[Rework] Taric, the Gem Knight

ShadowKnight1224··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.

^^^^^^~

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.

^^^^^^~

Feedback is most welcome!

17 Comments

CaptainWednesday2 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!

ShadowKnight12242 votes

Thank you for the comment! You raised some very valid points here and I will do my best to address them all.

Passive: While it makes perfect sense to go for the armour theme, I didn't want Taric to be able to just stack a single stat (in this case, Armour) and end up being a beast that can tank physical damage and still dish out quite a bit. Furthermore, while it probably wouldn't have too much impact on him as a support, can you imagine that kind of thing on top lane? Imagine going Taric top and just stacking armour against the bruisers up there! You end up protected from most of what they can do to you while at the same time turning that same protection into a really good offence. You may end up out-trading the bruisers as a humble support! To me, encouraging two different buildpaths (AP and Armour) serves to avoid "easy" itemisation and instead forces the player to consider what is most necessary at the time. Consider also that I have left the heal as-is, which means that it scales both of Taric's AP and his bonus health, which offers a third itemisation path (pure HP) and makes him an interesting champion with different build possibilities.

Imbue: I'm gonna clarify it only affects champions, since I don't want the spell to end up as a souped-up Alistar heal. Given that it only affects champs, I don't really think there should be a max amount of champs healed since the heal decays with distance and it's rather difficult for all champions to be bunched up in the same 100-units circle while in the heat of battle.

Shattering Charge: Thanks! I left the passive armour bonus plus the damage and armour debuff as-is, so the only thing that gets removed is the armour aura, which instead gets traded for the dash itself. Riot has stated a lot lately that they aren't a big fan of auras (which is why Sona is getting a rework), since they are a source of "invisible power" that cannot be counterplayed by the enemy.

The Razzle-Dazzle: Actually, the fact that Taric is a starting champion is the reason I made it a skillshot. What better way to train new players to aim their skillshots than with a beefy tanky support who can heal himself? Missing skillshots with frail supports like Zyra, Morgana or Lux can spell doom for the untrained player, but with Taric's tankiness and healing, it can provide new players with the feeling that if they keep at it, they can make beautiful things happen (unlike the frustration they get when they are playing a frail support that absolutely MUST land their skillshots in order to avoid dying horribly). I'll think about amping the damage or duration slightly, since you raise a very valid point.

The Diamond Pillar: I am slightly worried that the values are too high, but I am also comparing it to ultimates like Kayle's and Tryndamere's, who can absorb truly outrageous amount of damage for their duration, so I am trying to find a happy medium between "dangerous enough" and "overbearingly dangerous". As I mentioned earlier, Riot has repeatedly stated it isn't a fan of "invisible power" and I felt that adding offensive bonuses on top of a big shield felt a bit too overloaded.

Plus, you yourself bring up a lot of good points on why auras are hard to balance. An aoe damage skill having invisible or unclear boundaries is relatively okay, since it forces enemies to stay on their toes and guesstimate if they're safe or not. Having an unclear aura is just flat-out detrimental to the team. Something a Rioter said (I fail to remember the Rioter's name right now) is that the problem with Sona (and the reason she's getting a rework) was that her auras weren't really appreciated by her teammates, because they didn't change the way her teammates played. They would keep on doing what they were doing, only invisibly better. I feel Taric's ult is another example of that. When he ults, allies around him continue their usual playstyle, only invisibly better.

I will definitely go do some number-crunching to see if I should touch up the shield numbers though!

Thanks again for the reply!

CaptainWednesday2 votes

Glad you could review my points!

Although, I'd like to discuss his ultimate in further detail. You mentioned invisible power. It's good that you're up to date with the Rioters! With that, I think the power would not necessarily be "invisible". Upon using the ultimate on someone, all your enemies would know that in addition to having a powerful defensive shield, the target would also have increased AP and AD, making them all the more dangerous.

ShadowKnight12242 votes

Normally I'd be afraid of making the ultimate too powerful, but I am tempted by the idea that it makes the ultimate difficult to ignore. Zilean's ultimate, for example, can be ignored until the duration runs out (unless timed perfectly). If this ultimate is purely defensive, it stands to reason that it will get ignored until it runs out, but if I add the AD and AP bonuses, and make them end when the shield shatters, it gives enemies an incentive to waste their spells and attacks on the shield. Shattering the shield would end the bonuses prematurely, yes, but it would need the enemies to sacrifice a significant amount of power doing so.

