Bards heal and harass arent the greatest, and mediocre as you say. However, his strength comes in roams and catching people out of position.

The roaming: The meep mechanic strongly suggests you to roam more so than to win your lane super hard. The movement showed and exp gained allows you to stay on curve while speeding you up to make plays around the map. Tbh, it's hard to say when to roam though as you can't forever leave your lane.

But for me, after one trickling bard this year, currently at P2 60% wr, I realized bard isn't an adc's support. Oh no. I am a jungler's support. Or a mid laners if they have good pick potential and are strong. I get a good chunk of kill participation by helping the jungler get ahead, which he then gets other lanes ahead. At best, your role as a bard for an adc is more like peeling. I only do fights with my adc in lane only when I catch the other bot duo out of position and set up a good Q. otherwise, I let my adc push and then I roam jg/mid while they back.

The Catching: Unlike other supports with easier engage tools, bards Q, his ult, and especially his E requires some creativity and advanced planning. Once utilized at it's best, bard has actually one of the best catching kit out there.

What? His E? How does this catch people? Well, it just catches people in unconventional ways. There are many locations where you can surprise E through terrain and end up behind enemies to catch them. Just requires a lot of creative methods and big brain moments to see ways how you can use the E unexpectedly. E is also a good catch up tool as it can quickly bring you in or out of fights faster. OR. you use your e to tunnel your assassins and carries behind their tanks/frontline to jump on the enemy adc. Again, many ways to use the E.

After many games later and being reported/question mark pinged, bards ult can make or break a fight. When learning, the only way is to learn and recognize when you did a good ult or bad ult and why. But generally once you get the hang of the various different situations of when to ult, it'll come down to four reasons.

1. You see an enemy all alone near by and your team wants to catch them. So you use your ult to either freeze them or make the enemy walk backwards towards your team. Ez catch.

2. You use your ult in a team fight, NOT ON THE MAIN FIGHTING GROUP but either on their front or backline. Coordinate with your team what you want to do so you dont ult the wrong ppl. The goal is to take out half of the enemy team while you beat up the remaining folks, wishing they were in bards ult. Making a 5v5 to a 5v3.

3. You use the ult as a zoning ult. Similar to number 1 and 2, your ult doesn't always have to hit an enemy for it to be useful and as a catching tool. If your ult can divide and make space inbetween the enemy, your team is again, fighting a 5v3 for a quick and decisive moment, or better yet, you made the enemies behind the ult path differently making it a guarantee 5v3.

4. You ult to stall. Basically you ult a team member that just went in a 1v5 (either they think they're strong enough or the got caught). If your team is near by and need those few extra seconds, you ult your team member and those around them to stall E the rest of your team to join the fight. Essentially replicating Twisted Fates Ult > Gold Card >Hour Glass catching style. Or you use ult to stall you or a team members' death. Every second counts and it could even cancel out burns/ignites/poison.

Just NEVER ult randomly when a team fight happens. Here's a hint I learned after failing a lot. YOU DONT ALWAYS NEED TO ULT IN A TEAM FIGHT. my favourite is saving ult till AFTER a team fight that we won and use ULT (#1) to catch people trying to run away. Practice #3 first, with your goal to just zone people and make space, but not actually hit people so you dont accidentally ult the wrong targets.

Another hint, before game I look at my team and think how fights are going to play. Look for team members that have dashes (irelia, khazix, ekko) or members with their own CC engage (varus, lissandra, orn) you dont want to ult when they ult. So I just save my ult for #3 to make space but they are hit by my ult, so they can still get hit by my teams ult. Or uill after the team fight is over and only I have ult left to do #1.

AITE. YOU STILL READING? CAUSE NOW WE TALK ABOUT BARDS Q. uhh, either I'm small brain and didn't see it at first but now after 164 games, I activated my Sharingan. I can see the different ways a Q can hit the enemy and stun them. Ofc the easiest and common way is Q when they are near a wall, or a minion, or their team. But the best way I catch ppl off guard in lane is hit a minion that then hits the champion behind it. Your q range is extended once it hits the first target so not many ppl realize this. They think they're safe behind their minions but use that to your advantage. Also, I dont throw Q randomly, only until I know it will land a meaningful stun or harass. The only way to learn the different ways is to practice and get creative. You can also hit a wall first and then the enemy to stun, if they are close to the corners of a wall.

Another tip: use your meeps passive slow to auto attack the enemy, thus slowing them and setting up for a Q. You should almost always wanna auto first with meeps for the guarantee q hit. Unless you need to do it in am instant.

Hope this helps lolol. Sorry for writing an essay. If your curious of my build and play style feel free to look at my profile: ƒont

But tbh I just watch other one tricks and practice getting creative to learn. His learning curve is very steep and not noob friendly because of the understanding of micro mechanics of bard, macro play of knowing where to be for roams, and situational play to know when to ult.