Boards›Gameplay

Thoughts on Taric's Rework

Mazyr·4/22/2016, 2:46:01 PM·1 votes·1,685 views

After getting a few games under my belt with the new Taric, I felt I could give some feedback on the rework.

Things I like: I like that Taric still “feels” like Taric. He's a protector, he scales with armor, and he loves to get into the thick of things to make the most of his passive. I like how Riot made his contributions to the game more noticeable, not so much for my sake but for my the sake of my teammates. Before the rework, if you didn't know what Taric did it looked like he did nothing except walk around and occasionally stun someone. Now you see Taric's contribution in the form of shields, multiple-man heals, and his ultimate. No one noticed the armor-shred on Shatter, or the 70AD and 70AP that Taric's old ultimate provided, but everyone notices 2.5 seconds of invulnerability.

Things I don't like: Though I haven't had the honor of taking Taric anywhere but support, the loss of practically all damage from his kit seems to shackle him to the support role, since he will always need someone else around for damage. Sure he was a protector before, but he was a protector who would occasionally bash your face in with a hammer and surprise you with his burst. Now he has absolutely no burst, and relies exclusively on his passive for damage. If someone is stupid enough to stand there and let you wail on them, you can rack the damage in an extended fight (if you cycle your skills in a 1v1 you can pretty much have your heal up ever 2-3ish seconds, which just perpetuates the cycle), but I'm sure people are going to learn not to duel Taric right quick.

Do I think Riot overtuned Taric? Well, it might just be people's inexperience with dealing with the new Taric, but certain points come to mind that point towards the affirmative, to wit:

The range on his W(Bastion) link: The range at which you can maintain the link with your ally and cast your spells through them is huge. For example, there was a team fight in front of dragon where I was caught with cc and forced to flash away at less than 100hp, heading for tribush. The enemy team forgot about me and turned to the Lucian on our team, who had my Bastion. From tribush I was able to ult him, heal him, apply my cc, and net him a triple kill, while being in absolutely no threat.

Also, even though Taric has no mobility of his own, he is precisely as mobile as the most mobile champ on his team due to Bastion, and it can be rather oppressive. You want to know what Yi or Zed are like with hard cc added to their kit? Play Taric and you'll find out. The results are not pretty for the opposing team.

I expect the link range is going to get shorter in upcoming patches.

The delay and hit-box on his E(Dazzle): On paper, Dazzle seems pretty balanced: after all, Taric has to walk up to you to hit it and it's pretty telegraphed. The problem with that is once you Bastion with someone, you stop trying to hit Dazzle through yourself and focus on hitting it through your teammate. In addition, even though it is delayed it seems to me to execute faster than a Nami bubble, and Nami cannot reposition herself or the bubble while casting. The final point on Dazzle is the hitbox indicator seems to suffer the same problem as Illaoi's tentacles, in that the actual skill is a little wider and a little longer than the indicator.

His ult: I've only played him solo laddering, but I shudder to think what will happen once the pros get their hands on him... a coordinated team working around the channel would be able to engage or reengage with near impunity, and even though 2.5 seconds of invulnerability doesn't sound like a lot, in a team fight it is an eternity. Just in my own experience, there was a team fight where we had a Wukong who Decoyed, Nimbus Striked into their backline and ulted. Since he had my Bastion, I channeled my ult while his ult was going, and once he was done he was invulnerable. He then proceeded to 1v3 their backline with absolutely no assistance while we dealt with the other two. Wukong ended up with a double kill, Tristana finished off Ashe, and we got ourselves a tower, without losing a single player. And that was with no coordination other than fast fingers. Imagine a pro game where every engage when Taric's ult is up goes that way.

Needless to say, I see some nerfs and a lot of bans in Taric's future.

PS If anyone is actually interested in the topic, I could add an addendum in regards to actually playing as/against Taric, but I feel this post has gone on long enough already.

19 Comments

Quepha4/22/2016, 3:45:54 PM2 votes

{quoted}

Things I don't like: Though I haven't had the honor of taking Taric anywhere but support, the loss of practically all damage from his kit seems to shackle him to the support role, since he will always need someone else around for damage.

