After the recent Taric Rework, this may not be viable. They have nerfed his healing through the floor and a pure ap build is too squishy these days. Even though they added an AP ult, it just isn't enough to counter the Damage nerfs they applied to his other abilities. I'm still going to give it a try but I can't promise anything.

Hello Everyone, Welcome to my Taric Guide. I got bored with just standing around giving people auras so I decided to try an AP Damage build. This build might be strange for Taric but it sure is fun and will get you lots of kills or at least assists. Please don't vote until you've read through the entire guide and/or tried it for yourself.

I'm going to start off by saying that you should always tell your party that you are not a tank in the lobby otherwise they'll assume you are. Enjoy the guide.

Some Quotes from In Game:

"LOL gay taric skin"
"Epic Taric FTW"
"Pro Taric is Pro"
"That heal is insane" (late game)
"I've never seen a Taric 3-shot someone before"

Standard Caster Runes.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for more damage
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration for some mana regen
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction so you can stun and heal more often
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for more damage.

Get the standard 9 offense masteries for magic pen and then fill out your Utility tree how you see fit. I like to take Greed because Taric isn't a good last hitter and Insight so my allies can benefit more from my Clarity.

Depending on if you take Exhaust or Ghost, you will want to take the mastery points to buff them. For example if you take Exhaust, you would want to put your 1 point into Cripple instead of Deadliness .

Early Game:

At the beginning of every game I buy an Amplifying Tome and a Health Potion. This will be enough to get me to level 2 so i can pick up my heal. After that, I buy a Kage's lucky pick to get the gold coming in. This will pay for itself after about 20 minutes and will help you buy your big AP items. The gold income goes away when you buy Deathfire Grasp so keep that in mind.

Mid Game:

By now you should have your Sorcerer's Shoes and either a Mejai's Soulstealer or one of the items for a Rabadon's Deathcap. You have to decide if you will be able to get stacks on your soulstealer or not. If you want to play it safe, just go with the deathcap.

Late Game:

At this point, you should have your big AP items and you need to pick which item order is the best for you, Deathfire Grasp, Lich Bane, or Void Staff. I usually get the void staff last. Lets be honest, the other team has probably surrendered by now because you're so awesome.



Deathfire Grasp is really good for AP Taric because he doesn't have enough offensive spells. Use the Active on full health enemies to do the most damage. If you stack your AP high enough, you'll be taking away potentially 50% of an enemies health right off the bat. That's a lot of health if it happens to be a tank.

One thing you have to do with this build is learn how to bind your items if you haven't already. 1-6 on your keyboard are to activate an item if you have them to use. This means using potions or using the active ability on an item like the one on Deathfire Grasp. there is no way you can efficiently click on the item and then click on an enemy when you are in the middle of a battle. I personally like to keybind to my extra mouse buttons.

So I can Spam dazzle more often and keep a radiance on myself longer. It also comes in handy if you need to start healing your team a lot. I also find myself using it to give team-mates mana even if I don't need any mana. Especially if your mid is being outplayed you might need to go give them a slap on the *** with a quick heal and a clarity.

UPDATE: Everyone seems to be crying about taking clarity. Believe me, you need it for so many reasons. Your radiance eats a ton of mana, you need to spam your stun to create as many kill opportunities as possible, and you increase the longevity of your team if you can restore everyone's mana and health to full. I've tried playing with no clarity and it just isn't as good. You simply cannot be as aggressive as you should be unless you have enough mana to spam your stuff. Try to think of yourself as a bursty-enabler-support-carry or something if you need to justify it.

I've dabbled with exhaust and ghost but really like ignite for finishing off enemies and killing people with heals. People will start to predict how much damage your Dazzle/ Shatter combo does and if you throw in an ignite afterwards it really catches them off guard. People argue that it's only effective early game but if you play it right, that will give you the advantage you need to pull ahead and be that carry.

Flash is useful and might help you get into position to get that killing dazzle in or help you escape. Try it out and remember to take the mastery for it. I often take flash if I know I'm not going to be at mid so I can deal with the combines abilities of 2 enemies.

Great for ganking and saving fleeing allies but I find that if your stun isn't enough to kill them before they get to their tower... your exhaust wont make a huge difference. I would still give it a try though and see how you like it.

Good for running away or running down enemies during a gank. Ghost is always useful but I still prefer Ignite to get that extra unexpected damage in.

[PASSIVE]
Gives you Mana when you auto attack things. If you are mana Starved, auto attack some minions to get your mana back. Just be careful not to piss anyone off by pushing a lane in the laning phase.

[Q]
Don't feel guilty for using this on yourself but it is more efficient to use it on an ally. This will heal for upwards of 500 by late game.

[W]
Decent damage spell and awesome support spell. Also used as your primary farming spell. If you've got the mana, use this on minions to get gold. If you have any AD allies nearby this will increase their damage on the target. combine this with radiance to REALLY buff your AD allies. Max this after Dazzle.

[E]
The Bread and Butter of this build and Taric in general. 400 damage and 100% of AP at rank 5 is a pretty good kick in the pants and it will usually turn an attacking enemy into a fleeing enemy. Max this first. Dazzle does more damage up close and stuns for longer farther away. You need to decide if you prefer a stun or more damage every time you initiate. The way I see it... You almost always will want to go for more damage because that's the main point of this build.



