Taric can be an amazingly fun champion to play, if you don't mind getting little or no kills (I'm talking 0 kills to 3 kills at the very most). Instead of looking at the number of kills you have, you will look at your assists. In a 5v5 I can usually score 22 assists and upwards, having assisted in around half of my team's kills. In a 3v3 i can rack up around 15 assists. Usually dying about 6 times to keep others alive, as Taric you will NEED to put yourself in-between enemy aggressors and anyone on your team that's squishy. It's a much different style of play than someone who would use a DPS'er would be used to. I hope this guide will help you understand how to play a tanky-support Taric in no time.

Is [Taric] right for you? decide for yourself by looking at these pros and cons.

Pros:

• Heals.
• Hard to kill 1v1 or even 1v2.
• Has a sweet stun skill.
• His ult lets your team easily destroy towers, and kill enemies.
• Big *** hammer.

Cons:

• Mana hungry early-game.
• People will probably complain that you didn't heal them if they die.
• Eventually becomes a huge target, you will probably get ganked by their whole team if you're alone.
• Massive CD on Imbue at first.

Imbue:
His heal spell. It heals your target and you for a certain amount, or you can target yourself the heal will be 40% more effective, but it only heals you. Autoattacking decreases the cooldown by 1 second, or if you attack a champion it decreases by 3 seconds.
Cost: 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 mana
Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 seconds
Heal: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+0.6 per ability power)

Shatter:
A spell used for defense and offense? Fantastic! When this spell is not on cooldown, you receive a buff to armor, activate it to deal damage to all enemies surrounding you, all enemies hit by this have their armor decreased temporarily (he and his allies lose the armor buff while the ability is on cooldown). The active can help your team quickly dispatch an enemy and earn you a nice assist.
Cost: 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 mana
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Bonus Armor: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Magic Damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+0.4 per ability power)
Armor Reduction: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30

Dazzle:
This is your stun. It does damage based on how far away your target is (more damage the closer they are) and stuns for 1.5 seconds. It is a nice skill that can be used to zone opponents, harass, and allow you laning partner to get an easy kill, and earning you a pretty assist in the process.
Cost: 95 mana
Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 seconds
Minimun Magic Damage: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+0.4 per ability power)
Maximum Magic Damage: 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+0.8 per ability power)

Radiance:
This is Taric's ultimate. It is a pretty decent ultimate. It does some AoE damage, and buffs your allies' Attack Damage and Ability Power. At level 2 the bonuses to AD and AP are stronger than the "Exalted with Baron Nashor" buff, but the effect only lasts for 10 seconds. It is still strong enough to make your presence felt. The damage from this spell is also a positive thing, it will help you rack up EVEN MORE assists! (The aura from this skill activates before the damage is calculated, this means that the extra AP is calculated into the damage)
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Magic Damage: 150 / 250 / 350 (+0.6 per ability power)
Attack Damage and Ability Power Bonus: 30 / 50 / 70

The skill sequence shown can be changed to fit the circumstances, but I usually allot skill points as shown, and in this section, I will give my reasoning.

Imbue. I usually Throw 3 points into this skill pretty quickly with my very first point being used on Imbue. I read Trophycase's Taric guide (Opal, for harmony: A guide to fabulous ranked Taric support), and I have to agree with his logic, 3 points in this skill is enough to sustain a lane for quite some time. Imbue becomes less sustainable after level 3. After putting 3 points into Imbue, max Shatter Shatter, then max Imbue.


Shatter. This is the the first skill I will max out, but the second one I focus on (if that makes any sense). After getting Imbue up to level 3, you will max Shatter up to level 5. I choose to max Shatter, because of it's utility. You can gain passive armor from it, or decrease the enemy's armor. I also put 1 point into this skill at level 2 before getting Imbue to level 3.


Dazzle. This is the last skill I will max. The stun duration will remain at 1.5 no matter what level the skill is at, so its utility is optimal even at level 1. I will also put a point into it at level 3 just so i have the stun.


Radiance. As your ultimate skill, you will always want to put a point into when it is available (levels 6, 11, and 16).

Start with a Meki Pendant and one Health Potion and one Mana Potion. The Meki Pendant gives you more Mana Regeneration which will allow you to heal more, and potions are fairly explanatory.

