Bard Support Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities - Patch 14.21

Bard, the Wandering Caretaker, is a mystical and enigmatic support champion in League of Legends. As a celestial being, Bard travels the cosmos, guided by an otherworldly purpose to maintain harmony. Known for his roaming playstyle and unique abilities, Bard excels at providing utility and setting up plays for his team. His kit includes powerful crowd control, healing, and game-changing movement tools. Bard’s passive, Traveler’s Call, encourages him to roam and collect Chimes, boosting his mobility and enhancing his abilities. His signature ability, Magical Journey, creates portals through terrain, allowing his team to traverse the map creatively. With Tempered Fate, Bard can freeze enemies, allies, or objectives in stasis, turning the tide of battle with perfect timing. Bard is ideal for players who enjoy a flexible, high-impact support role that rewards map awareness and creativity.

Playing Bard offers a unique and dynamic experience in League of Legends that sets him apart from other support champions. Here are a few key reasons why Bard is a great choice:

1. Roaming and Map Presence: Bard excels at roaming due to his passive, Traveler’s Call, which encourages him to move around the map collecting Chimes. This boosts his mobility and lets him apply pressure in multiple lanes, making him highly effective at ganking mid-lane or providing vision control for his team.

2. Game-Changing Utility: Bard brings a wide range of utility to the table:

• Healing with Caretaker's Shrine: He provides healing through his W, helping sustain his allies in lane or across the map.
• Crowd Control with Cosmic Binding: His Q stuns enemies when they’re hit against terrain or another enemy champion, making him a powerful peeler and engage tool.
• Unique Movement with Magical Journey: His E creates portals through terrain, allowing his team to reposition quickly, escape danger, or initiate surprising plays.

3. Ultimate Impact with Tempered Fate: Bard's ultimate, Tempered Fate, is one of the most versatile abilities in the game. It can freeze enemy champions, turrets, or neutral objectives (like Dragon or Baron) in stasis, which can:

• Stop enemy dives or engage attempts.
• Interrupt critical objectives or steal opportunities.
• Set up game-changing teamfights with well-timed stasis.

4. Rewarding High-Skill Play: Bard rewards creativity, map awareness, and quick decision-making. His kit allows for unique outplays, high-impact moments, and game-turning decisions. Players who enjoy thinking ahead, controlling the map, and outmaneuvering opponents will find Bard an incredibly rewarding champion to master.

5. Playmaking Potential: With Bard, you have the ability to set up big plays. His stuns, healing, and the ability to move his team through walls make him an excellent playmaker. His roaming power also ensures that Bard can influence the game beyond his lane, often tilting the game in favor of his team.

If you enjoy a high-mobility support champion with game-changing abilities and room for creative plays, Bard is the perfect choice!

Bard, the Wandering Caretaker, is a unique roaming support champion in League of Legends known for his high utility, versatility, and playmaking potential. His kit allows him to offer crowd control, healing, and powerful map mobility, making him a great asset to any team. Bard excels at providing support not just in the bot lane but across the entire map due to his roaming capability.

1. Role: Bard is primarily played as a Support but often roams the map to influence other lanes.

2. Strengths:

• High Mobility: Bard’s passive and Magical Journey (E) give him unparalleled map presence, allowing him to roam and provide support in various parts of the map.
• Strong Crowd Control: His Cosmic Binding (Q) can stun enemies when used properly, offering great peel and engage potential.
• Healing Utility: Caretaker’s Shrine (W) provides healing, making him a valuable support for sustaining his lane partner and team.
• Game-Changing Ultimate: Tempered Fate (R) can freeze enemies, allies, or neutral objectives in stasis, creating opportunities to set up fights, disengage, or secure objectives.

3. Weaknesses:

• Skill-Dependent: Bard requires good positioning and precise timing to use his abilities effectively, especially his ultimate.
• Roam Reliant: His roaming playstyle can leave his ADC vulnerable in lane if not coordinated well.
• Fragile: Bard can be relatively squishy and needs to avoid extended fights without proper backup.

4. Abilities: Passive – Traveler’s Call: Bard collects Chimes scattered across the map. Each Chime increases his movement speed and enhances his basic attacks and abilities, making him stronger the more he roams.

Q – Cosmic Binding: Bard fires a burst of energy that slows and damages enemies. If the shot hits terrain or a second enemy, it stuns both.

W – Caretaker’s Shrine: Bard places healing shrines that give an ally health and a brief movement speed boost when activated. The shrine becomes more potent the longer it sits on the ground.

