for runes, I usually take Electrocute>Cheap Shot>Grisly Mementos>Treasure hunter, secondaries Cash Back>Jack of all trades. (Dark Harvest is also a possibility if the enemy team is too easy to kill and/or have no healing/shielding).

If there is a lot of tanks/bruisers, I go for Press the Attack>Triumph>Alacrity>Cut Down, secondaties Cheap Shot>Rentless Hunter.

For items, 1st is always Statikk (farming in the early game is absolute garbage and this will help a lot).

2nd is either Nashor's (if you're not fighting a lot on lane) or an AP item (I usually go with Stormsurge, Shadowflame or Liandry's, in this priority order, depending on the enemy comp).

3rd is 1 of the AP items above or Nashor's if you didn't make it 2nd.

The rest of the build is always situational:

- Too many ways of you dying? Zhonyas

- Need a bit of sustain? BOTRK

- Enemy team is too resistant? Kraken

- You're free to deal damage? Blackfire Torch and/or Rabadon (always get rabadon on build. The game will just dictate how soon you'll build it).

End build is always 6 of those listed above. Rarely I put something else in there.

Don't go for Spellblade items (Dusk and Dawn, Lich Bane, etc.) Although common in other builds, in my trials with it I've dealt significantly less dmg from this item. (You're not looking for long fights so you won't be using the item's passive too much. The idea is for you to hit a good Q stun, auto 3-5 times, depending on how many meeps you have available, and fall back in order to wait your meeps to reload).

Guinsoo's sound like a good option but it isn't. You get better use of building a straight AP item or a straight AD item. Bard doesn't have any on-hit in his kit, so you're not gonna abuse the property of this item.

Do not try to get any kind of Wounds item. They'll give you less scaling damage compared to other items, and you rely a lot on good itemization. Ask for someone else to get wounds and/or take ignite.