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Am I the only one disappointed by the gameplay impact of Taric's rework?

Shadragon·4/6/2016, 3:38:05 AM·4 votes·878 views

I just want to start this out by saying that Taric's visual update is fantastic and is exactly what he needed. Riot did a wonderful job there. Easily one of the best visual updates to date. Unfortunately, his gameplay update is not as great.

Old Taric's problem was that he used to be overpowered and overpicked compared to other supports and was hit with kneejerk nerfs as a result that were far too heavy even then. After that, Riot began to release more and more supports that did everything old Taric could and more. Thresh and Leona made even pre-nerf Taric's potential as an aggressive support look about as potent as AP Zed. His healing was gutted so he would fit in with the Great Healer Purge, and then to add insult to injury, Braum came along with all of Taric's peel and much much more. To put it simply, he was gutted, then powercreeped into oblivion.

The new Taric does not fix his old problems. Other supports can still do everything he does, better than he does, while still bringing unique options to the table that he can't compete with in any way. He's still limited to a little bit of healing and a little bit of damage and a little bit of CC. Meanwhile other supports blow him out of the water. Thresh gets lots of CC and displacement and mobility and shields and damage while being the only champion with access to something like his lantern. Braum gets lots of CC and mobility and durability for himself and his allies, while providing the unique utility of his shield. Bard gets heavy damage, decent CC, mobility(and a pretty lame heal) and the unique utility of his ultimate AND his portal. Lulu gets insane damage and CC as well as her extremely powerful ultimate. Even old champions like Blitzcrank, Nautilus, Leona, Alistar and even Zilean now bring more to the table than Taric could ever hope to. Riot's answer to this? Taric's new ultimate. The rest of Taric's kit is barely enough to make up half of a champion, so to compensate for that you tried to shove another half of a champion into one skill. Now he gets to be just as strong as the competition, but all of his basic abilities are still useless in comparison. He just has an overloaded ultimate instead.

Speaking of his ultimate, it does not look fun or healthy in any way shape or form. While playing as Taric, it's just going to be a source of anxiety and frustration due to the pressure of using it properly, the backlash you will get from your team every time they're not happy with the way you used it, and the lackluster feeling of successfully using it. Sure, it was your spell that won the teamfight, but it won't feel like it. You just turned Zed and Jinx blue while they jumped in and did all the work. While playing against Taric, it's going to be one of the most frustrating abilities in the game. It's all the toxicity of Kayle's ult, multiplied by a factor of 5. In fact, I remember there being discussion in the past about removing Kayle's ult for exactly these reasons. The worst part is that it's going to be disgustingly overpowered in higher levels of play, and you can bet that it will be the last thing to get nerfed when Taric becomes 100% pick or ban in his first esports appearance. It will be a lightning rod for nerfs that will sap the very last remnants of Taric's gameplay identity from him, and once again Taric will have been ruined by yet another rework.

Get rid of this ult and give him something fun and interesting and healthy for himself and the rest of the game. Please. I just want Taric to be decent again.

10 Comments

III DNA III4/6/2016, 3:43:45 AM5 votes

I actually like that it will take more skill to land a stun now rather than just click and auto stun. Also, the new stun can be better since it will hit multiple targets instead of 1. In a sense, a mini sona ult that is a bit slower. It's FAR better than a single target (skilless) stun.

Droogzy4/6/2016, 3:23:15 PM3 votes

I disagree.

Bastion is what makes him such an interesting champion and alone is what separates him from other supports, its a dynamic that is going to make Taric strong. Not only can he be on the front line soaking damage and locking down carries, he can simultaneously protect the back-line without even needing to be next to them, there's not a single support who can maintain such a strong presence in both front and backline the way this new Taric does (Maybe Lulu, but that's pushing it.).

Thresh is a jack of all trade, he doesn't really excel in one area, he's not capable of being as tanky as Taric will be, nor does he posses ANY form of healing, much less an AoE heal like Taric will have.

Braum is largely a backline protector, he's not going to be chasing after carries on other team to lock them down. He can do it, but its not effective.

Bard is exclusively on the backline.

Lulu is also exclusively on the backline.

I could go down the list some more, but its just repeating myself. I don't think there's a single champion who is going to be able to maintain backline protection and lock down the way this Taric can.

Once someone has gotten his new mechanics down its going to be scary to see what he can do. And that's not even including his ultimate, just his basic kit.

I do question the ultimate, but it's not the worst ultimate thematically (Fiora's is worst IMO) and is definitely a step up over his old one game-play wise, it's definitely not toxic, enemy team can see it coming and has split seconds to react and make a decision and disengage, Kayle's was deemed toxic because it's instant with no warning, there's no way around it barring CC stacking, pretty different scenarios.

But as far as pressure goes? No more pressure then using Thresh's box or Braum's slow field or Lulu's enlarged growth/health. If you mess up, worst case scenario you waste it.

Bard's ult followed by Tahm Kench's without a doubt still takes the cake as one of the highest pressure ult (in support role) to make sure you get it right, both of those ultimates are ultimates if used incorrectly, can end disastrously. Either you get some positive use out of Taric's ultimate, or you get nothing out of it.

Lastly, boring is subjective. What you find fun is another person's definition of boring and vice versa. You really have no right/ground to determinate what people find to be boring or fun. Just looking at Taric's kit, I'm excited for it's release onto the PBE. And looking on the gameplay board, you'll find other people express similar feelings about Taric's gameplay.

FantasySniper4/6/2016, 5:19:35 AM1 votes

Old Taric isn't that bad. What he doesn't have in early game kill potential is made up by mid to late game teamfight potential. The main problem with his kit is the focus on armor. He needs it to scale properly, so if he builds anything else first, he ends up lagging behind.

The new one is more multi-purpose, and genuinely interesting to play. AoE stun, heal, and even invulnerability is outrageous potential, and unlike Bard, Kindred, or Tahm, it's not harmful in the slightest if misused. It's like having a Sona on your team, except you trade the speed and reflexes for tankiness. Which is a fair trade-off, in my opinion.

iTaLenTZ4/6/2016, 5:41:29 AM1 votes

I completely agree with everyting you said

OurLestrade4/26/2016, 10:16:50 AM1 votes

I honestly find the gameplay of his rework really dull. Heal and shield do little outside of lane (Yes, fancy double casts, I get it woo), and that ult... SO BORING! Just feels like a stun bot to me :l

WinBoat4/6/2016, 5:22:06 AM1 votes

you haven't seen new tarics gameplay yet, hes pretty good, can toe to toe with most, and the stun is probably going to be nerfed a bit.

Big Lincoln4/6/2016, 3:49:28 AM1 votes

no

Taric is the only support whose abilities benefits the front line more than the back. He's sort of a proxy tank in his ability to W them for a shield, then combine his CC with theirs while existing somewhere else (also something other supports can't do; exert presence in two places.) He has GREAT synergy with other tanks thanks to giving them his own passive armor steroid on top of anything they've built or any defensive steroids of their own. It's refreshing to see a support that's not fine-tuned to cater specifically to ADC.

His ultimate's got fairly interesting interaction to it, even if it's sort of bland and uninspired for who he is. You have 2 and a half seconds to forcefully remove him or whoever he's W'd to from the fight, thus invalidating it unless his team follows them, or setting up to AoE them while they clump for the invincibility. Much healthier than Kayle's ult which has no cast time or delay and is on a much lower cooldown, not to mention -- completely free.