Helping Bard Help YOU!

First, this will be kinda long; its like a guide in many ways so there wont be a tldr. You either care enough about playing with a Bard support to make it work better... or you dont.

Bard is an interesting champ. I do enjoy playing him, and have on several ocasions been refered to as a "Bard God." While my Bard divinity may be in question, I have had a good time playing him and pulling off some of my greatest League plays on that champ. That said, while I do enjoy playing him I dont play him as much as Id like. The reason I dont play him as much as I would like is because of you... no, not you... stand to the side... YEAH! YOU! That guy who wants to play ADC, and win matches in ranked queues, but doesnt take the time to understand how other champs they may be matched up against or (in this case) with. So Im going to take a little time and offer some advice on how you can start "Helping Bard Help YOU!"

#Part 1, if you cant use it responsibly, then you cant have it...

Bard starts at level 2 with 386 mana. Why level 2? Cause Bard probably took Q at level 1, so he probably takes W at level 2. His W is Caretakers Shrine; its his heal. He places a golden circle on the ground, and allied champs that pass over the shrine get a heal and a move speed boost. Now, back to that mana I mentioned. Bards W (shrine) cost 90 mana at all ranks. At level 2 that means with full mana he has enough for four shrines and a remainder of 26 mana. This is of course ignoring mana regeneration and any mana spent on Qs.

So, its very costly, and what do people do when they see it? They pick it up if they have a scratch on their elbow. A rank 1 shrine heals for 30 HP (and 30% AP but he just has a at best so just call it 30). If you let it charge for 10 seconds though, it will heal 70 HP, thats more than double. Now seeing as Bard can only put down so many of these very mana costly shrines, you would think it would be wise to maximize the efficiency and allow them to reach max healing potential... You would think that, but you dont know how bard works, so you see healing and are all like OMG NOM NOM NOM!

So when I put the shrines down, and my ADC doesnt let them charge, that tells me "theyre going to burn up my mana cause theyre greedy and ignorant; I need to stop putting shrines down." Now in a pinch Bard can cast his W directly on a champ for a minimum heal, and a move speed boost. This isnt the most efficient use of Bards W, but it beats putting shrines down for my ADC and them gobbling them up like PAC-MAN.

If you cant use the healing shrines responsibly, you cant have them, and that hurts both me and my ADC in the lane. Unfortunatly the alternative is going out of mana, and thats worse.

#Part 2, if you want stuns or zoning, its partly up to you to help that happen...

Bards Q stuns if it hits a target and also a wall (terrain), minion, tower, another champ behind them. In the case of two champs it stuns them both. In lane the most common use of this for poking will be to throw the Q out to hit a minion, and the champ behind the minion. This also means that the Q can hit two minions, and stun them... but were not trying for that. The main issue here is the ADC has no clue how Bard works, so they just expect stuns... out of thin air.

What would help land stuns, and also scare the hell out of the enemy laners making them back off and be zoned from CSing freely is if you would take out the middle caster minion in a wave first/early. This would put space between the caster minions for Bard to have a much wider and more threatening angle to use his Q to try for a stun. In most cases the caster minions are too close together and anything other than a straight on Q will just stun two caster minions. If you want stuns and zoning, you need to consider taking down the middle caster minions, or agroing the minions and spreading them out so they dont clump up.

#Part 3, why are you going that way? You didnt have to die there...

Bard can go through walls.... there I said it. Bards E is Magical Journey. It lets him, and his team, travel through a tunnel that bypasses terrain. I use it a lot to make quick escapes the enemy wasnt expecting. If they follow, theres a good chance I will use my Q and stun them to the wall they exit from or to another champ that comes in behind them. If I cant Q, I will often angle it in such a way that I can flash over another wall. Its a great escape tool, and not bad for chasing down runners.

The important thing to remember when getting ganked, or fleeing is WHERE IS BARD GOING!? Because a good Bard player has a plan, and theyre probably going to use their E to make a get away and will probably stun chasers. if you run the opposite direction... Bard will be gone, and you will be getting chased and have no way to get to Bards E and will probably die.

While not every Bard has mastered their E, its still often better than nothing because allied travelers move more quickly through the tunnel than enemies do so it will still offer some speed advantage if nothing on the escape attempt.

#Part 4, its hard being a Bard out here...

So Bards ultimate ability is Tempered Fate... and this is a hard to use ability. Even when I use it well some people dont understand how or why I used it. A quick rundown on things I may do with it: Stasis a turret so it cant shoot during a dive, stasis a runner so we can catch up, stasis someone so I can stun them to a wall/whatever, stasis a dragon/Baron so we can attempt a steal, stasis an enemy to cancel their teleport/channel/ult, stasis myself to avoid dying, stasis a teammate so they can avoid dying, etc.

Now because you dont know how Bard works, youre going to randomly dash/flash into one of those stasis attemps, and youre engage will have been ruined. I cant help you if you move into it. Stuff just happens sometimes. Knowing that Bard may try to engage with, or stop runners with his ult is something you have to think about. I know its hard to prepare for, and can be frustrating, but remember to look at the ult status of your team, and if your Bard has stopped runners, or ulted for engage before, just do your best to hold off on your ult/dash/whatever.

Tempered Fate is one of the hardest to use ults in the game both because it has a lot of uses, and because it can easily hurt your team if done wrong. Iv done many bad Bard ults, probably will do many more... its a hard ult to use, and its even harder to use when I have Warwicks, Lee Sins, Yasuos, Vaynes, Malphites, and everything else going hard engage into my ult.

Now that Iv tried to explain all the common uses, and things that can go wrong; I am going to talk about how youre killing yourself by not knowing how Bard works. Remember in that list of things I said one of them was "stasis a teammate so they can avoid dying?" Well, this is because when one of my teammates is being ulted by a Zed, Kayn, or Fizz... they run around like their hair is on fire and panic randomly freaking out in some direction away from me... Many times Iv tried to hit the moving target being ulted by Zed, Kayn, Fizz to stop them from dying only to have them slip just outside of the Tempered Fate area, miss being stasised, and die to the Zed, Kayn, Fizz damage. I know you cant KNOW Im trying to line up the ult on you, but be looking for it, and STOP so you get stasised to avoid the damage from the Zed, Kayn, Fizz ults if you see the ground indicator.

Even if Bards ult is on cooldown, stand next to a wall so I can stun them to peel them when Zed/Kayn come out of you. Oh, and same for Master Yi and his Alpha Strike. If you know its coming, stand on that wall and Ill stun him, or stasis him/you to slow his roll. That will give me time to set up an E, and we can ride that and stun him wtih Q if he follows.

#Part 5, my Bard is too Bardalcious for you babe...

I hope reading this has given some of you, both experienced and less so, some kind of insight into the wandering caretaker (aka Bard). I hope this knowledge will let me be able to bring Bard into more matches with prepared ADCs who understand how to start "Helping Bard Help YOU!"