Hello, this is my very first build on Mobafire. I was reading some builds here, but it was only for personal use. When I made whole idea to get one of hardest support on top lane, I was thinking about some guide for more people to enjoy. Now I got about 120k mastery points, and I am pretty sure that I still suck on top lane, but with every game I am feeling Bard even better. At start that champ was very hard. I didn't know how to use Q, place W, make E and throw R. When I was about 50k points, I noticed that more than 60% of Q are accurate! If you already think that "I will never learn how to Q or R." don't worry. Sooner or later you will start to "feel" that. Time of casting, time of flying, time of hit. Just give it about 40-50 games and I am sure that you will get it! Remember that this guide is not a joke. I am sure that good Bard player can carry a game!

Bard is a best example of early defend guy, but still he can't easily carry a game. He is a champion that can go Support or Top in rare cases. I think that he is a very fun champion, if you know how to take a good position while defending. It's hard to become a "Challenger" Bard, but with every game on top or bottom lane you will learn how to be a better hero of top lane.

This champion is defined as a roaming utility support, but that doesn't mean that you need to stuck on bottom lane with your ADC. His AP ratios (Passive, Q, W) are really low, so I don't even think about building Bard as a 100% mage, because he would be squishy with two medium AP damage outputs. For this patch I think that building him as "Basic dmg tank" is best option. His basic skill stats are pretty good, so I picked to focus on flat and % penetration. You should take def masteries to get tanky, so you can poke safely in the early game and become an unkillable healer in late game.

PROS + Stays in lane forever + Game breaking ultimate + Best late game mage + Can poke + High skill cap + Enemy can't gank you

CONS - Two damage skills - Difficult to master - Hard to land skills - You need to be map aware - Nobody focus you - Needs a lot of bells

Flash is a basic on top lane. You can use any skill with flash to get a better range. I can't imagine Top Bard without this spell.

Teleport gives You map control and fast comebacks. This spell will allow you to gank lanes with teleport+R or teleport+Q, so You can be anywhere you're needed.

I think that flash+Q+ignite is best combo, so I am taking it often. It helps You with enemies like Vladimir and much more.

Well, this spell is good when you are ganking or defending against high burst champion (LB, Zed, Riven), but you can pick it if you can sense that enemy mid laner / ADC will make problem in late.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: This helps You with early damage. Enemy ADC will have low magic resistance, so in Late game Bard will deal massive damage to them.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: I think that scaling with level is great on top. You will face more AD than AP there. You are poking enemies, so they won't focus all skills on you.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: You need armor. It will help you with minions and with enemy poke (autoattack and some AD skills).
  
• Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration: Even more damage versus ADC. You will eat ADC without m.res! This is somewhat idiotic idea, but trust me - it works!

> > >

At first level we need to take Caretaker's Shrine to help our jungler with three shrines. At 2 level we are starting to max Cosmic Binding because it is our main damage source. Then Caretaker's Shrine allows you to lane forever. We level up Magical Journey last as the first level is good enough to make ganks or escape from enemy ganks and you don't have to upgrade it.

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MEEPS: Bard's presence attracts small spirits known as meeps to his side. Whenever Bard attacks, one of his meeps throws itself at his target, dealing 30 - 465 ( + 20 per 5 chimes collected after 150) (+ 30% AP) bonus magic damage before disappearing back to the spirit world. At 5 Chimes, meeps slow damaged enemies by 25 / 45 / 60 / 70 / 75% / 80% for 1 second, and at 25 Chimes they deal area of effect damage in a cone behind the main target, with the cone's size increasing at 65 chimes. Meeps spawn every 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds and Bard can hold up to 1 / 2 / 3 / 4.

CHIMES: Bard's presence causes sacred chimes to appear at a random location on the field, which linger for up to 10 minutes. Collecting a chime grants Bard a brief burst of movement speed out of combat for 7 seconds (stacking up to 5 times), 20 + (1 per minute after 5 minutes) experience, and restores 12% of Bard's maximum mana. Every 5 chimes Bard collects empower his Meeps.

• Save close chimes to get mana if low.
• You can use speed boost from chimes to run away from ganks.
• You can use speed boost chimes to gank middle lane.
• Focus on collecting chimes when lane is pushed.

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Cosmic Binding:Bard fires out a 1500-speed burst of spirit energy in a line, dealing magic damage and briefly slowing the first enemy struck by 60%.

