1 week later, nobody likes or plays Bard. They were right.
(Edit: Thanks for everybody giving feedback and 2k+ views this is the most popular I've been on anything so far which was unexpected for a post like this.)
Maximum Zilean42 votesHe is super fun to use, problem is he is so damn weak...
The amount of nonsense you can do with his ult is simply amazing.
One of my favorites last week was our Caitlyn ulted the enemy Wukong, he tried to use his decoy to block the shot, so I ult his decoy while the shot goes right on through to kill Wukong.
Only Play Darius9 votesOr if he was a smart wukong, he would have stood next to the decoy. That way he gets stasis as well, and now the table has flipped and caitlyn is screaming at YOU for saving wukong.
Dilitra1 votes[{quoted}](name=Maximum Zilean,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=aoqdJ0wJ,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2015-03-27T01:33:43.452+0000)
He is super fun to use, problem is he is so damn weak...
The amount of nonsense you can do with his ult is simply amazing.
One of my favorites last week was our Caitlyn ulted the enemy Wukong, he tried to use his decoy to block the shot, so I ult his decoy while the shot goes right on through to kill Wukong.
This is where I will probably continue to suck with him until I practice. I am a slow thinker and processer. I have to ponder on things like this for a minute. I react fast (why I main Nami with her bubbles), but to actually analyze what can be done in a quick amount of time like that...yeah no..... I'm a noob.
Jragon Justus1 votes[{quoted}](name=Maximum Zilean,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=aoqdJ0wJ,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2015-03-27T01:33:43.452+0000)
He is super fun to use, problem is he is so damn weak...
The amount of nonsense you can do with his ult is simply amazing.
One of my favorites last week was our Caitlyn ulted the enemy Wukong, he tried to use his decoy to block the shot, so I ult his decoy while the shot goes right on through to kill Wukong.
My mind is blown.
Reynard the ƒox23 votes
Hey guys! I hit 3 of the enemies with my ult! They're totally immobilized!
...Oh, yeah, I hit all of you on my team too. I guess, um, I guess nothing really happens now, huh.
junglerboy1611 votes "just go ahead and catch your breath for 2 seconds, and then get annihilated :D"
Dr Easter1 votesIt's kinda fun when the enemy Bard ults me while I'm playing Irelia. It helps me to wait my E get out of cool down so I can stun him '-'
BeerOfRoot484311 votesYou know who else was deemed weak before anybody had time to figure out how to play him?
Dangerous Man2 votesBut he has more then 1 damaging spell. +Infinite dashes (Mostly)
BeerOfRoot48432 votesThey're part of two different roles. They're good at different things, so comparing their kits is futile. Bard is utility, Yasuo is damage. People play Bard like he's supposed to 
deal damage 
, when his job is to be useful. 
The problem is people don't have enough experience to utilize his kit properly, yet.
Dangerous Man1 votes*Ever.
BeerOfRoot48432 votesReasons why please?
COWmanLord4 votesI like bard, and he can pull off some really crazy stuff. The problem is, a lot of it requires good communication, knowledge of what to do, and skill so it gets a bit complicated.
SecretAgentHulk1 votesI predict he wrecks face in the LCS this weekend. But maybe not.
ThePlasticSpork4 votesYeah. IMO, Bard is kind of a failed project. I don't really know how this iteration of him made it through whatever kinds of tests Riot has set up, but the only way he's ever going to be viable is if Riot amps some of his numbers up to really absurd degrees (like stun duration, heal amount, meep damage, whatever). The only other champion released in the past 2 years or so that I would call a near-complete failure in regards to what they are designed to be is Aatrox, but not even Aatrox is as poor at doing what he wants to do as Bard is.
Bard's ult is admittedly pretty cool, but more often than not it just fails as an ability. I've only ever really seen 2 applications of Bards ult that are usually more successful than hurtful, which would be: setting up junglers ganks (stasis the enemy lane while your jungler comes in), and putting the enemy backline in stasis during teamfights to cut their damage while you kill tanks. The first one is admittedly nearly always useful and only really poses the risk of whiffing your ult, but the second means that you also can't damage the enemy backline and might screw over champions on your team that are trying to assassinate or something. Almost every single other application you can try is just as likely to screw over your team as it is to screw over the enemies.
His stun is pretty unreliable and in teamfights you can't really choose who you are stunning anyway.
His health shrines are admittedly very useful in lane, but outside of that are pretty useless.
I'll admit to thinking that his E might be a contender for one of the most useless abilities in the game. At best, you can set up some cool jungler ganks with it but the ability is going to be useless in 90% of teamfights, if not actively harmful. It doesn't really work as an escape very often, although it can be used to bait some idiots into following you into your team and then stunning them against the wall. Those are the only 2 useful applications of the ability I can think of.
junglerboy162 votesHis Q needs a lot more range imo, it is just ridiculously short for having to hit two things for the stun.
