When did Bard become the best support?

Ionian Vulpix·Jul 3, 2017·2 votes·1,168 views

His last round of buffs (meep changes for more damage) seemed really unwarranted. He wasn't weak beforehand.

6 Comments

SchmidttyGamesJul 3, 20175 votes

Given his kit, he was really weak without the meep changes. He's forced to roam, and as such, was easy to punish by any jungler simply because you know the moment he vanishes from lane, he's alone in the woods. He needed something to be able to fight back or, at least, survive, pick attempts in the jungle and on the run.

Now, he can at least hit back hard enough to make you think twice.

In lane, he still gets out-slugged by the usual suspects, typically. It didn't change a lot about his laning phase other than giving him a slightly greater ability to punish when needed.

AvienalJul 3, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=RAMP Schmidtty,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=E3QHW52E,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2017-07-03T15:44:03.054+0000)

Given his kit, he was really weak without the meep changes. He's forced to roam, and as such, was easy to punish by any jungler simply because you know the moment he vanishes from lane, he's alone in the woods. He needed something to be able to fight back or, at least, survive, pick attempts in the jungle and on the run.

Now, he can at least hit back hard enough to make you think twice.

In lane, he still gets out-slugged by the usual suspects, typically. It didn't change a lot about his laning phase other than giving him a slightly greater ability to punish when needed.

Bard's always been the annoying support to deal with way before Ivern came in and flipped that with his jungle 'support' play, especially with the bs his bushes caused to out right 'disable' auto attacks and target click abilities long as ivern's teammies aren't attacking too much in the bush.

Granted he isn't outright annoying as the current annoyances are, but his R that can shut down turrets, save team mates, out right stop a opponent from 'escaping' or just plain troll anyone and everyone, including himself and flank E shenigans plus his rather easy stun if he has a proper line up can always let him be a bastard to make it unfun to go against him, especially when he can have a retardedly strong ADC like Draven get a ez setup for massacring and then use his own WE to get off another ez 'semi-stun' to to secure a double kill or at least a EZ kill off the ADC opponent.

6obETSj7H7Jul 3, 20171 votes

He never did. Thresh and Lulu still way stronger.

Big LincolnJul 3, 20171 votes

bard has been op since buffs

Shrek LuigiJul 3, 20171 votes

When he first came out.

Edit: Haha I agree on your point re. chimes--his damage in the botlane with Lich Bane and Nashor's is l00ny

DemainaNyxJul 3, 20171 votes

Bard was always strong, he was just a high skill champion. If you accidentally Bard ult your teammate and get them caught out, that's bad. If you miss a crucial stun, that's bad. You tunnel a wall to escape and give the enemy a clear path to your low health carry running behind you.

Most of his kit is really strong, but can backfire on him. Imagine if an enemy could take Thresh's Lantern, throwing it out would have more consequence than it does currently, so you'd have to be careful with it. Same with Bard tunnels. You may just be given the enemy a flank route by trying to join your team.

That's mostly why he isn't played. He's really strong if you play him well, but can hurt his team if you don't. Plus, with the games basically ending in 10 minutes now, the buffs allow him to be at the same power level in those 10 minutes as he would be at 30 minutes to correspond to how long games were before hand.