Riot announced today that the promised Taliyah artwork changes will be arriving in patch 2.5.0 -- hopefully along with some much-requested balance changes! As you may recall, there was some initial outrage that her portrayal in LoR seemed anglicized relative to her appearance in LoL, to which Riot promptly responded to with apologies and a commitment to change the artwork.
Taliyah's LoL splash screen (left), original LoR L2 card art (mid), and revised L2 card art (right); click for full-sized originals.
They are definitely minor differences that many players probably wouldn't notice without calling their attention to it, but when put side to side you can see them. Her skin tone has been bronzed, her eye brows are bushier, and the bridge of her nose is more prominent. The revised artwork also a lot more "crisp" in general, with more distinguished edges and deeper color saturation in features like her hair ornament and rock shawl. Fans have been expressing their gratitude on Twitter and reddit.
Appearance aside, Taliyah has quickly found herself the least-played champion of the new expansion. After an initial couple of experimentation days of the new expansion, content creators and average joes alike have found her performance underwhelming. There is a viable Aphelios + Taliyah archetype that relies on doubling The Veiled Temple to power-buff one of your champions, but it feels very clunky compared to other Temple meta decks such as Zoe + Aphelios Temple, Zoe + Lee Sin Temple, Aphelios + TF Temple, etc. And outside of Temple, there aren't really many great targets for Taliyah's Play ability in the current card collection that is strong enough to build a deck around. Many have speculated that there are some more powerful landmarks from this set that just weren't included in this first release -- which would certainly explain Promising Future.
Patch 2.5.0 will go live on Wednesday, March 31st, bringing these artwork changes and almost certainly some card balance changes.
What do you think of the artwork changes? Share with us below!
Comments
Wow she looks so much different now.(Yes this is sarcasm)
Anyway just give the poor girl +1 attack so that she doesn't die to Culling Strike in her level 2 form. Lee Sin have better stat for the same price and that guy can generate a barrier every turn.
Also, make it so that her ability works even when she's stunned or killed in combat. That thing is much more annoying than anything else imo.
nice! not an active runeterra player but it's good to see riot responding to feedback like this.