With the recent changes to Thornmail, most prominently the 25% bonus armor as damage to 10%, has really made this guide no longer... good. Viable. Woop.

Oh well, I'll just have to theory craft another build, I guess.
But, I'll still leave this build here for the history books.

Try out another build instead!
-Dkary, 15th July 2017

*Firstly, This build isn't THAT(?) serious, but it isn't troll either.

**Secondly, I'll be using the button of the skills instead of their names.
Starlight's Touch(Q)[Heal], Bastion(W)[Shield], Dazzle(E)[Stun] and Cosmic Radiance(R)[Ulti].
Although I'll still call our passive(Bastion) by it's name.

***Lastly, I'm mainly talking about Late-Game Build #1, not really much of the rest, so if I talk about not building Warmog's when my Build shows that, that's why.

Anyway, moving on!

Hey.
I'm DkarySir(The Carry, Sir), SEA player, a Silver 4 Taric Main-

"Hah! Silver 4? What a joke."

Look, looking from the above item builds, you may just think this is another troll build.
You're not completely wrong! It's not a serious build! But a build is a build, and if you want to spice things up without feeding it up, I'd recommend this Taric build.


I started League back in 2012, to take a few breathers from DotA 2.
Playing the game, I just selected who looked the stupidest was a under-used champion.
"Oh, who is this guy, his name is.. Taric?"


I went a troll build thinking that it would end games quicker, either with me dying or them dying, the Late-Game build #1.
I honestly thought I'd be useless for sure, but I was completely wrecking everyone!
(Well, it was silver Elo anyway.)


From that moment onwards, my life changed.
I knew I was destined to main Taric.
Both to destroy my enemies.
And annoy my friends with GEMS GEMS ARE TRULY OUTRAGEOU-*rework*
..

Also, hey. If you've read this far, either you've skimmed to comment **** about how I should die because I make "troll builds" and make the community worse or maybe you wanted to see how this build goes. Either way, thanks for sticking and giving me a chance. I appreciate it, I really do.

Here, this is the only picture I could snag of my pre-rework Taric days:
Also, have these Win-Streak pictures:


Remember, this is a non-serious build made by a Silver 4 Taric Main.
There are much better Taric mains out there, and some of them have written a guide for Taric, if you're planning for a serious build you can use on the ladder, use theirs, not mine!
Now then, to the guide!

A needed part of every build, don't you think?
This is Pros and Cons for Taric, not the build!
Check Chapter 3 for that one.

PROS:
Gives an ally armor(!!)
A stun that can hit multiple people!
A life-saving ulti!
An okay AoE heal!
A shield that is based on the HP of whoever you put the shield on!
Lower the cooldowns of everything(except your ulti) with your passive!
MANLY!
OWNS A GORGEOUS PINK-COLORED SKIN!
More that I probably can't think of


CONS:
Bad against AP overall since his kit is based on armor
Heal is pretty weak even with HP items(1 Warmogs adds 12 heal, 36 total) and is easily outclassed(Soraka,
Mana Hungry
CC is outclassed by some others (Alistar, Leona, Morgana)
Can't solo carry like a Darius or Renekton(You can still semi-carry if you follow the guide!)
More that I probably can't think of

A needed part of every build, don't you think?
This is Pros and Cons of the build, not for Taric!
Check Chapter 2 for that one.

PROS:
High damage and burst potential
EXTREMELY tanky against AD!
The element of surprise is with us, no one expects a Taric with 3 Thornmails
Extra style points for being the semi-carry of your team as a support
Solves the Mana Hungry Problem with 2 Frozen Hearts!
More that I probably can't think of


CONS:
Extremely bad against AP
Your team will probably always blame you for going a throw build unless you follow Late-Game build #3 even if it's not your fault
Armor pen and health damage completely wrecks you(but your armor will still be effective)
More that I probably can't think of

This goes without saying for any other champion you play, isn't it? Even in real life!

Be Friendly!
Say GLHF at the start of the game!
Compliment when an enemy or an ally makes a sick skill shot or a nice Flash Juke!
Motivate everyone, ally or enemy, to never give up!

