What I want for the Swain Rework.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QJiCrYh4iIo/WeZFxUjeGwI/AAAAAAAAxd4/R-E4ms1P1UQoFhHMVKjWrUrPWBSYc9gwwCLcBGAs/s640/LOL_CMS_138_Article_02.jpg I never was much of an old Swain player. His old kit was just kind of boring for me with his all of his abilities being brainlessly easy to use without much way for you or your opponent to interact. Q is a thing you drop on the ground. W is an AOE stun that you put on the ground. E is just a point and click Dot, and R is just you turn into a bird and run around. That said, I've been keeping my eye on this rework since Riot announced that he was going to be more of a frontliner with dark magic, like on live but different. For me, one of the themes I want to see the most in league is the fighter/mage theme because that kind of theme really fits with both my playstyle and it is a really cool design space. My favorite champions in the game are usually fighters, mages, or Assassins, and my top favorites are often combinations of the classes or at least very close. The best champion when it comes to meeting this theme gameplay wise is probably Gangplank, which is ironic seeing as how lore wise Gangplank should have nothing to do with being a mage but that's how he is in game. I also like battlemages like Karthus or Ryze who build somewhat tanky and actually have some kind of dueling/1v1 power. Morde is another champion like this but his model is really old and his gameplay doesn't really keep me that interested for more than two games, even if I get really fed with him and hard carry. That said, I've been really keeping an eye on Morde's eventually rework and more recently, Swain's rework.

Swain's rework is currently targetted at making him truly feel like the dictator of Noxus, who uses dark magic on the battlefield to defeat his enemies. I'm really hyped for what this could mean in game. I'm assuming he'll be similiar to live where he deals a lot of sustained damage over the course of a fight and is incredibly difficult to take down, but I'm really hoping that they make his gameplay more interesting than just running around the teamfight with R toggled on slowly draining everyone down while spamming taunt or something. He really needs to feel like a Noxian, in that he should be incredibly aggressive in style. This doesn't mean that he needs to be a lane bully, but take a look at every other main Noxian champion and you should see a common trend. : Most aggressive of the Juggernauts, can shred down teams and is constantly looking to fight. He excells in the midst of battle where he can heal off of multiple enemies and dunk them all to hell. : Probably the most brutal of all the tanks. While some tanks may summon some initiation thing at range, Sion charges in there and smashes right into the frontline. He's promoted for making risky, aggressive plays, moreso than a tank should, and this is highlighted by his passive which makes even death not something that can stop Sion. : Not much to say here. Absolutely the most aggressive ADC in the game as his dueling and fighting potential is insane. : This champion is rewarded super hard for playing aggressive and getting great all-ins. He's not a god-tier lane bully though and because of that I think he's the perfect representation of a Noxian champion when it comes to what we're looking for.

So I think that it's best that we look at champions like Kled or Sion when it comes to Swain. He should be strong in all-ins and extended fights, but he shouldn't be a lane bully, especially since he's going to be a battle mage, which implies a ranged auto-attack. Of course, they could make him melee, and while I think that would be awesome, I doubt that they are going to do that. He could still have a strong lane-phase though, and I think that would help set him apart from other battle-mages like vlad or maybe even Ryze. His strongest stage of the game should definitely be teamfighting though. He should be a teamfight monster, and likely through a combination of tankiness/sustain and high aoe damage. Notice something? This isn't all too far off from the Swain we have today. Personally, if I were to rework Swain, I would probably keep his playstyle somewhat similar, but make his kit much more interactive and dynamic, so that he can feel good to play and good to play against. So here's to a great Swain! I'm hoping he comes out some time in December at the latest but with preseason and everything going on, we will have to see. I expect the next champion to come out first and then Swain.

Edit: Some other things real quick. I'm really hoping that his magic attacks all get a unified color scheme. Right now, Swain's magic is colored purple and green which when combined with the DoT theme that he has going on, gives off a real poison vibe that I don't think he should have. Instead, I feel like his magic should all be pitch-black. No other mage uses black as a color for magic and since he should be using dark magic, and his crow theme already has black, it would fit him. As for visibility, I still think it would work great since league usually has very bright and cartoony colors. A real black color would contrast with this and would probably even make his spells easier to see.

Speaking of black, I'm indifferent to his whole bird/crow theme. They should probably keep it in the kit, but him turning into a bird always looked overly cartoonish and silly rather than threatening, so if they can find a way to make it look more intimidating I'll be for it. I think that they should definitely get rid of his ultimate gameplay wise though. It's just so boring to use since all you do is just press R then walk around and slowly kill people. I'd be for reworking it in order to make it more engaging to use gameplay-wise, and to have him not rely on it as much. I feel like the crows should be used as something more like part of his magic. Like how you see in the picture where all of the bodies are being swarmed by crows, things like that would be more of what I expect.