Taric Support Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities - Patch 14.21

Taric is one of the most versatile champions on the Rift. His kit allows him to adapt to any situation whether you want to get up close and personal with your enemies or stand back and protect your allies. With an entertaining smugness and dazzling abilities, it's hard to not enjoy playing him.

While Taric is easy to pick up, he's definitely hard to master. You'll need a keen sense of time, good decision-making, and a little creativity if you want to bring out his full potential. Once you get the hang of him, though, it's as rewarding as no other, and soon enough you'll be outplaying your opponents time and time again.

This guide is going to show you the ins and outs of playing the gem knight as well as the builds I've had the greatest success with yet. With so many tools to shield, heal, and peel for your team, any well-played teamfight can be considered won.

Playing Taric in League of Legends (LoL) can offer many advantages, especially if you're looking for a tanky support who can protect allies, heal, and provide crowd control. Here are some reasons why you might want to play Taric:

1. Durability & Tankiness Taric is one of the tankiest support champions in the game. His passive, Bravado, reduces the cooldowns of his abilities when he auto-attacks, making him difficult to kill in prolonged fights.

2. Healing & Sustain His Starlight's Touch (W) provides healing to both him and his allies, making him great at sustaining in lane and teamfights. The healing is based on his ability power (AP), so building tanky or utility items can make him hard to take down.

3. Crowd Control (CC) Taric’s Dazzle (E) is a single-target stun with a good range, and it's perfect for locking down enemy champions and setting up kills for your ADC or teammates. His Cosmic Radiance (R) also provides invincibility for a short duration, which can turn the tide of a teamfight.

4. Invincibility Ultimate His ultimate, Cosmic Radiance (R), can save your team during crucial moments. It makes all nearby allies invulnerable for a few seconds, which can counter heavy burst damage from enemies or save your team from an unfavorable engage.

5. Synergy with ADCs Taric works well with many ADC champions due to his ability to both protect and empower his partner. His Bravado passive and Dazzle offer opportunities for aggressive plays while giving his ADC extra protection.

6. Great Late-Game Scaling In the late game, Taric’s utility shines even brighter. With the right items, he becomes incredibly tanky while still offering healing, CC, and team-wide invulnerability, allowing him to impact fights significantly.

7. Utility and Versatility Taric can be built in multiple ways depending on the situation, from tanky to more utility-focused builds. He can play aggressively or defensively, making him adaptable to many game scenarios.

In summary, if you like champions with strong utility, sustain, and a mix of tankiness and crowd control, Taric can be a powerful pick in support. His ultimate alone can win crucial teamfights, especially in coordination with your team.

Role: Support Primary Attribute: Tank/Utility Complexity: Low-Medium

Taric is a versatile tank support champion known for his ability to heal, protect his allies, and provide crowd control. He excels in both protecting his team and initiating fights, thanks to his strong sustain and powerful ultimate. Taric is an excellent choice if you're looking to create a more defensive, team-oriented playstyle.

1. Abilities Overview:

Passive: Bravado Taric's auto-attacks reduce the cooldowns of his abilities, giving him more frequent access to his utility and sustain. This passive encourages a rhythm of auto-attacking, particularly in extended fights.

Key Points:

• Reduces ability cooldowns after auto-attacking.
• Works well with champions who can poke or trade frequently.

Q: Starlight's Touch Taric heals himself and his allies in an area around him. The ability has a cooldown reduction when Taric auto-attacks due to his passive, and it scales with ability power.

Key Points:

• Strong healing in lane or during teamfights.
• Great sustain for both Taric and his allies, making him a formidable support.

W: Bastion Taric links himself to a nearby ally, granting them a portion of his armor and the ability to cast his other abilities through the linked ally. This ability improves the overall protection for both Taric and his partner.

Key Points:

• Taric can link to any ally, making it a fantastic tool for synergy in lane. Taric can cast his abilities on the linked target, giving them additional armor and protection.

E: Dazzle Taric throws a gemstone at a target enemy, stunning them for a few seconds. The stun duration increases based on how far the gemstone travels, offering both a reliable CC tool and a way to peel for his ADC or other teammates.

Key Points:

• Excellent for both engaging and disengaging fights.
• A crucial ability for locking down high-priority targets.

