Bard vs Rell Counter Pick

Ferromancy: Crash Down has Rell dismount her armor and crash to the ground, knocking enemies up and gaining a large shield in the process — engage built to bypass the poke-and-reposition game Bard wants to play. She holds him to 46.2% across 1,303 games on patch 16.13.1.

That trade-off costs her raw Move Speed — 315, the slowest number in this pairing against Bard’s 335 — but it barely matters once she’s already airborne with her target. Her Q, Shattering Strike, deals magic damage in a line and breaks enemy shields before stunning, which can strip away any defensive setup Bard has going right before the real engage lands. Her ultimate, Magnet Storm, pulls nearby enemies toward her and keeps dragging them for a short duration, which can catch Bard mid-Magical Journey if he’s already committed to the portal animation. Rell’s passive, Break the Mold, adds bonus magic damage and steals Armor and Magic Resist on hit, meaning she gets tankier as the fight goes on rather than more fragile. The two sit at opposite ends of the difficulty scale (Rell 0/10, Bard 9/10), and the easier kit wins clearly here once the knockup lands. Rell tends to win the exchange whenever she lands the first hit on Bard.