With the recent changes in march, Taric is just no longer playing a simple support role. Why play Taric top or jungler you ask? Well it's simple, a lock on range stun,good burst and heal for jungle sustain and clear. By completely the item build to late game you'll have 250+ad,1.5attk spd,400 per hit in mana dmg(combined with muramana and passive),decent amount of hp,3k+mana 200+ armor, insane movespeed to keep on wacking! MAX CDR,good sustain dmg that can rival a lot of tops or jungles you can nowadays and a great team player. 6 second stun+6 second W burst(reduces their armor by 30) and a heal that gives 3 sec cd every auto attk on champion and a Ulti that is up 1/3 of the time due to max CDR meaning free 70 attk dmg and 70 ap. Why have 1 support who only supports for your team when you can have 2 supports with one that actually does amazing damage,tank,heal,stun,provide damage aura then some ****py top lane champion who can only do damage and provide nothing else for the team except maybe tank.
FUTURE UPDATE TO MID(AP BUILD) WILL BE INTRODUCED LATER IF IT'S AS VIABLE AS OTHER MIDS

Why play with these specs rather than a full ap build?
Well if we had to compare ap taric with any other ap champions. There's one thing he lacks which is range and mobility. Fizz for example is a extremely strong melee burster and has mobility to make up for the close range attacks. Ahri as another example is both mobile,has charm and good range damage. Xerath for another example is just this Siege tank that blasts you from afar. So if you're gonna be going AP burster taric, I really don't think thats a good idea considering the fact after you use all your skills what are you gonna do next? Wait for your cds to recharge? While on this spec you use up all your skills(which will do less burst damage up front) but will all you to do more damage afterwards when auto-attacking. That's why I think going pure ap taric isnt a good idea unless if you're confident against a team that has at least 3 low base health champions.

PROS
GOOD SUSTAIN
GOOD BURST
new passive=on par/or better with felllow top laners
Provides a free aegis lategame plus damage aura
Tanky yet scary in terms of damage
Jack of all Trades
Can play all roles except ADC
Is a ****ing bully!
Has the element of surprise...no literally..
CONS
Can have a tough time in lane against fellow sustainers
Weak against healing reduction
Experience needed to play varying on situations
Item Dependent
True damage spells negates his high armor

Potential stats with Frozen heart for Armor
Offensive stats:
Defensive Stats:
Potential stats with Athene's Unholy Grail for Magic Resist:
Offensive Stats:
Defensive Stats:

FLAT ARMOR:Best choice I found since it gives you defense, increase your W's damage slightly and you have no use for ad,ap dmg stuff that doesnt scale well with seals. You have little need for mana regen since you're mana cost is little at low levels. especially when you are getting tears of the goddess asap.
FLAT ATTACK DAMAGE:I personally have tested out magic pen,hybrid pen and armor pen also. I found these to be the most useful for early game. It's my second best choice to land early games but other then that hybrid penetration is the way to go.

Hybrid penetration/Armor penetration/Magic penetration: Hybrid penetration is the best choice since it gives a lot more beneficial than just flat armor or magic pen. Taric's dmg comes from both physical and magical but mainly from magical. So getting Magic pen is also a good choice since 4 of his abilities(passive,shatter,stun,ulti) is magic based. DO NOT GET ARMOR PENETRATION because main damage source is from magical despite the fact that you'll be auto attacking a lot and occasional crit. But thats about it for armor pen since it doesnt scale well with his abilities.
Flat AP:This is personal preference but I use these runes as my second best choice when playing solo que because you never know when the game will be ending early or late. These runes can have you snowball early on but if that doesnt happen you'll lose out by not getting scaling mr for late game. So personally I would use scaling mr instead.
Scaling Magic Resist:I picked this as the best choice because early ap damage wont hurt as much as late game so the early little mr isnt gonna do much but late game it's a big help. It's not that worrisome and damage can be healed up from your Q. Late game AP damage is worrisomme and since you'll be sticking with the build and having a lot of armor. If you're going to be planning to build a lot of armor like over 270 in total by late game, then you should probably get these since you wont have much defense against magic based attacks.


