Bard/Strategy

Gameplay
is League’s first support to gain advantages solely from moving around Summoner's Rift. By constantly collecting his, he covers plenty of ground at all stages of a game, and offers his team both solid sustain with his health packs and unrivalled team mobility with his long range portals.

Laning
Even if he is a wandering spirit, Bard first has to identify the best windows of opportunity to roam before he runs off - he can't just abandon his marksman whenever he pleases. By making runs when his lane’s pushed or when his marksman has recalled, Bard can successfully roam without placing his teammate in imminent danger, then return to lane by the time he’s needed.

And while Bard roams around collecting his, he has plenty of tools to support his allies. Laying down a or two near friendly turrets gives Bard’s teammates the sustain to recover lanes that are losing, or overwhelm ones that are winning, and all without the Wandering Caretaker staying in lane. Bard’s s cover long distances in specific locations, too, gifting friendly fighters and tanks quick access to the enemy team’s jungle, and mages easy access to their own blue buff. The portals needn’t propel just Bard and his pals through the jungle, though - coordinating them with allied movement means Bard can quickly move his damage-dealing allies into lane ganks and toward objective control. That said, is best used when his enemies are both seen and distant - they serve little use when enemy assassins simply follow Bard through the portal before claiming lives.

Bard offers more than pure sustain and mobility, though, and fires out solid poke whenever he’s in lane thanks to. Though it deals meaningful damage on its own, the slow (and if procced, stun) give Bard surprising ganking potential, particularly when used in conjunction with. Enemies will have to think twice about escaping through the bottom and top lane brush when Bard can pin them to the nearby wall with a well-placed Q.

Once Bard hits six, he gains countless opportunities to secure and protect objectives across Summoner’s Rift thanks to the incredible versatility of. If the enemy team’s tower diving a stranded ally, casting the ability over them grants them a few precious seconds of invulnerability while Bard’s team comes to the rescue. The ability has offensive uses, too, like freezing a lone enemy while Bard’s team closes in for the kill, or freezing an enemy turret while Bard and his allies get to work on diving their suddenly unprotected targets.

Teamfights
The Wandering Caretaker has plenty of ways to control areas of the map come mid game. Even if his team arrives late to a dragon attempt, Bard can cast over the dragon before creating a  into the beast’s pit. Suddenly what seemed like a simple dragon kill turns into a contested dragon buff and a full-scale teamfight. Here, Bard’s role changes to backline utility support. By planting a few Shrines around his team’s objective, he gives his team an automatic sustain advantage - allowing his frontline tanks to temporarily pull back to top their health back up, or squishier allies to recover if they get chunked down. becomes increasingly useful in tight areas, too - without large spaces to escape to, it’s much more likely to tether against a nearby wall or second enemy, stunning both units while Bard’s team secure valuable kills. Provided he’s collected enough of the chimes through the course of the game, even Bard’s meeps offer solid utility, slowing and damaging fleeing enemies once the fight is over. Finally, offers Bard the chance to bring copious amounts of mischief to Summoner’s Rift. Baiting the enemy team into following him through a portal before stunning them with can bring about a quick and brutal ace, or drag them out of position, letting Bard sacrifice himself as his team emerges elsewhere from the fog of war to tear the enemy’s defenses apart.

Skill Usage

 * strength as a support comes from the average sustain of, team mobility provided by and the immense utility of  and.
 * can stun an enemy champion hiding behind a minion.
 * has one of the most flexible healing ability in the game. Although states,  can have up to 3 shrines active at once,  can actually create a fourth  by simply using the ability on a team member, which will instantly activate the  without it charging. This will not cancel the oldest  that already exists.
 * With this possibility, can leave up to three s around the map, (or bot lane if one chooses to aid the Attack Damage Carry) and activate the forth  on himself to utilise the movement speed, which helps  move around the map even faster.
 * Place on spots where the enemy will be having a hard time destroying it.
 * Placing it behind towers during laning phase is a good idea.
 * Placing it preemptively behind your team before team fights is also a good idea.
 * Placing it in places where the enemy does not have vision like brushes or behind walls it's a riskier strategy but it has its own rewards.
 * can be self cast.
 * can give mobility to junglers with no gap closers by using it to ambush a lane.
 * can be used as a gap closer to enter a fight or as an escape mechanism to withdraw from a losing one.
 * If you position the path to run down the length of the jungle wall next to a turret, can be used to get behind an opponent as they try to retreat behind their turret to escape a gank, letting you finish them off from behind.
 * is one with the highest utility in the game. Its uses include:
 * Preventing an ally's death from an incoming spell like.
 * Disabling an enemy turret to allow a clean tower dive.
 * Casting it on an objective (e.g. ally turret, dragon) can give time to the team to reach the objective to defend/contest.
 * Holding off the enemy team while finishing an objective such as dragon or baron.

Build Usage

 * is a good starting item. A empowered basic attack procs two stacks of tribute while also increasing your damage output.
 * It provides additional gold even when roaming compared to.
 * Also the slow from its upgrade,, is useful to line up a stun from.
 * Movement speed is vital on as his entire kit revolves around being able to roam and maneuver around his enemies to stun with.
 * is the best boots for roaming.
 * provides wards to see incoming ganks especially when you leave your marksman to collect.
 * covers your mana problem after placing a or two (maybe even three).
 * The heal and the cleanse is another added utility.

Countering

 * Remember that or his allies are still targetable while using . This means that champions with pulls such as  can use  to pull the target away from the portal.
 * However if timed incorrectly such as pulling and going into a portal, it could save the target and result with one less kill.