Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight, featuring Bard, the Wandering Caretaker.
Bard is a cosmic guardian who manifests on Runeterra whenever the universe's equilibrium
comes under threat. In game, Bard plays the role of a support, and offers his allies incredible
utility along with decent sustain and mobility as he roams around the map.
Because Bard's all mysterious and cosmic and stuff he has two passives: Ancient Chimes
and Meeps.
Bard's presence causes various collectible chimes to appear across the map. By wandering
over them, Bard collects these relics and gains a burst of movement speed, a portion
of his missing mana back and a little bit of experience.
Bard's movement speed buff stacks up to five times if he collects multiple chimes in quick succession, but falls off
if he enters combat. Although Ancient Chimes can appear throughout the map, they'll generally
appear in areas near Bard. Finally, note that chimes pop up on Bard's minimap as soon as
they appear, while enemies will only see them if they have direct vision.
Head out to collect chimes whenever you're running low on mana and your lane buddy's
in a relatively safe spot. The speed boost will help you quickly return to lane with
that all-important magic juice.
Bard's second passive is Meeps. As he wanders and fights throughout the Rift, adorable little
spirit creatures called meeps come to Bard's side, following him and launching themselves
at whomever Bard attacks before disappearing back into the ether. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
See, meeps become more powerful as Bard collects his chimes, so while he only starts out with
one lonely meep, once he's collected enough chimes, he'll have frickin' tons of meeps
at his back. They don't just grow in numbers though – Chimes also improve each meep's
attacks, eventually giving them awesome bonuses like area of effect damage, slowing attacks,
and muscles, so they deal extra damage. Finally, as numerous as meeps can get, they're total
homies to Bard, and will stealth when he's hiding in brush.
Use meeps to continually poke down your enemies in lane. They provide decent early damage,
and can help you win trades.
Bard's Q is Cosmic Binding, a medium range skillshot that slows and damages the first
enemy struck. Once Cosmic Binding hits its target, it continues on through them, seeking
a second target, stunning them both if it finds one, or stunning the initial target
if Cosmic Binding hits a wall instead. Remember that Cosmic Binding can tether to neutral
monsters as well as player-made terrain, so keep an eye out for Cataclysms, Pillars and
barons.
Line up Cosmic Binding during laning so your Qs hit enemy minions and then their champions!
Being able to strike the enemy marksman through their minion wave can be really powerful,
particularly when you coordinate with jungle ganks or even just general trades.
Up next is Bard's W, Caretaker's Shrine. Bard places a small health pack on the ground that
he and his allies can collect to restore health and gain a quick burst of movement speed. Though Caretaker's
Shrine can be collected as soon as it's placed, if it's left alone for a few seconds, it'll
improve, and give whoever grabs it extra health.
However, leaving health packs out puts them at risk - Bard's enemies can destroy Shrines by stepping on them.
Finally, Bard can only place three health packs at once, and they'll last until they're consumed
or destroyed, or until Bard places a fourth Shrine.
Place Shrines in safe areas so they can safely charge up. Enemies are much less likely to
destroy them when they're out of the way, and allies can let the packs improve for extra
health when they want to keep fighting.
Bard's E is Magical Journey, a short range skillshot that creates a temporary portal
on a wall. Once it's been created, Champions who click on the portal are taken on a -
yep! - magical journey to the far end of the wall, no matter how long the contiguous piece of
terrain is. Here's the kicker though: it's not just Bard's teammates that can use the
portals - all champions can, though Bard's allies do travel slightly faster than his enemies.
Portals only operate in one direction, so champions can't travel back through it once
they've reached their destination. But, if they're fast enough to return to the start,
they can journey again.
Finally, champions traveling through portals are still vulnerable to damage and crowd control effects
so watch your ethereal butt if you want to journey with enemies nearby.
Use Magical Journey to surprise enemies. Bard can get through terrain faster than most other
champions and use his sudden positional advantage to line up his Q.
Bard's ultimate is Tempered Fate, a long range skillshot missile that places all units hit
- literally everything that can move or attack - into temporary stasis.
While in stasis, units are immune to absolutely everything - all damage and crowd control effects -
until the effect wears off.
There is one caveat here: Tempered Fate does not affect champions using certain abilities.
Uninterruptable moves like Vi's Assault and Battery and enemy spell shields and black shields will block this.
Tempered Fate has a whole bunch of uses, one of which is to protect your allies from lethal ranged damage.
Seriously though, it's a super versatile ability.
Bard might be one of League's strongest roaming supports, but he still needs to know when
he can safely roam and when he should stay with his lane pal. Basically, if you frequently
wander off to collect your chimes regardless of the state of your lane, your team's going
to have a Bard time. Here are three things to keep in mind before you go wandering off.
Whenever you roam as Bard, you instantly give up a ton of pressure in your lane, so make
sure you always have a specific goal in mind when you leave. Maybe you've spotted a few
chimes that'll let you place deep wards in the enemy jungle, or you want to roam mid
to help a laner who's doing poorly, it doesn't matter - just make sure you leave for a reason,
and return as soon as possible.
Before you leave to pick up chimes or take care of other lanes, make sure that your own
lane's in good health. Let your teammate know you're leaving lane for a few, make sure they're
in a place they can safely farm, and place a few health packs down in case of trouble.
Even once you leave, keep an eye on your lane just in case of tower dives so you can hurry
back or maybe lay down an ultimate.
Bard doesn't bring much damage to a fight, so optimize your roaming by teaming up with
a hard-hitting buddy. The combination of Bard and a teammate journeying behind the enemy
laner will often lead to a devastating combination of crowd control and murder.
Cosmic Binding might not do a huge amount of damage to a single target, but if you can
hit two champions, the double stun is MASSIVE. Here Bard waits until his enemies are heading
straight toward him. This pretty much guarantees the double stun and singlehandedly turns around
the fight for first blood.
Though Bard's health packs gain power the longer they're left alone, you can cast it
directly on allies in emergency situations for a quick heal and movement speed boost.
Here, Bard's quick reactionary shrine on Vi helps her get out with just a sliver of health.
Just to prove he's extra awesome, he then turns to Janna, stuns her against a wall with
cosmic binding and uses ignite plus a meeped up basic attack to finish her off. MONSOON
THAT, PUNK.
Bard's Magical Journey can get allies into fights and help secure objectives super quickly.
That's great. However, just because you can take a magical journey doesn't always mean
you should. Here, the two squishy members of the team journey right into Brand's face.
After being bombarded, he's forced to ult himself, flash away, and... well, yeah - it's
bad. Look, just make sure you know what you're actually getting yourself into when you take
journeys like this.
Remember that Tempered Fate has a huge number of uses. After being caught attempting to
sneak dragon, Bard uses his ult on both himself and two enemies, freezing them as Pantheon
drops in to turn around a losing fight. Though Grand Skyfall doesn't deal any damage here,
because SOMEONE CAN'T TIME THEIR ULT PROPERLY, Tempered Fate still wins the fight. Though
Nami places a nice bubble, Bard sets up a magical journey around it to grab another kill.
Finally, another great way to use Tempered Fate is to proactively set up your allies.
Hitting three enemies with his ultimate provides a “guaranteed” wombo combo. All the same,
Bard lines up a perfect double Cosmic Binding off of Orianna's Shockwave and they pick up
two easy kills.
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