aric - The Leagues Paladin

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By: on 2011-01-18 :: Viewed 741232 times

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS TARIC BUILD

LoL Champion: Taric (Cheat Sheet)

Health	3413
Health Per 5 Sec	71
Mana	1638
Mana Per 5 Sec	36
Armor	179
Magic Resist	119
Attack Damage	124
Crit Chance	0%
Crit Damage	0%
Attack Range	125

Movement Speed	315
Ability Power	42.39
Attack Speed	0%
Life Steal	0%
Armor Penetration	0
Magic Penetration	8.55
Cooldown Reduction	20.0%
Dodge	0.0%
Gold Per 10 Sec	0
Reduced Death Time	0%

Ability Sequence

Ability	Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
	Gemcraft
	Imbue
	Shatter
	Dazzle
	Radiance

Purchase Order

Mastery Trees

1/3

3/3

4/4

1/1

Offense: 9

Defense: 0

3/3

1/3

4/4

1/1

3/3

1/1

3/3

1/1

Utility: 21

Taric - The Leagues Paladin

By:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Preface

Guide to Taric - The Gem Knight
This is my personal guide to Taric, prepare to be enlightened!
Last Updated: 05.August.2011

Taric is a bulky support who focuses on healing and taking down turrets. When playing him you might have gotten oom, instantly killed in ganks or teamfights, and maybe failed to keep your team alive with Imbue. This guide will focus on these points to help you become a successful Taric; Being able to keep your team alive, survive in teamfights and ganks, and still have the mana to take down a turret. You do however, need a carry to compensate for your lategame.

Abbreviated Terms
AA = Auto-attack (Basic Attacks)
CC = Crowd Control (Stun, fear, slow, snare, etc)
FB = First Blood
AP = Ability Power
AD = Attack Damage
MD = Magic Damage
AS = Attack Speed
MS = Movement Speed
MR = Magic Resistance
ArPen = Armor Penetration
MPen = Magic Penetration
LS = Life Steal
SV = Spell Vamp
DPS = Strong Auto-attacker
MDPS = Strong spells; casters
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
OOM = Out of Mana
MP = Mana
HP = Health
RHE = Reduced Healing Effect
MP Regen = Mana Regeneration per 5 seconds
HP Regen = Health Regeneration per 5 seconds

II. Introduction

Hey guys, I'm back with Taric after doing some theory-crafting and testing. First of all, Taric is a champion who focuses on five aspects: Mana and Survivability are primary, without them you are worthless. AP and Cooldown Reduction will allow you to heal more, thus making you able to keep your team alive. Lastly we have taking down turrets, where attackspeed also decreases the cooldown on Imbue, and combined with damage it gives you more mana back with your passive. Try to keep it professional and have a strong sense of jugdement, you're often the one who decides when your team should open up a gank or teamfight. Enjoy!

Pros:
1. Babysitter, helps other champions excel.
2. Support, buffs and heals allied champions.
3. Versatile, also able to semi-tank, disrupt, and burst.

Cons:
1. Countered by a common Reduced Healing Effect or CC.
2. Semi-long cooldowns and poor auto-attack DPS.
3. Is at a large disadvantage when focused.

III. Abilities

Gemcraft
Taric's attacks restore mana equal to 7.5% of the damage dealt.

This gives you reason to auto-attack, it may sound scrubish and risky, but it's not a bad idea to whack minions for mana. The Mana Regeneration itself is not amazing, considering it depends on your Auto-attack DPS. Still good to have when auto-attacking turrets to hold Radiance up.

Imbue
Taric brings forth earthen energy to heal his target. As the magic flows through him he is healed for the same amount. If Taric heals only himself, the total effect will be 1.4X the base heal amount.

Since they nerfed the base healing of Imbue it has been difficult to lane early-game, but I do appreciate the AP ratio. A special note is that auto-attacks do shorten it's cooldown, meaning you should be hitting something for more heals. As for the self-heal of 140%, it's better to heal an ally for utilizing 200% instead.

