Taric Build Guide by HeardYouLikeGuides
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Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Taric and Roaming
Taric, as a whole, is a pretty gay ****in' piece of ****. As such, please refrain from using his default skin and purchase the Bloodstone Taric skin featured at 975 riot points from the store immediately.
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What makes Taric so effective when it comes to roaming?
Well, Taric, as a whole, is a very viable and versatile champion; made more so yet by the masteries and runes that I feature in this build. His base movespeed is relatively high and, while not classed as a tank in theory, is able to take a lot of punishment -- all while dealing out stuns and burst damage with strong consistency.
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Taric vs. other roamers
Alistar
Alistar, as a whole, is a very strong roamer. With two strong CCs, 
Headbutt and 
Pulverize, he is extremely effective when it comes to ganking and upsetting enemy's jungle routes. With a spammable heal at a low mana cost, he has strong sustain, ganking ability and, once he reaches level 6, can tank with little to no items; let alone after building a 
Heart of Gold. The cow makes strong competition for any roamer, 
Taric included.
Evelynn
Ah, Evelynn. I used to think you were a god among other champions once, but now? I mean, after the nerfs, you don't even stun on a proc once leaving invisibility. Really, the slow isn't that great either. Your damage output is rather low early and, as a whole, you aren't the strongest of champions when it comes to sustain. However, an invis/
Ravage can seriously mess up a jungler's (like for example 
Olaf - a rather low health jungler) route. Still, Taric is just superior to you.
Janna
Relatively strong, as a matter of fact. 
Zephyr's passive makes for quick movement between lanes, aswell as a second CC on top of 
Howling Gale which on its own is extremely strong - a ridiciolous range once charged fully, yet slightly harder to aim, and a damage buff shield to cast. A very strong roamer. Not as much opposition to Taric as 
Alistar, but still a very strong roamer.
Twitch
Despite being sceptical about even inserting this title here in the first place, I have seen it done before and, thinking over it, I decided it might work. A strong slow, relatively strong burst, invis. However, squishy and slow and, I have to take into account, he requires a ton of farm and feed to be effective late game. An 'mmk' choice, to be honest. Not really that strong as a roamer.
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Abilites (an explanation)
Imbue
A solid heal, however not worth leveling at the lower levels due to the fact that it ****ing drains mana like hell. Only use it in a lane once leaving after a gank, and even then only when high on mana (perhaps 50-70 mana missing from your total). Becomes strong towards the later stages of the game and heals over an 
Ignite.
Shatter
A very strong passive armor buff, which seriously makes up for the lack of exp and gold that you will be suffering from as a roamer. This is one of the main reasons why I value champions like 
Evelynn and 
Twitch weaker junglers. They do not have this amazingly strong power in just their abilities, and abilities only, an attribute that only, for example 
Janna, Alistar and Taric share. Also a relatively strong source of burst damage.
Dazzle
Your primary ability, yet maxed last of all the abilities you do possess. This is because the only reason it's there is for the stun, not the damage. The damage is relatively useless to you as a roamer when you have Shatter instead, and the stun's duration does not increase -- therefore, it is usless to level this skill over any other, besides taking it at level 1.
Radiance
It brings pretty strong ganking power. A strong burst combined with Shatter and applies a damage buff to both (duo lane) allies, or (solo lane) ally. Use it in team fights to bring an advantage to your team, and attempt to hit as many champions as possible, especially the squishier carries (while also applying the buff to your carries).
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Masteries and Runes
Runes
I'm going to keep this brief. Primary seals and secondary marks on armor, primary seals on mana regen, primary glyphs on magic resistance/level, quintessences on gold/sec and movement speed; covering all the major sectors required for Taric to roam effectively.
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Masteries
Covering all the things that the build is lacking in, covering things like mana regen, cooldown reduction and health/level and flat. Simple here. All of this stuff is pretty self-explanatory.
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Items
Starting items
There are three real choices:
+
x3 +
+ Sight Ward +
x2
+
x4
Any other choices, such as for example 
Faerie Charms I see as a bad choice compared to a pair of boots. Most champions do not take boots early and as such you have a huge ganking and escaping (perhaps chasing -- if a jungler is low) advantage.
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Recipe (and secondary) items
Heart of Gold
A strong gold/sec passive and allows you to now soak damage effectively, and along with Shatter's passive you become close to invulnerable against primarily physical damage-orientated carries such as 
Ashe or 
Tristana.
