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Bard Build Guide by

[9.23] Bard's chime adventure

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Bard Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Bard Guides

Runes: Electrocute

1 2

Domination

Electrocute

Cheap Shot

Zombie Ward

Ingenious Hunter

Resolve

Bone Plating

Revitalize

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2

only good summoner spells

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starting items

Boots

Electrocute

Core build

Situational items

Guardian

Core build

Situational items

Example build into tank (electrocute)

Example build into squishy (electrocute)

Example build into tank (guardian)

Example build into squishy (guardian)

Ability Order

Bard Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Leona

Extreme

Champions such as Leona, Nautilus, Thresh and Pyke are all very dangerous to Bard once they have access to all their engage tools at level 2 or 3

Ashe

Ideal

Combined with Ashe's passive when he gains crit chance, she makes for a wonderful lane partner to kite out enemy champions and chase down others with massive slows

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Ashe

Ideal

Combined with Ashe's passive when he gains crit chance, she makes for a wonderful lane partner to kite out enemy champions and chase down others with massive slows

More Bard Counters

Champion Build Guide

Welcome

Welcome to my guide on Bard! I myself, have over 100k points on Bard and love experimenting and styling on this champion. This guide will go over Bard's strengths, weaknesses, how to get around the weaknesses and build paths.

Bard is a utility mage who also has the capabilities of being a strong caster like , , and other strong champions. Your goal is to be slippery and hard to target in a teamfight, but also provide peel and burst damage for the rest of your team.

Note: In this guide I will refer to 's E ability mostly as Tunnel or Portal.

Why Bard?

With having access to a variety of items from Hextech Protobelt-01 to items like Dead man's Plate, his ability to secure lane dominance and make quick skirmishing plays mid to late game scaling with Traveler's Call.

On top of having access to almost every item in the game within reason, 's kit contains plenty of sustain and peel abilities in his W Caretaker's Shrine and his E Magical Journey . You also have the ability to roam the map early and make small skirmish plays in the enemy jungle or other lanes.

Pros and Cons

PROS

+ Wide item selection
+ Roam dominance early
+ Rune variety
+ Plenty of sustain
+ Steady mid to late game scaling
+ Utility and mobility

When playing , you have to know when you to leave lane and roam/collect chimes and when to stay and fight for lane priority. Use your to "gank" other lanes when you see the enemy jungler on the map or if you see someone over extended without vision. In addition to controlling vision, you should next to always take on to get rid of wards early and provide vision for your team. Having this rune allows you to place your ward on the enemy buff before it spawns or in their jungle and then back for a sweeper before laneing phase starts. This is especially helpful when playing against champions like , , and other champions with invis in the bot lane.

CONS

- Weak engage without R
- Hard to peel without E or R up
- Weak to hard engage champions
- Must know where to be at all times
- Chimes dont scale well early
- Squishy until first item

suffers from what I like to call, "Veigar syndrome". His scaling is very weak early without AP (Ability power) or CDR (Cool down reduction). On top of weak scaling early, if you get ganked or engaged on and dont pay attention youre as good as dead. Bard thrives off of playing by walls to escape with tunnel and having his 's placed all around him and his adc in lane. As well as being engaged on, 's ability to engage relies on him landing a which allows your team to move into position safely before a team fight or pick someone off before a larger fight. Without tunnel or his ult, 's ability to leave and enter a fight is significantly lower than his already not high chance of starting the fight alone.

Runes (Electrocute)

KEYSTONE
Electrocute: This keystone gives Bard the ability to burst his enemy laners hard with the addition to empowered auto attacks from Traveler's Call.

RUNE
Cheap Shot: With Traveler's Call and Cosmic Binding applying slows (and stuns) to Bard's kit, cheapshot is a fantastic rune for a little bit more damage on his bursts of damage with Electrocute.

RUNE
Zombie Ward: Zombie ward allows for Bard to take advantage of early enemy wards and making them his own when roaming or in lane. This also sets you up to take sweeper early and remove vision in the enemy jungle or your own jungle.

RUNE
Ingenious Hunter: Zhonya's Hourglass and Hextech Rocketbelt are two common active items that Bard builds constantly and always wants up. This rune allows Bard to have the items on a low cooldown for safety or damage consistently. Other items Bard wants up quick if he has them are items like Quicksilver Sash, Redemption, and Twin Shadows.

RUNE
Bone Plating: Assuming you'll be challenging the enemy ADC constantly for poke damage with Electrocute, Bone Plating allows you to emit some of that damage when walking up on top of minion damage you'd take for auto attacking or using Cosmic Binding on the ADC or support.

RUNE
Revitalize: Revitalize gives you the safety of having a little extra healing on your Caretaker's Shrine's early game and scales nicely with your AP and other support items that boost heals and shields like Athene's Unholy Grail and Redemption.

Runes (Guardian)

KEYSTONE
Guardian: Bard benefits off this keystone by allowing him to tank a little more damage than usual and take some more aggressive trades in lane. As well as taking trades, Guardian can proc off of casting Caretaker's Shrine directly on someone while they're taking damage.

RUNE
Font of Life: Traveler's Call and Cosmic Binding apply slows which count as crowd control that impair enemy movements allowing for the use of Font of Life. This rune benefits you in risky plays through allowing more healing in lane on top of Caretaker's Shrine and it being boosted by Revitalize. In larger teamfights with your cone of slowness from Traveler's Call applying to a majority of enemies, Font of Life becomes more useful.

RUNE
Bone Plating: Bone Plating just reduces some damage Bard will take in lane poking and trading.

RUNE
Revitalize: Revitalize gives you the safety of having a little extra healing on your Caretaker's Shrine's early game and scales nicely with your AP and other support items that boost heals and shields like Athene's Unholy Grail and Redemption

RUNE
Zombie Ward: Zombie ward allows for Bard to take advantage of early enemy wards and making them his own when roaming or in lane. This also sets you up to take sweeper early and remove vision in the enemy jungle or your own jungle.

RUNE
Ingenious Hunter: Zhonya's Hourglass and Hextech Rocketbelt are two common active items that Bard builds constantly and always wants up. This rune allows Bard to have the items on a low cooldown for safety or damage consistently. Other items Bard wants up quick if he has them are items like Quicksilver Sash, Redemption, and Twin Shadows.