playing bard

This is how. First you lay useless heals with the lowest base in the game on the longest heal cooldown in the game with the lowest ap ratio in the game down.

Then you hit the enemy with the lowest damage skill shot in the game and if there is someone behind them, you stun that person.

Then you auto once. (no need to auto more then once, because once you have no meeps, you will literally be healing the enemy with your pathetic damage.)

Use portal to look cool. Using it to chase will allow the enemy to basically free flash away (meaning they will simply turn the other way while you are locked on the magic voyage) Use it to escape (because no one will follow you through right?)

Then finally, use your ult to exclusively save the enemy team. Why exclusively? Because it has a long cast time and every single big ult you want to dodge would have been done landed and killed your team and bards ult would be a free zhonyas for them to get their cooldowns back.

Make sure to pick him every game and blame your allies for not knowing how to carry a cannon minion to victory.

Happy hunting summoner

I have yet to play him, but have watched a few games and talked with others during streams. The one thing we all agreed on is that Bard is NOT a team fighting champ. If you want a champ that can make impacts when a fight breaks out, there are far better options. Really, we hadn't even found what Bard can do that does make him a really nice pick. The only time we could really talk about him in a serious fashion was if there was communication between the team to allow smooth ganks, when Bard will make a tunnel, when he is going to ult and how to follow up or know when to run.

He has 'potential' to be good, but is very gimmicky like you stated. The best times to use him are most likely only when you're with a team that can communicate and an ADC that can hold their own when Bard roams. Picking up chimes to boost his meeps are really his ONLY damage output. Building AP really just doesn't change anything on him except boost the Q and W numbers very slightly. E is a really good skill in general(just be careful with how you use it), but needs tweaks since quite a few people have trouble walking into it. R is pretty much the main "if" factor. Just need the communication so your team knows if you're using it to go in or to disengage. Probly the best thing about it currently is freezing towers for a bit safer dives.

Also one mistake I've been seeing from pretty much all but one of the Bards I watched.. He is far more squishy than people think. That's something me and a few people agreed on as well. We also talked about building Bard AD along with tanky/utility items to least be a bit more useful to his team. The AD being to boost your own auto attacks since meeps get stronger with the amount of chimes you pick up. You can get more out of them by boosting your AAs instead of trying to use that 30% of your AP add on.

In general, he just doesn't bring anything truly good to warrant picking him over most other common supports like Thresh, Leona, Morgana, Blitz, etc. He's just gimmicky and feels lacking except for what gimmicks he brings. That's just how I feel about it and what I had discussed with others already. Still waiting to try him for myself to see if I can make him work decently well.

1. place heals in jungle early to let your jungler get ahead
2. dont meep if your carry needs help, meep only when you get mobility and wards.
3. place heals at tower or bush so they dont get squished
4. ult towers during dives, ult drag if they are trying to take it, ult HALF the enemy team so you can force 5v3s or less.
5. use journey to gapclose along length of wall.
6. land stuns so the adc can win lane.

That's how you play bard well.

I played bard a few times and I feel like I was doing it right...? At the start of the game I run towards top drop and heal while picking up 2 or 3 chimes on my back to lane, help jun with rock guys drop a heal for him then we start our lane. At this point I'm full mana and just kinda sitting there, poking a little bla bla. I don't start roaming til level 3 that way I have my q,w,and e up. I drop 2 heals grab a quick chime come back. Now when I first played him in a normal this worked however the next time I played I found it kind hard. I was with a jinx, the other bot team was a jinx/ braum and omg they were so pokeie!! All I could do was try my best to hit them with my Q and set shrines. The shrines at low level use ALOT of mana which drained me so fast trying to keep up with the damage to my ADC. I ended up being very low on mana and needed to roam but couldn't because the enemy bot team was just doing too much while I couldn't. But here is the thing I noticed in team fights I feel useless kinda. I'm dropping shrines while trying to stun peeps and Idk I just feel so useless. OMG dont get me started on if the enemy team is feed, because at the point bard is nothing more than a big red target. I found myself unable to do anything for my team, because the shrines were being used way to fast and couldn't help with the damage being dealt. I think Bard has alot of potential but at the moment people need to learn HOW to play him and HOW to play with him on your team.

I made my friend play Bard support for around a dozen games. I'm mid so I make him lay like 3 of his heals in my lane to maximize troll heals.

Make tunnels as long as possible for maximum magical journeys because it is stupid and amazing. If possible, lap back to the entrance and ride again. Stun enemies that come through the entrance because even at Platinum MMR, no once can resist taking the Magical Jourrrrrneeeyyyy. Several times he dropped a tunnel and team popped out of nowhere and ganged up on a guy.

