Hi! My name is Best Lulu NA. You might be wondering, why am I making a guide about Bard with my name? Since patch 7.9, Lulu has been pretty much been banned (at least in Plat). I started playing a lot of Bard as my alternative to Lulu.

Bard offers his allies incredible utility, along with decent sustain and mobility as he roams around the map. His abilities allow him to set up and escape ganks in a breeze. Playing Bard allows you to have a huge influence throughout the game, in lane, in the jungle, and in teamfights.

Pros
-Tons of roaming potential
-Can set up ganks extremely easily
-Tons of lane presence and poke

Cons
-Squishy early game
-Must have good knowledge of when to roam
-alling behind in xp is very easy if your ganks are unsuccessful

Flash - Essential on almost every champion.

Ignite - Take this when you have kill pressure.

Exhaust - I only take this against dive comps and high damage ADCs such as Draven

Traveler's Call -
ANCIENT CHIMES: Bard's presence causes sacred chimes to appear at random locations and linger for up to 10 minutes. Collecting a chime grants Bard 24% bonus movement speed out of combat for 7 seconds, stacking up to 5 times, with every other chime collected beyond the first granting an additional 14% bonus movement speed, up to a total of 80% bonus movement speed, 20 + (1 per minute after 5 minutes) experience, and 12% maximum mana. Bard empowers his Traveler's Call Meeps each time he collects 5 chimes.

MEEPS: Bard's presence attracts small spirits known as Meeps to his side. Each of his basic attacks consumes a Meep, dealing 30 (+ 15 per 5 chimes collected) (+ 30% AP) bonus magic damage. At 5 chimes, Meeps slow damaged enemies by 25 - 75 (based on Chimes)% for 1 second, and at 15 chimes deal splash damage to enemies within 150 units of his target as well as those in a cone behind them, with the cone's size increasing at 35 chimes.
Meeps spawn every 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds and Bard can keep up to 1 - 9 (based on Chimes) of them at a time.

I honestly find Bard's passive amazing. It fits perfectly with his playstyle and allows Bard to build up some damage without buying any damage items.

Cosmic Binding -
ACTIVE: Bard fires a burst of spirit energy in the target direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemy struck and briefly slowing them by 60%.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+ 65% AP)
DISABLE DURATION: 1 / 1.2 / 1.4 / 1.6 / 1.8

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 Stun icon stuns both targets for the same duration, dealing the same magic damage to the second target as well.

This is Bard's bread and butter. With a low cool down and high damage, this ability allows Bard to constantly dish out high damage with strong CC.

Caretaker's Shrine -
ACTIVE: Bard conjures a shrine at the target location that builds up in power over 10 seconds, up to 3 shrines active at once, which remain until consumed when a champion steps on them.
If the champion was an ally or Bard himself, they are healed for an amount based on the shrine's power and gain 50% bonus movement speed that decays over 1.5 seconds.
MINIMUM HEAL: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+ 30% AP)

I normally stack a couple of these in bushes before I roam or fight. They aren't very useful (even at max rank), so I always max them last.

Magical Journey -
ACTIVE: Bard opens a one-way magical corridor through a piece of terrain in the target direction for 10 seconds. Magical Journey will not cast unless it can open a corridor.
Both allies and enemies can pass through the corridor by right-clicking on it or its exit, with allies and Bard travelling at increased speed.
ALLY BONUS SPEED: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50%

This ability is extremely fun to use to set up ganks and rotations. I max this second due to it's roaming possibilities.

Tempered Fate -
ACTIVE: Bard sends magical energy arcing to the target location, putting all units and structures in the target area into stasis for 2.5 seconds upon impact.
Despite normally being immune to crowd control, epic monsters and turrets (excluding the Nexus Obelisk) also enter Stasis icon stasis.

This ultimate is extremely versatile. It allows Bard to play both offensively and defensively. It can save anyone from abilities such as Ignite. Requiem, and Death Mark.

Spellthief's Edge - Standard start

Frostfang - Gives you mana regen and damage to continue poking

Frost Queen's Claim - I like to take this item over Eye of the Watchers because of the utility it gives. It's almost like a second Cosmic Binding because it allows Bard to easily engage and disengage with enemies.

Mobility Boots I like this item because it allows me to easily roam around and gank.

Mercury's Treads - I only take this item against fed enemy AP carries or heavy CC team comps.

Ninja Tabi - Same reason as taking Mercury's Treads except against ADs.

Ruby Sightstone - Vision wins games.

Locket of the Iron Solari - Pretty much necessary on every support.

Knight's Vow - This item is great to use on fed carries.

Redemption - This item is still great because it stacks with Locket of the Iron Solari

Mikael's Blessing - This item is pretty good, though I don't normally buy it because it doesn't give many stats that I like.

Banshee's Veil I take this item against champs like Blitzcrank and Thresh. I'll also take champs who can one shot with one or two abilities like Zed

Frozen Heart - I take this item against heavy AD comps with lots of attackspeed.

Dead Man's Plate - I only take this against heavy AD comps.

Abyssal Mask - I only take this against heavy AP comps.

In lane, your primary objective is to deny and poke the enemy ADC. Having presence in the lane is the number one way to win. Try to harass your opponents any time Fresh Blood , Greenfather's Gift , or Thunderlord's Decree is up.

Possibly one of the most important parts of Bard's kit is his ability to roam. Now, you may ask, when should you roam? With Bard, there is almost never a time when you can't. The most optimal time to roam is when your lane is severely pushed to the enemy turret, but it is possible to roam when you are pushed in as well (though you may lose xp, and your ADC is prone to being dove). My favorite time to roam is when I have my ultimate and my lane is pushed to the enemy turret. I normally go through the bot river and gank midlane.

While ganking, you might not always need to go in with your E. The problem with always engaging with your E is that it gives the enemy more time to react (since they can see the portal even in the fog of war). I like to simply walk into lane, Q and/or R and simply bop them to death with my midlaner (or jungler). If they try to run, then use your portal after them.

Possibly the most fun ability in Bard's kit, Magical Journey sets up ganks that many wouldn't even dream of being possible. Since I do not have a good diagram, here are some links of others explaining the best portal locations.
Play Video
This video shows portal locations for ganks.
Play Video
I thought this was funny, but it is quite useful when pushing through the enemy's base,

The best time to ult is normally once a fight has already started. Bard's ult is quite easy to dodge (the farther away the target is), so starting a fight with your Q is normally the easiest way. Prioritizing enemy carries is the best way to minimize enemy damage output, but if your carries are stronger, use your ult to peel. When tower diving, just simply ult the turret or an ally who is tanking for a prolonged amount of time.

June 17th, 2017 - Build created