All you have said is that these are matchups he just cannot win and never given specifics on how he can't win them.
Fair enough. Let's talk.
For instance, Zyra is a super easy lane for Tahm. If she tries to all in your ADC with a root then you devour them and nullify that engage, same with Taric if he tries to go for a stun or Braum if he lands a Q on your ADC and tries to all in.
Ok. Makes sense I suppose. Let's consider some things though. onsidering Tahm's W is on a 14 second CD at level 1, Taric E is on a 15 second CD. Zyra E is 12 seconds. Tahm W is 90 mana, while Taric E is 60 mana. Zyra E is 70 mana and scales up to 90 mana. So, if Tahm uses his W to negate an initiate from either champion, his W will still be on cooldown when Zyra E comes up, making another initiate possible. In regards to Taric, both abilities are quite close in CD, so that is a non-factor. However, both Zyra and Taric have lower Mana costs than Tahm, so Tahm should run out of mana before either one, under the assumption that he must use W to save his ADC. Same applies for Braum Q, cost = 50 - 75 and CD = 10 - 6. If you tried to wait until his passive stacked up, you run the risk of letting your ADC take damage that's unnecessary because you want to conserve mana and hope they aren't dumb enough to let his passive trigger.
Here's the other thing, in response to an initiate, Tahm puts himself in danger to save the ADC; when he W's, it means the enemy duo can hit him all they want and his ADC can't respond because they're indisposed. Sure he can run, but damage can still come through, especially if he was stupid enough to get stunned or rooted while saving his carry. I mean, walking is good and all, but with the range of a Caitlyn, the dash of a Lucian, the move speed buff of a Draven, dash of a Corki (unlikely but still), or the slows and range of an Ashe, that's not easy to do without taking at least some damage. And as I've mentioned before, his E has a really bad conversion to serve as a sustain source since you basically get 35 health per 200 damage taken at rank 1.
That's Tahm's greatest strength, the ability to deny the enemy an all in and make them waste mana and summoners trying to kill your carry.
Only argument here is that Tahm uses more mana than most laners to discourage all ins. You're right that it's his strength, but it feels more like a liability since he takes the damage instead of the carry and pays a higher cost to stop it than it took for his foes to start it.
Against poke you play it safe, land Q's when you can for your own poke and be on the look out for opportunities for you to get aggressive, especially if your jungler pings that they are gonna gank.
Fair enough to play safe versus poke when you're melee. But Tahm Q stops at first target hit, so minions can stop your response to poke, especially if your ADC doesn't hit the minions enough and you end up under tower, which tends to happen vs poke. Other stuff like Karma and Zyra ignored minions for the most part, Zyra being the greater offender due to pets plus Q and E. Karma only thing is R + Q being a strong AOE or the point & click root tether. Janna isn't exactly poke oriented, but her Q still passes through minions, W is point & click, and she can get beefy autos. Raka has decent ranged AOE poke that also acts as sustain.
For dealing with getting aggressive, all 4 of the ranged supports I named are pretty good at disengage or preventing engage in the first place. Janna has passive MS or a slow, a linear knock up and slow, and the infamous monsoon. Raka has E, which isn't amazing, but a silence is still something. Zyra has raw damage and a root to stop ganks/trades, and Karma has R + E and W. In these cases, pulling something would almost certainly require a 3 stack stun, W, or ulti in with the jungler, the latter of the 3 being the most probably versus a poke lane. I can remember when Tahm first came out that one of the biggest problems with Tahm support was that you couldn't really use the Q stun or W versus most laners because you couldn't get close enough without getting poked out first by the enemy ADC or knocked away by the enemy Alistar (biggest nuisance I can remember). That all changed really because he got a few support oriented buffs if I remember correctly, but that all seems to have turned around for the worse.
He's perfectly capable of fighting with tanky sups and he's also perfectly capable of dealing with poke and the more you deny the enemy laners an all in the more discouraged they will get, opening up your ability to make aggressive plays of your own. He can still do great damage and be tanky, he is still viable.
I think he can be capable, but I think it's too heavily dependent on the enemy doing stupid things more than the Tahm being a solid player. The psychological aspect of cock-blocking is valid, but that's a level of frustration that Riot has specifically stated is a bad thing with Tahm. Tahm was a frustration to deal with because he immediately negated anything your team did right with one ability, hence why the ability was nerfed several times. Honestly, I always felt Thresh W was much more frustrating than Tahm W. Thresh doesn't even risk anything by throwing the lantern, while Tahm puts his own life on the line to save his carry. The balancing factor for Thresh W is ADCs are idiots.
I don't think Tahm is unviable, I just think it's harder to make him work than a Braum or a Taric or a Thresh. I think the error Riot made was in nerfing his damage and utility simultaneously rather than an either or situation. Utility is a great thing to have as it makes you less one-dimensional, but if you nerf both aspects of what a champion can do (damage and utility), then the champion just suffers in a possible facets. I feel like that logic is easy to follow, and it shows where we are with Tahm balance. Tahm feels as though he should be heavily utility based, but his utility feels subpar compared to that of other tank supports. He's oriented around an ally saving ability in his W, but since this ability has been nerfed as a function saving an ally (move speed buff when hold allies is gone), once of his big skills as a support is weaker. It still functions as a nice damage tool and pick ability, which compliments the pick potential of his ult, but as a support who's goal is peel, the ability is not what it probably needs to be for orientation as a support.
I wouldn't really mind having the move speed back on his W with an ally inside, but I think it would need to be minimal at best, maybe 15% at highest point. Or at least remove that pause he has when he spits someone out.
lane bullies are nothing new.
