Taric hasn’t had a place in the League of Legends meta for quite some time. At least, not traditionally. With the support only being relevant in “funnel” comps, they want to kill the “unhealthy” strategy to free the Shield of Valoran with fresh changes coming in Season 11.
Despite Riot’s best efforts, funnel comps are still a thing in League of Legends. They might not be as devastating as they were in Season 8 and 9 with nerfs to jungler XP and gold generation from lane farm, but they’re still relevant in ranked.
Taric-Master Yi is the prevailing combo. While Master Yi farms the jungle, Taric holds the mid lane wave in a freeze. Yi waltzes through to clear it, and then the cycle continues.
It’s a far cry from the Taric of old we’re used to seeing on Summoner’s Rift. While he can still be played as a support, it’s far from optimal. Taric has a win rate of 51.41% but is one of the lowest picked champions with a rate of only 0.69%, according to op.gg.
Riot wants to change his identity and hopefully drive the dagger through funnel comps once and for all by implementing a set of Taric buffs that’ll push him out of mid lane and back down to protect the AD carry.
“Taric isn’t in a terrible spot, but we think he’s being held back from the best state he could be in because of the unhealthy synergy he has with Yi using a jungle funnel strat,” developer Mark Yetter admitted in an April 2 blog post.
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“Our plan is to make adjustments to the way that combo works, giving us some room to buff Taric more generally.”
The main culprit is the combo between Taric’s E — his Dazzle stun — and Master Yi’s Alpha Strike Q. Because it’s a very reliable way to CC an enemy with no counterplay, making it harder to hit will be high on Riot’s priorities.
From there, they can fix the rest of Taric’s problems, including the high mana cost on his Q and the lack of identity he has following the Season 11 item rework.
These changes are expected to ship in the coming weeks. With League patch 11.8 around the corner, it’s unlikely we will see it that soon. However, come mid-season, and Taric could be back to his old self.