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Let's Discuss Bard

supernoob96·5/15/2015, 4:07:58 PM·4 votes·1,146 views

Bard is a really really cool design for a champion. The issue with him, though, is that he just isn't that good. Since release he's had the lowest winrate of all champions. In my opinion it's just really difficult to actually contribute much to games, which is reflected by never receiving assists in team fights.

Don't get me wrong though, I love Bard to death and absolutely love playing him so hear me out to the end. His concept is really fun and he has the potential to be a very massive help to his team...if some numbers on his kit are improved.

Here are a few things that I think would fix this champion and make him actually viable for play in, well, the game.

  • Range: Bard just needs more of it. On everything. His passive is a really cool harassment tool which could really push someone out of lane and even give him a kiting option. The only issue is that it only activates on his auto attacks, and a harassment option is near useless if you have to get within range of the even the shortest ranged AD carries in the game; you will be punished more than you can dish out from trying to harass. On his Q, it's just absolutely necessary: there is no way that a champion like Karma, which fills a very similar role to him in lane, should have higher damage, more reliable CC, and a drastically longer range on her damaging skillshot than Bard. It just makes the poor horn wielding fool obsolete despite his freshness to the league.

  • Magical Journey: This skill is honestly cool to begin with, but it has a very fatal error to use when not just collecting chimes. That error is that you are offering utility to your enemies. Last time I read, that's called griefing. There are a couple of potential solutions to this, but I think I saw where you wanted to go with the skill and I want to keep its original intention in mind. Make it so that enemies still CAN go through the portal, but give them a more prominent reason than "they move slower" to not want to use the portal. This can be done by making it so that enemies are slowed by a decent amount upon exiting the portal, or even a mini-stun as if to say they were tossed out on their heads and need to stand up.

  • Make him slightly tankier: Right now Bard doesn't necessarily have a designated role in the meta. This can be an issue for him due to the fact that everybody else does. Besides, what are you supposed to build on this guy? Right now his kit edges toward mage but even then it only slightly edges towards it. He needs a little bit more of a definition, and I believe this can be done by making him tankier. This way he'll be closer to Taric than Sona, and honestly that just sounds more appealing.

  • His ult: Oh my god where do I begin with his ult. It's absolutely beautiful! It's such a cool idea to be able to stasis absolutely anything in the game that you please just gives me the giggles. It's essentially a massive pause button on whatever you feel like, but that's honestly just where the problem lies: it's practically useless. It needs more to it, but also less. It needs less start up time, less travel time, and less radius on the AOE (wait, what?) In the current form of Bard's ult, casting it from max range (which you'll be doing because you were off getting chimes) means you have to predict a total of about 2.5 seconds into the future to hit a stasis that will probably do more damage than good or nothing at all because you hit allies. That's some Pantheon level of insight, there. Less AOE, faster particle speed, and faster start up animation will make it possible to be more precise in what you want to pause and still make it possible to be accurate in doing so without having Jedi reactions. And remember that analogy I made about Pantheon? Give it a Pantheon element. A cool addition would be if he recasts the spell after it lands, but before the stasis wears off, he teleports to the location. Shen can help up close and person, why shouldn't Bard? Besides, he's known as the wandering caretaker, not an artillery hourglass.

Bard honestly is a really cool champ and I have so much fun playing him, it's just impossible to make any meaningful contribution to team fights (reflected through a lack of assists.) He just needs more to really suture his kit into something cohesive and fluid.

Please leave comments and tell me what you think.

20 Comments

Shiela Hammond5/15/2015, 9:42:03 PM3 votes

Bard is fine. IMO his biggest problem is people think he is bad, so as soon as stuff starts to go wrong it's all Bard's fault, arguments are incited, and team morale gets destroyed. Yes he isn't the easiest of supports, and a bad Bard is obvious and will be an absolute potato. But that's true of several champs in league, the most similar I'd argue being Thresh. Unless you are really good with Thresh he just falls flat and would have been surpassed in usefulness by a lot of other supports. Bard is almost the exact same, however if Thresh screws up it doesn't tend to be obvious, he just has no impact at all. Bard can single-handedly lose a skirmish through poor use of his ult and that is going to hinder your team for obvious reasons. It's just a matter of attitudes. If you're a good Bard you will do great, and have a good time doing so since he is a super fun champion.

Ser Garland5/15/2015, 5:12:11 PM1 votes

You could never have been so wrong. Bard is almost in every solo Que game I'm in these days, a mode that he isn't even his strongest in.

Kazaashi5/15/2015, 5:18:32 PM1 votes

The only thing I feel that Bard needs right now is to have his Q prioitize enemy Champions. Other than that he is in a good spot.

Cullens5/15/2015, 5:49:50 PM1 votes

I feel you are correct about bard, he is ok in all areas but there really isn't anything that you are thinking ok this team comp needs bard, or their team comp would be weak against bard. His wave clear is non existent which is frustrating if you have to do anything, and you are so short on range that you can't do anything unless you build tank and just try to be disruptive, I would say a couple small buffs would go a long way

The Bard Dog5/15/2015, 7:40:22 PM1 votes

i main bard, and i dont agree with this post. bard is incredibly strong when used with a little imagination in builds/ability usage. are you at their nexus turrets with only one super minion wave? ult one of the turrets cut the damage in half and be able to burn down the other turret before your minions die.

is the enemy about to get away from your adc/whoever? get an iceborn, magical journey close to 1k units through a wall and cut them off.

facing a bot lane that will harass a lot? set down preventative healing shrines at the start of the game, and replace whatever gets lost when your adc grabs them.

the only real problem with bard is that people dont know how to play with him/automatically assume he sucks, and ignore the 500000 opportunities he gives you to either 1. stay in lane or 2. get a substantial amount of damage on the enemy laners/kill them.

bard enhances the strength of a team that knows what to do exponentially. but if his team lacks focus/skill he ends up looking like he sucks.

Bombkirby5/15/2015, 7:40:28 PM1 votes

LoLSkill says Elise has the lowest winrate. 42% Winrate. Bard's doing ooookay at 46% winrate.

I think his healing needs to scale into lategame. Shrines need to charge faster late in the game or you should be able to place down many more to cover every lane and objective with one. Maybe beef up Q with those reverted buffs that upped the range/speed. I doubt that will push him from 46% to way over 50% winrate.

Krigjer5/15/2015, 9:56:42 PM1 votes

Bard doesn't get all that tanky, even when you build tank items on him. I mean, I play Lulu tank, and she can take more of a beating than he can.

And his shrines heal for such a small amount, even when fully 'charged.' I feel like they should buff the amount healed, even by a little bit.

Either of these changes would make me much happier with Bard.

Toothless Lion5/15/2015, 9:58:23 PM1 votes

Bard is fine for most part. His winrate is right with Alistar at 46% which is about right for a difficult to play champ.

FourVsFive5/15/2015, 4:29:53 PM1 votes

Yet in competitive tournaments he is used over other supports like soraka... buff soraka?

FuIlmute All5/16/2015, 12:55:51 AM1 votes

Bard has gotten like what 6 buffs now? Honestly he's fine. His winrate is not supposed to near 50% for soloQ. Bard at balance is roughly a 45-48% wr