Hi everyone this my guide on Taric, I build him as a balanced tank, meaning he can tank most forms of damage very sufficiently. While he is built as a tank I play him as a support as his damage output is not high enough in this build to do very well in any other lane.
By all means I'm not saying that this is the only way to build Taric, this is just my way I build him.

If you are a person that likes to tinker with a build to give it your own unique touch,click here

Please don't discriminate or downvote my guide until you have given my build a good go in a game, If theres any reccomendation that you think i should add to it, post it in the comments Thanks :P

Taric isn't a champion for everyone, some people just can't stand supports, if you are one of these people it might be wise to turn back now. My Taric is played so that you won't get a positive k/d (unless you steal kills or are really good), you will however be able to amass a mountain of assists. Since the changes in tanking has been introduced in the preseason 3 patch Taric has become a much more viable tank in comparison to other classic tanks, as his paasive boost from Shatter is the equivalent to that of a full tier item, this gives you a strong boost early game that will be retained until late game

If you play this Taric well, you will be able dive turrets to stun that enemy carry or support that has already been weakened, to get an assist off your carry and survive by your second build item. Later into the build you will be able to kill squishy attack damage characters, without even moving due to Thornmail (even though its not your goal as a support tank, its a nice added bonus)

However Taric takes a little practise and discipline to master with this build, but is by no means unachievable, and if you've ever played with a Taric, you know he can be a major factor for your teams victory.

Pros Boost your teams offensive capabilities Boost your teams defensive capabilities Very difficult to kill Long lasting target shot stun Great in lane mana and health sustainability Massive natural armour early and mid game

Cons Limited escape when running from multiple enemies Limited killing power without ally Relys on Clarity early game

Gemcraft (Passive)

Description:
This passive gives you mana equal to 7.5% of the damage your autoattacks deal

Tips and Tricks:
The main problem asociated (sorry about the typo, it filters the word if I spelt it right and added the second "s") with this ability is that some taric players kill most of the minions in a wave in order to sustain for longer, this takes vital farm away from your carry, in this build you will not use tarics passive much, as the mana increase is only small, use it on minions that are not going to die from your auto attacks, while this increases mana (and hence, sustain) it also let's the carry farm faster.
There are however exeptions to this rule, you can use it when you are holding a lane while your carry is recalling/returning to lane or when they are roaming themselves, in summary when the carry cant get the farm, its yours


Imbue (Q)

Description:
This is tarics heal, it heals him and the target, he may also target himself to increase his own heal, the target can either be an allied minion or an allied champion


Tips and Tricks:
You will be using this skill fairly regularly, use it on yourself when you are below 50%, use it on the carry if they are at 75% or less. There will be a point where you have to stop using it, due to the mana cost this point for me is enough so you can use dazzle as it is your prime spell. This skill is extremely essential when tanking turrets, not only does it allow you to take the hits for longer, it can also be cast on a siege minion to heal it, further preventing taking damage from a turret


Shatter (W)

Description:
Shatter provides a aura that your close allys use that provides an armour bonus, this bonus is also given to taric.Secondly the bonus of armor given in the aura is applied as a buff that taric benefits from along with the aura. When Taric casts the active the enemies in a radius lose armour and take damage, this active removes the personal buff on taric, until the skill is off cool down


Tips and Tricks:
The active on this skill will be rarely used, however the passive is very important in order for your lane to sustain itself, only use the active when your damage dealers are in a position to deal lots of damage,as it will increase their damage output


Dazzle (E)

Description:
Dazzle is a stun that is targetable, rather than most skill shot stuns.This is your bread and butter, the stun lasts for a significant period of time and is Taric's most iconic spell that makes people reviere him as a good support.


Tips and Tricks:
You will be casting this spell all the time as it will allow your carry to deal a lot of damage. The best tip for using this skill is to be able to communicate with your carry when you are about to cast it, this will allow them to make the most of the duration of the stun, this communication could be text, a ping, or audio chat, make sure to have your carry aware of this


Radiance (R)

Description:
This ult deals a reasonable amount of damage in a radius around you, the main benefit of it however is the aura it provides you and your team, it gives your allys in a radius to gain significant attack damage and ability power, this effect is doubled on yourself


Tips and Tricks:
The cooldown is fairly small on this ult, so don't be afraid to use it on smaller brawls.I use this ult at the start of a team fight, to maximise your entire teams damage, to take baron at earlier levels or to catch it quicker, and lastly to take important turrets

Skill Priorities

> > >


Level 1 : Dazzle, Why?