E – Magical Journey: Bard creates a portal through terrain that both allies and enemies can use, allowing for quick escapes or aggressive plays.

R – Tempered Fate: Bard sends all units in an area into stasis for a few seconds, effectively freezing them and preventing them from taking action. It can be used to engage or disrupt enemy plays.

5. Playstyle: Bard is best suited for players who like to roam and create opportunities around the map. His ability to provide vision, peel for teammates, and set up fights with his stuns and ultimate make him a valuable support in both early and late game. His roaming capabilities make him a strong influence across the map, capable of turning fights in multiple lanes, especially with well-timed Tempered Fate plays.

Bard's playstyle is ideal for those who enjoy creativity, quick thinking, and global impact as a support.

• The best time to pick up nearby Chimes is when there are no minions in lane about to die. Otherwise, you’ll fall behind in XP trying to pick them up.
• When playing against melee champions, try to use your empowered auto-attack on them every time they walk forward to last hit minions.
• Do not place your health shrines Caretaker's Shrine (W) in a position where the enemy can easily take them. But don’t place them too far away from where you can’t get to them quickly. Place them slightly behind you and the ADC.

• Basic: AA + Q + AA
• Basic: E + Q + AA
• Medium: Q + Flash + AA
• Hard: R + Q + AA
• Hard: R + E + Q + AA

1. Early game Despite having a strong Level 1, Bard has one of the weakest laning phases in the entire game. You’re not there to “win lane, win game” - at least, not your lane. Ideally you’re just looking to go even through safe trades that will allow you to constantly stack up gold via your support item. Remember that empowered auto-attacks count as two hits, so you’ll find yourself stacking the World Atlas in fewer trades than you may be used to making with other champions.

When your ADC goes back to base (via ‘B’ or the Greyscreen Express), feel free to grab a few chimes before heading back yourself to spend gold. You’re rushing for the Tier 2 boots since these will enable you to start roaming, and that is where Bard will begin to shine. Don’t completely abandon your ADC (unless the lane is completely lost), but feel free to leave them to solo-farm if a strong gank opportunity presents itself and your lane isn’t in immediate danger - i.e. pushed under your tower.

That’s the general idea at any rate, so now let’s elaborate!

As previously mentioned, the laning phase is when you’re going to see Bard at his weakest. Your ninth minion’s death marks the end of your reign of terror in the Bottom Lane, and if you’re smart (of course you are, you’re -actually- reading the guide!) you will start back-pedaling as the eighth one goes down. Level 2 tends to bring with it either heavy follow-up damage or crucial crowd control for your opponent - and for you, a minor heal and speed boost. Not ideal to say the least. However, use what you got!

Build an escape route by spacing out your three Caretaker's Shrine (W) and use the fully-charged shrines to stay healthy given that you’re more likely to be pushed out of lane if you’re constantly taking bad trades. Unfortunately Bard is simply too weak at this stage to trade well given your weak constitution and low range, so try not to go for it unless you’re holding an empowered auto-attack or stun your target with Cosmic Binding (Q). Against an all-in champion however, I’d recommend holding the Q for counter-engage/peel.

For the first few levels you’ll want to stick close to your lane, only leaving to collect nearby chimes when warding or helping the Jungler to get priority over the bottom Rift Scuttler. After you’ve skilled your Magical Journey (E) and plan to do your first recall, feel free to wander off a bit further to collect some stray chimes. Just don’t forget you’re still in the early game, so if you encounter an enemy champion, don’t push your luck. Get your chimes, get out, and (hopefully) get those Tier 2 boots.

A good early roam can be almost impossible to predict for the opposing team, and can set your solo-laners up to snowball the game out of control. Roaming Mid/Top Lane early can completely change the pace of a game, but when should you cut that tether tying you to the ADC? Most of the time a roam like this is easier to pull off after a recall, especially if you’ve since acquired your Tier 2 boots. The enemy is much less likely to have vision in your jungle or suspect you’re not just on your way back to the Bottom Lane. So don’t waste this golden opportunity and auto-path back down your lane! Put on your Jungler thinking cap - look around the map, check for laners who have been pushed in or objectives that your Jungler wants to contest (eg. an early rift scuttler), and note the locations of your chimes.

Now let’s say that with the information present (your top laner is pushed in, their Jungler is contesting the dragon, and your Jungler is pathing towards Herald for counter-pressure) you have decided to gank their Top Laner, but your Jungler isn’t coming because he wants Herald. Try to pick up as many chimes along the way (as you’re reasonably able to) for the increased speed, since you’ll miss your opportunity if they get spooked and back off. When your laner is being pushed in, there are two different tactics.

