You bring up a good point about how Taric's ideal items are too expensive for a jungler in the current patches. I agree that Twin Shadows is surprisingly good on a lot of junglers due to the cheap cost, slow on-use, good MR, and bonus AP and I get it on many junglers (Eve, Hecarim, Diana, Elise, etc.) frequently. I agree that Berzerker's helps improve clear speed and Taric gets free damage from his passive which AS helps improve. Since you're not going Merc Treads, ancient golem item is fine to get tenacity and defense. Sunfire is relatively cheap and improves clear times as well. You have a lot of good points to the guide but I can't ignore the weaker parts.

I've played a lot of jungle Taric over the past 5 months or so and I've theorycrafted for it quite a bit.

I don't think the AP should even be an option honestly.

I dislike maxing the Dazzle first too. Yes it gives you a slightly longer stun but you're only going to get one off in a gank anyway and a stronger armor reduction gives you a stronger gank. Maxing Shatter first also improves your clear speed which allows you to have more gold for your item core. I also don't agree with maxing your heal last. I think Stun should be maxed last as the other 2 skills will have more effect in team fights per rank.

I think you're on the right track with Masteries regarding going 0/21/9 but your choices as to how you get there reflect either a lack of concern, bad mathematics, or some separate unexplained (or misguided) objective. You talk about Taric's issues with being Melee and attempting to solve them with speed ups / slows in your itemization yet you do not opt to take the reduced slow mastery points? The reduced champion damage points are best early game but you're jungling so the usefulness won't be brought out unless you get invaded in which case you can't 1v1 most enemy junglers regardless whether you have reduced damage from champs mastery points or not. Taric has an armor steroid, making any free source of health give him more effective health than it would most other champions which is why I always take the Juggernaut mastery points on jungle Taric. You avoid doing this though. You also don't even take the point for the bonus gold on smite use after stating the gold limitations of the jungle. The harder gold is to come by, the more valuable alternative sources of gold become.

Overall though I don't feel like you've put enough effort into convincing everyone regarding your methods and reasoning behind your choices. While I agree with changing a guide in accordance to constructive criticism, I still feel like it exemplifies a hasty publication where you did not take enough time to do something to the best of your abilities the first time. When you have a verified skill tier people tend to be less lenient so you should be more cautious about content. You claim throughout the guide and comments that many things don't make any difference in de facto game play experience which CAN be true but will not ALWAYS be true. Just because you can get by with setting up sub-optimally and still win / do fine doesn't mean you should. If you fall behind or are having a tougher game, smaller differences can shine through more. Even if it's slight variances in your effective health, clear time, gank potential, etc. you should still set up optimally. While there is an allowance for variance based on personal preference, preference should dictate a mentality or objective that you look to achieve and does not change how to optimally reach a goal. There may be several good ways to do something but generally one of them is BETTER even if the others aren't bad. The reason it works that way isn't because of opinions but because of mathematics and statistics.

I think the core attempts made within this guide had a lot of potential but I feel you neglected large steps in the guide-making process.

Maxing W is better for clearing and sustain. Maxing E is maybe good if no one in their team wards.

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With all respect, the only benefit of a fully maxed Dazzle over a lv1 Dazzle is 0.50.4 seconds longer stun. A gank usually doesn't take 10 seconds, perhaps you can manage to stun the victim under his turret. Also, you're talking about your whole team dishing out damage, the same applies to an armor reduction. Really, I think maxing Dazzle first is like building ad Veigar. Yes I tried ad Veigar, before you ask.

I also did some jungle taric games and I tried Berserker's Greaves and it worked, but I think it was way more beneficial to me because I was building ad. Right now you're more going for ap items, and no ad item at all is in your example build(except that 20 ad from Zeke's). So this means you're hitting that 136+25,26(radiance) damage hammer(of course when you use Radiance this gets higher) a little bit faster, while you could also be everywhere quicker with Mobility Boots or hit harder with your burst using Sorcerer's Shoes. The games I did with my ad jungle build went well with Berserker's Greaves, but it was almost impossible to gank and keep up with the xp and farm. That was before the latest Taric patch, though.

