16/11/11 update:
New mastery tree
The following mastery tree is still undergoing tests, so I can't currently guarantee it's viability

Hello, and welcome to my first build featuring Taric, my main support. Through this build I'm going to describe how this build works and what A support does in games. First, I'd like to tell you a bit about this champion.
Taric is in my opinion one of the tankiest supports early through late game thanks to his superior health and his armor buffs. He has a heal that can easily be re-uses faster once you get the hand of his style. He also has a great stun that can easily turn the tides of most teamfights if used on the right target. He's also very mobile and has great speed to start with.

Pros:
-Tanky support
-Great heal for you and your allies simultaneously
-THE STUNNNNNNNN
-Great caracteristics supporter with Shatter Aura, Aegis of legion and Radiance

Cons:
-High cooldowns on heal
-Your passive might be a problem to activate frequently (recquires getting into range, which exposes you to the enemy carry)
-Very mana hungry in early laning phase

: These runes make you inflict the damage necessary to help your carry get kills easier. At lvl 6 Taric has good damage output for a support, so we're going to take advantage of this with these runes.

: Taric tends to get some mana problems during lane phases, these will help you keep those problems away as long as you hit minions occasionaly and heal only when most needed.

: Taric's mane weakness might be in his cooldown time. To solve that, we're going to compensate with these runes.

: Since Taric starts with more health than most supports, you won't need to take health quintessences, especially after their age old nerf. These quintessences will grant you even more gold along with the bonus in masteries, philosophers stone and heart of gold.

With the new changes, I4ll ask you to just refer to the tree, but I'll still bring in a few comments:
-Ward upgrade: better sight range with wards, could be useful
-Gold/ 10 sec upgrade: very good, now you get 40 bonus starting gold and 2 gold/ 10 sec
-Better health/mana regen: 9% total, let's see how this works, looks good

Now for a little explanation about the items:

: The reason why you start with this item and not a Meki Pendant is because you need spare gold to buy WARDS (and it builds into Philosopher's Stone). Your goal is not to stack items fast or get kills, you are only there to (as your role suggests) support. By buying wards, you grant further protection from ganks for your team, along with surveying where the enemy might be placing their wards.
Your first buy will be the Faerie Charm, 1 to 2 health potions (or 1 mana potion if you worry about mana) and 3 Sight Wards.

Philosopher's Stone: You should get this item at your first back ASAP because it will start getting you bonus gold early. It costs 605 with the Faerie Charm. This item will help you keep up your lane durability easily.

: If you can pick up this item at the same time as Philosopher's Stone, do it. No need to say why you need movement speed :)
However, you should only upgrade your boots after you get heart of gold. Here are your possible upgrades:
- : the best choice in my opinion. Gives you the recquired tenacity for late game and some magic resist, making up for Taric's weak points.
- : useful on any support for the great cooldown reduction it gives
- : if you want to be extremely mobile and able to get back to the lane as quick as possible, take these booties.

: more gold per 10 sec, more life, a must have for any support

Now that you have your first items, it's time to start making the core build:

: low costing and gives plenty of resistance to you and your team, along with the 8 AD buff which stacks well with your ultimate.

: the item taht makes a support is by far this one. The speed buff easily gets your team in and out of any situation, along with granting you great health/mana regeneration and colldown reduction.

: it's ok to get this item anytime after the 2 previous ones, but it's still good to get quickly, especially against a team with strong AD. It builds out of heart of gold and the item's activation can easily close any gaps between you and your enemies along with activating Shurelya's Reverie. Plus, the armor, health and health regeneration from it is just amazing

From here on, these are mostly situational items, depending on your team and the opposing team

: important item if your team is ap strong and if the enemy is stacking magic resist. Also gives 70 AP, nice for heals :D .

: sick armor, CDR and mana, and a debuff that makes the enemy AD champs want to kill themselves. Take it if the enemy is strong on ad.

: I personnaly love taking this item because I can still passively heal with it. To take if your team needs more attack speed.

: no harm taking a good AP and spell vamp aura for your caster buddies, just make sure you only have 1 on the team.

: strangely I've found myself using this item because I sometimes take Kage's lucky pick early. Even though it doesnt grant any friendly buffs, it can deal a pack of damage to the tank to make things easier. Only take this item if you endedup taking Kage's lucky pick and your team as trouble taking down a mean tanky damage dealing F***ER of mothers

: gettng picked out by a pesky Kassadin before you can even heal? Simple solution, take this item, no need to say why, but I will anyways. Bonus health, mana, magic resist and the one and only spell blocker in 1 item.

(Passive):
Taric's passive, although very useful, is actually hard to use. Yes it will grant you mana on every basic attack, you might have trouble doing so during the laning phase. Hitting minions can make your carry miss his last hits and expose you to enemy attacks as well. It will be most useful while attacking turrets mostly after a teamfight.

