Hello everyone and welcome to one of my guides! This guide contains useful information and general knowledge based on my own game experience + open source info from Internet about the champ 💡📚📈🔍

My name is Max, but you can call me Dixon as well. I'm from Ukraine so English is not my native language and I can do some mistakes (I'm sorry for that). However, you can also write me comments and I'm able to answer you in English, German, Russian and Ukrainian languages since I understand all of them, but in different levels of knowledge. 😄

I started to play League of Legends in 2016. My highest ELO at the moment is Platinum 2 (soloQ) and 💎Diamond 4 (flexQ) on EU-West server (top 5% best players at the server).

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PROS:
1. His roaming potential is unrivaled as he can almost always get to another lane more quickly than his counterpart, as well as get out of sticky situations by using his Magical Journey.

2. The ability to sustain both his ADC and himself with his Caretaker's Shrine, while also getting more mana from collecting his Passive chimes allows him to stay in the lane for a long time. Due to his Passive, he can quickly switch between staying in lane and roaming.

3. A good Ultimate Tempered Fate can help his team initiate a fight and set up a wombo-combo, especially when Bard manages to follow his Ultimate up with his Tempered Fate. This ability can also be used to stall neutral objectives and disengage if need be.


CONS:
1. Missing your Cosmic Binding in the lane will give the enemy bot lane a long window to all-in and kill you. You are very squishy initially and can be burst down easily when hard CC'd.

2. Your Cosmic Binding and Ultimate Tempered Fate usage needs a lot of refinement when you are just picking up the champion. This is because one misplaced Ultimate Tempered Fate from your end can lose you an entire team fight. His skill curve is massive and is quite hard to overcome.

3. Getting caught out with your Magical Journey on cooldown, especially during the early game will get you killed. Besides, if you keep roaming, chances are that your ADC will fall massively behind and will get killed frequently, especially if you are in a low elo bracket.

Bard's passive is one of the most unusual in the world of League of Legeds. Firstly, when Bard is in play, small bells begin to appear on the map, which only Bard can collect, but which absolutely all players can see. So during the gathering, you can become a victim of a planned ambush. At the beginning of the game, there will be very few bells and you can collect them quickly. Toward the end of the game, there will be a lot of bells and you simply will not have time to collect them. Collected bell increases Bard's movement speed. Thanks to this passive, Bard is able to move around the map very quickly using bells. Bells also give experience and restore some mana. Mana regeneration is very good, but the experience bonus is low. If you decide not to stand on the line, but to swing with the help of bells, you will constantly be behind your allies in terms of level. The experience bonus slightly compensates for the fact that you sometimes have to step aside and lose some experience from the lane. Collecting bells is also necessary in order to get an additional bonus to your auto attacks. Additional magic damage, the maximum number of spirits and the speed of their appearance depends on how many bells you have collected. Unfortunately, you cannot control the spirits, so if you have a spirit, then it will definitely be used up during an auto attack.


This skill is a very good skillshot. First, the skill deals good damage. But more importantly, the ability allows you to stun two enemies at once. Enemies will only be stunned if you hit two enemies with the skill. Also, the skill will work if the enemy stands next to the wall. In fact, this effect is somewhat similar to Vayne's Condemn skill, but Bard's stun skill is a little simpler. It is also worth understanding that you can stun the enemy with the help of minions. So if you hit a minion and then hit a champion (or vice versa), you will also stun the enemy champion. Of course, the most ideal use of the ability is to hit two champions at once. The advantage of the skill is that if you use it on one champion, then you reduce his movement speed well. The skill is extremely effective in team fights.


With this skill, Bard can create runes on the ground that restore some of his health and grant a bonus to his movement speed. It is important to note here that if the rune lies on the ground for a while, then it restores more health. The advantage of runes is that they lie on the ground for an unlimited time. You can bet not only on your lane, but also in the jungle. This way you can make farming of your jungler a little bit easier. It is important to understand that if the enemy steps on your rune, then he instantly breaks it. Therefore, if you put runes for the maximum effect of restoring health, then it is best to do this behind you. You can also throw runes directly at yourself or your ally. This is very effective when you need to save a player's life.


This ability allows you to create a portal. Unlike all known skills that help overcome obstacles, Bard's Portal allows you to create a tunnel through the largest obstacles. Even Zac isn't able to overcome such a distance in his jump. The portal lasts long enough for all players to use it, but your allies gain a movement speed bonus when they pass through the portal. The portal, at the time of its use, does not make players invulnerable. When you fly through the portal, you can take damage and skills can be used on you. It is also worth noting that the portal only works in one direction. One player can use the portal an unlimited number of times. Enemies can also use the portal. In fact, the portal is what makes the Bard such a unique character. With this skill, Bard can more than make up for his team's lack of mobility. With the help of the portal, Bard can organize ganks from places where the enemy simply does not expect you.