With that being said, don't BM and don't be bothered by BMers.(BM stands for Bad Manners, aka being rude, Trolling and the such.)

Don't care if they spam "?" if your team failed to kill them.
Don't care if you're being spammed the mastery emote by a Mastery Level 7 Darius.
Don't care if they're constantly laughing and spamming back in front of your team.

You're much better than them, you know that! If they stick so low to the point where they can't even insult anyone in real life, so they result to insulting people online, they're pretty low. But don't tell them that, that's not how it works. Instead, remain friendly all the way!

But what if your team is reacting badly too?
The mid lane feeds 0/7 and is currently INTing?(Int = Intentional Feeding)
The ADC catches on to your troll game and calls "gg" and never bothers to team fight with you, ever?
The jungler never ganks your lane, and blames your team for being badly?

Although it's true that sometimes people may just give up because you're doing a fun build, but that's the risk of the build isn't it? If you're not doing badly, they have no reason to blame you. If you're doing badly... that's another story by itself.

In short, be friendly, to both enemy and allies, no matter how bad they are! If you're doing badly, acknowledge that, apologize and just never try this build again, I'm sorry to cause any trouble.

For Summoner Spells,
if you're going Top, pick Teleport and Ghost.

Teleport helps defend against those pesky split pushers, or defend against an enemy 5-man push when you're far away.(Don't use teleport to split push, you do no structure damage, you only do damage to champions!)

Ghost, because it's basically better than Flash in my books. 10 second 28%-45%(based on Champion Level) speed boost that helps escape or initiate and it's 2 minutes lower cooldown than Flash! How cool is that?

For Support, Exhaust and Ghost.
Exhaust because you don't really need teleport if you're a support, Exhaust helps slow down whoever is attacking you or who you are going to attack.
And Ghost because I already explained that.

My runes are weird, aren't they?
I build scaling because early game doesn't really matter to you, you're Taric.
You're a late game guy.

Scaling Armor on Seal(Yellow) and Quin,
Scaling Magic Resist on Glyph(Blue) and Mark(Brown?)
but add 1 Greater Mark of Armor.
Why? If you follow the Late-Game Build #1 with full 9 Mark of Scaling Magic Resist, at the end of the game you'll end up with 899 armor. This is for the inner OCD.(6.84 + 6.84 + 6.84 from Quin = 20.52 armor, 0.91 from the mark makes it ~21.)

Masteries are basic.

Leave Ferocity blank.

For Cunning,
Wanderer for general speed purposes,
Assassin because the other two are not really needed,
Meditation because you're mana hungry,
and Bandit because you don't need to recover missing HP and Mana after a kill. Actually you do, but you've ought to prioritize gold first.
Bandit is super important! As a Taric, your goal is to rush your items and get leveled up quick! Bandit really helps!

For Resolve,
Unyielding because it gives armor,
Siegemaster because it gives armor,
Runic Armor because it helps with your Q late game,
Fearless because it gives armor,
Legendary Guardian because it gives armor,
Then, Bond of Stone. Why not the other two?
Well, actually, the 3 choices suck for the build. We just pick bond of stone because it gives a fairly nice shield to help us when we stun them.

Before we get into anything else, I need to explain Taric's "combo".


Ready? E > Bravado > Q > Bravado > W > Bravado > E > Bravado > Q > Bravado...


Does it seem hard? No? Well whatever I'm still explaining it anyway.
Our objective in a teamfight is to stun and damage as many and as much as we can. Bravado's cool-down reduction helps greatly.

We start off a fight with our E, our stun.(Duh.)
Your E is a no-brainer, a semi-ranged stun with potential to hit many others after a delay. Land it, then double swing them with your Bravado to do damage and lower it's cooldown.


Your Q is affected most by Bravado, so we use it and, again, hit them twice with our Bravado to lower the cooldowns of our E and Q. Remember, our objective is to
stun and damage as many and as much as we can, so lowering the cooldown of our E is essential.

