What I think Bard should be. (Unique team comp jungler)
I understand there's some Bard changes coming in a new patch? I haven't read those but I'm talking about the champion in general, so the patch doesn't really matter for this thread.
When I read through Bard's kit, I had an immediate idea of what he was supposed to be, and boy was I wrong. Thing is, now that I know I was mistaken, my thoughts have switched from "this is how he probably works" to "this is how he really should work."
Based on my experience testing him out (which was on PBE ftr) he's still meant to be a bot lane support, but one who leaves the carry solo for a while to be a roaming support, sort of, and comes back. Call that a short version of what he currently does and leave it at that.
I think Bard should be a full on roaming support, meaning that when one plays Bard they should not be queueing as support, but as jungler. I'm going to stop typing "I think" and the like now so I can feel less redundant. It's implied.
Picking Bard should be a conscious choice for the team's overall makeup that alters how you all play.
- There's still a support in bot lane, but having Bard as jungler leaves this support more free to break away from support champions/role, while still being in that lane. I.E choosing to support as Anivia over Janna, as an example.
- Bard the jungler would not take jungle camps. Laners could, for the extra xp/gold and buffs. Bard just roams lane to lane supporting.
- Bard the jungler would not take Smite. The team could choose between just not having smite, or other people could take smite since they'll also be taking buffs. So you either choose as a team to have 0 smites to secure objectives or you could have 2, presumably from mid and adc (who would also use them on blue/red buffs.
- Bard, as a roaming support I.E. support jungler should be getting more xp from his chimes, and more should be spawning in early game. Also they should be spread out more, instead of mostly being near bot like they are for the first few minutes now.
- The last bullet essentially says Bard's chimes should make up for him not killing camps, but to clarify they would not be meant to fully do that. They should do that a lot more than they do now, but a just Bard just collecting chimes while leaving camps for laners should be falling behind in xp, just less than he does as is.
- With that: As I said, Bard should be a choice made for different team makeup and playstyle. Part of this notion is that you pick Bard jungle under the pretense that Bard will fall behind to some degree, but everyone else will be farther ahead than they would have been without Bard.
- With Bard changed as above, another thing teams could do with him is have a duo jungle and solo botlane, where the non-Bard jungler is a regular jungler.