On July 20, 2023, Arena, the new mode in League of Legends was released. The 2v2v2v2 mode focuses on duels without lanes and minions. Bard was very weak in the mode and was heavily buffed. Too strong, as after just 24 hours he was nerfed again.
How was Bard buffed for Arena? For his passive, Bard usually collects bells on the map, for which he gets stacks that make him stronger at certain intervals. However, this is more difficult in Arena mode, which is why he was buffed.
- Required bells for upgrade reduced from 5 to 2
- AP scaling of his Meeps increased from 30% to 60%
- Time until W is active reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
- W now has 70 ability haste
- Max W packages: 3 to 33
- W healing: 2x
- E now has 70 ability haste
These changes only apply to the Arena mode. Especially the first two buffs are incredibly strong and turn Bard from a supporter into a real AP monster. Getting upgrades more than twice as fast greatly strengthens Bard.
A developer recently spoke about a myth of champion balance:
LoL developer says: A myth about champion balance that many believe is false
They buffed everything in his kit
How did Bard perform after the buffs? As Dexerto reports, Bard’s Arena win rate skyrocketed to 68% within just a few hours. This put Bard at the top of all champions regarding win rate. Riot overshot a bit.
In a Reddit post, many users drew a conclusion based on the win rate data after the buffs:
- QuackologistExpert:
Who thought it was a good idea to implement these Bard changes in Arena? Everyone picks Bard, goes full AP, and kills everyone with 1-2 auto attacks lmao.
- Joaoseinha:
Anyone who has played Bard at least once could tell you that these buffs are way too overkill. They buffed everything in his kit.
- Proxnite:
Finally, Bard shows that he is the originally immortal cosmic being that terrifies mortals with his tunes and echoes.
After all, most players take Bard’s brief dominance with humor, as he was nerfed again shortly after about 24 hours.
What was nerfed on Bard then? You don’t need to be afraid of Bard anymore, as a micro-patch was released after 24 hours, in which it was announced on Twitter that Bard was nerfed again.
- (All modes) Bugfix: Bard’s W heals his teammates again
- (Arena): The buffs to his passive have been reverted, his bells upgrade again after 5 stacks, and the AP ratio of his Meeps goes back from 0.6 to 0.3
Well, Bard didn’t have dominance in the new mode for long. We’ll see how he performs now in a few days. The new mode seems to still have a lot in store for the future. Let’s see which champions will be OP in the coming weeks.
Have you played the mode yet? Which champions do you think are too strong? Let us know in the comments.
You can find an opinion on the new LoL mode here:
I haven’t had this much fun in LoL in years — a new game mode is to blame
