Hello dear readers.

I play one EUW as Spoofzor. I'm currently ranked silver 4.
Tho i mostly play in a team comp or solo normals.
Since the release of bard I've been playing him as a Support and Jungler.

I didn't really liked these roles for bard, so i started experimenting in mid and top lane.
Due to the spawn mechanics of the chimes, mid wasn't really viable IMO.
Top however did work okay regarding spawn mechanics.

After a lot of trial and error and refining my top build I'd like to
show my fellow league players whats possible with this awesome champ.

This Guide is far from done, therefore I'd like to invite you to check back regularly.
I hope you enjoy this build as much as i do, and like to know your opinions about it.

Bard is a fun champion as a support, but lets be honest
most league players like to deal some good damage.

With this AD build you will deal damage, burst damage to be specific.

You're role as AD bard can be described as an "utility assassin".
You provide some serious burst damage when you've got your core items and
got a good amount of chimes collected.

Beside the assassin role you will be a good support.
You can help your team to stay save, setup ganks and make great escapes.
This makes AD bard a force to be reckoned with.


Tank meta
Id like to make clear that you won't be able to destroy tanks they are just to tanky
for your damage output. That said you can still deal good damage and kite them around.

Pros
+ Lane bully
+ Kite god
+ Good sustain
+ Great team fighting presence
+ Good damage output.
+ Has mixed damage 3/5 AD, 2/5 AP.
+ Good escape potential.
+ Get stronger the longer the game lasts.
+ Incredible movement speed boosts.
+ Late game can burst squeezys with 2/3 hits.


Cons
- Hard to master.
- Has to roam to get stronger.
- Ult is a HUGE double-edged sword.
- Pretty squishy early game.
- Stun can be hard to hit.
- Can get picked off due to roaming.
- You get raged at for taking him top.
- Needs good map awareness.

So in order to get the best damage output we go for hybrid penetration.
Even though we go for an AD build, Bard still does some significant amount of
AP damage.

(I) With this build the AD to AP ratio is about 3/5 AD, and 2/5 AP damage.

Onto the runes:

Marks:
3 Marks of hybrid penetration.
6 Marks of armor penetration.

Seals:
9 Seals of armor

Glyph:
2 Glyph of armor
7 Glyph of magic penetration.

Quint:
1 Quint of movementspeed.
2 Quint of Hybrid penetration.

The runes provide the following stats:
- 14 Armor pen
- 9 Magic pen
- 10 Armor
- 1.5% movement speed

Armor pen and magic pen help to deal more damage throughout the game.
In laning phase it helps to get your enemies low by AA harass and Q strikes.
The armor is to help mitigate physical damage which is what most top-laners use.
Bards base speed is actually very low, therefore we get the 1.5% movement speed.

Its also possible to mix in some scaling Armor runes or magic runes.

So lets talk items for AD bard.

His core items contain:
- Youmoo's ghost blade:
This items main purpose is to roam, escape and make you AA faster.
On top the multipurpose active it gives you armor pen to do more damage.
Cooldown reduction for your abilities and crit chance.

- Muramana:
This is your burst source!
Once it is complete mostly around 28 - 35 minutes into the game
Due to the mana replenishment from the chimes you can keep this active for most of the time.
That makes it a very strong item for AD bard.

- ZZ'rot portal:
Another multipurpose item.
The build path depends on your opponent if you face a magic user start with Negatron cloak.
If not start with the raptors cloak to get movement speed in lanes.

This item works great to keep lanes pushed.
Move around the map and can be used as a portable wall.
U can use this item to stun people with your Q.

Introduction
In this Chapter I'm going to explain all the bits on how to escape and evade.

Bard is a real escape artist!
With his kit and itemization provided in this build he has all the tools to escape the most tricky situations.

Shrines
Shrines play a big part in staying healthy and to escape your chasers.

In lane it is important to layout an escape path towards your tower.
If an enemy tries go in for the kill try to "meep AA" slow and/or or Q stun them.
then run toward your tower over your created path.

When heading for the tower it is important to notice when your save.
this way it isn't necessary to use the remaining shrines. ( This saves you mana for a new route)

When to self heal/speed up
The heal animation stops your movement this will gives the chaser chance to catch up.
If you've managed to stun your chaser with your Q your save to use heal (W).

Junglers into lane!
Another useful tool for shrines is to use them as wards.
Place them at the entrance of bush. This trick serves multiple uses
1) You will see if an enemy has moved into the bush if its gone.
2) If some team member tries to gank he will get a speed up.
3) Depending on the position, it can be used in combination with your portal.


Portal
Portals are like a Swiss-knife.
For escaping they are pretty good though enemies will follow you 9/10 times.

In order to create the best escape tunnels one has to think ahead.
You will combine your W(shrine) + the portal to make a great escape.



In this image i have tried to portray how this works.

- The green dots are your shrines.
- The orange lines are the portals + direction to travel in.

So when you create the portal to escape, you travel toward the shrine.
Upon leaving the portal you will get healed and get a movement speed boost.
Any one following can be Q trapped against the wall or just run for your life.


Portal jukes
Getting chased by a group is always annoying.
A lot of times they manage to catch up on you and slow/stun and gang-rape your poor champion.
One way to escape these brutal actions is by using a portal juke.

When being chased try to go near a bush with a long wall.
While in the fog of war make a portal through the long wall, then run,flash to another location. if you did it right most people will just blindly rush through the portal.
voila, you've redirected an entire group.



To illustrate this trick

- Orange lines are the portals to create. ( DON'T ENTER THESE PORTALS )
- Red are ways to escape. 2 and 3 are places to flash toward.
If you've got a bit of a head start, you might want to save flash and just run.

Now you can use this one with all the walls, just make sure they don't see you.
you won't always succeed but it can save your life!


Tower dive escape
So you're being tower dived by multiple champions with your back against the wall?
Well its still possible to escape if flash is up!
most times even flash can't save your ***. But bard can escape!

As soon as they try to dive flash forward toward the wall. Then portal your way through it.
someone follows? Q stun them!



To illustrate this escape.

1) Your position.
2) Flash towards the wall.
3) Portal through the wall.
4) If you placed a "ward shrine" you can get a boost.

Try to portal through as quick as possible.




(to be continued)

Introduction
This chapter focuses on how to trap enemies.
Note that most of these tricks are most useful with team coordination.
There are also some fun tricks which you can use against certain champions.
I will talk about some of these as well.


General trapping

Double Zhonya's:
Say a team mate uses Zhonya's and is being camped.
You should throw yours over the group.

This will Zhonya every champion except for the one who is already affected by Zhonya's
This way you create time for your team mate to escape or to setup for an engage.


Champion specific lures
As stated there are certain tricks you can use on specific champions.
Most of these involve your tunnel and ultimate.

Maokai:
This one is hard to pull of but can be a fun trap.
If he uses his ( W, Twisted advance ) Go into your portal before he roots you.
This will make him follow you through the portal.
Your team waiting on the other side can collect some nice firewood for cold days.

Fiora:
Same with as Maokai, Fiora has 2 abilities which can be baited.
1 The dash. As she goes into dash enter the portal.
2 Her ultimate, this one is trick as she will damage you inside the tunnel.
also if you go in to quick she might start ult onto your buddy's on the other end.




(To be continued)