[R]
This will only be used to occasionally buff your AD allies or to heal yourself while fleeing. Switch it on and off at your discretion but be careful not to waste all of your mana. You'll be surprised what you can survive if you pop this on during a team fight.


Skill Attack sequence:

Before you get Deathfire Grasp:

Dazzle > Shatter > Auto Attack > Imbue > Dazzle

After you get Deathfire Grasp assuming you don't need to open with dazzle for the stun.

Deathfire Grasp > Dazzle > Shatter > Imbue > Dazzle

Use Ignite at your discretion to secure kills. People forget you have it and let themselves get low on health.

You get the idea.... read what your items and abilities do and think about the most efficient way to use them.

Try to Lane with another stun or slow character or someone who does a lot of damage. Heal People if they need it. Don't be greedy just because you're a super 1337 Damage Taric. Use your Radiance to buff AD allies if you are taking down a turret. If you pop Radiance with a couple of people under a turret it will melt like butter.

List of good lane partners from experience:

Ezreal Zilean Xin Zhao Irelia Caitlyn

Farming is going to be hard until mid/late game because your auto attack doesn't do much and you shouldn't waste your Dazzle on a minion. I find that if I scare the enemies away from the minions with Dazzle, I can damage minions down to low health and then kill 2-4 of them at once with Shatter. Don't just shatter minions at full health unless it's later in the game and you can finish them all off with one auto attack. I always buy a kage's lucky pick and Greed so I don't have to worry about farming very much.

As with any champion, you'll learn to get last hits and figure out what you need to do to get that gold.

I thought it might be nice to give some general combat tips as i learn them so here I go:

1. Make sure they don't get away.

As Taric you can blow your load in 2 second and be left with only auto attack. Instead of auto attacking, sometimes it's better for you to start heading towards your enemies escape route to make sure you can get in a second dazzle For example, Jump out of weeds, Dazzle, Shatter, imbue ally, start running towards enemy escape route. I've managed to secure quite a few kills on ghosted or flashed enemies because i predicted their escape.

2. Tower Dive!

Know how much damage you can do and put it to good use under towers. If you have decent health and mana and there is a low health enemy under their tower, go for it. Just be careful not to get stunned after you attack and remember to escape out the side lane and not back past the tower. If you have friendly minions occupying the tower, even better! Run right up to them, dazzle and shatter them, pop your radiance and self imbue and you should be able to escape with plenty of health. If you're are scared, throw out a long range dazzle, it might be enough to kill them.

3. Try really hard to get close before you dazzle.

I know it's too dangerous or impossible to get close sometimes but if you can flank your enemy in a way to get right next to them before you dazzle, it will increase your damage a ton.

4. Teach Tryndamere a lesson with Ignite!

If you happen to grab ignite and there's an enemy Tryndamere, make sure to throw your ignite on him after he pops his undying rage. If you time it right, you should be able to pick up a few kills on him throughout the game.

I originally learned that AP Taric was viable in mid when I found out that our ranged carry was a new player and didn't want the responsibility. I was pretty confident in my skills and decided to go for it. Luckily it was against Lux and her damage isn't high enough to outdo my rank 1 Imbue. Since then I've come to really enjoy mid because it means i'll be fed enough to slaughter people throughout the game. So far the hardest time I've had was against an Annie. Her damage and stun really put me on defense but after I ranked up my dazzle and bought some AP items, she couldn't keep up with my heal even though she spent tons of money on Health Potions

If the laning phase goes for a long time, you'll probably want to buy a Rabadon's Deathcap before Mejai's Soulstealer because you won't be getting any stacks on it (unless you're killing their mid alot). Buy your soulstealer as soon as the laning phase is done.


Enemies I've successfully encountered at mid so far:

Twisted Fate Lux Vayne Miss Fortune Annie I lost track...

Enemies I've unsuccessfully encountered at mid so far:

None yet, I'm sure it will come eventually.

Pros:

Dazzle is really strong after you buy a couple of your items.
Enemies will not expect damage from a Taric.
Your Heals will be gigantic in late game.
You are still tanky enough to tower dive an enemy who has low health.
You can still technically support your team with your armor aura and reduction, clarity, and heals
Your stun often means a kill if you have any team-mates around to help.

Cons:

Not enough damage abilities to finish the job in lots of fights.
People assume Taric is a tank.
People will make fun of you. (At least until they get killed by you)

The Games in the below image were a combination of starting at mid, 1v2 at top and 2v2 wherever.

In summary, This is a really fun build to play if you're tired of support Taric and your enemies will definitely not expect it. Stack your AP as quickly as possible and deal out the dazzles. Heal your team-mates if they need it and try not to get carried away and feed like a noob. Have Fun and leave any suggestions in the Comments.

8-18-11:Fixed typos, added some text on summoner spells.
7-21-11:Updated content, added proof section, changed formatting.
7-16-11:Fixed some typos and added to general combat tips.
7-11-11:General updates and changes to entire guide.
7-08-11:Added a Solo mid chapter.
6-28-11:Changed title to attract more people. Old title: AP Dazzle Fun
6-28-11:Updated build order to get Mejai's Soulstealer Sooner and updated summoner spells.
6-27-11:Changed Purchase order.
6-23-11:Added Lich Bane as a potential Item.
6-23-11:Added all those pretty icons and tooltips.
6-23-11:Decided to add a Mejai's Soulstealer into items.
6-23-11:Changed Ignite to Exhaust to keep people in range of Dazzle longer. Also Change Masteries to pick up Cripple instead of crit.