Tips for playing Bard

So you want to play Bard? You don't? You heard he was bad? If you don't take the time to learn him, yes. He is bad and he may actually be the very reason your team loses. If you take the time to learn Bard the opposite is true and he will probably be the reason you won a game you should not have.

1. Always start Q. Tanking a hit from a camp and then following up with a stun will give your jungler the same health benefit and you will start off with one of the strongest level 1's in the game.

2. "Bard just leaves his ADC alone to die while he collects chimes!" False. Bard is a champion of opportunity, as you will see further as we go down this list. Down time is the best time for meep farming, such as if an Ally or Enemy ADC just backed.

3. Tell your team at the start of the match that you will ping next to walls where you plan on opening portals and do so when you are not yet in range for a portal.

4. People are dumb. if someone follows you through a portal always use Q to bind them against the wall when they come out the other side. If 2 enemies are coming through the portal and the other one is slightly behind the other wait a moment so you can land the Q on both of them. REMEMBER YOU CAN HIT THEM WITH THE Q WHILE THEY ARE STILL IN THE PORTAL. Pop a shrine on yourself for the speed boost and gtfo right after you stun them.

5. Familiarize yourself with the longest walls on the map so that you can cover more distance when needed.

6. "Place shines in bushes" - some idiot. Try your best to keep 3 shrines up in lane. Place them in either a vertical or horizontal line. I also like to use the Illuminati Heim turret pattern, only slightly more spread out. This will give a better chance of the speed boost coming in handy in the event of a gank. Of course this does not pertain to being pushed to turret.

7. During late game, if you are with a teammate and overextending to take a turret, Open preemptive portals. Once you hit 40% CDR and max E Second, as you should, Every time a portal closes you can open another. So as long as you are next to an already open portal you are safe and it allows your teammate extra time to understand where the portal is.

8. You don't have to ult. I'd venture to say there is a possibility you may not see a good time to ult in an entire game. There is nothing wrong with that.

Some examples of times to ult:

• Disengage
• Save an ally from a Dot (ignite)
• Stall objectives
• Catch stragglers
• Disabling Enemy turrets.

Using Bard's ult during a team fight is 9/10 times a bad idea.

9. Bard loves choke points. Bard is great at fighting in the jungle.