Your W gives you (and the person you click it to, although you just can click it on yourself if you're alone) 20% Max HP as a shield, and, again, lowers the cooldown of our skills, but it shouldn't be just be thought as a way to lower the cooldown of our E. It sure as hell is a life-saver. So, press your W on yourself or a targeted ally, and continue hitting them with Bravado.

Spam your E as much as you can during a teamfight, that's key!
If you can't remember what to press, just remember. Prioritize using your E, then using your Q as the first way to proc Bravado, then just spam everything(except your R). But prioritize using your E.

(Make sure to spam right click the enemy after your Q and W, as you throw out your blows faster than if you just left it to auto-attack! No need to spam after your E though, it doesn't require an animation unlike the other two.)

With that being said, we move on to a slightly hard-to-explain topic, "How do you Taric?"

Well, a Taric's job is easy. Is it?
Shielding your ADC with your Bastion and from skill shots, tanking all the AD damage, avoiding mages...
Not really.


For me, Taric isn't very hard, but it just requires a brain, like any other champion.
Know who to avoid, know when to go in, when not to go in, check Summoner spell cooldowns, check the map, ward the map with your trinket constantly, communication with your team..

But of course, as a support(or top), as a Taric.. remember that you put others before yourself. If the time comes and you are faced with 5 people close-by chasing you and your ADC, if one of them is very near to your ADC, stun them, hit them, try to keep all 5 of them busy on you and while your carry runs off alive.

So like any other champion, Taric just requires a brain.

"No, that's wrong! All you've just said is wrong! Can you please check your facts before you make a guide?"
I'm Silver 4. I build 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts. I'm sorry if I've said wrong things, this isn't really a serious build and I'm not really a pro. I just like having fun without costing others fun.

I should explain the skill build in more proper detail. We max our E over W for two main reasons.

1: Increasing your stun will increase its damage and stun duration.

2: There's really no benefit in maxing W first, the bonus armor and the Max HP shield doesn't really help if we don't really have any armor or HP to begin with.
With that said, max E first.

By the time you max E, your build should have reached a Frozen Heart or at least half of it. That's when your W shines. The bonus armor now makes a difference, and the Max HP shield will save your allies and yourself.

We max our Q last because, as previously stated, Taric is a Mana-Hungry champion. Increasing Q will increase its mana cost in exchange for a little heal increase. Besides, what's more important? Extra stun duration and damage, Increased bonus armor and a Max HP shield that you can give BOTH to your allies, or +10 heal per level(and increased mana cost!). You decide.

Look, it's shown in the title, the Pros and Cons, the build, Late-Game Build #1, etc..
If against 3-4 AD, I build 4 Thornmails, 2 Frozen Hearts on Taric.

Let's answer some frequently asked questions.

"Why do you buy multiples of the same item? Don't you know they don't stack?"
Yeah, I know. But the armor is indispensable for Taric.
90 Armor on Frozen Heart and 100 Armor on Thornmail. That's not really anything to laugh about.
Attack speed slow, 40% CDR, 580 Armor alone on the items, armor to give to your carry, damage to your abilities, return damage!
Those benefits are amazing!

What about armor penetration? Lord Dominiks, Black Cleaver, Lethality?
That's a good question.
Yes, it's true, Armor Pen completely wrecks us.
So at Level 18, assuming that our build is finished, if we get hit by someone with Black Cleaver and Lord Dominiks, the 6 stacks of Black Cleaver will reduce our armor from 900 to 630 and 45% of that is ignored, leaving us with about 346.5 armor. Which is pretty good, considering our armor just got shredded to maximum potential(not counting lethality).
346.5 Armor is about what? 70% Damage Reduction? That's still a lot.

"Why not buy other useful items? Dead Man's Plate, Randuin's Omen, Warmog's?"
As much as they are incredibly useful, they give only half of what a Thornmail gives.

"..Wait, what?"

Imagine this:
Your end-game build is a normal, usual tank build. Randuin's Omen, Spirit Visage, Dead Man's Plate, Mercury's Treads, Banshee's Veil and Warmog's. You are able to tank a lot, but without your team you are absolutely useless. You give little armor, you do little damage, and all you can do is heal, provide CC and use your ulti to save lives.

