Boards›Tips & Tricks

Lets Theorycraft with Bard!

MrBuffington·2/24/2015, 10:37:55 PM·1 votes·3,452 views
Bard, the Wandering Caretaker, revealed

With Bard being revealed, I want to hear some of your ideas for strategies and other tips/tricks you can think of just from looking at his kit so far. Obviously things will change as more is revealed, but so far his kit has a lot of cool and unique spells that look like they'll have a lot of uses. His ult in particular looks like it'll take a lot of skill and coordination to use to maximum effectiveness, and I think there are a lot of cool plays you can do.

Here's a couple I was thinking of:

  • If an enemy follows you through your E, you can spin around and Q stun them to a wall
  • You can ult objectives like Dragon or Baron to give your jungler time to get in position to steal them
  • Alternatively, you can ult the enemy jungler so they cannot secure the objective

As far as itemization, I think he'll favor the Talisman line for support items, since this will give him movement speed to roam more effectively; not sure about the rest of his build, though he seems very utility focused.

If I had to guess about skill order, it'd be R>W>Q>E:

  • Maxing ult first is standard
  • W seems very potent for setting up healing for your laners and junglers; being able to heal your laners more effectively also allows you to roam more effectively
  • E feels like a 1 point wonder type of spell; Q is also your only damage ability, though your autos seem like they can be very potent so it doesn't seem completely necessary to max Q first.

What you you guys think? Agree/Disagree with what I said? Let me know! I personally am very excited for Bard, I love roaming on support (one of the reasons I love Janna, the MS is so great), and have been wanting utility focused support with sustain (Sona is more damage focused and extremely squishy; Soraka is almost entirely focused on healing; Taric is still pending rework)

EDIT: More info on Bard: http://www.surrenderat20.net/2015/02/224-pbe-update-2-bard.html

Not sure about the skill order anymore; the heal on W is useful, though since it's ramping, it might still be sufficient to max second; the Q damage and utility seems too good to hold off on. Might still depend on his playstyle, since if he's not sitting in a lane and providing pressure, it might be better to offer massive heals while roaming around?

36 Comments

ActualPain2/25/2015, 2:44:57 AM2 votes

This was something I had thought about before Bard even, but switching the mid and ADC sounds like a great idea to me. For example, a Syndra bot has the range and CC to safely farm and trade in a 2v1 lane, and a Draven mid can farm early and use his oppressive early power to bully the opposing mid. The Bard would start in bot lane but would obviously roam as much as possible. Even without Bard, I think switching the traditional APC mid with the ADC bot is a viable strat that should be explored.

Death Knight 7772/24/2015, 10:47:30 PM1 votes

I can see kind of the pre update soraka king of mid. Like before her rework she could mid and top and it was quite viable but now shes primarily support. Im excited to see him mid tho with interesting builds poissibly maximizing his passve and heals its going to be interesting glad you are excited about him too!

DrCyanide2/24/2015, 11:15:30 PM1 votes

I think, if possible, he'll scatter healing pads in the jungle as he roams. It would help out the jungler/other roamers if on his own side, and be a nice saftey/backup plan if roaming in the enemy jungle. It'll be interesting to see if these pads give vision too (I doubt they will).

One thing to consider is how Bard will change the bot lane. With only one person in lane most of the time, the solo bot is going to level faster than the enemy ADC/Support. This could open up situations where the ADC is actually mid (such as a Corki, Ezreal, maybe Jayce) while the mage is bot (since they're more likely to have the CC/AoE to deal with the 2v1).

Orisi2/25/2015, 2:34:45 AM1 votes

Important point I figured I'd drop here as it's the first one I've bothered to comment on;

There's no evidence at the moment Bard has any self-heal.

His chimes offer mana experience and movement speed but NOT health.

His W also specifically states allied champions, which does not necessarily include himself being able to use his own shrines.

Like the said, they DONT want another Alistar. The easiest way to gate this is to give reasonable scaling on his Q and Passive, and deny him self-healing. It doesn't Impact his utility but does impact his solo potential both laning and jungling which is exactly what they're going for.

There's also something I'd like to know RE his E portal; is it a click-to-use or trigger passively by walking through? I want to know if I can FORCE the enemy through one with a knock back like Comdemn.

Takanuva2/25/2015, 9:44:55 AM1 votes

heres my theorcraft for his item set: item 3069 item 3117 item 3056 item 3800 item 2045 item 3512

i feel with him roaming, this gives him great sustain, as well as good movespeed stats, and nice actives. this makes him decidely tanky, though not unkillable. one of these can be traded out for maybe a rod or something, since he does have ap ratioss on his "empowered" auto attack, (.3), as well as .2-.45 on his shrine, and .25? on his q, though theyre kinda low, so ap is luxury to me. also, ohmwrecker plus his ult means you have a dead tower for 5-6 seconds, this with righteous glory active and he can lock down, but this is just me. btw, id run 4/5/21, the 4 is in cd, total this gives you 10% cdr, as well as lower cd on activated items. like i said, ap items could substitute ANY of these, but this makes him squishy. id sleep better make him a mobile, tanky disrupter, but as ive said, this is only theorycrafting. one last thing, all these items are decidely cheap, so a full 6-slot isnt out of the question, though i wouldnt count on it. be warned that his "core", talisman, mobis, and sightstone may make him a tad squishy, but he should be alright with his high ms and his q if hit right

Edit: talisman helps him with the gold, hes gotta have something while hes visiting lanes, right?, also, apologies for the wall of text