The Ascent

[quote=TheSilverDust]My recent observation was [[Taric]]'s passive (Bravado) is similar to [[Karma]]'s passive ([[Gathering Fire]]), though Karma's passive only affects her ultimate ([[Mantra]]) and it lowers the cool down by utilizing her spells and autoattacks against champions and Taric's passive affects all(?) of his abilities and it lowers the cool downs by only his autoattacks to anything who is not an ally, which is amazing because his utility will be really useful in team fights by weaving autoattacks every spell that he cast, but I can say that [[Karma]]'s is stronger and safer than [[Taric]]'s. And I see him fare well as a utility jungler and support when the update will be released. I also see him also as a top laner, but not that as strong as the two former roles that I mentioned.[/quote]

[quote=MungoGeri][quote=TheSilverDust]And I see him fare well as a utility jungler and support when the update will be released. I also see him also as a top laner, but not that as strong as the two former roles that I mentioned.[/quote] I don't see him as anything but a support. As I described above, every ability he has is stronger with a partner or even better in a larger group. As a solo laner, he just doesn't have the ability to survive trades well, because his sustain spells are weak and mana inefficient when operating on only one person. He'll be bullied out of lane very quickly against anyone, especially against ranged characters who will destroy him but even against melee characters who will beat him as well. Also his extra attacks from his passive are weak and only operate after a spell is used, meaning that [[taric]] will have to use mana even to use those. As a jungler, I think he can be "made to work" in non-ranked or bronze games. If he has the blue buff, he might have enough sustain to be able to make it through the first clear and once he has [[boots of mobility]], he might be able to pull off a few ganks with his stun or tower dive with his ultimate. However, again, I don't see him succeeding in anything other than a niche "just messing around" jungle pick, and this is coming from a guy who wrote a jungle [[lulu]] guide. His jungle clear is just not that strong (he has to cast expensive abilities just to get two weak hits with his passive), he doesn't have any innate mobility, and his only crowd control ability is his E stun that lasts only 1 second at rank 1 and maxes out at 1.5 seconds at rank 5. His entire kit is designed around being a force multiplier in groups. I really don't see him succeeding in any real way except as a support. But as a support, I think he has tremendous potential if you manage who you're bounded to well, position yourself well, and properly time the use of your spells.[/quote]

[quote=MungoGeri][quote=Jimmydoggga 2.0]The ultimate tho, invulnerability after 2.5 WHOLE SECONDS, when's that going to be helpful[/quote] A lot of times - but yes, you want to use it strategically. As far as it's power, it's like a [[kayle]]'s ult except that you're guaranteed to have it go off on at least two people and very possibly 3-5 people depending on how grouped up everyone is. It's incredibly powerful, but then you have to take into account the 2.5 seconds. So, first of all, understand that the spell is not channeled and after 2.5 seconds, it will go off both from [[taric]] and his bound ally. You can change who your bound ally is whenever your W is off cooldown, so it's very easy to switch your binding nearly at will. This allows you to do things like cast your binding on your team's main initiator while you stay back with your carries to make sure they get the benefit of your ult. Alternatively, if you are the initiator, you can cast your binding on a carry while you ult in the front. As someone else has already said, the ult can be especially good on offense. The moment your team initiates, [[taric]] can ult to prevent the team from getting counter attacked during the initial engage. This will be particularly powerful in organized teams who can communicate on voice chat, but even in solo queue, you can get the feeling of the engage and use your ult appropriately. Another case can be illustrated by a moment in one of my games. The two teams were eying each other in mid. Then, our [[rengar]] ulted and moved toward the enemy team. I W'd him to change my bonding to him and then ulted. [[rengar]] moved into the enemy's back line and jumped the adc. He tore the adc apart, of course, but more importantly, the adc, support, and AP carry in the back all three cast most of their damage dealing skills in an attempt to blow up the diving [[rengar]] - all to no avail because he was immune to damage from my ult. With all of their skills now on cooldown, [[rengar]] could continue to tear into their back line while the rest of our team dived in to tear apart the enemy team who lacked damage dealing abilities at this point. In this way, you can emulate the old [[kayle]] ulting the ulting [[twitch]] tactic. However, there are plenty of defensive uses for the ability, too. If the enemy team engages, you can ult and know that for a few seconds, your team will be invulnerable during the fight. If the enemy team dives a tower, your team can try to hold the enemy off long enough for the ult to go off and your team to go on a counter offensive. Or you can try to intentionally counter specific enemy's abilities like [[zed]]'s ult or [[karthus]]'s ult. There are lots of uses for [[taric]]'s ult. What will seperate good players from the bad is their ability to know when to use it.[/quote]