The League of Legends champion teased by Riot last week, Bard, has now been properly revealed. He’s a spirit, also known as the Wandering Caretaker, who hangs out beyond the physical universe. His gig is looking after the cosmic equilibrium, and in the case of League of Legends, that means getting into lots of fights.
Bard’s a bit of a curiosity, because he’s a support character whose very presence handy. He gets advantages from merely moving around, like chimes that, when collected, give him a mana, speed and experience boost. There are even wee spirits that automatically gather around him, augmenting his damage by flinging themselves at foes. That’s all from his passive, Traveller’s Call.
He can also summon health packs, create portals and freeze other champions. So he gets around quickly, and can help allies do the same, while backing them up with health, stuns, and some damage from his spirit pals.
Riot’s been toying with the idea of a highly mobile support champion for awhile, and even had one for a while before he became a jungler and then transitioned back to a traditional support role. But the desire to make a champion like that persisted. After a few changes – he was a proper musical bard for a while – the Wandering Caretaker became that champion.
Riot explains how he works in-game:
“Bard’s roams to empower both himself and his allies. Each chime he collects soups up his Meeps passive, and as he travels, he’s incentivized to help out his other lanes and jungler with Caretaker’s Shrine. Crucially, they don’t require him to hang around, so Bard can pop into mid, drop off a shrine, then carry on towards top on the hunt for more chimes. Each chime gives him a short movement boost (so he can jet around at a decent pace), experience (so he doesn’t miss out on too much minion xp), and mana. All this means he’s rewarded for roaming, and can (hopefully) leave his marksman during laning without handing them a big fat death sentence.”
You can see him in action here.