Hi, NicknameMy again here. And again, it is a rather uncommon pick. As you know me, I prefer the tank role (+Yi), I jungle and go top lane. Now you think:



You will see. While he got already played by junglers like stonewall008, he is still pretty unkown. I will show you the secrets of a secret strategy, jungle Taric.

Taric jungle is currently my main champ in ranked. Elophant

Look at this first:

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Taric<3 Ezreal forever. Now you should know everything about Taric... NOT! The video shown on top shows a game of stonewall008. Taric got nerfed in the next patch after this happened, but they mostly nerfed his damage, rather than his utility. While this makes him slower in the jungle, it doesn't really affect his gank power. Only the stun change from 1.5 to 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6 did affect this, but 1.2 seconds are still great. Why would you ever pick Taric in the jungle over support? While Taric works well without any gold, with actually having gold he turns into the biggest tank against physical damage you will probably ever see. He got no problems with getting 300 or more armor and actually adds a part of that to his team. This makes Taric the best counter you can find against physical damage heavy teams. Of course, Taric jungle also has weaknesses like a rather slow earlygame cleartime or low mobility, but that is fixable and he brings good utility to a team and ganks. But the thing which he can do better than ganking is counterganking. He will heal his teammate so he can fight on, stun the enemy which hurts his teammate and give his teammate bonus armor. How in the hell this teammate is now gonna die? Finally, Taric is probably one of the best counter against assassins, which are currently very often picked up. If an assassin jumps on your carry, Taric can easily stun him, crush his armor, give his carry a big armor boost and also heal his carry so it shouldn't be possible that he dies. Not only that, a stunned assassin will most likely die instantly. While Taric has his super high defense, that doesn't mean he deals no damage at all. His kit damage scales mostly with mana and armor. Guess what, you got 300 armor which adds bonus damage to Shatter and all his defense armor items got mana aswell, which amplify his damage through his passive. A lategame Taric is unkillable and deals good amounts of damage. As you already see, do not try to pick Taric against magic damage heavy teams. Of course, he has still a stun+heal, but nothing else against magic damage. Magic Resistance items also have no mana. There is also a pro player in tournaments which picks Taric for jungling, TPA Sarsky

So, here are Taric's abilites. I will explain you now a bit deeper how to use them perfectly. To see, what a skill does, hold your mouse over it.

Gemcraft This is a great passive and basically one of the reasons why jungle Taric gained viability after his rework. You see all the mana items in this guide? This is why I get them. First you will ask: "2%, that isn't much, why rely on this?" Well, you clearly didn't read everything. The second part of it contains: "doubled against champions", so actually, you will deal 4% of your mana, not 2%. Lategame, you will have a bit over 2100 mana, so this will deal around 84 damage, the double amount of Wit's End per hit. If you can get very much hits of (and you will, as most enemies will ignore you), this will add a great amount of damage. Imbue Your heal and basically the strongest non ultimate heal actually in the game. The change to it was another reason to pick up jungle Taric, as the cooldown of this is lowered by attacking, especially against enemy champions. Since tank Taric attacks way more than support Taric (especially enemy champions), you can use, I should actually say abuse, it to constantly heal your team and win trades for them either in laning phase or at teamfights. It costs a huge amount of mana, so be carefull to not run out of mana. Shatter This skill has an passive and an active ability. The passive ability gives you and your team huge amounts of armor. The armor aura lategame will reach up to 40, which is by far the best aura in the game. And not only that, the aura stacks infinitely with itself, as taric gainst it aswell. Means, you would normally have 100 armor. But now, you get 12 of that as armor, means you now have 112 armor. Since you now have 12 more armor, 12% of that get added aswell, which adds another bonus of 1 armor. Here it stops now, as 12% of 1 is barely anything. Do note while the active ability is off cooldown, Taric gains another amount of bonus armor, turning you in the biggest badass tower diver in the game. The active part of this ability is the perfect jungle tool. While it does good amounts of damage which scales through the game because of the armor aura, it also decreases the enemy armor by the same amount you gained. Means you have an easier time beating up jungle creeps with AA and your carry does have a way easier time to actually deal with your enemy. If you buy Manamune, you also profit from that. Dazzle One of the best applyable stuns in the game. The only one I would say is better than this is Cryptic Gaze, as it fires quicker and has a longer duration. Basically, this is your gank tool, your tool to stop assassins from diving your carries and your tool for chasing and fleeing. Everyone hates to be dazzled, so apply it to the enemy for maximum frustration. Radiance Your fabulous hammer in action. This spell not only does a decent burst in damage, it gives your whole team a huge aura in damage amplification. 35 AD and AP are a massive amount, especially if you count in things like Rabadon's Deathcap. Taric even gains 70 of that, which makes his attacks hurt really hard and lets his Shatter do a lot more damage, while your heal also heals alot more. A perfect ultimate for the likes of Taric. The best thing about it, the insanely short cooldown. You can basically spam this like Lux ultimate, use it every time possible.

