Introduction
Now I know it's been less than a month since I first postulated on Taric's comeback on Patch 4.20, but as the new season starts, I think it's about time to revisit this crystalline hero(ine?) as some new data has come to light with Season 5's start: His win rate with Locket is absoutely insane.
Locket Discussion
Since I've already gone over Taric's pros and cons in the other article, I'd like to take this time and space to write mostly about Locket, including the Aegis it builds from.
Item Stats:
+400 health+20 magic resistanceUNIQUE – LEGION: Nearby allied champions gain +20 magic resist and +75% health regeneration. (1100 range)UNIQUE: Shield yourself and nearby allied champions for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 50 (+ 10 per level) damage. 60 second cooldown. (600 range)
For comparison, Null-Magic Mantle gives +25 magic resistance.
Assuming that most champions will have a base magic resist of around 50 when you pick up Locket (33% reduction), adding a locket equates to 41% reduction, 8% more damage reduction for every person.
This means that Syndra's normal 630 damage nuke that would have been 422 damage is now 371 damage. Including the AOE shield, of about 120 damage for a level 7 Taric, this single item can reduce her ultimate damage to 251.
While this might not seem that much pound for pound, you've actually reduced her nuke to 251 from 422 which is an effective 40.5% damage reduction on her ultimate for an ADC who didn't even build magic resist!
Not too shabby!
Without getting into the math, this means that Taric scales extremely well into the late game providing armor for his teammates.
Meanwhile, by rushing Locket, he can effectively take out the majority of AP caster damage, which tends to spike at level 6.
Magic Resistance:
Formula for Damage Reduction = Total Magic Resistance / (100 + Total Magic Resistance)Assuming that most champions will have a base magic resist of around 50 when you pick up Locket (33% reduction), adding a locket equates to 41% reduction, 8% more damage reduction for every person.
This means that Syndra's normal 630 damage nuke that would have been 422 damage is now 371 damage. Including the AOE shield, of about 120 damage for a level 7 Taric, this single item can reduce her ultimate damage to 251.
While this might not seem that much pound for pound, you've actually reduced her nuke to 251 from 422 which is an effective 40.5% damage reduction on her ultimate for an ADC who didn't even build magic resist!
Not too shabby!
Relating to Taric
Taric's natural armor aura provides 12% of his total armor as a passive aura to his teammates. At level 7 with armor yellows and quints (21 armor), Taric has 70 base armor (calc). This provides 8 armor to teammates,Without getting into the math, this means that Taric scales extremely well into the late game providing armor for his teammates.
Meanwhile, by rushing Locket, he can effectively take out the majority of AP caster damage, which tends to spike at level 6.
Comparison to Other Champions
The picture below depicts the top champions who build locket from statistics gathered by Lolking. However, you'll notice although everyone is very high, nobody even comes close to the insane 76.5% win rate that Taric sports.
Conclusions
With this, I'd say our conclusions are as follows:
- Taric is insanely good right now as a stand-alone solo queue champion
- Build Locket of Iron Solari on your supports, you won't regret it.
- If your support won't build a locket, build it on your jungler.
What do you guys think? Comment below!
ha finally, been waiting for so long for taric to come back!! my taric main is coming back to rift!!!
ReplyDeletethis is a little misleading since you have to get rich enough to BUY a locket first (which can be well after the 20 minute mark for a support)...but go taric!!!!
ReplyDeleteseason 3 again?
ReplyDeletei dont get it? so no one have ever tried to build locket before?
ReplyDeleteDo you ruch it? (before sightstone, support item/gold item)¿
ReplyDeleteSome people did, but there were a lot of people who thought it not worth while (myself included).
ReplyDeleteNot really a good thing, soon people will start to notice it, whine and eventually he will end up being nerfed. Or in the LCS but that's basically the same thing since once he is highlighted in the LCS his ban rate will spike up until he is nerfed. Same thing happened with LB/Talon/Zilean/Lucian/Corki etc.