Thanks for bringing that up to me, I do like the idea quite a bit.

Bee Positive2 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?).

ShadowKnight12241 votes

Yeah, I know the skillshot change is a little dramatic, but it offers more chances to counterplay than a targeted stun. And as I replied above, if Taric is seen as a starting champion, he can be good for teaching people how to aim skillshots with the safety of a champion that is naturally tanky and has a heal (so that missing the cc skillshot doesn't spell certain doom).

It's definitely possible to get to 20 stacks if the fight goes on long enough, since his ult applies 5 stacks and his W applies 2 (and the 5-second decay refreshes every time a new stack is added).

The whole reason for the 5-second decay is to give Taric a window to continually stack Shards. The philosophy for tanks is that they need a reason to be focused, rather than ignored. A good tank gets more dangerous the longer the fight goes on. Amumu is a good example of this, given that his tears deal percentage of HP, so if the fight goes on for long, he will whittle down the whole team no matter how tanky they are. We see this with Leona's passive as well: if she's allowed to spam her spells on the enemy team, her allies can just proc her passive over and over for a lot of free extra magic damage.

Taric's stacks make his continual presence in the fight more and more dangerous, and guarantees that if any squishy gets away with low health, a maxed 20 stacks (equal to 100% of Taric's AP) will almost certainly finish them off. I know this is less than ideal for a support (carries should get the kills), but the psychological aspect ("I must take out Taric before he can get his stacks on me!") contributes to his role as a tanky support that gives enemies a reason to not ignore him.

I am considering what you're saying about the 5-second window, however. I will think of something to make that window more interactible.

Thanks for the comment!

LilStacey872 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.

ShadowKnight12241 votes

Thank you for the comment! Glad the ult has such a positive response. Yes, the stun should hit the first unit it hits, regardless of whether it's a champion or not, because it keeps him on par with other hard-cc skillshots in the game (such as Elise's). Given that now it's a skillshot you can miss (or stand behind a minion to prevent), I increased the stun duration slightly. A 2 second stun is pretty devastating for a carry when timed correctly.

LilStacey872 votes

Oh, ok. I can see where you're doing with it now. Thanks

Nοno2 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.

ShadowKnight12241 votes

Thank you for the comment and kind words! I really wish he got a VU, but they seem to save those for underplayed champions (like Karthus and Twitch) in the hopes it inspires people to play them again. And since Taric still occasionally sees play every blue moon... :(

SnowFall2 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

ShadowKnight12241 votes

Haha, no worries, I'm perfectly aware. Ideally what I'd like would be a creative discussion with the community about the things that could be done to improve Taric, which might get noticed by Riot and let them know we really want the Gem Knight to be up to par with the rest of the supports. Even if they never check this thread, it would be nice to let them know we care about old champs being up to date. :)

Skias1 votes

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

ShadowKnight12241 votes

Thresh's ultimate deals 250 / 400 / 550 (+100% AP) per broken wall...

But I see what you mean. I'll tone down the damage. Are you sure you're not confusing the damage absorbed with the damage dealt? The damage dealt is actually really low...

Skias1 votes

It just seems like he would be right back to hard burst again. Riot is looking to enhance his Paladin feel.

ShadowKnight12241 votes

I'm gonna repeat what I asked: are you sure you're reading the ability correctly? I don't understand how such a low damage can be considered bursty. Let's take a look at an idealised level 18 Taric support build. He gets Face of the Mountain, Sightstone, Thornmail or Randuin's, Warmog's or Spirit Visage, and let's say we're super generous and give him a Zhonya's because it's an item that gives him both AP and armour. This doesn't put his AP anywhere near 200 but let's say he's got 200 AP due to runes, masteries, baron buff, his own ult, whatever.

Let's add up how bursty his ult is: at rank 3, that's 150+40 magic damage and applies 5 stacks of Shard for 50 extra magic damage. Even at max Shards stacks the max ult damage (with the 20 stacks of Shards included) is 390 magic damage. And that's assuming Taric gets his hands on 200 AP. Even if you wanted to play a full AP glass cannon build, with 600 AP, his ult still only hits for 270 damage. It's the passive that would be doing a whooping 600 damage at max stacks.

More from Community Creations

More by ShadowKnight1224