Bard? BARD MAINS HELP

Fòcus·Mar 13, 2016·3 votes·1,311 views

Thinking of getting bard. Here some questions:

Hows his laning phase? Aggressive? Passive? Best synergies? Good with mobile or immobile ADs? Counters to him / Who does he counter? Good for carrying dynamic queue? How are his roams? Pros and Cons?

8 Comments

QarekeoMar 13, 20162 votes

I'd say Bard in Season 6 is best played as an aggressive poke support who synergizes well with mobility and smart plays. To answer your questions:

During the early game Bard is best played as a poke support with good sustained damage and healing, and a bit of engage/disengage. Get Thunderlord's Decree as your keystone mastery, max Cosmic Binding (Q) first and start with either an Ancient Coin or Spellthief's Edge. In lane, try to proc Thunderlord's as much as you can without getting caught out, usually either with two autoattacks or a Q-auto combo.
Bard isn't worried about specific lane partners, but cares more about a player that can stay in a lane solo without putting themselves at risk. The only ADC I'd recommend not laning with is Kalista, because your time away will weaken her significantly. Quinn, Caitlyn, Graves, Jinx and Vayne are good partners.
Since Bard has a really strong poke pattern with the right build, I'd say tank supports without grabs are the easiest to deal with. Alistar, Braum, and Taric all have difficulty with him. I'd say Bard's counters are ones with extreme engage patterns, like Blitzcrank, Thresh and Annie since he's really squishy and lacks a dash. Mage-like supports are more about outplaying them rather than stats since you fulfill a similar role, but you do have an edge with free poke.
Bard is a champ that takes a REALLY long time to learn, but he's a lot of fun when you do. I like to build Luden's Echo to improve his poke pattern (The combination of Luden's, an auto and a meep will proc Thunderlord's without using a spell). Experiment with both Talisman of Ascension and Frost Queen's Claim to find what you like more (I prefer Talisman).
When roaming, make sure your ADC is relatively safe. If they just recalled and your lane is pushed, go for it. Make sure to ward whenever you have the chance too, and build items like Boots of Mobility to increase movement speed as it'll help both in and out of fights.
Generally, I'd say Bard is really strong in early game at poke/heal gameplay and keeping vision on the map with his mobility and free mana from chimes. Later on he's best skirting around teamfights, speeding up his allies and locking down enemies to enable really cool plays. For weaknesses, he's extremely risky with some of his spells. One wrong Magical Journey or Tempered Fate and he can effectively kill his own team.

One tip; I'd avoid using his ultimate in teamfights where both teams are mixed together. It generally causes a lot more confusion than it's worth and sometimes you trap your own teammates.

Good luck and have fun with Bard! Bard

Julius EvolaMar 13, 20162 votes

Good to pick with teamcomps where your mid and top will need ganks. Good to pick if you have experience with pathing champions IE: Hecarim Good to pick vs immobile mid laners. Your ult is great, If your mid lane has a gap close or CC. Look to ult while you are roaming in River between Mid and Bot to save your ADC or Mid. Your ult has inedible range. Most new Bards do not realize this.

To supplement has average laning phase, I like to pick him with some mana regen yellows, and armor reds. This allows me to be a great sustain lane. I think, in general, ADCs prefer to pick champs with an escape or considerable range when coupled with Bard, so that they can avoid dieing while you collect chimes. Personally, as a Bard, you should only roam with purpose, or if your AD isn't going to lose any minions.

Other info: You can supplement your laning phase with IGNITE. (only recommended if your team has enough CC to deal with assassins, otherwise take exhaust). a few movement speed quints is great for dodging skillshots in lane + collecting chimes and roaming. Mana regen yellows are fantastic, however chime collection can help with mana problems. I recommend not building AP. I recommend building CDR and health. Early items include sighstone / eye of watchers + mobis. Aegis vs Frozen heart depending on enemy dmg types. Oh, also, several players max E second for the movespeed boost. And often is is beneficial not to level E till level 4.

