Taliyah Mid-Scope Update Explained

On 29th March, Riot Games announced that it was looking at “mid-scope updates” for champions Taliyah and Olaf, in an attempt to revive them and bring them back into play on Summoner’s Rift. On 13th April, the community got a glimpse of the mid-scope updates for Olaf, which were shared on the League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE) subreddit by Lead Gameplay Designer Bryan “Axes” Salvatore.

Now, two weeks after the Olaf changes, Riot has given an insight into the changes waiting for Tailyah, the stoneweaver. Late on 25th April, Principal Champion Designer August “August” Browning shared a few highlights of the mid-scope update and wrote on Twitter, “The Taliyah mid-scope update should be on PBE tmrw for patch 12.9. Feedback welcome!”

The changes that were listed by Browning on Twitter were long and extensive so let’s get right into it.

Taliyah mid-scope update slated for LoL Patch 12.9

Every element and aspect of Taliyah’s kit has undergone significant and impactful changes. For Taliyah’s base stats, her armor and HP have been reduced, but her base mana is being increased. Taliyah’s early game roaming potential and her ability to burst down enemies are being nerfed, but Riot is giving her abilities some much-needed adjustments to help her hop back into the meta. This mid-scope update could potentially move Taliyah away from the jungle and make her an important mid-laner.

According to Browning, these are the highlights of the changes:

• Buffs: Area of Effect (AoE) Q, lower Q CD (cooldown), Worked ground Q is STRONG, E is a longer range and stuns dashers, significant usability improvements on her Passive, W, and R

• Nerfs to burst damage and early roaming

Taliyah’s Q - Threaded Volley’s area of effect (AOE) damage is being brought back after it was removed in Season 8. When Threaded Volley is used on worked ground, Taliyah will now toss a single hit boulder that shall deal twice the damage to the primary target and also slow them down. However, after using the ability on the worked ground, the worked ground is consumed.

Her damage is being reduced since Riot is removing the damage output completely on her W - Seismic Shove and is reducing the damage on her Q and E - Unraveled Earth. However, to offset this damage reduction, Riot is buffing the other elements of E - Unraveled Earth, where enemies dashing through the ability will be stunned, and W - Seismic Shove will be easier to hit as the delay is being reduced.

For her R - Weaver’s Wall, Riot again is bringing forth many changes which include adjusted cooldowns, jump-off speed, and range. After this mid-scope update, Taliyah will no longer be knocked off her wall while casting the ability. However, she cannot use it within three seconds of taking damage from towers or champions.

A user on Twitter expressed their concerns about the damage loss in Taliyah’s kit. In response, Browning replied, “Her damage for sure has to go down to compensate for her increased DPS [Damage per second] and reliability, but it's possible we went too far. Can always buff it up a bit in the future if she ends up needing it.”

The mid-scope update for Taliyah in League of Legends is slated to drop in LoL Patch 12.9, which is scheduled to go live on the servers on 11th May. Players who want to try Taliyah’s reworked kit can test it out on the PBE server.