1.5% movement:Best Quint in the game! Why? it's a free boots meaning you'll be able to escape,chase and save yourself 350 gold and buy more useful items early on. If you dont understand this then I dont know how to explain it to you. Plus it scales to LATE GAME! ISNT THAT GREAT! AHAHAH
Hybrid Pen Qunits: only get these if you are confident enough that you'll be able to run/catch up to people easily without the need of the extra 15 movement or so. Like for example a team that melee heavy and little gapclosers. These will boost your damage by at least 10-15% or more based on the defense value.

WHAT MAKES HIS SKILLS SO GREAT
Gemcraft Passive:The main reason why Taric excels at being top and jungle better than before. It's simply like an auto attk ryze ability. There a numerous items that help synergizes. Such as frozen heart since it gives mana and a lot of armor meaning both damage,mana and defense at the same time=genius. 2% of your mana is done in damage but becomes doubled to 4% when auto attacking champions making it better than a muramana. Best thing is it doesnt consume your mana and is based on your maximum rather than your current. Meaning getting attk speed also benefits this greatly.
Imbued: At max CDR this will have around a 9.8 second cooldown. Not only that it's like a ryze passive also. one basic attack on a creep=1 second cdr but if you're auto attking a champion it gives 3. So by late game you're Q will be up every 2.5seconds or so. Plus the fact that it heals 140% to yourself makes it even better. You can get a lot more AP for the 80% ratio but you'll get a lot less proc off and a lot less sustained damage too.
Shatter:The bread and butter of what makes taric so dam strong aside from his new passive. It gives you base 30 armor when its not on CDR but also gives an additional 12% of your armor increase as an aura even when it's on CDR so when you use shatter it just loses the base 30 armor but you'll still be gaining the 12% of your current armor. The fact that it scales off armor and AP makes it so you can get a lot of armor and be tanky as hell while getting just a little ap to make it like a quick burst that reduces enemy armor by 30 also. MAX CDR makes it so that it's up every 6 seconds meaning the enemy will have a whooping reduced 30 armor 1/4 of the time making it easier for your ADCs.
Dazzle:What can i say.....what's not to like about this skill.....A long range lock on stun is just ridicuous which makes it even more easier for junglers as it can be compared to Amumu's Q. It's locked on meaning no aim and guaranteed stun unlike amumu. It'll be up every 6 seconds and while in a team fight that makes it even more useful than most stuns compared to a bandage toss( unit collision and chance at missing)or a TF gold card(you have to wait for it to rotate and might screw up by clicking too early or too late and get a red or blue). The closer you are, the more it hurts and since you'll be permaslowing(Trinity force)/stunning most the time it'll always do it max dmg and they'll NEVER and I mean never get away(unless if they have cleanse,flash or he's an olaf!)most of the time anyways. Don't Quote me on it!
RADIANCE: THESE GEMS ARE TRULY TRULY OUTRAGEOUS. Not only does this skill give you a 70 AD and ability power at max rank, it also does a 350+ instant burst every 36 seconds at MAX CDR. The 70 ad/ap last 10 seconds so it'll almost be like it's up 1/3 of the time. If the fight prolongs long enough it can even be used twice or 3 times but will most likely end in the first 10-20 seconds since taric's burst,sustained dmg and tankiness is just so beneficial to the team(unless the other team is fed you know!)

How do you usually start my skills off?
I usually start off with E because you never know when you'll get early ganked and it can be a great escape at lvl 1. I dont get heal or shatter first is because of the fact that most level ones dont do that much at the start anyways and it can be healed back up easily at lvl 2 or 3. Plus stun can disengage or engage for an early gank. Why do I max W first over Q or E? Like i stated previously that W not only gives you defense but also if you a quick burst of offensive damage. At lvl 2 if people ever try to engage they will most likely lose due to the fact I got so much armor and bonus attk damage/ap runes/masteries. Q or E is personal preference and based on situations, if you're against a vladimir or chogath or just someone that have just as much sustain as you in general it is probably wise to get more points in Q before E. Since E's stun time(foesnt change) and damage is based on distance, I usually max this Last if the game is pretty even and max Q first. If you're extremely ahead and having no problems with keeping your health up than it's much more wise to invest more points in E so you can help you and your team to snowball out of control. Scaling HP and max on armor to maximize W and late game sustainability. You can get Magic resist or a hybrid split between the two if you feel like you'll die quickly from an AP heavy team.