ReplyDeletefirst buy; ruby stone or Ancient Coin or Relik Shield. Man. Then buy sightstone pretty fast, 325 gold Boots, and THEN immediately start building Locket of the Iron Solari ASAP. Then go on with the rest of the build like red sightstone, Face of the Mountain...
ReplyDeleteYeah dude.... old good Locket of the Iron Solari. solarieah... Going to start building it and Taric is good... this is our secret META now guys.... only people who read this article
ReplyDeleteI remember when this item was bought like 50-90% often in matches. almost always. Season 3-Season 4 early or so... It was so good but i think it got changed and nerfed or so
I wonder if there is actually a causal relationship here.
ReplyDeleteA/ You bought Locket -> won game (i.e. it helps)
B/ You nearly won the game -> bought Locket (i.e. too many gold around)
There were some questions similar to a TriForce to a top laner (Wukong or some champ, not so sure). And still not a clear answer to me.
Per theorycrafting, an RoA would be more cost efficient than a Deathcap, but the win rate of a Deathcap would be always higher, I guess ?
I wonder if there is actually a causal relationship here.
ReplyDeleteA/ You bought Locket -> won game (i.e. it helps)
B/ You nearly won the game -> bought Locket (i.e. too many gold around)
There were some questions similar to a TriForce to a top laner (Wukong or some champ, not so sure). And still not a clear answer to me.
Per theorycrafting, an RoA would be more cost efficient than a Deathcap, but the win rate of a Deathcap would be always higher, I guess ?
EDITED: just checked Annie's stat on LoLKing: Winrate: Deathcap > Zhonya > DFG > RoA
https:// lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_Q4E1K6MSmI/VMZSPgeGQDI/AAAAAAAABFs/wSOlPKi3PZA/s1200/ Stat_LoLKing_Annie.png
(delete the spaces - normal link would trigger spam detetor/filter of this blog)
This was a terrible article, your conclusion are misinformed. If you look at where the locket is in popularity on taric players you will notice it is well behind a number of other items. This is important because the data is showing us that taric players will typically build the items that are more popular before building locket. This means that it is more likely that locket is a later item for Taric, so the win rate could actually be explained by the fact that supports on winning teams typically have more gold which allows taric to build items he would build 4th or 5th more frequently on winning teams. You are drawing your conclusions in the wrong direction you are saying Taric wins with locket where the data is clearly screaming to us that taric's on winning teams build locket. Taric with locket is not the reason for the win, but the gold advantage of the leading team allows taric to build locket.
ReplyDeleteI think you should also look at the numbers more closely because if you add all the percentages of all those item numbers together you get approximately 285% which means on average taric players build only 2.85 of those items each game. 80% of that goes to sightstone variants, which means taric only builds 2 more of the other 8 items per game. Most tarics will not build locket first because it is better as a late game item (due to the scaling of the activate-able). So Tarics typical build will be a gold item, boots, sightstone, and then an armor item (to take advantage of his passive armor for teammates). The next item MIGHT be locket, or the 6th item might be locket. After doing some simple analysis it becomes quite clear that Tarics are not building locket until much later. Your conclusions about taric as a great champ become very flawed when you understand the reasoning behind the numbers.
In reference to the reason that other supports have locket as a lower win rate it is because those champs are able to include locket as their 4th item instead of their 5th/6th item. Taric players want to build armor first because it is more gold efficient. Other supports want to build locket as their 4th item because locket is probably the most gold efficient support item (except on taric because of the armor passive). This by no means makes taric a good champ relative to the other supports it just shows that when a team has a support who has a 5th or 6th item is usually a clear indication that that team is winning. The 25% lose rate could probably be explained by late game anomaly comebacks and Taric players who choose to inefficiently build locket early because they made the same conclusions you did.
Thank you for your time.
i just find this stupid, some how ppl never tested a really good all around support item on this support?¿
ReplyDeleteI just find this stupid, some how ppl never tested a really good all around support item on this support?¿
ReplyDeletewhat divison are you?