Bard's ult works similarly to Zhonya's Hourglass. After a short delay, the bard creates an area in which all allies and all enemies become invulnerable for 2.5 seconds. Ult can even be used on towers, on the Dragon and on the Baron. In other words, it works for absolutely everything. The ult can be used equally well offensively or defensively. For example, you can catch a group of enemies, and your allies within 2.5 seconds will be able to adjust their actions and make the most effective attack. As a defensive skill, the ult is no less effective. For example, some Karthus or Ziggs start casting their ults and you cover your allies with a shield and they do not take damage. The use of the ult is very flexible and has a huge number of variations. You can for example attack enemies directly under their own tower by simply making the tower invulnerable for 2.5 seconds and preventing them from attacking. You can use it on a tower just before Rift Herald is going to hit and your tower will not take any damage at this moment so enemies would waste Rift Herald.

is a good protective item for supports to increase survivability of your champion by increasing HP, armor and magic resistance and to cover your allies nearby by a massive shielding.

buy this item if you want to cut enemy's healings, life steal and vampirism.

is generally good item for all supports with shields or healing. It has also a good sinergy with Locket of the Iron Solari

This item will increase survivability of both your champion and ADC. It's especially useful if an enemy team has champions with burst type of damage.

is a good item to protect your ally or yourself against strong CC abilities.

is most effectively used against abilities that have a downtime before they can affect full damage to the target like Chum the Waters, Unleashed Power, Death Mark, Life Form Disintegration Ray, Death Lotus etc.

you should buy this item and use this effect on such champions which are:
- An enemy champion that deals a lot of damage in general.
- An enemy champion that consistently matches you and contests your pushes on the side lane.
- An enemy champion that is very ahead, or poses a much greater threat than other enemy champions.
- An enemy champion that is the only reliable source of physical or magical damage on that team (this means you are able to choose them as the Nemesis and itemize against everyone else).

buy this item if you want to have nice movement speed to roam across the map or to split push. The item provides also some HP and armor that makes it a good choice for tanks and bruisers who lack mobility.

buy this item if you want to have nice movement speed to roam across the map or to split push. The item provides also some HP and magic resistance that makes it a good choice for tanks and bruisers who lack mobility. It's also a good option against teams with lots of champions with magical type of damage.


The item also works well with champions that desire ability haste, have mana problems and make very good use of the passive for extra dueling potential. It is one of the few items to counter champions that function heavily around using basic attacks, such as most of marksmen or champions like Kayle, Yasuo, Tryndamere, Master Yi and other auto-attackers. If the enemy team has no champions who deal most of their damage by auto-attacks and don't buy items for attack speed then it can be better to buy something like Gargoyle Stoneplate or other protective item instead.

This item allows you to land a basic attack outside of your basic attack range. You can also use it to poke your enemies from a safe distance, before engaging into a fight, which is especially useful if the enemies are strong enough to engage you if you enter into your basic attack range. This item is also very powerful for champions whose ranged basic attacks can apply crowd control in order to increase their effective engagement range. This item is most commonly paired with Stormrazor, which can apply the Stormrazor's slowing passive at a higher range, in addition to both item's energized damage stacking.

grant the most base flat movement speed across all boots ( Mobility Boots effect is only temporary). Because of this, these boots are also the most effective with percentage movement speed increasing effects.

This rune offers both you and your allies some additional protection and gives you access to the Resolve rune tree.


This rune is able to heal your allied champion a little bit, so he\she can stay longer in lane and get more gold and experience before doing Recall.


The rune will give a good amount of additional protection in the mid and late game, especially if you buy some items with armor or magic resistance.


The rune provides some tenacity and slow resist. You can take this rune instead of Overgrowth if the enemy team has lots of CC. This rune can also be chosen for the second rune tree as well.


Due-to this rune you will have some additional vision from zombie wards and gain some amount of AD or AP.


This rune gives a lot of movement speed out combat which is very helpful during all stages of the game and it can help you to chase down enemies or to group with your allies faster.

