The two champions who received mini reworks in patch 12.9 are Olaf and Taliyah. Between the two, League of Legends content creator and analyst Nick “LS” De Cesare is more excited about Olaf, and feels the complete opposite with regard to Taliyah.
In fact, he described her as a “bottom five champion” in the game. The spell caster has been completely absent from the meta in Season 12, and was not picked once in major leagues. In solo queue, she’s been played more in the support role than mid or jungle.
In this latest patch, Riot Games acknowledged the “mechanical complexity and punishing nature of her kit,” and made changes to revive her presence in mid and jungle, making her slightly easier to execute with.
Base Stats
Passive – Rock Surfing
Q – Threaded Volley
W – Seismic Shove
E – Unraveled Earth
R – Weaver’s Wall
First of all, Taliyah players will feel slower from the get-go because the out of combat bonus move speed from her passive is down in the early levels. It’s only at level 15 that it surpasses her previous limit by 10%.
Threaded Volley’s base damage has also been gutted. It is down from 210 to 98.8 at level one, with reduced scaling, so don’t expect to clear minion waves or poke enemy champions in lane. What’s more, even though its cooldown has decreased, its mana cost has increased by 10 at all levels.
When it comes to Worked Ground, there’s a whole new mechanic at play. Gone are the days where players attempt to find new ground to refresh the 5-Rock Threaded Volley. Now, if you cast Q on Worked Ground, it will reward you with a single Boulder that deals double damage, so it’s crucial that you land it.
Her second ability, Seismic Shove (W), received the same treatment as Swain’s Nevermove pull back: it no longer deals damage, which makes them less impactful in the support role.
It is, however, slightly easier to land since its knock up radius has been increased by 25, and the time delay before knock up decreased.
Taliyah’s power has shifted to her E, Unraveled Earth. It is longer rather than wider, spawning six rows of boulders extending outwards from her with four boulders per row, with no delay. Its reach, range, initial damage, and slow effect have effectively increased, so enemies farther away will have to think twice about engaging her.
The coolest thing about Unraveled Earth is its new crowd control effect, where Boulders now stun enemies that dash through them for the duration of the dash. With so many increasingly mobile champions in the game, Taliyah’s previous kit wasn’t enough to self-peel, so these changes to E are definitely empowering.
Lastly, the key thing to note about Weaver’s Wall is that Taliyah can now jump much farther than before, as the dash range has been increased from 400 to 700.
That said, she can’t just pick up the pace and run away using her wall anymore, because damage from enemy champions or structures will prevent her from casting her ultimate for three seconds.
With so many subparts in each of her abilities, it’s no wonder that LS said in his patch 12.9 rundown that she has too many “weird mini games.”
With so many subparts in each of her abilities, it’s no wonder that LS said in his patch 12.9 rundown that she has too many “weird mini games.”
As a long-time Taliyah main, League of Legends streamer and content creator Drew “Midbeast” Timbs has also been playing the new iteration of the champion on the Korean ranked ladder.
So far, it seems that her early game has been gutted, and she’ll only start coming online from level nine onwards. In team fights, she has a much bigger impact and higher burst potential than before, so building Luden’s Tempest and Zhonya’s Hourglass might be more viable than Liandry’s Anguish and Rylai’s Crystal Scepter.
Read the full patch 12.9 notes here.
