PROS + Great double CC + Scales decently even if behind in gold + Game winning ultimate + Great at impacting the entire map health/mana sustain As you might know, more CC more GG. Bard's entire kit is built around roaming. It allows him to gank mid in ways that other ADC's will only ever dream of. With your E, you can even take your support (For example, Nautilus) with you and surprise the enemy Yasuo with a hail of CC he will never forget. In lane pair your CC with your support's CC or vice versa. It is important to keep these things in mind as Bard effectively lacks in all other areas. You win the game by snowballing everyone with you, you don't play these roles as a normal ADC/Top laner which just sits still and farm. Roaming. Ganking. CC'ing. Burst'ing. are all things Bard excell in

CONS - Bad wave clear until Tiamat - Very macro dependent - Game losing ultimate - Horrible extended fights early The biggest problem with adc is that he has bad AP and AD scalings, we counteract this with bruiser and on-hit items as they're much more gold effective. One of the hardest parts about playing Bard in these roles is to keep up your farm while simultaneously ganking and collecting chimes. This means that he is a very macro heavy and skill expressive champ to play well. So don't discourage yourself too much when you lose, Bard is a hard champ! Don't forget to tilt the enemy midlaner as much as you can! One quick top, don't rush the chimes in the unwarded enemy jungle the very moment they spawn, they last up to 10 minutes. Take your chime time and don't die needlessly. :=)

KEYSTONE Hail of Blades: is the recommended keystone for Bard nearly every single time. It is incredible during laning phase and allows you to do great trades early. The keystone also gives him extreme amounts of burst in the mid/late-game too! Meeps are powerful, who knew? KEYSTONE Conqueror: is the rune you should pick whenever you're against tanky/sustain comps which makes your HoB useless as you can't just HoB burst them to death. The reason Conqueror works on Bard is because his meeps allows him to proc Conqueror twice every single auto. His Q also gives Bard two procs. This rune is great as it gives you more sustain and even more AD after your initial engage which is great as it allows Bard to stay relevant even after his meeps are gone. KEYSTONE Grasp of the Undying: is nice as it gives you extra harass and sustain during laning phase, as well as little bit of extra health. This is the rune I'd recommend mainly for top lane if you need to do quick and easy trades without being able to auto attack the enemy three times in a row. IMPORTANT Ravenous Hunter: The rune pages that I have chosen for this guide have an emphasis on life steal and omnivamp as sustain is great combined with bruiser items. If you feel that you do not need the sustain as much, feel free to choose other runes which fits your playstyle more. Bard is afterall all about catering to your own playstyle. That's why this guide exists.

Kraken Slayer This item is incredible for Bard. It gives him a great on-hit item which scales with your AD. The main reason we take this item is due to one of it's passives giving us 10% attack speed for each legendary item. You can choose to opt for tankier items, however as an ADC it is your job to deal as much damage as possible and nothing else. It's not your job to protect yourself.

Trinity Force Trinity Force is the alternative I'd choose whenever I'm in any other role aside from ADC. Bard uses the Sheen passive pretty well and he gets lots of AH from the item which improves his utility. You can definitely choose to go this item instead of Locket if you need the extra edge, even with Guardian build. I do NOT recommend this item if you're going ADC as it has less damage output compared to Kraken Slayer.

Tiamat Tiamat is an item you should love on laning Bard. It improves his waveclear to insane levels and makes him an actually playable laner. I will nearly always recommend this item and if you're not building it, you're at a disadvantage. If you're going crit build it can be better to go Noonquiver but I'd only recommend it if your support has enough braincells to help you shove the wave. The faster you can clear the wave and push it under the enemy tower, the earlier you can roam to other lanes, getting both of you ahead.

Noonquiver This is the item that you preferably can buy the very first time you back as an ADC. Otherwise, build the items which lead up to it. It allows you to much easier last hit minions as well as giving you more AD and attack speed. Easier time last hitting also means, more gold in the end! As noted with Tiamat, the more waveclear you have, the faster you can push in the wave the moment the enemy disappears and gank mid, which is great because they're going to tilt and play much worse. Just don't give him a double kill because you're diving their tower.