Next time you visit the fountain, turn your pendant into a Chalice of Harmony. I really enjoy the passive on this item, it causes your mana regen to increase by 1% for every 1% of your max mana you are missing, and that passive is the only reason I don't sell Chalice (until I get Aegis of the Legion). I find that it supports Taric's spell heavy play style used in this guide.

Next item on the list is Mercury's Treads, the magic resist is always appreciated, and the tenacity is very helpful. With these boots, CC won't stop you from healing for too long.

Next time, buy Philosopher's Stone, and if you can get it, get a Kindlegem and if you saved for a really, really long time, go ahead and finish Shurelya's Battlesong. Shurelya's Reverie helps Taric a lot, it provides health and health regen to make him more tanky, along with mana regen and cooldown reduction to help him cast more heals.

The next item on the list is Spirit Visage. The passive on this item has fantastic synergy with Taric's Imbue. His heals (even if they aren't focused on him) will heal him for more. Spirit Visage also provides a little bit of magic resistance to make Taric a little more tanky.

The penultimate item on the list: Frozen Heart! You can't go wrong with this item. It's the kind of item that seems like it was made specifically for a certain champion, in this case it is Taric. The armor bonus is the second best in the game, falling only behind Thornmail by just 1 point of armor. It also gives you cooldown reduction to allow you to cast more heals and stuns, and +500 max mana to help sustain Taric's heavy casting play style.

Finally, we get Aegis of the Legion. It will provide you with 30 armor, 39 magic resist, 270 health, and 8 damage. Nearby allies will receive an aura (which I accounted for when I was showing increases to Taric) that provides them with 12 armor, 15 magic resist, and 8 damage. Aegis adds to Taric's overall tankiness and allows him to passively support nearby allies no matter what. It's an item that works fantastically with the idea of this build.

At this point, it may be in your best interest to get rid of the Chalice of Harmony in order to allow yourself to buy wards. Wards are very important, if you ward no other areas, at least ward the paths leading to your lane.

For summoner spells, I always, always, always take Heal and Ghost when I play as Taric. If you find yourself wondering why I take Heal even though Heal is practically built into Taric in the form of Imbue then wonder no longer. I find that when it would help to have 2 quick heals, such as before pushing a tower, before engaging in a lane skirmish, Heal seems to be up, so I can quickly cast Imbue AND Heal in quick succession. Not to mention how nice it is to have a mana free heal every once in a while. I also use Ghost to provide mobility in all situations. Running to an ally in need, moving around a team fight, chasing, and escaping are a few good uses for Ghost. I started taking this spell after fortify became unavailable. I find it very useful, but feel free to take Clairvoyance if you feel the need to.

Other Viable Options:

• Clairvoyance: to help you scout out bushes, check for possible ganks, check if the enemies are at baron/dragon. The possibilities are pretty much endless with this spell, but I opt not to take it.

(There isn't a good range of summoner spells to use on support characters)

NOT viable options:

• Clarity it may help your early game, but that's why we pick up a Meki Pendant and a Mana Potion , and it's usefulness greatly diminishes after grabbing a few of your items.
• Cleanse it won't really help you out. It helps champions like Kassadin who have a skill that they will utilize right after popping cleanse that helps them escape, but you have no such skill.
• Exhaust just leave this to the carries. You aren't going to need to chase people too often.
• Ignite the goal of this guide is to get assist NOT kills. Allow the carries to get kills, you'll be glad you did.
• Surge You may benefit slightly from the bonus AP, but the attack speed goes to waste.
• Revive This one may have been viable, if not for the ridiculously large cooldown.
• Smite This spell has almost no use outside of the jungle, and you are not a jungler.

This part of the build is a little subjective. If you feel the need to change the masteries, go ahead, but I picked masteries that I believe will greatly support Taric's play style as defined in this guide. I designed him to be tanky, so he can survive fights and heal teammates, but I put some good utility in there to give mobility, and make wards more useful. I like a 0/21/9 build on Taric, but the final defensive skill, Juggernaut , doesn't seem to be the best for Taric, so I opt out and put another point in the defensive tree.

