Bard, the newest hit with supports around the world, professional and amateur, all the way down to Bronze league. Everybody has tried their hand at this majestic portal maker. Whether or not you stick by his side and learn his true power is a different story, Bard can be a hard champion to learn, even harder to master. There are many layers to his gameplay, more so than other supports. Along with that though you have a wide variety of tools in your kit, which is why, since release he has been gaining popularity without slowing down, if anything Bard is gaining traction since his release.

Bard and Thresh have few similar abilities, but they do have one major thing in common, and that is a very strong range of skills. Hard to learn and harder to master the both of them, which entices many support mains. They want to learn these champions, become the best and show off to people by making amazing plays that only their champion can do. It could be showing an incredible amount of mechanics on Thresh like this play by BunnyFuFuu all those years ago, or an amazing show of timing and leading enemies to win the game such as this play by rookie TSM Biofrost. As you can see the clips here are insane, and only those champions could make such big plays, which is what draws people to them.

Lately though, Thresh hasn't been seeing much play and Bard has been seeing increasingly more play as time goes on, which leads to my question, is Bard the new Thresh? I've went over some reasons why I think that may be the case, because they both have very strong, some might say overloaded kits, not to mention smooth as butter synergy between their abilities at a high level. This along with the personalities of the champions make them lovable fan favourites.

(A great example of using Bard to his fullest from an LCK match a while back.)

Similarities of the two, as I mentioned earlier, are a bit lacking skills wise but they can both do the same job, or vastly different jobs depending on what needs doing. They both have exceptional follow up to other people's abilities, but to their own as well. Both Thresh and Bard have a way of getting teammates out of trouble, albeit Bards Magical Journey has definitely more potential as you can save the whole team rather than just one. CC chains may have wandered into your head by now, and you'd be correct. The pair both have deadly combos that leave their enemies wondering what they could have done if executed correctly.

In lane, Bard is strong. Bard has a heal, and excellent peel. Bard's heal is useful, despite it doing no damage, at rank 1 max charge, it can almost heal as much as a health potion. Just imagine having 3 health potions waiting for you under your tower after trading. It's a very strong way to abuse a lane and push a lead. Forcing trades is a great thing to do with Bard. Bard not only has a strong ability for lane, but his empowered auto attacks with his meeps are a good chunk of damage some might not be expecting. Much like Bard, Thresh has strong lane presence, plenty of damage with his Flay passive for harass and cutthroat pick potential. For laning, Thresh has the better save tool with the Dark Passage, and better CC, besides at level 1 where Bard is among the strongest champions. If Bard gets Meeps though, his damage is compelling.

C9 BunnyFuFuu utilizes Dark Passage to save C9 Sneaky from sure death...sentence.

Thresh is very good at roaming utilizing all of his CC, but Bard, he was made for it. Not only that, but he actually gets stronger when he roams, collecting Meeps along the way. With chimes that spawn all over the map, it's part of Bard's gameplay to leave lane to collect them. Ending up in the midlane is no strange thing for a Bard player. It's unfortunate enough for the AD Carry player, but Bard doesn't care about that. He has a terrific kit for ganking, especially at level 6. His tunnel makes for effortless moving around the map, and a shock for laners who suddenly have an opposing Bard in their lane behind them, which is even worse if Bard brought friends. Don't get me wrong, Thresh absolutely has great roaming potential with his CC, but he can't get around faster than Bard, which is a problem. See CC is a great thing to have when roaming, a necessity even, but it's riskier with Thresh because leaving your AD Carry alone bot lane for too long can result in a very upset carry, which can be funny, but possibly devastating.

Setting up team fights is a Bard specialty, an amazing example is the Biofrost play I linked to earlier where he Tempered Fate's 2 main members of Immortals. You can do plays like this at all points in the game from extensive distances. Even in lane, to set up a good 2v2 or a gank, Tempered Fate is an amazing ability that there are a seemingly endless amount of possibilities for. If hit correctly, the follow up CC from his Cosmic Binding will consistently end up in kills for you. Thresh can't quite beat the range of Bards set-up although he has good tools himself. Hitting a hook will most times be enough to start a team fight if the player chooses. Follow up by lanterning in a front liner and you got yourself a good looking fight, though there's not much you can do after that. Thresh is an exceptional peeler if needed though.

CLG Aphromoo hits a massive 4 man Tempered Fate while NRG try to run away, going on to secure all 4 kills almost right away.

Overall both of the champions are extremely good picks. They both work for almost all situations, but Bard works for more at the moment though. I think the reason Bard is being picked frequently is his long range engage and pick potential. He's able to move around the map very swiftly, strong at most points in the game, he has great follow-up and... I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that. Thresh, on the other hand, is similarly good in lane, he can engage at a half a screen away which isn't bad, but compared to Bard it darn sure is. In general, these are champions that have very strong kits that can fit a lot of team comps comfortably that support mains can pick to actually have an impact in their own way, whether it be roaming or trying to stay in lane and win that way.

Luckily enough, a Challenger support main that goes by the name of TheLastAirbender in game was having an AmA on the League of Legends subreddit when I was working on this, so I took the time to ask him what he thought about Bard's rise to popularity. Here's his answer in its entirety.

TheLastAirbender - Challenger Support (twitch.tv/omnilotus3211)

"I would personally say it's because there are not really many aggressive supports that can shut him down in lane as before (such as Alistar) so his laning has become a little better. But I would say the biggest factor is his E, ult and damage. His E can allow him to ward in dangerous spots a little safer, avoid ganks (did you know if you click the portal before a stun is applied you will still enter the portal stunned) and can help his team gain really good positioning. His ult can make or break a teamfight. A three man Bard ult in the middle of a teamfight is absolute havoc for the enemy team.

Bard ult can also catch out extremely valuable targets such as their mid and AD player. Bard's damage is also really strong in lane, even to the point that he can clear a Janna shield with two autos and a Q. He's just a really versatile support with a lot of CC and skill potential and due to the recent surges in non-aggressive supports in lane I think he has an easier time early game."

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