I have actually seen some REALLY cool E bait strategies, where Bard is roaming around alone, the enemy team sees and starts chasing, he then Es a long wall, goes through, and when the enemy follows him, his team surprise wombo-comboes them because they can't stop the magical journey and Bard goes through faster.
LOL Spammer1 votesOr more speed, I haven't actually played him but it seems to easy to dodge.
junglerboy161 votesThat would help too, either way, it needs to be more reliable than it is right now.
Alleo4 votes Don't worry about me guys I'm just going to spend most of the game trying to collect chimes.
Blue Moon Wolf1 votesbut... thats my favorite part ;__;
Alleo1 votesThat's always how it ends up for me, somehow I end up in the enemy's jungle looking for chimes while the adc is down in bot lane
Sukishoo3 votesRiot didn't say that, people said that about the champion.
terkmc3 votesWell then let just say that after a Bard ult the enemy team half a second before our Malphite land a 5 man ult, I dont trust Bard anymore
Truly Prideful2 votesDunno, I like to play him a lot. I would have guessed he would be a rare pick after his first week because his style really isn't for everyone. I'll keep spamming him whenever I can, I generally do very well and I enjoy the plays his kit can produce.
Blue Moon Wolf1 votesI think in another patch or two they will add some changes and suddenly everyone will like him, like a toggle on his ult to switch between enemies and allies ( monsters and turrets are still affected either way).
Fried Noob2 votesHonestly, Bard is fun to play and can make some insane plays. However, he just doesn't feel very rewarding when he does something good and feels god awful when you mess up, which leads to him seeming like a crap champion that is not worth playing.
Dangerous Man3 votesHe's a very situational champion
Meet Chaos2 votesLol. I've been playing bard all week because he's really fun. It was rough at first but once i got more fluent with him, I began playing him like he's supposed to be played; a roaming support. The biggest reason he's that is because he will leave lane now and again (ensuring your adc is safe and bushes are warded etc) to pick up his little chime things which are spread out in the jungle. Before you know it, youve made your way to mid and you see an opportunity and with proper stun and throw a W (heal thingy) at your teammate for a speed boost plus health, and you have yourself a kill.
Max out E (Magical journey), and you're flying right through walls, catching up to a chase and stunning enemies, or even ulting them to give your teammates who you left behind a chance to catch up and do the slaugthering. Or use E to set up a bait and have them chase you only to land right infront of your teammates.
I play Bard strictly support. Kind of like I would play a janna; just set up kills and opportunities for your teammates to carry. Building ap on bard is "eh" right now. Until they give him more power then ill build ap. Since i play him as a support, during team fights, i'm setting up fights with my ult or stun, and then prancing around if i get focused (Bard is squishy), using my E to get away. Again, building AP right now is very weak. I'd rather just build up my meeps because once the 30 minutes roll around, you should have your 55+ chimes and bard becomess really strong (As a support).
For summoner spells, ive been using the healing and mana regenerator one. I have had no need for flash. Remember, youre a support and you want to help out as much as possible. It's also very much a skill game. In solo q, you need to pray your team mates know how to play because you can set up all the team fights in the world, but if they don't know how to focus, or they don't know how to position, you guys will get destroyed and once your team is behind in xp/gold, you become usless. Then people want to point fingers at you and say its your fault
Dangerous Man1 votesI was not expecting you to say Max out E and the mana summoner spell is called Clarity.
Meet Chaos1 votesYes Clarity. And yes, E maxed out is super useful. The thing with bard is that you have to think and play creatively, which is fun :) Hes not an up front bruiser/tank or whatever. I think playing him straight utility with speed is the way to go. Hell, i haven't build a locket of iron solari on any champ this past season until now. That, with the talisman of Ascension and boots of mobility is gg. I'm experimenting with zz'rot portal right now and see if i can find a place for it
Oleandervine2 votesBard is just too too dependent on having a fully functional team, which means he caters entirely to high end ranked players and team builder. For anyone queuing into random matches without a full blown team equipped with voice chat, he's pretty bad and can't really do much of anything because people will be clueless about what he's doing. This is why he fails, because 80% of the LOL gamer base doesn't have a full team equipped with voice chat to make timing plays perfect. I don't understand why Riot keeps popping out champions like this (Kalista was one as well, I DESPISE her ult), and its unfortunately getting to the point where I'm not even sure it's worth buying new champions anymore if they're gonna be too radical and dependent on the team to be functional in a game. All that on top of the chimes, which gate him too much and keep him from accessing his only other source of lane presence outside of Q.
Orbv2 votesBard is entirely this season's version of pre-rework Karma. Very fun to use, but without your team's help, a ridiculously hard to make useful/kit. At least Karma did damage though...
flibitydoo1 votesThe issue is he has very weak teamfight due to all of his utility.
No one takes damage during his ult, so all it really can do to help during the teamfight is: lower cds (for your team, just like zhonyas) or set up hard to hit things (on the enemy, like Nunu ult/most of sion's abilities). Both of which in SoloQ aren't very useful due to the level of coordination it requires.
