Bard Theorycrafting

[quote=NicknameMy]So, [[bard]] is out, time to theorycraft about that complex champion. What do you think is gonna be best on him? As far as I understand him, [[bard]] should roam all the time possible. The longer Bard stays in the lane the more time he wastes. Just place your health shrines once in a while behind your ADC and for the rest of the game roam. The best support item for this is definitly [[Spellthief's Edge]], if you are not in the lane, both other support items don't help you at all. Then, rush your [[boots of mobility]] and [[sightstone]]. Next, you should focus on items that give more movement speed and AP. Everything that builds out of [[aether wisp]] is great for bard as this helps him roaming and applying his meeps. It also increases his rather pitfull damage. Of course, buy more tanky if you need. So, what are your thoughts about him?[/quote]

[quote=BarbJ]I want to play him top lane. It will be bad, but I want it. Plan to build his support like I do for most: Sightstone, Mobility Boots, Crucible, Locket. Nothing special in the build, will just take time for everyone to learn how to play with him.[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard]Yea....not sure what other people do, but I actually didn't roam thaaaaaaaaaaat much. In the game I played I mostly used the chimes to give me the mobility needed to keep proper vision around bot lane and dragon (not that that mattered much since my allies were terrible). I haven't played him against anything besides another (utterly terrible) [[Bard]] so can't say that much about his laning, but from what I can tell he doesn't do shit for damage and that will probably be an issue.[/quote]

[quote=Jovy]You definitely should roam, and not just with Bard, but in general. I personally find his laning to be really weak. He's squishy and I don't think you'd be able to take full advantage of his ult in bot lane against 2 people when you don't really do much damage anyway. But when ganking with your ult, yum. Nets kills so easily. Pre 6 or without ult I find his roaming to be pretty meh, but correct me if I'm wrong since I've only seen a handful of Bards and I haven't even played him yet (not taking the 7800 IP bait). His stun is relatively low range/easyish to dodge and he's pretty squishy. It's cool to duo gank though with your jungle, use the wonderful journey thing behind the enemy to flank them with your jungler.[/quote]

[quote=XeresAce]Saying he "should" roam is an understatement. He HAS to roam, otherwise he just get destroyed. Sona, zyra, thresh, nami, lulu all completely shit on him in lane to the point where he has to help other lanes to remain relevant :/ Also, IMO nomads is better for roaming since it provides the same gp/5 and some additional movement speed. I think ap is sort of a waste on bard lest you're miles ahead. If you buy ap you increase his rather pitiful damage to... slightly less pitiful damage? It's better to just go tanky and get into position for your stun more easily. Haven't played him though, and only played against him 2-3 times so idk if what I'm saying is very credible or not.[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard]Yea, I agree that post-six roaming is worth (that's when I started roaming), but before that I didn't really see a lot of point in it. Yea, you don't do that much in lane, but you have a decent level of sustain and your tools for roaming aren't exactly great pre-six. I've only played [[Bard]] against another [[Bard]] though and that guy was so terrible it didn't matter what I did and we won our lane pretty hard. He sort of tried to roam after dying like four times, but [[Ashe]] and I followed him and killed him basically every time he left the lane soooo yea. Also no one seems to know how to build him right now, so there's that. I feel pretty standard support items are in order, but people have other ideas, it seems. I got [[Ancient Coin]] on him and I think getting any amount of AP is largely pointless, but I can see why [[spellthief's edge]] would be better (I harassed with my autos quite a bit). Kinda like [[Janna]], it's not about the damage increase, it's just that [[ancient coin]] kinda sucks so why get it. I'm not sure I'd bother with [[Frost Queen's Claim]], I'd probably just sell the eventual [[Frostfang]] for [[Talisman of Ascension]] later.[/quote]

[quote=NicknameMy]Another thing to note, chimes give you exp, so you can get the exp you need just by roaming. Staying in lane would just deny your team exp. I would say, [[bard]] works strongest if your team utilizes a laneswap.[/quote]

[quote=XeresAce]I must be the only one who likes coin xD Dunno why but I tend to have a better laning phase every time I use coin on stuff like Janna or Soraka and the gold gain difference is basically nonexistent. On this guy I just figured it'd be good since he just gets decimated by everything during the time he's forced to stay in lane, therefore making the sustain useful due to his lack of mana to sustain himself via shrines. That and I figure actually using spellthiefs edge would be problematic since if he goes in to poke with autos, he's likely going to get poked back much much harder (ebb and flow, glitterlance, hymn of valor heck even a flay auto all do so much more). I'd rather stay back, chill, lay down a shrine or two while I go collect chimes and try and disengage if my enemies try something funky. It's just not the same as with janna or soraka which can also be oppressive laners, this guy just cant do crap in lane 8l[/quote]

[quote=Jovy][quote=XeresAce]I use coin on stuff like Janna or Soraka[/quote]Yuck, get out.[/quote]

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