Hello ladies and gentlemen, EmoN here, bringing you the champion who I always declined to play because of the way he looked at me in his splash art: Taric, the Gem Knight. He was ment as a support champion, but I like to utilize the way his passive and his heal work, so I build him as a DPS-carry with a splash of support... Yeah, you read that right. DPS-CARRY.

So Imma go over his abilities, just to show you how much his abilities synch with a DPS-style build:


Your heal, and the reason Taric was a support champion to begin with. As it states, it heals a single target for an aight-amount. But the fun is that its cooldown is reduced by 1 second on each melee hit on a non-champ unit, and 3 seconds on a champion melee hit! With enough atk spd, you can spam heals like a mad-man. It's amazing, and it works.


This is the ability that I, after reading a good guide, have decided to level-up first and foremost. You passively gain armor (up to 30), and gain the same thing as an aura, so you gain 60 armor @ Lv.5! Your teammates gain 30 armor, but hey, who's complaining? Secondly, you can activate it, to deactivate the passive part (so the aura remains), to deal magic damage to surrounding units, and lower their armor by a set amount for 4 seconds. This is why I level this first, I realized. The stun is OK, but 30 Armor Pen. once you hit Lv.9 is rediculous. Even Olaf can't match that.


You stun a single target for 1,5 seconds, and deal stupid damage to the. Stupid, because you have to be making out with them in order to deal decent damage. Its only use is the stun. The damage is not why you take it... at all.


You deal instant magic damage to all surrounding units, and gain an aura-set-thingamine like your Shatter-ability. You gain a nice amount of AP and AD, and give half that amount to surrounding allies. Looks good eh? I'd say so too. It's also a great ability, since it increases your AD by up to 70, and it only has a 60-second cooldown. You use it, and the next time you get into a fight, it's back up (even sooner with my build, but hey...).


The first and foremost reason I like DPS Taric (yeah, the bot does so too, shut up). You take a small amount of your melee damage back as mana. I've come to realize that you get about 6-9 mana back each hit. Imagine what you can do with some more Armor Pen. and AD! From what I've seen, it goes up to about 14-18 mana per hit... I'm just sayin'...

As I've stated before, your stun is not there for the damage (at least, not in this build). It's there as a means to an end, with the end being theirs. You walk up to them, stun them, Shatter their Armor, and then start pounding. With a Trinity Force, this will deal about 600-ish damage in a single go (including the Sheen-procs). Now if you, like I do, go bot with a support (TARIC WITH TEH SUPPORT? Y U DO DAT?!), you'll be amazed about how much damage you can do. I've played quite a few games on bot with a Sona-Taric combo, and it happened more often than not that WE picked up FB, not the carries in other lanes. It works. Trust me. So what you do after Lv.6, is you Dazzle them, using it as you walk up to them. Shatter them in the face to get the extreme damage going (or do it the other way around to make some true magic happen), and then pop your ult. I like my ult more for the damage it deals initially, than I like it for the aura. It's cool and all, but not that useful. Slamming the ground with a hammer might just hint the enemy that you're going to take 'em on, which is not the idea with a gank... or is it?

On Taric, I'm still deciding whether to take Magic Pen. or Armor Pen. Reds and Quints. In this guide, I've chosen for the latter, which would make sense, but all is possible, and I'm still thinking. If you've got a better idea than either of the above, tell me. Flat Armor Yellows and Flat MR Blues make up for our runes.

For Masteries, I go 21/6/3. That too you have read correctly. 15% Magic Pen., Armor Pen, Attack Speed, Attack Damage, it's all good. I'll take it all. You might have more use in Utility, but I like it with a lot of offensive stuff. Increased Armor and MR in Defense, and Reduced Death Timer in Utility make up for Masteries.

For Summoner Spells, there's a few really nice options. In my games, I always take Exhaust Flash. Exhaust to keep up or escape, and Flash for the latter. I have become more and more dependant of my support's Clarity though, which kinda pisses me off a bit. It's good on a support, but not on a hardcore carrying DPS Taric man! JK, it might be good, I just don't see how it would fit better then Exhaust. Same goes for Ignite and things like Fortify and Heal or Cleanse.

