Alternate Support For Former Bard Offtank Main?

Draehl·4/26/2018, 12:50:38 AM·1 votes·477 views

So Runes Reforged pretty much killed my max CDR offtank Bard build. None of the Keystones come close to the sustained defense that stacking armor/resists did with the old rune system. He just dies so easily right now- it's partly the current high burst damage environment and tank items being trash, but I know it's just not in his kit right now since Riot has all but pigeonholed him into a frail mage playstyle given the lack of viable choices.

Gripes aside- what I liked about the old build was having one of the shortest cooldown stuns in the game (7s on max rank Cosmic Binding before CDR), using Magical Journey, Swiftness Boots, a moderate level of tankiness to achieve positioning to consistently lock down isolated enemy targets, deep ward, etc. In ways it played like a support version of those pesky full tank Udyr or Singed builds. Low damage. High Mobility. Tanky enough to soak some damage while you CC allies or bait the enemy team to chase you, etc. Mostly being a Bard one-trick I'm quite inexperienced with most supports and was looking for some guidance on a champ or two to pick up. I'm less interested in raw damage/hard engagers like Leona so much as defense, mobility, and consistently low cooldown crowd control/peel. I've narrowed the reasonably viable options down to:

Alistar Nautilus Thresh or something like a troll pick Udyr that might feasibly work up till about mid Plat or so (gold 2 right now). I realize none of these will quite replicate that Bard playstyle, but I'm down for trying anything while I wait for a new keystone or broader midseason changes that might bring back his viability.

Thanks!

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