Switch Bard's "Magical Journey" and "Tempered Fate"
Bam! You read the title and already hate the idea and are thinking of down voting BUT WAIT LET ME AT LEAST SAY A TL;DR
TL;DR Yes, not all supports "require" hard CC but it is a defining part of their role, and Bard lacks it significantly. Bard's ultimate is too hard to land effectively in it's current state, and the fact that it's an ultimate hurts players ability to use it. While there will always be outliers and a deviation from what is possible within all ranks, by making the ultimate a regular ability (with some tweaks) and making the tunnel his ultimate (with some tweaks) it will increase his effectiveness, as one tool (the ultimate) will see higher necessity than the other (the tunnel) enough to justify them being switched.
As of late he has seen a low of ~35% win rate between all ranks, which has stabilized to ~45% win rate only with significant buffs to all of his abilities and base stats, which is a correlation you would see with any champion when their stats increase; but with these changes he would see healthier game play.
Bard's ultimate is an extremely effective, dangerous, and skillful ability... On paper. Through skillful observation, I have watched countless players play Bard and ultimately fail. He does not fail, he may do very well, but when the groups come together in a clash for fighting he falls apart. ANd the numbers do not lie, when it comes down to effectiveness he is harder than Braum's abs in character design but softer than Taric's heart for Ezreal in substance.
Firstly, I will pull from his release description and analyze where the lines do not meet, being concept to reality; I will be referencing this post
Then, I will discuss what game play looks like with these new changes, and how to transition these abilities from their current phase to how his new game play would interact.
"The celestial vagabond known only as Bard dwells beyond the physical universe in realms unknown to man. Manifesting when others threaten the cosmic equilibrium, the ancient caretaker acts with speed and intent, only returning to his endless watch once he has steered Runeterra from catastrophe."
Not at this rate he isn't. Bard is labeled as a high mobility, supporting champion who gains advantages from moving around the map. He does have high mobility, with 330 movement speed, which is average, and is recommended (if not by his build then by most guides and players, that I have seen) he will build mobility boots. This is bolstered by his chimes giving a movement speed bonus and his health packs giving a movement speed bonus. But... While this is very good in theory, it is similar to saying that a character has 1000 AD when out of sight from the enemy; with movement speed the argument changes as it effects the before and after of a fight, but as I point out later this is not the case.
"Magical Journey offers Bard the chance to bring copious amounts of mischief to Summoner’s Rift. Baiting the enemy team into following him through a portal before stunning them with Cosmic Binding can bring about a quick and brutal ace, or drag them out of position, letting Bard sacrifice himself as his team emerges elsewhere from the fog of war to tear the enemy’s defenses apart."
I would like to call to question the feasibility of his Magical Journey. There is no circumstance where he needs to use Magical Journey over walking to his chimes. As long has he remains out of combat, and is smart about his pathing toward his chimes they are all within his reach; and while some may spawn in dangerous areas that draws the risk of him getting that chime and putting himself in danger to continue to grow, empower meeps, exp, etc. With every ability in the game, the player has incentive to using it aggressively, except Bard's Magical Journey. The only benefit of him using it defensively.
You may be confused by this previous statement, and I don't blame you. Looking at it, Magical Journey is a completely neutral ability, so saying that it is only for defense may seem like a stretch, but I do have facts to back me up:
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Using Magical Journey does not increase your ability to catch someone, at most it can only catch someone off guard; which is just as easily done with walking up or lane ganks. You, being Bard, do not have the ability to make plays with Magical Journey by making the distance shorter for chasing someone, as there are simply not enough walls for the shortened distance to be effective. Most major walls are either too long for him to be able to work to his advantage (Blue side top lane, the Triangle wall near T1 Blue tower/ purple side bottom lane, the long, thick wall near T2 bottom tower) as him traveling through them is transmitted so much so that someone can easily begin to turn tail before you make it through. That, or they are too short to be necessary (Top lane tri-brush wall near T1 Purple tower, walking up may be just as effective based on his movement speed/ Dragon or Baron pit wall, as unless you are on a team with absolutely no gap-closers then walking has been the league standard... well, forever.)
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Using Magical Journey is more effective as an escape, rather than offensively, as its ability to provide a way out is more effective than a way in. You cannot use Magical Journey in the river or the center of a lane as Sivir would. You cannot use it as a way to dive the enemy as Malphite or Hecarim would. It's ability to give movement is solely based on the walls you are around, and the connections between them. Traveling through a portal only provides a doorway from one side of a wall to another, nothing more or less; this will always result in it being used to get out rather than get in, as getting in has more options with higher consistency.
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Because of Magical Journey, he effectively has only two abilities. Champions like Twisted Fate, who does in fact only have two abilities, does a better job at diversity and room for effective growth with what he has than Bard and Magical Journey. It has no in-combat potential other than at the beginning or end, which at that point you have either won the fight beyond it mattering or lost beyond it helping.
"Even if his team arrives late to a dragon attempt, Bard can cast Tempered Fate over the dragon before creating a Magical Journey into the beast’s pit. Suddenly what seemed like a simple dragon kill turns into a contested dragon buff and a full-scale teamfight."
