Bard

Support

Gimmie All Those Chimes

Map Roaming and kill pressure.

Domination

Burst damage and target access

Electrocute

Hitting a champion with 3 separate attacks or abilities in 2s deals bonus adaptive damage.
Cheap Shot

Deals bonus true damage to enemies with impaired movement or actions.
Zombie Ward

Takedowns on enemy wards cause friendly Zombie Wards to sprout from their corpses. In addition, damaging a champion after destroying a ward inflicts bonus magic damage.
Relentless Hunter

Unique champion takedowns grant permanent out of combat MS.

Sorcery

Empowered abilities and resource manipulation

Scorch

Your first ability hit every 20s burns champions.
Celerity

All movement Speed bonuses are 8% more effective on you.

Offense

+9% Attack Speed
Flex

+5 Armor
Defense

+15-90 Health

WhyElectrocute

Thanks to his passive, Bard is able to easily proc electrocute for huge burst with either Auto->[Q] or Auto->Auto.

WhyCheap Shot

Once you've collected 5 chimes Bard's passive auto attacks slow, proccing Cheap Shot. Paired with Bard's [Q] you'll be permanently slowing and dealing True Damage to any target you wish.

WhyZombie Ward

Zombie Ward is a great rune choice in this slot as it synergizes well with Sightstone and Bard's natural roaming nature, allowing him to get deeper wards more often.

WhyRelentless Hunter

Relentless Hunter further empowers Bard's ability to roam the map, collect chimes, and get to any fight.

If you're expecting to invest in teamfight items (Locket/Redemption) early you can take Ingenious Hunter here to try and abuse their massively lowered cooldown.

WhyScorch

Scorch on Bard empowers your early laning phase trades to do big damage with kill potential with sustained harass damage.

WhyCelerity

Bard heavily relies on his ability to roam to pick op Chimes throughout the game. The bonus Movement Speed from Celerity pairs well with Relentless Hunter to help you get around the map and get to those chimes quickly.