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I think this needs nearly no explanation here. I max my ult first cuz it is fabulous, Shatter second for gank damage, tower dive ability and jungle speed, Imbue third so it actually does something at midgame and can be abused and finally, Dazzle last, as 1.2 stun duration is enough and only needs to be maxed out lategame. Would never go a different order than this, except if you want to gank at level 2.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed Since the damage on his passive scales with attack speed and mana, getting attack speed at marks helps your overall damage output. It also increases your jungle speed. It also gives you more heals, as the cooldown of Imbue depends on how often you attack. Greater Seal of Armor Whoever doesn't use this rune yet should be ashame of himslef. It is used on EVERY champ right now.

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Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction You may ask yourself: "Why get even more CDR if you already got 60%". Well, the answer is simple. While you can get 60% CDR through the game, you need the CDR as early as possible since your jungle speed and jungle survivability all depends onto CDR. This runes make you go way faster than with other runes and really, I don't give a **** about overcapping if this makes my early game by far better. Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed By far the most versitale Quints in the game. Since Taric has a very low base mobility, this needs to be fixed. There are no better runes than this to fix that.

Smite Every Jungler needs Smite. Smite has way too much uses to be ignored as jungler. Especially on Taric which wouldn't be able to jungle properly without it. It is mainly used to secure important objectives and speed up your jungling. And the most awsome Baron Nashor steals.

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Flash Even after all the nerfs it got, Flash is still THE summoner spell. For Taric, it has multiple uses. While you can Flash away over walls and such to escape like normal, he has a really good aggressive potential from it. You can Flash to just get in stun range for a fleeing enemy. Or combine it with your mighty Shatter+ Radiance to finish off enemies. Use it wisely, as it has a long cooldown, but use it instantly or never.

From all the pre game stuff now to the main part, the items. Taric uses everything that has armor or mana very efficient and guess what, there are 2 nearly exact same items which other both. This allows Taric very efficient item build (not to mention that he is even without gold usefull).

Hunter's Machete Taric definitly needs Hunter's Machete in order to jungle. Otherwise she would be way to slow. He also needs Spirit Stone, so why in the world you would actually don't buy this? Boots of Mobility I even skip the normal boots as description here because Taric want's these boots ASAP. As soon as you can get them, get them. If you back before you got 1000 gold, you can also finish normal boots and/or Spirit Stone first. The problem with Taric, as already mentioned multiple times is the lack of mobility. With these boots, this problem is history. They allow great counterjungling (as Taric is hard to kill vs anyone with physical damage) and your gank power is way higher. Spirit of the Ancient Golem The most efficient item you can get atm in the game. Gives you for 2000 gold huge 500 HP, caps in this build already your CDR and lets you clear the jungle really quickly, while fixing the rest of your sustain problems. Anything better you can't find for 2000 gold. We also want to build full tank, and as Spirit of the Ancient Golem is the only Spirit item for tanks, we have to get this. The final part about this item is tenacity, which means, we can hold on our Mobility Boots forever and don't have to buy Mercury's Treads to counter CC. Frozen Heart By now you are overcapping your CDR, since most items you will get have CDR on it. But even without considering the CDR, no item is better than these items, that is why I overcap it. Especially there is nothing better than a Frozen Heart. 95 armor, 400 mana, a big powerspike to you. Not only that, the aura also cripples the enemy carries and some assassins. This item is basically made for Taric. Iceborn Gauntlet CDR? Okay... This item basically offers the exact same stats like Frozen Heart, which means, it is also a must have in most situations. The difference is, this item focuses more onto your damage side. The sheen procs adds a nice amount of damage and also gives your kit more cc in form of an AoE Slow, which is really good for sticking and continue attacking. It gives more mana than Frozen Heart, which enhances your passive even more. For that, it offers a bit less armor, which is reasonable for a more offensive item. Still, must have nearly any time because of the great kit synergy. Randuin's Omen It is told to be the best armor item in the game. Actually, that is true, but not for Taric. Taric really needs his mana in order to be effective, so it is only the 3. best. But of course, if you need a 3. Armor item, go for this. Thornmail The enemy team is dealing absolutely no magic damage and you need more armor, while enemies tend to focus you? Get this and unleash the ultimate ~70 armor aura plus unkillability through 500 armor. If they now focus you, spam your laugh or something like that.

