Design of Legends : Bard’s the Word

08:00 AM April 11, 2015

If you’ve been playing League of Legends recently, you have undoubtedly come across the newest champion Bard.

And if you’ve come across Bard, you would have most likely sided with one of two camps: either he’s a skill-intensive character with the potential to be the best support ever designed by Riot or he’s a haphazardly thrown together champion with a higher chance of trolling or jungling than actually fulfilling his intended role.

But how well-thought out of a character is Bard anyway? Is he merely a Miyazaki-inspired support that can save friend and the occasional foe with his mystical ultimate? Is he a fat, floating Alistar with Pikmin? And what’s up with his distinct lack of any intelligible voice-over? We try to answer all these questions and more in the first edition of “Design of Legends: Bard’s the Word.”

I’m Kyle, MOBA player and design person, and I’ve been playing League Of Legends since Season 2. Over the years I’ve kept a close eye on how Riot’s developed their design philosophies, visuals and basically how they put the crazy game known as League of Legends together. I’ll be your guide in this series about how Riot’s designs are more than just gameplay — they affect the identity of League Of Legends.

What on earth was Riot thinking with Bard? Here we have a quote straight from Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, Lead Champion Designer:

It’s worth noting that this role has belonged to Alistar in the previous seasons, mainly because of his early access to a Malphite-like ultimate by level two (which allowed him a hard disable usually reserved for ultimates), his actual ultimate (because resiliency plus additional damage is overpowered), his heal (which is shortened when a nearby enemy dies), his passive (an AOE damaging aura that activates each time he casts anything)… well, basically Alistar’s entire kit.

To address this unintended meta as well as to open new gameplay depth, Riot came up with Bard: a champion whose ability to roam the map is not only essential, but useful to the team.

So now the question is: how good is Bard’s design in fulfilling this role?

To see how well this goal is reached, we’ll make a tally as to how effective the design aspects hold. Each time it hits the mark, it’s one point to Riot games. Each time it doesn’t, we sacrifice a mushroom to Sat– I mean, Teemo. Keep in mind that this system will be purely arbitrary, though efforts will be made to make the markings as rational as possible.

Quite solid in reinforcing the roaming playstyle by giving back stats that are usually lost while roaming and especially useful given a support salary. The additional buffs and utility to his auto attacks are also a good incentive. +1 to Riot’s design goal. Nice job.

While this may seem more of a laning-centric skill, its design — particularly its interactions with terrain and neutral monsters — complement a roam-centric method of gameplay rather well. Setting aside the sheer versatility of this skill in skirmishes, large scale teamfights, or even encountering a wild Rek’Sai on your tail, design-wise this skill binds (get it?) particularly well with Bard’s overall skillset and role as a roaming support.

Patch 5.6 Changes:

Given the difficulties that players are encountering with Bard, some buffs were given to compensate. Because he possesses almost an exclusive support playstyle, a little more power on Bard’s only skill that has damage (trivia!) should encourage and help early lane trades. And of course, Bard blind q-ing after Syndra casts her ultimate is overpowered.

Basically The Bard Insurance Policy to all champions Bard lanes with and a blessing for his allied slow jungle-clearers, Caretaker’s Shrine is undoubtedly one of the more support-geared skills that Bard possesses. A pretty straight forward skill, Bard’s shrines make sure that his lane buddy or jungler is kept healthy and high by his magical plant/shrine things while Bard goes chime-hunting around the map.

So now, no overly attached-ADC will feel too abandoned when their support roams because a) that’s what he’s supposed to do and b) he left you a nice present — at least until an enemy steps on them.

Bard opens a temporary one-way portal through terrain in front of him with an exit to the other side. This works no matter how long the terrain is. Here’s the tradeoff though — both allies AND enemies can use the portal, and you are still vulnerable to crowd control effects while traveling. Undoubtedly one of the funnier-sounding names in Bard’s kit, this skill provides both utility and interesting gameplay mechanics that haven’t been previously seen in League. While primarily used for setting up plays, Magical Journey makes Bard’s roaming easier if used correctly, given the caveat of enemies also being able to use said portals.

Patch 5.6 Changes:

When Rek’Sai came out, quite a few requests were heard from the community about the possibility of other players using her tunnels as well. Since Bard’s release, portals have been a bit unreliable to enter for both allies and enemies. Unit pathing and collision around Summoner’s Rift is still a minor issue as it is technically still in beta. With this change plus the assist grant and pet modifications, Bard’s utility should be more apparent to both teams, and provides additional chances for more strategic gameplay (inb4 Shaco clone baits).

Bard sends out a Xerath-like ult towards a target location. Upon impact, all allies, enemies, neutral monsters, epic monsters, turrets, structures and invisible Teemoes are put into stasis for 2.5 seconds, rendering them invulnerable — but also unable to take action. However there ARE exceptions: Vi, Sion and Malphite’s ultimates, as well as enemy spell shields, will ignore this skill.

As one of the more rewarding — and frustrating — aspects of Bard’s kit, this skill is also primarily support-oriented though also geared towards a roaming playstyle. What’s interesting here is that this is an arcing skillshot certainly intended to be used like Xerath’s ult, when a Bard is returning to lane and finds their marksman or jungler in danger. It also looks pretty.

Patch 5.6 Changes:

Because a regenerating blue buff just ain’t right.

So what’s the verdict for the gameplay? A good point of comparison is the previously mentioned Alistar. What made Alistar such a good roaming support was undoubtedly his in-your-face skillset. Headbutt followed by Pulverize, triggering his passive then Unbreakable Will (which also grants additional attack damage) pretty much guarantees a successful initiate, not to mention the small sustain he has with his heal.