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Flash is the most frequent choice of all players in League of Legends. Such popularity of the spell is caused by the fact that Flash is able to instantly teleport you on a short distance. This distance is enough to dodge some hostile abilities or to jump back and avoid an unexpected gank. With the help of Flash, you can overcome various obstacles like walls, pillars and other different obstacles. Flash is equally good to use for both attack and defense. This gives the spell some versatility. The summoner spell cannot be used if you have been silenced (you cannot use skills for some time). Also, Flash cannot be used under the effect of hard control abilities such as stun or fear.


Exhaust is an extremely powerful tool for disabling champions who mainly autoattack, as well as any champion that can deal a high amount of damage. When your team is chasing an enemy and he is getting away, using Exhaust on him will help your team gain the upper hand. Using it against enemies when escaping can help you as their movement speed will be greatly decreased.


Ignite provides players an offensive utility and damage spell that scales with level. A well-placed healing reduction debuff from Ignite can severely limit the effectiveness of enemy healing items, as well as healing abilities from champions like Soraka, Aatrox, Vladimir, Volibear and Warwick. It is considered a direct counter to Dr. Mundo, Soraka, Aatrox and Swain because they are reliant on their healing-based abilities. The healing reduction debuff also applies to life steal, omnivamp, etc.

EARLY GAME (average):
Bard’s first power spike is once he hits level 2. As long as you’ve picked up a few meeps before the minions spawn, you will always hit level 2 before the enemy. Make sure you harass and play aggressive while the enemy is still level 1. Once Bard has picked up Boots, his roaming potential increases dramatically. Look to roam frequently with your Magical Journey to help your allies around the map. Bard’s next power spike in lane is his level 6. His Ultimate Tempered Fate is pretty versatile and can be used to set up plays with your Jungler. Ensure you throw the Ultimate Tempered Fate behind the enemy as they may walk into it while trying to escape.

Your goal is to hit level two before the enemy and look for an all-in with your Cosmic Binding. Hold onto your Cosmic Binding till you get a bit closer to your target, or use it when the target is pinned against a wall. Keep collecting chimes while you are laning. You need to unlock the slow on your auto-attacks and getting 5 chimes will allow you to do so. Once that is done, you can land your Cosmic Binding very easily. Always be on the lookout for roams around the map. The best time to do it will be when the minion wave is pushing to you and you have left lane to collect some chimes. Use your Magical Journey properly and maybe pair up with your Jungler for maximum effectiveness.


MID GAME (average):
During the mid-game, Bard’s abilities will be on a lower cooldown. His Cosmic Binding will be on a rather short cooldown, which will allow him to look for more picks throughout this stage of the game. Unfortunately, while most champions spike at level 11, Bard isn’t really one of them. While his Ultimate Tempered Fate will be on a shorter cooldown, it doesn’t deal any damage and will most likely be used to get picks or save his allies. Bard should’ve picked up a lot of Meeps by now. His Passive and empowered auto-attacks will be very useful at this stage of the game. He will be able to consistently bully the enemy as he moves around the map.

Once you reach this stage, you should focus more on roaming and impacting the map with your Ultimate Tempered Fate and Magical Journey. When deep warding, make sure you keep your Magical Journey ready to escape out of any sticky situations. Before leaving your lane, drop some Caretaker's Shrine shrines here and there. This will help your ADC stay healthy, especially when they are up against a poke lane. Always try to bait the enemy laners into pushing and use the wall behind them to Magical Journey and then stun them with your Cosmic Binding. Pairing up with your Jungler/other laners will yield maximum effectiveness and the enemies generally don't anticipate such plays.


LATE GAME (strong):
Once again, when Bard puts another point in his Ultimate Tempered Fate at level 16, he will not necessarily spike as his Ultimate Tempered Fate doesn’t deal any damage. But, it will be on a shorter cooldown which can enable him to get picks. In the very late game, his abilities will be on much shorter cooldowns. This is very useful for Bard as he will be able to use his Cosmic Binding multiple times in a team fight. This alone may either win his team the fight or help him peel for his carries. The effects of Bard’s Chimes or Meeps gets better and better as the game develops. In the late game, his empowered auto-attacks will deal a considerable amount of damage and have a huge slow if you auto-attack an enemy champion.

You should be focusing on catching enemies out with your Ultimate Tempered Fate at this point. Playing the role of the disruptor, you should always be on the lookout for neutral objectives as your Ultimate Tempered Fate can stall an objective long enough for your Jungler and team to do something. Don't forget to collect your chimes regularly. They increase your damage output and you can quite literally 1 v 1 squishy champions if you collect enough of them. Besides, your auto-attack AoE slow will play a major role during team fights. During objective fights, always try to CC the enemy Jungler due to them possessing the Smite summoner spell. This will give your Jungler ample time to steal the Baron. Another thing you may want to do is use your Ultimate Tempered Fate to cancel recalls on a bunch of enemy targets. This works like a charm when your team has a split pusher.