Compare it to my build, 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts. A lot of damage, you give so much armor to an ally, and AD does nothing against you! But of course, everything comes with a price. You easily get nuked down by AP and you can't really provide armor if you're dead.

"That's a tank's job is. It's boring, but it's what it is! Don't be smart and justify making 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts!"

I know, I know. But as I said, this isn't really a serious build, neither is it a troll build.

There are way better Taric mains out there, better than me, that spends time and effort making a serious guide for a serious way to rank up. Me? I just like to have fun. But not fun as in "cause the game to lose because of me" fun.
I mean "stupid, but effective" fun.

"Taric Top? What a joke."
Yeah I know. That's the point, isn't it? To have fun! But not to cause the game of your allies who are probably trying to win.

Ah, the game finally begun. Let's see who you're up against!
Darius? Scary, but not quite, grab an ancient coin and a potion.
Garen? Meh. Grab an ancient coin and a potion.
Mao Kai? Oh my, an AP user? That's scary! Grab an ancient coin and potion.

..What?
Taric is not a GOD early game like some others like a Lee Sin. As a melee, if he goes in for a last hit, he risks getting poked heavily by an ability or auto attacks. Play safe early till your jungle ganks and even then, wait until you're level 3, when you unlock your Q, W and E for you to Bravado with.

Although that doesn't mean you should play TOO safe. Secure last hits as much as you can, but if you followed my masteries and picked Bandit, make sure to hit them once in a while when you can.

Early game, try to poke with your E, but not too much. Every 30 seconds or so, if you think the enemy is getting too cozy with the lane, prepare your stun, land it, and hit him twice. +10 gold, stunned and harrassed all in 1 mini-combo.

Don't use your stun stupidly! You're pretty mana hungry both early and mid-game until you've build your Frozen Heart, which you should be rushing for. Use it when he prepares a charged attack, like a Gangplank Barrel or a Garen Charge, or when he's chasing you.

The fun starts when you back and obtain a Glacial Shroud/Frozen Heart(or Chain Vest/Thornmail), now you're able to do some damage! Or, alternatively, you instead grabbed a Chain Vest on your first back or got a Thornmail instead, which is still good!
Grab your boots, Nomad's Medallion, the item you've got, TP to your tower, and give them a good pummeling. Stun them with your E, use Bravado, follow up with your Q, then Bravado again.. In short, just use the combo I typed earlier.
But try not to go in too aggressively, owning a Glacial Shroud is different than owning 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts. You've no chasing potential other than Ghost, Exhaust if you're support and your stun, so if you don't think you can chase that Yi who popped his ult and failed to gank you because you're such a ******* man, let him be. Focus on farming, that's your job. For now.

Late game, with your 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts in hand, you really are a god against AD. Even if they build Armor Pen, the damage you do against them is pretty good. Against AP is a different story. Build #2 helps, or if you're getting threatened to be reported or something, #3 works. I guess. Build #4 and #5 are optional!

Ah, support. The simple ways of life. But you're not building Sightstone, no, you're building 4 Thornmails.

Start with an Ancient Coin and a Refillable potion, unlike going Top with Coin you won't get questioned and/or scolded for building coin, it's a support item.

In lane, make sure to give your ADC space. If their Morgana is getting a little too annoying or Lux is really giving your ADC a hard time to last hit, try and land a stun. If you can, ask your ADC to poke them a little bit. A half-HP support is less likely to poke than a full-HP support, they can't risk dying and feeding.

Remember, you're not a GOD early game, don't think you're some kind of amazing champion who can tank a lot in the early stages, you're under-geared and under farmed, like the rest of your team. That's what ancient coin is for. If they're going heavy fire on you, just stay away from their harrass zone and let your ADC farm. Use your W to shield your ally when a projectile comes by and your Q to heal your ADC ever so slightly.

