Does bard suck? Or do the players suck...
Tbh I have never been matched with a decent bard and I'm not complaining since its mostly the enemies, but I was wondering what do you guys think of Bard???
24 Comments
Worst solo que support to ever grace the earth. One of the strongest 5v5 team supports to come into existence.
Communication is his downfall. So..... for most people? He's the worst champ ever created.
I actually did a Bard spree a few days ago. He isn't weak. As stated before, he requires a totally different playstyle than pretty much any other support. Additionally, I find that I run a seperate rune page and mastery page just for support Bard, due to him being so different.
He doesn't have a lot of damage potential, but has a ton of utility. Using that to your and your team's advantage is key. His AP scaling isn't all that great, and only two abilities scale with it (Q and W).
Common mistakes I've seen Bard players make: -Leaving their ADC at bad times. -Risking their own and their teammate's lives to grab chimes. -Running around the whole map grabbing chimes, not really doing much else. -Using his ult in ways that do not benefit his team (sometimes even benefits the enemy team if used wrong).
Common mistakes I've seen Bard's teammates make: -Leaving Bard to fend for himself defending a lane. Aside from his passive, he barely has any AoE or damage. -Not understanding that those glowing things on the ground are there to heal them. Ignoring the packs entirely. -Assuming Bard is an aggressive damage based support, and expecting him to do what those supports do. -Not realizing they can follow Bard through his Magical Journey portals.
Personally, I like to run him with Mobility Boots, so he's super fast. Collecting 5 chimes in a row gives him a whopping movement speed of 600+ (adding a bit from his utility masteries). -His healing is okay-ish, but not great if insta-cast on someone. Better to leave it on the ground for a few seconds, let it grow, then use it. Place them a bit behind your turret, so it's safe to pick them up, and less likely to get stepped on by enemies. -Use Magical Journey to cut enemies off, giving them fewer chances to get away. Also use it to quickly move to help your team. -Q slows and can stun if used correctly. I myself seem to expect the skillshot is longer than it actually is, so that requires some adjustment on my part. Positioning is very important for it, too, if you want to stun. -Use your meeps to basic attack enemy champions for increased effect. Meeps are also your best waveclear friends.
Best uses for his ult I've found so far: -Use on enemies chasing your low-health team. Can also be combined with Magical Journey. If they follow you, drop an ult on the exit just as they pop out. -Use on low-health enemy, making sure your team can catch up and secure the kill. -Use on Dragon (or enemy attacking Dragon), trying to let your team get Dragon instead of the enemy. -Prevent turrets from firing at your team when towerdiving enemy champions.
Roaming: Basically you're a support, mainly for your botlane ADC, but also for the rest of your team. Think of Bard as your spare jungler, who can quickly get to midlane, jungle and toplane to support the champs there, but only do so if you're certain your ADC will be okay by themselves for a few minutes. Don't roam if your ADC/tower is being pushed. Doesn't matter if another lane's also struggling, that's what your jungler's for.
Chimes are useful, but not worth a death (yours or your team's). Get them when you can, and when it's a good idea to do so. Get the ones near you, leave the ones further away until a better opportunity comes along. Enemies can't pick them up or destroy them anyway, and they last a good long time. Even if they expire, new ones will appear. They restore a bit of mana (if I'm correct), and Bard already isn't a very mana hungry champion (his healing packs cost the most mana), so I've ran into very few mana shortage.
My Bard builds tend to become something like this:
(or 
) and the last one is situational. My Bard matches haven't lasted long enough to finish my final item. Maybe I should add a bit of extra CDR.
My runes and masteries are mostly geared towards utility, with a minor addition to his AP and magic penetration. Makes him effective, without making him a possible tank, ADC or APC.
The Concept behind Bard is nice, and when utilized nicely he's awesome, but you rarely have the opportunity to use him effectively.
His Passive is rather nice, but your base Attack Damage for your Melee is so weak, that meeps barely help.
Bard's Q while good, isn't really all that considering it requires something to be hit after the initial target and it has a rather long cooldown. You're not always going to get that perfect shot.
Bard's W, it's a nice concept, but it's almost useless. The amount of time it takes to fully charge and heal is just laughable really. It takes like, 5-10 seconds to fully charge, but the heal bonus isn't even all that. Not only that, but you're limited to only 3 Shrines, and it costs quite a bit of mana to set them up.
Bard's E, there's really nothing to say about it, because it is what it is. Same goes for his Ultimate.
Really, I'm just complaining about his Heals, vamp them heals, it's so useless.
Ahhh, rant over :3
The players
The roaming support...that's...ironically...not there when you need him? Oh oh oh....the AOE Zhonya's...that...does no damage and gets killz after the stun?...giving everyone the ability to setup up escape routes and/or counters? The epic tunnel...that allows you and the whole team to gank through the boundries...while the opposing team goes through the opposite direction to get away?...lol. The low helf and damage...no poke....heals as effective as....well...no one.? He plays a mean sax tho.
He's a great troll champ. Best design ever...
he needs an awefull specific combo to work out well and even then the reward isn´t that huge...so i like the concept but he needs more teamfight power as a fall back pattern. Currently his roaming isn´t really stronger than what other supports do (they don´t even have to hit a wall+champion to make their ganks work) and their teamfighting/laning is massivly better.
I've had mixed results as playing bard.
I've played him so well some games that I was fully capable of fighting the enemy ADC on my own and winning. This has actually happened a few times. I've done well enough in those games, timing my ults perfectly, always healing the person with the least health to keep them in the fight, and stunning the most troublesome enemies, which was normally the ADC and the APC. Those matches I found him very good to play.
However there are also some games where when you play bard you just can't do anything. You can't leave lane because your marksmen is trying to push when you are gone instead of playing safe, so they end up getting killed and then they blame you. So you gotta stay in lane, which severely limits your chime collection, making you terribly underpowered late game. Where your allies are so confidant that you can lay done three heals and use another directly on someone, that they rush in and get killed before you can do anything to help them. And some games where there really just isn't any good opportunity to use your ult effectively.
I've come to the conclusion that playing bard requires a lot of team work, and a lot of understanding about eachother's capabilities. While also you can be severely hampered by any enemy players whom have learned how to fight against bard supports effectively.
The main reason bard has a low winrate is due to people just trolling with him. (See UberDanger's Should you play Bard video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxgfJWrmaI4)
Mostly it's just that Bard is so different from every other current champion and playstyle. Teams don't really know how to use him yet, and he definitely requires some coordination to be effective.
Bard is not the worst champ ever, 
is
Top lane
With
(or whichever one makes your basic attacks deal true damage) maaaaybe 
. The rest is up to you.
Hes a great champ in pro playings cuz hes great with communication but that doesnt happen in sliver and bronze (where most players are). Plus he leaves most of the time the adc alone
Kinda definitely in the wrong section, but Bard as a whole is a bit difficult to get a handle on. He kinda requires you to have a completely different play-style than what your normal support is use to, as such players are still having a hard time getting use to him and how to use him effectively.
Note: This is coming from a support main who has played bard successfully in a game. Second note: Helps a lot to be in a call with your ADC
It's sad because he's so thematically cool, but he just ends up being a useless liability for any team. Any good game you had with bard could have been surpassed with literally any other champion, sadly.