The Circumstances of that dragon do not match the indicated result. If the entire enemy team has managed to get into the Dragon Pit, without your team knowing, and your team is so gloriously out of position, Bard's ult will not change a thing. if the dragon was low, then the enemy team will try to finish it even after the Bard ult ends and then engage on the team fight, if it is not low enough then why did Bard need to ult in the first place, so that it would keep the dragon from hurting them while you are just around the corner? As well, if a team fight did then just break out as the enemy decides to turn tail on your incoming team, then you are now without Bard's only crowd control that is not dependent on passing "Angular Based Skills 101 with Professor Vel'Koz and asssistant Dr. Vayne".
"Here, Bard’s role changes to backline utility support. By planting a few Shrines around his team’s objective, he gives his team an automatic sustain advantage - allowing his frontline tanks to temporarily pull back to top their health back up, or squishier allies to recover if they get chunked down. Cosmic Binding becomes increasingly useful in tight areas, too - without large spaces to escape to, it’s much more likely to tether against a nearby wall or second enemy, stunning both units while Bard’s team secure valuable kills."
This is no way the case. Bard not only cannot backline, as champion's like Sona or Soraka could, as his ability to both heal or be a utility are required to be in the front. While in combat, his mobility is lost--- bam, that's it. He loses Boots of Mobility, he loses the bonus from his chimes, and unless he is in the front of the fight, and is doing a proper job of "backline" then he should not be using his healing kits on himself and therefore loses the bonus speed from them as well.
All of his utility requires him to be in front of the battle. His meeps are only effective when he's within auto-attack range, and even then they only provide a slow. His Q is low range and unless they are in a crowded area will not be effective, and even then the stun is diminutive at best.
Bard's ability to heal is extremely limited, as his heal is both one of the most expensive in the game, it's cooldown is very high for combat standards, and the AP ratio on it does not justify him buying ability power; all these together make a very weak tool designed solely for "set it and forget it" in mind, and where in this guide they attempt to make more than one use for something simple but flawed.
This leaves him in neither the front line nor the back line, and his ability to support his team very limited. If he wanted to build some utility-ability power, it would do him little good; the scaling of his abilities would help but otherwise he dies incredibly quickly and can be overwhelmed. If he went as a pseudo-tanky Bard in the front line, his heal's become worthless and his stun's cooldown compared to usable up-time leaves him running into battle with nothing to do other than take needless damage; this is disregarding the fact that he is not ever in a lane-position for last hitting minions alongside another champion, as he constantly will move about the map. If he goes utility, buying Talisman of Ascension maybe, then it again leave's his abilities much to be desired, and while the active movement speed is good he is now exceptionally (more, I may add; many tank supports can buff their own defensive stats while he cannot.) squishy and still without purpose, and still he is losing gold.
Swapping his Tempered Fate with Magical Journey is still a drastic move, but in long will help him. Here are my proposed changes (which are not mandatory, and are only my prescribed recommendation):
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Swap Tempered Fate with Magical Journey so that Tempered Fate is his new E and Magical Journey is his new ultimate.
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Reduce the radius of Tempered Fate from 350 to 300. This will allow players to be more accurate while not sacrificing the AoE's effectiveness.
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Reduce the Cooldown of Tempered Fate from 130/ 115/ 90 seconds to 45/ 41/ 37/ 33/ 30 seconds at all ranks.
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Reduce the Range of Tempered Fate from 3500 to ~2500.
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Increase ranged-scaling of Tempered Fate, so that casting on himself will take longer than currently, while not effecting long distance landing time compared to the current ability.
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Tempered Fate's duration goes up with level, lasting 1.5/ 1.75/ 2/ 2.25/ 2.5 seconds. This will force Bard players from choosing between leveling his stun for in lane and some damage and returning fire, leveling his heal for supporting allies in all lanes, or leveling Tempered Fate for long range disables to allow for positioning or disengage, at the cost of damage.
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Increase the mana cost of Magical Journey to 100
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Increase the cool down of Magical Journey to 90/ 75/ 60 seconds.
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Cause the speed at which they travel through the portal to be effected by champion's movement speed. Slowed champions move slower through the portal.
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Change the "Ally Bonus Movement" to 10/ 30/ 50% to match scaling of an ultimate.
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Cause the "Ally Bonus Movement", the speed at which they travel through the portal, to be granted as a movement speed buff at the start of entering and given as a short bonus upon exit. As well, turn this bonus into a slow for enemies traveling through. In total, allies will move 10/ 30/ 50% faster through while enemies will move 10/ 30/ 50% slower, and upon both exiting will receive the appropriate buff/ debuff. For allies it should last a long duration but decay, say, 6 seconds; for enemies the slow should last half that time.
With these changes, Bard is able to maintain the roaming-thug lifestyle while not inhibiting his ability to act, as the lore says he does. With this new Magical Journey he is able to open the gates and unleash his team into a fight, giving them a reason to use the portal and allowing for it to be used offensively, dumping his allies out the other side and letting them swarm rather than "just another door". That being said, it does make him easier to catch pre-six, a common problem against Bard, but as a reward makes his ganks more effective with the new Tempered Fate. Bare in mind it is harder to land them now at closer range than before, while landing them at longer range remains unchanged.
(I just spent ~two hours typing this... My brain is mush. I'm surprised you made it this far to the bottom, have a heart, <3. Thanks for keeping interest, as I really want to see this character be playable... It's just right now I don't think he is as effective or as fun as possible, within his own means or breaking the game. Thanks.)