R: Cosmic Radiance Taric’s ultimate provides invincibility for all nearby allies for a few seconds. This can completely shift the outcome of a teamfight by negating incoming damage and allowing your team to engage or disengage safely.

Key Points:

• A powerful team-wide invulnerability that can save your allies from certain death. Excellent in teamfights, especially against burst-heavy champions.

2. Strengths:

• Healing and Sustain: Taric's W and Q provide a lot of healing, making him a reliable source of sustain for both himself and his team.

• Tanky: Taric is naturally tanky, with high armor and the ability to take a lot of hits while supporting his team. His Bastion (W) provides extra armor to his ally, making him a great frontline protector.

• Teamfight Presence: His R (Cosmic Radiance) can turn the tide of teamfights, offering invincibility to your entire team. This can make the difference in large, chaotic battles.

• Stun & CC: E (Dazzle) is a reliable stun that can be used for both initiating fights and peeling for your allies, giving you strong crowd control.

• Synergy with ADCs: His W allows him to support his ADC by casting spells on them, providing healing and armor. This synergy is especially good with ADCs that need protection or benefit from Taric’s healing.

3. Weaknesses:

• Low Damage Output: Taric doesn't bring much damage to the table, so his effectiveness depends on his team dealing the damage.

• Skill Shot Reliant: His E (Dazzle) requires good aim to land the stun, making him somewhat reliant on hitting skill shots for effectiveness.

• Vulnerable to Burst Damage: While Taric is tanky, he can be vulnerable to bursty champions if his R is on cooldown or if he isn't able to protect his allies effectively.

• No Mobility: Taric lacks escape tools or mobility, meaning he can be easily caught out if he’s not careful with positioning.

4. Playstyle:

• Lane Phase: Focus on sustaining your ADC with W and Q, using your E to initiate trades or peel when needed. Take advantage of Bastion (W) to protect your ADC and keep them safe from enemy damage.

• Mid to Late Game: In teamfights, Taric is an excellent initiator and protector. Use E to stun key enemies and R to make your team invulnerable at critical moments. Positioning is crucial, as Taric needs to be near the front line to protect allies while still staying safe.

5. Summary: Taric is a powerful and defensive support champion with a kit focused on healing, protecting, and crowd control. His Cosmic Radiance can win teamfights, while his sustain abilities make him an excellent choice for extended laning phases and team engagements. However, he has limited mobility and damage output, meaning you’ll need to rely on your team for most of the heavy lifting. If you're looking for a tanky, supportive, and utility-driven champion, Taric is a fantastic pick!

• Good times to use your Dazzle (E) are when the enemy has used a dash ability or have pinned themselves near a wall. This will make it harder for the enemy to dodge your Stun Dazzle (E) without burning Flash.
• Do not hold on to your Ultimate Cosmic Radiance (R) until it’s too late. It’s better for you to use it early and it to protect you rather than dying mid-channel.
• Keep a constant eye on your mana pool throughout the laning phase and in team fights. Your abilities, in particular your Starlight's Touch (Q), costs a lot of mana and you’ll not be able to keep your ADC or team topped up with health if you run low.

• Basic: E + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA
• Basic: W + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA
• Basic: W + E + R
• Basic: E + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA + W + AA + AA + Q
• Medium: W + E + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA
• Medium: W + R + E + Flash + AA + AA + Q + AA + AA + Q

1. Roaming When you roam, you gank for your fellow laners and create pressure around the map. During laning phase, you can visit mid lane once or twice if the opportunity arises.

Before roaming, inform your lane partner and ensure that they will be safe in your absence. If they're ahead, mobile, and/or can farm safely from range, you're good to go.

Take the river when you gank. Ganking alongside your jungler is even better, so if they're nearby, coordinate a paired gank. Wait just outside the enemy's vision range, then once they overextend, approach and Dazzle (E) them. If you get at least their summoner spells, consider it a success and return to bot lane. However, if they're playing too safely for you to catch them, don't waste your time. You may miss valuable experience, which is especially important if you're not level 6 yet.

Once the enemy bot lane tower has fallen, partner up with your ADC to either swap with top lane or group at mid lane and take down more turrets. If your side's tower is the one that fell, ward the river and its jungle entrances, let your ADC farm, then rotate by yourself to help your other laners. Mirror the enemy bot lane's position since it is likely that they will be roaming as well.

