Taric Balancing

Edit: I am aware a Taric rework was announced. Many times. I'm making this post because despite being informed that the Taric rework was in progress, it's clearly never seen the light of day. Shen's rework took a remarkably smaller amount of time.

So I've dealt with this problem for a long while, but season 6 is here and now we have the announced Shen rework, as well as the still in progress Riven rework.

Currently, Shen and Riven are two champions who both see a lot of play due to Shen being a prime AoE taunt who, if given the opportunity, can wind up the entire enemy team all on his own for one giant wombo combo of destruction. He also comes with the neat utility of a champion saver, allowing other lanes to dive their opponents with the knowledge that if it goes south they get a nice juicy chunky shield and an ally tank to come save them.

And Riven? Do I really need to say anything about why she's played so often?

Despite these two being such regularly played champions (as much as the rest of the champs) they are being reworked.

And yet, we have a champion who I truly think not a single league player would ever want on their team if it was a fair comp (Challenge VS Challenger, Diamond VS Diamond, etc) as well as the same knowledge level of the game.

Taric has died out, he's almost completely useless at this point. The game and the meta have aged so far beyond him that the only reason he's still in the game is so Bots have a champ to play that gives new players an advantage.

Yes, I am aware Taric top is a thing, but it's not a viable thing. It's a fun thing where you pick Taric, go up against someone who has no clue what Taric even does anymore because he wasn't played outside of bots, and then destroy them because you have a nifty 2 second stun.

Taric's passive is great when he can use it. It scales off his armor, making him a prime tank to dive, stun, and get a bop on the enemies head for some decent damage from a champ that's supposed to be a support.

Then there is his heal. His heal is by far the most atrocious heal in the game. Unless you are laning with a tower-diving ADC who constantly engages so that your heal gets your passives constant 2 second CD proc. At max level Tarics heal is an incredible 14 seconds, an if you build 45% CDR (you shouldn't as a support, but lets go with it) it's still 7 seconds. This means at most in a full combo Taric will get two heals off in a teamfight before he can't do anything else.

Taric's W is an amazing team fight skill, 12% bonus armor to all nearby allies? And he can reduce the enemies frontline armor? That is until you realize that no, that's not what will happen at all. Tarics "aura" is the same range as a Sona aura. Im sorry, was Taric planning to frontline? Guess your ADC is about to feel both of Zeds knives in their back, because they don't get any of the bonus armor. Oh you were going to reduce the enemy teams armor? Yeah, maybe the Leona, good thing Leona has an ability that specifically raises her armor back up, and two stuns to back her up.

Tarics stun follows the same line of thought as his heal. He gets to stun a single person for 2 seconds. Cool right? Except not really, because unless he builds 45% CDR he will only stun a single person per team fight, at the base cooldown of 14 seconds at max level. So much for stunning the Zed, because you'll be too busy stunning the Darius.

Finally, Tarics ultimate. Oh yay... Taric slams his hammer into the ground, angrily tickling the opponents front line bruiser Darius who has probably already half healthed Taric, and then giving himself 30/50/70 bonus stats into his AD and AP stats. Because a tank really needs those. Oh did I mention he gives half of those stats to all nearby allies? That's amazing! 35 free AD and AP to everyone on your team? Except no, because it has the same range as Sona's regular abilities, who also happens to have a full AoE stun so... Why did you pick Taric again?

All in all, League is no longer the "stun the assassin save the adc" meta it once was. So why is Taric still here? He isn't a bruiser, he isn't a tank because he can't do anything but throw out one or two heals and stun a single person, and he can't force anyone to focus him like every other tank in the game. Speaking of, lets take a quick look shall we?

Alistair - A tank who doesn't need to build tank, just build all the AP health items and grab your ult and you can do decent damage while CCing literally the entire enemy team. Leona - CC the entire enemy team and become a giant impassable wall with an AoE stun, a snare, and a single target stun on a very low CD. Braum - Literally become a wall. And stun the entire enemy team. Nautilus - Root EVERYONE he auto attacks, and target-stun a single person, while remaining a pretty big wall who constantly slows the enemy team. Rammus - He gets damage for building tank, has high move speed abilties, a taunt, and an AoE ult that damages. What else do you need for engage? Sejuani - AoE slow, AoE stun, AoE knockup, she is quite capable of forcing the enemy team to have to deal with her first before her other members. Tahm Kench - If he eats you, get ready for the massive amount of damage you are about to take, tank or not.

You can clearly tell that every other tank has stayed very relevant in the meta, old and new. So why hasn't Taric received his update? He clearly needs it, and it's a huge aggravation when someone on your team picks support Taric, because at that point you can count your bot lane is either a duo-queue, or you've lost and someone else has to carry the game.

Thoughts?