Taliyah is actually known as a Stone Weaver, but while watching the Champion Spotlight I couldn’t help but think of The Blind Bandit, Toph, who is an Earthbender. What I absolutely love about Riot Games is their attention to detail when it releases a new Champion. Taliyah has been brought to life, with a rich lore in a universe surrounded by some of the most interesting characters in gaming. Her abilities seem well thought out, and her humble approach to her incredible abilities allow to fall in love with this protector who, mind you, can control the earth with her mind!
Abilities
Let’s put lore and fantasies aside for one minute and take a look at probably the most important feature of this update – her abilities. League of Legends is of course a heavily competitive game, so the addition of a new Champion is crucial to the outcome of future matches and tournaments. Often in MOBA titles such as League of Legends the addition of a new character often creates an overpowered feel to their gameplay. I expect nothing less when reading over he abilities, and trying to imagine the outcome of her use in competitive play.
Passive: Rock Surfing
Taliyah becomes one with the map, literally, with her passive ability called Rock Surfing. As seen in the Champion Spotlight, Taliyah’s movement is dictated by her surroundings, moving faster near walls and out of combat.
Q: Threaded Volley
This ability has both a passive, and active skill, both aiding her mobility. Once again she gains increased movement speed when traveling on worked ground, and the active skill ripping up the earth beneath her and firing off five stone shards in the direction of her target. The worked ground mentioned above is created for a few minutes after using Threaded Volley, allowing her to gain her passive when stepping on the ground again.
W: Seismic Shove
Target Shove again brings me back to my Toph comparison, how she would stomp the ground and bring the earth up beneath her enemies. Taliyah’s ability is somewhat similar. Seismic Shove, on the other hand, has an interesting mechanic where she is able to recast the ability before it erupts, meaning that when you see the ability beneath you, she can recast it in a certain direction, knocking you away or into her allies.
E: Unraveled Earth
This is an interesting defensive (or offensive?) ability. Taliyah scatters boulders onto the ground around herself causing any enemies who enter to take from the explosion in waves. Enemies who continue to fight on the fractured ground will take a second wave of damage.
R: Weaver’s Wall
The ultimate ability, and probably the most important, channels an ability which releases a wall in a target direction. If you thought Taliyah was mobile already, wait till you see her reactivate her ultimate and ride on the wall. This is by far my favourite ability, perhaps in the entire game.
Laning
This is an important aspect when considering a new champion. I’m not well versed in gameplay when it comes to League of Legends, but Taliyah’s mobility and survivabilty, being able to dictate her surroundings, allows me to believe she would be sustainable in a top lane position. I’m not sure how powerful her spells are and whether they would benefit from a solo position, so I will leave that up to the better LoL minds out there.
Her mobility is perhaps her most attractive quality, and as I mentioned above she makes complete use of the her surroundings with the ability to handle team fights at her own leisure. Some players feel her spells may be underwhelming, but there is method in Riot’s madness when considering the impact she may have.
Taliyah’s impact will only truly be felt when picked up in professional games. For now we can only imagine the team fight and ganging potential she has with her rock flinging and mud sliding. I’m most interested to see what sort of composition comes from the use of Taliyah, but for now I will just have to watch on streams as the price tag is a bit more than I can afford.
Last Updated: May 18, 2016
Pariah
May 18, 2016 at 15:05
[mssc]