Hey, im Khalidino. A challenger Bard player on the North American Server. I have 1.3m points on bard and I've made this guide to give insight to my play-style. Im not the founder of hail of blades bard, for that i thank twtv lathrustv , for introducing it to me. Its mostly how I've played bard ever since, as a versatile, utility, based skirmisher. This is my first guide, and I will try to keep it updated if there are any significant changes to how i play or bard overall. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

PASSIVE - Travelers Call

*Ring Ring* "Hello who's there".
'Chime'
"Chime who?"
'Chime to ditch your adc and play a mini-game' (haha second time I used Chime as a pun for Time XD, and it was in a phone "CALL")

OK so this and bards Q is Bards Bread and butt*
*( HAHA! get it cause his e and his R would be er, Bread and Butt(er) xD)
His passive is his main source of damage and is just what makes bard, bard. Every 50 seconds a pair of golden chimes will spawn (the first two spawns are only 1) and last for 10 minutes. Collecting these chimes will UPGRADE your auto-attacks by launching little meeps. This makes your Auto attacks do bonus magic damage that will slow and eventually hit in a cone around and behind your target. As you collect more chimes, the damage, slow, cone size, meep amount, and meep recharge rate will improve. Collecting chimes gives movement speed and refunds mana. Your meeps also count as spells and will trigger spellthiefs, Ludens, and Liandries.

Now we've made clear all the wonderful and important features of bards passive and now to the tricky part. When do you venture off to collect these babies? Now that's the complicated part. Chimes last for 10 minutes so you don't have to worry about running off to get them as soon as they spawn, there are some chime UPGRADES you need to get asap and are worth ditching lane for a bit, notably 10, and 30, but its best to stay in lane otherwise. When you have the minions pushed in, are low on mana, or have just backed, are the best times to sidetrack yourself and pick up some chimes. Try to tie in Chime picking with warding, so if you have a chime spawn in the river or jungle, save it until you are going there to ward since the movement speed will be a time-saver, and maybe a lifesaver.

BARD Q - COSMIC BINDING

This ability is simple and powerful. Hit one target for slow and damage. Hit one target + terrain for a stun and damage. Hit Two targets for a stun and damage to both targets. Hitting a target causes the ability to travel a bit of extra distance from the target. (this may result in a shorter Q overall) Try to clip minions with your THICC hitbox to extend the range of the Q to hit targets who would otherwise be out of range. you can buffer this ability so Q-Flashing is possible. We max this first.

BARD W - CARETAKERS SHRINE

Bards W does three things. Heals, Speeds, and Lingers around. In lane you use the Lingering and Healing to keep you and your buddy nice and not dead. The lingering affect means that you can use this when you are at full mana and full health, in a safe spot in case of emergency. Leveling this up UPGRADES any existing shrines so you don't have to worry about placing new and improved shrines each time you level W. Use this to give your allies a slight heal and speed boost in fights. Place one down when you are/going to be full mana, and even drop one on an ally who was hit by your R, so that as soon as they come out of stasis they got a little extra HP to help them out. We max this second or third depending on the state of the game and our play-style. Usually we are using W way more than our E so for efficiency sake we max W second. Also we need to have some points in W for athenes to properly work since athenes will not heal more than the original heal. (30 lvl 1 vs 150 lvl 5)

BARD E - MAGICAL JOURNEY

This is a portal you open which allows you and your buddies to pass through terrain on the map. Use it to get to lane faster, set up a gank, dodge a skill shot, escape death, sneak an objective, roam, ward, and make a 1 mm portal for everyone to have a fun time spamming getting in and out of. His E is fun and unique and can be used in very creative ways. It took me many games on bard to learn that I could use E to dodge skill shots. Because of your E you want to position yourself near the river, so that if a gank were to happen you have a wall right next to you to fly through. Standing near the river walls during laning phase is a great way to escape nearly every gank that life throws at you. You can also use your E to bluff a gank. Enemy pressuring you too much? place a fake portal and they will back off for a short while for you and your adc to catch your breath. They don't fall for your bluff the next time? Play the boy who cried wolf and bring your jungler with you. Mental mindgames.

BARD R - TEMPERED FATE

This ability is a long ranged, AOE zonyas, basketball jump-shot. The farther away from you, the longer it takes to travel, similar to ziggs R. The most common way you will use this ult is to catch out enemies to set up for you team. You set them up and together you all knock them down. However Bards R, like his E, is very diverse in its use. You can, save turrets, save turrets from rift herald, buy time for a teammate who has been caught out, stall the enemy from taking a dragon/baron, stop the enemy jungler from stealing baron, change turret aggro, disable a turret for a dive, hit all minions around your turret so it targets champions, and troll a toxic teammate. You can do a lot with this ult, both good and bad so use it responsibly. Sometimes the best way to use your ult is to not use it at all.

Laning Phase

you start with spellthiefs and try to auto when you can to proc it twice, once from your passive and once from the auto itself. when your Hail of Blades is up you hit and run. It recharges 4 seconds out of combat so you will have it up just about whenever you aren't fighting. At 5 minutes, 10 chimes would have spawned. Look for a good window to pick up all chimes on the map, and return to lane with 2 meeps in tow. Place a W whenever you are at full mana, behind yourself , and when you have a point in E, stand near the top side of the lane towards the river where the walls are. You can escape a gank as long as you get in the portal before you are CC'd. Keep looking for short trades, your meeps recharge every 8 seconds early on, so if you used them both, wait 16 seconds before your next trade since all trading is tied into your passive and Q. Try to keep your eye on the map for your jungler and portal him in if you can, without making it too suspicious. You will be leaving lane often to collect chimes and ward. Get control wards on your backs so that the enemy can't abuse your travels, or spot you and your jungler preparing a portal. Once you get Mobis Your travels are much shorter and your roams are more threatening. You can travel across the map in seconds with your E and chimes. Roam when you a back off before the enemy, or when you have the enemy farming under tower. Try to keep track of the enemy jungler and support since bard will be easy to collapse on when he's roaming into dangerous territory.

Teamfighting

Your options will vary and your choices will be important. Do you peel for your carries and just Q spam the enemy front-line, or do you flash in and look for a stun on the enemy carry. Do you look to Ult to start a team-fight in your favor, or do you hold your Ult to use it mid fight to disable the enemies champions to make it a 3v5. Different situations will require you to play differently. Most commonly you will look for picks or out of position champions with your R. You should auto their front-line since your passive will hit behind them aswell, not to mention it will slow them down too.

Items and runes explained

Redemption

this item is really great on bard. It takes 2.5 seconds to activate and your R is 2.5 seconds stasis. :thinking: Bard doesn't care too much about stats overall besides staying alive, cdr, and throwing auto-attacks. its a cheap item that has game-changing use and when used properly can heal and damage thousands of hit-points.

Athenes

This synergies with redemption for some extra AP, and it gives a little more OOMPH to your heals. The MR and CDR is nice aswell, and the AP is just enough to make your W heal and Athenes heal around 400+hp instantly

Locket of the iron solari

This is a great item when used in a team-fight. It gives you 30 armor and 60 magic resist, while having a great active for team-fights.

Liandries

This works with your passive and is a great final item. Your Meep autos will do AOE SPLASH CONE SLOWS that makes this so easy to apply later on in the game, and the damage it does really makes you a force to be reckoned with.

Elixir of iron

This is what you buy when the game deciding team-fight is about to happen and you are unable to fully complete an item.