BARD - way under-powered, way imbalanced

I know this will be a flame fest, but I'd just like to express my opinion.

Bard, to me, seems very under-powered and imbalanced.

First, he is squishy. I have played him a number of times and build him full tank. Even at end game, he is squishy.

Next, his stun. Every other like-character has a one hit stun. BARD? You must line up your shots to get a combo in order for it to work. Rarely an option because he is so squishy and a stun often requires Bard to broadside the enemy or get behind them because of clumps of creeps too deep to penetrate.

Next, his meeps. These are fine. I like the idea. But, they rarely provide enough power to really do much damage. Even when roaming to stop and kill a jungle creep, not enough meeps to really do the job successfully or efficiently.

Next, charms. Ok, this seems like a good idea. I like getting more involved in the game and the map beyond just sticking to the lane. But, this really leaves your ADC open a lot, you have no choice if you want to even try to keep up with the pack, you MUST roam to collect charms, or you fall behind quick. So, your ADC often gets mad that you left, or you find yourself in enemy territory and ganked.

Next, charms again. So, you are squishy. You don't have much damage because your meeps is all you have. You have little in way of escape. Your Charms can be seen by enemy champions. They know where you are going to go, so they wait in ambush often and you have no way to get out, but to die.

Next, magic gateway. So many champions have the ability to dodge through a wall. It is ridiculous that the only escape that Bard DOES have allows enemies to follow through.

Next, ult. Freezes teammates and enemies? Yea, again, another assist for enemy team, allowing time for their teammates to charge into the battle area. Also, the ability for enemies to see the blast zone and too much time allows even the slowest champs to escape the area before being hit. And, the farther away from the drop zone you are, the longer they have to escape. This seems unreasonable.

Next, health pad. I find this to be a good add. It is a nice addition to help your jg and other lanes early on. But, the charge-up is kind of too long. And, again, most other support characters that can heal can heal on demand the full power of their heal. It doesn't take time, and it certainly does not allow enemy to cancel the heal like with Bard and them being able to walk over it.

I just find Bard very difficult to really make any headway at all. Sure, the pros can do it, but they usually have their team to support them in the effort. For PUG groups, you are often alone and unsupported.

It just seems that Bard helps the enemy team as much as he does his own team in many aspects. This is very unbalanced.

Solution:

1. Stun - make him like every other support stunner: 1 hit = 1 stun or area stun.

2. Charms - 2 options: a) Allow 1 of 2 paths at beginning of game. Keep roaming charm method of leveling Meeps, or allow the player to select an option where Bard is set up kind of like Rengar where kills or assists give him upgrades to his meeps. Or b) some combination would be cool. Maybe a 10-15 Charm auto-collect of charms around the map boost for kills/assists or some number anyway. That way the player can choose how to play, whether to be a roamer or to stay with their ADC for support.

3. Meeps - Keep these, but perhaps make them more powerful vs epic jungle creeps. To grab a blue takes forever at any level of the game if you are tank; and, you still lose a lot of health because of the time spent.

4. Health drop - Keep, but either do 1 of 2 things, a) change it so enemies cant cancel it or b) take away charge-up time.

5. Ult - One of three things a) remove the ability for enemies to see it coming, b) make it so it does not freeze friendly champs, c) keep the stun all, but allow it to heal friendlies and give them a speed boost after freeze for some % of Bards AP.