League of Legends Newest Champion, Bard, Rewards You For Roaming

[Steven Bogos]

League of Legends Newest Champion, Bard, Rewards You For Roaming

League of Legends supports who prefer roaming to babysitting may have just found their new favorite champion.

Riot Games has just announced a brand new support champion for League of Legends: Bard, the Roaming Caretaker. Bard is quite a unique champion in the game, in that he is the first support to gain advantages solely from moving around Summoner's Rift. For a bit more of an explanation, let's take a look at his abilities.

Bard's passive, Traveler's Call, causes sacred chimes to appear around the map. Collecting a chime grants him a brief burst of movement speed, experience, and mana. Additionally, he can collect little spiritual beings known as "meeps", which he throws at his opponents as he attacks.

His Q, Cosmic Binding, is a vanilla damage-dealing slowing skillshot with a bit of a twist - it penetrates its initial target and keeps moving forward. If it hits a wall, it stuns the initial target; if it hits a second enemy, it stuns both targets.

His W, Caretaker's Shrine, conjures a health pack that gains power for a few seconds. Allied champions who walk over the pack gain health and a brief burst of movement speed, while enemies can stand on the pack for a moment to destroy it.

His E, Magical Journey, is a unique movement spell. Basically, he can only cast it on a wall, and it makes a "portal" that tunnels through the wall to the other side. However, both allies and enemies can use it, so you have to be careful that your foe doesn't chase you through.

Lastly Bard's ultimate, Tempered Fate places all enemies in an area into stasis for a short period of time, where they cannot move, attack, or be attacked.



As a support who much prefers the "roaming" playstyle - that is, moving around the map and looking for plays - as opposed to the "babysitting" playstyle - which involves sticking very close to your AD carry and helping him win his lane - Bard sounds like the perfect champion for me. What do you guys think?

Source: Riot Games [http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/champion-reveal/bard-wandering-caretaker]

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[Cecilo]

Only thing I would have liked to seen is his ultimate accidentally affecting his allies as well, it seems like they just arbitrarily had his ult suddenly not affect both sides. Granted his Q doesn't affect allies in any fashion, but his W, and E do, It is possible they were just trying to avoid it being too similar to the DoTA 2 Champion ult I guess. But the consistency would have been nice.

 

[Jeremy Dawkins]

Only thing I would have liked to seen is his ultimate accidentally affecting his allies as well, it seems like they just arbitrarily had his ult suddenly not affect both sides. Granted his Q doesn't affect allies in any fashion, but his W, and E do, It is possible they were just trying to avoid it being too similar to the DoTA 2 Champion ult I guess. But the consistency would have been nice.

It says in the text in the video that his ult does affect allies and enemies. Also the ult seems exactly like Zeratul's Void Prison from Heroes.

 

[QuadFish]

It says in the text in the video that his ult does affect allies and enemies. Also the ult seems exactly like Zeratul's Void Prison from Heroes.

Also very similar to Naga Siren's ult from Dota 2. Which is not an accusation of theft or anything, more pointing out that these days it's almost impossible to create entirely original MOBA characters since the genre is so full. Aside from general design differences between games (e.g. LoL's preference for skillshots over Dota's targeted spells) there's bound to be overlap with 100+ characters in each one.

 

[War_Dyn27]

It says in the text in the video that his ult does affect allies and enemies. Also the ult seems exactly like Zeratul's Void Prison from Heroes.

Also very similar to Naga Siren's ult from Dota 2. Which is not an accusation of theft or anything, more pointing out that these days it's almost impossible to create entirely original MOBA characters since the genre is so full. Aside from general design differences between games (e.g. LoL's preference for skillshots over Dota's targeted spells) there's bound to be overlap with 100+ characters in each one.

Not to mention that his Q is a near exact copy of Windranger's Shackleshot, the only differences being that Shakleshot doesn't damage and it mini-stuns rather than slows if you mess it up.

 

[direkiller]

It says in the text in the video that his ult does affect allies and enemies. Also the ult seems exactly like Zeratul's Void Prison from Heroes.

Also very similar to Naga Siren's ult from Dota 2. Which is not an accusation of theft or anything, more pointing out that these days it's almost impossible to create entirely original MOBA characters since the genre is so full. Aside from general design differences between games (e.g. LoL's preference for skillshots over Dota's targeted spells) there's bound to be overlap with 100+ characters in each one.

Not to mention that his Q is a near exact copy of Windranger's Shackleshot, the only differences being that Shakleshot doesn't damage and it mini-stuns rather than slows if you mess it up.

