Taric Build Guide by Fangride

Introduction

Hi there everyone! I'm Fangride. If you don't know who I am from my Maokai guide, I'll go ahead and tell you a slight bit about myself here.

I've been playing League since January 2012, so I've had just under a year of experience with this game. After the release of the 3.03 Patch, Taric gained a lot of Jungler ability, moreso than his previous ability. This really interested me, and I've been playing as him in the jungle a fair bit recently. Nothing incredibly carry-like has happened, but my matches have been quite fun and I feel Taric has some amazing potential in the Jungle. The biggest purpose of this guide is to spark discussion and interest in the Taric Jungle.

This guide will always be a work in progress, as I'm always open and willing to change things. Please do not down-vote the guide simply because you disagree with an item or two. Not voting and instead giving me a comment explaining your thoughts is hugely appreciated, and means this guide can be made better.

Unfortunately Taric doesn't have a Champion Spotlight, so here's Stonewall008's Jungle Taric video! It's slightly before the patch, I believe, but good for what it needs to do.

Pros/Cons

Pros: -Fantastic Ganks with a long duration hard stun -Large burst damage while retaining a high amount of tankiness -Amazing team utility with his Q, W, and R -Often underestimated, due to his commonality as Support -Scales well off both AP and Armor -Gains bonus damage with extra Mana

Cons: -Rather slow -Fairly item dependant -High cooldowns -Once his abilities are burnt, he feels a lot less strong

Summoner Spells

As a Jungler, Taric needs Smite. Simple as that. There's no reason you shouldn't take Smite, and if you don't, you better not be playing in the Jungle.

Aside from Smite, however, you have a few choices.

Flash First choice; best choice. Offers a lot of maneuverability, and can get you in for a stun, can get you close for a W>R combo, and others.

Exhaust Another solid choice, this one can slow down targets if you can't quite keep up and your E is on cooldown. I do really prefer this on the Support though, as it doesn't have the same amount of versatility as Flash.

Ghost Ghost serves many of the purposes Flash does, in catching up to, and stunning the enemy before killing them, but offers less versatility than Flash. If you really dislike Flash, pick this up. Otherwise, Flash.

If it's not on that above list, it's likely not a good idea to take. Go ahead if you insist, but I promise, Revive is really not that good.

Runes and Masteries

Overall pretty simple. All based around Armor and Magic Resist for defence, and the extra damage on his W via Armor, and Movement Speed to speed Taric up for time between camps and ctching up during ganks. The only really odd thing is the Marks for Armor, but honestly, that extra buff feels better than dumping it on AP or AD in my personal opinion. I will continue to test this however.



These masteries are currently built around Taric's offensive power. While the Defence Tree is nice, Taric needs some serious strength to start him off, and it very much helps during his ganks to keep his damage scary.

Points in all the AD and Armor Pen masteries increase the damage Taric can deal, obviously, and the Executioner and Cooldown Reduction help out Taric in general.

Defence tree is really basic. Improve Smite, and add some bonus Armor, Magic Resist, and add Health Regen and some basic attack deflection.

All in all, nothing innovative, so I don't have much to write about here - apologies. If you find something that works better, please let me know!

Abilities

Let's break down Taric's abilities here!

First up, his new and improved passive, Gemcraft. 2% of his maximum mana is converted into Bonus Magic Damage. This is quite nice, as many Armor items grant Mana as well, and means building extra mana greatly improves his autoattacks. It synergizes with Manamune incredibly well too. The damage is also doubled against champions!

Next up is his Q, Imbue. This is Taric's fantastic utility spell, granted a massive heal to one target, and healing Taric as well, unless self-cast. This item is really excelent for sustain, but the Mana Cost gets pretty high, so I usually rank this up second. It scales off AP.

Up next is his W, Shatter. This is Taric's main skill, and will be the first skill we max as Taric. It has an incredible amount of power, scaling off both AP and Armor. Passively, Taric gains a high chunk of bonus armor, and grants everyone else an additional 12% of his total armor. Activating this skill deals a high chunk of damage, and decrease their armor by a nice chunk for 4 seconds. This skill deals tons of damage when armor and AP is bought, and furthermore, the armor reduction means Taric's autoattacks do even more. He does lose his personal armor bonus too, but often this matters less.

Taric's third skill is Dazzle, his E. Dazzle is a decent duration stun, which deals more damage the closer you are. It's not huge damage either, but can be pretty nasty at higher ranks with lots of AP. This skill is Taric's main ganking tool, and the hard stun is really useful. However, I rank this last, as the damage is most variable, and feels less useful, though if you're looking for a longer stun, feel free to rank this up.

Finally, Radiance is Taric's ultimate ability, and is more utility based. It deals some burst damage scaling off AP, similar to Shatter, but also grants a nice chunk of AD and AP for 10 seconds, half of that to your nearby allies. It has a fairly short cooldown, so is worth using often.



When leveling, I follow the below ability sequence. W is always your primary, as it holds the most use for you as a Jungler.

