WOO HOO! number 3 taric build I feel so proud right now

update added a section about randuins post nerf important to read

ALL CREDIT FOR THIS DESIGN AND STRATEGY OF THIS BUILD GOES TO MGA159 I wrote this for him because he is a terrible typist =P and it would have taken him too long to do it himself

Both of us are co-founders of the perfectly average clan [PAC] we are a fairly small group and we mostly just are there to group up to play normal 5v5's i also run a stream on own3d.tv/urmamasllama

update 9/21/11
people have been mentioning GA and i must agree it is a better choice

update 9/30/11
now that the zero CS meta is dying out this build is starting to lose its relevance im considering archiving it for posterity and to the people downvoting the guide this was never intended for high elo play or ranked for that matter its a low a mid elo pubstomp build and should be treated as such its also a decent introductory into some of the basics of how to play a zero CS support

Keep in mind this is not a "pro" its a build designed for the "average" player

the guy who made along with me play regularly in a five man premade and generally he would go 0/2/30 or something around he couldn't do conventional build because they were all too expensive when you only get assists and he couldn't get much farm because everyone else plays epic farmers usually and then he had this idea as a joke for triple stack kayle but then had an idea to put it on taric... cheched the numbers and figured it just might work.

one of his other big problems is that he couldn't get anyones attention away from the carries for him to tank properly so he figured three stack items would make him look like a 40 foot neon flashing sign and so far it has worked better than anyone ever thought it should

and to go with this here is SS proofand here is a video of this build in action recorded with lol replay(unknown embed type)yes the quality is poor I was lacking in bandwidth at the time

Well Taric is generally a support/ off tank and he need ap health and ad to really work effectively these three stack items give him all three in mass quantities and for cheap the amount of mana returned from your passive with aa will be beautiful especially when ulting given the extra ad from it meaning you will hit like a truck and have to be focused harder than swain to be taken out (tanky dps? lol nope) the mejais gives you a ton of ap for cheap meaning your heals heal more you ult heals more and your stun is a kick in the back of the head.

But llama how can a bravery build (triple stack) possibly work in a real-world situation?
this is where i come into a lot of speculation because frankly i think this build is actually a disgusting abomination that should not work ever however as far as i can tell here is why it still does work

1. three stack items. what this means is yes you should be killed by the enemy at every given opportunity however if you get away with it you snowball three time faster because every kill is 6 stacks instead of just 2

2. taric is incredibly durable especially when ulting
meaning he can survive a bit of focus while his team is getting buffed and beating enemy faces in and he is getting more assists making him that much harder to kill

3. he is part tank he wants to draw attention away from his squishies so they can do their thing and you get more assists! more power!

4. once fully stacked you are unstoppable tank that hits like a truck and makes soraka jealous

5. I know everyone is going to notice the lack of mana. well that is what SotO is for all that ad translates into massive mana regen with every attack

is pretty much your go-to marks for any mage not much to say on this

once again pretty much your go-to seal for any mana hungry mage

or depending on if you want more punch to your spells or if you want to cast more often

I know this sounds a little weird but you will probably find that this build is a bit strapped for cash and this helps greatly to make up for that

start off with your stun and try and lane with your ad carry. you want to try to go for first blood you will need the assist gold. also remember to use your exhaust when your carry gets in attack range not when the enemy is running so that their resistances will be lowered insuring the kill. also don't be afraid to get in some hits yourself, you do have a high base attack damage. if the enemy has really good lane dominance you want to use your stun to keep you and your carry in lane and prevent heavy harassment.

next take your heal in order to keep your carry alive and in the fight. you will also need to get in creep hits whenever it is safe not just for last hitting because you will need the mana and cd on your heal. remember this though IT IS MUCH MORE EFFICIENT TO HEAL YOU AND YOUR LANE MATE THAN JUST YOURSELF.

always try to coordinate your attacks with your lane-mate whenever possible but try and let them get the kill because your build is very cheap and after all you are a support.

try and stay in lane until you have enough to buy your mejais and health crystal in one go

at level four grab your aura so you can get some defense against ad people and for more harass

at level six pop your ult so that your carry will be putting out more damage.

ok laning is done time for team-fights
when you go in you want to use shatter on as many of your enemies as possible to get you an assist counter on them becuase sadly your ult's ad boost doesn't. after this put your exhaust on their carry to shut them down in the fight. and since any smart person will focus you down since your are stacking after you are dead any kills your allies get will give you an assist from beyond the grave and are therefore not counted in to the reduction upon death. and if you don't die the even more stacks!!!

remember this however if you have less then 7 stacks it is worth a kill or 2 assists to die but beyond this you want to try and live. when in the fight you will want to kite a bit if you are getting hard focused you want to soak up as much as you can but of course you don't want to die. you should remember to get in as much AA as you can since this is where all your mana comes from. while you are at it look for low health enemies trying to leave the fight and hit them with your stun.

now that its been unnerfed if you are facing heavy deeps this is the item for you
walk into the enemy team turn on your active and watch as the enemy is shut down

generally any AD carry will work well with taric but here are some tested effective examples

Xin Zhao: his dash ensures that he can get the full effect out of your stun combined with his knockup for some good chain cc

Lee Sin: once again good dash for getting the full effect of your stun combined with tempest/cripple for for a ridiculously long and underrated cc chain 5 second 60% slow to move and AS is brutal
and lee sin has a very powerful finisher in his q

Swain: you would think that since he is AP this wouldnt work well but they have good chain cc together and taric's ult combined with swains E can put out a lot of damage from AA

Master Yi: his high move speed and his q can put him where he wants to be and his wuju makes his output straight up rediculous end gets you a super easy FB