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Taric Build Guide by YslayerZ

Support That Glimmer of Hope - Taric Support Guide [S6 Rework]

Support That Glimmer of Hope - Taric Support Guide [S6 Rework]

Updated on May 19, 2016
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League of Legends Build Guide Author YslayerZ Build Guide By YslayerZ 34 1 781,748 Views 48 Comments
34 1 781,748 Views 48 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author YslayerZ Taric Build Guide By YslayerZ Updated on May 19, 2016
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Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Exhaust

Exhaust

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None













Hey guys! Welcome to my guide on Taric support! My name is YslayerZ and I've been a support main since the end of Season 3. I play almost every support that's out there right now, and I just love the role in general because of the utility and overall playmaking ability that the role brings to the table.

This guide will go over the ins and outs of the newly reworked Taric as well as provide some information regarding his match ups, strengths, and weaknesses. I will try my best to address the vital points of playing the champion correctly, and if you think that the guide has helped you at all, I would really appreciate it if you left me an upvote as I've put a lot of time into making it!

So buckle up and get ready to learn, because as I promised, this is a very in-depth guide.














Good question!



Before his rework, Taric was a tanky support that was good almost exclusively for his single target stun, which allowed him to catch one member of the enemy's back line. Although he could be quite bursty at times and had a heal (that was also single target) which offered him and his allies some sustain, the fact is, he was simply outclassed by many of the other supports that were able to do his job just as well, if not better.

However, after his rework, Taric has undoubtedly become one of the best supports in the entire game. His kit grants him a very strong laning phase, and the utility that his abilities offer make him a very substantial force to reckon with during team fights. Not only can he now position himself to heal his entire team, but he can also grant EVERYBODY on his team invulnerability. That's like dropping a kindred ult, except without the repercussion of making the enemy team invulnerable as well!

Additionally, his ability to bind his abilities to an ally makes him exceptionally good at handling both the frontline and the backline of enemy teams. Because he can choose to bind to anybody on his team, he can pick one of his own frontliners to bind his abilities to. In doing so, he can stay and peel for his backline carries while simultaneously offering his stun and heal for the frontliner he chose.

Overall, Taric is an insanely good pick to complement almost every team, and in the hands of a good player, he can carry any game to victory.










Strong Laning Phase
Taric's laning phase is excellent because his kit allows him to play very aggressively and not be punished too hard for it. The cooldown on his stun is not terribly long, and he can go in for trades, shield himself and his ally up, then back off and heal back the damage that was done. When he hits level 6 and gets his ultimate, he can hard engage and grab his ADC an easy double kill.


Great Peel
Taric's kit allows for incredible flexibility in peeling for his carries due to the fact that he can bind himself to his allies. Once bound, even if Taric is not directly next to his teammate, he can continue to use his heal for his ally and his stun on enemies that get too close.


AoE Heal
Taric heals in a circle, and anybody standing inside that circle receives the heal. Plus, if he is bound to an ally, the area of the heal increases (to easier heal everybody on the team) and the person he is bound to is also guaranteed the heal.


Ability to Stun Multiple Targets
Taric's stun from his ability Dazzle, which activates in a line after a brief delay, has the ability to hit more than one target. With correct positioning, it is possible for Taric to stun the entire enemy team during teamfights! This can happen multiple times in a single teamfight when playing Taric correctly.


Brings Powerful Utility to Teamfights
The amount of utility that Taric brings to teamfights is absolutely insane. When positioned correctly, Taric can constantly provide shields, heals, and bonus armor to his team. Furthermore, his stun can be used both offensively and defensively and is quite easy to hit when the enemy is grouped up. Then there's his ultimate, which can make Taric's entire team invulnerable for an entire 2.5 seconds at all ranks.


Super Tanky And Difficult To Kill
Taric is a very tanky champion, and at full build he is able to walk up to enemy AD champions and slap them in the face without being afraid to do so. Even better, whenever Taric binds to an ally using Bastion, he both GAINS and gives them up to an extra TWENTY PERCENT of his bonus armor. Because of this, at max rank Bastion, Taric will always have 20% more armor than he buys. Talk about beefy!


Is Outrageous
Truly, truly, TRULY, outrageous.



Easily Poked
Like most melee/all-in supports, Taric is vulnerable to getting poked down during laning phase. Some champions in particular can really ruin your day if they know how to take advantage of this.


Low Mobility
Taric lacks mobility with his kit, so there are times when you can be in a lot of trouble when caught out of position.


Struggles Against Burst
Taric's beefy kit is best built for sustained fights. His ultimate, Cosmic Radiance, can be bypassed altogether by enemy champions that can 100 to 0 you or your allies before the ability can finish activating.


Can Be Countered By AP
Because Taric is built to scale with armor, he can struggle against teams with large amounts of AP. In most cases, you will need to change your build away from his most important core items in order to win these games.









As a support with the potential to play very aggressively, Taric excels when he is paired with an ADC that can initiate trades or follow his engages up well. Although Taric can perform well with most ADCs, I've compiled a short list of champions that let Taric be played to his full potential.





Jhin
Jhin is an ADC who has a kit that works very well with Taric's own. The slow that Jhin's Captive Audience creates makes it easy for Taric to follow up with a stun, and Jhin can use his Deadly Flourish to chain his CC with your stuns. Additionally, Taric's kit works very well with Jhin's ultimate ability, Curtain Call, as Taric can stun his enemies for easier hits while at the same time stopping enemies from interrupting the ability. In lane, Taric and Jhin can make for a very scary combination.


Kalista
When you think of compositions that are built around hard engages, Kalista is one of the ADCs that often comes to mind. Her ultimate, Fate's Call, is an insane initiation tool that can drop Taric right in the middle of the enemy team where he does best. The knockup time of Fate's Call, even at its lowest rank, gives plenty of time for Taric to charge up his stun and fire it on the enemies he just knocked up. If you are adept at landing the skillshot required for Kalista's ultimate, you can easily turn the tides of any teamfight.


Ashe
Like Jhin, Ashe possesses a kit that really works well with Taric's playstyle. Many of her abilities, such as Frost Shot and Volley provide a slow that Taric can take advantage of to walk up and trade. Her ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, is great for initiation, and you can chain your cc together with hers to create situations that make it difficult for enemies to escape.


Graves
Graves is an ADC that has quite a low auto attack range, so when Graves does find himself trading, he is usually somewhat in range for you to land your paired stun on the enemy carry or support. Furthermore, Graves is an ADC that can be built slightly tankier than most other ADCs, which makes for better sustained trading (which, as I mentioned before, is something that Taric really excels at). The extra tankiness that Graves can build can be very helpful to the activation time of Taric's Cosmic Radiance, giving him the extra survivability that he might need against burstier champions.