Item Build

Taric's core item build is based around building up lots of Mana and Armor, while retaining a good chunk of AP and AD. This is the truest tribrid sort of build, relying on building up lots of different types of power. This makes Taric quite strong with everything he does, be it abilities, autoattacking, and tanking.

Basic jungler start. Hunter's Machete, and 5 Health Potions.


This now gets you fully on your feet, getting you increased speed via Boots of Speed, and the Spirit Stone as a base. Furthermore, Giant's Belt begins to move you towards the Spirit of the Ancient Golem item. A Cloth Armor here would begin moving you towards your boots as well.

From here, you snag two of your core items. Ninja Tabi grants the armor you want with some basic attack damage reduction, and Spirit of the Ancient Golem grants a chunk of Armor, a chunk of health, some nice regeneration, and Tenacity, plus a jungle damage increase. These two are very valuable items for your build overall. From here, prepare two of your upcoming items with Tear of the Goddess first, and then Seeker's Armguard as the passives are useful to get built up as early as possible.

If you don't want or need Ninja Tabi, or the enemy uses lots of AP, go ahead and grab Mercury's Treads, and consider getting Spirit of the Spectral Wraith instead.


Next up, grab your Manamune as quickly as you can to give you some stronger autoattacks, and then get a Bilgewater Cutlass. I personally suggest going for the Hextech Gunblade here, thanks to it's fantastic dual stats and nice active, however, depending on your situation, a Blade of the Ruined King may be more useful here.

If you feel your autoattacks already do enough, building into a Sunfire Cape or a Thornmail would be what I would do here, myself. If you'd instead prefer some Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction, a Nashor's Tooth would do you some good as well, instead of the Gunblade.

Finally, I pick up the enchantment for my boots, usually Alacrity, and then finish my Armguard into Zhonya's Hourglass. Not only does this item grant a huge chunk of AP and a solid bit of armor, but its active really can save your life in teamfights. After that, I like to close with Frozen Heart for the Armor, Mana, and passive, but the last slot is definitely the most open.

Pretty much any of the other situational items can fit here, such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Locket of the Iron Solari, or Iceborn Gauntlet. These three offer other tank options, and each offer some unique passives, such as slows, spellblades, or a shield. It's really up to what you and your team needs.

Jungle Route

I don't have any diagrams for you, unfortunately, but I'll just give a simple list for my ideal route.

1. Ancient Golem with a strong pull to keep your health up high. Smite to kill.
2. Wolves, using W to kill, and Q for sustain
3. Wraiths. By now, you might want to use a potion
4. Red Lizard, with Smite again.
5. From here, I go to Wraiths and Wolves again
6. Then look for ganks.

I then continue my route from here.

1. Wraiths
2. Golems (If you didn't)
3. Wolves
4. Search for some ganks.

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Ganking with Taric is fairly simple. Sneak up behind and launch a stun, then unload your W>R combo if you have your ult, otherwise W and start autoattacking. Heal your ally if things go south, and try and deal lots of damage. It's really that simple.

From here, I'll often retreat back into the jungle, and search for some counter jungling opportunities, like stealing their wolves, golems, or wraiths. Taric has a lot of utility, so even driving the enemy back can result in what we call a "successful" gank, allowing your teammate some extra gold and exp.

Counter Jungling and Wards

Warding is a very important part of jungling, and also is very important when you counter jungle. The most important wards to get down are one at each of the enemy's buffs, so you know exactly when they spawn, giving you an opportunity to steal, and later in the game one near Dragon and Baron Nashor.

Warding your own buffs is a secondary thing, and only advised if you really think you need to. It can come in handy to stop steals and get in there fast however. Also worth wording may be the enemy's wraiths and your own, for vision and stealing purposes.



For more on warding, check out this guide here.

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When counter jungling early game, be wary and don't be greedy. It's very easy to get caught by the enemy when in their jungle, and considering the strength of jungle creeps early game, it's also easy to get killed by an enemy.

Slip in, steal their wraiths, and maybe even leave one alive. Slip in, grab a buff with your E/W/Q combo, smite it, and get out as quickly as you can. As the game progresses, it becomes easier and easier, if and only if, you pay attention to the location of the enemy jungler. This allows you to go somewhere you know they're not, and take it from them, robbing them of valuable gold and experience.

Counter-Jungling is almost required to have a strong jungle game and shut down the enemy, so take the opportunity whenever you feel you can, and feel comfortable about it as well.

Summary

Thanks so much for reading this, my second, guide! I will continue to expand and make changes to this guide as I learn more about Jungle Taric, read feedback, and learn more about my guide making.

Thanks very much also for taking time to read this! If you enjoyed it and it helped you, please leave me a +1 and a comment. If you didn't, please explain why in the comments. This helps me address issue and weaknesses within my guide, and helps me to grow as a player, builder, and guide creator.

Thanks again very much!

-Fangride

Pictures from Wins

Thanks to Noictarus for this picture!


Thanks to KotaraSzopa for these ones!

Change Log

3-3-2013
-Guide created!