Hello everyone. This is my first guide so bear with me. Now before anything else, I would like to ask you all to not Downvote this simply because it's not meta. Try it out for yourself and discover the hidden potential Taric has.

Well who is ? Well he is mainly known for being a support. But with his countless reworks, tweaks here and there, and other supports becoming more popular, he has been over looked. Recently he got "tweaked" again, to becoming what he is now. He is a great top laner as well as a good jungler. He is able to take on most top laners and be able to sustain, win trades, and freeze the lane with ease. With a great jungler, he can easily become fed, eventually winning lane. When there is no jungler presence just has to farm, win trades, and slowly pummel his enemy down. For jungling, he has a fairly decent first clear. Above all he can easily counter jungle the enemies next buff. A simple , Auto-ATK , Auto-atk + will give you first blood guarenteed. When he isn't counter jungling he can provide a great sense of danger since his can stop his enemy in his tracks. For support, he provides the ADC sustain with + the Armor buff aura provides + the spammable stun of and eventually the AD buff gives. He is an extremely versatile champion that could serve many roles. He can easily lead in kills, or feed the ADC or roam the map stunning people. He is an extremely rewarding champion that should be given a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th look.

Pros

+ Great Duelist + Fantastic Sustain + Difficult to Counter + Either gets fed or doesn't let enemy get fed

Well, aside from the obvious PROS Taric has like Aura for the team and CC, he is a great solo laner. Early game you have a considerable amount of armor and your sustain lets you win trades. The reason he is difficult to counter is because no one knows how a top lane Taric works. They are left clueless if he deals magic, physical, or whatever kind of damage so they can't build to properly counter him. Due to his countless changes people tend to forget what his scalings are as well as his damage output since they aren't used to a non-support Taric. Combine it with a great jungler and you have sustain and a great lane advantage.

Cons

+ YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FLAMED + Item Dependant + Disgustingly Slow + Somewhat High Skillcap

Taric, like all other champions have their strengths and weaknesses. For taric his main issues are his Mana consumption and Movement Speed. Early game you need to know how to manage your mana and be able to know when and how to win trades. Which takes practice. Late game in team fights you need to be able to decide who to stun (which will usually be ADC anyways) and stick to them. Other than that his never falls off late game nor has a weak early. His one and only main Con is not knowing how to play him

Top Lane:

for top lane is surprisingly very viable. His duty as a top laner is to harass the enemy laner by forcing trades. His sustain and early high armor lets him prevail. The main duty for early game top lane is to let the laner not get fed. It's really hard to kill him and with proper wards you can easily move back. He can easily freeze the lane if he wishes, and with the help of a jungler you can easily win the lane. Late game is your bruiser tank. He provides a great CC and is able to absorb alot of damage as well as go behind the enemy lines with ease. He is a fantastic duelist and is able to take on a fed ADC with ease.



When your jungler comes to gank, do not immediately use your . Wait for your jungler to use a knock up or cc of it's own. Then when the enemy tries to run away or flash that's when you use . If your jungler has a red buff you should have a kill guarenteed.



Jungle:

Jungling for is an easy task. His jungling clearing is somewhat average but as the game progresses he gets better. He has fantastic Pre-6 ganks as early as LV2. Now what i'd like to point out is that he's a good counter jungler. Check the next section below.

If you aren't counter jungling just make sure to have your presence known. Constantly gank all lanes. Provides great CC for your team-mate to position themselves. Combine it with red buff and you have a kill or wasted , , , ETC by your enemy.


Support:

Support should be a well known role of . He provides an armor aura to your ADC in the form of , a spammable stun with , a heal from , and an AD and AP buff aura from . He can easily soak up damage for you and be able to deal considerable damage to your opponent. His is a strong fear factor that may lead your enemy ADC from wanting to CS. Combine it with the harass from your ADC and the enemy will be forced to farm under turret.

is actually a good counter jungler. Since your opponent isn't used to or aware how good jungles they would most likely drop their gaurd. These are some methods to counter jungling.

#1: If your opponent is an average jungler and begins with blue, start red. The average time a jungler goes to the next buff is at 3:30 so what you need to do is begin red, then go straight to your blue. Finish it and then proceed by going to your enemies red. You should arrive by 3:00 or slightly above that. You will be at LV2 but when you smite the enemies red you will LV up to 3. Proceed by using , auto-atk, , auto-atk and if you have use it as well. All this combined with the burn and slow from red buff and you will get first blood and the buffs. Only do this if you have experience with and if your enemy jungler has an average clear.



