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How do I carry with Taric?

ZinthosOD·1/13/2015, 4:43:02 AM·1 votes·7,555 views

So, I have come to find that I do very well with Taric as my support in ranked. He is really the only champion I ever use in ranked now. I never play him in normals though. Anyways, I was wanting to know how to carry with him? I do a fair amount of damage with him using my tanky support build. I actually get a decent amount of kills for a support with him. I am worried though, that I may not be able to carry out of bronze in the next season. I have played less than 100 ranked games, so I haven't really tried to carry out last season.

I am thinking about buying Leona since I love playing Taric so much, but Idk if I will be as good with her because she is way different. I am basing the fact I would like her because she is a tanky support that does damage like Taric. I am still feeling my way around ranked and what champions I am truly good with like him. I have tried to play normals with other supports like Janna, Soraka, Karma, but they don't really feel as comfortable and I don't do as well. Karma is really good though and I can force a good game out of her, but I'd prefer not to have to do that.

Anyways, I was wondering how I would carry with taric? Maybe do a build more for damage? Or stick with what I am doing and keep feeding my ADC and that will carry me? I am not sure. Ever since I started LoL I played mostly Top/Jungle and a little Mid. Do you guys have any advice as to what I should do?

Here is the build I use with Taric:

Core Items:

Optional Items:

Boots:

11 Comments

RiotJINBEI1/13/2015, 8:56:15 PM3 votes

Hey guys,

Taric main for about 6 months now (probably 350 games total with him across all my accounts). Taric's carried me from Gold 5 to Plat 3-ish now, so I'm definitely a fan. So first of all, I'm also a big fan of Leona and Braum, but Taric offers something different than both of them, and that's the ability to keep your entire team alive through a chaotic fight.

Let me discuss build philosophy first and then I can explain how Taric can do what he does.

First of all, Taric synergies best with the following stats: Armor Health CDR

My General Build path goes as follows:

item 3401 item 2045 item 3110 item 3190 item 3143 item 3075

Generally speaking in that order, but building components as I go along. Sometimes Aegis gets prioritized if the team is AP heavy. note I do typically get item 3047 earlier in the build but I sell them by my 6th item.

This build does a few things: 40% CDR and upwards of 400 Armor

This means, in a teamfight I get off an average of 3 heals, 2-3 stuns, a Face of the Mountain Shield, an Iron Solari Shield, and also giving my teammates about 45 flat armor. Zed very literally cannot kill my carry. No Exhaust necessary.

Runes: Flat Attack Damage Marks Flat Magic Resists Glyphs (or Scaling if vs non AP Support) Flat Armor Seals Flat Armor Quints

Masteries: 0-17-13

Laning Phase: Starting Purchase: item 3302 item 2004 item 2003 Typical laning phase is weak until your first back so I play passively while leveling skills in the following order: First 3 levels: E-Q-W Then prioriritize R-E-W-Q

This will give you the best engage possibility. Taric is fantastic at setting up Jungle ganks with the increase stun duration from leveling e.

Mid-Game Typically, you have sightstone, some components of face of the mountain and glacial shroud. This gives you reasonable health and armor with at least 20% cdr. In fights, always fit in auto-attacks in between your spells for extra damage.

Late-Game You're a walking behemoth. You do plenty of damage because of the armor shred on W (which also deals more damage as you get more Armor) and you're rotation of spells is quite literally one after another ala Ryze. Taric can 1v1 straight up many AD champions (Riven, Zed, Master Yi). Your job in teamfights is to heal/shield the highest priorities targetted teammember and keep them alive, and you have tons of tools at your disposal to do that.

Weaknesses: Janna is probably one of Taric's biggest counters. Taric's stun is too slow and Janna can shield most of his harrass and engagement potential. AP based teams (AP Mid + AP Top) also provide some trouble for Taric since it doesnt allow him to build as much armor (build a spirit visage instead of Thornmail and probably build it earlier). Other AP supports offer some annoyance but you can weather the storm until mid game typically by playing a conservatively and healing your ADC.

Bottom line: So Taric vs Leona: Leona starts out tankier than you, she will probably deal more damage initially, but you outscale her pretty well with utility over time. The targetted stun, although a slow moving projectile means its not dodgeable, and therefore is great for junglers to follow up. Early levels, you sustain past your enemies with your heal but by mid game, you're a beast. Able to initiate pretty reliably on a single target and just being to tank a lot of damage and able to live through it.

Blue Collar Bear1/13/2015, 5:12:34 AM1 votes

I really love Taric and I have a lot of experience with him, so I'll mostly be speaking about him.

Taric can 1v1 anyone who deals physical damage, plain and simple. If you intend on carrying, you absolutely need a spell blade proc. He spams skills so hard that it would be blasphemous not to take one. To carry, you need to do damage. The best way I've found to do that is to pick Taric into physical damage intensive teams. A build that I can think up off the top of my head is Triforce / Youmuu / IE / Frozen Heart / Locket (replace with an hp item if MR is not needed) / Boots. I would take armor penetration marks, armor seals, full scaling cooldown reduction glyphs, and armor quints with 21/9 masteries.

I have no idea if this would work, but I think this build capitalizes on Taric's armor reduction and allows him to deal a lot of damage. However, I have no idea if this would work.

This is not a support build. You will need farm. Expensive items are expensive. If you want to carry as a support, try an ap champion that operates on a low budget.

Terraeclipse1/13/2015, 1:26:41 PM1 votes

Taric is impossible to kill. I know when I lane against him, I just flat out don't waste mana on him. I auto him, or ignore him, because he'll take almost nothing, and heal it back up. That's his power.

However, Leona; she's probably my favorite tank support. Without question. Her ability of "We're fighting NOW. Suck it up, enemy." Can often turn a unfavorable exchange into a favorable one just by enemies being more cautious around her. In a team fight, getting caught by Leona is usually death. In addition, it's pointless to burn cooldowns on her, because she's tanky as hell.

So go in, w proc the entire team, and let your passive do tons of damage when your team procs it.

Oh, btw, A good leona can usually 1v1 an adc. ( I know, I've done it, its hilarious to watch them struggle to do like 1/4th of your health! ). Taric does have his strengths, but I think in general, Leona is just more disruptive.

-T

Sassy Bardista1/19/2015, 2:48:22 AM1 votes

I'm no taric player and so, alas, I know my advice can't be taken TOO seriously. But just as someone who's played a lot of league, I wouldn't recommend Rylai's on taric. Your only spell that would get real use of it would be the stun, but they're already stunned, so slowing them isn't necessary. And just being blunt, you're gonna smash your face into your keyboard in anger a lot if you're looking to "carry" as support(Mind you, I'm not saying supports can't "carry" in the sense that they can help win the game.). It's in the name. You support the team. Especially as Taric, your role isn't to insta-kill the carry, and it's not a CC train like leona or Nautilus. Your job is to soak up damage, heal and prevent damage from being dealt to your team by stun and by shields (itemization). At best, you deal enough damage so that if you engage, they can't ignore you because ow, taric, those gems are sharp.