Welcome to the League of Legends
Champion Spotlight featuring Taric,
the Shield of Valoran.
Once a carefree and charming Demacian officer,
Taric was forever changed one fateful night
when his men were butchered while he visited
a nearby temple.
Wracked with remorse and exiled by Demacia,
Taric traveled to Mount Targon,
hoping to scale its peak to atone for his misconduct.
He overcame the treacherous climb only to face
a final challenge: a confrontation with the Targonian
entity known as the Protector.
After withstanding its test, Taric found himself
imbued with its powers and tasked with protecting
all of Valoran.
In-game, Taric's a tanky support who brings
his otherworldly powers to bear through a
slew of flexible and potent abilities.
Taric's passive is Bravado, which soups up
his next two basic attacks whenever he
uses an ability.
These two attacks swing faster,
deal extra magic damage,
and - most importantly - reduce the cooldowns
of his other abilities.
Taric's Q is Starlight's Touch, an AoE heal
for all allies around League's very own Fabio.
There are two features to this otherwise simple ability:
First, Starlight's Touch slowly gains charges over time,
which are all consumed to power up the heal.
Second, Taric's Bravado attacks reduce his Q cooldown
by significantly more than his other abilities.
Hold on to Starlight's Touch if you're looking to get
to get the biggest heal for your buck!
The mana cost stays the same, but you'll undo
tons of damage as opposed to itty bitty bits of damage.
We're skipping Taric's W for a moment
for reasons that'll become crystal clear real soon.
So, Taric's not just a stunner in the looks department -
he's also a stunner in game thanks to his E: Dazzle.
After casting in a target direction,
Taric can briefly move around before
it sapPHIRE's out from him in that direction,
damaging and briefly stunning all enemies hit.
Use Dazzle to stun your enemies before
laying into them with basic attacks.
You'll safely trigger your Bravado passive and lower your
cooldowns all while dealing decent damage.
It's a win win win!
Taric's ultimate is Cosmic Radiance.
Taric starts charging his ultimate on activation
and after a few seconds, buffs all allied
units around him with temporary invulnerability.
Just as with Dazzle, Taric can move around freely
while he charges up, but allies will fail
to gain any benefit if they run too far away.
Finally, Taric and his pals are only
immune to damage while cosmically radiant -
things like heals and crowd control will
still work just fine.
Alright, last but definitely not least
is Taric's W, Bastion.
Passively, Bastion increases Taric's armor,
but when he activates the ability, he shields a targeted
ally and creates a link with them that temporarily breaks
if Taric and his buddy wander too far apart
from each other.
That's the simple stuff - here's the more important bit:
Once the link is established, Taric casts
all of his abilities from both himself
and his Bastion buddy.
Starlight's Touch creates two healing zones
Dazzle fires out two stuns, each towards the cursor
and Cosmic Radiance whips up two invulnerable zones.
These don't stack, so you don't get double healing,
damage, or double invulnerability,
but you will be able to affect double the real estate.
Bastion has a ton of uses once you unlock
all of your abilities. Try linking up with an ally to turn
your entire tower-diving party invulnerable, for example!
Your opponents will love you!
No. They'll hate you.
You'll generally want to stay in the thick of things
when playing as Taric, partly to Dazzle your opponents,
but also to trigger Bravado and keep your abilities online.
Though Tristana gets caught, Taric re-casts Bastion
for the shield and then hits Starlight's Touch for the heal,
which keeps her alive.
Because Taric stays in combat with Bard,
Bravado allows him to re-cast Starlight's Touch as well
as a second round of Dazzle to help ensure Ezreal
doesn't live to tell the tale.
Taric has some pretty telegraphed windows of power,
so playing around them - engaging when you're strong
and disengaging when you're not - is super important.
Here, the enemy bot lane plays really well around
Taric's ult by disengaging entirely, only to go back in
once the invulnerability fades out.
But Taric's not done yet.
He Dazzles Jhin, which gives Lucian a chance to dash in
and pick up an easy kill before focusing down Trundle.
Once he's dead it's time to run.
Pay special attention to how Taric aims Dazzle.
By targeting just above Lucian, he's able to cover
both of his flanks, making it almost impossible for
Shen to get past the stun.
When Taric's not busy doing all the work in bot lane,
he can carry the rest of his teammates too,
so make sure you roam around the map
once mid game swings around.
The combined ranges of Bastion and Dazzle
from Trundle means that Ekko and Karma are literally
and figuratively stunned that Trundle can kill them now.
Spotting opportunities to find new Bastion buddies
really separates the diamond Taric players from the rough.
Here, he spots Pantheon chasing Sona,
and moves his W from Lux
to land a guaranteed Dazzle and kill.
You'll probably have your marksman bastioned up
most of the time - and that's fine -
just remember that by relocating Bastion
you'll often be able to save otherwise doomed allies
and kill otherwise safe enemies.
Taric following up on a hardcore engage
is one of his heaviest strengths,
but you have to play it right.
Here, Taric pops Cosmic Radiance
in hopes of keeping Vi alive after she dives.
But the enemy team plays it perfectly,
popping her before the invulnerability kicks in.
Because of how badly the beginning of the fight went,
Taric's enemies start slaughtering his teammates.
Some protector you are.
Enough of his mistakes, let's talk about Taric
being the Targonian badass he is!
As Braum hits Glacial Fissure, Taric reacts
to the hard engage by casting Cosmic Radiance.
Thanks to the invulnerability, his teammates survive
the 3v5, which buys enough time for his remaining
allies to come to the rescue and shatter the enemy team.
Thanks for tuning in to the Taric Champion Spotlight.
Check out these gems if you're craving more
information about the Shield of Valoran.