After Cosmic Binding hits an enemy, the burst of energy continues through a 450-range, searching for secondary targets. If it hits a wall or a second enemy, it stun the affected units, dealing magic damage to the second unit as well.

• You can use stun to deny enemy farm.
• Try to always stay close to walls, You will land stuns easily.
• You can stun enemies to Anivia or Trundle wall or even enemy towers.
• The stun is still applied even if the first or second target dies to the ability itself or before the projectile can bind them.

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Caretaker's Shrine:Bard conjures a health shrine at the target location that builds up in power over 10 seconds. Bard can have up to 3 shrines active at once, which remain until visited by an ally or crushed by an enemy.

Allied champions who step over the shrine will consume it, healing for an amount based on the shrine's power and gaining 50% bonus movement speed which decays over 1.5 seconds. Enemy champions who step on the shrines will destroy it.

• Help jungler by placing early shrines in jungle.
• You can cast a fourth shrine if you cast it directly on yourself/ally.
• Always get one shrine under your turret + 2 in mid of lane.

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Magical Journey: Bard opens a one-way magical corridor through the first piece of terrain in front of him through to the other side.

Both allies and enemies can use the corridor by right-clicking on the corridor or its exit, with allies receiving bonus travel speed. Magical Journey will not cast unless it will open a corridor.

• When enemies use your portal, you can stun them easily.
• You can bait enemies with this spell.
• You can easily escape from enemy ganks.

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Tempered Fate: Bard sends magical energy arcing to a target location. On impact, all units — allied, enemy and neutral — in the target 350-radius area are put in Stasis icon stasis for 2.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and invulnerable but also unable to perform any action.
Epic monsters and turrets (excluding Dominion turrets and the Nexus Obelisk) are also put in Stasis icon stasis, despite normally being immune to disabling abilities.

• You can use it only on working enemy turrets!
• You can cast Cosmic Binding directly after your ultimate ends.
• You can use it on enemy tower to dive.
• You can use it to defend from after-damage like Vladimir or Zed ultimate.

This will be a large one!

First of all, check their team comp to have a "start idea - what to build".
Before game start remember to check runes and masteries. When you are in loading screen think about things like :

[*] Which role I should play on top?
[*] Which champion should I focus?
[*] Which item should I start?
[*] I have to defend and call for ganks, or maybe push and roam to help other lanes?
[*] How my build is supposed to look?

Bard can build a lot of different items and still be good enough to carry a game.
Remember to look at enemies build! If you see that they are not building magic resist, just grab a mask and abyssal to deal crazy damage, if You got an enemy that got sick heal and lot of resist, just forget about him and build sustain or check mid laner. You don't need to get a kill in lane, you just have to fed team, so they will kill your laner.

If you face close AA enemy (like Wukong, Olaf, Aatrox, Yi), go Tabi and then Sunfire. He need to be close to deal any damage, so If he gets closer he will get Sunfire damage and your whole combo!

If you face AD Caster (like Pantheon, Zed, Jayce), go Tabi and then Gauntlet with some HP. They can poke you from distance, so you will need some CDR and mana to heal and farm. CDR is also good for ganks (Q,E,R)!

When I get some time I will add more things about items.

What is mana efficiency? It's not a popular term used by the LoL lower community... It means that Bard need to know how to use mana at much efficent as possible, without wasting mana. Short example! If your champion is level 6, and you use Q which at this level does 150 damage, stun enemy, autoattack him and costs 90 mana - it will be mana efficient. If instead, you use Q to slow and will not poke - that will be mana inefficient. Why? Because for same mana, you would have done 100 more damage. I know that you would need to use it for escape, but if you spam it all time for some slows your mana won't be able to sustain it, you'll end up running out of mana before your enemy runs out of HP.

Everyone knows Bard mana costs, so we can already tell about something that is called "Mana effectivness". His mana is pretty tricky, because we can replenish it quickly (12% of missing mana!), but if we don't have any chimes near us, we are even more useless on top lane. No heal, no stun, no escape.

On first level, if we place three heals, we are missing about 270 mana, while we are starting with 350! First three chimes will restore it, but later we need to watch our mana carefully.

When our chimes spawns near our place, don't take them unless you are running away or out of mana. They may save your life often! Sometimes even few times in a single game.

If we want to unleash bard combo we need at least 280 mana!

Everyone asks me "What is better? More mana or more regen?".
For me, more mana is better. Why? Because Bard passive is regaining 12% of missing mana.
More mana means that we can spam more, and Bard passive will regen more of it.
With our later mana regen we don't need to rely on any additional mana regen.
Bard need to check his mana until 20 minute.