Shatter
Taric is protected by a hardening aura, increasing the armor of himself and nearby allied champions. He may choose to splinter the enchanted rocks surrounding him to deal damage and decrease the armor of nearby enemies at the cost of the aura for a short time.

The aura has about the same range required to auto-attack someone, meaning it's not all that useful as an aura. However it does cover up your normal expenses of armor, whereas the activate gives you some burst damage and reduces your targets armor meaning your allies will hit harder.

Dazzle
Taric emits a brilliant ball of prismatic light from his gemmed shield, stunning and damaging his enemies.

Dazzle is mostly used to open up a gank, interrupt channeling abilities, and catch up or flee from enemies. The target priority is highly essential for you to become good Taric, whereas the distance is more tributal. With the AP ratio and close range stun you can easily hit up to 500 damage.

Radiance
Taric emits a brilliant light, healing himself and increasing physical damage for surrounding allied units.

Radiance primarily has one use; effectively auto-attacking turrets down with your team. It does of course have more utility than that, survival and tanking the turret being one of them. It does come with a hefty price if you keep it on too long; if you get silenced while it's activated, you can say goodbye to half of your initial mana.

IV. Summoner Spells

: This will give your team map awareness, keep in mind vision wins games! It mostly gives you the advantage of scouting and avoid getting juked or flanked. Keep in mind that only one in your team should take this spell.

: Can replace Ghost at any given moment, if you want it; take it! Flash is very useful to jump over ledges, or mostly just to get away in a pinch. It depends on preference, but it doesn't bug abuse projectiles anymore.

Considerable Summoner Spells:

: A unique ability that will greatly benefit people who are new to Taric, I strongly recommend this if requested in premades and is absolutely mandatory if you have a lower summoner level than 30.

: The speed boost allows you to chase and flee from opponents, or save your allies in a pinch. It's really that little extra for when you really need it, combined with Map awareness you become quite difficult to kill.

: This can help you gank a target, or save an ally by disabling an AD champion. There are still people who think you should leave it to the carries, I partially agree but you are there to assist your carries so imo the argument is invalid.

: You may ask yourself while reviewing the video in the introduction; why did he take Ignite? Now I can't speak for the man himself, but Clairvoyance was already taken by Blitzcrank. It guess it adds up to bursting potential, not really worth it.

: Despite the fact that the cooldown ruins the spell, I did find it hilarious couping it with Radiance. But it no longer heals AoE, neither does Radiance meaning it's not all that viable anymore. Otherwise I wouldn't get it anyway.

: Can replace Clarity, it gives you more utility in terms of lane presence. Having to walk all the way to the lane is tedious at times, but not game-changing. FYI; I have won games by only using Doran's Ring, go figure.

V. Masteries + Runes

We start out with the offense tree for more AP, Cooldown reduction and some Magic Penetration for burst potential. Let's not get into the minor details that helps your game progress, just know that the masteries depend on your Summoner Spells.

Acceptable Runes:

1. : Magic Penetration for burst damage on Shatter and Dazzle.
2. : Attackspeed for lasthitting, Gemcraft, and Imbue.

1. : Mana Regeneration per level for obvious reasons.
2. : Dodge for dodging, I would rather have mana regeneration.

1. : Cooldown Reduction for reaching the 40% Cap with this build.
2. : AP per level for more powerful heals, I recommend this one.

1. : 15 AP to get a better start during the laning phase.
2. : 15 Movementspeed to gain an advantage when dazzling.

VI. Supports don't Lasthit

Do not lasthit if you have a carry or someone who benefits from farming in your lane, you'll have a greater chance of winning if they get fed instead of you. This means you'll want to stay in your brush while trying to zone, harass and potentially kill them.

VII. The Laning-Phase

You either start out bot or top lane, but before that I just want to mention the possibility have an early-golem buff. Now it does have some requirements, but that's not really important, just think of the EXP advantage and the endless mana you or your lanepartner get. You could potententially try to steal the enemy golem if forced in another lane.

The Wolf Camp:

Ask your lane-partner, or mid by all means, to come help you with the wolves. All you have to do is position yourself right next to them, and wait until your lanepartner attacks. This will trigger your aggro, and there is no harm done to you. This is important if you want to survive the Golem.

