Bard doesn't need Buffs.

I see a lot of threads talking about how 's Shrines are not strong late game. I'm here to argue that. (TLDR at bottom)

There are three things that are being suggested about Bard's W. The first one is simply make it stronger (whether it be Base or Scaling Amounts). The second (which I felt many people liked) is make his W scale off of Chimes. The third (which I saw earlier today) was punish players for destroying shrines. I disagree with these because simply, Bard does not need a buff. I love the champion and I think he is one of the most fun supports, if he gets buffed he will simply be nerfed to a state that is worse than now (not to imply it is bad now).

Argument 1: Buff Caretaker's Shrine Reasoning for: His W falls off late game in terms of health and speed buff. Waiting for his W to charge fully late game is not worth it. The cooldown is too long for it to be viable/spammable.

Counter Argument: Caretaker's Shrine in the late game has weaknesses, this is undeniable and I understand. However, it is NOT a worthless heal, it is NOT a worthless speed buff, and it is NOT a worthless late game ability. The heal at max level provides 150 Base+20% AP, the speed buff is 50% of the total movement speed decayed over 1.5 seconds. In order to compare this we will look at two other champs that provide heals and movement speed to compare; Nami and Sona (I know her W and E are separate, but they are often used at the same time). Nami provides a 185+30% AP Heal, that bounces, whilst also apply a movement speed buff of 60+20% of AP. Sona provides 110+20% AP+%HP Missing+ A Temporary shield (155+20% at lvl 18), her movement speed buff provides 20%+3.5% Per 100AP at lvl 18. To compare, Bard's shrine is weaker compared to these two supports. Nami is designed to be an aggressive healer (as due to the bounce mechanic), and Sona to be a defensive healer (as due to the shield and %Missing HP mechanic) while Sona may not be played defensively her heal is not an offensive spell. So, where does this place Bard? Many would argue whether he is Aggresive/Defensive but in honesty his W fills a utility role more than Nami/Sona's abilities. His W falls off late game for the same reason Talisman/Locket do, utility falls off. This shouldn't be changed because he shouldn't be able to compete with a Nami or Sona, they SHOULD beat him in terms of heals when late game arrives.

As to address the two other complaint of Shrines... To wait for his W to charge is the same as placing wards, it exemplifies you and your teams desire to fight there. You need setup and you will do more in that fight if you simply predicted where it will be. The shrine should be a band-aid for your bruise or tape for your shoes, not a doctor waiting for you or a racecar level speed buff. The weakness and the strength is the waiting, you are rewarded for using the shrines (that have been pre-placed) correctly, and you are punished by only having 1 instant shrine if ganked. They shouldn't be spammable either because you shouldn't be able to be a medic in a fight, you should use your three other abilities too account for your lack of shrines.

Argument 2: Caretaker's Shrine should scale via Chimes NOT via AP.

Counter Argument: I really like this idea. If riot could create some type of system that would be heavily observed on release then improved on it could be good. This idea brings a lot of good to Bard's play-style, it promotes roaming (Bard's big thing), and it promotes healing. Though the issue is similar to first argument's issue, it could make Bard's W too strong. This issue would be done by having a flat scaling that doesn't change over time (EX: After the 50th Chime all chimes after now increase healing by 0.5 instead of 1). Bard shouldn't be able to be in full utility items and then have his heal be on par with a Nami/Sona solely because he walked around. He already provided bonuses for his team (ganks, map presence) by gathering Chimes, he shouldn't be able to overcome the enemy's support on top of this. He needs to make a trade, Gank/Help other lanes OR Stay/Help Your ADC/Stop their Bot Lane.

Argument 3: Punish Enemy Players for Destroying Shrines.

Counter Argument: The idea here is to stop players from just destroying Bard's hard pre-planned work. The suggested idea/penalty was provide vision/slow the enemy. I will talk about the slow first, then the vision, and then the overall effects of creating any form of penalty. To make Bard's W be a slow would give Bard a choice, heal or slow. And the answer should always be heal, the peel/chase that is given from the W is too much too ignore. Adding this slow would be allowing Bard players to slow with Meeps, and Q, effectively forcing the enemy team to buy Boots of Swiftness if they wanna move. In terms of Vision, it's the same reason that Skarner Spires don't give vision. It's not needed. If it is taken, you can see even if it's in fog of war, you know someone is there. This also would promote using the Shrine as a Ward, and this already exists through Teemo, Nidalee, and Caitlyn, this would lead to players not using it to heal. And overall this would only mean that Bard players would actually think about W'ing an Enemy rather than an Ally, when it would be more beneficial 9/10 times for the ally to be healed and given a speed buff.

Yeah I'm sorry if it's long read but I really like stretching things out. My only regret is not replacing the Champion names with icons.

TL;DR- Bard's W shouldn't be buffed on the account of it being counter-intuitive to Bard's overall playstyle.

Thanks for reading all this.