His E does no damage and is pure situational mobility (think Teemo Movequick, an ability that has zero combat effect). It's extremely situational due to the way it works. In a teamfight, it rarely actually does anything.
W is a weak (single target) heal. If you wanted healing, you would pick any other healing support. The movespeed is also very situational due to positioning reasons. You're better off picking Karma (or Zilean) if you want movespeed boosts.
Q is a nice stun, but at it's best, you stun two guys with it. Out of 5. And it's range tends to mean that you aren't nailing their backline with it, so it's stunning the frontline which isn't much.
The meeps are damage/slow, and if you are saving it for the slow, then you miss out on a lot of damage because you aren't autoing during the teamfight. And if you're using it for damage, it's not a lot to begin with. You can scale it, but you lose a lot of lane presence in doing so and can end up putting your adc behind in CS (or even kills if they have a support that can dive).
Sammystorm1 votesI basically just build movement speed items and run really fast.
Stark60001 votesHe is super fun to play and also incredibly weak. You basically have to build full support/tank/cd. You have zero damage. I find myself ignoring bards on the other team and when he is botlane its and autowin.
SmknWdl1 votesI think bard is kind of like fiora... if you counter pick him correctly (
some i can think of off the top of my head) he is gonna do pretty well (fiora completely rapes if you counter pick her right but that's not the point) but if you just pick him into anything he might just be a tad weak extremely useless.
TenSlashTen1 votesCause he sucks And by that i mean he's not a broken sona 2.0/Thresh
Dangerous Man1 voteslol Thresh isn't broken IMO and Sona has a bad early game.
Blue Moon Wolf1 votesI like , I just wish there was an easier way to tell where his magical journey ends, to many times have I used it and I exit sooner than I wanted. this has lead to some unfortunate deaths by turret fire :(
OperationDEEZ11 votesSet it off smartcast and you can see exactly where the gate ends.
Dangerous Man1 votesI had no idea there's the option to take it off. In that case, why would you take it off?
OperationDEEZ11 votesBecause you can see the cast range (It's rather long, people only use it point-blank of the wall for whatever reason) and you can see where the portal goes through, so you don't have to worry about messing up with it.
Dangerous Man1 votesI said OFF not ON
BatteryDead1 votesOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH
Dangerous Man1 votesty dfg
Krigjer1 votesHad a guy ask for a Bard ban. I actually wanted to play him AND I don't think banning Bard is better over banning someone the enemy team can carry with. 'No, you ban him so your team doesn't pick them and suck'
Bard wasn't banned, and the guy that said to ban Bard... picked Bard and trolled me (his adc. last pick, I filled). Ulted to kill us/screw us out of a kill, didn't leave any shrines, journeyed into his death...
His final comment was 'this is why you ban bard lol'
I hate this new champ stigma. 'He's new and people are going to suck with him!' Yeah, that's what practice is for. I consider myself a competent Bard now, and enjoy his playstyle. It's frustrating getting these players.
AbiwonKenabi1 votesBard is a wait and see. People were saying similar things about Syndra when she first came out, but I was pretty certain there would be a day where balance just aligned in her favor, people learned how to play her and she would be really good. I was right, she was a widely played midlaner in professional play AND solo queue all last Season (until she got nerfed, but that's a different story).
Bard is in a similar situation. He's got really useful utility, but it's difficult to use. More than other champions, your allies have to be familiar with Bard's mechanics. That mega utility also eats up most of his power budget, so he has trouble trading in lane. He's not designed to sit in lane and babysit, he's designed to take control of the side of the map he is on by roaming. Unfortunately, this requires a degree of teamwork and in solo queue this falls flat because the ADC expects to be babysat, just like any other support would do. Bard is not a babysitter, he's like a friendly neighbor that stays with the kids and checks up on them to make sure they are ok, but doesn't necessarily have to stay with the kids 24/7. On top of all this, his utility is difficult to use--sort of like Janna's ult, it's easy to mess up your own team with it.
TL;DR Bard doesn't have a lot of damage because of his utility. His utility is difficult to use, and his roaming potential has trouble shining in solo queue, because it requires a higher degree of teamwork.
The good news is he is getting some buffs to his damage, among other things, which is part of his problem. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in LCS soon, maybe not until Summer Split though. His kit works well with the "support roams mid" tactic or the "support and jungler roam enemy jungle" strategy, which are fairly common with lane swaps so prevalent.
Dangerous Man1 votesSyndra sucks though. She's only good if she builds full AP but she'll run out of mana fast.
AbiwonKenabi1 votesSyndra didn't always suck though. She was one of the most played Champions last season. She got nerfed for a reason.
Kazaashi1 votesDo people not realize that Bards ult has a throw range longer than Lux's Lazer ult. Bard sets up picks. He is not a lane bully or the support for a kill lane. Bard is about farming up hardcore and then destroying the other team by setting up picks (with proper warding) with his Ult and E.
The only time I have lost with Bard is when my ADCs try to be super aggro with the other ADC and don't step on my shrines to heal. And Zyra, she is very good against Bard.