I like to take a Dagger as my first item. Why? Because you'll want to assess your lane, that's why. Playing passively with a Doran's Ring or a Meki Pendant isn't going to do your duo-bot lane any good. Now what you'll want to do, is rush your Berserker's Greaves and Stinger. These items will absolutely make your lane work. The 65% bonus attack speed should have you outbash your AD carries, unless they're rushing Phantom Dancers. Now after you pick up either Dragon, Blue and a ****load of minions OR a few very nice kills, you'll want to go b and upgrade to a Nashor's Tooth. I'm not kidding. I've found recently that a NT works on a lot of champions, including Taric, TF, Sion and Sona (Yeah, Sona).

After this, you'll want to get your Triforce, taking Sheen over Zeal over Phage. Pretty simple. The Sheen really amplifies your damage output, the Zeal provides more and more attack speed, as well as the occasional funny crit you'll use to scare off Miss Fortune camping in a brush. The Phage... just don't take it, it's not that good on Taric. The way you'll be building him now, makes it so that he has a stun every 6 seconds (after one wears off). In the meantime, you've taken down at least 20% of their health, which should have them thinking: I'm not gonna f*ck with this Taric, no way.

Finish the Triforce plz... thank you. Now to get even more rediculous: on being fed, get a B.F. Sword. Yeah... It increases the amounts of mana you regen with each hit, and it also works towards one of the most overpowered items in the game: Black Cleaver. The reason I take this, is because you'll want to be able to melt champions like Miss Fortunes or Caitlyns do. Now it won't be as fast, since you're up close, and you're not MENT to be a DPS-champ, but this will most certainly work. Just think it over. 3 melee hits procs the Cleaver to the max (= 45 Armor Pen.). 25 From Runes, and on Shattering, another 30. This adds up to, yes, good maths, 100 Armor. Completely oblitherated! That's why I love this item, so get it if you can. It's good for you.

Now any champion becomes a squishy SoaB if you don't get some defensive stats too. Now with Shatter, you get a bonus 60 Armor, which gives you a grand total of 140 Armor without items. Your MR, on the other hand, stays behind a little. It's static. So, to make ourselves a bit more bulky (if we at all get this far in the game), we're going to want to pick up both a Chain Vest and a Negatron Cloak. I do so in most of my guides, but that's because they're good items and they increase your survivability bu quite the amount, believe me. Now I don't think this will make you an immortal. But upgrading your Vest to a Guardian Angel and your Cloak to a Force of Nature should get you somewhat in the same direction, I believe. The second chance-mechanism gets you close enough to immortality, and the increased MR on both is a bliss.

Feel free to tell me some other items I've 'clearly' missed, but remember this is a DPS TARIC we're talking about.

As I've stated before, I like to assess my lane. Taking Shatter At Lv.1 makes sure me and my support stay a bit more safe than usual (Soraka hardly has any Armor what-so-ever). Taking Dazzle at Lv.2... that's where the fun begins. Sona has rediculous harass early game with her Power Chord, and I like to utilize it as much as possible. So I walk up to someone, stun them, and Shatter their Armor. That's where Sona kicks in. She'll use her Hymn of Valor and deal a small amount of damage (Lv.2, come on...), but her Power Chord deals a hefty chunk, you won't believe it! Doing thise twice of thrice should net you one or two kills, which is just about enough to keep farming properly and be able to go b and get your reasonable items.

In mid game, you're the pushing support. I know I've defined Taric as a DPS Carry, but his support-side should not be ignored. Ult + 75% Atk Spd = good push. 50 Bonus AD ain't nothing. This is what you'll do mostly. Dazzle to Shatter, and an utli here and there. That's all.

The same goes for late-game. However, you're now more able to take damage than others, so feel free to do so. Your damage output should be enough to keep you alive throughout a fight, and it should be enough to also net you a kill or 12, 13. I'm not kidding here. I've had Graves' and Akalis running away from me because of the damage I dealt. It's not something to take lightly.

As much as I hated Taric for being a wuss with pink legwarmers in Pro-play, I've even picked up Bloodstone Taric just yesterday. He's a great champ, and I can hardly remember any champion who has brought me more fun than Taric. For 1350, he's a bargain. Pick him up if you like a challenging change.

EmoN signing off.