Your first tactic is to utilize your Magical Journey (E) to quickly get behind their Top Laner, allowing you to cut off their retreat and giving them almost no time to react to the play. If the resulting fight doesn’t go the way you expected however, you’ll find yourself lacking a very powerful escape tool. The second tactic is to simply rely on your innate movement speed or a lucky chime spawn to aid you in your wrap-around. Good warding will allow your target to see the gank coming, but you’ll now have your portal available for repositioning as well. When pulling off a riskier gank, such as against an opponent being pushed in, a smart portal can put you between the enemy laner and their turret to secure the kill.

After a roam (hopefully a successful one) try and make sure that you have your World Atlass stacks, and that the wave of the ganked lane is where they want it to be. You can sometimes help out your laner by helping them push the wave in after a successful kill on a gank to make sure they can get a good reset. Remember as well that you can also get World Atlass stacks from the enemy turret, so be sure to get some hits in on it if you shove the wave in. Then you can either also reset, or keep moving on the map depending on your gold, HP, etc.

While roaming is great in the early game, you shouldn’t just completely abandon your own lane though as we discussed before. Make sure that when you roam it is after you both reset, or if the wave is in a safe position for your ADC to farm. They still play a crucial role in the later game and teamfights.

Of course, not every game goes the way you’d like it to. Sometimes you fall behind early, which although not great, is still completely fine. Bard scales quite well into the game and has enough utility to completely shut down an enemy team even when they get ahead. The most important thing to do is to play super defensively and keep them from snowballing. You do not want to force plays. Let the enemy try things out, and wait for them to make a mistake and when they do, then you have to be there to punish it through. Keep repeating that until you can get your team back into a leading position.

2. Mid game Now here’s where Bard is going to start to shine. By now you should be approaching the 30-35 chime range, where you’ll find yourself with three empowered auto-attacks that expand into a cone upon impact for a decent amount of damage, and also provide a 35% slowing effect. Needless to say, when the enemy team sees three little bobbleheads waddling along behind you, they will have to be wary.

At this stage of the game, you really need to know what your team’s win condition is and play towards it. A win condition can be many things, such as giving promising team members the tools they need to succeed (kills, gold, protection), or an objective like the Dragon Soul. Though it can be difficult as a starting player to identify what your current win condition is - given that it changes throughout the game and varies from match to match - this is one of the most important skills that will come with experience. There are also certain ways to accelerate the growth of this skill, such as reviewing your old matches. Try to identify key members, objectives, and plays that led to either victory or defeat, and then follow those back to see why they happened.

There are two key things to consider while roaming in the mid-game: what objectives are either upcoming or available, and the state of all the lanes.

Various objectives exist on the map that are capable of tilting the odds in your team’s favor and these should influence where you decide to go on the map. The major ones to be on the lookout for are Dragon, Rift Herald (hereafter known as Shelly), and Baron Nashor, however, in their absence you could hone in on something like a Tier1 tower to “free” your laner and open up the map. It's very important to keep an eye on your minimap and the timers in the Tab Menu! If you know that an objective is coming up soon, you should see if your team can contest that area of the map. Do not underestimate the value of any of them, securing Shelly early can win you the entire game when snowballing a key teammate. Similarly, the dragons play a huge role in how you will have to play the late game, since you’ll need three to obtain the Dragon Soul, a permanent team-wide buff that provides unique properties.

However, that is only half of the consideration when it comes to roaming. Keep an eye on your teammates, and look for those who are making plays or show a capability to take control of the game. Playing to your weak side will often lose you the game since you can only make a finite amount of effort, and that effort, you want going towards bolstering your win condition. Don’t be afraid to cut the leash tying you to the bottom lane, remember this - you are the TEAM support, not the ADC’s pet. If you have identified your Top Laner as the most likely win condition, this is the time to start ensuring that he gets ahead and stays there.

Remember when we spoke about Bard being a Playmaker? While other champions are simply walking through the motions of a game, Playmakers are capable of taking leaps - they make the impossible, possible. As the old saying goes, it is always best to look before you leap, and to look you’re going to need vision. Without vision, that play you’re attempting to make may just end up being your last (of the game I mean, we’re all positive vibes here). Thankfully, Bard is an insanely mobile champion, so you should be relatively safe while setting up your wards compared to the likes of Nami. Don’t forget to have your sweeper going while roaming to help deny the enemy team’s vision, and to keep yourself hidden.

