Hello, my name is SpaceMonsterz I started playing league since June 2013 (Season 3) with 2861 ingame hours and counting. This is my second guide on mobafire, I write about builds that are different to the normal meta as seen here in my First Guide on Shyvana.

With this guide I am focused on creating a different approach to playing the earth bender Taliyah than most other guides. By focusing more on tank items and the utility of her kit rather than using magic items that turn her into a weapon of mass destruction, she will instead be used to build a wall between the 2 teams and built for survivability.

Please note:

• Certain items like Spellthief's Edge, won't be talked about here.
• My builds are meant for normal draft and not ranked, I will not be held responsible for the loss of any elo. Though if you make them work, by all means go ahead.
• Any feedback good and bad will be greatly appreciated to improve the guide and concept further.

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Here Seismic Shove is used at level 1 to catch the overextended support while their adc is further back. [gameplay picture #2] *forgot to capture* Putting people out of position from Seismic Shove can sometimes cause people react by using Flash, even more so when near your tower as you can pull them into its attack range and get a free hit if no minions are there. [gameplay picture #3]

I'm not going to teach you how to play support. I'm not going to teach you how to master Taliyah. I'm not going to directly tell you what to do and where to go. But what I will tell you is how I play the lane, there's no point in saying go here at 'x' minutes, do a backflip over here or lose the game type nonsense. This is just in general, nothing super intense, not 10 pages long, just a couple of paragraphs. This is the ideal scenario you'll want to happen, but everyone knows nothing in league repeats exactly the same, and you will have to adapt every game. By getting inside the head of the enemy team in lane, you can find out how they might react to you. So, my playstyle is to take good old Ancient Coin and sit back and relax. All I do is wait for chances to use Seismic Shove to bounce the lane towards my carry and get some hits in as they run back. If they fight, simply walk up to them, they panic, they change aggro, some crazy idiot flashed that one time. From there soak up damage while the carry attacks, moving back slightly to give them the belief that they are going to kill me, they follow in more to our side. Failing their attempt, they then run, by now one of them is low health from our carry and will have to use Flash to escape, which can be countered with my carry's Flash, you get the picture as to what happens next. Out of lane you stay with the team, you won't be winning any 1v1s, if you do find one, bait them back to the team. Obviously you want to be running around casting Weaver's Wall to catch and force Flashes from immobile mid laners like Lux for example.

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Stat Priority

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1. CoolDown Reduction

   Building cooldown reduction is the most important stat to buy, having abilities available sooner provides a lot to the kit. Say you were in lane, you used Seismic Shove at the start, normally it would take 16 seconds and wouldn't be able to use again for a long time. But by maxing it first and having cdr items this now becomes a whole lot shorter. Lets say a teamfight breaks out at level 9 you will now be able to pull off 2 to 3 casts for peeling and catching.
   
   This will also provide more map pressure and presence with Weaver's Wall being up more often. Early game you could quickly pick up your Nomad's Medallion with the 10%cdr runes and Ionian Boots of Lucidity, then build into items that uses Kindlegem or Glacial Shroud to start working on tank stats with max cooldown reduction.
   
   

2. Health

   Taliyah's base health is 520, its not great, but its not bad. It is a little shorter compared to meta tank supports, while still being higher than other utility supports. Stacking health is best when fighting a mixed team, and makes armour + magic resistance more effective.
   
   

3. Armour / Magic resist

   From having no magic resistance glyphs you should invest some gold here after support items into a Aegis of the Legion for example. Otherwise you're running the risk of being more vulnerable to magic champions and become easy prey to the enemy's mid caster. Although on the flip side, if its an Ad mid the extra armour is better, but then if there's still a tryhard ap "support" in the bot lane then you still need the resistance.

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Masteries

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(0/12/18)
Bond of stone Keystone

I pick bond as it is the standard tank support keystone. I invest more towards the tank side of the resolve tree, these can be switched to other masteries in the tree to fit more to your style, eg. 15% off summoner spells for more Flash and Exhaust rather than health regeneration. Then 12 in cunning picking up support based masteries.