As a support, setting up vision is one of your main tasks throughout the game. Knowing where your enemies are and aren't can be the difference between life and death.

Check your minimap frequently so you can capitalize on enemy activity. If you aren't protected by vision at all in an area, don't push up or wander farther than necessary. If you do have knowledge of your enemies' whereabouts, you'll be much better prepared against incoming danger.

Control Wards are always good to have around. Since they only cost 75g, pick one up whenever you don't have one on the map already.

2. Early game During laning phase, keeping the bushes just above your lane warded is your priority. They are located on common gank paths, so if the jungler comes your way, you will have an ample heads-up. Place a Control Ward in the bush that's on your side for long-term protection.

Lane wards have several functions, the first of which is protecting you from death bushes — namely, a bush that an aggressive enemy support has taken control over. By warding it, you can tell where its safe to position to avoid any of their deadly spells. If you have no minions around and you know one of the bushes is occupied, your safest bet is to avoid it, lest you risk taking heavy damage or even dying.

Lane wards can also be used to set up a Teleport gank. If one of your allies has the spell and plans assist you with it, place the deepest lane ward you can. This gives them a lot of room to work with and makes them hard to escape from upon making their entrance.

Dragon pit is a hotly contested area that you should keep an eye on. Having vision on it lets you see whether or not enemies are taking it, which will help you and your team decide whether to initiate a fight, or leave it be.

Deep wards let you see enemies coming from a mile away. When your lane is pushed, you can ward near the enemy Red/Blue Buff (whichever is closest to your side) as well as deep into the river, which will respectively inform you if the jungler or mid laner are making their way towards you.

3. Mid game As a Support, you’re quite vulnerable and can easily be killed when going to ward, when you’re moving around the map, and when you’re alone. To reduce the chances of dying and getting caught out of position, try and stick with your team at all times.Keep a constant eye on what major objective is spawning next. If it’s spawning soon, make sure you place vision around the objective as quickly and as safely as possible before retreating to safety. Having vision around major objectives is key.Look for picks during the mid-game. If you can pick someone off with the help from your allies, you can abuse their death timer to earn more gold and possibly take a tower, an objective or get more kills.

Taric will have his Starlight's Touch (Q) maxed at level 9. This means that he will heal up a lot during a fight as long as he has enough mana to constantly use the ability.At level 11, Taric will have two points in his Ultimate Cosmic Radiance (R). This means that he can use the ability frequently, which will make him quite powerful in team fights.At level thirteen, Taric will have two of his abilities maxed out. This means that he will excel in team fights and will be successfully peeling for his carry.

4. Late game

Ward major objectives and place vision in high traffic areas in the late stages of the game. Keep them warded so you can see the enemy move around the map and see them starting the objective.Stay with your team at all times. Avoid moving around the map alone so you do not get caught out. Getting caught out will result in your team having to play 4v5. Do not ward alone unless you know where the enemy is.Peel for your allies as much as possible. Keeping them alive for as long as possible in team fights is a must in order to win the game.

Once Taric gets 3 points in his Ultimate Cosmic Radiance (R), he will have a really easy time fighting with enemies. The brief period of invulnerability can easily win Taric's team the game.Taric is quite decent in team fights. This is mainly because of his Ultimate Cosmic Radiance (R), which allows him to defend high-priority targets while the enemy team takes damage.Taric is also quite tanky during this phase of the game because he will have many items now. This will make him an effective peeler for his ADC and his team.

Taric is a highly versatile and tanky support champion, known for his ability to heal, protect, and control the battlefield. With strong sustain through his W and Q, he can keep his allies alive in prolonged fights, while his E provides reliable crowd control through stuns. His ultimate, Cosmic Radiance, is one of the most powerful team-wide invulnerability abilities in the game, making him a crucial asset in teamfights.

While Taric excels at providing protection and utility, his weaknesses lie in his lack of mobility and damage output. His effectiveness largely depends on his team’s damage potential and his ability to land skill shots. However, when played well, Taric can be a game-changing support, turning fights with his invincibility and offering consistent healing to his team.

In conclusion, if you prefer a tanky support champion who can protect your team, initiate fights, and provide strong utility, Taric is an excellent choice. His synergy with many ADCs and ability to turn teamfights make him a reliable pick in both casual and competitive play.