Taric the Gay's overall critique on the Taric Rework (Before playing it)
Let me start off with the visual update. The visual update is grand. More than grand, it is phenomenal. More than phenomenal it is glorious. And more than glorious it is the absolute definition of fabulousness. While I do miss having a glittering tiara and sparkly armor, the new choice of risque clothing just makes me more desirable and makes strip teasing for Ezreal go more smoothly. Obviously my favorite skin is the Armor of the Fifth Age. The pink is rough and manly but also warm and cuddly. Not to mention the return of the furry pink boots and the pretty pink tiara. It is by far my favorite skin but the Emerald skin isn't bad either (Blondes do have more fun). The only one that I think missed the mark was Bloodstone. Bloodstone missed the "badass" aspect a little bit. I look like a vampire and while I did lean towards team Edward I fear that my undead looks may scare away Ezreal. I probably will only wear this skin for Halloween.
The voice over is... I miss the old voice. I love the dialogue as it is definitely more fleshed out but my old voice was velvety smooth. This voice makes me sound like a sassy gay. Sassy is what Soraka does and I am not a purple unicorn. I am manly and exotic and I think that the old voice embodied these characteristics better. I'm not overjoyed on the choice in voice acting but in time it may grow on me. It isn't ideal but it isn't horrendous either.
The overall kit though is certainly an improvement in overall potential. Prior to the reveal I said that I wanted two things: More reliable crowd control and mobility. I did not get the mobility at all, but the crowd control is more reliable in that it can strike multiple opponents. It is still telegraphed but the travel time is shorter. I played the videos side by side of the old stun and the new stun. The old stun only acted quicker if it was nearly point blank range. And the new stun has a further range so now Taric isn't completely irrelevant when facing heavy poke. I still would have liked some more mobility though. Now the break down everything skill by skill. The new passive is called Bravado. I adore the name, it suits me very well. It is definitely a buff over the old passive of gem craft. I get 2 empowered auto attacks instead of 1 and I get an increase in attack speed. Something like wit's end and frozen mallet may mesh very well with this, but I imagine that Iceborn gauntlet will still be the core build item for the new Taric. I think that this will fit nicely with Taric's all in style but I am unsure of how long the passive remains active for. I am thinking 5 seconds before it wears off because that was the rough estimate on the old one. And the cooldown reduction is still there too, although probably only 1 second per auto attack. Gemcraft used to give 2 seconds per auto attack but only 1 empowered auto attack. So I think that the old gemcraft was quicker to pull off but this new Bravado, while longer, will dish out more damage over time. The cooldowns probably are about the same if you can get off both auto attacks for Bravado. The new Starlight's Touch is great. I can heal myself as well as multiple allies who are right beside me and stand within my circle. I am having some difficulty understanding the charge system. I am unsure whether the strength of my heal is affected by the charges or if the number of allies I can heal affects how many charges I spend for my heals. Like if I heal myself and all of my teammates I imagine it would consume 3 charges but only heal 2 of my allies plus myself if that is the case. I hope that's not the case and that its the strength of my heal being affected by the charges and not the amount of allies I can heal with it. I am curious though if I still have the ability to heal minions with this Starlight's touch skill. If not then Imbue gets a point over this new ability. The old imbue was great for sieging towers since I could heal my siege minion who I empowered with a banner of command charge. Or healing my zz'rot spiders so they would reach the tower. I am hoping the new Starlight's touch affects minions but if not its not a deal breaker. Definitely an improvement for team fighting though. My newest ability titled Bastion seems to be my greatest contribution to my team. It is replacing my old ability of shatter which was my favorite ability and the one I am most critical about. I'll focus on the negatives first. I lost my biggest source of AOE damage. My wave clear ability has been removed and thus my late game "Taric is a support how is he split pushing so hard" tactic is no longer a piece of my identity. I will miss this most about my old kit and this is a major hit to my top lane and more importantly my jungling power. If I play either of those roles I will have slower clears and lack the ability to pressure an objective through wave clear. But that's the only downside to it. The new bastion will help Taric and his chosen ally better skirmishing and dueling power by allowing them to soak up small amounts of poke or burst and allowing them to win trades through attrition. It's similar to Janna's shield in functionality only on the defensive spectrum rather than through offensive stat boosts. This will help Taric and his ally feel "immovable" in lane. The fine print says that the increased defenses for his ally wear off Taric recasts it or if they move too far away from Taric. Taric's old shatter passive aura has such a miniscule area of influence so much so that you literally had to be within humping distance of your ally in order to grant them the bonus armor. Now it seems like the area of influence is double and possibly triple the size as his old aura, which