Your standard E>R>W combo is just outrageous. The R will increase your damage for your W. This combo pretty self explanatory as it's to catch people.

When you're in bush R>W when they in melee range then wait til they run then use E or just use E and wait for cooldown to refresh.

Ignite:Kill secure,potential easy level 2/3 kill and reduces healing by 50% of potential lifesteal/regen threats while fighting. Recommendation:High
Ghost: Since you'll be auto attacking a lot, it'll make it just that much easier to lock people down with your phage procs and stun every 6 seconds. You'll hurt like a Paladin and trust me Paladins hurt. I find this more useful than Flash most of the time on Taric. Recommendation:High
Flash: Great for a jungler and a free gap closer but when you're chasing in a teamfight ghost is much more usefull since taric's primary damage is at close range and flashing just to stun and walk up to the guy seems less useful. While ghost you can catch up to the guy in no time with the mastery and can keep up for 10 seconds while its up. I recommend taking flash when you're jungling due to the fact that if you're ever caught counter jungling,it can be a bit tough to escape. Recommendation:High
Smite:A MUST HAVE ON ALL JUNGLERS. Clear wave faster,guaranteed baron/dragon if well timed meaning can't be stolen by people without smite. If you don't have this when you're playing jungle then you're doing it wrong. Recommendation:High

Medium Recommendation:
:The moment that a Paladin teleports in and stuns/burst you down from the other side of the map is a truly terrifying experience. but I wouldn't know that feeling though.
:If you feel threatened by the other team's cc roster than go for it. Though I dont think they are gonna burst you down that quick anyways if they are AD.

:For those scary attk spd/item reliant carries! show them who's the boss by exhausting them!

:Good bait to make enemy think that you're going to be doing in the less second in a death match. TROLOLOLOLOLOLOL...it's sort of like a free Fortitude pot and negates their ignite

FORGET LOW LEVEL RECOMMENDATION THERE IS NONE! JUST DONT EVER GET THESE...
:you have a freaken Q and barrier as an option....ignite counters this and especially fizz

:You need mana? why is that? Yes there you go you answered your own question which is you don't!

:One question...What champion are you playing? you think taric is gonna be afraid of some tower? no! MANMODE PALADIN BUBBLE HEARTHSTONE!

What could be more OP than having one support on the team that supports? Having two supports on the team while one supports like a support while the other is a Jack of All Trades except for going into stealth.....Paladins are too manly for that. Stun+mobility boots=easy kill or catch. Heals everybody and having the shortest cooldown while auto attacking for a heal ever that and heals a significantly noticeable amount. An AOE Shatter(damage) that reduces armor(enemy) and gives armor to the team and an AOE Radiance(damage) that provides the best offensive aura in the game providing a whooping 70 ad/ap for yourself and a free 35 ad/ap for the rest of the team in a big radius for once every 36 seconds at max CDR and yes i have to emphasize max cdr everytime so stop asking.. 6 second Cooldown on W and E while chunking them down with autoattacks(hurts just as much as a poppy's Q) ARE TRULY TRULY OUTRAGEOUS.

This is the best option for a top lane to utilize against most AD tops. It proves everything taric needs and synergizes extremely well with early sustain,burst and trading. Also providing a 180 mana by lvl 18 which gives you at around 7-8 damage easily per hit(doesnt seem a lot but combined with muramana it's quite good). Armor pen and scaling AD isnt useful since most of the dmg is from magical despite the fact that you'll be getting more auto attacks in. The auto attacks will also be scaling with magic cause of new revamped passive. You'll get more use out of 4 ad from auto attacking in a few seconds than an extra 4 on max ability power mastery when you use your skills. spellblade is quite obvious it it's free damage from autoattacking. Jungle page is personal preference but I prefer to use this one since it provides more time for me to gank and clear jungle faster. Trust me taric jungle clears pretty fast even without masteries because I tested the different variations out.