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Spirit Stone This is defnitly the most important core item on Taric. It increases your jungle speed more than Hunter's Machete and makes it fast enough to clear decently. It also gives you sustain through mana regeneration and hp regeneration, which you will definitly need. Finally, it builds into Spirit of the Ancient Golem, which is currently the most cost efficient item in the game. Glacial Shroud The most important item on Taric. In any game, you want to rush this, even if the enemy team is magic damage heavy. You want to know why? Well, first, turrets deal physical damage and if you got this, you are a great turret diver. Second, it increases your damage in 2 ways by armor and mana, making it completly necessary so you stay relevant. Third, it fixes most of your existing mana problems. There is no reason to not rush this. Spectre's Cowl This is the new magic resistance item riot released in the latest patch. I can't really say much about it. It gives good HP and MR and builds into Spirit Visage, a very important item on Taric. You can skip this if the only damage you fear is physical damage. Spirit Visage 20% more CDR we don't need? Well, idc. As this item is way better for Taric than Banshee's Veil. It is not only about the stats, it is also about the passive. This item increases the effect of your heal by 20%, making you way harder to kill. Of course, you can skip this item if the enemy team is only physical damage, but it is still usefull even if that is the case. Wit's End Finally, an item without CDR ;). This is another hybrid offense/defense item similar to Iceborn Gauntlet. Except this time, it is more focused onto the offense. Taric's kit scales with many things well, attack speed is there no exception. Attack speed helps his heal and his passive. Not only that, this item can do much more. It lowers the enemy magic resistance every attack, making your passive stronger and stronger. At the same time, you deal even more bonus magic damage, making your attacks a real threat. And finally, you gain more MR which should tell any mage in the ring who the man is. Locket of the Iron Solari You picked Taric at blind pick and you now have to fight mostly mages? Bad, but not your end. Now you have to get this item. Locket of the Iron Solari gives you a magic resistance aura and more CDR we do not need. This at least reduces the enemy magic damage for your team by a bit. Banshee's Veil This item you will probably never get on Taric, simply because it doesn't matter what you do, you will have either Frozen Heart or Iceborn Gauntlet. And in every game there should be at least 1 adc. There should, if not, do whatever you want, you win anyway.

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I add a bonus section about Manamune/ Muramana here, because it is actually a good item on jungle Taric. But it doesn't fit in this build, as it is a too offensive item. Still, this item also has its pros and cons: Pros Highest amount of mana for your passive AD scales well with the armor reduction of Shatter Solves any mana problems forever Passive of Murmana is basically the same as your passive and increases it to 10% at maximum mana Cons You will never ever get Muramana, as it stacks way to slow Absolutely no defense, which is not good for Taric Delays your earlygame items with an early Tear of the Goddess

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In this section, I will show you who works well together with Taric, who Taric counters and who counters Taric.

Taric works great with champions that can grab the enemy target in two ways. The first way is, he can stun the enemy target and then your friend has a super easy time grabbing him. The second way is that he can make the grabs even stronger after the target was grabbed because of his high reduction potential and his stun. It also offers Taric a way to initate fights, something he more or less lacks.


This is a very special combination, because Soraka fills in nearly all things you are missing. You got an armor aura, she got a magic resistance aura. You reduce armor she reduces magic resistance. Both of you have superb heals which makes your team unkillable. Finally, Soraka's heal gives armor, so if she heals YOU, your armor aura increases, making your team even harder to kill. Be sure to have a great initiator top lane if you run this combo.


Nothing to explain here.


Taric is not the best initiator, it is his weakest side. So you need a team around you which can compensate that. Jarvan IV at top lane would be one great example for this, but there are many more. As for mid lane, Orianna has by far the best initiation power and as support Nautilus with the highest amount of cc in the game. He is also really great at a "protect the ADC" comp, as he reduces the amount of damage the carry takes heavily.


Assassins, mostly AD assassins, which were the meta at start of S3, are the ones which are hardcountered by Taric. I already explained earlier why, but for you, I will now explain it again.