ReplyDeleteLocket provides more as an early game item than a late game item. The level scaling shield on locket is 10 damage per level, which is hardly worth waiting for.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the higher your magic resist becomes, the less a flat increase will affect your overall percentage reduction since it's on a scale of diminishing returns.
Also, later on in the game AP casters have more capability to build void staff, which means that any flat magic resist you build is automatically 40% less effective as soon as it touches your inventory.
It's true that there are statistical anomalies, but from a theorycraft standpoint, building the item early is clearly optimal to building it as a late game item. Perhaps the 25% loss rate is from people who incorrectly build it as such?
It's not that people never tested it, but it doesn't provide as much of a direct visible benefit on your character, so it tends to get overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI second this. Locket is a useful item, but the high win-rate is not just indicator of a good item here. Expensive items can be bought when you are fed (like TriForce or Deathcap) are likely to have higher win-rate than the "rush" items (like RoA or Hydra) which have easier build paths and the sustain for laning phase.
ReplyDelete(there are a few cases the indicator is good, like Warwick have good win-rate with Wit's End and Bork)
That's a very detailed analysis you have there. Let me try and address some of the main points as I'm running a cold and somewhat incoherent:
ReplyDeletePersonally, I main Taric. While anecdotal, I do put my money where my mouth is and rush locket on him every game. I am currently at a 12-5 w/l in a reasonable division, and rarely end the game with more than 2 fully built items.
I do love Aegis as a whole, and tend to build it on the majority of my junglers. I think the item itself is extremely strong. The reason I point this out on Taric particularly is because by itself, I find the statistic very interesting. I personally go through a LOT of stats on League, and it's very rare that I see a win rate that high on a champion for any given top 10 items.
Taric by himself is very strong, and I think building a top item on him just makes him stronger yet. Not covered in the article is the fact that Taric's heal scales off health. This, when combined with the health regen provided by locket, lets him do very well against his worst enemies: poke/kite compositions.
Anyway, although I doubt you personally build abyssal scepter very often (nobody really does), I just also want to point out that it's a somewhat subpar item for the cost, and if you force enemy APs to rush it then you're doing pretty well for yourself.
Abyssal Scepter - Offensively, for 2440 gold you gain 70 ability power and a 700 range -20 MR aura (DFG is 750 range). Comparatively, Void Staff for 2295g gives you 70 ability power and 35% magic penetration. 20 MR/.35 = 57 magic resist. Anything higher than that and void staff becomes better. Even if you're running double AP I couldn't really see a reason to build it...maybe triple AP.
I do appreciate your viewpoint though, sometimes I tend to get a little ahead of myself and need some contrasting opinions.
Last season I was silver. I just did it for the border, didn't really do that much ranked because I felt I still had a lot to learn.
ReplyDeleteFirst off 12-5 is a bad record. Not compared to all champions but compared to Taric with locket his win rate is 75%, your win rate there is only 70%, not good. This only seems to prove my point, rich tarics do well with this item and rich tarics win games, locket is not good as a first item on him.
ReplyDeleteIf you are so good at support you might have had an even better win rate with another champ and building locket first, but even your evidence from your record supports my opinion. (Not that it is even enough data anyway, or enough of a rage of data).
I still believe you should retheme the article as an article about locket instead of an article about Taric. You can support all your arguments about locket it seems, but you can't support any of your Taric arguments.
Side note: For there to be enough good data you would need at least 1000 games of data with locket built first (which would be impossible to do) and the games should be played on a wide range of people as well as a wide range of divisions.
Well since the sample's so small anyway, we could always reduce it down to when I was 10-1 :3 Once I get in 1000 games hopefully I'll be at somewhere close to 53%, much less 77...
ReplyDeleteIf you can't win 76% of the time with Taric building locket first then why bother writing the article? You are making my point stronger and stronger, whoever is your editor should have thrown this in the garbage, told you to rewrite it, and then the final version is just an article about why locket is good in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't an article telling you that if you play Taric and buy a locket you'll have a 76% win rate, it's telling you that Tarics with lockets have a 76% win rate. It's a simple reporting of facts, combined with why Taric happens to be good and Locket happens to be good. You may draw from it what conclusions you will.
