Hello Mobafire,
I'm Chris aka BuLL3Tpr0of and I'm bringing you a guide to - yep, you've read it correctly - Hybrid Tank Taric. The last patch gave him a new Passive and W-spell with a lot of damage potential. I was testing this build while I was bored and it just worked!!
You think this is a troll-build? It maybe looks like that, but give it a try, it's awesome and a lot of fun because people always played Taric as a Support. It's time that he abandons this "HE'S ONLY SUPPORT"-image. ;)

Pros

• overwhelming Lategame
• high damage output (Hybrid!!)
• tanky
• he can even support his allies with his whole skillset
• solid farming + pushing
• spamable mono-target hard-CC

Cons

• item dependent
• can get some problems in the lane early on
• you'll lose a lot of your damage if you don't have Mana
• can be kited easily without your team supporting you with CC

Mark of Attack Damage
These are for easier last hitting. They will also make your early trades a lot better.


Seal of Armor
Armor is good for more tankyness and W-damage.


Glyph of Scaling Mana
Increases your Lategame Mana --> damage. Most efficient Glyph.


Quint of Mana
Increases you Earlygame Mana --> damage. Most efficient Quint.

Here I consider an offensive 21:0:9 build. The double Penetration will benefit your Lategame a lot. I don't find any reason to go defensive since Taric is tanky enough and his presence in the Lane isn't too bad. I also prefer the Utility-Tree before the Defense-Tree because it provides a solid amount of Mana and speed and of course the important Flash-CDR.

Ok, now let me come to the items. You need to know that this kind of Taric is VERY item dependent.
You need to keep your items up to date to be effective, but if you're able to manage that, you'll be a freaking MONSTER that will screw over almost everyones face with huge Hybrid-DPS + Tankyness.

The amount of pots you buy at the beginning depends on who you're laning against. Buy an early ward if you're expecting the enemy Jungler to cheese-gank you.
Crystalline Flask isn't that necessary since Taric can heal up. You can get it though if you're getting really screwed.

Your core-items:


Mercurys Treads
Best boots on Taric. Tenacity rules.


Warmogs
Makes you very tanky and gives you great health regeneration.


Frozen Heart
Perfect item for you, gives Armor for your W, Mana for your Passive and CDR for spamming your spells while the passive will annoy the **** out of the enemy ADC.


Muramana
Your main damage source, you'll deal huge amounts of damage with all that Mana.


Athene's Unholy Grail
Very important on Taric, will give you great CDR, MR and AP, but the most important thing: the Mana-Regen on a kill or assist will help you keep your Mana up for your Muramana.


Trinity Force
Really good on Taric, you need all of these stats and effects except the crit. chance maybe, but that's not too bad, some RNG can help you to pick up some lucky kills.

This guide is not finished yet. I'll try to complete it in the next few weeks, but this should be enough for the first time.

• 2.3.2013
  created guide (General, Items, Abilities, Masteries, Runes), Introduction and explanation for the Runes
• 5.3.2013
  created Pros & Cons, explanation for the Masteries and Items