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Bard Embrace the Utility Jungle

Dah91··1 votes·264 views

Hello everyone,

I do not profess to be an expert on bard having only recently picked him up, but I find him to be really enjoyable to play. I understand he may have been created for the supporting role, but I would like to see him in other roles, primarily jungling. Now, why jungling? I know bard's AP scaling may not feel like it can dish out damage, and he might not have tanky prowess, and his autos seem quite weak (AD-wise), what he does bring to the table is utility. Being in the jungle allows bard to collect his meeps easier, which allows him to move around quickly as well. His magical journey is meant for ganking, or setting up plays to help out your team early, but doesn't see its full potential being stuck in a lane (especially a side lane where you really can only use it on one side of the lane). He could also drop health packs to assist lanes as he is passing through. These things could make an interesting dynamic to the game, and could also help bard use the utility kit he has to its fullest. At current state it is really difficult for bard to jungle at the earlier levels, especially his first clear, (being able to smite Gromp then going to Blue right after and being able to use smite again at level 2 is rather abysmal). Now my suggestion to help bard out in at least the early stages of jungling (especially his first clear) is to have his meeps appear faster while attacking neutral monsters. I am not sure what would be the best mathmatically to achieve this, but I feel adding this change will give bard enough love so he can at least clear the jungle a little faster. I feel this change would only effect bard's clear time, he would still be a weak 1v1 dueler, and I am not proposing anything more to change his kit. Just enough to get him through the jungle so he can finally realize his potential as a useful utility jungler.

Let me know your thoughts.

Does anyone else want to see bard move into the jungle????

3 Comments

Jefftiffy1 votes

Bard has always been jung/support. He's just not taken jungle that much because of his really slow clears. If they were to make his chimes not randomly appear in the enemy jungle or under enemy towers in the first 5-10 minutes of the game guaranteed he might be seen jungling more. The problem is the way they have it coded now, bard only really gets special treatment on chimes if he spends most of the laning phase bot lane. I think he needs to have a little bit smarter AI on them where it spawns them close to his current lane until maybe past the 10-15 minute mark and never in aggro range of a tower (seriously I really hate it when theres a chime and I know its literally just barely in range of the tower so I have to eat a shot to get it assuming no one is there to punish me.

I play bard almost exclusively AD bruiser with trinity as his only damage item as that seems to work the best for me because of the MS and AS combined with sheen procs. Sometimes if it gets late enough I may get my last item as an IE for the trolls but only if we are ahead enough that me dipping further into damage doesn't hurt our team.

Dah911 votes

Its because his clears are slow that I suggested while attacking neutral camps his meeps should spawn faster to give him that little bit of extra damage as he is clearing to speed him up. By helping out his clear he should have an easier time helping out his lanes cause he will be as far behind since it takes him so long to clear.

His chimes do not appear in the enemy jungle until after 5 min, I believe it states that on his lolwiki , what I think would be helpful though is keep the random spawning, but if it is in the other teams jungle have the chime be worth 2 chimes. The reason behind this is the risk, whether your trying to get deep vision or just collecting chimes behind drag because thats where they spawn there is quite the amount of risk for bard to go through. If its worth two chimes it will give him a little bit more speed to try and get away cause he needs those chimes to scale for his team and if there is an advantage for the other team it becomes so much more of a risk trying to get them. This would also help him if he is behind as well giving him a little more utility for his team by upgrading his meeps faster for the risk. Now i do not think this should be an entire game thing, but from maybe 5-15 or at least 5-10 minutes any meep that spawns in the enemy side of river should be worth 2.

Jefftiffy I find it interesting you play him AD bruiser. I have been playing him in the jungle at least with an attack speed on hit focus. I would usually get devourers, runaans, blade, then picking up whatever is needed for the game. The reason for this is to use his meeps to attack as much as possible (slows, slows, slows, and more slows) this way it makes it easier for your team to chase, and with the aoe of his meeps you can usually slow the engage of the enemy team as well a little bit. I get blade to give a little bit of sustain if in a fight cause your still a little squishy.

Crossette1 votes

I play AD Bard jungle and it's hilarious.

You get a huge slow from your meeps, a stun and plenty of chase/escape/ganking potential. Too fun.

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