Use your ult to catch people out. It is REALLY good at that, especially mid game when people are rotating lanes. His ult is naturally anti and so use that on teammates who are affected by their ults for added troll.

Also, ks your mid, I hate it when my friend does it to me so that must mean he is doing something right.

Bard has a weak ass laning phase, but I play mid so idc not my problem, just don't feed bot stupid. I think there is a lot of potential mid and late game. I make my friend play Bard every time, tunnels are gloriously amazing and my god so dumb thank you Riot.

Credentials: P1 newb, how did I get here

While I agree he is not a normal support, I think people are being a bit harsh. He is definitely a tricky champion, who is going to take practice to get proficient with. I however think people are writing him off to quickly. The shrines can do some serious work, especially in laning phase, make sure that you are putting them under your tower and just give your ADC a quick Idea about how they work. Make sure you are putting out as many as you can, this will give your ADC serious sustain. Not to mention you can cast the heal directly onto champions, which is not as efficient but I've saved lives. I always take this ability first! Intuitively you would think to take the stun first but I think that's a big mistake because bard himself is a bit squishy and the range on the stun is short.

The stun, is great if it lands. Short range and the fact that sometimes it seems to hit minions who are side by side, as opposed to going through the first minion and into the enemy champ behind him. I find that it's way more effective lining shots up against walls/structures. When you do land them, they can turn fights around big time! Especially if you have two champs who are chasing you in a line, a quick turn and throw and you can save yourself and hopefully your teammates. Don't underestimate this move, but also don't think you are throwing out Morgana's dark bindings.

Bard's E is the trickiest of the skills so far for me. I've used it at least once in laning phase to go through the wall into the tri-bush when enemy was on red side to secure a kill. I've also taken that same journey hoping to repeat my success and was met with an enemy jungler who stabbed my face in. I've taken the journey many times to escape death to great effect as long as I'm not panicking. I've had people chase me through the portal (remember enemies move slower through the portal than you or your teammates) and once they pop out the other side i'm waiting on the other end with stun into the wall. I've thrown just as many shitty portals into the nothingness of uselessness. It's a tool, and once more people understand it (like Thresh's lantern) it's value will increase. TIP! Don't click on the entrance to the portal to go into the portal, right click on the tunnel itself!

Bard's ult is so bonkers versatile! About to get into a team fight? Try to isolate 2-3 of the enemy team with it and have the rest of your crew go in and mop up the remaining members, while you keep blasting heals. Oh no your adc was split pushing bottom and now are being chased by a chunk of the enemy team? Don't worry Magical journey to get a bit closer, then time that ult to freeze the pursuers, because the range on this ability is crazy! Enemy team is getting dragon? We are to far away to contest or steal... let me just pause that real quick ahhh there we go and dragon is ours. I have had all of these things happen in game and it felt great! This is just a taste, you sometimes have to get creative or think differently about how to use it. Also to be fair I've had some really underwhelming Ult tosses that I'm sure left my team scratching their heads. It's a skill shot, try to be skillful with it.

Meeps and chimes... The allure of the chimes is real, do not be a burden on your team to get these chimes. Do not travel to the other side of the map to pick two or three chimes, it is a bad idea. Do travel back to lane through the jungle to pick chimes after recalling. Do pick up that chime that is close by to get that mana back to then cast the health shrines. Do not attack minions when there are enemy champs around and blow your meep load on them, unless you're alone under a tower. Try to hit the enemy champs with them. They do splash damage, fun. This is where bard falls down hard... he does not do much DMG, but I'm sure that can be mitigated with the right build. With the chimes just grab them when it's prudent when you would be moving to a spot anyway, like to ward or to help out mid, or if the enemy support is out of lane anyway (the caveat being if the enemy support is Bard, in that case stay in lane and harass the adc). The big thing is to think of them more in terms of getting back mana and getting a speed boost to get to where you are going. The Meeps+DMG should be thought of as an after thought.

The two things I would think about building early on this guy, is Mana Regen (he's greedy at the start of the game) and Cool down. The faster you can get those shrines down, the faster you can throw more stuns and the faster you can throw more ults will make him seem more valuable to your team. You're not there to do DMG, you're there to support. After that... well I'm not to sure, but building a decent amount of AP seems to work, but attack damage is an interesting thought.

Hope this helps, and just give the big goofy bastard a chance, you might be surprised.