Hi, this is my first guide (work in progress), but I just had to write one for this amazing champion! I've been playing Bard for a few weeks now and I am completely in love! In this guide i hope to show you how I think you can get the most out of playing Bard (comments/feedback would really be appreciated).

These are my latest games as Bard (sorry about the small image).

If you can't see the scores they are:
victory 3/0/9
victory 2/2/9
victory 1/2/14
victory 4/5/32
victory 2/1/20
victory 4/4/28

All normal games.

Pros:

Very mobile with his Magical Journey

Has a spammable double stun!!!

Ult is amazing for picks and teamfights

Low mana costs (not so much for his heal)

Mana sustainability in lane from his Chimes.

Cons:

Very squishy early game

Ult has the potential to go very wrong

His heal is not great

Bit of a pain having to collect Chimes late game when they are spread out

Passive: Travelers calling
Bards passive is great!
Although some people thing it is a stupid passive and a pain to collect the chimes, i disagree.
I generally only collect the Chimes on the way back to lane for the speed boosts or if i need mana in lane. They can also be very handy speed boosts (just watch out for the red ones, they slow you down :s) The empowered basic attacks also help with poking in lane and some extra cc. By late game when you've collected about 40 chimes, you become the king of cc with a spammable double stun and an aoe slow. Not to mention that you can eventually have upto 5 aoe slows built up at a time!

Cosmic Binding
This is a fantastic ability especially in team fights. Early game its good for poking but a little tricky to hit the stun unless you position yourself very well. In teamfights mid-late game you can spam your Q every 4 ish seconds! Thats potentially stunning two targets every 4 seconds with a 1.8 second stun! nuff said

Caretakers shrine
His W although not his most useful ability can still be very handy, i tend to leave a shrine or two next to my tower for my adc if they take too much poke, you could also leave one in the river for your jungler when they gank (be remember they do get destroyed when an enemy stands on them). I max this last because the heal isnt that big, but the speed boost is still very useful if you are chasing down an enemy or running away yourself.

Magical Journey
This is probably Bard's signature ability. It has several uses:
[*] The first is just plain mobility, getting around the map quicker than your opponents is a game changer. It lets you get more damage on towers before they can respond and gives you more objective control in general.
[*] It is great for surprising your enemy when ganking with your jungler (pretty self explanatory really).
[*] Escaping from enemies is easy with your Magical Journey especially if you've maxed it second. Also once you have come out the other end you can wait for your opponent to follow you through and get an easy stun off on the onto the terrain behind.
[*] One use people often don't think about is using it to travel parallel to a lane through the terrain next to it, you travel upto 50 percent faster than when you are just walking! Which is fantastic for chasing or running away.

Tempered Fate
One of the reasons i love this ability so much is that it is so versatile! It can give you easy kills at level six in lane with your jungler. It can save you or any of your team from over time effects (e.g teemo shroom, ignite, swains torment etc). It is also good for tower diving, if you can ult the tower and not your opponents, they are helpless for 2.5 seconds, more than enough time to take out a half health adc and supp with your jungler. You can use Bard's ult to secure dragon and/or baron by ulting thier jungler so he cant smite it. Finally, it is amazing in team fights if you can get about half their team in it! This turns a 5v5 into a 2v5 and and easy 3v5.
HOWEVER, i cannot stress enough that you must be careful with his ult as it can backfire very easily e.g if you catch half their team in it as well as your damage dealers :/ . Don't do that...pls don't do that xD
It is better to miss Bard's ult completely than to unintentionally catch your team in it in a team fight.

Early game
Early game you want to try and poke the opposing adc as much as possible with your empowered basic attacks and your Q. Don't worry about mana too much because your chimes give you quite a lot back and they spawn close to you early game. Also dont worry too much about hitting the stun, the Q does ok damage anyway, but if you do hit a stun make sure your adc is ready to engage!

Lvl 6
At level 6 you want your jungler to be heading bot (communication is key) then if you can hit your ult on one or both of the enemy bot lane when they are middle or closer to your turret then it is an almost guaranteed kill if you get your timing right. Admittedly the timing on bards ult is a bit tricky, it takes longer than you would expect.
An alternative is for you to go out of lane with your jungler and go on a Magical journey to other lanes securing kills with your ult. BUT BE CAREFUL when you use magical journey that you are either out of range of your target (hopefully behind them) or that you target has no hard cc. An example of someone you want to be careful using this against is nami, if she sees your tunnel and is in range, she is just going to bubble the end instantlyand there is nothing you can do to avoid it.

Mid/Late game
This is when the outer turrets are down and everyone is roaming a bit. you want to be constantly looking out for enemies on their own or in pairs that you can ult allowing your team to converge on them.
In a team fight you have to be very careful!!!!
The aim in a team fight is to get all their tanks/low priority targets in your ult, leaving the adc and maybe their mid laner with no protection. Essentialy you can make a 5v5 into a 1v5, 2v5 or whatever you want if you learn to hit your ult well.

Bard is a great, versatile champion that is so much fun to play! I hope you enjoy playing him as much as i do, and i hope that you like my guide. This is my first attempt at on of these, so any feedback/comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Have fun!