Taric

Taric is the most reliable engage support on the roster, because Dazzle is targeted: no skillshot to dodge, no zone to walk out of. You click, the target is locked down. Around that, he stacks everything a botlane needs to win an extended trade: a heal that recharges faster with every auto attack, Shatter, which grants armor to nearby allies and, when activated, strips it from enemies, and an ultimate that boosts the attack damage and ability power of his whole team.

His defining trait sits in his passive, Gem Craft: his auto attacks deal bonus magic damage scaling off his max mana. That's not flavor text, it's what turns him into a support who can actually poke in melee range. The cost is zero attack range, general slowness, and total dependency on staying next to his target.

The targeted stun is the best guarantee in the game: against a champion burning their mobility spell, against a channeler, against something slippery, it always lands. Shatter wins lane trades without him even touching an enemy, simply because his carry takes less damage than theirs, and the active turns an enemy tank into a soft target for the whole team. His heal costs almost nothing to recast if he's swinging regularly, giving him fearsome lane endurance.

The flaws are structural. No slow, no disengage, no shield: if his carry gets caught, the only way to save them is to walk into the same spot yourself. His mana cost is heavy at low levels and the heal drains the bar in three casts. And he only has one form of control: once the stun is spent, he becomes a body that hits hard but stops nothing.

The lane plan is simple to state and hard to execute: stay within stun range of the enemy botlane without walking into their wave. Dazzle hurts more the closer you are to the target, so the trade that actually pays off isn't a max-range stun, it's one thrown while you're already glued to them, followed by autos and an activated Shatter to strip their armor.

Save your activated Shatter for the trade, not for clearing minions: the passive armor bonus you share is worth more in a war of attrition than the extra damage you scrape off a wave. Dazzle's cooldown drops faster the more you swing, so weave in autos on the enemy carry whenever you can, that's both harassment and cooldown management. Watch your mana bar: a dry Taric is a support with no stun, meaning no purpose.

The first real spike is your ultimate level, but the common mistake is reading it as a damage spell. Radiance is a team amplifier: it boosts the attack damage and ability power of everyone around you. Fired at the right moment in a four-man botlane skirmish, it flips a fight you were losing on paper.

The second spike comes with your first defensive items. Taric doesn't scale through damage, he scales by becoming nearly unkillable in the middle of a scrum while keeping his stun available. An item that gives both mana and armor works twice as hard on him, since his passive feeds off the mana bar. From this point on your role shifts: you stop following your carry and start opening fights.

You stand with the front line, but not past it. Your ideal spot is one from which you can reach the enemy carry in a single step if the window opens, while still covering your own carry with your armor aura. The question before every fight is the same: do I save the stun to open, or to protect? Against a dive comp, you save it.

In a fight, your priority order is clear. First the armor aura, which is passive and free, then activating Shatter in the middle of the scrum to weaken as much armor as possible, then Radiance once your team is committed and not a second before. The stun, meanwhile, waits until the last useful moment: on the enemy initiator if they open, or on whoever lands on your carry.