First Impressions: Bard, the Wandering Caretaker

By Helmight

Our newest addition to the League has finally been revealed! Click here for Riot's official announcement, and read on below for our thoughts about Bard, the Wandering Caretaker.




Ability Rundown

Passive - Traveler's Call
Ancient Chimes: Bard’s presence causes sacred chimes to appear on the Fields of Justice. Collecting a chime grants Bard a brief burst of movement speed, experience, and mana. 

Meeps: Bard’s presence attracts small spirits known as meeps to his side. Whenever Bard attacks, a meep throws itself at his target, dealing extra damage before disappearing back to the spirit world. As Bard collects more chimes, the meeps that follow him grow in both number and power. 

Bard's passive is what sets him apart as one of the most interesting supports to date, as it encourages him to roam across the map seeking chimes to increase the power of his meeps. It gives him a bit of a Thresh-like feel, as I'm assuming that Bard's chime stacks don't fall off after his first meep-empowered attack - provided the game goes on long enough, Bard could deal some pretty serious damage. It's also another two-part passive, which I'm sure is bound to draw the ire of some people after Yasuo and Azir's released, but in this case I feel that both parts of his passive work well together.

Q - Cosmic Binding
Bard fires out a burst of spirit energy in a line, damaging and slowing the first enemy struck. After Cosmic Binding hits an enemy, the burst of energy continues through, searching for secondary targets. If it hits a wall, it stuns the initial target; if it hits a second enemy, it stuns both targets.


This gives me a very Braum-esque vibe in that it's a conditional stun tool and Bard's primary harass in lane. The fact that it works through minions and against walls though means that it's a much better spell in my book. Bard will probably end up maxing this first most of the time, since it also helps his ganking presence.

W - Caretaker's Shrine
Bard conjures a health pack that gains power for a few seconds. Allied champions who walk over the pack gain health and a brief burst of movement speed, while enemies can stand on the pack for a moment to destroy it.

This is a really odd spell, but it works with his roaming style of play. Dropping off heals for your allies under their turrets during the early-game is an interesting concept that will certainly make people love you - though the ADC you abandoned in the bottom lane may not love you quite as much. The fact that you have to wait for its full effect is kind of lost on me, since I don't see enemies being able to contest the shrines too much if you're placing them under tower, but it's overall a unique ability with lots of potential.

E - Magical Journey
Bard conjures a portal on a target wall. The portal tunnels through to the far end of the wall, granting one-way passage to all champions, friend and foe, who enter it.

Aladdin fans rejoice - you can finally show your teammates the world by taking them on this Magical Journey.
Jokes aside, this looks like one of Bard's more interesting spells and potentially the most powerful. Giving your allies a free, long-range Flash is pretty sweet, though I suppose it's tempered by its inability to be cast anywhere except on a wall. Enemies moving through the portal doesn't seem like it's a huge deal, but it does limit Bard's escape options if he gets caught while roaming. Since it doesn't persist like Rek'Sai's tunnels, I'm curious as to how helpful it'll be in the early game. Bard will probably want this maxed at level 18, since it's all utility.

R - Tempered Fate
After a brief delay, Bard places all units in a targeted area - friend or foe, including champions, minions, monsters and turrets - in stasis. Frozen units are immune to all damage until the effect wears off.

 Now THIS is when I finally got excited about Bard. The uses of this are many - freeze a teammate to save them from Ignite, freeze a tower to dive with impunity, freeze the enemy team to set up a perfect teamfight, or freeze an objective to keep the other team from taking it. For this ability alone, I can predict that we'll see Bard in the LCS - or at least often enough in soloqueue.

Playstyle
Bard's got a unique laning phase in that he actually wants to roam as much as possible, instead of babysitting his ADC. This has pros and cons. On one hand Bard will be able to exert more influence over the game by visiting every lane and pairing up with his jungler. However, there's a reason the ADC/Support lane exists, and I can't think of many ADCs that can survive for extended periods of time without their support around.

His teamfight presence is a bit weird too. Bard doesn't have a ton of damage unless he's really farmed up his meeps, but his ult can potentially swing entire teamfights when employed correctly. Primarily, Bard is interested in setting up plays for the rest of his team. He can bait enemies into his team by pretending to flee over a wall with Magical Journey, or set up health packs in the jungle around an objective so his team can grab healing on the way out. Bard's presence in a siege is also quite effective, given that Caretaker's Shrine can top up his allies and Tempered Fate can set them up for a risk-free dive.

Conclusion
All in all, Bard is definitely going to take some getting used to. He has a very unique kit and playstyle, but has the potential to be quite good indeed. I'm looking forward to playing him on release day!