Proposed Taka Rework

Vainglory Discussion Heroes, Builds, & Items
1

Oh my generic godlike figure, I’m going to get murdered for this.

So firstly, why am I reworking Taka? He has a position in the meta, it’s not like he’s INSANELY BROKEN or ABSOLUTELY TRAAAAAASH. It’s not like he has no counterplay. He’s completely beatable as anyone.

Well, my main reason is that Taka is unfun to play against.

Of course, if you’re getting your ass handed to you, it’s usually not very fun, especially in MOBAs. Sometimes if the opponent makes a really sick play on you, you can sit there and nod, appreciate that you just got destroyed. But when Gwen walks up to you and AAs for 1000 damage, and you don’t have any way to counter it, it feels terrible.

Gwen is only the first form of this. After this is Kosh, then Epic Talent Ardan, then…
Taka.

Whenever you get killed Taka, it doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t feel like he earned it. He isn’t fun to play against, it’s that simple. And IMO, his CP path isn’t fun to play either. It doesn’t feel mechanically challenging, and from my experience, it’s just boring.

Now, what are my goals for my PROPOSED Taka rework?

  1. Keep as many abilities as similar as possible, while modifying parts to add elements of skill
  2. Create an assassin that comboes well into itself
  3. Make you feel like a proper ninja

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let us begin.

(Quick disclaimer: The numbers I will be adding to these abilities are estimates, and chances are, they’re overtuned. I fully recognise this and would like to say that I would probably nerf Takas base stats to make up for this, but I’m too lazy to go over everything.)

Rework

Passive: House Kamuha
Whenever Taka lands a Mortal Strike, he gains a stack of Ki.

  • Every 4 seconds, Taka’s next basic attack is replaced with a Mortal Strike. Mortal Strikes deal 50 (+35% of bonus weapon power) bonus damage and grant Taka +2 movespeed for 2 seconds. This bonus damage CAN crit, but is not affected by bonus crit damage.
  • Ki speeds up Taka’s Mortal Strike timer and grants 25% cooldown speed (max 5 Ki stacks)

Notes: Nothing much has changed. Abilities can no longer give Ki (but you’ll see why), and I’ve clarified on the crit interaction. The crit interaction is different from the one currently in the game, but it was the fastest way I could find the best between both worlds.

A: Kaiten

Taka flips in the chosen direction, becoming untargetable mid-air and dealing damage in a small AOE in front of where he lands. This instantly grants Taka a Mortal Strike. If Taka lands this ability on at least one target, can recast this ability within 3 seconds. This can only occur (Bonus WP/100 + Bonus CP/200) times, with a maximum of 2 resets. This ability has a minimum range. This ability always takes the same time to complete no matter the distance. CP grants this ability bonus range, up to a maximum of 2. The CD of this ability begins when the very first cast is used. When Overdriven, the mana cost of this ability is halved.

Damage: 50/100/150/200/250 (WP) + 100% CP Ratio + 100% WP Ratio
Minimum Range: 2.5
Maximum Range: 5/5.2/5.4/5.6/6
Cooldown: 20s

Notes: I can already hear WTF??? DELET THIS??? in the responses. The idea of this ability is to make Kaiten more flexible but also difficult. The delay on this ability from when you jump to when you land (which is predictable timing wise) means that landing this ability on the target you want it to requires good timing and predictions. If you miss, you don’t get any resets, and that’s the best time to punish Taka. This ability is essentially the core for my version of Taka; land it every time and have tons of jumps, miss it and be in a world of hurt. Also, note that he only gets one jump when using this ability to get away. It has a relatively long CD without his passive, so it’s possible to catch him.

B: Fade
When out of combat, Taka becomes invisible and gains movement speed for a short duration. Taka gains a Mortal Strike. If he attacks or uses an ability during stealth, that instance of damage deals bonus damage and Taka instantly uncloaks upon completing his attack.

When in combat, Taka glows red and prepared to counter. If he is attacked with a melee strike or a projectile, he knocks those in melee range away a short distance and become invincible for a short duration. Taka gains a Mortal Strike. He also becomes invisible, gains a movespeed boost and healing for a short period. f he attacks or uses an ability during stealth, that instance of damage deals bonus damage and Taka instantly uncloaks upon completing his attack.

Bonus Damage: 80/120/160/200/250 (CP) + 100% CP Ratio + 40% WP Ratio
Heal / Sec: 50/75/100/125/150 + 20% CP Ratio
Cloak Duration: 3s/3.2/3.4/3.6/4
Invinsibility Duration: 0.3s/0.3s/0.3s/0.3s/0.6s
Cooldown: 25s

_Notes: Making Kaku (now known as Fade) a combat ability was difficult. Having a Taka simply hit Kaku and run away was frustrating; it felt like there was nothing you could do about it. In my version, you need to actually time your Fade, but it comes with bonus benefits, such as a period of invincibility, bonus damage and higher base healing. Note that you can proc said bonus damage on a target using your Kaiten, and be completely unpredictable while using it (unless they have vision D:). Remember that the counter does not work on non directional abilities such as Celeste A or abilities that wouldn’t make sense to get countered like Skaarf ult. _

C: Kaku
Taka throws a smoke bomb at his feet, creating a smoke screen where he stands. Enemies standing inside the smoke screen take damage every second. This smokescreen acts similarly to a bush, with a few differences. Allies can see through the smoke screen without any issue. Enemies cannot see into the smokescreen when standing outside it, and they cannot see outside the smokescreen when standing within. Vision is revealed and nullified within the smokescreen AOE. Passives that require bushes can use the smokescreen to proc them.