Q auto auto E auto auto Q auto auto W auto auto Q auto auto costs a ton of mana but lets you keep up a really fast pace on your auto attacks for a long period of time. He seems to synergize really well with IBG/TF and Titanic hydra, possibly with other on-hits too.

Nanuk Pihoqahiak4/22/2016, 2:51:02 PM2 votes

It actually feels like he does more damage. I don't have a reference for his old numbers, but his passive contributes a lot of damage in top lane due to two swings per spell getting augmented damage and his Q resetting faster, which in turn gives him more swings. He also gained a shield that he can use which helps with trading and you have Grasp / his Q for sustain now. The only thing I dislike is that he struggles in solo lanes against characters with movement boosts or dashes since they changed his stun.

DarkRitual4/22/2016, 3:53:39 PM2 votes

I miss being able to minion deny the enemy by healing it and throwing their last hit game off.

I do like new Taric. Currently I've found the strongest thing to do with him is channel the Dazzle then flash on top of the adc. Surprise bu... stuns. He is decently tanky, and lategame I have done fine with him. My build goes FotM, Sightstone, Ionian Distortion boots (rip enchantments though), Zeke's, Locket, and whatever other teamcomp situational items you need. Go with Windspeakers to pump your heal, natural shield on Bastion, and both your item shields. Max Flash cdr gives you that flashdazzle ability. You can pressure front line while bastioned to a backline to keep heals flowing all over, or just pair with a frontline trying to make Dazzle plays. Pairing with Maokai, Dazzle during Twisted Advance locks at least one down long enough to make something happen.

The Bearded Bard4/22/2016, 3:58:44 PM1 votes

I think the linked spellcasts should have reduced effects that scale upwards with levels. Or simply just reduced effects. Like you said, a Yi or Shyvana running at you with invulnerability and an AOE stun isn't a fun aspect to think about.

Magnum Mack4/22/2016, 6:41:43 PM1 votes

The drawback to taric is having the forethought and coordination to handle his own kit. The bastion tether isn't too long to me. His stun really does seem longer than it shows, but that'll come down to practice and learning it. He does seem to deal really little damage though. Reactivating his bastion makes for some saves, but he really needs some coordination to get good.

If you have teamwork and good cohesion with your partner. I went 5 out of 6 Taric games with really clean wins and one game where we had an adc who just wouldn't work with us. All these games were without coms. Taric is really dependent on his adc more so than nami, sona or morg. He can't really go do anything without a partner around. If you like a support that's tanky but not a super initiator, Taric is for you. He CAN initiate, but he's so remarkably good at the peel and defensive aspects of being a support.

Swapping bastion tethers is really the mechanic I work on most. The stuns are obvious and telegraphed for a while. Switching bastion targets for ideal set ups is an art. I can see my jungler about to chase under turret, bastion him, heal and start a stun. Bam, he gets a kill that would have otherwise walked away.

Taric does great with Tristana since she can rocket jump with his stun going (this was my favorite adc partner), Lucian and Ezreal because they are mobile, Vayne because they always seem to like tumbling into the fray and I've been enjoying him with MF just because I enjoy her wombo and setting up her q's. As far as teammates he does great with, I got a cho'gath fed mid game by switching bastion to him every time we grouped, starting a stun and setting up his feasts. Same with a yi, xin and a shyvana who got bastioned as she dove in as a dragon for a stun. It was great.

I will say this, Taric is not great against Morgana. She can blackshield that stun easy because it has such a long windup. Her Q can't be stopped by him unless he pops an ult and his heals aren't going to scale well against the sustained dmg she can put out. Her harass is just a pain. Nami also has an edge because she can poke at range, out-sustain him and her skills can give a speed boost to escape his stuns.

I would not say he is overpowered at all at the moment. He can be utilized well by someone who's using their noggin and with some cooperation from a team. He doesn't NEED the team to work with HIM so much as him working with THEM. Get some good communication going thoough and you can really make some plays happen.

MLDzXnRRR4/22/2016, 2:54:35 PM1 votes

He is basically useless earlygame.

Zalieri4/22/2016, 3:35:43 PM1 votes

He was always useless early game. Once you get that iceborn and cdr 40%, you have lvl 18 powerspike kappa