[Feedback/Analysis] Bard : A woeful Magical Journey
Hello folks,
I've been astray from doing these feedback threads since when they moved from the Forums to the Boards. I'm still not sure if I like them or not, but I like Bard enough to want to be here. I might start my own "blog-type" website this summer to publish my thoughts/ideas like I used to do in the past (e.g. : http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2422094)
Enough digressing.
An Hazardous Epic
Bard is a very original Champion. In the past, I've felt enticed to try unique and underserved Champions, notably Quinn in her Season 3 release, and Bard fits that mold pretty well, already being my most played Champion this Season.
Bard isn't a Champion that is easy to play with, and he's not necessarily compelling enough for the most part since your impact on the game inclines towards the subtle side : he isn't flashy, save for a few great Tempered Fates that might gain you some fame amongst your teammates. On top of not being the most interesting playmaking Champion, he's really appealing for a good coordination from your Marksman, but also from your ganking Jungler, your roaming Mid, and how well they all adapt to you being a "Wandering Caretaker".
Bard isn't the best pick in Solo Q for pretty much most of these reasons. However, the highest you'll climb in the ladder, the more he'll be worth considering.
Hymn of Glory
I think that the biggest question muttered by all your disgruntled fellow teammates while choosing Bard remains : " Why play Bard over any other Support ?"
Answering this is quite difficult, for the main reason that I personally play him is because he's incredibly fun and even relaxing to a certain extent.
Bard doesn't really shine in any specific role, but he's very versatile. You can roam, you can Heal, you can speed up allies, slow/stun enemies, you can disengage, engage, etc. All his skills are quite unique on their own, but I think what differentiates him the most from other Supports is his Ultimate.
His Ultimate is the -- potentially -- greatest-ranged AoE CC spell in the game, even surpassing Malphite's own Ultimate (though I guess Malphite's is a bit more reliable). You know those times where all your team revives after a teamfight, and the enemies just start running backwards ? Or when the enemy team does Dragon/Baron but your team cannot get there quite in time ? Or when your mid wants to roam bot, but they start fleeing as they see him from the Tribush ward ? That's when your Ultimate comes in strong, by forcing the enemies to play safer than they normally would, which saves your team times to farm up, set vision up, prepare skirmishes, etc. It has other uses, but not quite as unique nor as powerful when compared to similar ones.
Of course, the fact that you can give 70+ bonus Health to each lane (or more if they're against an hard matchup) is quite huge as well.
With uniqueness though often comes an increase of the difficulty of the balancing process, we saw it happen with other Champions in the past, either coming out way too strong (e.g Yasuo) or incredibly weak (e.g.: reworked Karma), and Bard didn't escape his Fate here ; he was surprisingly weak on release, and while it's somewhat better now, he still needs some love taps from the Cosmos.
An Ode to Balance
It might appear as a surprise to most of you, but I don't think Bard needs much more power to become a pick to be considered.
Suggested Changes :
- (Probably a bug) Meeps won't be used when failing to last hit (or when attacking Wards)
- Reduce the cast time of Tempered Fate the closer you do it to yourself.
- Bard gains 5/10/15/20/25% bonus Movement Speed when near and inside a Magical Journey.
- Increase Meeps' base Damage scaling to 40 - 475 from 30 - 46.
Explanations :
-
While it might be a bug, it is extremely annoying to see your precious Meeps fading away on thin air, especially in the early laning phase where you rely on them so dearly to either pop a Targon stack or trade with enemies.
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Considering how risky it is to cast it nearby you ('cause you want to trap the least allies as possible), increasing the reliability of Tempered Fate a bit would not make it seem like a totally worse version of Sona's Ultimate (or Nami's... Morg's... Lulu's...).
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While he has already quite alright incentives to roam the map searching for his Chimes, Bard would be quite more enjoyable if it'd really not care (in a way), and would misled enemies more easily if they'd dare to give him a chase. Furthermore, it would increase his playmaking potential, and reduce a bit the time he takes before coming back to help his exposed Marksman in laning phase.
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His early damage is quite negligible, even when you have a Meep at hand you'll find that some other Supports will still outdamage you (Thresh's E is drastically better early). He should feel a bit more like Caitlyn who has periodical power surges with her Headshot passive. Playing against Bard, you should care a bit more when he has a Meep than now.
Thank you if you made it here, it's been a blast to write a balance thread again. Here's my Bard build for anyone who wondered :
Masteries : 9/5/16 (9/0/21 is also acceptable though a tad riskier).
Runes : 3x Health Quints, 9x Mpen Marks, 4x Armor Seals + 5x Health/lvl Seals, 9x Mr/lvl Glyphs.
Items : 
, 
, 
, 
, X, X. X = One of : Frozen Heart, Iceborn Gauntlet, Lichbane, Nashor's Tooth, Mikael's Crucible, Morellonomicon.
Come catch my stream for some Bard gameplay (and more !) : www.twitch.tv/wyl_lol
Hoping to make more threads in the future. Off to a Magical Journey ...