Someone told me Taric was "fine" as a champion

Nhifu·Sep 17, 2014·2 votes·1,841 views

His armor passive, barely negates armor pen, even if the enemy team had a Vi / Jarvan he wouldn't negate their abilities (I hope you know Vi and Jarv have armor pen skills)

If his passive gave MR. . . Or if he had natural cooldown . .

I think he'd be an "okay" champion.

His ultimate gives everyone attack damage, only one person needs AD and that's the ADC

Example : Nami ult gives her whole team chances to attack "more", so ideally = more damage than the puny AD taric gives

If Tarics ult reset his cooldowns, that would be interesting. Or only gave his team (not himself) a better attack buff.

Yet again, even if all of this happens and we get a taric buff I still don't think he would match up against other supports.

13 Comments

Willahelm FulberSep 17, 20141 votes

Taric is designed to build a lot of armor (and some MR). He works best in comps that Malphite works best in, where the enemy just has a lot of AD with very little magic damage. Malphite isn't that useful against magic damage comps, just like Taric. His ult gives everyone Attack Damage... and Ability Power. Check your sources first.

As for how he matches up against most supports... Even Nami has a heal and two forms of Crowd Control. His laning type I'd match up to "passive-agressive" where his skills do really well in stopping trades and keeping allies healthy, he can turn it around really quickly with a stun-ult-shatter.

CaptainWednesdaySep 17, 20141 votes

Thing is, Taric does every support's job, but not good enough.

For example(s):

Do you need a healer? Soraka, Sona, and Nami.

Do you need a tanky support with hard CC? Leona, Thresh, and Braum.

Do you need empowering Auras for your team? Sona.

Do you need Armor shred? Kayle.

Taric does all these things, but not well enough. He is on the line of overpowered and underpowered at all times. Right now, crippling mana costs, awkward passive, unidentifiable aura range (and hidden power), and very low damage output makes him weak throughout the game.

Willahelm FulberSep 17, 20141 votes

So you're looking for a "Taric" situation? Try him against Leona or Thresh. His disengage gives him a strong point against either of them, and rarely on morgana too because she'll use her black shield on her adc before ulting (or you could just pop it with your ult-w). The other factor is that, as I said, he thrives against teams that do a vast majority of their damage as physical. Look for the telltale signs of an assassin mid and AD/tanky jungler.

CaptainWednesdaySep 17, 20141 votes

Problem is, his disengage is also is engage. The stun is used to setup kills/fights. If he waits around to use it, you won't be capitalizing at all. He can also only stun one target, meaning you still have another body to deal with.

Morgana would be a strong pick against Taric! The slow travel speed of his stun sphere allows Morgana to easily Black Shield it away. Along with her large amount of Magic damage, Taric's armor buff does nothing against her. If you need someone that counters AD comps, Malphite, Shen, and Rammus can do more for you. Taric's armor buff gives a small amount.

Willahelm FulberSep 18, 20141 votes

That's exactly why I said he's strong against Leona/Thresh. Leona can't really do much once her combo's over, and Thresh can't do anything while his q is active so use that time to stun the adc. As for Morgana, there's this strategy called "slow-rolling" where you save spells to see where it's needed, and if she puts it on the adc you stun her and walk away, if she puts it on herself while ulting you ult-w-stun her and it'll be down.

As for the counters to AD comps, which of those makes a strong support? Malphite, Shen, and Rammus are all really low-tier as supports, but they do well in other lanes (mid, jungle, or top).

CaptainWednesdaySep 18, 20141 votes

True, but I'd rather not sit around and wait for my enemy to do something. That's not how a Paladin should play or feel in combat.

As for the champions I listed prior, those were just meant in general good counters to AD comps. I would hope that those three wouldn't make it to the bot lane.

Willahelm FulberSep 18, 20141 votes

I actually used to play a lot of shen support as a pick against vayne for that taunt. I could trip her up so she couldn't get in the silver bolts proc every time. But yeah, he's not a strong support.

As for "sitting around and reacting" yeah it's a very weak way to run it but sometimes you have to wait it out. On the plus side if you have an adc that can poke the enemy out (caitlyn anyone?) even if they try to go rope-a-dope with you you can win lane with heavy sustain and a bit of cc.

CaptainWednesdaySep 18, 20141 votes

Nami actually has three forms of Crowd Control. Be sure to be 100% accurate before you scold others for being incorrect.

Nami's Q: Stun Nami's E: Triple On-Hit Slow Nami's R: Knockup -> Slow

Willahelm FulberSep 18, 20141 votes

I should have specified: Hard Crowd Control. Slows mean nothing if you can flash away.

Lumus AvatarSep 17, 20141 votes

Building him for his heal also makes him a very useful support since he is one of the only champs that heals himself for as much as he heals his ally, at the same time.

SerBlaiseSep 17, 20141 votes

I think he is clunky, and where braum can offer enough utility to make up for a lack of damage, Taric cannot. Taric is a very passive champ; you can't harass with your stun because the CD is soooo long and it does next to no damage. You're only choice is to play passively and try to peel with the stun and wait for a good initiation. It can work, but he is definitely outclassed by champs that can do both (braum, leona).

Old Man TeetoSep 17, 20141 votes

Taric was made more item dependent with the last set of changes.

He was always best against AD Centric teams and WITH an AD Centric team (because of armor aura and AoE armor shred on W)

Since he can't lane against any of the top lane AP's, and teams tend to run 2~3 AP's frequently, pros aren't going to waste their time learning Taric.

67chromeSep 17, 20141 votes

Taric is really strong in places like Dominion. He's more of a bruiser with solid utility than a straight up support now - if he builds tanky DPS you can't escape from him ever, and negating armor pen is brutal against pretty much every AD. Usually with an item like Omen, just about any melee is almost invincible against any assassin or marksman in a 1v1. They can't stop a split-push and they can't get caught alone by you until Last Whisper or a massive disparity in gold/exp happens. Taric negating armor pen when it's actually grabbed (to his entire team no less) isn't a marginal benefit. You can also grab a fair bit of damage with armor, Sunfire Cape, Thornmail, and Iceborne Gauntlet pack a solid punch - more than enough to duel marksman and AD assassins and win.

As for his AD aura - I think you mean Sona's aura or Nami's AA ehnace is something only marksman want. Flat AD is something a wide range of bruisers and assassins have pretty solid synergy with. Champions like Zed, Riven, Garen, Kha'Zix, Lee Sin, and more benefit heavily from AD without needing to constantly auto-attack. A solid 65~70% of the fighters and assassins in the game favor AD as their damage stat, and otherwise committed AP champions like Akali, Katarina, and Malzahar can still get respectable syenrgy with AD in odd places.

Also, Taric himself benefits a solid deal from AD - when his cooldowns are running it's hammer time, and getting that CDR by pummeling foes in the face with 30~~70 AD and 5~~25+ armor penetration. It synergizes increadibly well with his passive. Alistar's 60~90 AD steroid largely pushes the same general play style. When cooldowns are running you still get to be a nusance by smashing faces in.