Bard Build Guide by DutchWolf114

Let Me Play You The Song...

Welcome to the sixth installment of "quick and dirty off meta supports" (1-5 and future installments available here). This one is truly special in...so many ways. I liked doing a marksman instead of a support , so I'll do another one. Let me preface this by saying this is stupid. This is absolutely ridiculous and should not be played by anyone. It is fun, however, and as with the others this guide is primarily intended for ADC mains that want to do just that...have some fun. For that reason, I'm going to assume that, as a AD Carry, you know the basics of cs'ing, trading, etc. So...you've probably never seen a Bard ADC. But, in the Ahri guide I stated any ranged champ can work as an AD Carry, so let's stretch the limits of that theory a bit...

So what are we gonna talk about? We'll have a short discussion about the mindset behind this build (and whether you should hear me out or not) and then we'll go through some Bard specific gameplay. That's it, quick & dirty.

GL;HF and see you on the Rift :)
-DutchWolf

Buskin' Bard Mindset
Okay, so...since we've already established that this is dumb and you shouldn't listen to anything I say here, I won't waste to much time explaining why you should listen to me. TL;DR: Started as a ADC main in season 3, been support main since...season 5 I think?

So, I was actually amazed to find there is another AD Bard guide that has like a million views and is probably way better than this one, despite being somewhat out of date. I still feel justified writing this, however, since the other guide is more focussed on what we Bot Mains refer to as the "lesser lanes", known to the plebeians as "mid, top and jungle". So I will take the humble task of writing an AD Bard guide for Best Lane upon myself (only joking guys...well, mostly).

<<I am going to rant about guides for a bit now, feel free to fast-forward, next interesting bit is marked in bold> This just blows my mind...an AD Bard guide really? I mean, I've checked whilst I was writing the other guides. There's no support guide for Nidalee (not one that deals exclusively with Nid support anyway). There is another LeBlanc sup guide, but it's one of those Full-AP "support" guides (Ningen aptly named it "Fake LeBlanc Support" as opposed to my "True Support LeBlanc^tm", which I find absolutely hilarious, good guide btw). There is one semi-decent Ashe support guide but that's out of date as well....same goes for Sejuani. And of course no one else was stupid enough to write an ADC Ahri guide....my point is....there is no point here, just...why, of all things, is there a >1 million views guide of Bard AD. It's insane, it's just...holy moly...<Okay, rant over let's get on with the show.>>

With that out of the way: marksman Bard. That is some off-meta trollery alright. In my last guide I compared playing ADC Ahri to sculpting a mountain into a work of art using only a rusty knife. If we'd apply that metaphor to Bard ADC, we'd end up with something like "Replicating Mt. Rushmore using nothing but a toothbrush, with both of your hands tied behind your back".

So why do this, why write this guide in the first place? Let's discuss off-meta builds for a second here. There a couple of different types of off-meta. First of all you have the completely random "I aint no slave to your meta, Yasuo bot" kind of pick, where you basically take a champ from one lane and just play him in another lane without any meaningful changes to playstyle or build. The pure, somewhat literal, reading of "off-meta" is something that is simply not fit for this particular meta, i.e. something that used to be a thing but isn't now because the current patch doesn't favour this kind of champ and/or build in this particular role. Nidalee springs to mind, Nid support used to be a (quite common) thing and she's still basically the same champ so the build from my other guide is really just something regular that's not meta at the moment. You could actually make this case for the "Fake LeBlanc Support" thing as well because that was actually meta for quite a while. Same could be said for pre-champion-update- Ashe. My (post-update-) Ashe and TS LeBlanc are a different flavour of off-meta, in the sense that they were never really meta but I've adapted them to function in a role they are not supposed to fullfil. My Sejuani build is a softer version of this, as the champ is being put in a role that it is not meant for but is naturally quite good at (similar to a Volibear support). Everything up to this point is semi-viable. The ADC Ahri is another type of off-meta. As I've discussed in that guide, Ahri only meets the barebones minimum requirements to be viable as an AD Carry. Basically she has a few party-tricks that make her "less bad" at it, but that's about it. This can be played to hone your skills and have fun. Those are the main, semi-accepted, types of off-meta. Then there is Bard ADC. Bard ADC is basically the autistic epitomy of the last type: Bard literally has nothing going for him being an ADC other than the fact that he is ranged. That is it. The only worse ADC than Bard would be a melee champ (AD Carry Maokai anyone?).

So the only proper mindset to have when playing marksman Bard is: Thou Shalt Have Fun. Because, in all seriousness...DON'T PLAY THIS, YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE READING THIS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Bard It Up
So like I said, we're gonna skip all the where to cs, how to trade, etc stuff and just focus on how to make Bard a proper ADC (like that's even possible...). For this purpose I'll briefly discuss building, and then move on to some gameplay tips.


Itemization
There are multiple ways to go with this. The other guide I mentioned before goes for a really basic b.... crit build. That probably works as well as anything. I opted for a more Kai'Sa like Guinsoo's Rageblade based build. This worked relatively well before patch 8.23...I still think it will work quite decently. If you disagree I suggest a Stormrazor based critbuild. Experiment a little. Whatever you do, build a ton of attack speed because Bard's auto-attack animation cannot handle that at all. HAVE FUN.
Gameplay
Okay, we don't have a lot to work with in terms of kit. You can max Cosmic Binding first (like in the cheat sheet), because that increases the stun duration. Alternatively, you could max Caretaker's Shrine first to get bit more out of the healing...I advise against this however since the heal becomes very insignificant very fast. Mid/late game you'll only use his W for the 50% MS boost, which you get at level one. Magical Journey is somewhat useless in lane, so just max it last. Or just max it first, who cares it will be terrible either way. Just play a proper ADC.

You will need to collect meeps for Traveler's Call. His passive augments his AA the more you stack it, and since we will be AA'ing a lot that will be somewhat useful. Your team won't mind you being AFK collecting Meeps, since they'd probably prefer you AFK in general.

I don't have a lot more to add. Unlike Ahri you have no real escapes, no tricks to outplay your enemies. You just have to position, try to land your semi-situational stun if you can and AA like your life depends on it. O' right, use Magical Journey and Tempered Fate like a support Bard would. That's all folks. Which should tell you enough to not want to play this ever.

I'm Serious Guys....
If you are reading this: thanks for going all the way through (why are you still here, are you crazy?), please leave a like if you liked or a comment if you have any suggestions. I hope it has been obvious that I'm being half-serious in this guide. Let me put it this way: BARD ADC IS TERRIBLE, DON'T PLAY THIS. Whatever you take away from this don't let it be that Bard is a god-tier ADC, because he's not. He is in fact aweful, go read something else....anything else....

That all being said, it's time to head out to the Rift and play literally anything else,
Sorry for wasting your time,
-DutchWolf

PS. If you are looking for more off-meta stuff check out my other guides here.