It's wind runner's ability from the original dota. So it's fair game at this point if they want to reuse it.

 

[direkiller]

It says in the text in the video that his ult does affect allies and enemies. Also the ult seems exactly like Zeratul's Void Prison from Heroes.

Also very similar to Naga Siren's ult from Dota 2. Which is not an accusation of theft or anything, more pointing out that these days it's almost impossible to create entirely original MOBA characters since the genre is so full. Aside from general design differences between games (e.g. LoL's preference for skillshots over Dota's targeted spells) there's bound to be overlap with 100+ characters in each one.

Naga Siren was from the orginal Dota.
As both company contain devs who worked on DOTA, it's safe to call it a tie even if it was the exact same ability.

 

[RaikuFA]

You have a guy named Bard and he has no music themed attacks?

Lost opportunity there. Or at least a spoon themed attack.

 

[QuadFish]

Not to mention that his Q is a near exact copy of Windranger's Shackleshot, the only differences being that Shakleshot doesn't damage and it mini-stuns rather than slows if you mess it up.

Which is really the key thing. His Q and shackleshot aren't quite the same but they still combine lots of overlapping elements. You can still make unique combinations of effects but it's rare to see anything that's never been done before. Since I only know the Dota roster I've made a game of figuring out which heroes you could mash together to make LoL champions, and the reverse is just as possible. Annie = Lina + Warlock, that sort of thing.

 

[Kopikatsu]

You have a guy named Bard and he has no music themed attacks?

Lost opportunity there. Or at least a spoon themed attack.

His kit isn't musical (It'd kind of overlap with Sona if it was), but he doesn't have a single line of dialogue. Instead, Bard simply plays an instrument (or at least makes sounds similar to one). So in that way, he is kind of like a Bard.

 

[loa]

A champ with a heal that doesn't require them to run into the enemys face to be effective and doesn't double up as a damage spell?
Did riot drop their "lolaggressive rofldamage" design philosophy or something?
Cause the last thing I remember is them shitting all over soraka and karma with "remakes" while constantly nerfing all heals in general because running from the spawn to the lane is funtimes amazing in their competetive streams or some shit and how dare you use that heal as anything but a component of a fight anyway thats boring who wants to play a boring ass support healer who helps their team instead of killing stuff get out.

 

[The Wykydtron]

And step one of League's transition to becoming DOTA 2 is complete. Didn't they stop short of Kalista's ult being the troll "fuck you bad support, i'm making you intentionally feed by throwing you into their tower" by at least not giving her control of where to fire yourself?

Bard just looks like he'll dick his team over every step of the way.

"Eyyyy i've just given enemy Zed a free line to our carries"

"Eyyyy i've roamed top lane so the enemy Graves/Leona just dived my Vayne in the most effortless way possible for the fifth time"

"Eyyyy I just fucked up a perfect teamfight by freezing the perfect cc lock engage"

I predict he'll be like Naga Siren in terms of a sometimes useful get out of jail free card ult and Techies by walking around the map doing fuck all for the first 20 minutes.

Finally the assisting enemy team report button has a legitimate use.

A champ with a heal that doesn't require them to run into the enemys face to be effective and doesn't double up as a damage spell?
Did riot drop their "lolaggressive rofldamage" design philosophy or something?
Cause the last thing I remember is them shitting all over soraka and karma with "remakes" while constantly nerfing all heals in general because running from the spawn to the lane is funtimes amazing in their competetive streams or some shit.

#StrategicDiversity. Meanwhile the Warrior jungle item > Extra damage item > Full tank build is still the optimal build for 99% of junglers.

To be fair, Soraka is still a healbot. I was just happy they made her ult useful by making it remove the Ignite healing debuff before the heal goes through. That should have been there from release, no idea how they let that slip through the cracks for so long.

And they made Soraka better by nerfing the range on her heal I think, she used to be absolutely ignored bot lane because her heal was on a 20 second cooldown so she'd be able to heal once then have no impact for the rest of the 2v2 cuz lol silence in a rightclick lane is useless and they'd both die. Now if you ignore Soraka, she fucks you up because the heals on her carry are massive and neverending which is how things should be. Focus the healer or lose.

 

[Cecilo]

And step one of League's transition to becoming DOTA 2 is complete. Didn't they stop short of Kalista's ult being the troll "fuck you bad support, i'm making you intentionally feed by throwing you into their tower" by at least not giving her control of where to fire yourself?

Bard just looks like he'll dick his team over every step of the way.