ReplyDeleteI beg to differ, you say "Meanwhile, by rushing Locket, he can effectively take out the majority of AP caster damage, which tends to spike at level 6." Even if you are not explicitly saying it you are still implying to play Taric with locket which is the entire problem I have with the article because Taric's should not be building locket as a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th item. (To clarify the first 3 items are gold item, boots, sightstone, then to take advantage of his armor passive the gold efficient 4th buy is an armor item where randuins or frozen heart are best based on which effect is situationally better)
ReplyDeleteAs well, if you are building locket every game and can't even hit 76% win rate then how are you qualified to talk about the strength of Taric or Locket, you must clearly be using the champ wrong or not using the activatable on Locket because the average Taric player who buys locket wins 76% of the time, you are well below average. (6% lower as of the last update)
Imho it’s because of 2 things:
ReplyDelete1 Taric scales harder than most champions in the game and
locket is a late item buy for most Tarics. Taric is also strong early game.
2 Taric needs 3 things: Health, MR & cdr. Most Tarics I
see run Armor quints and seals. Some replace MR glyphs for cdr. Many Taric
players also buy armor cdr items that offer no health/MR. As a test try running
flat health quints/seals, armor marks & flat mr glyphs. Start relic support
item. You’ll have over 900 health. You WILL notice the difference in lane.
My current build is Relic>Sightstone>FOTM>Mercs>Locket>Ohmwreker>SV
or Mikaels. I’m considering working a portal into my build.
DON'T REVEAL THE SECRET OP THAT IS TARIC
ReplyDeleteMY GEM KNIGHT IS MINE
NOBODY TAKE HIM FROM ME
It must be because I'm bad :-/
ReplyDeleteIt's not that you are bad, don't be so hard on yourself, cheer up. It is that Taric should not build Locket early as you have suggested. Just build first 3 items support and 4th item armor item, you will see a slight improvement but that is the difference between moving up a division or not.
ReplyDeleteTbh most of my games seem to be decided right around when I get sightstone lol
ReplyDeleteAfter this articles there will be some people think locket=autowin ; therefore the win rate will be dropped to 57% or so :)
ReplyDeleteThat's not it, the win rate is being normalized because some people are building it as 4th item or earlier on him. The win rate should also coincide with a slight increase in popularity if that is the case.
ReplyDeleteFair enough, I appreciate your input.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I look forward to your next article.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, the Author of the articles on this site should be listed. Please forward that to your editor, it adds credibility.
ReplyDeleteThe author of every article on the site is listed in the About Me section along with the names of every editor ;)
ReplyDeleteAs another Taric main, who happens to have locket as one of his core items, is a great follow up item after Frozen Heart, and it "can" be rushed against heavy AP teams after you get Glacial Shroud and a Sightstone, specially if your focus is leveling Q early. But anyway, a Taric who rushes Frozen Heart early is very often a rich Taric indeed.
ReplyDeleteIt used to give armor, but since armor was removed, it fell out of favor at the same time Taric also fell out of favor.
ReplyDeleteIt's more like Taric has been inching slowly to the meta since the Bloodthirster changes. In Season 5, he can allow his team to take objectives pretty fast with his ultimate. His kit/stuns make him great at 2v2/ 3v3 skirmishes in the jungle.
ReplyDeleteArmor items have been streamlined, Ohmwrecker added, and now in 5.2 Giant's Belt will be built from Ruby Crystal, meaning it'll be much easier to build both Randuin's Omen and Rylai's Scepter - very useful against AP comps if you go for CDR Runes and Ionian Boots, with Lillandry's Torment to follow up. Too bad, at 1900g, it takes an eternity to build Aegis, and quite often Spirit Visage looms as a decent alternative. On unused but nice items, there are things like Ardent Censer, Triforce (Iceborn is much more common), Banner of Command and Zeke's Herald.