Ezreal
Taric and Ezreal have outrageous chemistry together. No further explanation needed.











In this section, I'll be outlining the summoner spells, runes, and masteries that I think are most viable to Taric's playstyle and kit. There are a few different options that you can choose to go depending on your playstyle, and I'll do my best to outline the viability of different options.








Flash is the first summoner spell that I've chosen to play on Taric, and it's one of the spells that honestly is not viably replaced by anything else. Because Taric lacks mobility, flash can be your only form of escape when you're caught in a bad situation. On the contrary, it can be used aggressively with your Dazzle to catch your enemies by surprise. You should always make sure to take flash when playing Taric.

Flash


Exhaust is one of the two other summoner spells that you can choose to play on Taric. If you know that your ADC knows how to trade effectively, exhaust is usually the better option to take versus ignite. Additionally, the movement speed reduction that it places on your targeted enemy makes it easier for you to land your stun. In my experience, exhaust typically proves to be a more reliable summoner spell than ignite, especially when you move over to the teamfighting phase in the later part of the game.

If you see that the enemy team has locked in a high burst assassin such as Zed, Talon, or Fizz, you will almost ALWAYS want to take this spell for the 40% damage reduction to keep your squishy ADC from getting 100 to 0'd.

Exhaust



Ignite is the other option that you can choose to take on Taric. You can choose to take ignite if you find yourself in a matchup where you believe that you can win your lane easily. In these cases, you can choose to take ignite over exhaust to try to snowball your ADC to the late game.

Additionally, ignite is a spell that you may want to consider if the enemy team has champions that specialize in healing, such as Soraka, or have healing ingrained in their passive, such as Dr. Mundo or Volibear. The grievous wounds that ignite inflicts can be invaluable to winning trades or teamfights

Ignite





Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Dark Harvest
Phase Rush



Armor Marks
Armor marks are, for the most part, essential to a Taric, who we are building to fill the role of a tanky fighter. Armor is especially needed on Taric to boost the bonus armor given to him and his allies from his passive Bastion. I would recommend always getting 9 marks of armor.



Health Seals
Again, pretty standard runes to take for the tanky support role that we are looking to fill. If you feel like it's necessary, you can opt to add in a few Greater Seal of Armors if you find yourself against a heavy AD matchup.



MR Glyphs
The magic resist that you get from these runes come in handy against the AP of enemy teams or AP-oriented poke supports that you might find yourself against in lane. I also threw in three Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resists in order to make for a stronger late game, but it's a personal preference that I usually take for most of the supports that I play.



Armor Quints
For the same reasons explained in the marks section, the Greater Quintessence of Armors are pretty essential to Taric support. I would not recommend switching these out for anything unless you find yourself against a very AP-oriented enemy composition, in which case it may be appropriate to sub in a few Greater Quintessence of Healths.









This is a picture of the mastery tree that I personally run with Taric. This mastery tree is built for a more aggressive playstyle, and the 0/12/18 setup for Bond of Stone helps you absorb more damage while doing so. I've outlined the reasoning for each mastery choice below with my opinion on each and if there are any suitable replacements for any of the ones that I've chosen.






or
Rank 1: Max Wanderer over Savagery because Taric is a support with good roam potential. You'll constantly want to be looking for opportunities to gank other lanes, and this mastery really helps with that.

Rank 2: Put a point into Secret Stash because the other two options are useless to your role. You will almost always be with an ally, so Assassin is off the table, and Runic Affinity serves you no purpose because you will almost never be getting any jungle buffs (save baron).

or
Rank 3: Putting a point in Meditation helps you sustain better during laning phase because you'll be able to heal and shield yourself and your ADC more often.

or
Rank 4: Bandit is a great mastery for Taric because it helps you get to your core items faster. You'll want to be trading whenever you can, and the extra gold that you get from this mastery never hurts. As an alternative, you can choose Dangerous Game if you find yourself tower diving a lot, in which case the 5% extra health might really come in handy.





Rank 1: You'll want to max Unyielding over Recovery just for the extra tankiness in lane and for the late game. I find that your heal from Starlight's Touch helps you sustain in lane, enough so that Recovery is not as necessary as it might be on other supports.
or

Rank 2: Put a point into Explorer for the same reasons that I outlined when explaining Wanderer . While Tough Skin might help you trade better in the early game, the 15 extra movementspeed that you get is actually noticeably helpful for ganking.
or

Rank 3: I like to max Runic Armor over Veteran's Scars because it increases the potency of both your heal and your shield on yourself. Again, while Veteran's Scars might help slightly with early game trades, Runic Armor has better overall late game scaling due to the spammability of Taric's abilities.
or

Rank 4: While the health regen offered by Perseverance is definitely tempting, putting a point into Insight is just too good to pass up due to the importance of summoner spells to Taric. Flash is a spell that you can use both offensively and defensively, and it's definitely something that you want to have available whenever possible. Having Flash or even Exhaust up 15% faster can sometimes mean the difference between living or dying.
or

Rank 5: Another mastery pick that might seem really good on Taric is Legendary Guardian . While it, in itself, is not a bad pick considering the passive of Bastion, I feel that the tenacity offered from Swiftness is something that can really benefit Taric's playstyle. Because you'll be frontlining a great amount during teamfights, it often means that you'll be soaking up a lot of the CC from the enemy team. The 15% tenacity and slow resist can really come in handy in both catching running enemies and escaping from sticky situations. In general, if you see that the enemy team has a lot of CC, you'll definitely want to pick this mastery up.
or

Rank 6: Finally, we have our last mastery pick, which goes undeniably to Bond of Stone . This is the mastery that is almost always taken by tanky supports, as both Grasp of the Undying and Strength of the Ages are not quite as suited for the role that you play. The 4% damage reduction from Bond of Stone makes you very tanky, and the 6% damage transfer from your ADC to you can help your ADC stay alive during teamfights and laning phase.


This is an optional mastery page that you may choose to pick based on certain circumstances. This page opts to put a point into Windspeaker's Blessing over Bond of Stone . By putting a point into Windspeaker's Blessing , your heals and shields become much more potent, allowing for much better sustain in lane at the expense of extra tankiness.

You may choose to go with this mastery page if you feel that you are in an unfavorable matchup, such as against a strong poke-based enemy pair, and will need the extra sustain. By choosing this page, you can also gain 5% cooldown reduction (and a higher CDR cap) with Intelligence , but you lose the 15% tenacity and slow resist from Swiftness .














Bravado (Passive)

Taric infuses his next two basic attacks whenever he casts an ability. He swings faster with these two attacks (both gain 100% attack speed), which deal 18 + (4 x level) (+15% of bonus armor) bonus magic damage and reduce his base spells' cooldowns by 1 - 0.6 seconds (scales down with CDR).



