Bard

So I'm not someone who considers themselves "mastered" or even "great" with Bard yet. He has been out for a very short time and due to his playstyle it will take most people a long time to master him, but I am going to give you a few pointers on how to play him better. Let's jump right into it.

ALWAYS start W on Bard unless you are getting invaded and KNOW you can get a kill, if you can't fight the invade, start W anyway. Starting W and rushing out to your jungler buffs and placing 3 packs on the ground will give them massive early sustain so they can gank early and clear more camps without risk as well as more gold. Once you run out of base and set up the health packs all in one spot next to the starting buff you can base and refuel on mana before minions even spawn. This is an excellent tool to use.

For those who do not know, Bard's chimes will spawn at the location you are "sorta" close to, they spawn some distance away but in the early game you always want to make sure that when you're standing idle or whatever after getting early wards that you stand behind the at Gromp for red side or the creepy moving rocks on blue side. That way the chimes will spawn closer to you, however, the chimes still spawn randomly. So after you have placed your health packs for the jungler the chimes should be close enough that you can run off and get early XP as well as starting those chime stacks whilst being able to leash for your jungle and be in lane on time. A LOT CAN BE DONE WITH BARD BEFORE THE GAME EVEN STARTS.

During laning, the only time you should be collecting chimes is whenever they spawn close enough to you that you will not lose but 1 or 2 creep xp. You should just take the chimes that spawn in lane and in the brush in the river. The only time you want to go chime hunting is whenever you are warding the map, your lane killed the enemy ADC and support, you see an opportunity to gank middle or when you are warding the map.

Bard's E is the most intense ganking tool in the game IMO. If you are on red side and your jungler comes from Gromp, keep him in the tri-brush right below Gromp, E the wall and you can both take magical journey and it will most likely succeed in getting a kill or two mostly everytime. His E can also be used to escape into tower range so that if you are getting collapsed on, the enemy will take the portal right into your tower :D His ult also goes nicely with his E so you can freeze them and swag in on a magical journey and laugh as they can't do anything.

His ult is an amazing tool that is EXTREMELY hard to use correctly and that is mainly due to synergy and not being able to immediately communicate with your team verbally. The best thing to do with Bard's ult is use it for counter initiation and initiation. If you use Bard's ult across the map you will most likely miss because of the cast time, it is best if you can to use it in a closer range.

His Q is intense at stunning targets after his ult has been thrown, you just need to learn the time right like hourglass. 2.5 seconds is plenty of time to position a stun on the enemy carries after they come out of your ult, locking them down for up to 4 - 5 seconds.

His build path. If you're building ancient coin on Bard, stop. ALWAYS get spellthiefs, it works incredibly well on bard. His meeps proc the spellthief every auto attack allowing for a free 2 stacks to come down and you can keep repeating it over and over and it will give you gold much fast if you know how to poke. After sightstone I like to rush a Gauntlet mainly due to it's advantages over frozen heart. Frozen heart gives you more armor and has a great AS slow passive, however, with Gauntlet you can kite and CC the enemy more as well as having pletny of armor and some ability power on the side. Don't get boots of mobility unless you are absolutely wanting early mid gank pressure, other than that make sure you get CDR boots always. Grab a spirit visage for the CDR and vamp. Randuins for more tank and righteous glory.

Just a few tips I'd thought I would share with you all, I hope you try these out and they help you become a better Bard.