Early Game:
Late Game is important right? YES! well without Early game, there is no Late Game. This is when you can change the outcome of a game before the outcome is even clear. You should find yourself going to the bottom lane with some type of carry, be it a Magic or Physical carry, it doesn't matter. Your job is to keep them alive this means putting yourself in between the carry, and an enemy if needed. Let the carry get the last hits, you don't need them, you may even want to back off a little bit to let the carry get more experience. If the carry has to leave the lane, you may take some last hits, I'll usually run into the middle of some minions and pop a Shatter. If a fight breaks out between you and the enemies during this stage, this is the best advice I have: Use Imbue often and use Dazzle to secure a kill for the carry. If a fight erupts and you are unable to get the kill, but force the enemy champions out of the lane, consider it a win. Your carry will now have some worry free time to farm. One last tip for early game is to zone your opponent and zone them hard; keep them far away from minions if possible, they will not gain experience which will give you a nice advantage. If you take nothing else from this section, let it be this: KEEP THE CARRY ALIVE!

Mid Game:
Mid game is a little hard to describe, as it can vary greatly, even if you did your job right. You may have damaged their first turret, or even destroyed it. The enemies may be the same level as you, or they may be up to 3 levels below you, they may even be a level or two above you. Mid Game all depends on the enemy's play style, how good they are, and which champions they chose. That being said, once you and your carry feel confident that they (they being your carry) can handle the lane alone, you start to roam. Run between lanes helping allies in need if there are any, or if no one is in dire need, help someone pick up a kill. You may find yourself rushed to help allies that are dying, or you may have it easy and you can leisurely stroll between lanes helping your team pick up kills. As stated at the beginning of this sub-section, Mid Game is variable. As with Early Game, you will want to champion block if needed it can, and most likely will. This sections most important point: ROAM IF YOUR CARRY IS COMFORTABLE.

Late Game:
Now comes Late Game. Once again, this is variable, but if you did your job right, keep a healthy carry, and roam to champions in need, your team should be doing well. I'm not saying you'll be destroying them, but you should probably have 0-2 towers downed... unless of course you have a completely incompetent team, but that should really only happen in solo queue. Team fights will be breaking out, or maybe they already have been, but your job in team fights, is to stun their carries/heavy DPS, Heal anyone on your team who is low on health, and pop Radiance if it's available and needed. If your team is victorious, and the enemies are scattering, use Shatter to drop their armor, and allow someone to get an easy kill. Main point of Late Game: UNLOAD EVERYTHING IN TEAM FIGHTS.

Not enough patience? Or do you need to know what to do in a hurry? I would completely recommend reading the WHOLE guide, it will give more in depth detail as to how exactly to play Taric, but this should suffice for a crash course.

Imbue: Heal spell, large CD, large mana cost. Get up to level 3 for optimal healing, finish maxing after Shatter.

Shatter: Armor buff, and AoE damage. Max this after getting Imbue to level 3.

Dazzle: Stun spell, put one point in at level 2 or 3 and max last.

Radiance: Ultimate, AoE damage, and AoE buff. Upgrade when available.

>Early Game: Keep the carry alive at all costs.

>Mid Game: Roam around the map scoring assists (only do this if your carry is comfortable in a solo lane).

>Late Game: Unload pretty much every spell you have in team fights.

I recommend Heal and Fortify as summoner spells, but Ghost and Clairvoyance would also work well. Almost everything else wouldn't be viable.

Items:
Chalice of Harmony > Mercury's Treads > Shurelya's Battlesong > Spirit Visage > Frozen Heart > Aegis of the Legion

Sorry for the wall of text, but Thank you for viewing this guide. Please rate after trying it out, and leave comments. I have played Taric for quite some time now, and I find that this is a very effective build. Feel free to add me on League of Legends if you want: Strife780

I will try my best to update this guide regularly, but I can't make any promises. Have fun playing Taric!

12/1/2011 Guide Version 1.2.1 LoL patch v1.0.0.130: re-wrote the Summoner Spells section, because Rally and Fortify were removed in patch 1.0.0.130 sadface for the loss of Fortify ):

11/28/2011 Guide Version 1.2.0 LoL patch v1.0.0.130: Updated the build for with the new mastery trees. Shatter's AP ratio increased by 0.2, and Radiance's AP ratio increased by 0.1. 1386 views, no comments, no rates.

11/4/2011 Guide version 1.1.1: LoL patch v1.0.0.128: No changes to Taric. 1260 views. No Rates or Comments.

10/7/11 Guide version 1.1.0: LoL patch v1.0.0.126: No major Changes, Cooldown on Radiance was reduce to 60 seconds at all levels from 100/90/80. Changed some BBcode as well as some wording. Over 800 views with no comments or votes. Let's comment and vote people! (:

9/28/11 Guide version 1.0.0: LoL patch v1.0.0.125: Finished and uploaded guide.