot recently revealed Taliyah's kit. And while I won't comment on her kit overall I will say that the rock models for her E ability look pretty awkward. The placement looks too uniform, and the model and textures are very repetitive. If she is using her ability to draw rocks from beneath the earth I think they should all have different shapes and be slightly different in size. In my opinion it would also look better if the rock placement on her E wasn't so orderly and perfectly lined up.

Again, Please don't take this as me knocking her kit or anything. After looking at it I thought everything looked really interesting and I am excited to see her played. I like the idea of her being an earth bender, I just think that the Unraveled Earth ability partials should have more variety in the shape for the rocks, their placement, and perhaps some of them should be a slightly different size.

39 Comments

Embertine14 votes

I agree about her E. The rocks should be more like spikes of stone, facing semi-random directions.

HexaDecimel12 votes

Ya, as it is now it kinda just looks like they made one rock, then copied it 18 times and lined them up lol

MrBuffington7 votes

They explode into spikes : https://www.facebook.com/leagueoflegends/videos/10157102718095556

I think it's actually pretty cool. She's a stone weaver, meaning there's much more order to her magic than you'd expect. Like how her ult forms clean arches instead of just boulders.

EDIT: facebook link might be unclear; here's S@20's video showing the same thing: https://youtu.be/hnXE8qPia6s?t=2m10s

Embertine1 votes

No, they just explode and you see small chunks dissapear. There wasn't any spikes : (

MrBuffington1 votes

Facebook links are strange; they posted a video (i linked it in the original comment, but here's one from S@20: https://youtu.be/hnXE8qPia6s?t=2m10s)

if a champion dashes or is displaced over the rocks, they explode into spikes (I probably should have been more specific)

HexaDecimel2 votes

All I am really looking for is an element of randomness. Out in nature you don't often see perfectly structured and repetitive bolders and rocks. Everything is too neat and structured. It doesn't look someone is really manipulating the earth to draw up bolders from beneath the earth.

Just think the ability would look nicer if there was more variety with the rock models and a little randomness to their placement.

MrBuffington7 votes

Right, that's what I'm saying; naturally occurring rocks are random and asymmetrical, but Taliyah weaving the rocks is not a naturally occurring event. If you look closely, there are slight variances in the rocks that make it look a bit more organic, but it's still a mage intervening in the land. Assuming these "rock bombs" have similar properties, it makes sense they have similar structure. She's a control mage; even if nature is inherently disorderly, she's controlling it, making it more ordered.

HexaDecimel1 votes

Lol, well I can't exactly argue with that, you are right :p I guess all I can say is I don't think the particles look good. I can see the slight differences in the rocks but the ability still looks to neat and orderly to me. I think it would look better if they all didn't look like near replicas of each other all lined up nicely.

MrBuffington1 votes

Right, they could vary them slightly so long as they retain the same basic structure and my explanation would still make sense. I think my reasons are still valid, but ultimately it might have come down to resource allocation; they "reskinned" the rocks so they aren't perfect replicas, which suggests they did want to distinguish them, but they probably kept the same underlying model/shape because it wasn't worth the time to make each rock incredibly unique from a model standpoint when they could do so with reskins, plus I think it'd create greater difficulties from a technical/programming side to work with like 20 different models, rather than 1 repeated multiple times. Function over form, basically.

HexaDecimel2 votes

http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/1908801/original/?width=250&version=1908801

MrBuffington2 votes

Limited resources :P. Cost-benefit, basically it's probably more worthwhile to put a designer on another champion sooner than making sure Taliyah has super unique rocks.

macromite1 votes

also clarity, if they looked to separate and there where few left it could create issues.

The Last Ballad3 votes

45 seconds into her voice over video, "Even rocks can be unpredictable" Her magic is orderly, but she doesn't have the best control of it yet, which would lead to some random defects(not the right word, but close enough) in the rocks she summons. Not to mention she is in a life or (temporary, but still painful) death situation, she isn't going to shape each exactly the same, she is just going to pull them up out of the ground.

MrBuffington2 votes

She's not just pulling rocks out of the ground, they have special properties, meaning she has to form them in some way to meet that function. There are random variations in the rocks; they differ in color and have different cracks.

Her VO is most likely referring to herself, as in she can be unpredictable/her magic shouldn't be underestimated.

Pyrodinium8 votes

I think it has more to do with a clarity issue.

Your enemies need to tell instantly if they are on the minefield, hence the uniform pattern. Taliyah is a champion that already creates a lot of visual effects on the ground, so making the stones irregular would probably impact gameplay too much.