Taric's passive, Bravado is an innate ability that activates when you use any one of his abilities. Knowing how to take advantage of this passive is what separates the good Tarics from the bad ones. This passive is important for two reasons. The first is that, in lane and in teamfights, it allows you to get off more damage whenever you trade with the enemy. When you are fighting, make sure that you use your abilities (decisively) in order to proc your two free autos.

The other, more important reason, is the cooldown that Bravado will bring to your abilities every time you land one of these empowered auto attacks. This is especially important to take advantage of, especially in long drawn fights that will require you to spam your abilities. You'll want to aim to proc these cooldowns whenever you have the chance in order to refresh the cooldown of your Dazzle. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you hit these two auto attacks.

A nice thing that you should try to aim to do is to chain your auto attacks together for the fastest combination of autos possible. So for example:

W > AA 2 times > E > AA 2 times > Q > AA 2 times etc.

You can do this in fights to maximize your damage or when taking objectives to speed up your clear time. However, if you're doing this on an objective such as Baron or an enemy tower, make sure that you save your stun in case an enemy comes to defend or contest that objective.



Starlight's Touch (Q)

PASSIVE: Taric stores a charge of Starlight's Touch periodically, up to a maximum of 3 stored at once.

ACTIVE: Taric heals himself and all nearby allied champions, with the amount increasing with every stored charge at the time of cast. Starlight's Touch cannot be cast without charges.




Taric's Q, Starlight's Touch, is your primary form of sustain in lane and teamfights. As the description states, every fifteen seconds, you will gain a charge the ability up to a cap of 3 charges. You can activate your ability to consume these charges.

In lane, you'll generally want to wait until you have 3 charges before healing yourself and your carry. The mana cost remains the same despite the amount of charges you are consuming, so waiting for 3 charges is the most efficient use of your mana and will let you stay in lane for longer periods of time.

Remember that your heal is now an AoE skill, so you'll want to try to include as many people inside of it as possible whenever you're teamfighting. Try to set up some form of communication, such as a ping or in chat, notifying your team when you are about to heal so they can gather around you when you do so.



Bastion (W)

PASSIVE: Taric and his Bastion Buff Bastion-marked champion gain bonus armor.
BONUS ARMOR: 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20% of Taric's armor

ACTIVE: Taric shields himself and the target allied champion for 2.5 seconds for 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 /12% of the target's maximum health.

While bound to a target ally, all of Taric's abilities will be replicated on the targeted ally if they are within range of each other.




Taric's W, Bastion, is the bread and butter of his kit. When bound to an ally, it gives both you and that ally a whopping 20% of Taric's armor (at max level). This buff will remain for as long as you are bound and within range of your target. This can serve to make your ADC a little less squishy, as well as to make your frontline tanks much more tanky. Bastion's active, on cast, gives both Taric and his targeted ally a shield. During laning phase, you'll want to constantly be refreshing this shield whenever you go in for trades or when you're getting poked.

HELPFUL TIP: One thing unique about Bastion is that the shield will refresh on your ally even if you cast it on yourself. Because of this, you can bind a nearby key, such as T, to self-cast on the skill. By doing so, while in range, you can shield yourself and your ally much faster than you could by mousing over and hitting W.


The ability's second effect makes your allies replicate all spells that you cast. This means double the area of heals and stuns, which can make a huge difference in teamfights.

In order to play Taric to his fullest potential, you're going to need to be flexible with the way that you cast your Bastion on your allies. While you'll be bound to your ADC for most of the early and mid game, you need to be able to know how to switch your Bastion targets when most appropriate. For example, if your team is trying to make a catch on an enemy, you can cast your Bastion on the champion that has the best gap-closer and fire off your Dazzle when he or she is in range. Ekko and Vi are good examples of champions that do this well.

Below is a clip of a game where our team was able to get a pick on the enemy Nami because I was able to hit a long-range stun on her using Ekko as my Bastion buddy.

Bastion Positioning Demonstration GIF

As you can see, by quickly adapting to my situation, I was able to bind myself in time to Ekko to hit my stun on Nami. The bottom line is, always keep your eyes out for situations that require you to switch your Bastion target.

A teammate got slightly caught out? Bind to them to save them. Jungler found a pick? Bind to them and help secure the kill. Frontliner just dove into the enemy team? You know what to do.




Dazzle (W)

Taric fires out a short wave of celestial energy in a target direction which, after 1 second, deals 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+50% of ability power) (+30% of bonus armor) magic damage to all enemies struck and stuns them for 1 / 1.125 / 1.25 / 1.375 / 1.5 seconds.



Taric's E, Dazzle, is a short ranged but potent stun that can last up to 1.5 seconds at max level. This is the skill that you want to be utilizing the most when going aggressive during laning phase. It is especially strong when you've bound yourself to your ADC with Bastion (which will be the case like 95% of the time) because it doubles the area that you can hit your stun. Although the damage does not stack, if your ADC and you can position yourselves correctly, you can hit both enemy laners with it. Just make sure that you account for the charge-up time when going in for trades.

Below is an example of how you should try to position yourself when stunning the enemy laners.

Dazzle Positioning Demonstration GIF

When I saw that Nautilus had hooked my Ezreal, I knew right away that he would would end up in front of him. With quick thinking, I was able to take advantage of this by walking up to the enemy Vayne and lining myself up to hit her with my stun. As a result, I was able to hit both enemy laners and we ended up picking up an easy double kill.

Another trick that you can use with Dazzle is winding it up and Flashing in front of an enemy immediately once it is ready to fire. This will often take them by surprise, and you can use it to get easy picks or favorable trades during laning phase. For example, in the clip below, I saw that Jhin was out of mana and I knew that he had no flash, so I charged up my stun and immediately flashed on top of him under the tower. Even with heal, he was not able to escape the situation that I had set up, and I grabbed my Kalista an easy kill.

Flash Stun Demonstration GIF


One final thing to note is that the position of Dazzle cannot be changed once you cast it. Because of this, you need to predict where your enemy will be when it does go off. This can sometimes be difficult when walking around corners to catch out an enemy, so be careful. Here is another example of me using the flash trick mentioned above, but while keeping track of my stun direction and predicting where the enemy LeBlanc would be in the fog of war.

Prediction Flash Stun Demonstration GIF


HELPFUL TIP: Something that you should know about Dazzle is that using it will reset your auto timer. This means that during long drawn fights, you want to use the ability right after landing an auto attack in order to maximize your damage over time. Doing this helps ensure that you hit one of the two auto attacks of Bravado (which in turn will immediately lower the cooldown of your abilities)!



Cosmic Radiance (R)

After a 2.5-second delay, cosmic energy descends upon Taric, granting invulnerability to him and all nearby allied champions for 2.5 seconds upon impact.



