Nay, I'm pretty much the same here, get motivated for writting something then get bored and dump it, that's why i like taking part in guide discussions and comment but not actively make my own even though I have the ideas... Maybe I'll work on one of myself if I get in the mood in the future though lately i've been trying to play a little normally and actually try to get better so I'll pause such explorations for a while :P

Cheers, man! :)

2x post:
I don't think I will update this guide fr a while. The main reason is that I loose my motivation on longer projects of mine rather fast, even if I might start a project very motivated. If you are interested in I could share the autorshipment with you by giving you my - newly created - password so you can take over the guide - just in case you would like to.

I won't overestimate the mana you get from AAs. Also, remember that you might be forced to heal up all the time while your team is getting poked down by the enemy nidalee.

Aw, that account is lvl 1 I think, I don't even remember the pass, I'm on EUNE...

I'm trying to find a way to opt out of chalice not tankyness or cdr since I feel it'll not be put to good use lategame, but I find it hard to find a good replacement since the mana it gives is quite noticable early on...

I'm still rearranging my purchase order, still not decided, but I'm torn between sheen, CoH and phage... Atm I'm starting CoH into phage, but I was thinking whether it was better to get something else perhaps since mana comes from damage late game and flask is an ok way to sustain it...

Any ideas?

Btw you should really try trinity+hydra+guinsoo combo sometime

Eh? I am actually suggestings to get this item especially for top, maybe this got to an missunderstandment?

Keep in mind that mana regen mostly helps during laning and gets kinda worthless later on, while on a long trip outside your base, more base mana won't help that much, but is better in a TF.

CoH -> (maybe wits [or SV]) -> TF. It gives you a decent tankyness because of MR and AS (and a bit of HP). Wit's is known for being incredibly cost-effective.

What is your purchase order? Because it seems to me that you are trying to opt out tankynes and CDR in some items, and then go full offensive items - instead of going hybrid tanky/damage items like Maw, Merc Simitar, Sunfire Cape, Wits, TF.

PS: I added you @ EUW.

You should give hydra a try, really... It fits with taric so well you just love it... You are a farm machine with unlimited mana...

As for the items, I feel like tooth is nice to start with, but for my cdr Frozen Heart feels just better and scales nicely into the late game where the enemy ADC starts dominating. FH also scales the value of heal which tooth does not...

So if you go visage+fh+5% cdr from masteries/runes(I like getting 3 scaling blues and 1 flat yellow for 3% then get 2% from offensive masteries leaving the other 2 points for improved ignite and attack speed) then you have trinity force and boots and only 2 items to go, at which point I feel like rageblade/hydra/wit's end are pretty much the only choices, the dominant ones being hydra and rageblade...

The issue is that 6 item builds suck, you never get to make then(even if you're godlike when you do) and they are not reactive to the enemy team other than just changing the order in which you get them...

If I don't get CoH, then which item(s) do you think should be core for taric top? which is the one that would solve your issues early on?

The issues you have that need tackling are:
Mana, Killing ability(ability to slow and do noticable damage), CDR and tankyness.

Mana can come from passive, given enough dmg(and perhaps tiamat for splashin through waves and jungle between fights to replenish any) but the others are generally stuff that's not found in many items early on.

CoH into phage allows for killing ability without running oom since mana through damage is obtainable late game but early on it's not. For tankyness and CDR I feel like grabbing a glacial shroud a kindlegem and perhaps a negatron cloak if really needed early on does the thing you want without commiting too much gold into getting full builds on frozen heart/visage(though you want it relatively early)and allowing for TF to be finished by a reasonable time within the game...

Do you feel like rushing TF is a good choice instead of opting for tankyness and cdr though? I feel like it can only be done when you are far ahead... Do you think Phage or Sheen is a better first build choice in most cases?

Ok, I did some more thinking on it and some testing on CoH, while it does help a lot early on, on unfavourable matchups it's still not enough imo, and I feel like it delays an already expensive enough build... Though I still like the CoH->Athene's route...

Here's the thing that gives me the most problems: building around CDR. I feel that CDR is of utmost importance to bruiser taric since it provides the most sustain via Q spamming, increases dmg from W-E-R while increasing survivability(less W downtime) so I feel like 40% is kind of must-have...
Which leads us to the problem: Depending on your runes/masteries you have to know beforehand how to reach 40% without any stats becoming too wasted... Having items with 10,15 and 20% cdr you have to decide on a core. For me spirit visage is the core, I have it in all of my builds since I believe it's the best item for bruiser taric: It provides the MR taric lacks, 20% increase on any life gains(heal and if you go guinsoo/hydra on lifesteal too), hp and cdr.

