[Rework] Taric, the Gem Knight

ShadowKnight1224·7/22/2014, 6:47:03 PM·3 votes·1,817 views

Taric, as a champion, while possessing a solid all-around kit, fails to measure up to more modern supports in the game, particularly in terms of mobility. These are some ideas I had to bring him up to par while preserving his uniqueness and simplicity.

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Passive: Gemcraft.

Taric's damage-dealing spells apply a stack of Shards on their targets. The debuff then begins to decay over 5 seconds. At the end of this duration, the Shards deal magic damage equal to 5% of Taric's AP per stack. Every time a new stack is applied, the 5-second decay is refreshed. The stack limit is 20.

Q: Imbue.

This spell becomes a circular AoE centred on Taric, 400 units in diametre. Taric and allied champions within 100 units are healed for 100% of the amount. Allied champions further away receive reduced healing (up to 20% the amount, for those furthest away).

W: Shattering Charge.

Passive: Taric reinforces his armour with gems and gains 10/15/20/25/30 bonus armour.

Active: This spell is a 500 units long skillshot dash. The dash ought to be fairly slow, so that the end-point should be easily predictable. All enemy units in its path will be damaged, debuffed and knocked aside (the same way Vi's ultimate moves units away from Vi's path to her target). The values of the magic damage and armour debuff inflicted remain as-is. This spell applies 2 stacks of Shards instead of 1.

E: Dazzle.

This ability becomes a 625-units-long, 50-units-wide skillshot that damages and stuns the first unit it hits. Damage remains the same (including the decreased damage with distance), but stun duration is increased to 1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9/2 seconds.

R: Diamond Pillar

Taric creates a pillar of diamond around target allied champion. This pillar grants the target 15/25/35 AD and AP, and absorbs damage the way Braum's shield does (but from all directions) until it shatters upon reaching its absorption limit or after 8 seconds. Absorbed damage equals 400/600/800 + 100% of Taric's AP. Upon shattering, the diamond pillar deals 50/100/150 + 20% of Taric's AP as magic damage to all enemies within 400 units of the target allied champion. The AD and AP bonuses end when the shield shatters. This spell applies 5 stacks of Shards instead of 1.

Cost: 100 mana. Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds.

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Feedback is most welcome!

17 Comments

CaptainWednesday7/22/2014, 7:47:29 PM2 votes

I love Taric. I think he's fun to play and a classic icon of League. Here are a few of my comments about your rework.

The Passive: I always found Taric to be a heavily Armored paladin that dabbles in leg warmers. That being said, I'm not too keen on the passive scaling with AP over Armor. Taric should keep his Armor dependent theme.

The Imbue: I've always liked AoE healing. That being said, it can typical end up being too weak because of it's maximum heal potential. Can Taric heal minions as well? Is there a maximum number of allies he can heal? Just a few things to clarify. Otherwise, it could end up as an Alistar heal.

The Shattering Charge: I really like the dash mechanic that can make his passive easier to apply as well as his altered stun. If he keeps that Armor scaling, it looks good to me.

The Ol' Razzle Dazzle: This is a complicated one. As one of the supports every player should learn fairly early on in their League career, Taric should be a simple champion. With that comes easy to master skills. What is easier to master than a lock-on stun? It's a tricky subject. Everyone finds his stun to be cheap. Making it to a skillshot is something not everyone wants though. But with his W now a charge, I think it could work. Predictable setup, but it could still work. Although, since it would be a skillshot, I think it would be safe to amp up the damage and stun duration a bit since it's no longer Garen -teed to hit.

The Diamond Pillar: Another problem with Auras arises from Taric's ultimate. It has no range indicator. There's no telling how close you need to be to Taric for the aura to work. I like that it would be a targeted shield. However, the values on it are too high. What if you half the shield values to also apply Taric's current ultimate Aura (the enhanced AD & AP)?

Anyway, I think you did a good job about keeping Taric's simplicity while "modernizing" him. Great job!

Bee Positive7/22/2014, 9:16:17 PM2 votes

I have to agree that the skillshot change for E might not be taken too well, but everything else seems pretty good.

You say the max stacks for his passive is 20. Is it actually possible to get there with his cooldowns as they are (or pre-ult)? Maybe make aa's proc the passive as well, or reset the timer.

Actually going in to the passive, there aren't really a lot of benefits to having the damage detonate after the given time period; you might as well just add the %AP ratio's into his damage abilities themselves, or activate the damage immediately. You could make the spells stack up more damage to make the passive worth it though. For example, make the first stack worth 5%, the second worth 6%, etc. and then make the max stacks lower (That scaling might be bad but you get the idea). Basically that 5 second time period just needs to serve some purpose, be it more damage, slowing, or something else (delayed stun?).

LilStacey877/24/2014, 3:30:51 AM2 votes

I just want to say 1st and Foremost that the Diamond Pillar Ultimate us AWESOME. Had a question about your views on "Dazzle" though, should it stun the 1st UNIT hit, or the 1st ENEMY CHAMP? I was just wondering.

Nοno7/27/2014, 10:05:50 AM2 votes

I really like your rework :) I do agree with the E becoming a skillshot! It will add a bit a of epicness to his kit! I hope he will get his VU and his rework soon. By soon, I mean this year, not in Riot's way, like season 7.

SnowFall7/28/2014, 11:54:01 AM2 votes

I like it, but it is doomed to be ignored by riot. Riot doesn't like anyone doing their job. Countless threads with champions/reworks were ignored, some ideas were just masterpieces, why this one should be an exception? p.s. nothing personal

Skias7/23/2014, 2:22:17 AM1 votes

Ult does more damage then most AP carries, plus defense.