Taric's ultimate ability, Cosmic Radiance, grants him and his nearby allies invulnerability. When used correctly, this can be a HUGE game changer. Like seriously, this ability, just by itself, has the potential to win games assuming your team knows how to follow up. Cosmic Radiance can be used in so many ways, either to pull off crazy offensive plays or to save your teammates from certain death. However, knowing when exactly to use your ultimate can be a difficult task, and using it at the wrong time in the wrong situation can possibly lose you the next teamfight or even game.

Because of this, I've come up with two questions that you'll always want to ask yourself when right about to use your ultimate.


1. Why am I about to use my ultimate?

The first and most important question is, why are you about to use this ability? League of Legends is a game in which you'll want every action you do to count towards a specific goal. Using Cosmic Radiance is no exception. With that being said, you'll always want to have a specific goal in your head before even considering activating your ultimate. This can be anything from contesting an objective to saving an important teammate. Once you have that goal in mind, ask yourself, "will using my ultimate now help me accomplish this goal that I have in mind?"

Try to picture in your head the most desired, ideal situation that will come out of you using Cosmic Radiance. If you believe that using it can and will achieve this goal that you've created, then move onto question 2.


2. Is right now the optimal time to use my ultimate?

So let's say you've decided that your goal is make your team invulnerable in order to contest the enemy's 5th dragon of the game. Perfect! You understand that activating your ultimate will give your team the edge to win a teamfight and hopefully grab the dragon before the other team does.

Now you need to ask yourself, "when is the best time for me to actually use the ability?" Although teamfights in League of Legends can often be unpredictable, they generally tend to follow similar trends in the way that they play out.

In the example that we've created here about contesting the dragon, teamfights will usually begin in two ways:

1. Before the dragon has spawned (or if it has spawned but nobody is attacking it yet) and the two teams engage to secure the more favorable position.

2. After the dragon has spawned and one team has started attacking it, then the other team comes in to prevent the first team from killing it before they do.

When playing Taric in this situation, you'll need to first understand what type of fight it will be, then proceed to plan accordingly based on your observations. Again, I find it helpful to create multiple scenarios in your head and see how your ultimate will fulfill them.

For example, imagine what would happen if you activate your ability before the dragon spawned and compare its results to what might happen if you use it later, after the two teams have started to contest. If using it early, you might be able to wipe out their team and take the dragon uncontested. On the other hand, if your team cannot kill them fast enough and the invulnerability runs out, you might end up losing the dragon altogether!


Overall, it boils down to a judgment call on your part. judgment is something that really only comes with experience, so keep practicing with Taric to become better at it!



With that being said, here's a short list of 'goals' that you might want to consider before using your ult. These are the things you'll primarily be using Cosmic Radiance for in most of your games:
  • Hard engage trading in lane
  • Tower diving to secure kills
  • Using it decisively to contest or steal Baron or Dragon
  • If your frontliner decides to engage
  • If your team has already STARTED fighting and using it to negate the other team's damage
  • One of your carries gets caught out
  • When you know that the enemy team is about to make an offensive play
  • When you're rushing the enemy nexus and the enemy all spawn to stop you and your team

Of course, this list is just a brief overview, and there can and will be many more cases where you may have to use Cosmic Radiance. Just make sure to be creative in how you use this ability. If you use it in a way that the enemy does not expect, you could end up taking them by surprise and doing something really awesome for your team.

For example, below is a clip of me using Cosmic Radiance on a friendly Amumu to steal baron. We were the only ones nearby, and the invincible, crying mummy that came flying onto Darius's face really caught the enemy team by surprise and bought us the time needed to take the nashor buff.

Invulnerable Baron Steal Demonstration GIF

On a final note, an important thing to understand is that you cannot be stingy with your ultimate. Let me repeat that: DO NOT BE STINGY WITH YOUR ULTIMATE. Often times (and this happens mostly in lower ELOs) a player will hesitate to use their ultimate because they are unsure if they will need it to save themselves or a teammate from death. While you can more easily afford to make mistakes in the early game, deaths in the later game will be infinitely more punishing. Hesitating to activate Cosmic Radiance just because you think you "might live" might mean the enemy team getting Baron, your inhibs, or even your nexus!

In the most crucial moments, even if you do end up wasting your ultimate, if your carries are still alive, it means that they will be able to live to fight in the next teamfight. Sure, you'll be down an ultimate for 100 seconds or so, but at least your team wills till be kicking to fight back! Hesitation loses games. Play with confidence, you're an outrageous support!














So now that you know a bit more about Taric's abilities, let's get into which abilities to level up early and which ones to max. Although I typically tend to follow one leveling path (the one displayed above and at the top of the guide), in reality, different games will bring situations in which you must be flexible in spending your ability points. Here I will outline what abilities you will find more helpful based on the enemy team and their respective playstyles.

So, as you can see in the picture above, my usual ability sequencing goes like this:


> > >


As is the case with most champions, you'll always want to take a level in your ultimate, Cosmic Radiance, whenever you have the chance to do so. Leveling up your ultimate will decrease its cooldown, and you're going to want to have it up whenever possible!


Now onto the other three abilities. In the majority of the games that you'll play, you're going to want to level up Dazzle first and max it as soon as possible. The level 1 Dazzle will help a ton with leashing gromp or krugs for your jungler. Additionally, if you get to lane before your opponents, you might be able to catch them with a surprise stun from the bush (which hopefully your ADC can follow up on). Maxing Dazzle will increase the damage that it does, but more importantly, it will increase the duration of the stun. As an aggressive tank, more stun time means more potential damage you can dish out in trades or engages, so you're going to want to have it at max stun time as soon as you possibly can.


At level 2, there are two things that you can do based on your playstyle and your laning partner. The first one that I typically end up doing is to put a point into Starlight's Touch. The reasoning for this is that charges will start being stored the moment you level the ability up, so the faster you put a point into it, the faster you'll be able to get those 3 charges on the ability. This can make early trades swing over to your favor, especially if you're laning against an enemy pair that has no sustain of their own.

The other possible thing you can do at level 2 is to put a point into Bastion and try to make an aggressive early play. This works best if you're playing with an ADC that has a strong level 2 power spike, such as Lucian or Kalista. By putting a point into Bastion at level 2, it allows you to make a quick, aggressive double-stun play when you bind yourself to your ADC. This is a good strategy to use if you can hit level 2 first and the enemy is playing champions such as Leona or Soraka that will not be able to do much to retaliate.


In terms of what to max second, I would recommend going for Starlight's Touch before Bastion simply for the better sustain during laning phase. This will also be the case for most of your games. However, if you find yourself matched up against a heavy AD comp, maxing Bastion second might be a good choice because the 20% bonus armor at its max rank can really end up going far.


