It's that time again. Riot released a a new champion in the latest patch, Patch 5.5, and always, it's time to theorycraft! Theorycrafting is simply creating ways for a champion to be potentially played, that may not initially come to mind. They do not always necessarily work, as they are based on theory, not practice. With Bard only being released for the duration of a week or so, it's hard to pinpoint what theories will work straight away. First, I want to look at each of his abilities and identify ways in which they can be used in solo queue.

(art source: http://nicktheilart.deviantart.com/art/Bard-The-Wandering-Caretaker-517441529)

Passive: Traveller's Call

Bard's passive has two parts to it, but one part directly affects the other. The first half of his passive are the Ancient Chimes.

Ancient Chimes are the little chimes that randomly spawn on the map for Bard to collect. They last for 10 minutes so you don't have to rush to collect them. However, if you collect them, they give you a boost of movespeed out of combat for 7 seconds. This helps you to collect many of them, and return to lane quite quickly! They also give you experience, and 15 + 8% missing mana, so if you need some more sustain in lane, the easiest way to get mana is to collect the chimes. As mentioned, the chimes directly affect the second half of your passive, which are Meeps.

For every 5 chimes you collect, you empower these little guys who follow you around. They spawn every 12 seconds in the early stages of the game, however while you collect chimes, they begin to hurt. When Bard attacks, one of his Meeps literally throws itself at his target. At 5 collected chimes, Meeps slow the enemies they hit, which is ideal for a support. At 25 chimes, they deal area of effect (AOE) damage in a cone behind the main target, with the cone's size increasing at 65 chimes. Luckily, you can hold 4 at a time, so you can stockpile them while you collect chimes, and throw them all when you get back to lane!

I think in the early game, it is vital to get the first 5 chimes. The cone of damage unlocked at 25 chimes is nice, but the slow effect on his attack is very useful for trades in lane. It'll make the target a lot easier to land your Q and your ADC's abilities on.

Bard's Q: Cosmic Binding

For all you Vayne players out here, I'll describe it as a "condemn without the target moving". For those non-Vayne players, this is a great skillshot ability which allows you to stun your target in various ways. When you fire your Q, it'll slow the first enemy hit by 60%, but it also travels through that target. If the second part of the Q lands onto a wall, enemy champion, or even a minion, the affected units are stunned! Plus, you deal some magic damage to the second target, but it's minimal.

I think for easy trading in lane, this is a great tool. You just throw the Q through a minion so that it hits the enemy target, and it allows you to get a free auto attack while he's stunned. It is also useful while roaming, as there are often places where an enemy is close to a wall. For a free escape, Bard can just fire his Q through the enemy, onto the wall, and he's free from any threat. Although this is a relatively low cost ability at 60 mana at all ranks, I wouldn't max this skill first, due to Bard's W being so useful.

Bard's W: Caretaker's Shrine

This is definitely my favourite skill in Bard's kit. Bard's W is a conjured health shrine, which builds up in power over 10 seconds. Basically, it's a little healy thing which heals more after 10 seconds. The best part about them is they don't disappear unless visited by an ally or crushed by an enemy. To touch on just how useful this skill is, here is just one great use.

If you start W as Bard, you can visit any lane you want, or insert them in and around the jungle at certain points to ensure your jungler survives his first clear. You could place them just in front of your solo laners' outer tier turret so that he has a spare boost of hp when they need it. It's also incredibly useful if you're being pushed under your turret by your enemy bot lane. Just pop a couple of them down behind the turret if you can see them pushing, and you will easily survive any harass they throw at you. The downside to this ability is at rank 1, it costs 100 mana, which is a huge chunk of any champion's mana pool. On the plus side, it only increases by 20 mana at rank 5, so ratio-wise, you're getting around 30-40 health healed per 5 mana added to the cost of the spell, which is worth it.

Bard's E: Magical Journey

If this isn't the coolest way of flying into lane with your jungler, then I don't know what is. Magical journey is a corridor which opens up on any terrain you place it on. It's a one way tunnel, for allied, neutral and enemy targets. Maybe it's not so great that enemies can come through too, but allies travel faster than them so at least you can get to the exit first!

Magical journey isn't really useful in lane, unless you're travelling in retreat towards a turret or more allies, however it is great for roaming and ganking. The various paths this tunnel allows are incredible, and it makes for some really interesting gank paths. Here's a couple of examples of paths I have personally enjoyed seeing in use!

The first one is coming through this big bulk of land, travelling from the top into the bottom lane. It's ideally used when you have a jungler with you. You can just drop back out of sight, and then reappear with your jungler to surprise your enemies!

The second area which is a little unusual is good for ganking mid lane. If you stand in the brush in the right of the image, you can Magical Journey into mid lane with your jungler and get a jump on the enemy mid laner. It is very unexpected, and can be very effective if combined with the correct damage or cc.

Bard's R: Tempered Fate

This skill can either be your best friend, or your worse nightmare. It's an AOE spell where all inside it (allies, enemies, neutrals... even towers) are put in a stasis for 2.5 seconds. Everything inside this area becomes untargetable and invulnerable but also unable to perform any action. So this can be great if you're just about to be hit by Caitlyn's ultimate, or any other finishing move that you can predict, just pop Tempered Fate on yourself and you'll be safe (for 2.5 seconds)!

This is great in team fights, for instance, if you need to reposition or wait for some cooldowns and the enemy is trying to engage. If you've just seen the enemy support use the Talisman of Ascension active and the team is sprinting towards you, the disengage this skill creates can save your team from a possible loss of a team fight. On the flip side of things, maybe your Sion is charging forwards with Vi, and they've just engage in a great fight. You activate Tempered Fate to stop their carries doing damage, however their front line is diving your carries and they can't peel without Vi or Sion. Unless your ADC and APC are kiting gods, they're most likely going to die and get quite mad.

This spell is definitely not an easy skill to land, as it affects your allies too, which can deny your team's damage output. I think with good practice and experience, a good Bard player will work out when to use it effectively to save his carries, but also keep the damage output continuous.

Overview

Bard is most certainly not an easy champion to play. With teamwork playing a vital role in Bard's success, the solo queue is a hard place to achieve wins without practice. His kit is designed to help you, so although you may get annoyed at his Magical Journey's sending enemies with you, or his Tempered Fate stopping you dealing damage, he's only trying to help! I think in time, once people have practiced Bard a lot more, he has the potential to aid his team more than any other support. His ability to cover great distance with the use of shrines and his E can give a team great warding coverage (assuming he has a sightstone). Paired with a jungler, perhaps a duo queue partner, you can invade an enemy jungler with Bard and shut them down, and still be able to get out safely. This aptly named support will most certainly take care of your team, whether it be bot, mid, top or jungle!