An Assassin jump on your Carry

1. You got an armor aura (only good against AD Assassins)
2. You heal your carry, so he survives
3. You stun the assassin, so it can't deal more damage and can't escape
4. You increase the damage of your carry with your ultimate
5. You decrease the assassin's armor and this way your carry deals more damage.
6. You deal good amounts of damage on your own.

This is the typical way how you ruin the assassins day.

You see what i mean? A nearly full AP team where the AD-Carry also deals a good amount of magic damage. As already mentioned, try not to pick Taric here. But that doesn't mean you can't win this.

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Jungling as Taric is not really that complicated. You got most of the time high HP because of your heal, your only problem early is mana after the first blue. The jungle route is really simple. You just go smiteless Blue Buff , Smite the Red Buff and then gank, gank and, guess what gank. It does not even have to be a real gank, you only have to give your laner an advantage and sometimes your heal is enough for that. But this doesn't mean you should never jungle again, because you will then fall behind in levels and gold. Try to stay at the same level like your ADC, possibly 1 higher. After some practice, you will find the right way how to jungle most efficient. About ganking, as Taric, try to gank mostly for laners which have high damage, you may have more damage than Amumu but that still is most time not enough. You will find at the bottom of this chapter a video with gank strategies from stonewall. The most efficient way to gank with Taric is to countergank the enemy jungler/mid laner/whatever. As you offer a big defensive boost for your laner, you can keep him alive during the enemy gank and then allow him to turnaround, getting a double kill. This is especially funny if this happens bot lane with someone like Blitzcrank. For Dragon , I have to say to you, Taric alone sucks at doing Dragon, but with his ultimate he can empower his teammates to do it way faster. He can also tank it easily thanks to his heal. Only go for Dragon if you can catch the enemy team doing it or have a serious advantage, e. g. the enemy bot lane went back home.

The more and more you go into midgame the less you will jungle and the more will you roam with your team. At this stage, Taric starts to get stronger, as his CC, aura and healing power really helps at smaller skirmishes. It gives your team a serious advantage at this stage, because you not only give auras, you also deal a noticeable amount of damage with a good amount of tanking power. At this stage, you could still get some mana problems if you have to stay in a fight longer, but try to manage it. Your heal will be maxed in this stage, so use it to make your team near to unkillable, because you can spam it if you constantly attack. You can also use your ultimate whenever you want, as it has a 36 seconds cooldown by now. Baron Nashor is way harder to kill than dragon . When this gets a target to do depends highly on teamcomps, for example Fiddlesticks+ Nasus could instantly kill Baron at 15. minutes, while others could not do it after 25 minutes. Always keep it warded after you know your enemy team has the potential to do it. For Baron, you not only need enough raw power, you also need, similar to Dragon , a tactical advantage. The difference is, Baron is way easier to steal than Dragon, as demonstrated by an Annie in a tournament game, stealing 2 times baron with Summon: Tibbers. Either you need to ace your enemy team, have enough power to kill it so fast that the enemy team can't react or want to bait the enemy team to kill themself while attacking you. Taric at Baron is similar to Dragon, tank it and give your team bonus damage.

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You finally reach your lategame and get slowly your offensive items. Now you are totally unkillable while having the power to hurt the enemies. This is the moment where Taric turns into a real badass, as he can take more damage than for example Amumu or Dr. Mundo, but deal way more damage than they can while also still having his auras and heals. In teamfights, your best role would be to stay in front of your carry, protecting him from any damage, healing all the damage he takes and make him as hard to kill as possible. Like said earlier, Taric's worst side as a tank is initiating, you need someone else which helps you at that. But that doesn't mean Taric can't do something different than protecting the carry all day long. Since he is so tanky and focusing him is a waste of damage, he also can bring pain to the enemy carries and can potentionally force them out of the fight. There it goes: "OMG IT IS TARIC, RUN".

Here I will answer frequently asked questions in the comments.

YOU SUCK! YOU OVERCAP CDR!!!

Not a real question, but rather a statement. I already said it so many times in this guide it hurts, but you can't say things often enough.

• I need CDR for my early jungling. If you don't believe me that, test it yourself, feel the big difference.
• All items are the most usefull items on Taric even without considering the CDR.
• Still, 40% CDR is a must have and the faster you get it, the better for you and mostly for your team.

23.09.2013: Guide finally published after like 1 month of creation time.

The end of the most fabulous guide I ever created. All I can say now is: