Suggested Minor Bard Changes (Buffs & Nerfs)

This whole post is contingent upon the idea that damage levels in the game as a whole are currently intended by Riot. Should there be some sweeping reduction to damage or increase to health/armor/resists for all champions this might not be necessary as Bard would be in a good place again. That said the overall point here is that you're currently able to build Bard between the extremes of squishy burst damage dealer/utility bot, but going "offtank" to focus on trades/pressure (not kills) and crowd control positioning no longer feels remotely as viable as it was only months ago. This was particularly attractive since he was a versatile, but skill intensive support you could take in any of those three directions. What has changed to impact Bard so much? Some points before I get to the proposed changes, but it largely revolves around the structure of the new rune system and how it interacts with ranged champions:

• Stacking Armor/MR runes is no longer a thing. He could start the game with enough mitigation relative to damage output that if he built 2-3 tank items he could reasonably keep his defenses up with enemy damage dealers to the point of not instantly winding up a pancake in the middle of the river. The Resolve tree minor runes don't remotely compare to the flat stats provided in the old rune system.
• The Resolve keystones are all at odds with Bard's design. Grasp (even after buffs) is still weak for ranged. Aftershock's design clearly doesn't mesh with ranged champions. Guardian has promise, but the way the cooldown is triggered by incidental damage doesn't make it appropriate for champions looking to trade. (Possible change to only proc upon healing or shielding an ally in combat?)
• Related to the above two points- damage runes are simply much more powerful than the sum of bonuses from the Resolve line and defensive runes in general. Since Runes Reforged has dropped no matter how many tank items you build you don't ever get an edge vs. the damage dealers to wade into fights like before, which is particularly relevant due to the way his Q works- positioning with Bard is important!
• He is currently considered reasonably balanced due to his burst, especially with Electrocute (level 1 Electrocute + meep + ignite + spellthief = OP) but this is unfairly skewing him in the direction of burst mage (there are enough of these to choose from if you just want to play that role!) Furthermore, his other semi-viable keystones- Comet, Aery, and Kleptomancy also push him more in the direction of a raw damage dealer, or the case of Klepto grossly expose his defensive vulnerabilities when trying to proc it.

The changes: simple but effective!

• Revert the Meeps! - The recent meep damage buff has been reverted. 40 (+ 15 per 5 chimes collected >> 30 (+ 15 per 5 chimes collected)
• Backload Cosmic Binding - Early game damage modestly reduced. AP ratio and max rank damage remains the same. 80/125/170/215/260 >> 60/110/160/210/260
• Base Mitigation - Base Armor increased from 34 >> 38. Base MR increases from 30 >> 33. Stat growth unchanged.
• Base HP - Base health increased from 535 >> 555. Stat growth unchanged.

I feel like this reduces the power of his current early game combo while still allowing AP builds to remain viable (no ratio change) by making non-all-in trades more favorable. Additionally, it buffs going offtank in the mid/lategame to a stronger baseline for those looking to get better positioning in teamfights to maximize his crowd control potential. I don't feel this will result in him becoming a full tank or anything of the sort. His kit still doesn't have hp shields, temporary armor/resists, or even a very strong in-combat heal. He just needs a little base defensive buffer to do his job in the current meta. Thanks for reading. I welcome any feedback/discussion!