Haven't had a chance to play it, but I really like the idea of a non-Wizard spellcaster that still keeps their spells in a book of some kind. So a poet Bard who uses a book of poetry as their spellcasting focus would be an ideal candidate for that concept. Each spell would be a small poem of some kind, and them learning new spells would be described as them composing new poems. Feels like a very Elvish concept, so would probably be one of those. As for subclass, Lore, Creation or Glamour would all be pretty fitting. Spirits would also work, since they already focus on using non-musical objects as spellcasting foci. More on reddit.com

Let’s go through it point by point: “His CC is unreliable” That is true. However, in exchange, if it does hit, it’s an above average stun duration on two champions. If we to compare it to someone like Leona, her stun is point and click (more reliable) but the duration is lower and it only hits one target. In terms of the reliability, there are a ton of ways to make it more reliable. The first is that your meep autos slow your target, making it easier to land the Q. With the typical tank build, you can also move closer to guarantee the hit at melee range. Both your portal and ult also allow for your Q to guarantee a stun, by stunning enemies as they follow you through portal and timing your Q so it makes contact the moment they come out of R stasis. “His ult is unreliable” Same argument as above where something that’s harder to hit also has a higher ceiling of potential effectiveness. I don’t think you should see his ult as an ability that disables enemies, rather it’s disabling an AREA. As an example, if you’re chasing an enemy, ulting in front of them forces them to walk backwards towards you, flash, or get hit by your ult. If you’re fighting someone and there’s a jinx walking up to follow up, you can ult that back line to either force jinx to walk back and give up damage, flash, or walk up to get stunned and potentially get CCed by you. This example is only talking about ulting enemies. We haven’t even mentioned ulting allies to save them from damage or CC, ulting tower against a herald charge, ulting baron to stall, ulting blast cones to prevent escapes, ulting yourself to stop ignite, and a whole lot more. “Fast movement doesn’t make a difference” His fast rotations are a prime reason why he’s such a strong roamer. Because of the move speed from chimes, he can get to the target area faster than pretty much any other support, and can also get to the next play faster. Think of someone like Quinn who has the ability to essentially catch waves on any lane because of her move speed, or get to a play before anyone else. In terms of the unreliable CC despite the movespeeed, see above. “E is telegraphed” In your example, it seems that you’re describing portaling into a lane and essentially being too late as the enemy has already seen the portal and ran away. First of all, you travel mad quick through the portals, so unless you’re placing portals from max range then taking 2 seconds to actually go into portal, you should be able to appear in their lane maybe 1.5 seconds max after portal is placed. Another aspect that’s overlooked is the fact that you’re travelling through walls, which are designed in the game to prevent flanks. By bypassing the limit of a wall, you can portal way behind an enemy to cut off any escape. Remember that your meep slows are not only guaranteed, but scale over chime count, meaning in mid game with 30+ chimes, you slow EVERYONE in a large cone by 30-40%, which can scale up to 80% slows if you get enough chimes too. This is why bard is called a catcher, since you can keep someone slowed and stunned for illegal amounts of time. Hope this was helpful! More on reddit.com

Watch Lathyrus, Feviknight, and Polypuff More on reddit.com

I generally ban Pyke if I'm playing Bard. Some may say it's noob to be scared of Pyke but the matchup is just awful. Obviously dodge his Q, but you can't poke him because he heals. He can E dash through your Q, he can turn invisible and stomp your Shrines. You don't really outrange him and he can yank you out of E. He's one of the only supports that can contest your roam, and his ult is so fast it's difficult to Stasis your teammates before he gets it off because of your windup animation. More on reddit.com