[Champion Rework Suggestion] Taric, the Gem Knight
This is a remake of my suggestions here, on the old forums.
http://i.imgur.com/74F6Plv.png
#Introduction
Taric was the first champion I ever played (my friends suggested him to me after I described the type of character I played most often in Guild Wars, my most played game before this one) and I did/do enjoy playing him. However, it's difficult to justify using him when he's not overpoweringly strong in the meta, which hampers how much one can enjoy him. The purpose of these suggestions is to provide ideas and kindle discussion about the direction Taric needs to go in order to become viable.
#Gemcraft
- It does not feel intuitive to have a "on next basic attack" passive on Taric, nor does it feel rewarding or synergistic with any of his other abilities.
- The damage scaling solely with armor makes me feel weak against ability power based damage, which is primarily what other supports will use to poke Taric in lane.
- The 2 second cooldown is hardly impactful for any single ability, and it's not viable in many situations to get off more than one passive proc for an entire kit unload.
But, because having a passive that fits well with his theme and the rest of his kit is difficult I've never really had a thought about what it should definitely be. However, there are some old iterations that had an element I enjoyed: replenishing mana. It fit well with his lore, as he was drawing power from the gems that he used in his armor and weapons, and it fit well with the kit (partly) because it allowed him to participate in drawn-out battles of attrition. However, that iteration only replenished mana based on damage dealt and was Taric's only incentive for building Attack Damage. So it wasn't perfect.
Suggestions:
- Revert to a passive that 'gains' something for Taric, such as mana, health, stacking armor/magic resistance buffs etc, instead of focusing around dealing damage.
- Use a trigger that fulfills Taric's goals as a supportive tank - such as triggering from taking physical damage, champion/monster basic attacks etc.
- As a support, Taric's item choices are highly situational and thus having a passive scale from a primarily purchased stat is frustrating when that stat isn't what the situation calls for - and when it is the passive is usually an afterthought for buying it.
#Imbue
No suggestions.
#Shatter
- Scaling solely with armor makes it feel twice as weak against AP based champions and poke, which while defensively this is fine it suffers offensively which is mostly just frustrating.
- Taric's situational item pool can make all points of this ability much weaker if heavy armor isn't in the situation.
- The armor reduction doesn't seem particularly useful to Taric unless he is with an AD based ally, which sort of limits the utility he can offer all of his teammates after lane phase ends.
Suggestions:
- Passive: Taric cannot take more than X% of his maximum health from a single attack or spell. Active: Unchanged, but Taric loses his own defensive benefit.
- Alter the 12% aura to something similar from above, reducing an ally's damage taken from X, Y or the other but lacking this trait himself.
- Alter the armor reduction, as it has no benefit to Taric himself and only a small select pool of champions otherwise (looking at Graves and other bursty marksmen) where it's overpowering while being weak in all other situations. *Passive: Aura that reducted incoming damage for nearby champions by a small amount (thinking 3/3.5/4/4.5/5% if not lower). Attacking a champion buffed by Shatter would cause you to gain a Gemmed debuff that does nothing but stack up to X for Y seconds. Active: Taric could activate the ability to "shatter" the debuffs at the cost his aura, and the debuffs would then increase incoming damage to those champions by Z% per stack.
#Dazzle
Historically problematic due to its unavoidablity. Currently outclassed due to its short range and single-target nature.
Suggestion:
- Turn Dazzle in to a linear skill-shot dash. Taric would dash foward a short distance - to the tune of 500 range, so much shorter than the average Marksman attack range.
- Remains single-target. First champion is the only champion damaged and stunned.
Benefits:
- A successful dash would place Taric where he wants to be to get the most from Shatter and Radiance.
- As a skill-shot dash it could optionally give him the mobility to move himself over small ledges - something no other traditional support can do without restrictions.
- As a skill-shot that is not auto-targeted enemies benefit from being able to escape after the cast. Currently, flashing doesn't help unless you do it over a wall, or sometimes in to brush and only then because it stops the follow up - not the Dazzle.
Lore-friendly:
- It retains use of his shield, which is currently where his Dazzle projectile comes from.
- It throws him in to the front of a fight, as a guardian Taric feels best in the frontlines protecting those who need him from those who would injure them.
#Radiance
Nothing is wrong with Radiance, but...
Suggestion:
- Taric's next basic attack lowers its target's AD and AP by X; for Y seconds Taric radiates an aura that increases his AD and AP by X and his nearby allies' by (X/2).
UPDATED: 8/4/2014