We will go over where and how to ward in more detail in the Warding section of the guide, so that’s all on that for now.

Nearly every portion of Bard’s kit is capable of punishing adversarial mispositioning, and though some may seem rather obvious, others are entirely unique to Bard - which makes opponents more susceptible to them, both offensively and defensively.

For instance, with the removal of the Ohmwrecker item, the only remaining way to shut off turrets lies with Volibear. However, Bard is capable of temporarily placing the tower in a stasis with his ultimate, Tempered Fate (R) (where it likewise won’t be able to attack), enabling a dive that your team might otherwise not attempt. On the other hand, split-pushers tend to ward avenues of approach to warn them of a potential collapse, but with Magical Journey (E) you can open an unpredictable one, giving your team the element of surprise once more. The uses are near limitless, so look for your opportunity! Identify their mistakes, think of the absolute worst-case scenario for someone in their predicament, and then make it a reality.

3. Late game As the game continues to progress and scaling activates, you’ll find your personal damage becoming less consequential. Though you can (and should) continue collecting chimes, at this stage other supports will begin to overtake Bard in terms of raw stats and/or teamfight utility. However, though you may be down, you’re not out! Bard still has a semi-spammable stun and a myriad of tools that can help shift the outcome of a teamfight in your favor.

Vision makes up a large amount of a support’s power, giving you the ability to pierce the Fog of War and see things that are happening without placing either yourself or your teammates in danger. Your team’s vision is their first line of defense, and you’re responsibility for the majority of it. When preparing for an objective, be sure to pick warding locations that will grant the largest degree of coverage to the potential paths which an opponent might take in response. Your goal is to obtain as much information about your opponents and their pathing as possible.

And now you must act on that information. Objectives at this stage can make or break a game, and it's your job to buy your team time. Realistically speaking, you’re not going to be dealing much damage to either the dragons or Baron Nashor at this point. Leave the objective to your teammates, and instead utilize your knowledge of the enemy movements to intercept them and slow them down with your barrage of slowing auto-attacks and double stuns.You’re just looking to buy your team as much time as possible, with the best-case outcome granting them enough to safely secure the objective before turning on an already weakened opponent. This is called zoning, and it's far more valuable than subtracting a whopping five-hundred health points from something with over five thousand.

A wiseman once said, “A fair fight is not my fight.” And that wiseman's name was Bard. When your ultimate is up, you have the power to turn every 5v5 into a 5v4/3/2/1, and you need to capitalize on this. If you want to optimize its usage, you need to identify three things: your win condition for the fight, their’s, and which one matters more.

For instance, say that your team has an extremely fed Talon, while the enemy team has their Kai'Sa. If you have been watching your Talon all game long and he has proven himself to be a competent player time and again, you may want to use your ultimate to temporarily remove the frontline and give him a window towards assassinating their win condition. Keep in mind though that if he fails, you’ve wasted your greatest advantage.

On the other hand, by using your ultimate on the enemy backline, you could effectively shut off their primary source of damage and give your team a chance to overwhelm the frontline. By the time their ADC comes out of stasis, she may be faced with a 5v2 situation, greatly increasing the odds that your team can overwhelm her with sheer numbers given her lack of protection. After all, an exposed ADC is a dead ADC.

During team fights you will want to be hitting double stuns on priority targets as much as possible. With good positioning and the right angle, you can completely shut down two people and make it even easier for your own team to follow-up with their abilities. Remember that when combined with your ultimate, you can effectively remove someone for around 8 seconds by using Q > R > Q, which should be off cooldown around the time that the stasis wears off.

Don’t forget that you can also skirt the outsides of a fight and look for terrain-based avenues that might allow you to Magical Journey (E) into position for a crucial double stun as well. Even a short portal can sometimes make all the difference between a minor inconvenience (slowed) and a debilitating ailment (stunned). So get out your protractor and get those angles dialled in!

In conclusion, Bard is a versatile and dynamic support champion that offers high utility, crowd control, and exceptional map mobility. His roaming playstyle and ability to influence the game beyond the bot lane make him a unique choice for players who enjoy creative strategies and playmaking potential. With his powerful healing, stuns, and game-altering ultimate, Tempered Fate, Bard can turn the tide of battle with precision and smart decision-making. While he requires practice and strong map awareness, mastering Bard can be incredibly rewarding, allowing players to guide their team to victory with well-timed plays and strategic movement.