Taric Rework

Taric was the first support I ever learned to play and I thoroughly enjoyed him throughout season 2, when I started ranked play. I hate seeing champions I enjoy playing or played in the past be ignored and called troll, so I want to post some thoughts I had about a rework to his kit to maybe spark something being done. I feel like Taric is meant to be a bonus aura champion (much like Sona only tankier), making his primary position the middle of his team in team fights, protecting from threats and providing his team with stats, meaning his new kit would be based around this playstyle.

Visual update and voice change. It's pretty obvious Taric could use a whole appearance overhaul. Right now he's a little too outrageous with his overly pointy shoes and poop hair. Truly. Perhaps he could have his massive shield looped through his arm so he can two-hand his massive hammer (lol). Just a thought to make his character model a lot more intimidating.

Taric's new Passive (Superior Will) gives a stack of will (up to 10) for each enemy hit with basic attacks or abilities. Abilities cast at max stacks grant bonus effects. Upon activating an ability at max stacks, Taric loses all stacks once leaving combat. Taric's newfound resolve prevents loss of will until entering and leaving combat.

Giving Taric this new passive not only increases the mastery level and timing required to play Taric, but offers increased reward for patient players (playing Taric or being on his team). Trying to quickly reach max stacks going into fight, or when initiated on would prove to take too long before Taric players could make the biggest impact possible. The ideal situation would be to have max stacks before engaging on an enemy team or running to your allies' aid, which would require the attention of both Taric and his team.

Taric's new Q (With Me!) fills Taric and his allies with courage, dramatically increasing Taric's movement speed and increasing allied movement speed when moving towards Taric for a short duration. Taric also gains armor and magic resistance based on how many allied champions receive this bonus. Taric receives a stack of will for each allied champion affected.

I am a huge fan of mobility (I almost always build Boots of Mobility when I'm jungling), I know how important that boost of speed can be, whether you're using it for initiating, falling back, kiting, or dodging. Making the movement speed buff only activate when Taric is in the lead, I feel, would promote better positioning with your primary allies to be protected, keeping them behind as Taric initiates. This also brings out the protective side of Taric players, forcing them (when presented with the moment of retreat) to stand between his allies and enemies to ensure a safe escape (as the bonus speed is only given to allies behind you).

Taric's old Q (Imbue) and W (Shatter) could be one whole ability as his new W (Shining Armor). Taric receives passive health regeneration and armor and a smaller amount for nearby allies. When at full stacks of will Taric can activate the ability to give both Taric and nearby allies increased bonus armor and heal them periodically over a short duration (ex. xxx amount every 0.5 seconds over 2 seconds).

As Taric's W stands now, the armor bonus for himself and allies is almost better than the reduction for activating it and shredding an enemy's. Sure you can make an enemy a little easier to kill, but at the cost of your ADC's protection being obsolete. Before, if someone jumps on your carry, you have to stun and hope they have enough damage to fight or have enough mobility to leave. While this risk/reward mechanic on his old W separates average Taric players from knowledgeable Taric players, once you pop your W and R, you stop making an impact in the teamfight. This new mechanic would cause Taric to have a more lasting effect on the teamfight and cause his positioning within the team to be more focused. It could even make Taric a priority to eliminate first by warding and picking off to make the rest of the team fight more direct rather than Taric causing his team to have a sudden burst of tankiness and sustain.

Taric's new E (Radiate) is a stun that extends in range over time. Taric points his shield to shine a bright light from the gem (he moves slower than normal for the duration). At the end of the channel, a beam of light shines from his shield, stunning any champion it passes through (gaining range the longer the ability is charged). Any enemies facing Taric's shield at the time of the flare are also blinded for a duration. At full stacks of will the other gems on Taric's armor shine indirect light, slowing and damaging unfriendly units in an area around him as well as now blinding any enemy facing Taric. Reactivating the ability before the end of the duration produces reduced crowd control times and area of effect. Interrupting Taric's channel will cancel the blind and the stun, but not the AOE slow/damage if available.

This gives Taric room to still be a bully in early skirmishes other than just having a stun and improved armor for his teammates. At the moment, I feel Taric is weak due to the low diversity of his abilities. This would give not only offensive, but also defensive opportunities while still involving knowledge of positioning and timing for the best results.

Taric's new R (Full Force) is a point-and-click single target knockup. Taric dashes towards a targeted enemy champion (within a short range) and swings his hammer over his shoulder, launching an enemy champion into the air (* Taric is immune to crowd control during the dash*). When the target lands, they take damage based on Taric's max health and the enemy champion's max health and reducing the target's armor. When the enemy champion lands, it sends out a shockwave, reducing the armor of all enemy champions hit. If Taric activates this during the duration of his E charge up, his teammates receive a small boost to their attack damage and ability power based on Taric's armor and magic resist radiating from where he began his initial dash. At max stacks of will, the shock wave from the initial target's impact will also knock up all enemies hit for a shorter duration than the initial target.

This new ult would not only give Taric a much more threatening presence in a teamfight, but would give him better initiation than just a ranged target stun, as well as hanging onto that enemy armor shred. Just without sacrificing his and his teammate's. The full duration of the knockup and splash knockup would also have to have a short total duration to keep it from being too overpowered. Especially with a Yasuo on the team. The damage boost would, again, build off the idea that Taric is an aura-focused champion, giving him even more presence in a teamfight and would still discern the average players from the knowledgeable. The percent health damage would also make initiating on a carry less impactful as it would possibly the enemy's tank. A strange concept to think about at first, but if the support has a way to get past the tankiness of the enemy support, then there's a direct line to the enemy carry. The damage boost would cause Taric players to think more prioritized about their resistance build. Go full armor like his abilities provide and tank the enemy carry or be more rounded for a more rounded team? This would make his ultimate a better priority for both sides to watch for and have it scale better into late game.

Taric's new kit would make him weak against counter-initiative supports, such as Zyra or Janna as well as make him a more difficult champion to master. As he is now, unless you are a very skilled Taric player (or League player overall) you can't really get the most out of him, and even then he is a situational champion (easy to be kited, avoided, etc.) It also makes Taric a very "all-in" support, requiring a team composition based around that as well.

Obviously, an important item to build would be the Aegis of the Legion for the hand-in-hand effects with his W. On top of that, other aura items such as Frozen Heart , Randuin's Omen, or the Sunfire Cape could be reasonable choices. Taric's AOE heal on his W would also work well with the Ardent Censer as well.

I would love to see changes done to Taric and his kit in the near future and leave this open for ideas, debate, comments, generally agreement, etc.