My name is zach and I am a masters plus elo support main. I specialize in champs such as Leona Rell Thresh Bard and Rakan. I am rank 2 Rakan in the world but i do not one trick him. I also play bardvery well. So this guide is for those wanting to learn thresh because he is the hardest support to master. Can follow me on twitch to come along the journey and learn how to play thresh like a high elo support!!

https://www.twitch.tv/lol_brandz

you guys can come watch this build live and see how to use it and see how it works. Come enjoy and learn something as I am also a masters plus support player. I also play in amateur and proving grounds so if you would like to check those games out you can follow me on twitch.

I have played amatuer and love the educational side of League of Legends. I want this guide to be constantly growing, so please ask questions about bard and continue to involve how he is played Everything in this guide is from my own knowledge on the champ. As i continue to play and get better at this champ i will continue to update my guide.

PASSIVE

Traveler's Call
Chimes will spawn periodically around the map for you to collect. They give a small amount of experience and mana, so make sure to use some mana in lane before you pick one up. This is the main reason that Bard's roaming is so strong. The experience you miss from lane minions is made up by the experience gained from chimes.

Q
Cosmic Binding
Bard's Q is a line skillshot that does damage and slows enemies. It will also travel through the first target, hitting a maximum of 2 targets. If you hit multiple enemies or one enemy and then a wall, your Q will stun its targets instead.

W
Caretaker's Shrine
Bard places a health pack on the ground that grows in strength over time, reaching it's maximum potency after 10 seconds. Allies can step on this shrine to gain health and a burst of movement speed. Enemies can also step on the shrine, destroying it. You can have a maximum of 3 shrines at a time.

E
Magical Journey
Bard creates a tunnel on any wall that both allies and enemies can take to travel through the wall. Allies travel faster through the portal than enemies do.

Ultimate
Tempered Fate
A long range skill shot that will place everything in its zone into a statis, making them unable to move, attack, or take damage for 2.5 seconds. This is one of the most versatile abilities in the game and has a plethora of different uses.

Fleet Footwork makes your trading patterns in lane much better thanks to the healing and movement speed it provides.


Triumph can make you deceptively tanking if you get a few stacks in a fight. Plus the extra gold on takedowns help to make up for your lack of income as a support.


Legend: Tenacity has become extremely efficient because of the abundance of CC in the game currently. It is also especially effective in the support role because of the CC heavy engage supports such as Leona and Nautilus.


Last Stand is the best of 3 not great rune choices. This can be swapped out for Coup de Grace if you want, but do not take Cut Down as you will be purchasing a lot of HP.


Conditioning is one of the best runes in the game. It is an absolutely insane power spike at 12 minutes and makes every armor and magic resistance buy that much better.


Unflinching gives more tenacity, so every thing I said about Legend: Tenacity applies here as well. The slow resistance is also nice for dodging skillshots, especially if you are low.

On Bard, you want to complete your tier 2 boots as soon as possible, so you can roam around the map faster with the increased movement speed. Plated Steelcaps are currently the best boot choice for Bard, as most of the time the enemy team will have at least 2 AD threats and they make you extremely tanky. If the enemy has only one AD threat, Ionian Boots of Lucidity are also a good choice for the extra ability haste. They are also cheaper than Plated Steelcaps which is good for supports as your income is much lower than other roles. There are some scenarios where the enemy has 2-3 AD threats but on my first base I have around 1000 gold. In that case, I will buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity just to have my tier 2 boots, even though Plated Steelcaps would give more value. However, if you can afford them, Plated Steelcaps are the best choice 9 times out of 10.

I start Spellthief's Edge over Relic Shield 100 games out of 100. While the stats for Relic Shield are better, you can stack Spellthief's Edge so much faster. Completing the first quest and unlocking your wards as soon as possible is necessary so that you roams are much more effective and you can set up vision in the river for your team. Keep in mind that a meep empowered auto attack will proc Spellthief's Edge twice, making your meep trades that much better. Remember to grab health potions as well for that early sustain.

On Bard, you want to complete your tier 2 boots as soon as possible, so you can roam around the map faster with the increased movement speed. Plated Steelcaps are currently the best boot choice for Bard, as most of the time the enemy team will have at least 2 AD threats and they make you extremely tanky. If the enemy has only one AD threat, Ionian Boots of Lucidity are also a good choice for the extra ability haste. They are also cheaper than Plated Steelcaps which is good for supports as your income is much lower than other roles. There are some scenarios where the enemy has 2-3 AD threats but on my first base I have around 1000 gold. In that case, I will buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity just to have my tier 2 boots, even though Plated Steelcaps would give more value. However, if you can afford them, Plated Steelcaps are the best choice 9 times out of 10.