However, this created no counterplay whatsoever for Alistar’s opponents. When Alistar top became a common sight in games, Riot spent a significant amount of time tuning down his skills in response, affecting the meta he was supposed to play as well. In a game that is designed around counterplay and meaningful choices, an aggressive Alistar was meta breaking, but to the point where his original design — as a peeler/tank for his more squishier allies — would be largely forgotten.

In terms of skillset, Bard’s kit ultimately offers more utility and counterplay — designs centered around making deliberate choices. While this is in no way superior to Alistar’s skillset, the mechanics of Bard refine the meta that Alistar had been haphazardly filling for quite some time. Meaningfully assisting other lanes as well as the often unsupported jungler makes Bard’s gameplay diversity more reliable for both his allies and his enemies. Bard is designed to be quite rewarding if played right (Magical Journey baits are a thing, you know) but also allow counterplay if used badly (every poorly-executed Bard ult ever). Looking at his gameplay and kit, Bard ultimately brings the design of a roaming support to life.

So now that the all-important game aspect of Bard is out, what about his “design” design? To any of you who might not know what this means, this refers to Bard’s visual style, the promotional content and even his lore and backstory. The background and visuals of a champion is often integral to how their design and gameplay comes about (think of the concept of “sand mage” that eventually got turned into Azir). It’s often a good focal point for analysis as to how well a champion delivers the particular role or player fantasy that makes the character appealing — and therefore mastered — by players. Here we briefly examine how Riot made that possible with Bard.

So what’s your first impression when you look at Bard? Immediately, you get a sense of eclectic otherworldliness that seems to signify that he (it?) doesn’t fit in the normal world of League. In contrast to earlier champions such as Rek’Sai, a Predator/wannabe Nocturne Ground-Type Pokemon and Azir, who was simply boss-like and majestic, Bard seems out of place. What’s with that mask? Those Meeps that follow him around? His weapon is a horn with a ball in it? And most importantly, his name is “Bard”? There is this alienness to Bard — one immediately gets the sense that this champion come from abstracted parts of the world of League. And that’s exactly what the creators intended:

So with Bard being magical, mysterious and otherworldly, there are very few niches that could inspire such a design. And for those savvy enough in several different genres or could have simply been fans, the connection between Bard’s designs and the works of Hayao Miyazaki are undeniable. People who have seen Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke in particular would see definite similarities in characters from those movies and Bard himself. In taking designs like that into play as inspiration, Riot has helped enhance Bard’s design as an abstracted being to a more concrete level — enriching the reception of the character to more visually-oriented players.

Tally-06

This visual aesthetic holds for Bard’s in-game assets as well. For one, the lack of any traditional (that is to say, with spoken words) voice-over contributes to Bard’s abstract nature and subtly indicates what kind of character he is to players that are encountering him for the first time. Beside characters like Sivir, Draven, Jinx or Vayne, Bard’s in-game model shows that this is a character you shouldn’t take as an immediate threat — clarifying to both his allies and his enemies that this character is most likely a support champion.

This visual identity is also much clearer than the aforementioned Alistar. A giant unchained bull gives the impression that it’s a tough and tanky character, which more commonly fits a fighter role and may confuse first-time players. To a game like League that constantly works for clarity in all situations, this is a welcome design that doesn’t detract any focus from the gameplay of the character, and also enhances how it fits in the overall context of the game.

As for the mechanically-oriented players, Bard’s in-game interactions also cement the idea of a “roaming support” quite well. His skill effects are non-threatening in design and abstracted to both allies and enemies. When affected by a Bard ultimate, the Zhonya-like stasis visual hints to all players under its effect that they are in a similar state, even if they have never encountered the skill before. In basing Bard’s admittedly unique kit to preexisting concepts found in-game, such as healing shrines that you can encounter in the Howling Abyss and a stasis skill that is familiar to anyone who has ever used or seen Zhonya’s Hourglass, players at least have a very good approximation on what Bard’s skillset does and doesn’t do.

How good is Bard’s design in fulfilling this role (roaming support)?

Checking the tally for both gameplay AND visual design, Riot has hit this champion to a T. Design-wise, Bard’s visual aesthetics and in-game assets help inexperienced players approximate his role as an ally or enemy and adjust their playstyles accordingly. At the same time, it guides experienced players to better handle him by building off existing concepts that they are already familiar with. His skillset encourages the meta he was designed for — specifically to roam around the map to help all his allies, and maintain an almost global presence in all stages of the game.

However, his gameplay is also designed and balanced to have meaningful counter plays as well. For example, an enemy team can easily read if Bard has misused his ultimate or has been too careless with his shrines, offering opportunities for them to capitalize on his mistakes without the need for overanalysis in the middle of the game.

As of now, Bard’s unique playstyle still makes him a bit difficult and wonky to use effectively, given that Riot’s taken steps to tone down global characters (rest in pepperonis global Janna and Zilean buffs), and his skills that interact with with so many in-game resources may account for the hardships players have with the champion at the moment. The recent 5.6 buffs may be able to nudge gameplay clarity in the right direction, but at least in terms of design for the Bard, Wandering Caretaker and roaming support extraordinaire, Riot Games wins.

Want more Bard? Here’s an entertaining video showing a short rundown on how he works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBAhTN4mvfo

*Images of the patch notes, screenshots and release screenshots are property of Riot Games.