"Eyyyy i've just given enemy Zed a free line to our carries"

"Eyyyy i've roamed top lane so the enemy Graves/Leona just dived my Vayne in the most effortless way possible for the fifth time"

"Eyyyy I just fucked up a perfect teamfight by freezing the perfect cc lock engage"

I predict he'll be like Naga Siren in terms of a sometimes useful get out of jail free card ult and Techies by walking around the map doing fuck all for the first 20 minutes.

Finally the assisting enemy team report button has a legitimate use.

A champ with a heal that doesn't require them to run into the enemys face to be effective and doesn't double up as a damage spell?
Did riot drop their "lolaggressive rofldamage" design philosophy or something?
Cause the last thing I remember is them shitting all over soraka and karma with "remakes" while constantly nerfing all heals in general because running from the spawn to the lane is funtimes amazing in their competetive streams or some shit.

#StrategicDiversity. Meanwhile the Warrior jungle item > Extra damage item > Full tank build is still the optimal build for 99% of junglers.

To be fair, Soraka is still a healbot. I was just happy they made her ult useful by making it remove the Ignite healing debuff before the heal goes through. That should have been there from release, no idea how they let that slip through the cracks for so long.

And they made Soraka better by nerfing the range on her heal I think, she used to be absolutely ignored bot lane because her heal was on a 20 second cooldown so she'd be able to heal once then have no impact for the rest of the 2v2 cuz lol silence in a rightclick lane is useless and they'd both die. Now if you ignore Soraka, she fucks you up because the heals on her carry are massive and neverending which is how things should be. Focus the healer or lose.

I thought Soraka's new healing mechanic was more "Poke the Damage, Let Soraka become easy to kill because her heal drains her health" Provided you are competent at dodging her skillshots she will eventually run out of health won't she?

Only thing I would have liked to seen is his ultimate accidentally affecting his allies as well, it seems like they just arbitrarily had his ult suddenly not affect both sides. Granted his Q doesn't affect allies in any fashion, but his W, and E do, It is possible they were just trying to avoid it being too similar to the DoTA 2 Champion ult I guess. But the consistency would have been nice.

It says in the text in the video that his ult does affect allies and enemies. Also the ult seems exactly like Zeratul's Void Prison from Heroes.

Ahh, well I didn't watch the video all the way through, just read the article, thank you for pointing that out for me.

 

[loa]

To be fair, Soraka is still a healbot. I was just happy they made her ult useful by making it remove the Ignite healing debuff before the heal goes through. That should have been there from release, no idea how they let that slip through the cracks for so long.

And they made Soraka better by nerfing the range on her heal I think, she used to be absolutely ignored bot lane because her heal was on a 20 second cooldown so she'd be able to heal once then have no impact for the rest of the 2v2 cuz lol silence in a rightclick lane is useless and they'd both die. Now if you ignore Soraka, she fucks you up because the heals on her carry are massive and neverending which is how things should be. Focus the healer or lose.

"Neverending" eh?
You mean until that % health cost on her heals (which means bye bye tanky soraka. Less options, more fun!) that can no longer target herself and don't have the giant armor buff leaves her at <5% hp very quickly and good luck healing yourself back up with your easily dodged starcalls that also no longer shred mres.
The only effective healer left is nami who has huge mana problems because mana is fun.
Don't you love dying because lolnomana?

I miss dawngate. Give me my viyana back.

 

[Frankster]

This champ looks to me like he should be a jungler rather then a support.

At least that's what I'll be trying to use him as when he gets released xP Look forward to me ruining pub games in a queue near you!

 

[Atmos Duality]

Bard's kit looks like it could set up some extremely creative plays...but again, LoL is a game that heavily restricts its creative plays to support a more competitive-friendly metagame (read: NOT broken as hell and hard to fix).

I can't help but feel that he is a jungler trapped in a Support's body.
Roaming away from Bot lane is just a death sentence for hopefully obvious reasons.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

I can't help but feel that he is a jungler trapped in a Support's body.
Roaming away from Bot lane is just a death sentence for hopefully obvious reasons.

I suspected he would be a jungler, agreed. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he's played that way by many people. (I certainly will try him out that way when he arrives.)

 

[Zipzip the Penguin]

Sooo...he's Janus?

 

[The Wykydtron]

To be fair, Soraka is still a healbot. I was just happy they made her ult useful by making it remove the Ignite healing debuff before the heal goes through. That should have been there from release, no idea how they let that slip through the cracks for so long.

