The changes to Bard's passive are a massive buff to his early game

As of right now, one of Bard's early game power spikes comes from getting his second Meep at 15 chimes. Once you get that second Meep, Bard's damage output goes up immensely.

With this current patch, Bard gets his second Meep at 10 chimes. Seeing as it takes 50 seconds for two chimes to spawn, assuming you get decent chime spawns, he will be hitting that power spike 2 and a half minutes sooner than he is on Live.

That being said, if his early game ever gets out of hand, this is why. Don't gut him if this happens, just swap this upgrade with the cone at 15. It would still be a buff to his early game, but it would bring his damage down.