• Provides a good method for your team to get first blood
• Allows your carry to pick up easy kills from level 1
• good for escaping/delaying an ambush/invasion

Level 2 and 3 : Imbue and Shatter
This is mainly to get the rest of your abilities, I choose imbue first in case you and your carry has had a bad start

Level 4 and 5 : Shatter
I level up shatter next as it provides your lane with extra armour, allowing you to sustain yourselves, it can also be used to shred the enemies armour, this allows your carry to pick up kills even more easier, topped off with your stun

Level 6 : Radiance
Its your ultimate, so no excuses not to get it

Level 7 : Shatter
For the same reasons as before

Level 8 : Imbue
Because shatter cannot be maxed yet the next ability is leveled up, I chose imbue as its heal can actually be effective in this build when leveled up, as opposed to Dazzle

Level 9 : Shatter
For the same reasons as before

Level 10 : Imbue
This is the priority now that shatter has been maxed

Level 11 : Radiance
Once again, no excuses

Level 12 and 13 : Imbue
For the same reasons as before

Level 14 and 15 : Dazzle
This is the last skill to max, so theres no real reason to go into detail why

Level 16 : Radiance
No excuses

Level 17 and 18 : Dazzle
Same as before

Masteries

Defensive Tree, Since my Taric build is maximising in tankiness, I take a standard set of masteries that increase all my resistances and health etc. as it will compliment with the build. The only notable non-tanky mastery selection I chose was Tenacious due to the fact if you have read the rest of the guide you would know that my Taric's bane is crowd control, this just helps you prevent it for a little longer

Runes

My rune set is completely titled towards early game dominance. It does not provide much of a difference to your stats if you replace these runes for "per level". In the end its up to you to decide whether or not you want early or late game dominance. In my opinion, if you have a strong advantage in the start, it will allow your carry to become more easily fed, causing the game to be quite strongly tilted in your direction.

As for the choices of the runes themselves I chose:

• Greater Seal of Armor: to increase your armour, the late game alternative would be Greater Seal of Scaling Armor
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist:to increase your magic resist, the late game alternative would be Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
• Greater Mark of Health:despite this being a secondary rune it still provides substantial health, this will be topped off with the quintessence making your health boost the most significant of the three tanky stats, the late game alternative would be Greater Mark of Scaling Health
• Greater Quintessence of Health: as shown above, to increase your health most substantially, the late game alternative would be Greater Quintessence of Percent Health

These runes provide an well rounded amount of stats to maximise your resistances in all areas, hence the guides name- Taric: The Balanced Tank.

My Spells:

Flash

Why it was chosen Its a great escape, Its a great pursuing skill, you can use it to pick up kills with comboing it with your abilities. Anyone who has used flash before will know how useful it can be to get out of sticky situations. This can be your only escape tool against groups until you get Randuin's Omen(that is if it ends up as part of your situational late game build)

Clarity

Why it was chosen Anyone that has played a support Taric knows that his main limitation is his mana pool, this build works in a similar matter. I have found that this makes Taric be able to last longer in a lane, as he can heal with his mana pool. This then allows you to spam your spells more,and therefore set up more damage with your stun and shred combo. I have also gotten out of many sticky situations with Clarity as it allows me to get my abilities back up and escape dying.

Potential Spells:

Cleanse

Why it could be chosen This is a useful spell to take on a draft pick, as it helps agaisnt a team with strong disables(rembering that disables are usually the bane of my Taric), on a blind pick however its hard to predict, so I left it behind. If you want to choose Cleanse replace Flash

Ghost

Why it could be chosen While this is a good escape tool, I picked Flash over it as it widens the gap between you and the enemy quicker initially, if you want to bring Ghost replace Flash

Barrier

Why it could be chosen This can be useful when you want to soak up more damage in a teamfight, this in my opinion wouldn't make much of a difference in a team fight as you will have enough survivability, if you find it to be useful take it instead of Flash as it could be used to escape as well as engage.

Heal

Why it could be chosen If your carry is super super squishy(like Teemo) you will need all the heal you can get, in normal situations Imbue will cover it, so I left it behind. If you want Heal replace Clarity and be careful with your mana consumption

Exhaust

Why it could be chosen If your carry has limited mobility, this will allow them to catch up with an enemy and kill them, this would only be used when Dazzle is on cooldown, as your stun is far more effective. If you want Exhaust replace Clarity and be cautious with mana consumption

Spells to Avoid:

Ignite

Why it wasn't chosen Once again, another damaging item, as you want your carry to pick up the kills, this would just interfere too much.