And they made Soraka better by nerfing the range on her heal I think, she used to be absolutely ignored bot lane because her heal was on a 20 second cooldown so she'd be able to heal once then have no impact for the rest of the 2v2 cuz lol silence in a rightclick lane is useless and they'd both die. Now if you ignore Soraka, she fucks you up because the heals on her carry are massive and neverending which is how things should be. Focus the healer or lose.

"Neverending" eh?
You mean until that % health cost on her heals (which means bye bye tanky soraka. Less options, more fun!) that can no longer target herself and don't have the giant armor buff leaves her at <5% hp very quickly and good luck healing yourself back up with your easily dodged starcalls that also no longer shred mres.
The only effective healer left is nami who has huge mana problems because mana is fun.
Don't you love dying because lolnomana?

I miss dawngate. Give me my viyana back.

I think you want to see Sona if you're looking for healers with mana problems. Dying because of no mana is really easy to avoid because League has mostly reasonable mana costs and you can always buy mana potions over health ones if you feel like it and you can just go back to base. DOTA 2 might as well be Lolnomana: The Game. Lina can't even Q,W,R from full mana at level 6. Using one spell at level 1 will still hurt you at level 4 or something like that. It's fuckin' stupid.

And step one of League's transition to becoming DOTA 2 is complete. Didn't they stop short of Kalista's ult being the troll "fuck you bad support, i'm making you intentionally feed by throwing you into their tower" by at least not giving her control of where to fire yourself?

Bard just looks like he'll dick his team over every step of the way.

"Eyyyy i've just given enemy Zed a free line to our carries"

"Eyyyy i've roamed top lane so the enemy Graves/Leona just dived my Vayne in the most effortless way possible for the fifth time"

"Eyyyy I just fucked up a perfect teamfight by freezing the perfect cc lock engage"

I predict he'll be like Naga Siren in terms of a sometimes useful get out of jail free card ult and Techies by walking around the map doing fuck all for the first 20 minutes.

Finally the assisting enemy team report button has a legitimate use.

A champ with a heal that doesn't require them to run into the enemys face to be effective and doesn't double up as a damage spell?
Did riot drop their "lolaggressive rofldamage" design philosophy or something?
Cause the last thing I remember is them shitting all over soraka and karma with "remakes" while constantly nerfing all heals in general because running from the spawn to the lane is funtimes amazing in their competetive streams or some shit.

#StrategicDiversity. Meanwhile the Warrior jungle item > Extra damage item > Full tank build is still the optimal build for 99% of junglers.

To be fair, Soraka is still a healbot. I was just happy they made her ult useful by making it remove the Ignite healing debuff before the heal goes through. That should have been there from release, no idea how they let that slip through the cracks for so long.

And they made Soraka better by nerfing the range on her heal I think, she used to be absolutely ignored bot lane because her heal was on a 20 second cooldown so she'd be able to heal once then have no impact for the rest of the 2v2 cuz lol silence in a rightclick lane is useless and they'd both die. Now if you ignore Soraka, she fucks you up because the heals on her carry are massive and neverending which is how things should be. Focus the healer or lose.

I thought Soraka's new healing mechanic was more "Poke the Damage, Let Soraka become easy to kill because her heal drains her health" Provided you are competent at dodging her skillshots she will eventually run out of health won't she?

Let me explain my feelings on new Soraka. I fucking hated Soraka for so long for the reasons I said above, she couldn't fight to save her life and she had zero protection for her carry. She was bad unless you could make the lane a 100% farm lane which wasn't going to happen since there are loads of more aggressive supports around that makes 100% farm lanes hard to do.

The armour buff, while fuckin' huge was very brief and yes, Starcall used to shred MR in an AD lane so that's not useful at all really and it was a spell that relied on her being able to spam it to stack up the MR shred for increased damage but she was so easily killed she would never get many of them off before she died. Also her old passive was an increased magic resist aura around her, they changed that a few times before the true rework but I still remember the uselessness.

Basically I think of it as Soraka being an extra lifebar for your carry in lane and even in teamfights. You stick to that ************ and you spam W no matter what and he will outdamage the 2v2 pretty much every time cuz the cooldown is like 4 seconds or something crazy like that and if they switch focus over to Soraka then it's a carry getting free damage off because he's not taking focus. You are expendable. You give that HP to someone who matters. If Soraka dies giving her Draven two kills and some free farm it's easily worth.

Also the new silence is good, easily better than her old one. The ult is so much better than before and Starfall is kind of reasonable. Still not amazing yeah but it's ok. Anything negative people say about Soraka now pales in comparison to my own rage with her back before her rework.

God she was so baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

 

[Mave]

Sooo...he's Janus?

Yeah exactly what I was thinking, also loving the roaming support style now heh?