To conclude, like I said earlier, although there is a certain ability sequence that I like to follow, you need to learn how to be flexible enough to adapt to each and every game. For example, are you playing against a terribly annoying poked-base lane such as Caitlyn and Zyra? Consider maxing Starlight's Touch first for the extra sustain. Or maybe you realize that your enemy is not poking you as much as they could and should be? Then put less points into Starlight's Touch and more points into Bastion. Knowing these types of things will get you far when you start climbing to higher ELOs.









Relic Shield: This will be the first item that you buy on Taric. You're going to want to pick the Relic Shield over Ancient Coin and Spellthief's Edge because of the bonus health it gives you as well as the execution passive that you get with it. The two spoils of war charges that you get early on can help you and your ADC reach level 2 faster than the enemy laners.

Potions: Not much to say here. In the majority of the games you play, you'll want to pick up 3 Health Potions to increase your sustain and trade potential in the early game. You can opt to trade two Health Potions for a Vision Ward instead if you feel that your jungler may risk getting invaded.

Warding Totem: The best trinket for the early game. The Stealth Ward can help you be wary of enemy invades when you're leashing for your jungler. Additionally, it can help you establish bottom lane bush vision against skillshot-based poke supports.




targon's brace
Targon's Brace: This is what you're going to want to buy the first time you come back to base. The upgrade from Relic Shield will give you increased health and health regeneration as well as an extra charge for your executions. An extra charge means more potential gold, which in turn means a faster time to get to your core items.

Boots: Again, an item that you're going to want to get as soon as possible. Boots increase your movement speed, which will help you: (a)dodge skillshots, (b)make more aggressive plays, and (c)increase your roaming potential to gank other lanes.

Vision Ward: Vision wins games! If you're still at the stage where you do not have a Sightstone, you'll want to have a Vision Ward set up or on you at all times. I cannot stress how important it is for you to establish vision control as a support. You can even use Vision Wards to set up aggressive lane bush control if you find yourself winning the lane.




Sightstone: One of the most important items to buy as any support. Vision control in itself a battle between teams, and the team that has better vision control of the map has a huge advantage over the other. You're going to want to buy a Sightstone as soon as you possibly can to start warding key areas of bottom lane. See below for a look at the optimal ward spots for the early game.

Glacial Shroud: If you know you're going to be building into a Frozen Heart in the later game, you're going to want to invest into one of these early as the stats that Glacial Shroud give are really beneficial to your kit. You get armor, mana, and CDR. What more is there to ask for?

Sweeping Lens: If you're ahead in lane, picking up a Sweeping Lens can really help you push your advantages by denying the enemy laners vision of key spots (such as in the tri-bush or bottom river bush). Additionally, you can use this to deny the vision that they have in the bot-lane bushes, making it easier to set up potential engages.




Oracle Alteration: You're going to want to invest into an Oracle Lens as soon as you hit level 9. It does everything that I outlined under the Sweeping Lens section but better. Not only does it increases the time and range of the trinket, but it also allows you to move around to find more potential enemy wards to clear. Denying enemy vision is such an important task for any support, and this items is one of the best ways to get the job done.




Boots of Swiftness: These are the boots that I like to get for the majority of the games that I play. They help you move around the map faster than the other second tier boots, both in and out of combat. They're one of the cheaper options when it comes to boot selection, meaning you can pick them up earlier than other options or just have more gold leftover to build into your core items. The 25% slow reduction is just icing on the cake.

The reason I get these over the Mobility Boots that were popular in earlier seasons is because Boots of Swiftness provide more overall reliability. The movement speed that you lose when running Mobility Boots can really come back to bite you in the butt during teamfights or when you're trying to escape. Overall, I believe that the Boots of Swiftness currently outperform Mobility Boots in a number of ways.

Ninja Tabi: More armor for Taric! This is one of the boot options that you can choose to build if you're against a heavy AD enemy composition. Not only do they give you 30 armor (plus an additional 6 armor at max ranked Bastion), but they also help defend against ADC or auto-attack based champions, so they will be a strong option if there are two or more ADCs on the enemy team.

Mercury's Treads: Merc Treads, the other option that you may choose to go for if not purchasing the Boots of Swiftness. Mercury's Treads are really useful for two reasons: (a)the magic resistance that it provides and (b)the 30% tenacity that it brings. As the only permanent item that grants tenacity in the entire game, Mercury's Treads can be a very strong option if the enemy team has a lot of CC. Also, for obvious reasons, you may also opt to buying these boots if the enemy has a heavy AP-oriented team composition.




eye of the equinox
Eye of the Equinox: One of your final items that you'll be building on Taric. This item combines your targon's brace with your Sightstone to make an item that gives you both ward and execution charges. The reason that I tend to favor this over face of the mountain is because it has better stats and gives you an entire item slot to build more armor or MR.

You should try to aim to build this before the rest of your items for two reasons:

1. Purchasing this item will combine your targon's brace and Sightstone, essentially freeing up an extra slot to use for something like a pink ward.
2. The extra charge that you gain (upgraded from targon's brace) can help you get more gold, thus getting you closer to purchasing your other core items.

Frozen Heart: When I asked the question "what more is there to ask for?" under the Glacial Shroud section, the answer undoubtedly lies within Frozen Heart. It boasts the second highest amount of armor found in an item in the entire game, not to mention 20% CDR, 400 mana, and a nifty passive that reduces the attack speed of all nearby enemies by 15%. Frozen Heart will be the first step towards becoming the beefy tank that can frontline your teamfights. The CDR that it provides will allow you to spam your abilities more as well as lower the time that you would wait for Cosmic Radiance to come up. Furthermore, its attack speed reducing passive really cripples most of the ADCs of the current meta. If the enemy team has AD on it (which it most likely will), Frozen Heart is usually going to be something you want to pick up early.

Randuin's Omen: Another item that will increase your tanking ability by a huge amount. Not only does Randuin's Omen provide you a great amount of armor, it also grants you a whopping 500 health to go along with it. Randuin's Omen is great because it provides you two useful passives. The first one, cold steel, works kind of like a knock off Frozen Heart passive in that it reduces the attack speed of enemies hitting you by 15%. The other, more valuable passive is that it reduces the damage of crits by 10%. This can be really strong against marksmen that build around critical chance, such as Ashe, Tristana, or Jhin.

Not only do you get two passives and a huge amount of defensive stats with Randuin's Omen, but you also get a useful active ability that slows the movement speed of enemies around you by 35% for 4 seconds. This can really aid you in more than one way, from making aggressive picks to giving you the distance needed to escape from a losing teamfight.

