Swain nerf should be reverted

Arch Mage Magnus·12/12/2015, 5:16:02 PM·5 votes·333 views

I think the nerf to his W is a little extreme. First of all the ability has an insane amount of cooldown ( 18 seconds at level 1) and it is the last ability to be upgraded, meaning it's at this cooldown the majority of the game. Swain can't effectively get a kill UNLESS he hits a champ with this, allowing you to take full advantage of the extra damage benefits of his E.

Further more, W is not an ability you can spam away, because of it's cooldown, and also because of it's high mana cost. Also, it's not like it's a point and click stun, it's actually quite hard to hit properly if your opponent is expecting it. If they fear it so much, just rush some boots and you are good, especially merc tread boots. Swain does have counterplay to this ability, but he however absolutely needs the stun to solidify a kill in lane. When I played him today and actually hit a W, it was over so fast I was un-sure to if I actually got him with it. I barely had enough time to even walk up to them to do anything.

I hope Riot understands that this nerf was too much and does something about it.

1 Comments

Romans 81/1/2016, 6:53:49 AM1 votes

There was a lot of discussion about this last month before the patch was released. I'm a Swain main as well, and I'm personally quite unhappy about this nerf. When I was playing Swain exclusively mid (now I am trying to main Cass as well), I got the point where I was able to vs any other mid champion. However, because of this nerf, it makes it impossible to lane against many longer range opponents (ie, Lux, Velkoz, Xerath). The cutdown time on the snare prevents it from being useful in landing all of Swain's other combos. Since Swain's range is short compared to most other mages, he needs that additional time on his snare to get to the opponent to land some spells from a safe distance. Since Lux had all her buffs last season, she is pretty much almost impossible to lane against anymore.

It might be that Riot wants Swain to be more of a niche role in top lane rather than a mage that can be viable in both top and mid lanes (or rather maybe just against specific champs).

I loved being able to lane against any one.