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Runes

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• x2 armour quints.......... 8.52 arm
• x1 CDR quint.......... 2.5% cdr
• x6 health seals .......... 48 health
• x3 mana regneration seals.......... 1.2 mana/5
• x9 cooldown reduction .......... 7.5% cdr
• x9 armour marks.......... 8.2 arm

One main weakness to these runes is NO magic resistance glyphs, I swapped them out for cooldown reduction instead to be used on the her long cd spells and stacked armour to be able to take less damage from their adc. If it bugs you that much, can try switching the armour quints for MR ones instead.

For seals, use health seals like normal supports use, and adding 3 mana regen is optional, I personally like using them as I hardly ever face mana issues with them on, or at least less than I normally would without them.

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skill order

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Weaver's Wall Seismic Shove Unraveled Earth Threaded Volley

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Weaver's Wall

level up your ultimate when possible, when you hit 6 look for times where you can leave lane and wall off the mid lane from their tower depending who they are, they will either be trapped or burn Flash, avoid using it on champions with wall passing abilities. Alternatively, you can use it in bot lane, take the charge time into account as there is a marker that shows where the wall is going, so place it further behind where they can't run past. In extreme cases where the jungler or 4+ people come to lane you can block access off to the tower or trap people in depending where you're positioned.

Seismic Shove

This is the main skill I have been using with the build, it's displacement brings a offensive and defensive solution, although can be tricky to land and indicated clearly before effect so it can be dodged. Works like a longer ranged Nami's Aqua Prison in that you need to predict where they'll be before casting. Fun Fact: If you plan far enough, if someone were to Flash over your Weaver's Wall you can bounce them back to the side they were on, and vise visa, throw them over it if you're escaping.

Unraveled Earth

Take this skill second, i've found that people are staying out of the rocks for whichever reason that might be. Making it excellent for zoning, just place and watch them give up chasing. Consider maxing this first to reduce cooldown when against an adc like Vayne, Tristana, Lucian and Kalista as they can dodge W easier, but unable to dash while stones are around without being damaged and slowed. This can also useful against your Yasuos and other dash champions.

Threaded volley

I tend not to use the skill as often as a poke support would, personally using sparingly when I have mana to burn, normally saving the mana for other abilities instead. I've used the worked ground speed boost in order to barely escape in the past, I find that you will get more use from that than the projectiles themselves. You can max it out first if it suits your playstyle to provide more kill pressure in lane and if you're going to spilt push in empty lanes.

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Starting items

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• Ancient Coin
  Starting with Ancient Coin allows you to generate gold without being required to poke the lane, while not missing out on the 25% mana regen.
• Experiment build: Relic shield
  You can activate the spoils of war passive by using Threaded Volley to caster minons, this will add more health at the cost of mana regen. I would swap out the cooldown for magic resistance in runes and take out mana regen seals for more health. This way you are as tanky as can be, in order to save mana only use spells when necessary and not to harass.
• Option 1: x3 Health potions and Ward trinket
• Option 2 (blue side): x1 Health potion, pink ward and Ward trinket
  Standard 3 Health Potions and Stealth Ward to go with your support item. If you're on blue side of the map you could take out 2 in order to buy a Vision Ward to place in the tribush to avoid possible early ganks and remove enemy wards if your jungle's coming.

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Early items

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• Sight stone
  A must buy item for any form of support, having vision is one of the most powerful things any team can have, just by knowing where someone is and isn't can be the difference between over extending and being destroyed by the jungler, or backing out before they even get close, as well as objective control over dragon. This item should always be bought before Nomad's Medallion unless you return under 750 gold.
  
  
• Nomad's Medallion
  Acts the same as Ancient Coin just with improved stats and more gold on passive. Item now has health regen which improves sustain for the lane.
  
