Hello my name is Notbardo and im currently playing on EUW. I got some coaching in bard from a challenger and a diamond a week ago and thought i wanted to write down the build and tips.

About me:

I've been playing bard only since i began the game and i have only played other champs a little in the pre season 7. I landed gold V season 6 playing only bard and no others champs.

I currently have 153K champion points on him.

What to learn:

Most of you are gonna learn the build pattern of bard, but for the people reading the whole guide, i will put some effort into explaining some important mistakes i see on Bard quite often.

Pros

-Super fun
-Very strong utility
-Great roaming
-Good all game
-Decent skill cap/ high potential
-Versatile and doesn't have many big counters
-Best troll champ

Cons

-Hard to master
-Not the best for solo q
-Very hard to play when behind
-Needs followup for everything
-Squishy
-Derp
-Easy to punish

Why the runes that i have?

8x Attack speed marks
Great for trading and makes you throw meeps faster for better burst.

1x Crit rune mark
The chance is low but devastating if it does crit.

9x Amor seals
Quite standard for trading better in lane, and take less damage.

9x Magic resist glyphs
Many champs like Thresh have magic damage on some spells that are pretty important to prepare for.

Other options

2x Movementspeed quints
Better roaming is important for the mid game.

1x Amor quint
Better survival

Im not gonna go into depth on this one, but shortly you won't go down ferocity and you want to have thunder lords.

Some might ask me why not more dmg? And why not merciless? Well because bard is not a carry, he is a support. Sustain is better on him.

THE ARMY OF MEEPS! (Traveler's call)

This spell is amazing, it makes you get around faster, gives you mana and makes you a better support late game. DON'T LEAVE YOUR ADC FOR CHIMES!

Powerfull chord (Cosmic binding)

The main spell for bard, and is a strong one.
First hit slows the enemy by 60% and deals magic dmg. After Cosmic Binding hits an enemy, the burst of energy passes through them and searches for secondary targets. If it hits a wall or a second enemy, it stuns both targets.

Wan't Cacao? (Caretaker's shrine)

This spell will help you sustain in lane, and make it hard for the enemy to kill you when behind tower. Make use of this spell by placing a couple of heals behind you in lane, so that you can out run the jungle if he comes. It is also a great tool for leaving lane since your carry won't lose much hp with them by his side.

Weed rush (Magical journey)

Great utility spell and it is mainly used to gank/roam. Also a great baiting tool! Btw practise using it from base to lane.

Stop! Hammertime! (Tempered fate)

Puts everyone in a stasis like an AOE zhonya spell. Very strong for teamfighting, but can also be used against yourself. This spell is only utility and can hit allies aswell, this spell is risky since the enemy can use it for their own good at times. Good spell for catching people off guard, and good for trolling also xD.

Exhaust vs Ignite

Ignite: Bards lvl 1-2 is great! so ignites synergy with his kit is insane. You can use this for early kills and denying the enemy's heal if you time it.

Exhaust: Exhaust is okay early game, but most of the time it won't lead to a guaranteed kill which i like. Late game this is the best one, at least most of the time. The guy that was coaching me from challenger told me to pick this every time. Thing is i don't trust in my adc's power to follow up so i play selfishly with ignite.

Exhaust = High elo / Duo Q / Against assassins.

Ignite = Low elo / Early advantage / Solo Q

Balancing Risk and Reward

We all know bard is a High risk, High reward champion. But to play him well you need to know how to balance the reward with the risk. ALWAYS ask yourself before doing something. Is the reward higher than the risk im putting myself in? How high is the risk?. Video lesson soon.

Abusing Bard lvl 1

Bards level 1 is insane because of his meep+q+ignite combo. Bard is great for invades with his Q and if you communicate with your team his E. Always play the first 2 levels aggressive, just note that lvl 2 ganks can be unfortunate. Video lesson soon.

Team fighting

This is where your awareness is Win/Lose. As bard you are a great teamfighter, you can almost always decide the outcome if you have just a decent team. You should always look to get one alone so that you'll make it a 4v5. If you have alot of AOE get a team ult and it should be GG.

There is two ways to play with his ult.

Reaction ultimate:

You ult to peel and by whats happening around you without a real plan. This can be okay with 5v5 pre teams, but you will rely too much on your own team doing this. This is the mistake many good mechanically bards make.

Awareness ult/plan:

With a great awareness, good ulting follows aswell. This way of ulting is by planning how the teamfight will play out, and take that into your teams favor. Is lux a big problem? is vayne? Get them before they get rolling so that your team can follow. Ulting the person in a bad position will most likely win you the teamfight.Be sure your team can follow up. This is what a good bard focus heavily on, and doing this right will make you carry the game as a support.
Video lesson soon.

Locked Screen

For bard you cannot use locked screen most of the time. Bard is all about expecting things to happen and then react before it even happened. Most of bards spells are slow. Have great map awareness, always look around the map with bard. Ult+Redemtion combo is great to save people from afar. Video lesson soon.

Warding

Obvious but important. Many just ward the bushes in laning fase which is okay. You don't want to use up your wards too fast. So only ward the bush that the ganks could come from. This depends very much on jungle matchup, since an udyr is easy to ward against but a Zac will be hard. Just play a lot of games and you will learn this over time.
Some matchup's will need you to deep ward, even ward their buff/jungle. After level 6 you need to ward drake and later baron. Practise this and you will do better on other champs too! Video lesson soon.

Playing from behind

This step is ofc always hard to pull off, and you will have to make your team do this as well. When you lose laning, you don't want to take uneccesary fights, this does not mean you should not. Take what i told you about balancing risk and reward, and imagine everything with a higher risk but also a better reward. For an example, you're 0/2, not worth anything. But the enemy adc is 2/0 it becomes a shot down and you will gain alot of gold back. If you manage to play it safe and get a good opportunity you play this well.

Taking the lead

This will not always work, but when it does your chances of winning is much higher. As a support you must focus objectives, but since you can't take them yourself, you will need to lead your team to get them with you via pings and chat. It is very important to stay calm and not flame even tho one is flaming you. Dont waste your time on farming when you have the lead, get towers,drake,herald or baron. Learn to close out a game fast this way.