Talk:Bard/@comment-26034614-20150226003027/@comment-26140213-20150226053347

His mana costs are actually quite low, especially considering he gets a ton of free mana from gathering chimes. Support heals are (almost) always gated by large mana costs to prevent infinite sustain. His heal also gives a really nice speed boost that can sive lives, reposition or even help on the offense when initiating or chasing enemies. If left to fully charge it heals for a lot more than Nami's heal (per target).

His Q has the same AP ratio as many other nukes, such as Lulu's Q, and AP Lulu is still a very viable thing (still seeing play and getting wins in LCS and other pro play). Similar to Lulu, Bard's passive is a large source of his damage, which isn't to be underestimated. Early game his passive provides some great harassment and cc. Late game it can provide a large AoE burst of damage that also slows. But, really, he's really not built to stack AP items and deal tons of damage. He's made to support through and through and his damage is sufficient for the job.