Revive

Why it wasn't chosen If you are playing this Taric well, you wont be spending much time dead, so this is essentially wasting one of your spells

Clairvoyance

Why it wasn't chosen You will be buying wards throughout the entire game, the 4 seconds of sight this ability brings is insignificant. If you strongly desire a quick sight, invest in your ADC's vision ability (if present), such as Ashe's Hawkshot or Kog'Maw's Living Artillery

Smite

Why it wasn't chosen You wont be jungling at all, unless you are helping take dragon or baron nashor . Simply leave this ability to the jungler

Teleport

Why it wasn't chosen There was a long though about whether or not to include Teleport in the posibility section. I decided against it as the delay that comes with it, will not allow you to quickly save an ally in harm, and it wont help you get around the map, as you will rarely leave your lane except to get items or after defeating an enemy. I trialed Teleport in a few games, and it was only a waste of a spell.

Laning phase
In the laning phase you will be generally be hiding in a bush in the lane, this protects you from a few enemy skills as they do not have sight, you will hide while enemies are in sight otherwise follow the rules for your passive outlined in the skills section

Team fight phase
In a fight you will have two main skills combos
The first of these maximises your damage output of yourself and your allies, this combo is simple;use radiance and then shatter, this reduces the enemies armor and and increases your allies damage output
The second combo when a weakened enemy is focusing you can turn a fight around, cast Imbue on yourself and use Dazzle on them, this will turn a fight around and force the enemy to take hits from you and your allies

Escape/pursuing
Not many people understand the chasing power of Taric, this power revolves around his stun, he can run ahead of the enemy preemptively that will be escaping and stun them when they are trying to escape. You can also use flash to catch an escaping enemy, this closes a lot of space to catch the enemy quickly with a stun
A stun can let you escape from an enemy that is pursuing you also

Turret diving
Quite a simple tactic for this, just attack a turret when you have an ally that can help take it down, or attack it yourself if it is weak, as soon as your heal is up, use it on yourself

The main aspect for using my Taric in a team fight is to always be around your teammates,you are useless alone but unstoppable together, this will allow your team to make the most use out of his skills and items aura's.

In a teamfight situation that is tilted towards your teams direction you are the initiator, use a ping or other form of communication to let your team know you are starting the teamfight, when you initiate a teamfight you will most likely soak up a lot of damage, but its better to be you than your teams carrys.

In a teamfight situation that is tilted towards the enemy team, stay with your team, when the enemy initaites stun the priority target with Dazzle, from here just use the standard skill sequences highlighted in the chapter above

Other than teamfights your role in supporting the team strongly revolves around warding throughout the whole game. Here is a set of locations you should ward and when they should be warded. You will start warding with sight ward's then will use the charges from Ruby Sightstone when it states so in the build guide
1: This is your primary warding position, placing a ward here allows you and your carry to react to a gank far easier than a bush planted ward.Keep one of these up at all times until teamfights start
2: Place a ward here if either the enemy hides in the bush a lot, or your carry relies on selection based skills
3: You will start warding baron nashor as soon as teamfights start to break out, this must be kept warded as it can be the factor towards winning and losing a game
4: The dragon provides your team with global gold, this is not compulsory to ward but it is reccomended
5,6 and 7: Ward these when your team is about to take baron nashor , this allows the team to calculate if the enemy is about to steal baron nashor , and gives time to confront them or finish of baron

Starting Items
Boots of Speed: to allow for more mobility, simple
sight wardSight ward: A must have for a support, use this at about three minutes in as thats when ganking tends to start. You will be buying wards all game until you have no more item slots. Keep your ward count in mind before buying your next build item. Warding is explained in more detail in the supporting the team section
Health potion good for lasting a bit longer while you haven't built much items, or levelled Imbue

