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Introduction
Taric is one of the greatest support characters in the game. He provides almost anything a character requires to excel early in any match and throughout the whole game. His ability to zone a player out while letting someone else last hit is exceptional and any time an enemy chooses to initiate he can help dish out some pain with minimal harm to ones team.
Abilities
Passive Gemcraft melee attacks regenerate 7.5% of damage done as mana
Q Imbue Taric heals an ally and himself. If he only heals himself, its only 140% of heal. CD is reduced by one second per melee swing on a minion and 3 seconds when melee'ing a Champion.
W Shatter (passive) Armor aura, stacks double for Taric (active) shatters the barrier doing damage to enemies around Taric and lowers enemies armor by the aura amount.
E Dazzle Stuns the target for 1.5 seconds (at any level), does more damage when Taric is closer to target.
R Radiance Deals a moderate amount of AoE damage and provides an aura that provides attack damage and ability power for 10 seconds, double buff for Taric.

Skill Order
Skill order depends on your lane partner, if I know the person Im laning with and they are an aggressive player I use: E>Q>W>W>Q>R>W>W>Q>W>R>Q>Q>E>E>R>E>E. This gives me my stun first, allowing a good opportunity to get first blood before minions spawn.
If the person Im laning with is a PuG, or a character that isnt strong early-game, I go with W>Q>W>E>Q>R>W>W>Q>W>R>Q>Q>E>E>R>E>E for the early armor aura and heal.
Since Taric is a support champion and his Dazzle stun is the same duration no matter what the skill level is we save this for last after the first point. You never, I repeat never want to cast your Q on yourself, its a huge waste.
Runes
Red Greater Mark of Resilience flat armor to help early game staying power
Yellow Greater Seal of Resilience flat armor to help early game staying power
Blue Greater Glyph of Clarity Mp5 per level, because Taric is a mana hog.
Quint Greater Quintessence of Swiftness because you need to be with your lane partner at all times, puts off having to buy boots a little bit longer, and makes it easier to land your E.

Masterys and Summoner Spells
Clairvoyance, no explanation necessary for this one. The second summoner skill should be based on what your team is missing, exhaust/ignite. I personally dont believe that flash is necessary because youre not a carry, so you shouldnt be in a position to be killed. If the rest of your team has enough ignite/exhausts I like teleport so you can move around the map supporting where necessary or getting back to your lane that much faster.
I take support masterys for the CDR, extra mana regeneration, extra gp10 and gold from assists, movement speed, and shorter CD for summoner abilities.

Start and Early-Game
Null-magic mantle, ward, and a Mana-pot are your starting items. This means you start with lots of armor from your runes, magic resist, and a large head start on your Aegis of the Legion.
Mid & Late-game
Aegis of the Legion
Chalice of Harmony
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Soul Shroud/Starks Fervor/Abyssal Scepter depending on who your laning with
Defensive item if necessary
Save a slot for wards
As the support character, its your job to buy wards/oracles. This shuts down Teemo, Akali, Twitch, etc because if they cant hide or shroom up your escape route they just arent as effective.
Heres a scenario where Taric can really shine in a group fight. 5V5 getting ready to start in mid, one enemy is slightly outside of their group. Amumu ribbons in, starting the fight. The enemy teams heads to Amumu and the rest of your team heads in. As Taric, you want to go in (saving your stun) and use your ultimate on as many enemies as possible (buffing yourself and all your party members). Try and find where your AD characters are heading and use your W to lower their armor. You should have already used your Q to heal someone (probably Amumu) and with you meleeing someone the CD should be up soon to heal again so keep an eye out at party health bars. Your Dazzle (E) is saved for interrupting someones Ultimate (like Katarina or Fiddle) or keeping someone from escaping to score the Ace.
I really like the Abyssal scepter as my 5th item, because its got loads of MR, AP to buff your Q, W, and E, and also debuffs the enemys around you helping your AP carries. Glacial Shroud (45 armor, 400 mana 15% CDR) is also really nice when the enemy team is AD heavy.
If the game isnt going well for your lane, A Philo Stone instead of the Chalice will help speed up the buying of the rest of your items.
Conclusion
I really like playing Taric, I dont think its that hard to go 0/3/20+ and get through your build quite quickly. There really doesnt seem to be a support character that can feed/support a teammate quite like Taric.


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by Blockgorilla See Profile edited by Exodus See Profile
last modified: 2011-12-04 13:10:38