How about Ohmwrecker thresh then, if we are counting champions with items that aren't popularly picked. 100% winrate last time I checked :-p
ReplyDeleteAfter reading some of the discussion here, I decided to leave my 2 cents on the matter...
ReplyDeleteEver since I read this article I've been rushing locket. I'm 4 - 0 with Leona and 1 - 0 as Thresh while doing this. Technically, there was a 5th game where I had rushed locket but was told multiple times to get rid of it since the other team did not have an AP mage (their mid was Zed). I was hesitant but relented, replacing it for frozen heart, per my teammates. Needless to say, we lost. As it turns out, their Trundle and Thresh did a hefty amount of magic damage and we lost more teamfights than we won, including the most crucial one after we took out baron. I was then blamed for throwing. This game went over 50 minutes and was a tough pill to swallow, but it's my only loss w/Leona in season 5 out of 5 games.
I'm going to continue to rush locket going forward and intend on purchasing Taric in the near future. I've been a 'lurker' here for a while and have always appreciated the great write ups, thank you. Also helps that I can actually access this site from work, cuz most gaming-related websites are blocked!
I feel for you dude, so innocent you must be. Please take the words of this article with a grain of salt, if you have been keeping up with the comments you would know this article has been largely discredited.
ReplyDeleteClearly a troll-ish comment but highlights my point that once again just because Thresh's are 100% with ohmwrecker it does not mean it is a good item to build on Thresh. A similar attitude must be taken when looking at Locket on Taric.
ReplyDeleteAgainst teams that really have no AP casters rushing locket doesn't work as well, and it's usually better to get face of your mountain to get the death denying shield as your first item followed by HP for damage mitigation on most champions.
ReplyDeleteIn general it's almost never a good idea to sell a fully finished item for another unless it's your last item in your inventory. The reason for this is that it's less gold efficient than anything you could possibly buy with the funds.
Good to hear your season's going well though, keep it up and thanks for reading!
Surprised more people don't build Spirit Visage on him. Given his already enormous heal to himself, he can stay in the fight much longer with it. Locket I feel is a great item but it's already been said 'cause late game' and I largely agree with that. I don't main Taric but my favorite aspect of him is the right Taric and you can virtually sustain until 10 minutes in, so if your ADC is newer or lacks aggression they can still farm while you pick up the slack. Still, he's a tank support, so none of this surprises me.
ReplyDeleteNo need to feel bad for me, after last nights games I'm now 6 - 0 when rushing locket. I don't expect the 100% win rate to continue, but I will say I have no intention of deviating from the build any time soon. The total cost is a bit hefty but it's fairly easy to build into if you time it right. I believe it makes for an excellent early/mid game for all-in champs like Leona. The health bonus for you and the sustain it provides for your ADC is hard to compete with.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to continue to build locket first, it is just that Frozen heart is more efficient on Taric, on other supports though Locket should be 4th item in many cases, unless you are much higher in skill then Mikael's fits in your build somewhere
ReplyDeleteVisage has the same problem as Locket, it has the stats but not gold efficient ones you want. The most gold efficient item on Taric is Frozen Heart by far because he is ability based and the armor gives a huge boost to the team via the aura.
ReplyDeleteactually locket is 67% while omen is 75%
ReplyDeleteThis sounds good
ReplyDeleteWhat about masteries?
ReplyDeleteI don't care for buying FH on Taric support. Yeah it looks great on paper but Taric really needs health and the appropriate amount of MR. In most games I'd rather have a SV or locket. Maybe as a 5th or 6th item against a team with 3-4 AD attack speed champs.
ReplyDeleteI usually run 0-21-9. If in champ select I notice I don't need much MR I'll get 4 points for the cdr in the O tree and run cdr/lvl glyphs (instead of MR) that way I only need 20% cdr in game (prob fotm and SV or Locket.
ReplyDelete