:The bread and butter plus the new passive is what makes taric top/jungle so dam ridiculously strong. I suggest transforming your tear to a manamune as soon as possible since autoattacking with manamune will give you 4 permanent mana while tear only gets 4 perma mana by casting or expending mana. By the time you get this completed you'll have a whooping 10% of your max mana(when you're on full mana) being done in damage to a champion through auto attacks which i'll be explaining why you'll be needing the rest of the items I have suggested.

:Because of the new buff, this item is just obnoxious and is a must have since it has an ability that steal 15% of your opponenets maximum life meaning it's essentially a free heal. The bigger they are the more heal you get or something like that.. The fact that it provides attack speed and life steal makes it so you do not only the 7% mana damage plus an additional of 5% of their current health in damage. More Attack speed=more life steal,more passive/muramana procs,more phage procs and more cooldown on your heal!.
:Provides you're favourite stats which is offense,defense and utility! Isn't that just the best type of item? So you get more armor, more mana for your passive/muramana increasing your damage, a whooping 20% cooldown reduction bringing you half way to max and for bonus it slows enemy attk spd by 20%? Wow this is a must have and ill explain why you get this instead of Frozen gauntlet or both together.

EQUIVALENT OF A FROZEN HEART IN MR FORM: This is just as good as frozen heart when going against a really ap heavy team and especially when you're against an ap with all the kills for their team. The ability power will make up for the missing mana.armor dmg by a little and ability power will work on all your stuff rather than the mana from auto attacks on frozen. It will also give you 20% cdr just like frozen heart does and the benefit of this item will primarily be the mr/mana regen that can help you spam muramana nonstop later on.
:This item completes taric with a frozen heart since it provides attack speed and caps out the 40% cooldown reduction. Making your spells almost always up. It also provides attack speed to get in more autoattacks as explained earlier as why it synergizes so well with his new passive. The ability power will play a significant role in doing a lot more burst dmg and a lot more healing.

:Now now you must be wondering....why the hell did you get this piece of trash on taric who relies on magic damage like you stated earlier...shouldn't you get frozen gauntlet? Well ill explain right now that it's also what I consider to be a core/luxury item on taric. This will give you a chance to crit give you a slow proc which is basically the same as a frozen gauntlet proc but this is procced on auto attacking not through casting spells. The ms just makes it easier for you to catch people and above that....Does your frozen gauntlet give health? No I didnt think so and why would i need more armor if it only gives me a slight 1-3% dmg reduction from AD since i already have such high armor. This item makes it so you can hammer away at noobs as they try HALP HALP IM BEING PERMA SLOWED/STUNNED BY A TARIC WITH HIGH MOVEMENT SPEED/HEALS/ARMOR REDUCTION/A BONUS DAMAGE AURA AND CANT RUN AWAY FROM HIM. With a smack that takes away 400-1000 dmg per auto attack hit...you better be scared cause no one runs from a PALADIN!

:Varies on who you're laning against and Mobility just makes it so much easier to catch someone with a stun while jungling/roaming. MR boots will make you more resistant against APs and ninja tabi just makes it so much more better for your W. Only get Swiftboots when they have a lot of soft cc like a lot of slows since it reduces slow effects. Zephyr should only ever be purchased when you have all the items and you feel like you actually really need it since you're not having trouble staying alive and need to focus more on 1 shoting noobs.

If you think you're not tanky enough with your already insane 200+ armor...no i'm not judging you:
As they say it League of Warmogs quite self explanatory, Spirit ancient golemn on your jungler build though not recommended though spirit stone can be useful but I start with cloth armor to build into frozen heart. Rod of ages...not only does this bad boy give you more ap hp and mana.....what it doesnt give is attack speed which is the whole point of this build which is to get more autoattacks that benefit your kit greatly. I recommend using this build if you're going to be playing Taric as an High ratio AP burster. That can work extremely well but all it would have is melee range burst and probably wont be as tanky. I replace RoA with Ruined kings since I find it way more useful for this build.