HexaDecimel1 votes

All I am suggesting is that they add a little variety to the models and placement. The rock placement would still remain tightly packed and would have a pretty obvious area when cast.

Pyrodinium1 votes

But some of the rocks can detonate earlier if a champion dashes over them, making the whole thing more fussy.

Maybe if they made the rocks glow a little of something, that could work.

HexaDecimel1 votes

I would be fine with a slight outline on the rocks if that was the case.

Hige2 votes

I thought about this but... I mean, it's not like the whole area isn't covered by them, or that you can travel through them somehow... it's just an area of effect like Anivia's ult, of course once some of them explode the rest stays but on a different pattern made to look a bit more random, the same thing applies.

Trylobyte8 votes

I did think it looked a little half-assed when compared to the rest of her visuals... Guess I wasn't alone. It's probably done for clarity reasons because of how dashes interact.

Elijah Prophet7 votes

They look straight out of older Pokemon games.

Simple Moon5 votes

Agreed. It looks terrible. Just awful. Something like geodudes cave, on an original gameboy. It should be random rocks coming up through the ground and make it look more like her "worked ground"

TallyZrg3 votes

I made the same observation when I saw the champion reveal. The "bombs" look very awkward and unfinished. I hope they update the spell effect of them.

Other than that though her kit looks amazing and fun to play :)

coltonjs3 votes

Maybe she is OCD?

Strawberrycocoa3 votes

Another couple threads were made by a trypophobe who got their phobia triggered from the rocks. So I kind of agree for your reason AND theirs, that the rocks could stand to look less organized and ordered and more varied and mis-matched, while retaining the cone shape.

Rito Staff2 votes

They used all their coolness budget on her first 3 abilities it seems.

CornbreadAvenger1 votes

I think They might look better if they were more wedge shaped like tank traps instead of round. It would give a better feeling of a mine field or just regular obstacles IMO.

EDIT: I'm assuming the rocks were supposed to look like stitching (to go with the weaver theme), but I don't think stone and dirt give the desired effect. Stitching usually stands out on cloth and other materials because of color/material variations and the way the stitching makes the surrounding area sink in a little. The stones and the terrain are more or less the same color and there is no change in the terrain to give the illusion that there is actual "weaving" going on under ground.

If they want to stick with the stitching theme, I think it could look better if they removed the little rocks on the side and tried to give the stones little arches in them like her R. That would make it look like the rocks are being sewn instead of just popping out of the ground

Oleandervine1 votes

Her kit in general seems like it was cross contaminated by Sol's design team - or her kit is an amalgam of discarded Sol ideas.

Esbjörn1 votes

I dissagree. The ability looks really cool and i don't think she takes existing rocks and then tosses them to the surface, i got the impression that she shoves up random parts of soil onto the ground and shape them whilst doing so. It would be more convinient (faster and easier, since she's still learning?) to have a allready set up pattern for with her "mine field" rather then finding and figuring out how to best lift existing boulders into the ground.

On a side note it really remids me of this: http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/avatar/images/e/ed/Toph_sandbending.png/revision/latest?cb=20120915194803 Which i love*[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]*

World Ender1 votes

You have to remember that it's symmetrical for gameplay reasons. If it were oddly shaped or the rocks were different sized, for example people caught on top left side of the ability could have an advantage of avoiding damage more easily than people on the bottom right side. The ability has to be fair for both Taliyah and her opponents.

TheJinxedOne1 votes

they can all be about the same size... and have the same hit box.. but just the textures atleast should be different. more cracked on some, more chipped, more eroded etc etc.

Cheese Pope1 votes

What I do like is the range indicator for normal cast!!!!!! Is this going to be the new standard? Are they going to revamp the range indicators?????? PLS RITO

Spacesuit Spiff1 votes

Not quite related, but i find her passive looks kinda goofy on the skin, an ice chunk just sliding through the ground (without the winter rift anyway). It should hover a little

Yarnswift1 votes

it looks stupid.. Hopefully they will fix her before she goes live. she seems incomplete right now.

Only Play Darius1 votes

Sadly she looks only slightly less boring than the champ released right before her

joliesse1 votes

...I fell in love with her kit. But the E though...I really wish that it wasn't so uniform. When the rocks start shaking, it kind of creeps me out (reminds me of bugs in some way, also maybe due to my trypophobia) Variety would be pretty awesome!

DarkRitual1 votes

Since the aiming reticle is an arc, perhaps they should form in layered arcs, instead of a perfect grid. I think that would make it look much better and reasonable.

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