So, I've been thinking about Taric a lot lately. I was lucky enough to get to play him during that amazing two weeks or so at the beginning of the season when he was OP as balls (1v1 the toplaner all day baby), and it's kinda sad to see him in my champion list gathering dust. And so, I'd like to have a discussion with all of you about what Taric's "job" is, if he does that job successfully, and what can be changed about him if he doesn't.

To my mind, Taric's strengths are: * Anti-AD aura and armor shred * Natural tankyness * Sustain * Hard CC * Big Fabulous Aura buff

So looking at this, Taric should be a tanky sustain support that's specialized against AD. But currently, Leona and Braum outdo him hard in terms of CC and tankyness, and his sustain doesn't really make up for it. Sure, his passive (which I actually like a lot) gives him more potential damage and maybe more cc if fights go very long, but that doesn't happen very often at all. His ult is powerful, but mainly only in long, drawn-out fights and, like Sona before him, you can't always tell how much of an effect it actually had. There's no optimal way to use Taric's ult; you just pop it in a teamfight and fight like normal.

So basically, Taric's "win condition" is very long, messy teamfights wherein his ult aura and passive can be used to their full effect.

Here's my proposed kit:

Passive: Gemcraft After using an ability, Taric's next basic attack deals bonus magic damage equal to 20% of Taric's armor and reduces his abilities' cooldown by 1 second. Attacks against enemy champions reduce his cooldowns by 2 seconds instead.

Q: Imbue (18/17/16/15/14 sec cooldown) On ally cast: Restores (X base Y AP) health to an ally instantly Y% of Taric's maximum health over 4 seconds On self cast: Restores Y% of Taric's maximum health to all allies in 500 range over 4 seconds

W: Gemstone Encrust (12 sec cooldown) Passive: Gives Taric 10/15/20/25/30 bonus armor On ally cast: Grants a 6-second shield to target ally that shields for (X base Y AP Z armor) damage and provides the same passive armor bonus. On self cast: Deals (X base Y armor) damages all enemy units in a 500 range around Taric. Targets hit have their armor reduced by (X base Y armor).

E: Dazzle (14/13/12/11/10 sec cooldown) Linear, instant skillshot: Taric fires a broad beam of light from his shield that travels for 700 units, damages and blinds all targets hit for X seconds. Enemies within the first 200 units are stunned instead. On self cast: Taric emits a large flash, blinding and damaging all enemy units in a 50o unit range around him. Enemies within the first 150 units are stunned instead.

R: Call the Crystal (3 sec cooldown) Every 60 seconds, Taric readies a crystal. He can have a maximum of 1/2/3 crystals readied at once. On cast, Taric summons a crystal at target location within 1000 range, dealing (X base Y AP) damage and stunning all enemies hit for 0.5 seconds. These crystals remain for 10/15/20 seconds, and if touched by one of Taric's abilities, explode 1sec afterwards, producing the same effect as the on-self-cast version of the ability that triggered the explosion. These explosions are chain-reactive, meaning the explosion of one crystal can trigger the same explosion on any other crystals within range.

These changes are intended to reinforce Taric's specific niche as a support; being tank as hell, and debuffing enemies and buffing allies via large, fabulous AoE effects.

What do you guys think?