Berserker's Greaves I want to dedicate this section to the boots Berserker's Greaves. This is because of how important it is to not build other boots. 35% attack speed is something you cannot just throw away, especially as an ADC. Please don't build other boots if you intend to deal damage. (Even if you're going top with Trinity Force just go Berserker's Greaves it's too good to give up). If you're really behind, Ionian Boots of Lucidity may be an alternative.

On-hit Build Building on-hit is the best archtype if you need damage There's different variations of it, the first build is mainly built around increasing single target damage, while the other build is more focused on becoming an AoE teamfighting monster. You may ask, "Why not just build crit?" well that's because crit on Bard straight up sucks. Your AA range is way too short and you'll instantly explode the moment youre trying to kill someone with your short range.

Bruiser build When you're going Trinity Force, you're going bruiser! Bruiser is another archetype for Bard which you can build, however it's not recommended for ADC Bard. You are not building Noonquiver, so you can just immediately rush Tiamat and then start building Trinity Force. While you deal less damage overall, you are much more chunky and have a lot more survivability. I recommend this build whenever you're autofilled in another lane and still want to play Bard. This build is also in general easier to itemize as you don't have to solely focus on primarily dealing damage and rather focus on peeling for your teammates. It's also easier to itemize as it doesn't have as many items which synergize with each other. (See Runaan's Hurricane builds)

Itemizing with Bard can be either incredibly frustrating or plain fun. Bard can build lots of different items depending on the occasion. In this section I'll talk about which items you should replace depending on the situation. You've most likely already seen the "Item Bible" and wondered why there's so many different items there or more importantly, when you're supposed to build those items.

To begin with, as a general guide, we're going to take a look at the two different main archetypes. All of these builds have a different amount of core items that differentiates between them. The items below the certain build are items I do not recommend switching, hence they are "Core" items.

On-hit monster Kraken Slayer, Tiamat, + With On-Hit items

Chad Bruiser Bard Trinity Force, Tiamat + Any bruiser items

Now you can see how many items you actually can switch around by comparing the core items to the example builds.
We can begin by introducing our Anti-Heal items.
These items are Chempunk Chainsword and Thornmail. To give an example of which items you should choose; Thornmail is the alternative you choose if you're going for example Titanic Hydra as you benefit from the extra HP. Chempunk Chainsword is the alternative you choose when you're an ADC. All build examples have replacement examples! Read the notes as they're the most up-to-date!

Ok, I think that you get the general gist of itemizing so I am going to stop writing. Have this MS Paint masterwork instead; it will "explain" everything super quickly directly into your brain. The arrows show which items are preferred with other items. So if you've built one item, the next item you can build is whatever the arrows point at, with a few exceptions of course.

Every build example notes has replacement recommendations if you're still a little bit confused. Just don't forget that specific items work better with other specific items in similar categories. Because this guide has so many different items, explaining all of them is something that I'd expect a very select few on Mobafire would read.

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///Passive

Passive: Traveler's Call Bard's passive is what allows him to scale even when behind in gold. Two chimes spawn every 50 seconds and they last up to 10 minutes until they despawn, so don't feel pressured to immediately collect them! Every 5th chime that you collect, your passive gets better. If you want to know exactly what improves at a specific amount of chimes, check out the wiki.		Bard's passive is intended to work in a way which rewards him when he's roaming, by giving you stacking movement speed, a little bit of XP, 12% of maximum mana and of course scaling your passive. Bard's passive allows him to have great mana sustain during laning phase. When you're already maximum mana and you're about to pick up a chime, plop down a shrine [W] so you're not wasting any of it. Early game, a chime is nearly equal to a shrine. A lot of people think that there's specific numbers that you should aim for, which I am going to say there isn't. Collecting chimes should never be a primary objective and rather something that you do when you're for example; Pathing to your lane, Pathing to mid, Roaming with your jungler. It's something that should happen passively. As said before, they last for an entire 10 minutes. Combining your tunnels [E] and collecting chimes at the time while pathing to mid can make you move insanely quick which allows you to overwhelm the enemy midlaner with a sudden 3v1 or even a 4v1 if you're roaming with your jungle. In the areas that Bard lacks in as an ADC, it is important to fill those areas in by doing the things he's incredible at, which is roaming. While the enemy Caitlyn takes forever to go mid, you can go to mid and back without losing anything with proper wave management.