First back, upgrade the coin, buy boots, get the Glacial Shroud/Frozen Heart(or Chain Vest/Thornmail) and go back. This time, you give your ADC a nice amount of armor, and you yourself are tanky against AD and can do some damage. Show it off to the enemy ADC by stunning him and using your combo that I'm too lazy to type out.

Late game, your 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts should finish the rest of those foolish AD. Of course, building Build #2 isn't shameful if you're against heavy AP, so there's that.
But, if you're being threatened to be reported, I guess you can follow Build #3. Builds #4 and #5 are optional!

Hextech Gunblade? On a Stack-Thornmail and Frozen Heart Taric guide? It's more likely than you think.

What makes it so good on my guide?

Hextech Gunblade is pretty damn amazing. 40 AD to help with Bravado, 80 AP to work with our Q + E. Imagine a 4 thornmail + 2 frozen heart Taric stunning someone and Bravado-ing them, now imagine that same Taric -120 armor and +40 AD and +80 AP. Maybe you can't imagine it, but just know that it's pretty good.

That's not even all. The Hextech's passive and active are godlike as well. 15% Spell Vamp?(Yes I'm aware of the 33% for AoE effects, but that only applies to my E, not Thornmail! Besides, E is probably going to hit just more than 1 enemy most of the time, so it's practically nullified!)

The active is pretty good. After using your E, proceed to use the active to slow them even more! Considering your lack of boots, this is actually a pretty godlike item!

Not to mention, the heal off the Gunblade actually works off Spirit Visage in the event that you buy it! That's pretty good!

However, it takes the place of a Thornmail, an item that gives you 100 Armor!(120 with your W)

What would be better? More tankiness, or the healing?

Is it worth it? That depends on you. It's your choice!

TL;DR
Taric's Combo:E > Bravado > Q > Bravado > W > Bravado > E > Bravado > Q > Bravado...

Make sure to spam right click the enemy after your Q and W, as you throw out your blows faster than if you just left it to auto-attack!

I build 4 Thornmails and 2 Frozen Hearts because Armor is what Taric lives by, so I do that. This isn't a serious build, neither is it a troll build.

Early game, no matter if Top or Support, play safe, buy Ancient Coin, poke at times since you have bandit, but goal is to rush items. You can fight once you've got your Frozen Heart or Thornmail.

Put others before yourself, save them over saving yourself.

Proper etiquette, stay friendly, don't be toxic and avoid other toxic people!

Again, this is a non-serious build, don't follow it if you don't want to risk being banned for Trolling, a proper guide for Taric can be found elsewhere by better Taric players. I suck.

Thanks to:
Dragonsin050(One and Two)
My Other Friends
and Gazzyxs for being in my 3 Thornmail Taric Adventures, and for finally acknowledging that it's not that bad of a build!
Special thanks to the non-toxic and English-speaking people I queue with, enemy or ally, you guys really know how to have fun! Thank you!

Also, sorry to the people I've scolded. Stress is tough, man, makes even a Taric main go toxic.

And of course, thank YOU for reading this guide! Who knows, this build might be popular. Maybe not. Maybe it will be credited to some famous Streamer and not me? Maybe someone made this build a long time ago and just never made the build? I'll never know.

So, this is it, fellas.

So, I decided to remove Hextech Gunblade from my main build, because it's too awkward to build up into and just doesn't seem worth it *to me*. It's still a good item though, so it'll be instead put into Late-Game Build #4 and #5.
So, with that change, I decided to bring the name of the original guide back!
TANKRIC, Holder of 4 Thornmails! (No longer 3)
Also, made some edits to item builds, replaced Banshee's Veil with Abyssal Scepter since update, added optional First Back choice(Chain Vest route).
(Also, "4 Thornmails" has a ring to it, don't you think?)
[1st June 2017]

(This build was previously called 4 Thornmail Taric, but I've recently realized an item that is useful enough to sacrifice a Thornmail for, Hextech Gunblade. So, I've quickly edited all parts that have stated that this build contained 4 Thornmails, so if the guide hasn't explained the Hextech Gunblade enough, or the guide says something along the lines of "4 Thornmail", I apologize. I've written Chapter 11 to fill that gap.)[13 March, 2017]