Hey, welcome to the most in depth guide on your favorite mid laner/support/Jungler. Here I will talk you through every nook and cranny of Bard. His Spells, His Runes, Masteries, Items and play style. I will give you pros, cons and maybe even call you friend! who knows. Lets get into the guide bros.

The reason attack damage Bard top lane came to mind was that he was kinda fat and reminded me of lulu. Yes you heard me right, when lulu came out everyone was flabbergasted all I heard was "How do I play this champion!?" and then they got they hang of it, and they were like "Wow I really get how to play this champion. I'm going to play this champion top lane"
-Dyrus

Ok, maybe dyrus did not say that, but I urge you to think; how would bard be good in top lane as an attack damage dealing bruiser. Well, once you have collected a decent amount of chimes your auto attacks (thanks to your meeps) are empowered, dealing more damage. along with a little tiny critical strike you will be dealing butt loads of damage all around the map. So if you like what I have conjured up for you, keep reading and enjoy THE SHOW.

For runes I decided to go a very tank heavy route, 9 armor and 9 magic resist. I also choose and advise you to go armor penetration for extra damage in lane with your auto attacks.
finally I have 3 cooldown reduction quintessences because you always need that Cosmic Binding up. it is your main source of cc and its good to have it up often.

Bard is not at all strong in the early game. As we are going the attack damage route we are going to need to buy Doran's Blade, two Health Potion and a Stealth Ward.

This should be a very good start on Bard as long as you can farm up early game. Be aware that you have to collect your chimes every now and then.

For your first item you will need a Trinity Force. this item will give you attack damage, critical strike chance, movement speed and ability power. This should give you a huge power spike, and you should be able to start roaming with Tempered Fate.

The next item would be Phantom Dancer. Phantom dancer is a very good item on Bard because of the critical strike chance it gives, on top, the item also gives you movement speed. this is super important on Bard since you can roam the jungle collecting charms faster and faster (the more movement speed you have the faster you will go through the Magical Journey).

The next two items are your bruiser items: Randuin's Omen and Spirit Visage. These two items are your core bruiser build. With them, you can get deep into the team fight, stun the **** out of people and get the hell out of there!

An item you might want to build will be Boots. Now, it really does not matter which one you get in this case... JUST GET BOOTS. i suggest you lean towards either Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi. This is really up to you but I suggest that you build this.

The final item is really up to you, I've tried multiple versions and the one that seems to work best for me is Turbo Chemtank. it gives you mana, health regen and health, why would you not want that!?

Alright, so the skill sequence is not very complicated, you dont really need to follow my way but it might help if you do.

Maxing Cosmic Binding gives it a lower cooldown so you obviously want to max it first. Your first three levels should look like this:
Cosmic Binding, Caretaker's Shrine and Magical Journey. As long as you follow that you should be fine.

Try to max your Cosmic Binding first since it is your only damage dealing ability and cc, then your Caretaker's Shrine for the sustain and movement speed, then Magical Journey for escapes and roams to other lanes.

= You need flash for those clutch escapes, Magical Journey won't always be up because of its long cool down. I suggest you use this but it is always up to you to make the decision depending on your play style.

= I suggest you get this ability because bard is very slow, getting to lane might be a little difficult because of it. Again it is up to you you can always change, but I chose to go for it because it was just much more convenient.

Bard in the top lane is pretty irrelevant until he has a couple items on him, such as:
Trinity Force and Phantom Dancer. You will be faster and have a decent amount of critical strike damage. You will also have a decent amount of chimes. Try to farm up and ward around for ganks. Collect your chimes when you get the chance. Play safe and poke your laning opponent when your Meeps are up.

You can use your Tempered Fate and Magical Journey to gank other lanes.

Try to use your Cosmic Binding in lane to harass; if your stun lands follow up with a few auto attacks and try to get a clean trade off.

In team fights try your best to heal others with Caretaker's Shrine and stun as many enemies as possible. You should use your ultimate for either disengaging or engaging fights. Remember you can use it to stall Barons, Dragons and towers. You cannot freeze inhibitors or your nexus so keep that in mind.

In the early game Bard is very squishy so try to farm and get your first two items. After that roaming will be more effective.

You might get a lot of jungle pressure being Bard top, so remember to keep your wards up around.

He is very strong in teamfights and will tear the enemy team apart unless you get cc'd very hard.

Try to land a stun on the adcarry and the midlaner. your team will have an easy time dealing damage to them and they can clean up the fight.

Bard top lane should be picked if you have a tank in the jungle like Sejuani, Gragas and so on.

It is fairly easy to farm with ad Bard, just use your auto attacks to last hit and to secure creeps. Use you Cosmic Binding to last hit as well. Collecting chimes will award you some experience and mana, so roaming to the jungle under you will not set you far behind, although if you roam down for less than five chimes it will. Go collect chimes when there is a decent buildup of them in the jungle.

Thanks for reading my guide friend! enjoy your Bard toplane experience and if you have any questions or suggestions to my build or strategy, don't be afraid to comment down below.

THANKS FOR READING!