Locket of the Iron Solari is the best mythic item for Bard in a majority of games. The stats that it gives you are exactly what you want: armor, magic resist, health, and ability haste. In addition, the aura it gives your allies is extremely good, blocking a few thousand damage by itself most games.

Anathema's Chains is a very unique item. If there is one player on the enemy team that is extremely fed it can be essential to help shut them down. But, the main factor that makes this item amazing is this: you can use this item to make it so you don't have to build a certain resistance. For example, if the enemy team has an AD top, jungle, and ADC with an AP mid laner, you can attach Anathema's Chains to the enemy mid laner, completely eliminating the need to buy magic resistance. This item also gives you a ton of HP, which makes all the resistances you stacked in your other items and Conditioning even more valuable.

Knight's Vow is a good item to help protect them. Just like the other items, its stats are very good as well, giving you the HP and ability haste that are so good on Bard.
Frozen Heart is the best armor item in the game currently, as it gives an insane amount of stats (armor and ability haste) in addition to its insanely good aura effect. While it is not optimal to purchase mana on Bard, the value of the other stats far outweighs the burden of spending gold on mana. I will build this item after Locket of the Iron Solari if the enemy has at least 2 AD threats, which is most games.

As a reminder, if you collect your first 3 chimes before laning starts, you will hit level 2 1 minion early and can use this level advantage to press up and harass the enemy.

A good rule of thumb for trading is to only walk up when you have Fleet Footwork, a meep, and at least 2 Spellthief's Edge stacks. You should be walking up with your meep auto attack, using the meep slow to help land your Q Cosmic Binding. Versus most enchanters you will actually slightly lose this trade, but it is worth it because you got gold from your Spellthief's Edge, getting you closer to your question completion, and you can sustain back up with Caretaker's Shrine.

Remember to place down Caretaker's Shrines periodically, incase you take a bad trade and need to heal. You should also be looking for chimes that spawn close enough to lane that you can grab without having to commit a significant amount of time.

It is important to get bush control as a ranged support. If you have a positioning advantage on your opponent, it is much easier to zone them off the wave or take a favorable trade than if your opponent has a position advantage on you. Finally, you can use your Magical Journey in the alcove to escape to your turret if you are at risk of dying 2v2 or getting ganked. This takes some practice so I recommend you load up the practice tool to make sure you have this crucial portal on lock.

Teamfighting, if done well, can be one of Bard's greatest strengths; double stuns and 3 man ults can win a teamfight singlehandedly. I often like to engage the teamfights with Tempered Fate if my team has damage or CC that I know they can follow up with, or if an enemy is out of position.
Alternatively, if you have a fed backliner on your team that you want to protect, you can use your ultimate to give them a free Zhonya's Hourglass. Deciding what to use your ult on in a teamfight requires lots of practice and split second decision making. For example, if Zac is jumping onto your backline, you can use your ult on the enemy backline to prevent them from following up, making it much easier to deal with the enemies on top of your carries. Using your ultimate correctly in this way means that a fight can be 3v5 or 4v5 for 2.5 seconds. While that might not sound like long, 2.5 seconds is an eternity in teamfights.
When it comes to your other abilities, you want to use your Cosmic Binding to look for as many stuns as possible and weave meep empowered auto attacks in to get that massive cone slow. Your Caretaker's Shrine is not the most useful ability in teamfights, but it never hurts to top off an ally with a little bit of missing HP. Finally, you can use your Magical Journey to reposition you or your allies in a fight, or use it to escape after you made a pick. Never stop looking for angles where you can hit multiple enemies with your Cosmic Binding or stun them against a wall. When it comes to your Q, 1 good stun in a fight is better than 3 slows.

Bard was designed TO ROAM so heres how to do it:
So let's start with the most basic mistake I see most Bards (and support players in general) making: walking from fountain to bot lane. I know that minion wave experience looks tempting and your ADC might spam ping you, but you need to get into the habit of walking to bot river nearly every time you leave base. Getting vision in river is the most important job for the support in the early game. Having vision control in river means that your laners will see every gank attempt, your junglers can take crabs, and you can have the fastest route to and from the different lanes.

As soon as you complete your first support quest and get Oracle Lens, it should be your goal to have vision control of as much of the river as you can (without dying for it of course). This is extra important on Bard because it will allow you to collect more chimes as well, increasing your combat power in the process. Once you have successfully cleared and planted wards, you can head back bot lane if you need to.
DO NOT let your adc get dove. So when the enemy has dive threat like Lucian Leona and a huge wave crashes please help them. If the enemy is ezreal yuumi then your adc can farm safely.