Bard will leave lane to pick up Chimes when it’s safe. Abuse the fact that he is missing to all-in the enemy ADC. Try and stay away from the minion wave at all times. This will make it really hard for him to land his Cosmic Binding and stun you. Don’t stand too close to the wall so he can’t stun you that way either. When playing as a melee champion, don’t stand too close to him or the minion wave otherwise he can poke you down and harass you with basic attacks. Walk forward when you want to harass or last hit, but return back to safety afterwards.

Do not group to closely together during the mid-game as Bard can use his Ultimate to catch out multiple champions. Being hit by his Ultimate Tempered Fate can allow his team to either kill the caught out enemies or focus the enemies who are not golden. Because Bard’s Cosmic Binding can stun enemies who are close to a wall, be prepared to take an alternative route when walking towards the Dragon or Baron. Being stunned and killed before a major objective spawns will result in the enemy taking the objective for free. Overstaying while low under your own tower is a big no-no against Bard. Thanks to his Ultimate Tempered Fate, he can put your Tower in stasis and kill you shortly afterwards.

Bard’s early game is quite strong thanks to his empowered auto-attacks. Try not to let him bully and harass you for free otherwise you’ll never be able to engage or fight him, especially if you’re melee. Bard’s level 6 power spike is not as strong as some champions as his Ultimate Tempered Fate doesn’t deal any damage. If you have a damaging Ultimate, you’ll be able to beat him at level 6. Or, you’ll at least force him to use his Ultimate Tempered Fate defensively. As the game goes along, Bard becomes stronger and stronger as he collects more chimes. Keep this in mind when playing against him.


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It is said that most inhabitants of the celestial realm see their home as a wondrous and vivid tapestry, woven with prismatic threads of purest starlight. However, for one prodigious entity, the intangible and everlasting beauty of this dimension is not seen, but heard for Bard, a troubadour as enigmatic as he is eternal, the wondrous firmament is a symphony of mystic, ambrosial music.

In the beginning, Bard had drifted without purpose or perspective through a silent cosmos, but with a deep sense of anticipation that something miraculous would eventually come to fill it. Fate did not disappoint, and with the forging of the first stars, the silence was broken and the first rapturous notes of creation rang in Bard’s ear.

He traveled the swirling harmonies between the stars, along with the tiniest wisps of residual inspiration and thought left over from their birth. These semitonal, incomplete motes of energy—or meeps—were drawn to him whenever he added his own voice to the cosmic opus, forever ringing in one perfect accord.

This was not his masterpiece, yet he gloried in it all the same.

But after a measureless interval, a dissonance began to creep in. It was so small at first, Bard might have missed it, but the ever-doting meeps drew his attention to a failed dynamic shift here, an unexpected syncopation there, and even the growing absence of sound where, before, sound had been.

Bard scoured the celestial realm for clues, until he discovered the source. It was the most curious of things—a world with a song all of its own.

Driven by unknown magic, the music produced by Runeterra was as primitive, unevolved, and chaotic as the mortal beings that lived there… and yet it had an inherent beauty, like the rolling thunder of a storm, or the melodious knocking of wooden chimes in the wind that precedes it. Bard would have merely appreciated it for what it was, but unfortunately this particular song had gone far beyond a mere counterpoint to the celestial whole, and was becoming destructive. Something had to be done.

Touching down in the First Lands of Ionia, Bard and his attendant meeps crossed into the material realm. All at once, his ears became like eyes, and he fashioned himself a simple body from the trinkets and fabrics of a traveling shawm-player’s wagon, including a beguiling mask—circular, with three holes in the face.

He walked the world for an age, confusing and delighting those he encountered along the way, and found the state of things far more complex than he had first imagined. Many objects of wild and unpredictable power seemed to have made their way erroneously into Runeterra, and were disrupting the natural cosmic order of things. Casting his gaze back to the heavens, Bard deduced that some other power within the celestial realm was at work here… though to what end, he could not guess.

Regardless, he has taken to the role of caretaker, retrieving anything out of place and returning it to where it can do no further harm. Though this may be only the first step in bringing the universe back in tune, it may also be the only way this world can be saved from what lies beyond it.

And Bard is not blind to the future. He can see a great conflict approaching—one fought not in any single realm, but in all—and awaits the time when he must finally pick a side.