>>		At 5 chimes, Bard's meeps slow, at 15 chimes they gain AoE damage. At 35 the AoE cone increases even further!
>>		While Bard's chimes only slow by 25% in the beginning, at 85 chimes they slow by 85%!
>>		Sometimes it can be better to leave chimes alone for further use... Be experimental with them!

///Q Ability

Q: Cosmic Binding Your Q allows you to slow and stun someone. However, unlike other stuns, Bard's Q works a little bit different. After you've hit someone with it, there needs to be someone else or terrain behind it to stun. This is the ability that you level up first.

Bard's Q ability can be one of the more trickier abilities to learn due to how it interacts with with terrain. The terrain in League of Legends isn't entirely smooth as it may seem and has lots of corners. This allows you to stun people with your Q in ways which seem entirely ********. Corners on the map are the best places to see how big the terrain hitbox really is. • If you use your tunnel [E] and an enemy decides to follow through, try to time your Q projectile to hit the enemy just as they get out of it. You can use this trick to stun greedy people under your tower! • Albeit risky, you can use your Q to check if someone is for example hiding in a bush. No matter the vision you will still hear the sound of your Q hitting something. >> Gives you the ability to stun two people at the same time. >> Fast short* ranged projectile. >> Great for poking mis-positioned enemies >> Great escape tool paired with your E.

///W Ability

W: Caretaker's Shrine This is your W. Your W allows you to heal others and yourself. Your shrine heal with grow stronger the more your leave it alone until it finally reaches a maximum value, which is signified by a sound and the shrine changing. You can have a max of 3. You can still heal someone directly with your W without losing a shrine if it's directly applied to another ally champion.

When you use your W the shrine will give a little bit of vision that disappears after a second or two. This could be helpful in a few cases but it's barely worth it most times. • One important thing to remember is that spamming your W is most likely going to be your downfall when it is to your mana management. So always try to let your shrines charge up! Unless your ally is in dire need, of course. • In matchups with lots of poke I can recommend putting two points in your W lvl 4 to keep each other healthy. It is however important to note that your healing falls off later. >> A way to sustain yourself and your allies. >> Keep them secure so enemies can't walk over them. >> Your biggest mana-drain if not managed properly. >> Gives out very little bit of vision, don't use it to check bushes, unreliable.

///E Ability

E: Magical Journey Your E is an incredibly versatile ability. It's an escape tool, it's a mobility tool, it's a trap tool. Learning the many different kinds of tunnels is life saving. During laning phase, if you're precise, you can tunnel from the bottom middle part of the lane, all the way to your turret!

While using your E might seem easy at first, making certain specific and important tunnels can be hard. I will not show any specific tunnels here in this guide, so my main recommendation is going on your search browser and searching those things up online. • Ping your E ability to let your allies know that your ability to tunnel exists, so you can gank the enemy right behind them not just yourself, but with a friend, or two, or three. • Just because you used your E, does not mean you have to go through it! Bait enemies chasing you by placing a tunnel, going towards it, but not actually entering it. This can take a bit of time to properly master. >> You are faster than the enemy by 33% while going through your tunnels. >> You can make super short tunnels to have fun with. >> Your E range is very long, Keep this in mind when you want your ally to use it. >> Be mindful where your Magical Journey ends!

///R Ultimate

R: Tempered Fate This is your ultimate, Tempered Fate. Easy to learn, Hard to master. Your ultimate puts everyone inside it, including wards, monsters, minions, towers, into stasis for an entire 2.5 seconds! This ultimate can turn entire teamfights in your favour but it can also give the enemy the advantage if used incorrectly.

