Talk:Taliyah/@comment-25223119-20170104181045

Been playing her lately, and it's really sad to see the state of balance she's in. Personally, pulling off a W-E combo followed by a Q to get first blood is pretty satisfying. Then you have moments of using the Hextech rockbet belt to give her that extra burst that she needs to either reposition or take out targets, which is satisfying. But it all stops right there.

She probably stomps casual players who has zero idea on how to play against her, because everyone is used to expecting meta mids. But when one knows how to counter Taliyah, she's basically non-existent. It saddens me that Taliyah had such a great conceptualization of being an earth mage, but Riot had to take on the class principle and what not and made her in to a control-centric mage.

Say all you want, but a mage is not mage if they don't deal strong AoE damage. Mages at their core, are all about area damage. And the controller subclass that Riot is pushing is effectively dampening their strength. Apparently, it's a sin to be a controller with strong aoe damage. You either have to be an AoE damage dealer with no controls given, or be a controller that is pretty much perceived as a supportive mid. It seems stripping off a controller's damage gives them a clear weakness when Riot is forgetting immobility is a consistent weakness in controller alone that should be taken in to account.

Anyways, poor Taliyah. She really needs a few more buffs to be viable. I really blame her ultimate. It is distinctive yes, but really hurts her kit. I would have preferred if they made her ult a 40 second cooldown where she can wall ride to a certain part of the map at a shorter distance but with more frequency. Her ultimate should be something damaging to accentuate her mage role.

Taliyah's damage is fine though, its the way her abilities and kit works that really makes her so difficult to play. Q shoots in one direction no matter how well you resposition. Changes to W made W-E combo so satisfying to pull but W alone is still clunky to date. E has a really short range and takes too long to detonate when not triggered by W. Ultimate cooldown is too long even when taking its impact to consideration. Half of the time, I find myself being cautious about using my ultimate, and would rather use the ability for disengaging and cutting off routes from enemy pursuers rather than setting up. The ability is so good in skirmishes but practically sucks at teamfight. If you attempt to cut off the enemy carry, supports and tank will reposition quickly to get by their side, making your walls useless.

A lot of balance justification from Riot seems to be targeting how powerful Taliyah's abilities are powerful on paper, but they forgot to take in to account the practicality of her abilities. Example: Taliyah's walls can close off a section for 8 seconds, but they do not take in to consideration how people can flash over walls and how its highly telegraphed. Q ratio amounts to 225% but forgets how each and every one of them are slow and can be body blocked. E has 450 base with 120% AP, but the chances of you pulling that much damage is never guaranteed. Lastly, her passive looks so good on paper, 20% out of combat movement, but how often do you get to use that. People say its for roaming purposes but the moment you're out of roaming and in to fighting, that passive is obsolete. I rather them shift the rock surf in to her Q or something.

Her values are so good, but she just doesn't do well. I don't know, she's a funny champion is all I'll say. Riot landed themselves at a tough spot because any buffs to her will tip her back to being top tier for sure. You basically have the damage to carry teamfights but the inability to do so due the way your abilities interact.