If the enemy team has more AP than AD or you're playing against an enemy ADC such as Jhin, who might not be as crippled by the attack speed reduction of Frozen Heart, consider buying a Randuin's Omen as your first item.

Locket of the Iron Solari: The third core item of Taric. Locket of the Iron Solari is going to be your item of choice to counter the AP of the enemy team, and it's especially good against high AoE mages such as Brand, Annie, and Anivia because of the MR that it gives to your entire team. Not only that, but Locket of the Iron Solari gives you a number of useful stats like CDR, health, and health regen. Furthermore, you can activate the item to give yourself and nearby allies a shield that scales with level.

As a tanky support that works to mitigate the damage done to your other teammates, Locket of the Iron Solari fits right into your playstyle with its incredibly useful passive and active. If the team has more AP than AD, consider taking this item early on.




Mikael's Crucible: Mikael's Blessing works like a miniature Quicksilver Sash that you can use on yourself or your allies. It removes all forms of CC (except for suppressions and knockups) on the allied target that you have chosen. This item can be essential to buy against teams that have multiple forms of hard CC. Even if your ADC buys a Quicksilver Sash, there are times when an enemy might simply wait for him to use it before using another form of hard CC. That's where Mikael's Blessing comes in.

Thornmail: A great item to take against heavy AD comps. Thornmail has the highest amount of armor in the game of all items you can buy in the store. Furthermore, its passive reflects 15% (+ 25% of your bonus armor) of damage taken from auto-attacks back as magic damage. Since the general aim of your itemization is to stack armor, this can be devastating to enemy ADCs or auto based AD champions. I recommend buying this if the enemy team has four or more champions that are AD.

Warmog's Armor: Warmog's Armor is an item that was affected by pre-season update. Now, it grants 10% CDR! Purchasing this item will give you a massive 800 health, 200% base health regenration along with the new CDR. This item can be considered when focusing on increasing your CDR, and it is a good buy if the enemy team has a good mix of AP and AD.

Zeke's Harbinger: An item that has good utility and provides pretty decent stats to go with it. Zeke's Harbinger brings to the table 50 AP, 30 armor, 250 mana, and 10% CDR. More importantly, its active, conduit, allows you to bind yourself to an ally to start building up conduit charges. At 100 charges, the charges are consumed and both you and your ally gain a 20% AP and 50% crit chance buff for 8 seconds. 8 seconds is a really long period of time, and if you can time your 100 stacks to activate for a teamfight, it can really boost the damage output of your ADC. Consider buying this item when you have a crit-based ADC who rushes infinity edge, such as Tristana or Caitlyn.

Sunfire Cape: Another item that is quite viable on Taric. Sunfire Aegis grants you 20 armor and a cool passive that burns nearby enemies for 25 (+ your level) magic damage when they are near you. This is a good item to buy as a frontline tank and if you often find yourself in the middle of enemies during teamfights. This will usually be the case when the enemy team has a high number of melee champions such as Yasuo or Udyr.

Dead Man's Plate: If you haven't picked up on the pattern here yet, it really boils down to: Armor on Taric = Good. Dead Man's Plate is an item that gets you quite beefy with the 50 armor and 500 bonus health that it provides. Its passive builds up momentum stacks as you move, increasing your movement speed by up to 60. This can be very beneficial if you find yourself roaming to a lot to mid or even top, and if you manage to hit 100 stacks before reaching the lane, your gank can become much more effective due to Dead Man's Plate's other passive that deals damage (based on stack number) and slows the enemy 50% for 1 second at 100 stacks.

Banner of Command: Banner of Command is the counterpart to Locket of the Iron Solari. It gives half the amount of health provided from locket, but compensates with 60 AP and a very useful active, which promotes a friendly minion to do more damage and grants it immunity to magic damage. Banner of Command can be a very strong pushing tool and can provide pressure in a lane even if you are not there. This comes in handy when your team is looking to grab objectives, such as dragon or baron, because you can promote a cannon minion in the lane farthest from the objective and group as 5.

When it comes down to choosing between Locket of the Iron Solari and Banner of Command, locket excels against teams that do strong AoE and burst damage, or have a good mix between AP and AD. I would opt to build banner, however, if the enemy team has mostly AP champions that rely heavily on their abilities to wave clear because it makes it much harder to stop a wave from pushing. It really comes down to your own judgment, however, so choose wisely based on the game and situation.

Banshee's Veil: Turning more towards the magic resist portion of the items you can build. Banshee's Veil grants you 500 health, 100% base health regen, and 70 MR. Its passive grants you a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability that hits you. This shield refreshes every 40 seconds after taking damage. Take a Banshee's Veil if faced against enemy champions that have very impactful skillshots, such as Blitzcrank and his rocket grab or Morgana with her dark binding.

Spirit Visage: The other major item that provides you magic resist against fed AP comps. This item was reworked in the mid-season update, so it no longer provides as much MR as Banshee's Veil. However, it now provides some pretty substantial health regen! Purchasing a Spirit Visage will grant you 55 MR, 500 health, 200% health regen, and 10% CDR. Additionally, it provides a passive that increases all of your heals by 25% (that's 5% more now!). This can be very useful for increasing your ability for prolonged sustain, both from the 200% health regen and the increased power of your Starlight's Touch for you and your team.

face of the mountain
Face of the Mountain: You can choose to buy face of the mountain if you feel that you're struggling against a heavy burst champion. The shield that you get from its active might be just what you need to keep your ADC alive long enough to make him invulnerable. If you choose to buy this over eye of the equinox, remember to also upgrade your Sightstone into a Ruby Sightstone for the extra health and active item CDR.










Now that we've gone over all of the item and ability explanations, let's get right down to the fun part: Gameplay. When played to his fullest potential, Taric can be a champion that becomes very difficult to stop from snowballing his allies as a support. At the end of this guide, hopefully you'll have a better idea of how to play around his strengths in order to win the games that you play!

Also, before I get into the details regarding laning phase and teamfights, remember again that you must be flexible in making decisions. Although I can give you a general idea of what to do, you're going to need to know how to react to specific situations on your own. It would be horrendously boring if every game of League of Legends was the same, and one of the best, most satisfying aspects of playing is to gain your own personal experience to adapt to situations.


With that being said, let's jump right into making you a better player!


When the game begins, you'll generally want to start by helping your jungler leash gromp or krugs. Most junglers will ask the bot lane to help them out, so never be hesitant to give them a fat leash to give them a good start. However, always be weary of potential early invades from enemy junglers, particularly if they have somebody like Blitzcrank or a strong early game jungler like Lee Sin or Shaco. If this is the case, make sure to tell your team to place some wards in areas that the enemy would pass through to invade.

