Will he be finally in the meta?
LoL Patch 13.18: Huge Bard Changes Hit The PBE Server
Riot Games continues in their efforts to shape an optimal and hopefully captivating meta for the upcoming League of Legends World Championship in South Korea. The next planed LoL Patch, 13.18, is important within this process. Recently, the company has unveiled fresh adjustments for a rather forgotten support champion, Bard.
This action might indicate the developers' intention to infuse diversity into the bot lane meta as they approach the most significant League of Legends esports event of the year. Particularly, the bot lane, with its ADC and support champions, has been criticized for stagnancy by various esports figures and fans over the recent months.
LoL Patch 13.18: Devs Reveal Bard Changes
Bard holds a distinct and unique position among the League of Legends roster of characters. No other champion can quite match Bard's ability to execute roams, engages, and disengages in such a unique manner. Regrettably, despite having an engaging and captivating set of abilities, Bard has rarely played a role on Summoner's Rift over the past few years.
- Become a better Bard player and roam the map with the Logitech G502 K/DA Gaming Mouse
Therefore, in anticipation of Worlds 2023, Riot has unveiled several buffs for our roaming specialist. As per Riot employee "Riot Yelough," the objective is to enhance the overall player experience when playing Bard in League of Legends.
In pursuit of this objective and to level up the champion's roaming abilities, Bard has received some changes on the PBE server.
Passive:
Out of combat movement speed from chime collection
- Stack Maximum: 5 >>> 7
- Stack Duration: 7 >>> 20
W-CARETAKER'S SHRINE
- Spell now uses charges, maximum of 2
- Cooldown / Ammo Time: 14 >>> 18
- Shrine Charge Time to Full Heal: 10 >>> 5
- Shrine Movement Speed: 30% decaying over 1.5 seconds >>> 20% + 2.5% per rank + 0.05% AP decaying over 1.5 seconds.
It will be interesting to observe if more changes are needed for Bard after he's being tested on the PBE server. We are also interested in the outcome of the test phase and if these changes will make him strong enough to be a viable pick at Worlds.
Bard hasn't been played in a competitive environment for a while, so it would be nice to finally find out, if this is because of his stats or due to the overall champion design.
However, particularly for SoloQ, these adjustments could prove highly beneficial, especially in the higher Elos of League of Legends. Support champions offering robust crowd control, agile mobility, a lot of outplay opportunities, and considerable damage output should be very tempting or at least interesting for more aggressive players.
There's even a possibility that he might find a place in alternative roles and positions across the game. Therefore, these buffs might indeed reinvent Bard's gameplay. It would be regrettable if a champion as uniquely designed as Bard were to fade into obscurity like numerous other characters.
Of course, we will ensure you stay informed as further updates regarding the changes to Bard's abilities surface.
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