Boards›Gameplay

The thing about Bard

not a starburst·3/16/2015, 10:56:46 PM·37 votes·4,084 views

So people have been saying that Bard is a permaban, not because he's OP, but because practically nobody can play him.

This is not strictly true. The reason you should ban Bard isn't because he has a very high skillcap. It's because he has two skillcaps. In order for someone to play him and not fall flat on their face, they need to be good with him. And then their team needs to be good at using him correctly. You can make the magic golden portal to Wonka-land or Hell or wherever, you can slap down more health packs than there are in Left 4 Dead, you can freeze the entire enemy team, but if nobody capitalizes on your brilliant play, your potential is wasted and your team gets killed.

Bard's a raw force multiplier. He has practically no power on his own. The chances of you finding both someone good with Bard and a team who knows how to use him is lower than Mitt Romney's chances of ever becoming president (sorry, Mitt, it just ain't happening), so just ban the dude before some moron decides to figure out how to play what's probably League's hardest champion in the middle of your ranked game.

64 Comments

ElderwoodBard3/16/2015, 10:59:08 PM15 votes

I remember the days when braum was released and everyone QQed about "a useless champion that does no damage". still one of if not the best support (s) you can get

Ariel the Cruel3/17/2015, 3:06:47 AM9 votes

Ya know. I love how these new champs require an increasing amount of team-mate interaction to be effective.

I love how Riot once considered that a grievous offense.

So grievous, in fact, they deleted an entire champion.

Karma. Never forget.

1 Wing3/17/2015, 4:08:03 AM4 votes

Yah, it is sometimes difficult to get your team to behave right.

"no, don't get that heal pack right away; I could have healed you directly. Wait a bit." "okay, actually pick up that heal pack sometime; like eventually. You keep saying how you're losing lane. It might help if you actually got a bit more health there."

Tentacle Love3/17/2015, 12:25:37 AM4 votes

It doesn't help that his item builds are freaking wonky as hell.

He's a character that's going to be doing a lot of autoattacking, casting his q, and moving around. you can give him the ardent censer, and his heals become remote powerups (quite cool imo) that allow the adc to push a turret, especially if you hide one in the nearby bush.

For some hilarious fun, bait the enemy team into facechecking a bush by 'hiding' your heal powerup right outside the bush instead of in it. It's like a noob magnet, people run straight at it to squash it.

people want to give him the coin to start off and upgrade to the talisman of ascension, but I think you can avoid finishing the talisman and instead grab an early catalyst item 3010 and upgrade it to righteous glory so that when you engage with your team, you ENGAGE. (seriously I nominate bard to get a starfleet captain skin)

He's perfect for Luden's Echo and you just basically round out the build with Zz'Rot portal, banner of command, lich bane, or twin shadows, depending on what your team needs the most.

That nets you enough AP to make your Q very intimidating, and the movement to dodge everything they throw at you and place those wards just a slight bit deeper than the enemy team can cover.

Sturmgeschüt3/17/2015, 10:43:31 AM2 votes

I think Bard is alright. His ult is very good for allowing your jungler to come gank or to put half of the enemy team out of commission for teamfights. I guess it's not as difficult to use the ult after playing Zeratul in HOTS for the past year or so.

I think he just has high skillcap and that you need to have a good adc with you so that you can leave lane and roam without fearing for them. I don't think he's a good soloqueue champ but in my games, I've had good adcs that were able to hold lane solo, so it might just be a elo thing.

Grouchy Poro3/17/2015, 5:33:00 PM2 votes

Agreed. I've gotten pretty good with Bard after learning about his mechanics and chime works. Most of my games are losses though since I can't do anything on my own. I enjoy him too much though so each game is fun :)

Yormaughm3/17/2015, 6:24:39 PM2 votes

The fact that Riot made a champion who's 100% reliant upon teamwork...and then people say he's useless for exactly that reason is so much of everything wrong with the community that plays this game.

Seriously it's borderline disgusting. If you don't want to play a team game why are you playing League of Legends? (Not directed at anyone in particular, just an important question we should all ask ourselves.)

Stars Shaper3/17/2015, 7:25:11 AM2 votes

I agree with that but then I must say that a character that can do nothing alone nor being a treath by himself doesn't fit LoL in any way. It's not a matter of meta or non-meta is a matter of game philosophy. Each character in LoL has the potential of being dangerous just by himself without needing a team to capitalize but either run away or just press on.

This is why Bard isn't going to be any kind of viable, he requires too much for a game at which ALL other champions have far easier life. You could be more successful with Vayne support.

LankPants3/16/2015, 11:14:43 PM2 votes

Personally I just ban him because he has the capacity to remove my influence over a game, no other champ can do that.

Phife3/16/2015, 11:16:36 PM2 votes

Well said, its much like kalista when it comes to the passive w and her ult.

Ethri3/17/2015, 7:14:41 AM2 votes

There are only two things hard about Bard.

Landing his stun.
Using his ult in an advanced manner (ex. allowing ally cooldowns to come up).

The rest of his kit is fairly straight forwards. When I play him I try to teach allies where and when I can tunnel so they can know when to expect them.

Though I do have a funny related story. I put a tunnel though a wall along side lane and saw the enemy Caitlyn put a trap at the other end, so i spammed the warning ping. Our Leblanc walked in... and didn't live much longer.

B1naryB0t3/17/2015, 10:38:13 PM1 votes

So, you basically learned how supports are.

Brenticus123/18/2015, 1:00:43 AM1 votes

But...that's pretty much most true supports.

Alistar, Thresh, Nami.

They don't do much alome but they set up plays for their teammates.

Raze6673/18/2015, 3:58:05 AM1 votes

Playing Bard is really frustrating. He's amazingly squishy, and short ranged. I FEEL like he has such huge potential, but can't really achieve it. My best games all went to late game with us ahead, and we just lost in the endgame because I didn't add enough to the team. 0 damage support, and Q is friggin impossible to land when they're standing in a mass of minions.

You can't really flank with him, because he just dies, so getting to anything you want to stun is very hard. And you can't really peel for the adc if they enemy doesn't stand next to a wall.

That being said, he's really really fun to play, even if his base stats are silly low.