Here are some good spots to drop your trinkets:


If starting on red side


If starting on blue side



Alternatively, if you feel that the enemy team does not have a scary early game, you may choose to stand in the spots instead of using your ward to cover the area.

If you see that an enemy is approaching to try to make a move, immediately ping for assistance to notify your team what is happening. If all five members of the enemy team are invading, leave the area as soon as you can. If one (or more) of your team gets caught, most likely you'll have to cut your losses and let them die. However, if you notice that not the entire enemy team is there for the invade, there's a possibility that you can use your early game strength to retaliate and even end up grabbing a kill for your team.

However, be smart with your decision making. Careless mistakes can cost your team more deaths than would be necessary.





If 1:40 rolls around and nothing eventful happens, then it's time to start leashing for your jungler (assuming they are starting bot side). Taric is a support that has really strong leash potential. The moment the camp spawns, smack the monster with an auto-attack and immediately activate your Dazzle to reset your auto timer. If you're leashing Krugs, try to line up your stun to hit both of them. Take advantage of the stun time to whack the monster(s) as many times as you see fit. Make sure not to land the killing blow though!

Once you feel that you've given a good enough leash, start heading over to lane with your ADC.




Laning phase can be the part of the game that really sets the mood and pace of your team for the mid and late game. Because this part of the game can be vital to your team's victory, I've taken the time to break down and go over the four most important aspects of playing Taric (or just being a support in general) during this part of the game.


1. Mercilessly Exploit Your Advantages

Now that you've (hopefully) read all of the information about Taric's strengths, weaknesses, and abilities in the above sections, you should have a general idea of what Taric excels at and where he may fall behind. Yeah I know, the word mercilessly here might seem to be bit extreme, but knowing how to press the advantages that you have is vital to outplaying your enemies and is what really separates the low ELO players from the high ones.

Luckily for you, Taric has been blessed with a kit that contains loads of versatility. Heals, hard CC, shields, you name it! So what does this mean? It means that against almost every lane, you have PLENTY of potential advantages over your opponents. Knowing how to really exploit every part of these advantages will distinguish good Taric players from great ones.


Again, I've already gone over most of Taric's strengths and where he excels, but I'll write out another brief list that you can and must take advantage of while laning:
  • Early Game Tankiness - While Taric might not be as tanky as Leona in the earliest stages of the game, his Bastion gives him plenty of room to play fearlessly. Note, I'm using the word fearlessly here and not the word carelessly. You need to be confident in taking advantage of your tankiness by making aggressive plays but at the same time be smart about what you're aiming to accomplish.
  • Versatile Multi-Stun - Sorry if you think I'm starting to sound a little redundant here, but hitting Taric's Dazzle on both enemy laners can seriously set the tides for the entire laning phase, even if it happens only ONE time. If you are able to grab your ADC a kill from doing this or even force the enemy ADC to back, it can put your lane ahead by a good amount of gold and experience. Hopefully your own ADC will know how to use your stuns to their fullest potentials.
  • Shield + Sustain - On the flip side of making your lane opponents back with aggressive plays, Taric also has the tools to allow you and your ADC to stay in lane longer. Use your Bastion shield reactively to reduce the poke damage of the enemy lanes. And while your heal might not be as strong as Soraka's, Taric actually has one of the better heals of the game if you have the time and mana to let your Starlight's Touch charge up.
  • Able To Position Creatively - Because of the fact that you can link to your ADC with Bastion, you have more versatility when it comes to positioning in your lane. Because of how it activates all abilities from your targeted ally, you don't necessarily need to sit too close to your ADC to babysit in the way that Janna might be restricted to her shield range. With smart positioning and good aiming of your Dazzle, you're able to open yourself up to a larger amount of different plays.


One of the more important things that doesn't necessarily apply to Taric himself is to UNDERSTAND THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF YOUR LANE OPPONENTS. This really ties in with this first point that I've made, as knowing what your opponents can do can and will really help you understand how to play your lane. If you're trying to rank up with Taric in solo or dynamic queue, it's worth reviewing the ability sets of all of the current meta supports and ADCs if you have not done so already. I have a section below written about the most common support matchups that you'll encounter which you can find right here!




2. Knowing How To Trade And Engage

This point has strong ties with the first one in that you'll really have to understand your own kit as well as your opponents in order to gauge when and how to trade and engage effectively. As I outlined in the previous point, Taric is a champion that can be built to play really aggressively because of his tankiness and sustain. Knowing the best times to go in and not to really come down to game experience, but I'll give you a few pointers that can steer you in the right direction.

There are four things that you need to consider before going in for trades and hard engages. These are things that you'll need to look at for both yourself and your enemy:

  • Health - How much health do your opponents have? How much health do YOU have? It's nice to be able to walk up and hit a two man Dazzle, but it might not be the best idea to do so if your opponents are at full health and you're sitting at a sliver of under a third.

    If your opponents are good (which you should always assume that they are), they will be able to capitalize on your mistakes and can end up killing you if you're not careful. On the contrary, if you have the upper hand in lane health and you think that you'll be able to grab a kill for your ADC, by all means, go for it!
  • Mana - Similar to health, the mana levels of each champion in your lane can be a good indicator of what you should or shouldn't be doing at the time. If you notice that the enemy ADC or support is almost out of mana, it might be a good time to go in for a trade as they will likely not be able to retaliate as hard or heal/shield as much damage as they could with a full mana bar.

    However, just as the case with health, if you notice that you or your own ADC is starting to run a little bit low on mana, it might be time to start playing a little bit more passively. One of the worst things that can happen during laning phase is you engaging at full mana and realizing only too late that your ADC has none. As a result, you can end up taking quite a bit of damage or even dying outright.
  • Summoner Spells Which summoner spells do you have left in your arsenal? Which summoner spells do your enemies have? Whether it be Ignite or Exhaust, a single summoner spells can seriously turn the tides of a fight happening in the lane. If you know that the enemy Lulu used Exhaust in the last fight while you held onto yours, you suddenly find yourself in the position with more pressure than the enemy lane.

    Hard-engaging with both of your summoner spells to spare can often mean a much higher chance of grabbing a kill, especially if you have the knowledge of the enemy summoners to know how to react properly to them. Because of this, it might be worth calling out the times in which you observed the enemies using their summoner spells.
  • Jungler Position Finally, it is worth considering the position of both junglers in the game. If your jungler is nearby, you might be able to hold off on engaging in a fight and ping for his help to further increase the chance that an enemy dies.

    Conversely, if you go in on the enemy and their jungler suddenly pops up from the river, you'll suddenly find yourself in a 3v2 that you do NOT want to be in. Being able to predict the location of the enemy jungler can be a little difficult when you first start playing the game, so it can be worth venturing into the enemy jungle and placing a deep ward near their red or blue buff (depending on which side you're on, of course!).

