Guys, what do you think about Taric game-wise?
We all saw Ironstylus threads about Taric visuals and what people would expect from a Taric VU, but what do you guy think about his gameplay? What should the Gem Knight do in the game? Where should he excel, where should he struggle, which part of his kit are too old, which part of his kit are unique? I remember back in season 2 , before the Lulu/Thresh/Nami era that Janna and Taric were the dominant support, and while Janna , with her kit unchanged, was able to keep up, Taric struggles even after several tentative changes to his kit.
My opinion about Taric's kit, what I think make him unique, and what should be kept with a future relaunch. Strategically, Taric should be a tank-defender support. Braum is very strong against projectiles, but struggles against people who can dive past him and on top of the priority targets. On the other hand, Taric should be the one weaker against magic or physical long range harass, but stronger when it comes to defend a squishy from an assassin/fighter that dives him while Taric is reasonably near. **So, the identity of Taric is that of a fighter that helps his teammates by disabling enemy assailant once they get too close, while providing heal and buffs to those who fight near him, and rewarding him for staying in the fight. **
His passive has been tinkered with a lot and I like the intent: rewarding Taric for landing autos. However, rather than reducing cooldowns, an interesting iteration would be an extra effect based on the previously cast ability. The rest of his kit is not that bad, except the ult and the stun. The heal is fine, maybe I'd just increase a little the AP ratio, and balance it with a little weakness, like a small channel time (that cannot be interrupted, but prevents Taric from healing mid-action while chasing and fleeing without slowing down). The W imho has a nice flavour, has you must consider always if using it to reduce the enemy armor. It's not like it's completely devoid of gameplay like old soraka's passive, since you barter offense for defense. Dazzle is what I'd tinker with. Simply put, since the release of many more stuns in the support role, it feels unrewarding (Nami/Thresh etc., plus the cc of Lulu and Zyra). Now, here is the most radical change I would make. I'd make Dazzle targeting a broader, shorter version of Lucian Q: It can be activated on any target near taric, projects a linear path of light that travels istantly (a laser like Lucian Q/vel'Koz R, and stuns the targets in close range while slowing the target further behind. Also, the stun and slow duration scales with the distance. **Basically, Dazzle would be a 2 second stun in melee range, 1 second stun at max range(625), and behind the 625 range, up to 1000 range, targets hit by dazzle would be slowed by 1 second. ** However, the targets hit after the first one would only be stunned/slow for half the effect. Radiance is a ball of stats, and I'd also introduce something more cool here:On first cast, it makes a point blank aoe that deals magic damage, and increases nearby targets damage by a percentage (reverse Maokai ult!) . On the first autoattack after casting ult (basically, when he procs his passive with Radiance) Taric would make a circular swing hitting enemy all near him, applying his passive damage to all of them, while also gaining bonus AD and AP based on the enemy AD and AP.
Those are just some wild ideas, but what do you except from a Taric rework?
