Le Bard - First Impressions

I love this champion.

As a support main, I of course have been excited for this champion since his announcement way back when. I've played only 3 games with him now, and went 2/3.

First two games were amazing. I start with W first, so I can max out those heal kits. If jungle starts bot lane, I'll toss up a couple W's behind him so that after gromp/golems he'll have some free health, which is awesome! For anybody that plays jungle, with the new update, a few junglers have a hard time being able to clear camps without taking some heavy damage. So this really helps the potential of a jungler being able to gank more often and snowball lanes faster.

In bot lane, no matter who I'm against, I'll usually play passive (at least until I get three fountains up). Occasionally I'll throw and auto attack or two for the passive gold, especially with the extra damage from the Meep. Though it's not too painful at the beginning, late game it starts to make an impact. The only problem with this is when an ADC forgets the fountains are there. Which is what caused a discrepancy on my 3rd match. The ADC was playing Hyper-Aggressive and unless you build him that way, I don't see Bard being that aggressive at least in early game. He's pretty mana-hungry. Which brings me to my next point.

The chimesss! Oh the chimes. I love them so. The mana regen is so nice, especially for spamming for fountains. I like to play Bard as a passive sustain lane, so my ADC can farm very well as the enemies are going to have to back a lot for HP and such. As long as there are chimes spawning, Bard can stay in lane infinitely. The big problem I've found out though is, WHEN DO YOU GO FOR CHIMES?

Personally, I like only going for chimes when they are really close or when I'm going to ward. At least early game. Because a lot of people see the ADC alone, and they take that as the queue to engage. Unless your ADC is paying attention, they will get jumped and slaughtered and then proceed to spam the chat about how you fail as a support. Zzz. #speakingfromexperience

As for mid and late game, you basically just turn into a basic support. Heal, ward, support. I like to build my bard tanky, but I usually start squishy. So I'll start off with for quick warding and chime collecting, but then I'll transition into , etc etc. The last three items of my build are usually situational, depending on if I'm fighting heavy AD, heavy AP, lots of CC, etc etc. Basic support mumbo-jumbo.

DON'T FORGET TO UPGRADE YOUR TRINKET

As for the skills, I have a few thoughts on them.

The Q is really fun when you can pull off your stun. The stun is great for turning a pick off around or even planning an escape. Heck, the slow is just as great. A nice little poke for this champion.

The W is my favorite ability, especially for laning phase. By the time you reach late game, you can just straight up heal your team mates without having the hold the fountain out for a while. The small little speed buff they get with it is crucial. But early game, this ability is life.

The E has been a little iffy for me. Like, I like the concept, but I hardly find myself ever using it, considering the enemy can follow straight through. I guess it's another situational technique. Like once I used it and activated Talisman of Ascension to get away. And once I had used it, and my teammates were waiting on the other side for a really epic Ace. I felt like that was a once in a lifetime thing though, considering Bard is new and people just want to jump through his portal so they can scream, "Weeeeeeeee!!!!"

Now HIS ULT

The R is such an amazing ability, but it's very hard to control. Honestly, you have to have pinpoint precision, considering the radius is so large, you may actually stop your team from securing kills because of it. I like to use it as a defensive ability, especially my favorite, securing Dragon / Baron.

When you're fighting in the dragon pit to snag a dragon, and you see their whole team over the wall or their jungle getting ready to come steal, just toss a quick ult on top of them all, smite the dragon and TRALALA away! This is especially a good technique for junglers who don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to smite, and sometimes leave just that sliver of HP that the enemy Graves and auto to steal.

The hard part about using his ultimate is team fights. You have to know when to use it. And unfortunately, this ability affects EVERYBODY. So if you're going to use it, place the edge of the circle that's closest to you on the nearest enemy. That should cover your team enough to either escape or rethink their engage. I love using it defensively as a way to interrupt ults. IE .

Being able to stop these ults could be a game changer. But alas, you have to be careful. I had a LeBlanc in one game who dove in right when I used ult. Well, let's just say, her ninja skill in and escape did not go as well as planned.

I've yet to be able to use this ult offensively, because I find it much better used as a disengage rather than an engage. But alas, that is my own preference.

I would love to hear what you guys think of your first impressions of Mr. Bard. Any tips, tricks or etc that you may have to offer. Don't take my post as a guide. I am in no way a Bard expert, this is just how I played him on my first playthrough. :)

Cheers.