Swain’s controversial changes in LoL. Riot has prepared something that not many people like

League of Legends

Riot shares with the community upcoming Swain patches. What do players think is wrong with them?


Swain has been a bit confused about identity on Summoner’s Rift for several years now. The hero used to be a mage who felt best at close quarters, but now he has become a hybrid of a support and a healing tank, whose damage is enough to play in other positions.

Due to the fact that the hero is played in many positions, both his win rate and play rate differ significantly. In the support position where Swain has the highest pick rate, the win rate is 49.61%, and in the middle or in the carry position, 52% or even over 53.5% of the games are victorious.

The hero’s niche skill set does not fit into the meta like the traditional picks that are currently popular. To better define the champion’s role, Riot is planning changes for the game in update 12.6.

What exactly are Swain’s changes?

One of the designers – TheTruexy – explains what the goal of Swain’s amendments is.

Some Swain changes that will be on PBE this week! Goals here are shifting power out of less satisfying places and into the spells that make Swain, well Swain. More spammable Q in lane, and higher uptime on Ult

Riot removes damage from his passive to transfer some power to other parts of his kit. This includes reducing his ultimate cooldown and reducing his Q’s mana cost.

  • Ravenous Flock (P)
    • No longer deals 20-105 (+30%AP) magic damage
  • Death’s Hand (Q)
    • Cooldown: 9/7.5/6/4.5/3 seconds >>> 7/6/5/4/3 seconds
    • Mana: 65/70/75/80/85 >>> 50/55/60/65/70
  • Demonic Ascension (R)
    • The cooldown on all levels: 120 seconds >>> 120/100/80 seconds (depends on a level)

In theory, the changes should give the champion more lane freedom due to the possibility of spamming abilities in the line phase, and the later phases of the game will be amplified thanks to the lower cooldown of the ultimate.

This should help both Swain in Mid and support by giving him better access to his meaningful spells. We expect it to be a small/mid sized buff to Swain everywhere.

Swain’s mains aren’t exactly convinced of the changes – reduced damage with no compensation for damage elsewhere will have a significant impact on his burst. As with Rengar, some players are asking Riot to let the designers take a closer look at the foreseen changes.

I have to disagree with that. There is no way these changes might not eliminate him as a solo lane character. I agree with the removal of passive damage, but we absolutely cannot lose the AP ratio. These are low elo boosts and a serious nerf for high elo.

Update 12.6, where Swain’s fixes are to be released, will not appear on live servers until March 30, so developers still have a lot of time to test the patches that are just gettin on the PBE.

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