@Riot Why the Swain nerfs!?

Unibrownie·May 21, 2016·2 votes·755 views

As a Swain main for as long as he has existed, I was hurt by his 6.9 performance. You went ahead and fixed him in 6.10. Now he's being nerfed on the PBE. How does a champ that has a 34% win rate get nerfed? Seriously...why? 6.10 did not make him OP, it merely brought him back to a playable state.

10 Comments

Dominick DestineMay 21, 20163 votes

Only Zed and Yasuo are allowed to be broken.

Anyone else that rises above the average must swiftly be destroyed within 1 or 2 patches tops Azir AurelionSol Garen Mordekaiser Swain Skarner MasterYi KogMaw

MiraweaveMay 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dominick Destine,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=G1p9Aypx,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-05-21T02:31:22.683+0000)

Only and are allowed to be broken.

Anyone else that rises above the average must swiftly be destroyed within 1 or 2 patches tops

The thing is that Zed actually has some measure of counterplay. Swain doesn't bully people out of lane by pressing E anymore, but he's basically impossible to kill until you get a GW item because his healing is completely absurd. There's no gameplay there, it's just swain pressing R and standing near you while you die and are unable to kill him.

Dominick DestineMay 21, 20161 votes

{quoted}

The thing is that Zed actually has some measure of counterplay.

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

MiraweaveMay 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dominick Destine,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=G1p9Aypx,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2016-05-21T04:16:08.115+0000)

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

He does, though. I know people don't like him, and he's definitely too strong, but he has pretty clearly defined counterplay. You dodge his shit, you sidestep his shadow, etc. Swain doesn't have any of that. If he's near you, either you dash away somehow or you're completely fucked unless you're fed enough to outdamage his healing. Swain's counterplay is similar to Annie's in that it lies mostly in staying away from him and not engaging unless he makes a mistake and gives you a window to kill him, but that's not really the same thing.

Zed's problem has never been having a low counterplay all-in: his assassination pattern is pretty much the healthiest one out of all assassins in the game. His problem is having an extremely low risk assassination combined with strong waveclear and a very safe laning phase.

Sightless66May 21, 20163 votes

How does a champ that has a 34% win rate get nerfed

Because he doesn't have a 34% winrate. The daily winrates since 6.10 released have consistently shown him as having at least a 56% winrate. From playing him, I can guarantee you that he is one of the strongest champions in the game right now.

He got overbuffed from his terrible preformance in 6.9, and now he needs to be taken down a bit. I know it is annoying to see a champion you like nerfed so soon after they were bad, but he has to get hit down if he gets overbuffed.