So, you want to be the elusive "Useful Bard" do you? Well I'm here to help!
So here's a little trick for you. Let's say you have all 3 health packs out but you want to heal this ally of yours, but you don't want to remove your other health packs. What can you do? Easy, just use your W on the ally. The cursor (In non-smartcast) will sort of lock on to them when placed directly on them, and that's when you know it'll just heal them, not place a pack or get rid of one.
iluvalar2 votesWouldn't suggest 
. The mana regen is pretty much useless for bard because of how chimes work. So it's not really gold efficient it that sens. the CDR meh yes. But there is so much better items that have CDR you can already cap with.
And you can only keep the active one 1 champions 50% of the time roughly. So it just worth 375g for that.
It might be just me, but...
Darcade3331 votesnice
Inner Squid1 votesany other tips for using bard?
NinjaToad9912 votesKnow when to roam. Enemy laners dead? Feel free to drop a ward or two and gank mid.
Try to leave health packs for people other then your ADC
Starting with W when you have a low sustain jungler, throwing down 3 packs, recalling and going back to lane(/leash depending on where your jungler is starting) will make your jungler love you forever and give them a much better start
Your stun range increases slightly after hitting it's first unit, because of that you can stun people at the very edge of your range as long as they're touching something with their butt
Ulting the entire enemy team generally won't do much (Unless some allies can get in range for their combos during the stasis, then that could be good) but ulting their entire front line can make your assassin very very VERY happy. And also get them a triple kill. Maybe.
If you (And any allies) are running through the jungle to escape enemies and there is a fork in the road, use your Magical Journey on the path's wall that you're NOT going down to juke your enemies.
If enemies are coming after you in your Magical Journey they will always have their back to a wall when they come out. So feel free to sun them and make them cry.
People traveling through Magical Journey can still be hit while in it. So if you can't afford to let an enemy come through before stunning him, feel free to use your Q to stun them, because as soon as it hits them in there they'll be stunned (Since they're in a wall).
That's all for now folks.
Akeydel6 votesWow i didnt know about the last tip, i always waited. Thanks for the comprehensive tips.
iluvalar1 votesThis trick is also a noob trap to some extent.
The heal you do directly only heal 30 hp per 100 mana, where a charged shrine gives 70 hp. Even if you have the mana to spam it, you'd really prefer to charge the shrines and use them off cooldown.
So this trick only work if all your 3 shrines are already at a very good spot and you are full of mana. Otherwise, you might be better to give up one of those shrines you placed wrong and wait make another one at a more useful location.
In other word, a great shrine last for 10-15 seconds. If you plan to leave shrines that will stay for several minutes on the map, you're probably do it wrong as you'd be better to use them off cooldown then to use then far away in an uncertain futur.
Penta Penguin1 votesauto-stun in the wall and targeting health packs is really good to know
i can't imagine that anyone would want to play bard and not think to drop a pack for their jungler on their own, though
Yormaughm1 votesYep, and the heals give a 50% movespeed buff too. I've often used this to allow my ADC to chase down an almost dead enemy for that last autoattack. Additionally, I always try to get so that anyone I cast it on gets an attack speed buff too.
Another trick with Bard is to cast E from fog of war to make the enemies think you're setting up a gank for your jungler...even when you aren't.