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What is your opinion on Bard's heal?

9001··4 votes·1,508 views

I have been picking up Bard recently in some TB games to get a feel for him and I have to say that I believe he is in a relatively good spot right now. He feels strong enough in lane and roaming feels rewarding and exciting in a way all his own. He is complicated and has potential to make (or fail) some amazing plays. The only part of his kit that I am on the outs with is his heal.

Now I love the idea of his heal sooooo much! A permanent shrine that can provide benefits to an ally immediately for quick action in the middle of a fight or, if allowed time to charge, can provide an even greater amount of healing to said ally. This sounds great on paper but every game so far my reaction to walking through a fully charged Bard shrine is something akin to, "...That's it?".

The fully empowered heal is very lack luster in my opinion and when you consider not only the lengthy set up time of 10 seconds, but also the hefty mana cost (offset a bit by collecting chimes), it just seems so underwhelming.

I would love some input from you guys and see if you think his W is in a fine spot or could use a change.

IMO I would increase the heal at full charge to a % of max HP heal even if it meant needing to reduce the heal amount when not fully charged just so it would establish a real reward for reaching a max charge before using the shrine.

TL;DR- Bard is fun and exciting to play and has defined strengths and weaknesses but his W when fully charged is underwhelming and IMO could use a buff.

22 Comments

DrNova4 votes

I think its meh. Honeswtly I see more use out of it as a quick little speed boost after real early lane.

Without AP its weak as hell, with AP Bard is a diebot

The Bard Dog1 votes

item 3025 item 3116 item 3143 item 3102 item 3117 all the ap you'd ever need.

junglerboy163 votes

it is way overpriced and a lot of ADCs seem to never use it unless you target them directly, but other than that it is all good.

Caeler3 votes

The heal is complete trash when you consider the mana cost. I've only used the shrines outside of lane phase for speed buffs.

Niceguydan82 votes

I say increase the utility, not the heal of the shrines. If the shrine caps out, maybe allow the speed burst to be longer, or even faster (one or the other, not both).

MattAkhavan2 votes

hey i play bard a lot on both my accounts. bard's heal is dope, but it should be used for more advanced mechanics, i'll tell you what i use it for.

  • Siege

    • You are taking a tower with your team and you are setting up a siege. You often have more than enough time to set up 3 shrines. The shrines provide utility in 2 ways. 1) as disengage 2) Heal teamates obviously. you can also do this for things like dragons or barons

  • two ways to use it in lane

    • bait. most players, specifically people who have played bard, always want to walk over your shrine so it's wasted, but you can place it where you can easily walked up and Q them or do a very favorable trade.
    • engage. You put a shrine in front of you and you have a speed boost to start an engagement or trade. People are slow in early levels and the speed boost can let you walk in, quickly, and toss a Q in and dodge a skill shot. Ez trade.

  • to heal

    • obviously you can place them behind your turret for the adc to walk back to whenever he wants to heal or whatever, but this is a pretty low impact way to use it, and it's no cost efficient in my opinion. but if you are in a shit lane you have to do shit things.
NorthernDruid2 votes

My opinion: Too long charge time (like half as long would be good), and/or lacking a % heal scaling from almost worthless to useful late-game with the chargeup.

khorney1 votes

well people tend to pick the heal up before it maxes out as in they see you put it down and pick it right up

90013 votes

Yes, but this is a separate issue that will sort itself out eventually when enough players have played with Bard to know how to correctly utilize the shrine (much like Thresh lantern after his release!).

The issue I'm talking about is the lack luster heal after full charge.

Puri Puri Taric1 votes

that wont sort itself out because no one wants to play bard so how should people learn about a champ that has a low pickrate already.

packard831 votes

Thanks for the post and putting some thought into it instead of "BARD WEAK! RITO PLZ" :)

I could see maybe adding some extra incentive to allowing the shrines to fully set up, they do seem a little weak atm

Blkninjar871 votes

There's nothing wrong with his heal, with ap it heals for a decent amount. The problem is how long it takes to charge and the general sloppiness of team mates that arent knowledgeable on how the heal works and pick it up right away. Since people dont take tine to learn about most champs it ends up being detrimental to even place shrines. Considering how much mana he gets back from roaming the heal is good tho.

Krigjer1 votes

The problem is how long it takes to charge and the general sloppiness of team mates that arent knowledgeable on how the heal works and pick it up right away. Since people dont take tine to learn about most champs it ends up being detrimental to even place shrines.

I agree with this solely because I've played Bard and been insulted in champion select, then when I get in game, people have no idea what my shrines even are. 'What's this?' /steps over it immediately as I place it.

With the mana return from chimes, I won't argue that the mana cost is too high. I mean, I don't even bother building mana regen besides Talisman, and normally I rush Mikael's on my supports. The heal is very lackluster however, especially if you compare it to other support heals that DON'T require a charge time to get the same amount of health. Combined with the fact that enemies can step on charges with no penalty, it's underwhelming. (I'd love to see a small stun or slow as a penalty for destroying shrines. Just to give it a strategic decision on whether you should deny the enemy heals and put yourself in danger, or just leave it be.)

Lugg1 votes

If you have 3 fully charged shrines, it does a pretty good heal.

Puri Puri Taric2 votes

"if"

The Bard Dog1 votes

It's invaluable in laning if you dont have an idiot adc, and it's still valuable as a speed boost later on/minor sustain to win trades.

NoMonku1 votes

I say its underwhelming, but I feel they shouldn't buff it mainly because you get both a heal AND a MS buff even IF you aren't there to physically provide it yourself. That is pretty broken imo, so I don't know if it should be changed. I see it similar to Lux having horrible mana costs, but because her skills are so powerful utility wise, they warrant them. I feel the only way to get an actual buff would be to nerf/remove a portion of the ability, which I don't really want.

jDVL20eCYs1 votes

pretty useless outside laning

Puri Puri Taric1 votes

the movespeed boost is better than the actual heal.

Sarchiapon1 votes

Sustain in your first clears when you jungle with Bard. Go Bard Jungler!

Grouchy Poro1 votes

Early game I really am happy with them, and your chimes easily offset the mana cost. I always leave two in the jungle for my jungler's first clear, and this often means they can gank before needing to go back to heal.

The shrines also mean that your adc can be safer while you roam to get more chimes for more shrines, so in lane the presence you leave even when not in llane is very useful. Late game though, your shrines become kind of lack luster and you need to be very predictive on placing them. Otherwise they're mostly just useful for the speed boost which is why a good late game item for bard can be item 3504. Then it's a speed boost and attack speed boost.

His Goatliness1 votes

Takes too long to get the the second stage of it. His heal would be better if it only took like 5 seconds to upgrade

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