Philosopher's Stone
Philosopher's Stone
Perhaps the most overpowered early-game item in the game. This combined with a Heart of Gold provides an amazingly strong gold/sec income that is strong, probably nearing that of a tough bottom lane composition. Also turns you into sustain king. You can travel between lanes and, after having soaked that 
LeBlanc's mana pool down to an absolute zero and having pushed her back to recall, you regen everything while travelling between lanes. The sustain on this item is ridiciolously strong, and perhaps even needs a nerf.
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Primary items
Mercury's Treads
To be perfectly honest with you, this item is a must. Despite the fact that the enemy may have only 2 CCs, this item is still a must-have. The tenacity against CC is just imperative and you should never drop this item for another set of boots like, for example, 
Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Never. Ever.
Aegis of the Legion
Another very beneficial item, however can be skipped if there is a need for an early Banshee's against heavily magic-damage orientated casters such as 
Malzahar, 
Veigar, (simply for his ultimate) 
Warwick among others.
Banshee's Veil
Very strong against heavily magic-orientated casters such as mentioned above. However, if the enemy team has champions with spammable spells like 
Nunu, 
Ryze or 
Ezreal then this item kind of loses its worth. If that is the case then skip it over and go straight into a 
Randuin's Omen.
Randuin's Omen
A strong item. Provides some decent magic resistance and armor, aswell as health regen and quite a nice active for when it comes to team fights. A worthy investment, and can be bought over Banshee's Veil if the need for it is not dire.
Force of Nature/Frozen Heart
/
You need to keep one slot available for buying wards and oracles. So, only one of these items can be picked (if the game even ever lasts long enough for you to be getting into these items). However, if the game is heavily unbalanced and minion waves are pushed up to an extreme, making it impossible to leave the Nexus turrets, then buying both is obviously primary over wards and oracles.
However, you must always remember that there is no such thing as a cookie-cutter build. The need can arise for a 
Thornmail if they are extremely physical-heavy, or they have a fed physical-orientated carry. And suchlike. Just keep that in mind.
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Early game
Major priorities
1: Pre-game ganks or team fights - if the enemy lane is feeling cheeky, and moving up to a turret to poke (good examples of this are champions such as Caitilyn), then move up for ganks and hopefully you can score a kill. In pre-game team fights attempt to stun their primary damage dealer or squishy and hopefully score a kill on them with your team.
2: Making a jungler's life hell - give them no opportunities to counter-jungle your jungler and force them out of their own jungle via stuns and shatter burst to make their life a constant hell, depriving them of leveling or earlier buffs. However, these champions do becomes stronger than you as the game progresses, so don't get too continually aggressive or sit around in their jungle for too long.
3: Lane ganks - constantly ganking lanes and applying pressure (and maybe even scoring a kill) destroys lanes. The enemy has close to no CS whatsoever and are deprived of both exp and gold. Hopefully 2-3 kills can be scored throughout the entire of the early game phase.
4: Warding - yes, warding is ridiciolously important. However, throughout the early stages of the game you do not have the time or money to be constantly recalling to buy more wards, and therefore it is hard to do so. This is the only reason why it is prioritized as last.
Mid game
Major priorities
1: Warding - between levels 4-11 this becomes extremely important. You should be dropping wards everywhere: both sides of the jungle, rivers, dragon, brushes, buffs. Literally everywhere.
2: Taking a turret - you're going to want to at least have pushed one/two turrets by the time you've reached level 11 and be pushing in on the minion waves, taking some CS for yourself now if the lane is un-occupied.
3: Team fights - the earlier team fights are, usually, what make or break a game. You should be watching out for who to stun (keeping an eye out for champions like Nunu or 
Katarina and making sure you interrupt their ultimates).
4: Top lane - by this time your solo top may still be farming in order to be strong enough to tank for the team. Now, your role is to stop his farming from being interrupted by ganks, and at the same time interrupt the enemy solo top's farm.
Late game
Major priorities
1: Pushing - you want to be constantly applying pressure to lanes and pushing turrets all around the map in order to get to the enemy inhibitors.
2: Team fights - you want to be winning each and every one of these. Make sure you stun the right targets, apply auras to the right allies and apply burst to the correct enemies.
Notes
Changelog
I plan to update this guide after I've been given suggestions, but at the moment this is the V.1 of my guide release.
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Thank you
Thank you for reading my guide and I hope you will enjoy roaming Taric -- I appreciate, welcome and encourage any constructive criticism or advice.
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