Damage / Sec: 20/40/60 + 10% CP Ratio
Duration: 6s/8s/10s
Cooldown: 60/50/40

Notes: Never thought you would see Kaku as an ultimate, did you! This ability is to mainly support the previous two abilities. By restricting the enemies vision, Taka can do what he does much better. Plus, it fits his ninja motif. I also think it adds an interesting possibility for synergy between allies, or bush counterplay from enemies. I KNOW THAT HE CAN PROC HIS B DAMAGE WITH HIS C FOR AN AOE BURST, THAT IS INTENTIONAL.

I can’t wait to hear everyones POSITIVE and CONSTRUCTIVE feedback in the responses.

JK love a decent majority of you, rag on me if you want.

4 Likes
2

I think the a and b changes look good (I’ve always wished takas a can be used without a target) though the name for his b needs a changes (fade doesn’t really work and the rest of his abilities are Japanese words). His ult removes his damage source when changed like that.
(Just my opinion)

3

My big problem with take seems to be he can be scout trapped to death so easy.

4

Just remove his heal and maybe the CC or damage immunity effect on Kaiten, and he’ll be fine. His kit is just way too overloaded atm.

1 Like
5

Leave my boi taka and make it a new hero named Croak

6

I usually counter taka by Cath After he use x retsu to get close than kaiten. When the kaiten finish use stun and focus him. But cath is a captain so no one really want to play her ;_;

1 Like
7

How about making his current ultimate work on targets that he’s attacked in the last 2 seconds or so.

8

No X-Retsu? I love you!

three zero

9

Gwen is not broken if she was they’d have nerfed her.
Taka should be reworked into a buff. He should become a lot stronger but way harder to play.

@ThePinkOtter I like the different paths and I love the aoe kaiten!

10

Dude I wreck Taka as Celeste… Taka isn’t even ban worthy…

1 Like
11

I think wp idris is the model assassin right now for VG.Look at reza and bf after nerfs, based on pure damage with cc escaping capabilities and some form of sustain with barrier or FoH. They are not easy to pull off either, they need good skills to be deadly but taka is stupid easy for so much in his kit. Make him harder to use and more rewarding. He needs to make calculated dives like reza needing his perk or BF needing HT stacks or idris with his barrier uptime and not dive in blindly and walk away popping reflex block and kaku

12

Even pros are saying Taka is broken right now. Gabvizzle is wrecking pro teams with his tank Taka build so hard that some pros are calling it an exploit.

13

That is an aftershock+SC problem not a taka problem.

I see pros do that with Ardan too…

1 Like
14

People aren’t saying that with Arden at the moment. Tank Taka has literally no lane counter currently. He is literally broken at the highest level of competitive play.

Game analysists like Left and Excoundrel are saying to always ban Taka. That’s pretty much the case at every tier.

15

Really take has no counter? Or is it that to counter you need skill? Or is it the constant nerfs done to “broken” heroes only lead to a new broken hero until you can’t possibly nerfs anyone any further

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At the highest skill levels pro analysist and players are saying Taka’s tank build is a borderline exploit. I agree. I’ve been saying Taka’s kit was way too overloaded since the launch of 5v5.

I’m not surprised he’s been cancer in scrims.

Of course, less mechanically skilled players aren’t going to utilize Taka like Gabe, but quite frankly I don’t understand how people think he’s balance. Any halfway decent Taka can hard carry in the late game.

I’m assuming it’s just that Taka is a huge noob magnet and generally attracts bad players.

1 Like
17

No. Lol. That’s all the criticism I can give.

18

Could you tell me why? Just saying ‘no’ means your response was essentially a sh*tpost, amd I do appreciate feedback as long as it’s from someone with a level head.

19

This is a very good point. Since Taka has a large amount of base damage on his abilities alongside large amounts of sudo-tankiness. I didn’t want to take away the ability to go AS on his kit, but I also wanted a way to counter his sudo-tankiness.

It sucks that a Taka with SC AS can chunk most of a squishies health through Aegis rn. I do think they need to nerf something about his kit immediately. But I also think a rework would be healthier in the long term.

20

Eh. How exactly is Taka in any way special there? Grumpjaw, Fortress, Ardan, Catherine - they will all win damage trades with most Carries just based on Aftershock and Stormcrown. You can like that or not, but singling out Taka and crying for “instant nerfs” is a tiny bit silly.

1 Like