The Ancient Golem:

After healing your teammate up you should tank the Golem yourself, just make sure that you cast Imbue on yourself only [alt + Q]. Ask mid to aggro the golem to avoid tons of damage, otherwise; if you are about to die you should avoid getting auto-attacked by juking the golem.

Harassing in the Lane:

This consist of using Dazzle on your target, mostly the squishy ones, followed by Shatter and auto-attacks. The best way to do this is with your teammate, make sure he follows every time you stun to deal more damage. This will give you lane-dominance allowing you to farm freely and have loads of opportunities to get a kill and push the turret.

The Aggressive Lane:

Play safe and don't feed the enemy, but most of all don't let them auto-attack your turret! Last-hitting and harassing becomes more difficult, but not impossible. Use shatter to clean the minion waves, time 1 auto-attack with 2 turret hits on a minion, or 1 auto-attack, 1 turret hit, and minion focusing the current target. As for getting kills, stun them at the tower if they get too cocky.

The Passive lane:

When everyone is just trying to farm and don't have much to harass with, your mana pool will do just fine. This is why babysitting or having snowball champions for lane-partners is a good idea, especially carries. However, despite your abilities to heal; you have to avoid getting harassed! Make sure your lanepartner knows that. Just try to get a kill, and destroy the turret.

VIII. Warding and Ganking

People tend to get lazy when they have Clairvoyance on their team, lazy at warding that is. Clairvoyance does take up the same job as warding, yet it's used to specifically locate your opponents and to gain the advantage of vision. You still have to ward, but not on all those exotic places.

The Art of Supporting:

Taric is meant to support his team, you are meant to help them win the game. A few rules follows when ganking, and when contributing to the team. First of all we have your ability to heal, your auras, and your stun. Second we have things you can do to help with like; Warding the map, getting Oracle Elixir, and giving away buffs.

1. Do not strive for godhood, assists are better than kills for supports.
2. Devote yourself, if your carry is about to die you should take his place.
3. Keep up the pace, a support has to be just as initiative as a carry & tank.

This doesn't mean you are not allowed to get kills, accidents do happen, it's just your moral compass within the game. There are times where I have gotten a few kills by myself, although it's not recommended. As for the second note, not feeding the team is preferable and people often mix up sacrifice with feeding.

Cultivation of an Empire:

Taking over lanes to either push or farm is a good idea, gold is scarce when playing Taric. You should also help ganking mid and other lanes, just don't get yourself killed in the process. It's really all about leveling up and getting gold. Ranging from 5k to 9k per match, it all depends on how much effort you put into this.

Pushing Lanes & Turrets:

Whenever Ghost is up you can take a few chances with the turrets, in addition to getting more gold and experience. Warding, and scouting out for miss calls is primarily your concern, if they show up at the tower you have nothing to worry about. If things turn ugly just make them join the Taric train for 10-30 seconds.

Jungling and Buffs:

When teamfights are about to start, you know when things are starting to get serious and you have to work together to win the game, I find getting a golem buff preferable. I did say give buffs away, but it gets overshadowed by Infinite mana and cooldown reduction which is bound the help your allies more than anything.

IX. Working in the Team

At this stage of the game you will often get 3 or 5 enemies in the same spotlight. That doesn't say warding is just as important, it just gets more situational. Keep in mind that you have to think for yourself when warding the map. The fighting arena always depends on the game, whats important is that you adapt to that.

Know your Enemy:

Sivir is about to use Spellshield any second now, deflecting my stun. You have to know specifics like this to succeed in ganks, knowing when to initiate and knowing when to back off is extremely important for Taric. How you counteract and deal with the various champions of the league is what defines your experience as a player.

Teamplaying Strategy:

How you coordinate is much more important now; you need to stay with your team at all times. Try to get a kill without suffering penalties, then start a teamfight and push lanes. Your stun will help ganking, and interrupting channeling abilities in teamfights whereas you otherwise have to make sure your allies stay alive.

