Why do people keep building Spellthief on bard?

Sorgklaan·May 29, 2015·3 votes·1,348 views

Why do people keep building spellthief on bard? His autoattack range is so short, he usually gets punished quite severely whenever he tries to poke, and for very little actual damage. His Q doesn't really work for poking either, because anybody who isn't braindead realizes they can just stand behind their minions to block it completely. Why don't more people build Ancient coin on him? More reliable gold gain, plus the item it builds into is AMAZING on him.

I keep seeing people try to build him either AP or tanky, but I don't think that works. He doesn't have the abilities to tank, nor does he make enough gold, and he doesn't scale for shit off of AP. I feel like he really needs to be built just utility, that's what the ancient coin is there for. Items like Twin Shadows and talisman of ascension are perfect for him.

17 Comments

PhifeMay 29, 20153 votes

spell thief procs twice on his meep autos.
passive gold regen for roaming.
ap
mid / late game 80% slow.
cdr

SorgklaanMay 29, 20151 votes

Nobody ever builds frost queen on him though. They just start spellthief then sell it later and build into talisman. which is retarded.

Deep Terror NamiMay 29, 20153 votes

That's not retarded, that is a good practice. You gain the superior benefits early on, and later once it has paid for itself you get the preferable upgrade. This is not specific to Bard at all.

ZephyrDrakeMay 29, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Nobody ever builds frost queen on him though. They just start spellthief then sell it later and build into talisman. which is retarded.

you just said what most supports do with spellthief. Coin is a horrible item unless you plan to stay in lane ALL THE TIME which is something you do not want on Bard. Spellthief also gives much better stats early on than Coin ever will and until you upgrade it, it will pale to the other items. Spellthief you can leave it un-upgraded until you literally have no other choice than to either sell it or upgrade it while Coin is something you want to upgrade to to it's final tier as soon as possible. You starting with Spellthief and leaving it like that allows you to build a sightstone, boots and any other support type items you want without ever caring about Spellthief. You start coin? well better focus on that until it's fully upgraded since it needs it's final form to be truly useful which will delay your other items even more.

It's not retarded to buy a very useful item that doesn't need to be upgraded (mainly due to how bad the upgrades are when compared to it's tier 1 version) and focus on everything else and to either upgrade it or sell it when you absolutely need to

SukishooMay 29, 20152 votes

I never do. I ALWAYS build into item 3092 .

I used to run a item 3301 when he first came out but didn't find it as effective in the end.

NemeBroMay 29, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Nobody ever builds frost queen on him though. They just start spellthief then sell it later and build into talisman. which is retarded.

That must explain why both Bard's most common build and the build with the highest win rate contain Frost Queen's Claim on him.

ZephyrDrakeMay 29, 20153 votes

because if you plan on roaming with Bard and not be in lane all the time (like you should) then Spellthief is better simply because of the GP10 component it has. Coin is great if you plan on staying in lane but it's a pretty horrible item if you plan on roaming until you get it's upgrades. What would you prefer while roaming? coin or spellthief?

Duke AnaxMay 29, 20151 votes

I'm not sure roaming that early is such a great idea. and once you have Nomad the GP10 is the same.

also nomad lets you roam faster.

ZephyrDrakeMay 31, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Duke Anax,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AEmKBJ5s,comment-id=00070000,timestamp=2015-05-29T23:59:21.478+0000)

I'm not sure roaming that early is such a great idea. and once you have Nomad the GP10 is the same.

also nomad lets you roam faster.

i could also just get spellthief, buy boots and have extra money for wards have gold generation for longer AND have a faster roam than by just upgrading to Nomad. If you want to start coin on bard go ahead but until you get item 3069 , spellthief is going to be way better than either Coin or Nomad unless you plan on sitting in lane and never or rarely roam

IcyPepperMay 29, 20152 votes

spellthief for early roaming and a little more cc late-game (one of the few supports I'd build Frost Queen's on him)?

But honestly I prefer coin. Gives me an incentive to stay in lane until I upgrade it for the GP5.

Deep Terror NamiMay 29, 20152 votes

It's the only tier one with passive gold generation to benefit him while he roams.

khorneyMay 29, 20152 votes

Ancient coin is what I use . movement speed

Toothless LionMay 29, 20152 votes

Coin was pretty bad before this patch. He can't proc relic very easily. None of the support items are very good on him but spellthief (was) the best.

Truly PridefulMay 29, 20152 votes

I used to take spellthief on him because it's really easy to pop the stacks and the passive gp/10 is nice. This patch though I've been taking coin. The buffs are nice and the 40 second cooldown on talisman is amazing. I probably won't be going back to spellthief again.

I personally build him tanky / utility items because he has a really nice kit of sticking to people. With 40% CDR you spam out Qs and drop a lot of slows / stuns per fight. Makes it even easier if you're beefy with a Frozen Heart and other similar items. I do agree that Twin Shadows is a very good item on him, I build it a fair amount if I feel it's game appropriate.

Drunk RummateMay 29, 20151 votes

It gives him extra damage on his autos, which are already empowered. Makes Bard real scary as a lane opponent.

Mana regen is real nice, especially because his W is so costly

AP for his Q which has good scaling and his W which has... some scaling.

I'm sure coin is good too, but spellthiefs tends to generate more gold and deal more damage if you use it properly.

Only Play DariusMay 29, 20151 votes

Because coin is trash, no good stats.

arcinexMay 29, 20151 votes

Land a q, use Frost Queen's active. Should be GG from there.

I've played against a Bard who build lich bane + ludens and a few other ap items + full meep stack and he one-shotted me. I was playing adc though but still.