Taliyah’s Season 12 rework successfully shifts LoL mage back into mid lane

Taliyah is back in the League of Legends meta where she belongs ⁠— as a mid laner. The Season 12 mid-scope update has successfully moved the Stoneweaver back to her intended home as her popularity and win rate soars.

It’s been a while since Taliyah saw the light of day in League of Legends. Ever since major changes in Season 8 gutted the then-popular jungler and mid laner, only the very dedicated have touched the Stoneweaver.

That general disinterest brought Riot to the table in reworking Taliyah in their now-patented “mid-scope updates”. The changes, overall, traded in her burst damage for extra utility and more teamfighting power ⁠— and for some, it’s brought back the Taliyah of old.

She has finally broken back into the League of Legends meta following the rework. Her general play rate has increased six-fold from 1.26% to 7.74%, according to LoLalytics. She’s also finding more success too with a win rate above 50% in mid lane for the first time in Season 12.

Where Taliyah plays on Summoner’s Rift has changed too. Players are increasingly taking her back to the mid lane, with the ratio swinging from 55.4% jungle and 16.1% mid in patch 12.8 to 35.1% and 52.4% respectively as of the latest update.

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The swing in mid lane priority comes in part from the Q changes. The return of AOE on her primary waveclear ability has made it a lot easier to push in minions, and the ability to destroy Worked Ground stops her from having to move around lane precariously.

She can’t roam as effectively with changes to her ultimate, but it’s still better than most mid laners as she can leap into battle from thousands of units away.

Tailyah mains have rejoiced amid the changes, and even League devs have taken notice of how players have flocked back to the Stoneweaver in droves.

Developer August ‘August’ Browning noted Riot will look at nerfs following the mega LoL patch 12.10 durability update “assuming [it] doesn’t change much”. The nerfs will try to target mid lane while keeping Taliyah jungle balanced.

She is also getting some general bug fixes in the durability update that could help players pick the Stoneweaver back up.

Whether Taliyah can weave her way back into the pro play meta in Summer remains to be seen, but given the success of mid-scope updates like Ahri and more recently Olaf, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.