Slaying Baron Nashor:

Scouting out Baron Nashor, and possibly getting the buff. It's mostly a late-game thing you never get do unless someone on your team is feeding. In other words; almost all the time. Instead of excessively spamming Clairvoyance, I prefer to ward it unless someone is running around with an Oracle Elixir. Just don't rush in there without your team, it's a death-wish.

X. Credit

Taric is a support, it's all about helping your team. If you can devote yourself to help another champion, you should! But there is no need to die without taking Taric up to his true potential, the longer you stay alive the more you heal. The more you heal the higher success rate your team have of staying alive. The longer you stay alive, the longer your team stay alive. Then of course just help with stun, burst damage, and turret tanking. It's all for one thing, victory!

Hard Counters vs. Taric
Stun + Silence: Makes you unable to cast any spells, which can be devastating for Taric.
Reduced Healing Effects: Ignite, Executioner's Calling, Grog Soaked Blade, Explosive Shot etc.
AoE Teams: Teams who are all AoE focus often makes you go like "I can't heal this shit!".
Soloque PUG: Simply just unreliable people, but there are times when you meet decent people.

XI. Tips & Trivia

Gameplay and Commentaries:

The most legit Taric video you'll ever find on youtube, try Own3d for more.

Triva and References:

Warning:"What has been seen, cannot be unseen" ~ Anonymous.

XII. FAQ + Changelog

Frequently Asked Questions:
If you have any questions please ask them, I will answer within a week, I guarantee it.

Q: Who's the one playing in the pictures named Alahric?
A: That is my real account name, I'm playing on EU servers. The Sivir named "Keh Loco" is my little sister, cute isn't it? She's level 9 or something so for the love of god don't add her to your friend list.

Q: What's with the name "Leagues Paladin"?
A: It's a reference to both Warcraft and DotA for me. Taric is based upon Omniknight, who was a member of the Silver Hand, a Paladin order. Which is why I drew the conclusion of Taric being League of Legends "Paladin" type of character.

Q: Why instead of ?
A: Taric is one of my mains, and was the very first champion I played. Clarity back then was an absolute must, it's still good but not necessary. Vision wins games, but if you're laning with a mana hungry partner then clarity is a better option.

Q: Why do you go Utility instead of Defense?
A: For the sake of Summoner Spells, cooldown reduction, and even greater utility. Defense doesn't add up as much as it should, taking 1% dodge and reducing the damage of minions by 2 into account, it's not all that useful for Taric.

Q: What do you think about rushing ?
A: If you ever get +1900 gold on your first trip back to the fountain, you should purchase Aegis of the Legion before anything. Why? Because it's an item that really shines early-game since the aura also affects minions.

Q: When should I buy ?
A: All the time, whenever you have a spare 75-150 gold you should purchase wards and place them depending on your current situation as shown in the guide. But this is mere pointless if someone on the enemy team has an Oracle Elixir.

Q: How do I create an image from League of Legends?
A: When you are in the game swap settings on Video to windows mode, and press Alt + Prnt Scrn when you have the image you want. Paste it into a Paint or Photoshop, upload that file at http://imageshack.us/ and use the forum code.

Q: Should I use Taric in normal game PUGs?
A: There is no rule that says Taric is automatically banned in PUGs. The problem is that people tend to be unreliable at times, but when you have 5 carries in your composition I think it's better to play a support.

Changelog and Updates:
18/01/2011 - Guide published on Mobafire.
18/02/2011 - Added AP/Aura Taric and removed AS/Aura.
??/??/2011 - Ninja edits ftw! - misc, grammer, items -
18/05/2011 - Moved Guinsoo's Rageblade to situational items.
23/05/2011 - Now using Insight marks instead of Alacrity.
24/05/2011 - Skilling order is more focused on Shatter.
27/05/2011 - Swapped Soul Shroud for Shurelya's Reviere.
05/06/2011 - Tweaked itembuild sequence.
28/06/2011 - Random update.
05/08/2011 - Updated Itembuild Sequence and masteries.

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Monday, September 12, 2011

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