Early Game Items
Ninja Tabi: this is my choice of shoes as you will be taking the majority of your damage from auto-attacks coming from the enemy ADC in the laning phase. These boots quite simply keep you alive for longer from the Carry's attacks. You will keep these boots for the rest of the game
Ruby Crystal: Your first health item, can be later used to build into Leviathan or Warmog's Armor
Rejuvenation Bead: This allows you to last longer in lane, and helps build up towards Warmog's Armor
Giant's Belt :the next item before your Warmog's Armor
Warmog's Armor: This item is essential for tanking turrets, it provides you with a massive health pool that is used throughout the entire match and is the key health item of your build. It causes you to be very hard to take down paired with your resistance items and your armor from Shatter. You will keep this item for the rest of the game

Boot Enchantments
Decide your current situation in the game at this point, if you are curently winning enchant your boots with Enchantment: Captain otherwise ehchant them with Enchantment: Homeguard
Enchantment: Captain: This allows your teammates to escape from enemies easier and allows you to push more, perfect for keeping the scales tilted in your direction
Enchantment: Homeguard: This enchantment is useful in a losing situation as it allows you to get quickly back into the fight after a recall, causing your team to have more team members in fights, slightly evening the scales

Mid Game Items
Ruby Sightstone: This will replace your purchasing of sight ward's. Look in the section; Supporting the team, to use them. You will keep this untill you start to build your last endgame item.
Chain Vest: used to build Thornmail, good for a bit of extra armor while building up
Thornmail:This is your key armor item, while providing a large amount of natural armor (you will get this item at around level 13-15, by then you will have 280 armor paired with Shatter) it also gives you the ability to defeat unaware ADC carries, as they will end up taking more damage than you on thier own attacks.This pairs well with Warmog's Armor. Keep it for the rest of the game, as it is your key armor item.
Negatron Cloak: your first magic resist item, you will get this at around the time team fights start, if that happens early I would reccomend picking this item early, especially if the enemy team is ap heavy
Banshee's Veil:This is your key magic resist item, at this point you will be very resistant to most forms of damage, other than the magic resist it gives you a spell shield which is useful on taric, and a large health and mana boost. This mana boost makes Clarity unnessesary for your own personal use, at this point use it when there's a teammate near with low mana.
Mercury's Treads (OPTIONAL): since team fights will be starting now you must decide whether or not the enemy team is AP or AD based, if it is AD based keep your Ninja Tabi and ignore this, if it is AP based ditch your shoes and get Mercury's Treads. If you get Mercury's Treads reassess the games situation like in the boot enchantment section and make the same decision for enchanting these boots

At this point you will be resistant to most forms of damage, you will now need to consider counter picking so that you will become a more useful for the team (note the sets are in two's so that you can pick your enemy team and choose the items to match them)

My preferences/all rounder items
Randuin's Omen: if you look in the sets below, Randuin's Omen is used in a few, this is because it provides a strong amount of armor, as well as an amazing slowing ability
Runic Bulwark: Provides you and your team increased sustainability, this therefore enhances your role as a tank and a support


Squishy enemy team
Sunfire Cape: Just follow the enemies, you can deal a hefty amount of damage as long as you are able to keep up, in a team fight it will cause a deceptive amount of damage to the enemies without knowing it
Runic Bulwark: With great squishiness comes great strength, this will help protect your team from powerful enemies attacks of all types


Physical damage enemy team
Frozen Heart: while this provides an armour bonus, it slows the anemies attack speed in a radius, causing a sizeable chunk of the enemys damage to be nullified
Randuin's Omen:A chance to slow the enemy is vital for escaping or catching an enemy AD team, as they rely on positioning between teams in order to deal most damage


Ability power enemy team
Abyssal Scepter: Provides magic resist for yourself and reduces the enemies magic resist, your team can take advantage of this, along with yourself with a small AP boost
Runic Bulwark: Since most of the ememys damage will be dealt by spells, the magic resist and health is essential for an AP team, and your whole team will benefit from it


Fast enemy Team
Frozen Mallet: Your first slow, good for chasing one enemy
Randuin's Omen:Your second slowing effect, good for chasing multiple enemies


Slow allied team
Shurelya's Reverie: To boost your ally's speed, simple
Frozen Mallet: To reduce the enemies speed, also simple


Need to push
Ohmwrecker: Quite simply disables a turret, what more can you want when pusing
Warmog's Armor: The Increases health boost is important for tanking a turret and the passive of your other Warmog's Armor works with the health boost on this item

There is no FAQ so far, ill post legitimate questions and their answers here, when they have been asked in the comments

Here are a few games I've played and the scores etc, if you have some scores you have gotten from this build, feel free to pm me and I'll post them on this page under your name

-8th of December 2012: Posted Build