So we need 25% more cdr to cap which can come from either a combination of 10+15(2 items) or 20+5(1 item +5 from masteries/runes).
The only 10cdr items worth considering imo are Zephyr and Youmuu's Ghostblade(I like both and youmuu's used to be core for me at some point in s2 for taric top). The only 15cdr item I would consider would be Athene's since I'm not that fond of gauntlet recently.

So this brings us to the following combos:

Visage+20+5 route:
Nashor's Tooth or Frozen heart. No other CDR items

Visage+15+10 it's either Visage+Athene's+Youmuu's(+tenacity boots) or Visage+Athene's+Zephyr(+boots 3 or tabi)

Some friends started a game so we're starting and I'm gonna try the nashor's tooth(rush it) version now...

Gonna add more thoughts later

Hi!

Thanks for your support.

Keep COh as it is. You CAN upgrade it, but you usually wont get a full build in most games anyways.

Why FH? It is a nice item, but first you need MR. You got 30-60 armor for free from your W. If you need armor, SFCape might be a good idae as well. Same for IG.

Note that Taric's passive is bugged and seems to only work for PURE AD. However, you shouldn't focus TOO much on mana on Taric aside from COH.

SV is indeed a solid candidate if you need more MR after Wits/Mercs. Note that SV is mostlikely to get buffed to give some Speellvamp as well soon.

IMHO you should use Tiamat/Hydra only or at least mostly on DPS bruisers like Fiora, Yi or a tryn. It isnt even that good item imho. Expensive for not-so-super-useful stats.

Never tried rageblade TBH.

For nashor's I tend to say there is a decent chance you will regret buying this item as it can backfire because it doesnt grant instant-protective stats.

This is the upvote comment tbh, nothing new to add, but I'll list the items i've found very strong on bruiser taric for season 3:


Trinity Force: Well, this is as good as it was I think, the spellblade proc gives mana back via the passive and if you add ravenous hydra to the mix then the proc splashes and the full amount of splash gives mana back for insane amounts of sustain(basicly you never run oom if you have hydra+trinity). Usually when I go TF I get Frozen heart too since i'm not picking up gauntlet.

Iceborn Gauntlet: A TF/FH alternative, I like it's proc since it gives slow and tankyness and dmg, cdr and extra heal all in 1 package, but makes you less dmg-oriented than TF and is less tanky than frozen heart. It doesn't seem to splash it's proc with hydra like TF does. Proc also doesn't seem to give mana back via passive. I feel that TF is usually a stronger item. But I liked the gauntlet builds i did too...

Spirit visage: It's core for me on season 3. Gives great MR, 20% heal usable every time you cast heal even on others, hp and cdr, It's usually my 2nd or 3rd item every game but I never go without it.

Tiamat/Ravenous Hydra: This is magnificent on AD taric: the splash procs mana returns from passive, gives lots of dmg, extra sustain via lifesteal AND the best part: the on use active synergises perfectly with W for lots and lots of burst. Post hydra I've rarely ran oom...

Guinsoo's Rageblade: I love this item, it gives sick dps for ad taric, increases healing done, and the passive below 50% makes you almost unkillable.


Generally I aim to maximise CDR to get heal down to 9.6 secs so I get to heal every 2nd or 3rd attack which is sick. Maximise heal through visage and then maximise tankyness to give the health gained through heal greater value, while being able to stick to and kill targets via the slow and dmg from TF/gauntlet.

Still sorting out the items I want, I used to run nashor's tooth a lot, but lately I haven't got to use it due to other sources of CDR... Will give it another go and revisit some unused items on my first chance...

I started taking a look at the guide again after some time in the past where i tried it for the first time... I didn't have time to try out the build yet so I haven't been able to post about it(We spoke in the reignofgaming forums)... The thing that got me thinking is that CoH is just too good a start and seems to solve all the issues I had early game trying to rush tiamat or tf for mana regen via the passive... But later on if you get enough dmg the passive generally solves your mana issues so I'm not sure if it's worth upgrading to athenes or selling for a 6th item...

When I get some time i'll try it out and give you my thoughts, bro, cheers! :)