:
Taric's heal has great potential when used properly. On a basic attack it will reduce the CD by 1 second, this time triples if he hits an enemy champion. You can take advantage of this bonus by assisting an ally being chased for example (heal him 1st, stun the enemy, hit him twice, before you know it you can heal him again and counter). I get my heal to lvl 2 first and leave it there until I max Shatter. Why? because I find myself healing way too much in the early laning phase for way too much mana, and my carry is usually resistant so you don't need to waste so much mana on it.

:
Taric's most viable support spell by far, effective at any moment of the game, especially when stacked with Aegis of the Legion. This spell is effective in 2 ways in a teamfight:
-Armor increase for your team mates
-When used effectively, you can reduce the whole team's armor and then back out quickly so your AD allies get the job done faster
Using it no longer takes the aura away, it only reduces the "bonus" bonus you get from it, so it's always beneficial for the team. I max this spell as soon as possible, taking the first lvl at 3 because it also inflicts good early damage and will reduce more o the enemies armor.

:
Here it is, the stun that supports WISH they had. HAH. With good team coordination, the stun can allow the AD carry to inflict a lot of free harass damage. It's an overall extremely viable spell, but you only need to lvl it up last. Take note that the stun is what starts just about every gank your jungler performs. It is absolutely essential for clean harass and kills.

:
Taric's ultimate, Radiance, grants his allies and himself some good bonus AD and AP, along with inflicting a pretty nice amount of dmg if used in close-quarters. Needless to say, once you've activated this spell, you turn yourself into a mobile buff platform. MAx it at every level, just like any ultimate.

: The spell that makes a support a support. Players will count on you to always have this spell ready for you to unveil a fogged part of the map. Extremely useful for preparing/avoiding ganks, checking baron/drake/jungle buffs.

: No doubt, Flash is definately your best choice for a summoner spell. You can surprise your enemies with a flash stun with it, and you can of course use it to get in and out of the fights. An overall useful spell.

ALTERNATE CHOICES (WARNING: not 100% viable in ranked games):

: Who doesn't want to run all around the map in a half second, combined with Boots of mobility? Sure why not. Good to get you where you need to be faster.

: Nice for getting back to the lane or close to your allies for a surprise stunsex attack or some emergency healing.

: If the CC's are too intense on the enemy team, consider taking this.

: Uhm... not really no :/. Good thing this spell is getting changed

: fortify is good ON a support, but not good FOR a support. The passive isn't of any good for him, Otherwise I'd take it.

: Nope.avi you aren't the jungler

: Good for catching up with enemies, but this spell is meant for other damage dealers to use, you already have a stun and some good support items to close gaps.

: take this if you want to play AP Taric, not support Taric.

: I could imagine this, yes, due to mana hunger. Take it if you like to spam the heal and stun :p

: Nah you don't need it, you already have one and it should be enough

: don't worry, you can't die xD (joking, you can die)

I've been doing all this talking about the early and late game sequences, now it's time to really get familiar with your role.
In case you don't know, you will usually be playing with an AD Carry on the bottom lane. You role is to kep him alive, protected and able to get lastkills on enemy minions.

Early game:
Taric has great harass potential when he plays with the right champion, any of them will do, but some play better with his stun. Here's my list of favorite AD carries I like supporting

- : the stun allows Graves to rush in with Quickdraw and unload a serious amount of damage followed up with Buckshot.
- : Vayne can also get a reasonable amount of burst damage off of his stun when she uses her Tumble, simular to how Graves does it
- : when a target is immobile against Kog'Maw, there's not much hope left for his target, he can easily shred him with his Bio-arcane Barrage.
- : stun, headshot, stun, headshot. Do the math, this combo delivers amazing damage as well


Mid/Late game:
You're now going to have way more responsabilities, notably your warding duty. Warding is an extremely important role for the support player, you need to make sure fogged out parts of the map are visible. The 2 most important being in front of Baron Nashor and in front of Drake. Other places for them are in the brushes through the jungle. I will upload a map showing the best warding positions soon.
In teamfights, you musn't be too close in a teamfight, nor too far from it. Taric's strength comes from his stun and aura buffs, so remember to stay near someone tanky. As for who you need to heal, well you should always have your eyes on your AD and AP carries because they're usually the first to be targeted, along with being squishy! Therefore your stun must go on the champions that aggress your 2 key damage dealers.

It was a lot of fun writing this for your build hungry eyes my fellow gamers! And I hope that this build will give you a few thoughts about how Taric can be played and how he works overall. Now before I finish, allow me to sum up Taric's use in the game:

-Support: he heals, defends and assists your team
-He is useful against an AD heavy enemy team
-He is useful in any kind of team, but a bit better in an AD heavy team
-He can prevent special targets on the enemy team to act with his stun

With that said, I'll let you try him out. Thank you for reading :)

Oh just one thing: STUN BEFORE HEAL :D