But no, I did not try your build. And I'm also not saying that it can't be very funny to just be able to make people say in all "OMG DAT STUN CD IS TOPFFWIDNWTDNSIJTIACSIDNLTS(try figuring out that one ^^) <.>", but I do think that it's not that viable.

No offence intended by the way, I know I tend to get pretty fanatic(bad translation I fear) from time to time, but it's in no way meant to come across as something like violence or lack of respect.

What could almost be considered a troll build created by a diamond player. I'm on the band wagon with the others, this guide is very confusing.

Man... Please don't tell me this is actually how you play Taric

I absolutely facepalm whenever people pull the 'haven't tried it' argument. I've never once used that argument because it's a dumbass argument. I don't have to try something to see whether it works or not.

Instead of investing money into a Zeal (like... ever), I'd probably use that money for a Locket of the Iron Solari or something else instead. I don't ever see myself in a situation where I think I'll need more AS... It's just not where any noticeable amount of his damage comes from.

You know there's a good reason we haven't. Cuz it's worse.

Dazzle deals less damage unless you land it point-blank, and the armor shred scales better than the stun. Plus Shatter gives you a better clear. Why would we max Dazzle first? Oh right, we wouldn't. Because there's no reason to.

I bet none of you has ever played a game with Dazzle first... Am I wrong ?

EDIT: Lagger admits he has never tried the build. Thank you. Who is next ?

Shatter also gives the famous armor buff to Taric, letting him walk in to gank while taking less damage (at least in bottom lane and most of the time in top).

10s is still a relatively long CD. It does less damage than Shatter, so your jungle clear would be quicker if you maxed Shatter first and bought some armor or AP. Better base damage too... In a gank, you're likely to get off only a single stun anyway. Stun is useful, but it's not something you're exactly going to have the opportunity to be spamming...

Still unsure about the Zeal/ Berserker's Greaves buy. I'm not quite convinced with the reasoning of it.

Why Dazzle first ? -Read the guide-
In a few words: Dazzle has more utility, more damage and more defensive value than Shatter. Utilitywise I think we can agree that a stun is superior to Armor Reduction. In terms of damage they are even (assuming minimum stun damage), because it is not just your own damage, but your teams damage that has a bigger impact - generally - when someone is stunned and vulnerable. In terms of defense, Shatter doesn't gain anything with levels since your armor will be down after use and the aura doesn't increase with levels.
So while one rank in Shatter gives you most of the damage, the CD, the Armor and the Debuff one rank into Dazzle gives you only a very very weak stun with no damage and insanely long CD. Ranking it up asap makes it a game-changeing ability, with one of the longer stuns, a CD that synergizes with your Shatter and quite some damage, too. The potential in your stuns is really great since they lowered the mana cost...

@ Laggerguy - well I've run 21/9/0, 10/10/10, and any other kind of mastery setup imaginable and it had little to no impact on my game. So yes, when you talk about jungle Taric, appart frome some basics like improved summoner spells and monster damage, there is no big difference. We are not talking about an AD or AP carry with a narrow role, we talk about a champion that can support, tank, burst, DPS - do pretty much anything. He has lots of synergies. But keep pretending, I don't mind your downvote at all.

@ Sirel - Acctually you have to try it to appreciate it. 20% AS doesn't seem to be much, but it does make a difference. It gives you a lot more clearspeed, DPS and frees up some much needed money for other things. So is a very clever buy. The is more of an optional mid game item if you intend to go for Trinity Force. It is not an early buy, but if you get it, it really boosts up your damage for small money again. E.G. you could replace when you don't need the MR early. Again, you need to try it out. The AS/MS combination makes Taric much smoother to play. I am not saying you should get major amounts of both, but the tiny boost is what makes all the difference.