After playing Bard a lot, I think he is a bad SoloQ champion

All of my thoughts are for soloQ only. In coordinated teams he might be very potent but I can't judge that.

Pre-Laning: Here is very good actually. His shrines give his jungler an amazing start into the first clear. Invades however are really not his area of expertise. If you start Q you waste the potential for your jungler for something that might not even work.

Early Laning: Basically you give up the chance to win your lane just by picking Bard. Bard is a passive support with virtually no kill potential unless your enemies make a massive screw-up. Which happens. Even then however the kill potential is low. It increases slightly when you get 5 charms (Meeps slow). Popular picks like Leona will most likely dominate the lane without much effort. I also have to point out that personally his auto-attack harrass feels clunky. With Janna who has significantly less range it feels easier. His autos feels sluggish or something, hard to pin down the problem really.

Laning post-6: Setting up jungler ganks is easy now with his ult. If your jungler is too busy, you still won't kill your enemy but protecting becomes a bit easier if you land your ult properly. Screw up and you get someone killed or ruin kills for them.

Teamfights: His teamfighting is pretty okay later on and can be very good. His heal and speedboost become actually meaningful even without the charge up, He is more likely to land a double-stun although he has little control over it without his ult. His E is non-existent in teamfights most of the time unless you are doing some clever engage from the flank although it should be a rare occurence.

Roaming: Dunno about that one really. Why roam with him (remember, in SoloQ)? You can almost never leave your ad-carry alone especially not with Leona being in almost every game these days (25% pick rate, talk about pushing out other picks). The second you leave your ad-carry will get engaged on, especially because you told everyone about doing that once Bard starts to leave the lane. From my experience you can only roam if your ad-carry is recalling or the enemy lane is recalled/killed. Honestly I dont even see a good reason why one would roam mid. You can throw down a healthkit but ganking? Your Q won't land. Period. Katarina, Zed, Leblanc, Ahri are the typical picks in mid unless banned and dodging a relatively slow skillshot isn't hard for either of them. With good coordination it might work. In soloQ, rarely. You also leave your adc alone for a while (which he will let you know without delay).

Why I think he is lacking: He has 3 spells for skirmishes/teamfights. There are very very few supports who can make that work. Annie comes to mind but she stuns just as long as Bard can and much more reliably, too. Granted Bard's Q is a lower cd than annie's stun setup but it's not as reliable. What is more Annie provides significantly more dmg. Basically she makes the "only 3 combat skills" work and I am being generous with saying that she has only 3 skills because her E as subtle as it may be is still a combat spell but I digress. To put it in a visible way: Thresh: 4 very potent combat spells, passive not directly affecting the fight, all usable on demand; Ult: slight delay Leona: 4 high impact skills and the passive amping the burst of her allies, all usable on demand; Ult delay Janna: 4 skills providing everything an ad-carry would want creating a huge mobility difference to the enemy, passive situational, everything usable on demand; ult no delay Braum: 3 potent spells, 1 (W) is a bit subtle but gives resistances and enables the full potential of E, passive extremely powerful, everything usable on demand; ult slight delay Annie: 3 high dmg spells, E a bit situational allows to reposition Tibbers and setup the passive, all spells usable on demand, passive needs setup; ult no delay Lulu: 2 of her 4 spells can be used offensively or defensively, passive situational depending on how E was used, everything usable on demand; ult no delay Nami: Every spell is a potent combat spell, her passive might seem weak but if you keep casting stuff on someone it stacks up; huuge ult on a very low delay or high delay on max range. Bard: 3 combat spells, passive potentially potent and generally available for fights (depends on collected Charms), E highly situational and in open fights not generally not usable; ult up to high delay I know there are more supports but I chose to compare him to popular ones for now.

Basically outside his ult Bard is lacking that high impact ability that justifies not having his E for a support spell in fights. Blitzcrank doesn't have great support abilities on W and E but his Q makes more than up for that and his ult provides huge dmg.

Why bother picking Bard: What does he provide? Certainly not dmg, that one is out. Roaming ganks? Might as well go with Leona, Alistar or Blitzcrank. They are more reliable and just as potent. Healing? Soraka or Nami do that a lot better and Nami has better engage/counterengage and disengage, too. Also more reliable. With shirnes set up you could say his long term sustain is quite good but once again, Soraka outclasses him heavily. His lane sustain however IS good especially when he can collect charms (Mana). CC? Leona and Alistar do that better, same for Nami. Long Range engage? Here is his first strength. The long range is surpassed by no support. On high range it's essentially a 2.5 second stun that can't be cleansed. Protection? CAN be good or can heavily backfire getting people killed. Might as well go Janna, even if you screw up your ult slightly your adc is most likely safe. Gank setup? Yes. His setup for ganks can be amazing. Lock someone down with ult, get into position for Q stuns and throw your ganker a 50% speedboost. He is also a bit more reliable than Thresh at this because landing ult is easier than Thresh's Q. Worst case you forced a flash or two. Tanking? No. Bard is a bit beefy but he is no tank. Alistar is. Leona. Not Bard. As a disruption tank, having only 1 skill for that once the ult is down is not enough. Objective control? Strong point actually, he can put the enemy jungler/team into stasis for a smooth steal or to just delay everyone for his team to set up the engage. Map movement? As situational as it may be, he is good at that. He himself can get around fast and he can help his team doing that.

**Summary why Bard is bad in soloQ in my opinion: **

1. He needs not only his ad-carry to do well but also his jungler. If it happens he can be quite good and I am sure in coordinated teams he is amazing.
2. Lack of support skills for combat. League is mainly about fighting. He is lacking in teamfights. As potent as his abilities might be they are unreliable and his ult is a massive risk. Having only 3 abilities for a fight is not enough if your cc is unreliable and your heal is weak-ish. Every single support has at least some reliable skills about him, be it a shield that can't fail or a big aoe that has no way of backfiring.

Finally I don't just want to rant of course so here a suggestion although it is not a small change and I am aware that it's never going to happen any time soon: His E get's a passive portion that brings him in line with what he is supposed to do. I honestly don't know what sort of support-role he is supposed to fill. His kit is all over the place really. Jack-of-all-Trades if you will. I will base this on the list above that point out where he is good at:

• Long range engage
• Gank Setup
• Objective controll
• Map movement Based on that a suggestion for non-combat(1.) and a suggestion for combat(2.) passive on his E:

1. Whenever a target (ally for W, E, R; enemy for Q and R) is hit by one of Bard's spells he gains a small burst of speed. OR
2. Whenever Bard hit's an enemy with a spell he grants his allies a small burst of speed (think Ancient Coin). The first one plays to the long range gank setup. It allows him to position himself better once he landed a long range ult and he let's his allies follow up with W. Note that in the second one he doesn't get the boost himself. That would be a bit too good I think but then again Ancient Coin is a suggested item for a reason.

Both suggestions play on the strengths of Bard that I tried to point out and in my opinion make sense in his kit (although the second one doesn't fit his lore, we know he doesnt give too many shits about others) and try to emphazise his role as a set-up support that I think he is and should be played as.

Final words: Visually he is amazing and his sounds are great. I also think that although he is on the weaker side right now he has a lot of potential and getting off that one great ultimate that makes your team just write "genius" is great. I think he needs a little nudge but that's all. His values honestly are fine.