Two things that I've said many times throughout this guide are to be smart and to be flexible. Additionally, don't be afraid to make plays, even if your team might flame you for trying. The times that you go in for a play are the ones where you end up learning the most, regardless if you succeeded or failed.




3. Roaming

Roaming is something that I mentioned earlier but didn't really get into a great deal about. There are two general things that you want to consider when it comes to roaming away from your lane:


1. State Of Bot Lane - Will your ADC die if you leave them? There are a few things you need to think about here:
  • Kill Pressure Of Enemy Laners - How strong are your enemies in lane? If you leave your ADC alone against an experienced Thresh Lucian combo, chances are, they'll take advantage of your absence to make an aggressive play to kill your ADC.
  • Survivability Of Your ADC - This ties in to the previous point. In general, you just really don't want your ADC to die if you decide to leave the lane. Roaming works best when you have an ADC that can easily focus on farm, such as Caitlyn or Ezreal

Of course, I'm writing this part with the assumption that your ADC knows how to stay alive and farm, even if playing a safer champion like Caitlyn. If your ADC does not feel comfortable with you leaving or you realize that they just aren't good enough to stay alive, don't force a roam. Sometimes it's just better to adapt to the needs of your team to keep them going.

2. State Of Lane You're Roaming To - This is quite similar to your situation down bot lane, but reversed. When making a roam, you'll always want to be able to get a kill or a tower or else you'll waste a lot of time, gold, and experience.
  • Kill Pressure Of Your Laner - If you leave to gank another lane, will your ally laner be able to follow up and get a kill? You might want to consider holding off if your own laner does not have much kill pressure, such as Akali pre-level 6.
  • Survivability Of Enemy Laner - Similar to above. Does the enemy you're trying to gank have great escapability? Or possibly is just freaking impossible to kill? Again, you may want to consider holding off from roaming if the enemy laner is somebody like Vladimir or Morgana.



When considering roaming, you'll always want to think about the bigger picture that results when you choose to roam. Usually, your goal is to try to snowball your mid or top laner, but you must also consider the repercussions of roaming. It might be great to get your Ahri a kill from roaming, but if it costs your team your ADC, your bot tower, and a fire dragon, it might not be as worth as you might have initially thought it to be.




4. Do NOT Give Up If You Lose Lane

This really is a mistake seen in lower ELOs. Although I stressed the importance of laning phase to your overall victory, I will stress even harder that it is not the only stage of the game. Heck, in many games, it might not even be the most important stage of the game. If you happen to lose your lane against your enemy, IT'S OKAY. Although you may not have as much as of advantage if you had won, it does NOT mean that the game is immediately over. Just take a step back and think about the best way to win from the position that you're in.

A large part of becoming a better player in League of Legends is knowing how to play from behind. You're not going to have a perfect game in every single match that you play.

Personally, when it comes to ranked games, I try my best to never surrender. Unless the score is 50-0 and you've lost 3 of your inhibs, I firmly believe that there is always a chance to come back in the late game or for the enemy team to throw by making a careless mistake. Nobody is perfect. Play on their weaknesses.





As a support, warding is one of the most important things that you will need to be doing every game. I've created two pictures of the map of the best places to put wards for each team. The first map represents where to ward during laning phase and the second one is the best spots for the later game.

LANING PHASE WARDS



MID-LATE GAME WARDS


Again, one of the recurring themes in this guide is to be flexible and adapt to each game. Some games will require you to put wards in areas that don't show up in the above two pictures. Be smart and try to predict your opponent's movements by using the wards that you have.












One of the areas of the game where Taric really shines is in teamfights. As I mentioned in the pro's section, this is because he is very versatile in the roles he can play and the utility he can bring to the team. Here's a short list of things that you'll constantly want to be doing when playing Taric in a teamfight.
  • Constantly refreshing Bastion for both the shield and bonus armor (usually for your frontliner)
  • Using your heal from Starlight's Touch when your team needs it. Try to communicate to your team to gather around you for maximum team healing
  • Positioning your Dazzle as often as it is up to stun the enemy champions
  • Activating Cosmic Radiance when necessary (see the abilities section for more information)
  • Dropping pink wards if the enemy team has an invisible assassin (such as Rengar or Shaco)






One of the things that I mentioned earlier in the guide was that you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to playing Taric in a teamfight. Because of your ability Bastion that lets you bind all of your abilities to an allied champion, this gives you the freedom to play either as an aggressive frontliner or a peel-focused backliner.



Taric makes for a very strong frontline due to two key abilities: Dazzle and Bravado. When playing as a frontliner, you are able to fire off a stun from Dazzle, hit your two auto-attacks from Bravado, then have your Dazzle ready to be fired again much sooner due to the cooldown reset from the passive effect. Additionally, your tankiness from your items and Bastion make you a tough opponent to break through.

If you have another frontliner on your team (preferably one with a good gap closer like Vi or Ekko), you can bind your Bastion to them to double the area of your Dazzle.

However, even as an aggressive frontliner, never forget about your squishy carries! If you see an enemy assassin starting to flank from behind (with the fabuluous wards that YOU put down, of course), never hesitate to drop what you're doing to run back to your carries' aid. Survival of your carries should be one of your top priorities, which brings me to the next section:





Not only can you play as a threatening frontliner, but your kit makes you a strong tool for peel for your carries. Each one of your active abilities ( Starlight's Touch, Bastion, Dazzle, Cosmic Radiance) is a tool that you can use to keep them from dying.

As an aggressive player, I typically prefer frontlining over backlining. However, there are certain situations which will call you to the side of your ADC or APC. These are:
  • When there is a fed assassin on the enemy team that can slip through your defenses like LeBlanc or Fizz (again, if it is an invisible assassin, make sure you have pink wards with you at all times!)
  • If you already have a team with a very strong frontline
  • If Your team is just seriously lacking in peel


Remember to always be vigilant if there is an enemy champion capable of breaking into your backline, and make sure to ALWAYS ward the area around teamfights to prevent from unexpected flanks!













Soraka



Leona



Blitzcrank



Nami








Janna



Braum



Thresh



Nautilus



Lulu










Vel'Koz



Morgana



Alistar



Karma



Zyra












That's it for this guide! I'll do my best to update this guide whenever necessary (E.G. a new support champion is implemented in the game or Taric's ability scaling gets changed). I'll always be here to answer any questions that you might have about specifics, and any feedback is really appreciated!


(P.S. Within the guide, I used a number of different league splash arts for aesthetic value. Props to you if you can identify all of them! Some of them may have been a bit recolored though!)



Hope I helped! Buy me a cup of coffee?






See you guys on the rift!

- YSlayerZ
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YslayerZ Taric Guide
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