Overall I find bard underpowered

Mainly because his chimes spawn so erratically.

I'm in bot lane most of the time yet my chimes are spawning in top lane, beside/behind enemy turrets, and in enemy jungle camps...

in order to have any chance as bard I have to ignore over half my chimes that spawn because if I try to get more i'm losing far too much exp and pressure bot lane, and am at a huge risk to get caught while trying to get chimes(aren't they supposed to spawn in bards general vicinity? if not, at least on the same side of the map that he's on?).

it's like, either forfeit most of your chimes and stay with adc/team or let your adc 1v2 almost all early-mid game.

until bard stacks up his chimes his damage is probably the lowest in the game, if bard magically stacked up his chimes to a semi-comfortable 50+ he probably did so at the cost of his team's early game, probably got caught once or twice, and the meeps are expended everytime he basic attacks with no option to toggle it off, so if he has to clear a wave of minions taking a turret, or if he goes for the scuttle crab(which takes him days to kill), he has to wait 25-30 seconds to fully regain them to have barely mediocre damage at a point in the game where your team is probably behind if not already lost.

with all that being said, I think his q-w-e are fairly balanced abilities with a possible need for an arrow point at the opening of bards magical journey for his teamates clarity.

Imo his ultimate needs the option to be cast a 2nd time to end the effect early, just like jarvan's cataclysm, why? why not...

so yea, overall I feel bard has good potential and has most of his kit tuned properly, but his passive is quite the struggle to manage and his ult should be able to cancel on 2nd cast.