Bard FAQ

He is a top-tier enchanter because the single-lane format guarantees his Cosmic Binding hits multiple targets. Mayhem's accelerated gold and experience growth lets him hit his movement speed cap and max shrine healing much faster than on Summoner's Rift. You become a uncatchable healer who turns teamfights with a well-placed Tempered Fate.

Start Q for early poke and stun potential, then max E second after W for the cooldown reduction on Magical Journey. A maxed tunnel lets your entire team engage or disengage every few seconds, which is critical in the constant fighting of Mayhem. You can max W first if your team has multiple melee champions who need sustained healing, but you lose lane pressure.

Always look for the second hit by angling your Q so it strikes a minion before reaching the enemy champion. The stun duration applies to both the first and second target, so hitting a minion into a carry creates a massive engage window. In Mayhem's clustered fights, you will almost always get the extended stun if you wait for enemies to group.

Scatter shrines behind your team's frontline so allies can grab instant speed and healing without turning their backs on the fight. Do not stack them all in one spot; spread them out to create a healing zone that covers multiple angles of approach. A shrine left on the ground acts as a vision ward, so place one in the side brush to spot flanking enemies.

Open tunnels through the terrain on both sides of the bridge to give your team flanking routes that enemies cannot easily predict. You can also drop a tunnel directly through the middle of a fight to let your backline escape a diving assassin. Remember that enemies can use your tunnels, so do not open a path that helps their engage champions reach your carries.

Use it to freeze the enemy frontline while your team focuses down isolated targets, or drop it on your own dying carry to buy time for cooldowns. The stasis effect works on towers, so you can save a dying inhibitor from a siege if your timing is perfect. Never cast it on a full-health enemy team unless your team has a massive AOE combo ready to follow up.

Focus on utility and movement speed with items like Imperial Mandate or Shurelya's Battlesong to amplify your team's engage and disengage. Bard's base damage is high enough to threaten squishies, but your main job is setting up stuns and keeping allies alive through sustained healing. Pure damage builds like full AP are fun but leave your team without the speed tools needed to close out games.

Chimes spawn closer to the lane in Mayhem, so you rarely need to roam far to collect them. Grab them when the wave is pushed under your tower or during a lull in fighting, but never walk past the enemy frontline for a distant spawn. Each chime gives experience and mana, so collecting them keeps your resource pool full for extended sieges.

He struggles against hard engage teams that can burst him down before he gets a shrine or tunnel off. His early game damage is low compared to other poke mages, so you rely on landing stuns to contribute before your healing scales. A bad Tempered Fate that freezes your own team at full health can lose a teamfight instantly.

Keep a shrine charged near your feet at all times so you can instantly heal and speed away if a Zed or Talon jumps on you. Use Magical Journey through the thickest terrain to break line of sight, since most assassins cannot follow as quickly. Save your ultimate for the moment they commit their full combo, freezing them in place while your team collapses.

Look for augments that reduce cooldowns, increase healing power, or add crowd-control effects to your abilities. Augments that trigger on ability hits synergize perfectly with your Q spam and constant shrine placement. Avoid pure attack damage or lethality options, as they do nothing for your supportive playstyle.

You can chase down low-health enemies using your passive chime speed and finish them with meeps and a point-blank Q stun. However, your kill pressure relies on enemies being out of position, not on raw burst damage. Focus on setting up kills for your carries rather than trying to secure them yourself.

Auto-attack champions between ability casts to apply the slow from your meeps, making it easier to land a follow-up Q. The cone damage from multiple meeps adds up in clustered fights, so position yourself to hit the enemy backline with the splash. Collect chimes to increase your meep count and damage, turning your basic attacks into a real threat.

You become a primary engage tool and disengage safety net for your team. Look for a Q stun on a priority target, or use your ultimate to isolate a single enemy for your team to burst. Your shrines provide massive sustain during long sieges, letting your team dance around the inhibitor tower without backing.