Bard's ultimate is in my opinion the best ability in the game, in terms of fun. You can do so many different things with this extremely versatile ability. (See a theme for Bard here?) If you want to learn how to use this ability, the biggest tip that I can give you is that you should always use it. If you wait a few seconds deciding if it's worth spending your ultimate, the time window is most likely already over. It is also important to note that you can use your ultimate as a zoning tool, you do not have to actually hit the ultimate for it to be useful. • Use your ultimate to save your teammates which are about to be killed or for example dived by the enemy. • Use your ultimate when you're diving someone else to shut off their tower completely. Even the enemy will instinctively avoid your ultimate, even if it would save them. • Use your ultimate to save your teammate from dying from for example Ignite, Teemo's mushrooms, Brand's burn, etcetera. • During teamfights, use your ultimate to engage the enemy by hitting as many people as possible. By doing this you're allowing everyone in your team to set up their skillshots. • A good combo to know is, Q + Ultimate + Q, This will CC the enemy for 6.1 seconds total! >> Travel time is longer the further the target is. >> Versatile, can win and lose games. >> Takes a long while to know when to and when not to use the ultimate. >> Can put wards into stasis! Could be useful when trying to steal objectives.

LANING PHASE

Collect Chimes & Gank Mid ✦ Even when Bard is in a match-up that he loses he can still be of significant use, so don't give up! Whenever there's downtime in your lane, try to gank mid with your jungle and/or support to completely overwhelm the enemy midlaner. Bard ADC succeeds because he doesn't have to just sit in lane for the entire game and can very quickly reposition himself. Always look at the map! ✦ During laning phase, always look for opportunities. Play safe and try to continously poke the enemy using your Q. An important thing to know is that you Q range is nearly doubled if it hits something at max range, use this trick to poke them when they try to hide behind minions. ✦ Play safe, don't try to play an hyper-aggressive playstyle with him. More often than not, you'll notice that you dealt a high amount of damage due to your HoB and your passive. This means that you'll sometimes try to continue dealing damage but noticing that without any items, Bard barely deals any damage. Please just remember that you lose extended teamfights with nearly all enemy ADCs. You want to do short and quick trades while playing around your runes and passive.

AFTER LANING

Bard, The Care Carrytaker ✦ Once laning phase is over, it is finally the time Bard shines. By now you should have Kraken Slayer and Tiamat which means you can farm very effectively. Collect chimes while roaming around the map and as before, always look for opportunities. Bard can transfer a whole team to an unknowing enemy laner with his E directly under their tower. ✦ Remember that the enemy will nearly always underestimate your burst. No one actually expects someone to play Bard ADC which means they'll very rarely expect it. No one is used to playing against this kind of play style, so always remember to use the enemy's lack of knowledge against them. Never forget that if you don't know what you're doing, how can the enemy know? ✦ The most important thing to remember is that even if it went bad for you in lane, you can still win important teamfights. Your ultimate freezes anyone inside it which allows everyone in your team to set up their skillshots so the enemy has no time to react. Get your assists, collect your waves and most importantly Q + HoB burst the enemy ADC and support everytime you see them for free kills.

Q: Do I really need to rush Tiamat?

A: Yes. You need to rush Tiamat otherwise you will have super ****ty waveclear which means you will rarely be able to find time to roam...

Q: Should I play this in ranked?

A: Are you support going trinity? Yes! Otherwise no, I do not recommend this in ranked.

My name's AngryAngrier and this is my first guide on Mobafire. Congratulations to coming this far down into the guide!

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If you have something special you want me to add, or have questions regarding the build or even better item optimization then feel free to comment and I'll try to check on them and reply if needed.

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I want to keep this part to all the people that helped me create this guide in many different ways.
Thanks to Katasandra for code and early feedback!
Thanks to PsiGuard for the review and inspiring me to make this in-depth, albeit most likely not intended to do so. :=)
Thanks to all the guides which helped significantly when it is to guide making, especially jhoijhoi's guide.

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As a last note I'd like to finish this guide off by giving thanks to a player named Izzy for trying this build out after hearing about this and due to his success I wanted to make this guide.