Before 1:55

Before your game even starts you need to be ready to set up health packs. Take Caretaker's Shrine should be used to help your Jungler if he is starting near you.
Put 2 down and 1 in your lane. 2 Caretaker's Shrine will equal more then 1 Health Pot. Then recall asap and come back to lane with full mana and put down 1 more Caretaker's Shrine and leash your Jungler. Then collect the 2 chimes near you to restore mana from using Caretaker's Shrine. Traveler's Call should always spawn 2 chimes near you at around 1:30. Already you have set your jungle up for a healthy clear and your lane with Sustain. Make sure your jungler has used the 2 Caretaker's Shrine before you put down a 2nd for your laner because you can only have 3 down at once.

Items

WHY THE F*** ARE YOU BUILDING TRI FORCE?

Tri Force is an optional part of this build but I STRONGLY recommend it. While it is not a first item rush (which is usually what Tri Force is. It gives you some dmg unlike all your other items and abilities, the only damaging spell is Cosmic Binding.) While it is up to you to pick to finish locket or just keep the , they both are strong power spikes, is stronger in team fights, Tri Force is stronger in lane. is also a really good substitute if you're having trouble vs AD assassins.

Runes

Bard has a real low AD at low levels and it scales quite nicely with his passive ( Tarveler's Call }

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR WARDS UP AS BARD

Bard has a lot of mobility and keeping up good vision helps you (your team) one (maybe 4) step(s) ahead of the curve. Keep up good warding bottom lane by buying a and switching over your trinket to a . After you get to full build or close to it you should urge your team to upgrade their to a for better vision, this will also allow you to sell your for combat stats. You will also need to upgrade your trinket to a , they will charge up to 2 times and you can have 3 out at once.

Magical Journey is literally an escape, a kill box, and can be used against you and your team if not used correctly. Tempered Fate is the same way, it can be used to save your team or stop an ally's ultimate. You have to be very careful how you time and use it. Most of the time it is better to use Tempered Fate on the enemy team but you can delay a cluttered fight for an ally to and put the fight in your favor. Remember when you're running away and use Magical Journey it give your allies a boost up to 50% at rank 5, where the enemy will be slower, so the longer the tunnel the better for your team. And if they're following you through it you can stun them with Cosmic Binding or Tempered Fate, Magical Journey funnels the enemy team into a small area. This is perfect for and other AOE champions like him. For instance a low bard is collecting chimes and is being chased by a low mobility , he uses Magical Journey to create a big portal to isolate the greedy ADC and is waiting at the end of the tunnel and the Magical Journey was so long gets no help and dies fairly quickly. Bard can be a front linemen or a like champion. He can stay in the back, speed up allies and heal them or he can be in the front face tanking and baiting enemies. Your play style should reflect the enemies team comp. For instance if they're are a lot of tanks bard should be tanky, like and a Randein's. If there is a lot of AOE AP on their team comp you should rush . If their team is a bunch of squishys then you should build a (Most squishy champs are AP) and a .

Pros

*Tons of Crowd Control Tempered Fate Comsmic Binding
*Decent Mobility Magical Journey
*Sustain Caretaker's Shrine
*Really fast

Cons

*Poor wave clear
*Low Attack Damage early game
*Reliant on a good ADC

Bard has great mobility, baits, and crowd control. He brings a lot to a well communicated team. If he falls behind he can be rather poor and will rely on Traveler's Call for experience, and you can use that help your ADC solo farm to catch up and turn a game around. All and all it is more of if you can do it with Bard it is when can you do it? My best of luck to you fellow summoners out there on the Rift and I hope i opened your eyes to this wonder full champ.

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4/2/2015
*Fixed Skill Leveling Eroor