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So... Why the Bard Buffs?

Fair Champion·1/12/2016, 12:41:40 PM·3 votes·1,197 views

ootay

Hi guys, I'm a Bard main. If you couldn't already guess by that statement, my favorite champion is the Wandering Caretaker himself. He's such incredible fun to play, and the plays that you can make with him can feel so satisfying. If I'm ever on tilt, I always know that I can just pick my favorite golden balloon and I'm guaranteed not to have a bad chime. Over the past few patches, Bard has been seeing many, many buffs. At first, they were all pretty underwhelming - slightly increased heal ratio on his W, slight changes to his meeps, etc. However, the patch notes for 5.24 were leaked just the other day. Though the leak isn't confirmed at the time of writing this post, one of the buffs is as follows:

"Sometimes you'd chuck a cute lil' meep on over at an evildoer and their pal, only to find you didn't hit both (even if it looked like it visually). So we adjusted it. Bard Buffs Meeps now additionally hit in a 150 radius around the primary target (in addition to the cone damage) once Bard unlocks the cone attack Meep upgrade."

Basically, his meeps now do a sizable amount of AOE before upgrading. With this and all of the other buffs, Bard is in a much better spot than he was on release.

And that's the problem.

Bard mains across all of League have been watching the buffs with a careful eye, wondering what could happen. And I will admit - it's really awesome that the League community is more accepting of Bard players. I very rarely get chosen to pick a different champion when I choose Bard now. People seem to recognize that he has potential. The issue is, however, that he was actually pretty balanced when he was first released. Now... Maybe not as much.

See, when Bard was released, he couldn't really bring much damage to the table. Instead, he had lots of utility. His meeps had a slow, his W was a slight heal but also a speed boost, his Q was an extremely versatile engage/disengage, his E was a guaranteed escape if your Q was up, and his ult was one of the most rewarding spells in the game to use correctly. Yes, people didn't like him on release, but that's mostly because people didn't know how to play him. People didn't know when to search for chimes, how to use the ult, and make full efficacy of Bard's kit. He was actually pretty balanced. Winning lane was a Bard required you to actually outplay and outsupport your opponent, because your kit's utility simply couldn't be countered. It didn't have counterable aspects because of the sheer versatility it contained. Bard countered no one, and he was countered by no one. Just like Ezreal, when playing Bard, "It's all skill."

Since then, Bard has gotten buff after buff. Looking at this change to his meeps, I fear that this will be the final straw, allowing him to be oppressive with his meeps in lane. Believe it or not, in the early game, Bard's meep+Q combo does a lot of damage to squishies. I fear that this buff will make Bard much more oppressive.

"But why should you care?" you ask. "Bard isn't played that much."

Actually, Bard's been seeing more and more competitive play. After SKT won worlds, they were defeated in their first match since their victory by Ever. Why? Because Ever's Bard was incredible, making some crazy Q stuns and excellently-timed ults. At this point, Bard has the ultility to rival Thresh, and he may even be just as powerful as Thresh when played at a high skillcap. A skilled Bard will be able to outdo any other less-skilled support because of his uncounterable kit and the amount of utility that he possesses.

I worry that the upcoming change will pressure even more LCS players into choosing Bard, revealing his sleeper potential as an amazing support. Once this buff goes through and his lane phase becomes oppressive, people will complain, I'm calling it. We'll see threads on how unbalanced Bard has become. And at that point, he'll either become completely hated by the boards (like Yasuo, Lee Sin, and Riven) or hit with the nerf hammer much too bard.

Please Riot, Bard is in an awesome state as he is - in fact, he may even be too strong as he currently is if the player is skilled (like Azir). Please, please... Don't buff him again. It'll be sending him into an unbalanced state, and no one wants that.

8 Comments

FurretHasAGlock1/12/2016, 1:28:35 PM2 votes

{quoted}

"Sometimes you'd chuck a cute lil' meep on over at an evildoer and their pal, only to find you didn't hit both (even if it looked like it visually). So we adjusted it. Bard Buffs Meeps now additionally hit in a 150 radius around the primary target (in addition to the cone damage) once Bard unlocks the cone attack Meep upgrade."

Basically, his meeps now do a sizable amount of AOE before upgrading. With this and all of the other buffs, Bard is in a much better spot than he was on release.

ADDITIONALLY! It doesn't deal the AOE at 0 chimes, you still need 25 chimes!

J Eevo1/12/2016, 1:41:28 PM2 votes

I honestly have no Idea what you're talking about. As hard as Bard is to pull off effectively, the payout he gets is so miniscule when compared to other supports and so team reliant that I doubt anyone actually considers Bard a threat. He's also the LEAST reliable support, so I don't see how adding reliability would hurt him in any way.

And to be frank I'm suprised we don't see any lategame buffs for him, as his abilities basically stop scaling after he has to put points into E (which only decreases cd and increases allied speed, which is irrelevant in most cases)

Krigjer1/12/2016, 1:10:16 PM1 votes

I disagree that Bard does damage early game. If he does, he's running AP runes, because in my experience I don't start to hurt until 30 meeps or my first AP item.

Bard will always be seen as a walking sack of gold to some players, including me, a Bard player myself. I don't view them as a threat in lane, but I'll certainly take a buff to make playing him more enjoyable.

Siyther1/12/2016, 1:53:03 PM1 votes

i agree i tried bard on a free week once and though he wasnt so hot but i finally broke down and bought him last week.What a difference he is much stronger i feel like ( and hella fun 2 ) once u get 25 chimes collected u become strong, inn my week of playing him i found that until u get those chimes stacking you are a touch weak which is fine.I doubt that he needs this little buff i also doubt that it willl make him any more oppresive in lane than he already is.