League of Legends: Will Taliyah's rework make her meta again?

Riot Games continues to pump out reworks for League of Legends (LoL) champions that its ever-changing metagame has left behind, with the Stoneweaver, Taliyah, getting the latest overhaul.

Riot’s lead champion designer August “August” Browning revealed that the initial mid-scope updates for the Shuriman Mage included huge buffs to her Q, but at the cost of her burst damage and early roaming capabilities.

Let's take a deeper look into what’s new on the Stoneweaver’s kit and how you can maximize these on the Summoner’s Rift.

Stats:

Starting with the most basic, Taliyah’s base mana has been increased, but to balance that her mana regen was decreased.

Taliyah was meant to be a bit squishier than before, but August and the team have reverted her base Armour to 20 after a few days of testing. Her movement speed was also decreased after the first week of testing.

Armour: 20 > 18 [TWEAKED] – reverted back to 20

HP: 531 > 500

MP/5: 9.34 +.85/level > 8+.8/level

Mana: 425 > 470

[TWEAKED]: Movement Speed > 335 - 330

Rock Surfing (Passive)

Taliyah’s movement speed in the early game has been significantly pulled back.

This was meant to address her early game roaming power, which may consequently affect jungler Taliyah.

This movement speed scales, however, capping at level 15.

OOC MS: 20%-45% by level 18 > 10/20/35/55% at 1/9/12/15

Time before passive falls off away from walls: 1 second > 2.5 seconds

Fixed a bug where Taliyah could lose her passive permanently if she had a spell shield.

Threaded Volley (Q)

The Stoneweaver’s Q is receiving the biggest changes for her rework, as her Worked Ground is taking on an entirely new role.

Taliyah now will play more as a set-up champion after working the area surrounding her rather than losing strength.

Anyone who plays this champion will want to keep fighting in the space she's made for herself through Worked Ground.

To refresh everyone’s memory, every time Taliyah casts Threaded Volley, an area of Worked Ground appears. Currently, the Worked Ground will allow Taliyah to throw a small piece of rock. This will then turn into a giant boulder.

When this large boulder is thrown, it will deal double damage and slow any opponents caught in the AoE splash. As a result, opponents will be forced to either respect Taliyah's Worked Ground or risk taking a clash on terrain favorable to her.

This will feel like a much older version of her Threaded Volley, meaning Taliyah may be more successful as a combat mage as a result of these adjustments.

Taliyah’s damage to jungle monsters was initially adjusted to 150%, then later tweaked to 170% after the second round of changes. This is meant to safeguard her spot in the Jungle meta.

CD down, Added AoE; Worked on ground Q reworked to be significantly stronger, damage down.

[NEW] Now deals damage in a 175 radius AoE

Damage: 70-170 (+.45AP)> 38-130 (+.5AP)

Extra rock damage reduction: 50% > 60%

Max Q damage: 210 – 510 (+1.35 AP) > 98.8 – 338 (+1.3 AP)

Cooldown: 7-3 seconds > 6.5 – 2.5 seconds

Cost: 50-90 > 60-80 [TWEAKED]: 40-80

[TWEAKED]: Q2 cost: 30 > 20-40

Damage to Monsters: 150% > 170%

[NEW]: Worked ground cast is a single hit boulder, hits in a 225 radius AoE, deals 2x damage (76-260(+1AP)) to the primary target and slows everything hit by 30-50% for 2 seconds.

Worked Ground mana cost: 1 > 30

Worked Ground minimum CD: 1 second > .75 seconds

Worked Ground Radius: 300 > 400

Worked Ground Duration: 25 seconds > 30 seconds

Worked ground size on Howling Abyss is not the same as Summoner’s Rift

[NEW] Worked ground cast has new VFX, SFX, animation, and Icons

Seismic Shove (W)

Another important update to Taliyah is on her W, which won’t deal ANY damage but has been changed into a utility tool with a lower cooldown and mana cost.

The ability will also be easier to land, as its AoE was slightly increased and the knockback slightly reduced.

Damage: 60-140 (+.4 AP) > REMOVED

Delay before knockup: .8 > .65

AoE Radius: 200 > 225

Cooldown: 16-12 > 14-8

Mana Cost: 70-110 > 60-0

Unraveled Earth (E)

Riot has also removed the upfront damage from Taliyah's E.

In addition, her mines also won’t detonate on their own but she will need to land a knockback to trigger them.

Enemies that dash through the mines will be stunned for one second.

The layout of the mines will also be placed lengthwise, effectively increasing the range of the ability.

[NEW]: Mine stuns enemies that dash through them for 1 second

Upfront damage: 50-150 (+.4 AP) > REMOVED

Detonation damage: 50 – 90 (+.3 AP) > 25-105 (+.3AP)

Cooldown: 16-8 > 16-12

Number of rows (range): 4 > 6

Mines per row (width): 6 > 4

Mine spawn delay between rows (affects how fast they go out): .1 > .17

Delay after cast time before the first mine spawns: .1 second > 0

Field duration: 4 > 5

Weaver’s Wall (R)

Although Taliyah’s early cast range has been decreased, this will scale up nicely up until the late game (so much so that she can nearly dash through half the map in just one skill).

Any damage dealt to her won’t also knock her off of it.

The Stoneweaver can also dash toward any target direction at maximum range, instead of just being able to dash perpendicularly through her wall.

Honestly, this can be such a game-changer since she can join teamfights much quicker.

Even so, it’s not the type of ultimate that would force teamfights to break up.

Range: 3000-6000 > 2500 – 6500

[NEW]: Cannot cast within 3 seconds of taking damage from an enemy champion or structure

Moving jumps off the wall perpendicular to the direction of travel > moving causes Taliyah to dash to the location she clicked, up to a maximum dash range.

Jump off dash range: 400 > 700

Jump off dash speed: 1000 > 1200

Jump off dash now has more forgiveness when attempting to dash through a wall.

Taliyah’s rework overall makes the champion feel better and easier to play. It also seems like bringing back her old Threaded Volley will make her viable in the mid lane.

With utility added to her kit, she will be a great champion against opponents with tons of dash and mobility — which will be a great way to counter enemies like Yasuo, Yone, or Master Yi.

Somehow, she also seems to be a hard counter for Yuumi, who just can't get away from Taliyah’s stun.

We like that these changes make Taliyah quite competitive, but without any crazy broken additions that scare everyone away from teamfights.

Players do need to take note that with these huge changes come equally huge adjustments to her build.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

For more gaming news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooGamingSEA. Also follow us on Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube, and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page!