Hey, I am Fuzzyma and today I will show you the love of taric! Make sure you read through this guide properly and test it in normal games before you start playing ranked. Your mates will be thankful for that! If you find this guide helpful just give it an upvote. If not, make sure to comment and help me improving it. In any case: Thank you for reading my guide!

Pros

+ Great trade potential + Makes life for jungler easier + Builds tanky right from the start + Ultimate can turn a game + Slows to the max

Tarics damage comes from his armor which means he has to build tanky to get damage. But even at start his two enhanced autoattacks gives him a great tool to trade with lane opponents. Tarics usefullness for the team growths with the length of the game. In late he can peel for the whole team while doing a good amount of damage. And then there is still his ult...

Cons

- Lasthitting can be a pain - No escapes except a defensive stun - Bad build path vs ap - Hard to time his ult - Skill rotation needs training

If you dont want to waste mana for lasthits you may have trouble lasthitting especially when more minions are low. When you push, a well timed gank can destroy you. Also his buildpath vs ap toplane is non optimal since you go magic resistance first. In order to keep the 1.6 aa/sec you have to time your rotation properly. Timing is also difficult when you want to use your ult most effectively

Bravado doubles your attack speed and gives bonus magic damage for 2 hits whenever you cast a spell while reducing cooldown on hit. This passive is, what taric makes a valid toplaner. The enhanced autoattacks deal a good amount of base damage and scale with your armor. The doubled attack speed makes sure you can get both aa off, when attacking your opponent. The two enhanced attacks will also reduce your cooldowns of all skills by 1sec (!!!). The cooldown of q is reduced even more. If you cast your spells properly you can keep your passive active the whole trade.

Starlight's Touch heals you and near allies for a value based on ap, max-life and stacks. This ability can hold 3 stacks and consumes all stacks when casted. These stacks multiply the heal you get from this ability. Since its cooldown is reduced by 5 sec whenever taric uses his passive, you can collect these stacks pretty fast. When not in a fight make sure, that you only heal when you have all 3 stacks up.

Bastion Shields you and your choosen ally based on their maximum health. Your ally will now mirror all of your abilities when in range. Tarics usefulness in a teamfight would shrink heavily without this skill. Every ability you cast, is casted from your bound target, too. You can place stuns, heal mates and even cast your ultimate - you just have to be near. It also makes you a decent roamer.

Dazzle Stuns all targets in the specified direction after a short delay. I call it a mini sona ult. Thanks to your passive you can use it pretty often. Your lane opponent will have a bad time dodging all these stuns. Dazzle is really strong in teamfights when you can place it on top of champs which has a good initiate. Note that this skill has no casting time!

Cosmic Radiancesize You and near allies will get invulnerable for 2.5 sec after 2.5 casting time. This ultimate can change games. When you time it properly, you can make your whole team invulnerable for 2.5 sec. Combining this with a hypercarry is a good way to win a game. Make sure, that the target which has to be invulnerable is bound with you or at least near you. Often your teammates will run away. Be prepared!

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You want to max your e spell first. The extended stun duration is important to get your passive procs out especially when you have to run to your target first. The second skill you should max is your shield (w). It will keep you alive in lane when trading. If you have much poke in lane you can think about mixing the skill order of w and e. Furtermore you should take your shield at level 1 so you can immediately bind your jungler when game starts. That will help ganking later. The reason the q should not be maxed first or second is the ridicolous mana consumption of this spell on higher levels. You have enough mana problems when trading your opponent. Don't make it worse! Of course you skill your ultimate whenever possible.

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That depends on your playstyle. If you have trouble lasthitting, you may choose Savagery. I roam a lot with taric. Thats why I pick Wanderer

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You usually take the Corrupting Potion at start which makes Secret Stash useless. However if you find yourself in a game where you want to start Dorans Shield, feel free to change that. I take Assassin because it increases my dueling potential in lane.

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Taric has mana problems especially at start. I take Meditation to have that little bit of mana regeneration extra. If you feel like you can manage your mana very well, go for Merciless

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Dangerous Game was probably designed to prevent that death after you already killed your opponent but some dot is still ticking. However you play toplane. Your opponents will most likely go teleport and when they take ignite you should not do an "all or nothing" fight anyway. And even if this situation appears, you can just shield or heal yourself. I like the extra gold coming from Bandit . So it's my choice

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This is more or less a "get the damage and recover it" / "don't even get the damage" decision. Since you have a lots of resistance as taric, you want to get these extra percents instead of the heal recovery. You can heal you anyway.

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Your trades are based on autoattacks. Getting less damage from the opponent is always good. If you want to increase your roaming potential, take Explorer instead of Tough Skin .

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Runic Armor increases your heal AND shield. In a normal lane you will most likely get more benefit from these extra heal/shield instead of the extra hp from Veteran's Scars

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The decision between those two are up to you. Its nice to have the extra regeneration but since we did not choose Recovery it won't do that much. Feel free to replace this with Insight which enables you to teleport more often.

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I don't like slows. It's that simple. And this extra resistance coming from Legendary Guardian are just peanutes.

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Grasp of the Undying will help you a lot in lane since all your trades usually go more than 4 seconds. You don't depend on this extra 300 health which you get from Strength of the Ages . Even in late you steal enough life from your opponent to make this decision worth.

• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Helps you lasthitting minions in early game. Gives some damage to your auto attacks when you face your opponent
• Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: Will help you to get more tanky in later game. Also increases your damage.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: You always need some magic resistance. The alternatives aren't that good anyway
• Greater Quintessence of Armor: Armor and damage for your early game. You don't want to get shredded from these annoying physical damage casters
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: It's always good to be a tick faster than your opponent. Helps you getting off your passive proc when the opponent escapes and helps you just running away.

Taric has problems sticking to his target. So make sure the opponent doesn't get away. The armor is a must have for taric and the extra aoe damage helps pushing. It also gives you sweet 20% cdr which is very welcome.

More life, more armor and damage for all these opponents you stick to

The last core item you need to get before heavy teamfights start - at least if you are not vs a full ad team. Gives you better heals and a nice passive which heals you whenever you get damage. Also another 10% cdr

Frozen Mallet on taric? Are you serious? Well - It's not a bad choice. You get even more sticking power, some damage on your auto attacks which helps you, killing squishy targets and a nice health boost. Compared with a Titanic Hydra it's a bit less damage but more health for less costs.

Ok - now you are kidding, right? Maybe a bit but not that much as you might think. This item gives you health, armor, speed boost at towers and - hey - another 10% cdr. That sums it up to 40% which helps you keeping up your skill rotation almost infinitely. Do you know these situation when you aced the enemy team in late and you could probably finish but there are no minions? Here the passive comes in handy. Or if you just want to do a yolo towerdive.

Tenacity is a must have when you want to stick to your target. The additional magic resistance is also nice to have especially after the mres nerf on sprit visage.

If you don't want to go Ohmwrecker, this is another valid choice. You really should get this if you need splitpushing power on a lane. After all it gives you armor, too and even magic resistance so you may favour this item over Ohmwrecker when the magic damage dealt to you is to high. Btw: Did you ever read the effect of this item properly? Every fourth minion gets 15% of your total health as damage. With full build this is easily over 700 damage!

If you read through tarics passive properly you may explore something which this guide didn't cover yet: The 1s cooldowm reduction you get from an enhanced auto attack scales down to 0.6 sec when you buy cooldown reduction items. Is it effective to still go for these cdr items? The answer is yes, of course. Your abilities have a kinda high base cooldown of 15 sec each. When you take the stacks in his q into account you even need 45 sec. A coldown reduction of 40% reduces these cooldowns to 9 sec instead. Furtermore you don't always get all your passive procs off in a fight. So having less cooldowns pays pack.

I said earlier, that the skill rotation of tarics abilities needs some training. Here is a short chapter on how to use them with maximum efficiency.

When you are ahead, you usually want to start a trade. Therefore start with your e and stun your opponent. After the second auto attack immediately cast your heal. Don't wait for the animation to be finished. Otherwise you will have an attackspeed gap which slows down your trade. If the opponent wants to trade, you can go on with shielding you. You should be able to heal you again at this point. Then you cam stun again, heal, shield, heal, stun. Basically use all abilities available but always prefer the heal because it's cooldown is highly reduced from your enhanced auto attacks. Note, that the e spell doesn't need the exact timing of auto attack and casting because it has no casting time. The same applies to your ultimate.

When you are not ahead and the opponent starts a trade you usually want to start the rotation with the heal (see above for explanation). If you know, that his first strike will hurt, you may shield you instead, to avoid the damage.

In either situation make sure, that you activate your corruption potion because it deals a lot of damage. By the way: Thats the reason I never sell this poition until I start building my last item.

Use your ultimate whenever it serves you or your team. Make sure, that important targets are in range when the 2.5 sec channeling is over. Also note, that your ultimate gives you another 2 enhanced auto attacks. So if no ability is up yet and you really need those attacks because you are in a fight anyway, you may even use your ultimate for that.

The good thing with taric is, that you have enough damage to trade even if you are behind. But the first rule to every lane applies: When you die, don't start feeding. Play smart, lasthit at tower. Call your jungler for help who can do amazing ganks thanks to your shared Dazzle. Your buildpath with taric favours you a lot. Almost every time you have 300 gold over, you can just go for a cloth armor and that money is not even wasted. I sometimes find myself building Iceborn and Sunfire simultaneously because every item you need to build them is good for you.

So heads up, you may not win your lane anymore but you still can hold your lane opponent at top, help other lanes with teleport, roam mid and finally you can peel like a real hero in teamfights.

Patch 6.10

+ Ultimate has improved animation

Taric is even more fabolous now. Hopefully your teammates will notice that and stop running away from your ultimate.

Patch 6.9

+ Basemana: 250 -> 300 - Mana growth stat: 75 -> 60 => Buff until level 4 (w) Bastion - Cast range: 1100 -> 800 - Leash range: 1600 -> 1300 (e) Dazzle - Length: 650 -> 575 - Width: 150 -> 140 Items Sunfire - Total costs: 2700 -> 2900 Spirit Visage - Magic resist: 70 -> 55 + Health regen: 150% -> 200% + Passive healing increase: 20% -> 25% Boot Enchantments - removed

This is a big nerf for tarics trading potential on lane as well as his teamfight potential (in case hes just joining). At least you got some more mana on early levels. It has to be tested if Warmogs with the new 10% cdr can replace Ohmwrecker.