This is My first build and I would be proud to say that it is a good one. This is not the build you want to use if you are looking for the most dmg output on yourself. When I thought of this build I realized that Taric needed to be the type of champion that can be in the front lines of the party taking the hits and keeping his team alive while also providing needed buffs from his spells. I wanted to take this another step further and make him even better at this. That is why almost every item he has helps out the team and not just himself. If you wanna get the overall quick summary of the build go straight to my summary page if you don't want to read every single detail.

I will not lie, I have not put a whole lot of thought into my rune page. I don't know exactly how I want them to be but my basic concept for Taric is that he needs to be taking ALL the hits and also needs to be attacking ALL the time. This is because his Imbue gets better cool down reduction every time he attacks. If Taric can attack even at 1 per second that is 3 seconds every second quicker he can heal his party. Also he can gain his mana back that much quicker to keep him in the game.

For my masteries I wanted to give Taric the extra attack damage and armor pen mostly for his passive. This will help in laneing phase to keep you there. I am not one of those types to sit in the bush and only pop out to stun. I want to be up in the front lines taking the dmg. This does not mean I take all the last hits either.

Mana Manipulator
For my items I start out with a Mana Manipulator. I do this even if my partner does not have mana because it is nice for those games where you are getting zoned hard and can't get any hits on the minions. With my set of items it is actually fairly cheap to get most any of your items so it doesn't feel like you need any of those stupid items that give you money over time. I don't believe in them and nore should you. If only people would give their supporter a couple minions here and there they would be perfectly fine.

Spirit Visage
Anyways I always come back after my first buying break to get tier one boots and kindlegem, most of the times I can buy right into Spirit Visage. This item is there for the little bit of magic resist and for the ability to heal your allies without having to sacrifice so much of the healing on yourself. This also makes you hard to kill cause if everyone focuses on you you can heal for a LOT more damage.

IF you don't have the masteries I would recommend getting soul shroud first becuase you need that extra HP to take some hits.

If you have the masteries you can normally go straight for Zeke's and Aegis right off the bat and make your whole teams damage just amplify like crazy. I have change a game by buying these two items before and do not underestimate it.

Merc Treds
Merc Treds are pretty much a must. I would only contemplate ninja tabi instead of them only if the team has no crowd control and no ability power casters. Plus it helps being stacked on top of spirit visage for making him pretty well of against casters.

Soul Shroud
Soul shroud is mainly for the Health and the cooldown reduction and for the early mana regeneration. It is nice for those waiting games where everyone is just sitting there waiting for the other team to jump in first. Also the 10% cooldown reduction is nice for the team can be nice.

Aegis of the Legion
Sometimes I get Aegis of the Legion before I finish off Soul Shroud just because I'm doing that great and I don't need the extra health. This item sometimes gets put to the backburner but is great if you know your team is already dishing out great damage. If they are doing great go ahead and take up this item. It will help everyone with CDR and mana management and make you a better tank.

If by this time we need some more damage or I don't really need to be tanking that well I will switch it up to Atma which still helps the tankyness along with giving yourself that extra dmg to get mana back.

Zeke's Herald
I know some people might disagree with my next item but I will try to explain. I get Zeke's Herald because with the way I play the thing that makes me good is that I can take damage (health) I can cast my heal and crowd control often (cooldown reduction) I can attack up in the front lines quickly for my Imbue (attack speed) AND I help my allies with a nice buff. Once again this item covers all those bases. And any AD carry will love you. Ive had really good games and gotten this item first just cause my carry owned that much. which should hopefully happen most every game if you are supporting well enough

Atmas
For my last item I am always not sure what to get and thats cause it really should be conditional. Even Zeke's Herald is conditional really, But I had been playing around with the idea of getting Locket of the Iron Solaris. I haven't used it in a real game yet, but after all of the other items you seem to double your health regeneration after all that which is nice. Plus all of the sheilding for your whole party could be nice. And if you go for that item maybe even getting it earlier.

I placed atmas on this build becuase I wanted to make Taric sorta a creature to not be messed with. I wanted him to have something to make people say "Whoa... I wanna focus him cause he hurts." So Atmas is there not as an ability to kill champs but for more of an intimidation effect. Plus more armor is always nice and you cant go wrong with more damage to give him more mana per attack.

You may also notice that every item he has gives him health. This is done purposely to make Taric both tanky without having to sacrifice any of his other capabilities. I personally don't like having to build one item for health and the rest for damage. If you calculate it up the total health gain from all his items is about 1500 HP. so that is basically a warmogs without having to waste a slot for one. Which in my opinion is amazing becuase you get the health of a warmogs but all the other benefits of the items on top of it.

The ordering of my skills is strictly based off of how the lane is doing. I always start out with Dazzle. It can screw some people up badly to disengage them from combat while you get a couple of extra hits in especially in early game.

After that I will get heal more than likely just to make sure my partner is nice and healthy. And of course my shards for making sure we are fortified. After that is a matter of if I am keeping up with my heals. If I am not, I get Imbue and otherwise I get my W spell. This from there on out is how I would judge that. Pretty simple and straight forward. your e should only be used for ganks and keeping jungler off your partner.

I think more often as of recently I go ahead and max heal as quickly as I can. Its nice to allow you to manage damage and even if they get a good poke you can heal it up fast.

For summoner spells I recommend flash and Exhaust. I use this because I like to be able to use exhaust as a form of escape and to help my allies get a kill for chasing. It is just like having a second dazzle almost.

Sometimes I will get Clairvoyance instead of exhaust but its always nicer to have something else to help you in the heat of combat in my opinion.

I thought I would add this section in because with this build I personally stay up next to the minions attacking constantly but I am not always getting the last hits. If you have a smart partner they will catch on and time their attacks right after yours. I usually try to get the first couple of hits or so on every minion for my healing spells to get off faster and to get my mana back just that much faster.

Later in the game after the lane phase is over farming becomes so easy. All you need to do is cast your ult and then your w. This will wipe out waves quickly. I do not recommend doing this in the lane phase. Altho if your partner leaves the go ahead. I don't mind using my ult for that only becaus the cooldown is super low especially with all my items that give me cooldown reduction. At 40% cooldown reduction it takes 36 seconds till you can cast again, and 10 second of that is the ult lingering around giving out its glorious buff. so technically you are without your ult for only 26 seconds at the point. Which is okay if you realize you arnt about get to into a fight.

So If you ready all of that jazz before you go to this point I congratulate you because this is my cheat sheet for the sneak preview of what was all said above.

It has been my discovery that in order to take full advantage of Tarics abilities he needs a slightly different build from any other champ I have seen. This is because of the following factors;

Tarics passive gives him an increased mana regen for the damage he deals which makes me believe that I should be up and close fighting to the enemy. So damage is nice for Taric and shouldn't be taken lightly. That is why Zeke's Herald helps Taric and also with his team.

If Taric has to be up close fighting then hes gonna need some health. Thus pretty muchg every item Taric uses gives him health and even his mastery gives him even more health. If Taric isnt attacking then hes wasting my time.

Taric has a wonderful passive on his heal to make his cooldowns even shorter when he attacks. This means that when I am attacking I can throw out my heals without batting an eye. I threw on spirit visage to make sure this healing is kept at a maximum for intense fights.

Things to think about when playing taric.
- take all the hits when you can because its easier to heal yourself than others
- don't let any of you allies jump past you you should always be in front (within reason)
- try to get the best out of all your buffs you have so even if you are almost dead try to sit around the back so everyone still gets them till you heal up.