#2: This next method is more simple but just as effective. If you feel like you can't jungle fast enough or if the enemy jungler is has an above average clear time then use this. If your enemy jungler begins blue, begin blue as well. Kill it, and then proceed by going to your enemies red and wait there till the opponent comes. Just wait and make sure you know when to exactly use . Then proceed by doing the same combo.




#3: This is if your enemy begins red. Begin red as well and proceed to going to the enemies blue. Make sure to ward it and wait on nearby bush. You can either smite it and leave or try and grab a kill too if the enemy is low enough




Champions to NOT Counter Jungle:

VOLIBEAR Don't plan on even killing him, his passive will make it so you never kill him. Also he can stall you down fast enough for help to arrive to take back his buff. He has a knock up and a slow in the form of and ... Just don't

LEE SIN Well, the problem with is that he is a rather fast jungler. Also if you aren't experienced with you might not win the fight. Aside from that. If you see going to gank a lane after getting his red, then i'd suggest going after his blue while he is busy. Other than that don't try going in his jungle or you will have a bad time.

SHACO Now, the issue I have with is that they'll usually counter jungle you. But you don't know that for sure unless you have a on your red. You also never know if he is in your jungle, or in his so it's very risky to try and go around his territory. You can kill him easily if he is stupid and decides to fight you, but most of the time he will you and come with reinforcements.

JAX The reason I wouldn't want to try and counter jungle is because he has a rather fast clear time and on top of that doesn't lose much health. Also if both of you ended up in a brawl it would be difficult to see who the winner will be. For this, I rather just stick to my jungle and focus more on bullying lanes.

GREATER MARK OF MAGIC PENETRATION: The reason I choose Magic penetration is because Taric always deals Magic DMG. See people have this misconception that if an ability doesn't display an AP ratio it wouldn't deal magic damage which is a huge misconception. Have 9 runes of this type will give you greater dominance early game.

GREATER SEAL OF ARMOR: No explanation here, scales on armor and he is a tank of top of that. This is your defense.

GREATER GLYPH OF SCALING MAGIC RESIST: I chose this here simply because will need MR later on in the game. Having these for late game will be great with your and protect you against magic damage.

GREATER QUINTESSENCE OF MOVEMENT SPEED: As I said before, has disgusting movement speed. Even with or other boots aside from or would only give him 385 movement speed whereas with the he would gain up to 402 movement speed. This is much better for chasing a fleeing enemy, better roaming, and better chances of escaping.

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ALTERNATIVE RUNES

GREATER MARK OF HYBRID PENETRATION GREATER MARK OF HYBRID PENETRATION: This is for people who want that extra umph early game trading. Your auto atks will hurt just a tad more but can make the difference early game. Also it can help your last hitting.

GREATER MARK OF ARMOR: For those who just want sustainability early game take these. Having more armor means being able to stay longer in lane, but also means your and will hurt more/scale more

GREATER GLYPH OF MAGIC RESIST: You can take these for 2 reasons. One, if you are laning against an AP based champion. Such as , , or , ETC. This will give you more survivability to stay in lane. Also if you aren't fond of the CDR rune and you plan to put points into . I cannot stress enough how good CDR benefits .

GREATER QUINTESSANCE OF ARMOR: Same thing with . You want more survivability and more scaling into and . If you plan on using this i'd suggest also running or having on your team. Otherwise you will be pretty darn slow, but you'll be more tanky.

TOPLANE MASTERIES:

For masteries I place 21 points in Defense, and 9 points in Offense. The armor, health regain, tenacity, and durability is invaluable to Taric. He doesn't need any AD nor AP since his scalings are poor and there is no AD scaling anyways. But getting 5% CD in means you can spam your effects more often. Also the little AP you get will hurt just a tad more but can be good early game. I'd like to mention though that is great on taric since he has sustain so he can take that extra 1%. In the utility all you can get is Movement Speed and Mana Regain which isn't a major problem due to the Runes and build path choices. With your , , and you will become deceptively hard to kill.

JUNGLE MASTERIES:

This is a good mastery set up for jungling. You go deep into the defensive tree and 9 in utility for prolonged buff duration.

I choose these boots, since it gives you MR, and Tenacity. Combine it with the Tenacity you find within the Defense Tree and you will take away a considerable amount of time you are CCed.

THE CORE

The reason is my core is because it's invaluable to . has AP, Armor, CDR, and Mana. All things scales in. Remember the more Armor has the more DMG AND will do. CDR to be able to spam more and combine it with the -2sec reduct ability has, you would be able to trade and win fights more since you will have your abilities ready quickly. The mana helps the much starving and the AP is pretty much a cute bonus. Wrap it up with the slow passive and extra DMG it procs, you would be insane to not core this.

Again, the synergy is immense here. Health, CDR, MR, Health Regain, and the famous passive, is also a must get. Remember now scales into health as well so the more health you have the more you will heal. Again the CDR is fabulous on him with his synergy of , Health Regain to allow him to stay in lane even longer, and MR for late game Teamfights or if your opponent is an AP based champion. The passive of + and will make you into an unkillable laner. You can basically stay in lane forever and at this point win the lane if you haven't already. MUST HAVE!

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I actually used to core first in S3. It was so cost efficient and everything scaled perfectly to . But then RIOT went and changed it so I felt that it shouldn't be rushed. Health and Armor and CDR have synergy with abilities. Add in the sweet passive and you will provide even more aura for your team. The active isn't really worth mentioning, although it has saved me from . He will become more tanky meaning he can go behind the lines and focus the AD or APC.

Again and again and again...Health + Armor = an even more OP . Combine the slow active of , Slow passive from and The effect of ... your enemy won't be going anywhere. Also the passive effect of is great incase of a fed ADC.

Now, I rarely ever get to build this because the game is usually over by or ... Now, why didn't I get , well that's because the Health you gain will be beneficial for your to heal yourself or your team-mates. Add in all the other Armor, MR, and Health you already have, you won't be needing since you won't die...

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Alternative Choices

This could be an alternative item for Health and Armor have synergy with abilities. Add in the sweet passive and you will turn into a more fabulous duelist. He will become more tanky meaning he can go behind the lines and focus the AD or APC.

Skilling Order

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GEMCRAFT: Riot doesn't seem to know what to put in Taric's passive, but I believe now it's better than ever! ability is that after using an ability, Taric's next autoattack will deal bonus magic damage based on 20% his armor and reduces his abilities' cooldown by 2 seconds. Think and use of this passive as similar as Riven's passive. This passive has no CD but the best way to abuse it is to use Spell ---> Auto-Attack ---> Spell ---> Auto-Attack and so on. This way not only will you deal more damage but will also reduce your spells by 2 secs to potentially reducing your spells to be ready to use continuously. Mix this with and you will be dealing a much unexpected burst. (SMALL TIP: Although has no CD does. Make sure you know how long it takes for the ability to proc again.)

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IMBUE: This is sustain. Also it heals your team-mate but what I would like to point out is that now also scales on health. 5% health scaling to heal a team-mate and 7% health bonus to heal yourself.

You're going to want to max out [IMBUE] after [SHATTER] and before [DAZZLE].

• // When dueling or in a teamfight use this when you are at 25% or lower, this will proc your thus healing you for alot more. Late game, this could heal you for 700+ easily when mixed with
• // Use this to bait early game when someone tries to get ballsy and tower dive you
• // Conversely you can also use this to bait an enemy champion to go all all on your team-mate and then heal when both are low then proceeding to help out.

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SHATTER: This is main dmg output. now deals dmg based on 50% of your Armor. This is why the best build for is a mixture of health and armor since he scales into these. This is your tanky innate steriod as well as our own aura for your team.

You're going to want to max out [SHATTER] first.

• If someone dives try your best to not use this as you lose armor which could potentially save you.
• Use this after using to deal a considerable about of damage.
• If a teamfight is being really hectic don't use this since it has an invaluable aura.

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DAZZLE: This is your utility ability. This has a decent range (A bit longer than ultimate

You're going to want to max out [DAZZLE] last.

• Combine this with to capture a fleeing enemy.
• Save enough mana for it if you are low and forced to hug turret. Again, someone ballsy would want to dive. Use this with and to potentially kill them of have them low enough they are forced to waste , , , ETC
  
  
  

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  RADIANCE: This is ultimate. This is similar to your except that it doesn't scale off of armor. This also gives you and your team-mates an AD and AP buff in the form of an aura. This has a low cooldown (only 75 seconds) but could be 30 seconds with 40%CDR. Seeing as how your reduces your spells by 2 secs, you will have frequently.
  
  You're going to want to place a point in [RADIANCE] whenever available.
  
  
  Tips and Tricks
  • When initiating a fight use first.
  • If you have a on your team, make sure to communicate with her to use both and at the same time to have a great advantage over the enemy team.
  • Save for when you are at an enemy tower. The AD Buff will help you deal more DMG to the tower.

Well for now i'll leave you all with this. I'm still not done I need to add explanations for jungling and support, but for now this is for my top lane Taric. Leave any comments, as well as pictures of your experiences with Taric. I will eventually add pictures and videos here as well. Please feel free to ask, or give me any input as it will serve me to better this build. Thank you for reading and remember to not be afraid of going against the meta. Thank you all for taking the to read this.