Remember that chimes appear on the map every 50 seconds. Collecting this bells rewards You a mana regen, 20 xp and a stackable movement speed buff. Remember also that chimes will despawn after 10 minutes, they will turn red on the minimap if they are close to despawning.

Every 5th chime Your meeps will gain new abilities.


5 Chimes: Meeps apply a 25% slow for 1 second
10 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 55 damage
15 Chimes: Now 2 meeps are following You
20 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 80 damage
25 Chimes: Meep attacks will strike through their target
30 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 110 damage
35 Chimes: Meeps will reappear every 9 second
40 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 140 damage
45 Chimes: Meep attacks will slow by 45%
50 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 175 damage
55 Chimes: Now 3 meeps are following You
60 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 210 damage
65 Chimes: Meep attack strike-through cone increases in size
70 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 245 damage
75 Chimes: Meeps will reappear every 8 second
80 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 280 damage
85 Chimes: Meep attacks will slow by 60%
90 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 315 damage
95 Chimes: Now 4 meeps are following You
100 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 345 damage
105 Chimes: Meeps will reappear every 7 second
110 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 375 damage
115 Chimes: Meep attacks will slow by 70%
120 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 400 damage
125 Chimes: Meeps will reappear every 6 second
130 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 425 damage
135 Chimes: Meep attacks will slow by 75%
140 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 445 damage
145 Chimes: Meep attacks will slow by 80%
150 Chimes: Meep attacks deal 465 damage
( Every 5 chimes after 150 adds 20 damage )

• You can make more easy gank when You collect 5 chimes (slow).
• At 80 chimes Your meeps will deal more damage than Cosmic Binding.
• At 125 chimes You will be able to use Meep-Q combo every 4 second.
• At 95 chimes four Meeps can deal 1260 magic damage.
• At 145 chimes Your slow is maxed.
• Spell shield blocks only one meep.

You can pick Bard only when some requirements are met.

Your jungler need to be a warrior or assasin.
Your mid is AP and jungle is AD.
Your mid is AD and jungle is AP.
Your jungler need to gank top lane early.

Remember that enemy top laner cannot be Vladimir, Swain, Yorick or Fiddlesticks. You got very small chances to win against them. They got too high sustain!

But remember, there are always some good things that You are doing by picking Bard on top lane.

Your ADC is protected by support and top lane hero.
You can "turn off" enemy with most kills.
You can heal your allies.
Nobody expects Bard on top, so Your team can counter their bottom lane.

This is VERY IMPORTANT thing! You need to know all points before You can face ANY ENEMY on top!

1. Train how to last hit creeps on custom match.
2. Learn how to control creeps.
3. You need to poke enemies with Your Meeps!
4. Stay close to river walls!
-You can make a portal and run away from enemy gank.
-You can stun enemy if he rushes into you.
5. Train ultimate precision on custom!
6. Communicate with your jungler!
7. Make good gank situations.
8. Rush at enemy ONLY if he is ~20% HP and You are ~60% HP.
9. Count enemy cooldowns!
10. Fight hard when Your creeps>enemy creeps

Bard on top need to defend lane! Before You rush at enemies You need to check current status of lane, because You don't have enough damage to kill 50% enemy HP. You have to poke your enenemies with your basic attacks in Your farm. Don't forget to place at least one healing shrine to get some movement speed in case of enemy gank! If enemy is defending, You should start roaming in order to help jungler or mid lane. It is always nice to help other lanes! You can help Your jungler if enemy is far behind You.
Time to get tanky! You need to start to roam even more. Remember to use Your trinket: try to help mid and bot lane with some wards. You should concentrate on collecting chimes when roaming. It will help You to reach lanes and gank with more speed. In this game You need to prepare Your Bard for the team fights!
Great time of teamfights! Your Meeps should make a insane splash damage now. Remember to protect entire team! Use your ultimate when enemies are trying to run away or when You are trying to catch them. Place all shrines next to the teamfight: two on rear and one on back, and when an ally needs speed, put the fourth shrine on him. Remember to ward dragon and baron. If they try to get it, You can slow them with ultimate.

You got any good suggestions or questions?
Add me on EUNE - Dorokai
I can always help and explain anything about Bard!

Later.

PS: Give me some votes to make me happy.
Happy me = more things about Bard!