Bard has the ability to be a great support as long as you know how to play him.

Unlike most of the supports that must sacrifice themselves to save his adc during team fights bard has a more safe playstyle and is more of a support for the team that can be more useful the more he roams.

His passive allows him to roam and have a reason to, as the chimes around the map don’t just give him exp and empowered auto attacks but it also gives him mana. This passive along with his heal gives him infinite sustain in lane so when you play bard they won’t be taking bot tower unless they get a successful gank.

Pros

Strong at all times of the game
Can carry a team
Does decent damage and is tanky


Cons

Useless unless you roam
Slow movement in lane
Weak survivabilty mid game

N00b mistakes no Bard player should make

You can 1v1 any non fed jungler in the jungle don't be scared of a jg 1v1

Don't use your Q for slows unless necessary. Save it until in the jungle or there are more enemies nearby.

Your ulti is your ultimate playmaker. It's hard to land but a good ult can get an easy penta or escape for your team

Your heal can charge up. Use it when charged for maximum effectiveness.

Traveler's Call

This passive spawns chimes all over that map that empower your meeps. These meeps empower your auto attacks and make them slow and deal damage in a cone.

Cosmic Binding

Your q sends a straight skill shot that does flat damage as well as 60% of your ap and applies a slow to the first 2 enemies hit. If you hit 2 enemies or an enemy and a wall it applies a pretty long stun. This cc is essential to his kit and trading as the cc you can apply with it is so powerful

Caretaker's Shrine

This is what makes bard a lifesaver in team fights. You put down a small shrine that heals and speeds up allies. If you charge it up over 8 seconds it applies a stronger heal and speed boost. It doesn't do much uncharged but it can save lives like a heal can. The movement speed also makes it perfect for slower champions to make easy escapes.

Magical Journey

This is bards mobility and can save lives during team fight. Bard places down a tunnel that can go through unpassable terrain. This tunnel can o through the largest walls in the game if you aim it right. Allies and enemies can go through but allies are sped up and enemies go at their normal speed. No matter how you use this make sure your q is off cooldown because you need it for going in and escaping because of its cc.

Tempered Fate

This ult is the main initiation for your team. He throws a large AoE skillshot that makes all entities in it invulnerable ,untargetable ,and stunned. This works to lock down a large group of enemies or to set them up for a Q stun. Remember this works on all entities. So epic monsters and turrets can also be stunned. This can buy your team time for a steal or a contest on any objective.

The point of this build is that during laning phase you can easily survive and win lane and by late game you can do a bunch of damage and be extremely tanky. If you build these items youll do a lot of damage, be tanky, and you'll have a lot of utility since almost all of these are active items.

This item is built by every bard simply because of how much cc it adds to his kit. It also gives him more ap which is always useful when your auto attacks depend on it.

This item doesn't just give you ap. It also gives you magic resist and empowers your heals and shields making it an essential item on Bard.

This item is mainly just for warding but it also gives you health and decreases active cooldowns. It doesn't make much sense to not buy this item as it empowers all of Bard's strength.

This item gives him mr and health so it's mainly a tank item. It does also have a shield active that makes it a lot more utility based

This is your main armor item and is almost essential to this build unless their team has absolutely no ad. This item also has an active that slows nearby enemies that along with your Frost Queen's Claim can make chases and escapes much easier.

Thornmail and Banner of Command are useful depending on the situation.

Thornmail makes you basically unkillable if they're team is full ad so buy it in this case.

Banner of Command gives you extra mr in the case they have a lot of it and can power push a lane if you want to.

You're going to want to bring Caretaker's Shrine first and place one in mid lane for better sustain mid and wherever your jungler's starting so he doesn't have to pop that first health potion. After that get in lane and set one down there. Play passively before your lvl 2 power spike. Once you reach level 2 or 3 you can start hard trading with the enemy laners.

Don't back much during this phase of the game. Trade with your enemy laners until one of you are pushed to tower. If you're pushed in then shove their wave and do extra damage in lane. If you do this successfully you can leave for a bit for chimes or roams. If they're pushed in you can leave lane for a while. Only back when you're too low to stay or there are no chimes nearby. These chimes are the most important part of laning phase as if you collect enough you can destroy people late game.

By mid game you should have enough damage to roam freely. By this time you can also make plays with your ult mid and bot lane because of it's range. During team fights use your Randuin's Omen and Locket of the Iron Solari actives to give your team an advantage. During team fight interrupt the enemy team's flow by using your ult on a couple of their teammates. Try to land as many Q stuns as you can during the fight and heal anyone that you think needs the health. Use auto attacks between abilities for a bunch of damage and slows.