League of Legends - Taric Guide

Taric is one of the most powerful support champions in League of Legends. Taric has a very strong heal, a reliable stun and a defensive aura that increases his and his allies armor. His ultimate is also extremely powerful, healing himself and boosting allied attack damage. Taric excels at increasing the stats of his allies through his auras which can provide armor, attack damage and ability power. While Taric's sexuality may be questionable his support potential definitely is not.

This Taric guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Taric, it is recommended for people just starting to use Taric.

Abilities

• 
  Gemcraft (Passive): A great laning passive, keeps Taric's mana at reasonable levels and improves his overall mana regeneration. You have to be careful to not overuse this passive as you will push the lane.
• 
  Imbue: A very strong heal with decent Ability Power scaling, this skill should always be focused on an ally to improve its healing effect (of course if your alone then use it on yourself). This skill combines very well with Taric's passive during the laning phase as its cooldown is decreased with each auto-attack, this is doubled if you attack a champion.
• 
  Shatter: A powerful armor boost allows Taric to be surprisingly resistant to physical damage, half of this armor boost also applies to his allies, an amazing defensive aura. The active portion is great for some mid-game burst damage and also to boost physical damage for your team.
• 
  Dazzle: A very reliable and good range stun makes Taric a very deadly support champion. The stun length and damage will depend on the enemies distance from you. This skill is simply amazing for setting up ganks and protecting your allies.
• 
  Radiance (Ultimate): Taric's ultimate gives him great area of effect damage to use in team fights. It also provides a solid boost to his allies damage output (through attack damage and ability power buffs). This skill is great for downing towers quickly when needed and also allows Taric to heal more while also causing some melee damage if need be.

Ability Order

Taric's abilities are best leveled as follows:
Radiance > Imbue > Shatter > Dazzle

Taking Dazzle at level 1 gives you a reliable stun and is great for level 1 team fights. Maxing Imbue first is a no-brainer as it easily Taric's best support skill and scales well with levels, despite the steady increase in mana cost. Shatter is maxed 2nd as the armor gained from the passive effect increases with each level, while also providing a little bit more area of effect burst. Dazzle is left till last as the duration of the stun does not increase with each rank, while the damage does increase this is unreliable damage and is also not the goal of Taric.

Runes

Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Mana Regeneration Per Level
Blue (Glyphs) - Cooldown Reduction
Purple (Quintessences) - Flat Health

Magic Penetration Marks gives Taric alittle bit more damage through Shatter and Dazzle but is not vital and can easily be replaced by Armor/Magic Resistance as you are a support orientated champion. Running Mana Regeneration on Seals gives you powerful mana regeneration, which is one Taric's weaknesses. To finish off your rune book you want to run Flat Health on Quintessences to boost your early game survivability and cooldown reduction on Glyphs to allow you to heal and stun more often.

Summoner Spells

 

Best Summoner Spells:
-Ghost
-Clairvoyance

Ghost and Clairvoyance are very powerful on Taric. Ghost gives you the ability to chase down enemies for a stun, escape from potential ganks and even rush into battle to save an ally. Clairvoyance aids your support position in the team giving your team powerful map awareness and has extremely low cooldown when combined with a 9/0/21 mastery setup.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Flash

Flash can replace Ghost as your escape/initiation summoner spell on Taric if you prefer it.

Masteries

Running a 9/0/21 mastery setup on Taric us best, focusing on mana regeneration, cooldown reduction and improved summoners.

Item Build

 
Final Item Build:
-Mercury's Treads
-Aegis of the Legion
-Banshee's Veil
-Soul Shroud
-Frozen Heart
-Abyssal Scepter

Steps/Reasoning:
-Your best choice for a starting item is Doran's Ring as it provides some Ability Power for increased healing, some mana regeneration and a strong starting health boost.
-On your first trip back you'll want to grab a Philosopher's Stone, this combined with your mana regeneration from runes and masteries, will sustain your mana usage. Also consider a Heart of Gold, to help you generate gold.
-Your next item should be Aegis of the Legion, which is an amazing early-mid game item.
-From here you'll want to defensive options, to allow you to absorb some punishment from the enemy consider a Banshee's Veil for the spell block, an Abyssal Scepter is also a strong choice for magic resistance as it also provides Ability Power and an aura. While Frozen Heart is your go to item for armor as it also provides strong cooldown reduction, an increase to your mana pool and another aura.
-A final item to round out your build is Soul Shroud, this will give you some health to back up your resistances while also giving you and your team another aura. This item may not suit all team setups so also consider the alternatives below:

Alternatives:
-Will of the Ancients (Great item if your team is magic heavy)
-Stark's Fervor (A powerful item on physical heavy teams)

General Taric Tips

• If your team needs a longer stun, consider saving your stun until the enemy is just on the edge of your range (you can also move slightly away from the target).
• Be careful of Ignite on both you and your allies, it can severely weaken your healing effects.
• When possible you want to hit as many enemies with your ultimate for maximum damage output. Sometimes this will be too risky, in this case you want to simply cast it for the buff it provides to your allies.
• Look out for locations to use Clairvoyance when its off cooldown (enemy jungle, river, Dragon, Baron etc.) as it has an extremely low cooldown when running a 9/0/21 setup.
• Always try to focus your Imbue on somebody else as this will maximise your overall healing.

Level 1-6 (Early Game)

• Grab last hits without taking too many away from your laning partner (Taric needs minimal farm to be effective). The few last hits you do grab will help trigger your passive and keep your heal of cooldown.
• If the enemy is pushing your tower hard, then auto-attack as much as possible to keep your mana levels high and your heal off cooldown.
• Keep your lane partner healed up and use your stun to protect them from any aggressive moves from the enemy.
• If you have a strong lane partner, consider leaving the lane to harass the enemies jungler or middle lane. As mentioned previously Taric does not need the farm and this also gives his laning partner a level advantage.

Level 7-12 (Mid Game)

• Through mid-game you have some decent burst against squishy enemy characters. Use shatter to give your team some extra burst damage throughout this stage in the game.
• Stay with your team, you do not need farm. Your only effective when you are either with your team or ganking with a partner.
• The small buffs provided by your ultimate give you some added melee damage to help your allies in skirmishes. It may be the difference between a kill.
• Start considering what aura items will benefit your team the most. Also consider what defensive items you will need.

Level 13-18 (Late Game)

• Concentrate on healing any pokes from the enemy (healing carries over tanks) and using your stun to lock down enemies that over-commit.
• Generally at this stage of the game you do not want to use Shatter, the aura is more beneficial.
• If the enemy catches your team off-guard focus your stun on protecting your carry, while healing them.
• When your skills are on cooldown use your auto-attacks, to bring heal off of cooldown and regenerate your mana. This also will put you at the front lines absorbing damage for your team. 

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