Hello readers, I am known in game as CowTraps and I tend to play any and all roles as needed by the team. In this guide specifically I am going over the role support using the champion Taric. This is my first guide for League of Legends, and I am hoping for a lot of feedback so I can improve the guide and make better guides down the road.

PROS
+ Great Tank
+ Ranged Stun
+ Strong Heal
+ Great Auras
+ High damage for a support


CONS
- High Mana Cost
- Long c/ds
- Predictable CC

Must Haves:

Flash-Great escape/gap closer. A flash into a stun from a running enemy can lead to your team having a huge advantage to the other team in a fight. Likewise a game changing escape can be made by the use of flash over walls or just in the other direction of the enemy team.
Exhaust- Great slow and what I pick 95% of the time in addition to flash. This has saved me several times when getting tower dived to circle around the tower with the slow up to secure my safety and net our team a kill in the process. In addition this spell will make it so the opposing teams adc can not escape in fights and make it easier for my own to kill that player. Overall its a great spell to have on the team.

Other viable options:

Ghost- great to catch up or run from the enemy team during fights. In can also be good to push through the enemy team to get to their adc to apply your stun to prevent their damage output and make it easier for your team to kill that player. Overall ghost has its uses but I feel that flash and exhaust are better spells to use throughout the game.
Ignite- Great to secure a kill during laning phase and to reduce any healing effects on the champion during the duration. I would only ever pick this is my adc already had exhaust and even then I would still prefer exhaust/flash. Ignite has the potential to take a kill from adc and in turn means they have less gold to buy items.

All other spells:

All of the other summoner spells I feel aren't worth mentioning due to the fact that everything that I have already talked about I feel are way more useful throughout the game.

My rune choices are the same for almost all games
Quintessence I go armor. Though this can be changed based on personal preference. Other ideas being speed for more movement. You could also go gold quints to get more income throughout the game to get your items faster.

Seals I go armor. This is to allow for more damage mitigation in lane from adc harass and their supports harass.

For my Marks I also go for more armor. Same idea as the Seals. You can change out the armor marks for more hybrid penetration marks to allow for more damage. Once again more personal preference and team matchup.

For my glyphs I get magic resistance.

Overall my rune choice similar to my item choice is based on what I'm up against. As a tank I am their to take all the damage, but at the same time do my best to mitigate it. I Feel this rune choice best fits that role.

The majority of my mastery picks are in the defensive tree to once again maximize my damage mitigation potential. I have yet to fully test out all there is with the new mastery pages we have as of patch 3.15, so this is a work in progress. I would highly recommend moving points around as you see fit and to test out options I may have not tried.

Taric as a champion has a great kit to allow for sustain, cc, and high damage in a fight.


Gemcraft: Taric's passive that is pretty self explanatory. When you use a spell you will do deal magic damage on your next basic attack based off your armor. In addition you will lower you c/ds which is always beneficial. This passive is useful because as you are building tanky (typically meaning having a lot of armor) you will deal more damage. Not the best passive, but allows Taric to deal some extra damage and get his spells off c/d faster.


Imbune: This is a great heal that can save people in many situations. Even better it heals for even more when used on yourself. In addition when used on someone else it will also heal yourself. Great early game to stay in lane longer and also very useful in team fights on a team member who is getting targeted.


Shatter: Shatter has several uses and overall is a great spell.

Passive: As a passive it will give yourself and players around you additional armor.

Active: When this spell is activated in then will additionally do aoe damage around you and lower enemy champions armor within the radius
of the aoe. Overall a great spell for team fights and good for wave clear mid to late when you may need to clear a lane. The only downside is when activated it lowers your own armor for a short period of time.


Dazzle: This is pretty self explanatory. It is a stun that is target-able. Great during laning phase to secure a kill and great during team fights to prevent abilities like Fiddlestick's crow storm or Shen's ult. The downside to this spell is its semi short range makes it easy to tell when Taric is going in to stun. Especially obvious during the laning phase.


Radiance: Overall a great ult. Similar to his shatter it deals aoe damage when activated. The difference here is that instead of an armor debuff to the enemy team, it gives an AP and AD buff to team members near you. This is great for team fights and has a relatively short c/d as far as ultimates go.


Order of skills:
Radiance>Shatter>Imbune>Dazzle.

I typically take Shatter first to have early armor mitigation for myself and anyone around me for level one leashes and for laning phase. You can instead go for Imbune first to go for a level 1 gank using your stun and exhaust to secure a kill with your adcs help. This requires more communication and is a lot riskier.

With the new pre season we have seen a lot of changes in the warding system and support items as a whole.

Start:
typically I will start with an Ancient Coin for the mana/health regen and additional gold income. With this purchase I also get 3 Health potions for sustain in lane. In addition I take the free warding totem to be able to add vision to my lane to prevent ganks.

First Back:
I almost always try and back with 1000+ gold to allow myself to buy a Wardens Mail. I find this to be a great purchase because it will drastically lower the opponents adcs harass to me, but will also increase my damage due to my passive. This combination allows me to harass their adc while taking little to no damage at the same time.
If I am forced to back without 1000 gold I will typically upgrade my ancient coin to allow for more gold income and pick up a cloth armor. This will allow for more damage mitigation and let me gain extra gold over time to afford more items on my next back.

Second Back:
My second back will be based on how my lane is doing and what kind of champions my other team is using. If it seems to be a heavy AD team I will pick up ninja tabi's and if they are heavy AP I will get merc treads.

Mid/Late Game Staples:
I will typically always get a Randumen's Omen and a Spirit Visage no matter what the other team has in the way of champions. The Omen is great for mitigating their adcs damage and to give myself an aoe slow to prevent my targets form escaping. The visage is great for the MR and the passive bonus to my heal.

Full Build:
My full build will always at this point be solely based on what the other team has in the way of type of damage. As the tank I want to prioritize taking the damage, but at the same time making it so that that damage has little to no effect on me.

Sightstones:
Sightstones are a great tool to add vision to the map. I have found with the new trinkets buying a sightstone isn't as important early game due to the fact you and your laning partner at all times should have at least one ward because of your trinket. I find it more viable to save gold that would be spent on a sightstone/wards to instead be spent on more mitigation based items that will give you more MR/Armor.
This is my take as Taric support though. You can still just as easily buy a sightstone to apply more wards throughout the map to aide your team.

Final Thoughts:
There is no correct way to build items on a tank. You will need to see what works best for you and your team in each situation you are in. Some may find it hard to pick between two items, but as you play you will develop patterns for certain situations you find yourself in to be the best tank you can be.

This concludes my guide for Taric the Tanky Support. Just wanted to mention that my play style may not be for everyone and with that being said this guide will in turn not be for everyone. I open to new ideas and any changes that you feel should be made to my guide. I hope you enjoyed it and that some people may have found it useful.