About the Author: Hello, I'm Gleebglarbu, a challenger support on the NA server who has peaked at rank 4 on the ladder, but I'm currently rank 46 in challenger as of writing this(11/28/13). Taric is an absurdly broken support in his current iteration and should always be picked if he is not banned out.




Taric fell out of favor in the middle of season three when he received a fair set of nerfs, including the reduction on his stun at earlier ranks. The introduction of his new passive, changes to his kit that allow his skills to scale off health and armor, and the increased gold flow in the preseason that allow Taric to get copious amounts of both stats have made him into an absolute titan of a support. He can often solo most champions once he buys an Iceborn Gauntlet, shred over 50 armor in an AoE late game, and provide two massively important auras with his Shatter and Radiance. He's pretty easy to pick up as well and I'd definitely recommend any player, support main or not, to pick up Taric while he is in this state.

Pros

1. Can clear waves with Shatter
2. Point and click stun
3. Stupid burst
4. Armor shred that can hit multiple targets
5. Armor Aura + AD/AP Aura
6. Sustain
7. Free armor steroid
8. Very tanky

Cons

1. Melee
2. Can run out of mana if trading a lot
3. Loses armor steroid when Shatter is cast
4. Relies on building armor to scale his kit, vulnerable to magic damage

9x 9x 9x 3x

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Greater Mark of Magic Penetration Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Health

9 x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

Every single one of Taric's damage sources is magical with the exception of his basic attack. He deals a surprising amount of damage for a tank with his new passive and these marks will further improve your ability to burst down key targets.

9 x Greater Seal of Armor

These runes are very effective at mitigating physical damage. They are mandatory as a support because you will be taking physical damage from the enemy AD, the enemy support, and creeps in lane, not to mention the jungler if he ever decides to gank. They also work well with Taric's armor scaling.

9 x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

You're a tank and you will often be in the front lines taking damage, both physical and magical. Magic resist is a good stat to get in blues and will buff up your survivability a decent amount. If they have little to no magic damage take armor instead.


3 x Greater Quintessence of Armor

I take these quints on Taric instead of health because of his amazing scaling with armor. Your armor aura, armor shred, and passive damage all increase with your % armor which makes it an invaluable stat to build.

Running 0/21/9 on Taric is great because you get all of the best benefits of the defense tree while also getting increased movement speed, reduced flash cool down, and the new biscuits from Culinary Master . Going 21 points into defense allows you to become a brick wall and the 5% increase on resistances is especially good when you consider how much armor you will be building and that you get a free 30 armor from your Shatter at level 9.

Even after its initial hotfix, Relic Shield is still a strong item on melee supports and gives you better pushing power and tank stats relative to the other gold generation items. It also builds into face of the mountain which is a solid tank support item. The Stealth Ward is great early game to keep you safe from ganks and getting a few potions will help you stay in lane for longer.





It is imperative to upgrade to targon's brace on your first back now because of the massive nerf to relic shield. It takes 60 seconds per stack which severely gimps the amount of gold you can earn from the item. Boots help you get in range for a Shatter after a stun, set up ganks, and escape from them as well. Many people think Vision Wards are trash now but I've found that they are still great, but in different ways. Buying one early and sticking it in a spot that the enemy is not likely to walk into like the small bush near mid lane in the river can be very effective because the ward will not die unless killed by an enemy team. I've dropped one down at 4 minutes and had it last me the whole laning phase.



Iceborn Gauntlet works really well with Taric's new kit, giving you the ability to stick to targets to use your passive as well as increase your burst through both armor and AP. Ninja Tabi also help you survive vs AD as well as enhance the aspects of your kit that scale with armor. Once you get a Ruby Sightstone , the Stealth Ward trinket becomes useless because you are capped on wards. The Oracle's Lens is nice for getting vision of stealthed targets in fights as well as clearing out wards around important objectives.



You shouldn't follow a set build path each game but this is a well rounded build against a team that has both physical and magical damage. Spirit Visage makes you a wall against magic damage as well as increasing the effectiveness of your heal. Randuin's Omen further buffs your armor aura and armor shred, while Locket of the Iron Solari makes it so that you now provide auras for AD, AP, Armor, and MR in a teamfight.



Situational Items

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This pickup is great for roaming around the map and catching people out of position. It's best to go for this when you are not the only tanky person on your team and you also plan to leave bot lane a lot to either ward up for mid and make roaming plays around the map.

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Good choice against teams with a lot of long duration CC. Examples of champions to buy this against are Fiddlesticks, Rammus, Ashe, and Kassadin.

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Mikael's Blessing can be a strong pick up vs long duration CC that needs to be removed immediately. The mana regeneration you get from this item is okay, but Iceborn Gauntlet will usually cover you on mana. One down side though is that the active is a 3 minute cool down, but even so it can still change the tides of a game. I would recommend this item against champions like Fiddlesticks and Ashe, especially if your ADC is not running cleanse and does not build a Quicksilver Sash.

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Strong vs teams that rely heavily on auto attack champions and teams that almost all AD. This further increases the damage threat you are and makes it even harder for the enemy carries to hit you.

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Solid choice instead of either Randuin's Omen or Iceborn Gauntlet against teams that heavily rely on attack speed. Some of these champions include Kayle, Vayne, and Ashe.