For that Ultimate Split Push experience(though a lot more useful in teamfights but can still excel extremely well in split pushing).
: Self explanatory provides an insanely high wave clear time.

Primarily for AP Burst Taric's and not recommended for this build:
:Great item overall but doesn't really mix with the I'm gonna smack you in the face so hard kind of mentality. It's a great item to pick up for the mana and ap but in this build you rely more on Attk spd taric which I find is better overall as it scales better from early-late while AP taric relies more on this AP 4 shot mentality that is item-dependent and might not even get the core items to perform well through the mid-late stage of the game. YA ya i know you're gonna bash me for this but I personally tested it out and found that it just isnt for this type of build. Although you're free to get this!
:You're an AP melee caster...whats not to like? oh...right...those players who stack a lot of MR and you just wanna get up all in their face and shatter their dreams...get it? ....ahahah im so funny T-T

:Like I stated in Trinity Force notes.....This just isnt as good and more oriented on Pure AP.

Extremely Experimental and Optional:
:Taric isn't really like Jax or kayle who has a far range kit who stack it up or jax who just primarily has an attack speed passive built in to make it work. It can work on Taric since it has ad/ap but thats about it it doesnt give much compared to the rest i suggested.

Jungles quite Fast just Start with W and runes/masteries I suggested. Even without a leash you can start and finish pretty quickly from wolves to blue and all the way to finishing with red. Clears just as fast as most junglers and don't let anybody tell you any differently. Also has a heal as bonus that makes you more sustainable in the jungle but it wont really be used later when you get your items since you;ll be hammering those red/blue with your auto attack in no time. I STRONGLY suggesting getting mobility boots so that you can utilize your long range stun and roam around the map a lot quicker to catch people off unexpectedly. I'll post more on jungling once I get more data.

This section of the guide is incomplete but I can say in late game taric can take on a majority of the top laners due to his spells that give him more stuns/armor shred/heals(cooldown reduced per hit) Will be updating with videos in the future:

Countered
Irelia=True damage negates your High armor and also heals per hit from W/R makes it pretty tough early on. In late game, the fight should be pretty even if you wait to stun her after she used hers and when her W is on. After 6, you'll have a tough time so make sure to make use of your 1-5 for an early lead. She'll be waving clearing just as fast as you and forcing you out if you do reckless engages after 6.

Olaf=once again true damage and the fact that he can vamp while fighting you negates your Q early on so stunning while his W is active also benefits you. Once you're in a hard engage with Olaf who popped his ultimate there is very little chance for you to run unless if you pop ghost and dodge axes.

Chogath=True damage ulti once again and you wont really be able to kill each other in lane. Once he hits six, it's the same for almost a lot of the top laners also. His passive gives him really good sustain and the way to beat a chogath or get an edge is to take advantage of your early game pressure and zone him away from getting cs. If he comes close just do 1 auto attack then use W then autoattack then into a stun with one more auto attack then walk away.

Counters

Wukong:You'll do great against wukong due to the fact that you can stun him to halt his nimbus strike and ultimate if you react fast enough. The best time to use your stun also would be after he used his crushing blow which will reduce your armor by a whooping 30%. The fact that your ultimate and shatter is aoe based, you can take advantage of this and use it even when they used decoy to do an instant burst. Best to take advantage of early game.

So the general idea of this guide is to maximize durability,tankiness,cdr,attk speed and balance out the sustain/damage dealt to make the new Taric on par/better than most top laners. The alternate to this build is stacking pure ap instead of attk speed to make use of burst but that's not the point of making use of the new changes to taric's passive. Taric's always been a good top laner but since he's played as support so much people tend to forget the kit he has as an amazing top laner. I have not completely finished this guide yet but I can give you a general idea of the purpose of playing Taric TOP. I will post/update this guide in the future so thanks for reading my guide and please rate even if you don't like the guide! or have some sort of Bias thinking that Taric is still meant to be support since you only and has ever seen him played as a support. THANKS! ^_^