  
• Boots of speed (upgrades explained)
  Boots are also a must buy for anyone, being able to move faster than someone lets you escape and catch people if chases happen. Mobility Boots: you can use these with your passive Rock Surfing to roam around the map and return to lane even faster. But you will need other movement sources, otherwise if you get caught out you will be unable to escape. Buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity when rushing for cooldown, downside is that it doesn't offer any defences. Buy Mercury's Treads if the enemy team has a lot of stuns and to cover rune's weakness, buy Ninja Tabi if there is a lot of attack damage or auto attack reliant champions.
  
  
• Sweeper Lens and Vision wards
  Whenever you buy Sightstone always remember to switch trinkets immediately, using Sweeping Lens denies vision for the enemy, allowing the team to move around unnoticed. Remember at level 9 you can upgrade to Oracle Lens which is a better version as the radar follows you for longer and a shorter cooldown between casts. Keep buying pinks, make sure to have one on the map at all times.

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Main items

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eye of the oasis Eye of the oasis

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talisman of ascension Ruby Sightstone and Ascension

• Which item you pick comes down to a few different advantages and disadvantages. If you choose eye of the oasis you're saving a inventory slot while still gaining the item passives of both items. The item is cheaper and quicker to build into so you can then start on other items.
  
  Where on the other side taking Ruby Sightstone and talisman of ascension you will get it's active passive of speed boosting your team, which is really good for catching people out and starting up teamfights, then another use of it is retreating and escaping from bad situations. The item active reduction of Ruby Sightstone can be really good when building a lot of items that use active passives on really long cooldowns like Zz'Rot Portal for example. Disadvantages are the strengths of eye of the oasis in that these take 2 slots, more gold and longer to build into.
  
  
• Aegis Of The Legion
  Aegis of the Legion is a solid choice to get next, covers the hole of not having any magic resist while giving extra to your adc. Both item upgrades offer cooldown reduction and unique actives. The shield active from Locket of the Iron Solari goes perfectly with talisman of ascension's active. While Banner of Command can be used instead to cover lanes with minions pushing.
  
  
• Deadman's Plate (one armour item)
  This item along with Rock Surfing passive and with Mobility Boots gives you enough roaming speed to give Quinn's ultimate Behind Enemy Lines a run for its money. You should stick to one main armour item, so you can swap this out to any armour item even the ones that don't provide health. You should experiment a bit on this, and build to what the situation calls for. So, for example Randuin's Omen can make peel for your carry and some more catching potential.
  
  
• Spirit Visage (one MR item)
  Locket on its own won't provide enough magic resist for the whole game, depending what the enemy team's damage is made off the most, you should get your big MR item after your armour item. Using Kindlegem component of Spirit Visage reaches the 40% cdr cap with the other items. Alternative to this if you've already got the cdr, is the Banshee's Veil which holds more MR with less health, with a underrated passive of the spell shield, that can provide a free get me out of jail card if you were about to get caught out.
  
  
  
• Free slot from eye of the oasis:
  
  Personally, I would fill this extra space with even more defence items like a Warmog's Armor to no longer need base to heal with the passive. Ideally anything that you think that you need at the time of the game can go in here, like another armour or magic resist item perhaps.

In conclusion to the build, this is just a starting point where you can take what I've showed you and adapt it into something else for the different games you'll be facing if you choose to pick Taliyah as a utility tank for the support role.

Thank you so much for reading.
Upvote, and leave any comment you like.
Feedback good and bad is always helpful as it improves the quality of the guide in the longrun.

Expect more updates in future,
SpaceMonsterz

If you think this guide is troll, not even tested?? Well, here are some results from the recent games that made me want to start the guide in the first place.
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I'm currently experimenting into jungle, so far using the same type build as I would on Elise. Where I would get Enchantment: Runic Echoes and Rylai's Crystal Scepter and build tank items right after. Going to create some experiment builds with Enchantment: Cinderhulk that exchanges damage for bonus health perks. Below is one of the results offtank ap in the jungle.
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have your own results using this guide to show? send image link through a private message and I will add it here and credit your username.

I resisted for as long as I could...
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Loved watching avatar!