Bard is so broken in LoL Arena he’s getting nerfed just 24 hours after his buffs

Loveable chime-hunting Bard has become a total terror in League of Legends after his changes in the latest League Arena update, with his win rate spiking so hard that the Riot Games developers have been forced to dish out nerfs⁠—and take some of his buffs back⁠—just 24 hours later.

Bard originally scored solid buffs for his Chimes, Meeps, and his W and E abilities in the 2v2v2v2 mode’s Aug. 2 patch as Riot tried to help his play rate.

Instead of simply giving the Wandering Caretaker a little leg up though, Bard’s buffs immediately turned him into a metagame monster. Within hours, the support had sprung to first in win rate, according to League stats page Blitz.gg, and was winning close to 68 percent of games so far today.

That was a 157-place jump for the new top pick. “I may have been too chimed up when buffing Bard,” Riot Phlox joked before any changes.

Riot’s response was lightning-fast though; the League Arena devs immediately pulled the trigger on Bard nerfs in a micropatch shipped straight onto live servers.

Today’s patch has stripped Bard of his passive buffs, which saw him needing just two Chimes per upgrade and included more damage for his Meeps. Both these changes have been hooked from the update.

The League Arena also used the chance to fix a major glitch on his Caretaker’s Shrine ability, which was failing to heal teammates. That update will also affect the champion in Summoner’s Rift, the League team confirms.

Related: Riot is watching how many play League Arena before deciding its fate

Bard will get to⁠—for now, at least⁠—keep two of his League Patch 13.15 changes. His Caretaker’s Shrine charge time was reduced from 10 to eight seconds, its ability haste and healing was boosted, and Bard can carry more max packs. His Magical Journey also got more ability haste.

It’s hard to predict where Bard lands after this emergency patch-up, but early expectations are he’ll retain much of his new power. I’ll update Dot’s Arena tier list soon and you can expect him to climb several tiers there.

Elsewhere in Arena’s Aug. 2 update, table-toppers Taric, Jax, and Annie copped nerfs, while others like Blitzcrank, Katarina, and Ziggs were handed buffs.