CR4ZYRONDH4VIMar 13, 20161 votes

Im not a bard main but i know that he is a great roaming support b/c when he gets a chime it gives him a speed boost, so it is easy to roam mid with him.

hsumis1oveMar 13, 20161 votes

Bard jungle. Sated devourer rageblade bard jungle.

ArakadiaMar 13, 20161 votes

Hes good with champions who can safely hold their own in lane, like trist or cait who can farm from afar with a dash away. Don't Roam that much when ur new, and ward while your roam. Hes kinda immobile and hes pretty mana hungry with his W. Hard CC enemies hurt him kinda. Don't use ur ult that often when ur new with him, and you can use it to tower dive. Try to route your chime collection areas so you keep max MS buffs. Also if you use ur E at the end of the wall, your guarenteed it will go all the way or not activate at all (Sometimes it will only go halfway). Also his chimes give mana and Xp. Hes kinda hard to learn, but is very strong and has alot he can do.

TheSlogsMar 13, 20161 votes

The best way to learn him is to play him. He can do well building just about anything against just about anyone, you just need to know how he works. There are so many strategies and ways to play him that you just kind of have to figure it out for yourself. I would buy him, he is insanely fun.

SugarCookMar 13, 20161 votes

When I play Bard, I tend to play quite aggressively, and I do run an AP poke build (rushing Frost Queen's, getting mobility/swiftness boots, then having a Rylai's for the slow) But you need to have good decision making when you go to roam for chimes.
The absolute BEST adc synergy with Bard, in my opinion, is Jhin. His stun combined with yours makes it to where they basically cannot move.
So far, the only ones that counter Bard when I play him are either A. High burst champions with a lot of gap closers or B. Champions that can CC him into oblivion.
He's only good for carrying if you have a decent adc with ya. Remember that you'll have to leave lane often for chimes, which are essential to your kit.
His roams are the best of any champion, in my opinion. He has so much roaming potential in his kit that it's ridiculous. Don't even get me started on his escapes (If you're good with him, at least. It does take some practice)
His pros come with his utility. His E allows for more options if he pairs up with the jungler to gank, and it can be quite deadly. His Q stun is very nice, and deals decent damage. That combined with a meep-empowered auto-attack is a surprising amount of damage coming from what is supposed to be a support. His ultimate is god-tier if used correctly. It allows your team to reposition into more favorable conditions, or can be used to escape, even. 6b. His cons are quite dire and can be exploited if you don't know what you're doing. Most of these tend to melt away if you do know what you're doing. The first and most important: He HAS to roam into the jungle, and sometimes even the enemy jungle, in order to get chimes. This means he can easily be caught out if you aren't paying attention, which gives the enemy team a free kill. This also leaves your adc vulnerable, which can be exploited heavily. Another con comes from other people not really knowing about his little health totems. They have to charge for 8 seconds to be any good, and most people tend to just pick them right up, which can be a waste of mana unless it's later game and you have decent ap (heals for about 200-250, I believe. I need to look that over again.) The third and least important is his early game weakness. In the very early game (levels 1-5) You're more susceptible to ganks and the like because you don't have your ultimate. Not too big of a deal, since you have a lot of escape potential regardless, but just a heads-up. IMPORTANT NOTE: I tend to only go for chimes when my adc is ahead in lane, and we have a general idea of where the jungler is. If you have chimes near mid lane, go ahead and gank there! It'll put more pressure on the map, making your enemies potentially stress over the possibility of a Bard helping basically any lane. Hope this helped!

Tempered F8Jul 9, 20161 votes

you can go passive or aggressive best adc is someone with a slow but you can speed up (remember bard is extremly mobile) morgana counters him hard thats the only one i have an issue with bard is a supp not a carry but you can carry as him if you are good enough his passive is all about roaming so it is extremely well pros you can save easy, heals, mobility good engage(his ult) cons: difficult to play his ults can save or just lose you the game if you ult the adc they will most likely dye(certain time s they wont) the tunnels are difficult to position(use them to bait enemy's into into trap)