Face of the Mountain

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Okay item if you have a hypercarry that really needs protection. Some champs it is nice to get with include Vayne and Kog'Maw.

Take your ultimate, Radiance, at 6, 11, and 16. The damage and aura increase significantly with rank.

Max Shatter first in lane. This is your primary nuke, aura, and armor shred. This skill is loaded and should always be maxed out first. At rank 5 you get 30 free armor while the skill is available and an active which does significant AoE damage as well as shred armor.

Dazzle should be maxed 2nd because the duration of the CC increases and the cooldown decreases. The damage also goes up with rank, but that's not the main reason we want to skill it up. Being able to lock down targets more frequently in fights and for longer is imperative to coming out on top.

Imbue is maxed last because it doesn't really compare in the benefit you get per rank with the rest of Taric's skills.

For solo queue, Flash and Ignite are my preferred summoners to take. Soloqueue is about snowballing the game and getting a lead for your team, this is easiest to do with the added kill pressure from Ignite.

Alternative Summoners to Replace Ignite:

can be a good pick up against champions that dive into your team such as Kennen and Zed. The resist shred while the Exhaust is applied also makes it easier to focus down these targets once they jump into your team.

is a strong teamfight summoner against a lot of AoE damage such as Karthus and Vladimir. I have been dabbling with taking it more and more in solo queue and people are often very under practiced against the spell. Enemies will often make questionable dives or downright silly plays, completely neglecting the fact that you have Heal. I'd recommend trying this spell out for a few games and seeing if it works well for you. One major downside though is that many supports run Ignite which will reduce its effectiveness for the duration of the Ignite.

Laning as Taric is not too difficult but there are some things that really separate the good Taric players from the great ones.

1. Weave auto attacks between spells if possible Taric's passive actually adds a lot of damage to fights and has no internal cooldown, meaning you can always use it between spell casts as long as you fit an auto in. It won't always be possible to weave attacks between your spells, but when you can you should.

2. Conserve your mana. Taric has alright mana costs but can still run out of mana if you are mindlessly spamming all of your skills. For instance, if your AD takes one auto attack from the enemy support, you probably shouldn't blow Imbue to top him off when he has 4% life-steal from runes as well as the healing from your Relic Shield.

3. Pay attention to the map. This is not specific to Taric but is important for laning in general. If you haven't seen the jungler in a while you should play cautiously, especially if you are pushed up. Mid lane can often roam down bot as well so make sure to check the mini map and keep tabs on the enemy team. Also be wary of Teleport ganks from champions such as Malphite and Lissandra, as well as global or quasi-global abilities like Stand United and Paranoia.

4. Don't throw away your stun. Holding onto your Dazzle can often be better than throwing it out. You don't want to cast it if you aren't going to get good damage off or force a summoner from the enemy. You really can't do anything when it's down and if it is used carelessly the enemy duo lane can walk over you for the duration of its cooldown.

These will be rated from 1 - 10 with 1 being very easy and 10 being very hard. A difficulty of 5 would mean the match up is even. I won't discuss every match up in this section, though.

7 : Annie is the hardest lane for Taric to win a 2v2. She can always auto attack you without getting in stun range and her Molten Shield makes her deceptively tanky for a ranged support and hard to burst down. If you just stack armor in lane she can still deal a significant amount of damage to you, making it harder for you to itemize properly. Just play passively in this lane for the most part, if she wastes her shield to charge her passive you have a window to engage and kill her while it is down.

3 : Sona is not really able to deal with Taric. Her only way to CC you is her ultimate which is an incredibly long cool down. Her harass is not enough to shove you out of lane and she is quite easy to burst. Look for situations where she is too far up and punish her with a Dazzle into Shatter combination.

6 : Leona is an incredibly tanky support that is hard for Taric to deal with if the Leona plays properly. Whenever you stun the enemy AD she can lock up your AD and prevent him from following up. Her kit is all magic damage and her passive adds a lot of magic damage to trades which does not bode well for a champion like Taric who would ideally just want to stack armor. She has no way to escape, though, and is quite easy to bait into a gank. She also has no sustain outside of health regen which means you can usually force her out of lane if you and your ad don't die to an all in.

3 : This is a very easy match up for Taric. Pre 6 he does not really do significant magic damage as a support and even at 6 it's not as scary as Annie or Leona because you should never take an entire Crowstorm's worth of damage. He is incredibly squishy as well, so just stun and nuke him when he gets in range.

4 : This match up is very easy for you to win if she actually decides to fight you but for the most part Janna will just keep her AD safe with her disengage. You should be able to shove them up and get a cs advantage in lane but Janna can be a nuisance for Taric out of lane as well. Her altered passive makes it hard for you to walk up to and stun an enemy to start a fight without blowing your Flash in the process. In lane look to either coordinate dives on her with your jungler or try to all in her when her spells are down.

I hope you enjoyed my guide for Taric! He is a pretty easy to learn support at the moment that is currently way overtuned. He brings massive damage, auras, and a point and click stun which is honestly just too much at the moment. I hope the advice presented here will give you a better understanding of how to play the gem knight and help you succeed. If you want to watch me play Taric live, come check out my stream!