is a major improvement. Taric and his ally have more breathing room when it comes to dodging AOE spells so it removes one of Taric's oldest weaknesses of his original kit. What is most ground breaking though is how your shielded ally acts as a conduit for your other abilities. So the dynamic of how Lulu can cast "Help! Pix!" on an ally and then use glitter lance to poke an enemy exists in Taric now. Only its more like Zed in that its all abilities, not just that one ability. This dynamic makes Taric's potential go way up but also his skill cap and floor. It will make Taric always feel interesting to play in every game. I welcome this change. Dazzle didn't change too much. I mean, it's a skill shot now and has a delay attached to it. But atleast now it isn't highly countered by spell shields and when combined with Bastion positioning allies can actually hit targets more reliably. Its better for team fights but against some highly mobile enemies (see Kalista) it makes engaging much harder to pull off. It takes skill to land a stun now so it raises Taric's skill floor some more, but the ability to CC groups of enemies will prove invaluable in the long run. Not sure what the cooldown on the new dazzle is but if its shorter than the old dazzle then it is 100x better. If its the same it is a little bit better. If its longer... it probably won't be longer. The old dazzle cooldown was 18 seconds at rank 1 and only got reduced down to 14 seconds at max rank. I know that Gemcraft reduced the cooldown timer by 2 seconds but it always felt too long in my eyes. I'm hoping that it will start out at 15 seconds and gradually come down to 10 seconds or so at max rank. The shorter the cooldown the more aggressive Taric can be. And I do hope that the stun lasts more than the old 1.2 seconds. It took longer to reach the target than it did when it actually stunned them. This ability definitely got better in my eyes. It will just be harder to pull off is all as it now has room for error. I like this change. Lastly is cosmic radiance. It's like Kayle's intervention but better. It can affect multiple allies and once combined with bastion will be great for protecting the whole team. The downside is that it is highly telegraphed and takes 3 seconds to charge but lasts 3 seconds total. I think the delay is what helps keep it balanced and if tweaked I am sure that the first thing they go for will be the arm timer. Now when I look at this ability I see great things. It gives one of the best counters to AOE combos. It can neutralize wombo combo cheese tactics if timed perfectly. It will help immensely with tower diving (not that towers are much a threat anyway) and I can think of probably a dozen other champions who would make great use of this ability in accentuating their own strengths. Think Olaf, Tryndamere, Morgana, Anivia, Zac, Kennen, Kindred and Katarina would make the most use out of the ability though. Taric's old Radiance was essentially a steroid with a minor AOE damage burst. When active this made Taric hit harder, heal more potently and bring fear into his enemies' lives. So without that he has yet another hit to his offensive capabilities. And the cooldown on Radiance was pretty short at approximately 80 seconds down time. The new cosmic radiance grants an AOE immunity to all forms of damage so it will be guaranteed to have a long cooldown so it will be an indirect hit to Taric's passive strength as well. I'm indifferent about this as of now.
Overall I like his kit in how it made him a much more effective support but I fear that it will negatively impact the strength of his other roles. He will lack waveclear and AOE damage but will have stronger heals, peels, utility and team fighting power. The new Taric does seem to be more useful to his team now but he is highly dependent on others to get him there. He lacks carry potential but is now a major nuisance and obstacle to his enemies. Depending on cooldown timers Taric's dueling capacity could be immensely improved and his ability to cast spells from his allies positioning will give him the ability to zone out his enemies, something he didn't have prior to the rework. He still seems like he will have a weak early game and probably will have to buy iceborn gauntlet in every single one of his games, but I do feel that this rework will be an improvement to his overall gameplay. If you play Zed or Lulu then the new Taric will feel very comfortable to you. If you play Janna then the style of playing is still the same: enhance ally prior to trades, disengage, play passively and allow your ally to farm. This new Taric will take on the "if nothing happens then you did your job" mentality and won't be getting many pentakills in his new form. They are still possible but highly unlikely. The new Taric will on the other hand have much lower deaths, higher assists and will keep the kill count for both teams on the lower end of the spectrum. He will benefit teams that enjoy sieging towers, tower diving and objective control but Taric will require backup to accomplish these goals. Taric is not a champion you want to take into the solo queue arena.
My end verdict is that I am excited and nervous about these changes. I like that it covered up Taric's weaknesses but it also removed some of his hidden strengths with it. He lends more utility now and is more well rounded so he is a safer all-around pick rather than the niche of anti-AD support pick. Taric will have less games where he ends up carrying his team on his back but also less games where he gets completely forgotten and ignored due to how easy he was to counter. He's more viable in his new form but whether or not he is enjoyable to play as for old Taric players remains to be answered.
