Tips to playing bard?

Don't leave bot lane to collect chimes until your adc has backed or the enemy adc has backed. When roaming to get chimes you can w yourself to speed your self up. Sometime chimes spawn up in the bot lane bushs dont grab them instantly can be used for an movement speed buff and recovering some mana instantly. Put 2 points into E then max q then w, this will help you escape faster cause upgrading e will make you and allies move faster than the enemy when going through the portal. Also if the enemy also goes through the portal you can easily stun them with q because they'll always be against the wall. Also you can ult people while theyre in portal and theyll be in stasis when they come out.

Im not a Bard main but I do play him a bit and maybe I could help. Bard does a surprising amount of damage for a support. He's like a bursty mage that builds support items, unlike lux or zyra, who usually build full AP. You can build him AP if you want, I've never tried it. I take electrocute when I play Bard, with the goal of forcing the enemies out of lane as fast as I can so I can roam. I rush mobi boots for fast roams and running through the jungle to collect my chimes (WHICH YOU NEED, you are literally useless without chimes/meeps. They provide so many slows in the late game if you get just one auto off and they do a lot of damage). Prioritize roaming and helping other lanes, but also don't leave your adc all alone.

Im kinda gonna move backwards for the abilities.

Bard's ultimate is weird to get used to. Whatever he throws it on cannot be damaged for 2 or 3 seconds I believe, including towers and neutral objectives. Now that I think about it, idk if it puts inhibs and the nexus into stasis too, ill have to try that out. Its basically a stopwatch for whoever or whatever is in the circle. Your R can be a game changer, for your team or your opponents, meaning it can win you the game or it can lose you the game. Its very hard to get used to. I max this whenever I can (6,11,16)

Your E is used to make sweet ganks and make your chime collecting easier. A good combo if youre being chased is throwing your E out and traveling through it, and if they enemy follows you throw your Q behind you at the enemy so they get stunned. Its good for escapes. Nothing much else for his E, just learn the best places to put it. Practice makes perfect. I alternate between maxing this and W.

Your W is your only source of healing. If you can, you can be the best support ever and drop one of these health packs into each lane to help all of them out. Make sure they wait the full 10 seconds to get the max amount of healing. Also, if your adc is chasing someone or being chased, place one of these at their feet. They will get a speed boost if they run over it, regardless of the time spent on the ground. I alternate between maxing this and E

Lastly, your Q is your main source of ability damage. It's like a lux Q, but it has to either his another unit or a wall after it hits the first enemy unit in order to stun. Q, auto, auto is an easy way to proc electrocute and get a good chunk of damage onto the enemy. I max this first always.

Items can be whatever you want. You can go AP, full support, hell Ive even seen an on-hit crit build. Its really whatever you want.

Hope this helps :D