Weird Picks #68: Support Taliyah Guide

Taliyah saw a decent amount of play in every position except marksman on release. However, nowadays, she's been relegated to the mid-lane except for a few oddball Taliyah support mains. For some reason, she always sees a few thousand ranked games as support each patch, even at higher divisions. What does she bring to the table and why on Earth would anyone want to do it? Read on to find out more

Introduction

Taliyah saw a decent amount of play in every position except marksman on release. However, nowadays, she's been relegated to the mid-lane except for a few oddball Taliyah support mains. For some reason, she always sees a few thousand ranked games as support each patch, even at higher divisions. What does she bring to the table and why on Earth would anyone want to do it?

How to Play

Runes: Ability Power Quints, Magic Penetration Reds, Flat Armor Yellows, Magic Resist Blues
Masteries: 12-18-0, Thunderlord Masteries
Abilities: Q, W, E, then prioritize R > Q > E > W
Core Items: Eye of the Watchers, Sorcerer's Shoes, Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Liandry's Torment,
Morellonomicon, Void Staff

Why It Works

Strong Harass

Taliyah's harass does a deceptively high amount of damage, and her range allows her to zone out melee supports before they get their gap closers level 1~2. This allows her to establish lane presence for a potential level 2 or 3 cheese play. Her passive also allows her to weave in and out of the enemy support's range to bait some spells like Morgana's Q.

Decent Engage/Disengage
Taliyah's Seismic Shove works similar to Vel'Koz in lane as a higher skill, higher utility AOE knockback or pull. Early in the game, this is almost a guaranteed kill if it hits on a squishy marksman like Twitch or Ashe.

Powerful Teamfight Engagement
If you have a Poppy and/or Vayne on your team, a quick cut off via Taliyah's ultimate creates and absolute free-for-all that can snowball especially hard, especially if you manage to slice the enemy team in half to result in a 5v3.

Potential Pitfalls

No Sustain
As a result of her low sustain, she can quickly fall prey to defensive lanes like Janna or Soraka. Because of this, she needs to get an early cheese kill in order to stay relevant or else face a slow grind to death.

Low Crowd Control
Although she does have her AOE knockback and slow at her disposal, it does tend to be a bit late. This means that if your ally is taking burst damage, they may have already experienced the brunt of the spell cycle before Taliyah's crowd control takes effect.

Conclusions

Taliyah support remains somewhat of a niche cheese pick, but for players that have mastered her level 3 all-in, she remains an extremely fun AP mage that can catch your enemies by surprise. I certainly wouldn't advocate bringing her to ranked, but she can be fun to play in some normals.

Suggested Rating: Low Tier 3

What do you think about Taliyah Support? Comment below!

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