How To: Bard
The Wandering Killstealer
Bardificer
Best Overall Runes
Spells
Skill Priority
Q
W
E
Best Overall Build
Intro
Hi, I'm currently a Gold I Bard main, and honestly, I just want other people to have as much fun as me. As far as how I play and why I play, I play for fun. I could maybe be higher in rank, but that's not why I main bard. I main Bard because he is fun, and I want to see my rank if I just have fun. One thing to keep in mind is that my mans is dummy powerful, like he is STRONG at every stage of the game, it's just different types of strong. Early game, he has high damage but lacks range, mid game he's a roaming playmaker and will outplay the entire enemy team, and late game he is a massive threat for a shotcaller who can put out good damage.
Runes
Bard has a million rune pages he can run, so I'm including a few. The main runes right now are Fleet Footwork and Guardian, although my personal setup is Glacial or Spellbook. If you plan on running glacial, swap it for spellbook if the entire enemy team is going to be hard to land your cc on.
- Meta Page (Fleet)
- My Playstyle
- Guardian Setup
Summoner Spells
Always take flash, its super useful across the board. For your second summoner spell, you should be running ignite for an agressive lane or playstyle, and exhaust for a defensive one. If you wanna be the carry, ghost can get you places quick, but this is not a recommendation, just a suggestion.
- Support Sums
Skill Path
There is only one.
- Skill Path
Bard
Item Builds
So there are two main item pages: meta and me. One section present in both are "Buy Now, Sell Later". Depending on how laning is going, you can pick up these items early on for a temporary damage buff and then sell them later.
I am a personal fan of wardstone, so you don't need to follow me on that. It just gives a lot for being cheap so if the game goes late and you get more gold, I would sell it for something else. It's better than the components of anything until you get that full last item.
- Fleet or Guardian
- My Playstyle
Matchups and Synergies
So, there's a really simple rule to follow. Do they outrange you? Yes = you lose, No = you win. Bard is strong, but his main drawback is his lack of range. Bard has so much power in his roams that his lane lacks a bit of power. Any specific matchups that don't follow this rule or have specific other things will go below.
- Hard Matchups
- Easy Matchups
How to Play Bard
Your basic goal in this guide is to forcefully carry your team in the lower ranks of LoL. Bard as a champion shines in two situations: When you have a competent team, and when the enemy team isn't competent. This means he's good in every elo, but you have to play differently. This guide is targeted towards the lower ranks, so we're going to bank on an incompetent enemy team. This guides us towards a few targets when playing:
Firstly, shut down the enemy carry. Secondly, shut down the enemy's mental state. Thirdly, win.
Currently, items suck for Bard. He has high base damage on his passive, so we build essentially full tank to live long enough to put out that damage. Use fleet to reposition faster in fights or guardian to peel a stupid ally who overextended. Roaming is highly encouraged, but never at the detriment to your own team. Think about it this way: if you're leaving botlane, what will happen there while you're gone and how will you make up for it. If your botlaner gets killed, you better get a kill mid and secure dragon. If they lose 5 cs or get poked hard, you want good vision setup to track the enemy jungle. Tell your partner when you're roaming and communicate with pings (and maybe chat) as to what you're doing.
Why is your build all heal and shield then?
My build abuses item haste. When everything is fully stacked, locket and redemption are both less than 50 second cooldowns, and active items are very powerful. The stats aren't awful, and it allows me to save teammates from 3 screens away while still being pretty tanky and having tricks up my sleeve. This still fills the goals of our gameplay. Shut down the enemy carry? They can't kill my team well. Mental state? Mental boom after a full malphite yasuo combo onto 5 people does nothing.