- Normally I pick Taric when I am 4th or 5th pick to make sure I get a good match-up.

- I roll with the Gem Knight against an AD heavy team comp (3-5 members AD)

- Taric's Shatter (W) gives an armor aura equal to 12% of his total armor to nearby allies (as well as increases his own armor each rank) WHILE NOT ON COOLDOWN

- This in mind, as well as that Taric's moves (W) scale with armor - against an all AD team you can just stack armor at extreme cost efficiency.

- If you don't get owned too hard in lane as Taric
*which is hard to considering his non skill shot target-stun
* tankiness,
* 2-man heal; an incredible advantage in lane, especially on a tanky CC support.
* and decent burst damage.

- once team fights start happening you will be obnoxiously difficult to kill

- In the late game with your finished armor items he provides a ridiculous armor aura for your team (I have reached near +50 armor aura late game)

^ above is why why to pick Taric in these situations rather than blindly locking in some "op support of the meta" simply because they are "strong picks." Think about the counter pick. Think about that armor.

Typically for Taric I play by the strategy that late game I will be too much to stop. So I set my runes as scaling for the late game - and can get away with it without dying because of Taric's natural tankiness. Not like you're going to get focused anyway.

Here is my standard rune page:
marks x9 armor flat
seals x9 armor scaling
glyphs x9 magic resist scaling
quints x3 ARMOR FLATS

* It will be important to have additional rune pages for certain match-ups. For example if you were Taric bot lane vs a Morganna or Brand support you will probably want MR flat glyphs rather than scaling. Use your own discretion on how to adjust the runes per match-up.

I typically either run 0/30/0 if I am comfortable that the Jungler will not make an early gank on my lane in favor of more survivability and stacking stronger into the late game.

If you need that early vision you can run 0/9/21 or 0/15/15 to sacrifice some of your defenses for utility. Just try to decide what build will be best for the given situation.

face of the mountain
sightstone
ninja tabai
thornmail
frozen heart
randuins/thornmail

STACK STACK STACK the armor. If you picked Taric in the right scenario you should be up against 3-5 AD champs and will benefit your entire team to stack more armor. In the case that the enemy team has 2 AP heavy champs, consider substituting an item for a Locket.

Start with stun.

If early on you and your carry are taking a lot of harass and need some health back take heal level 2. I only recommend maxing your heal if you are really being poked down in lane. Otherwise max (W) Shatter. Every rank you level it will give you more armor, and it enables a passive aura buff to your allies 12% of your armor. That is amazing for the team fights against that AD heavy team, trust me.

Flash always

Ignite or exhaust. Depending on if you think being aggressive will pay off. (Taric does benefit a lot from having Exhaust as he does not have a built in slow already.)

Taric can become a very unstoppable force against the right team. Pick him into AD heavy teams and watch as you become an unkillable wall of defenses and offenses, even sharing a good portion of your armor with your nearby team.

Taric is easy to play and has no skill shots. He is incredibly viable, even against comps that are not AD heavy (in my opinion) and if selected in the right situations is a top-notch pick.