Aspects of Swain I want to see Kept.

1. Battle Mage/Control Mage. - Swain is a leader and a tactician. It makes sense that he's both on the front line and controlling the flow of battle. This aspect of being both a battle mage dealing high damage up close being a definitely threat you can't overlook, while peeling for his team through zone control is why I LOVE playing Swain. I think this particular aspect and overall game play needs to stay even if how he does damage and how he peels changes. (No more press R and flash onto the enemy carries).

2. His laning phase and scaling - Swain doesn't really lose, nor does he win lane particularly hard. He's anti snowball, scales reasonably well but doesn't really snowball out of control like a fed riven or Fiora (unless your team starts grouping against him). A comparable example would be Orianna for the midlane (anti snowball, a fed Orianna is scary especially in teamfights, but in a 1v1 or skirmishes fed Akali or Katarina is much more terrifying) .

What I want from his lane is his "anti-snowball" aspect kept. He's a safe consistent pick and this is one aspect I think many swain mains definitely want kept. Sure, make his lane less oppressive (skill shot ability than just point and click or drop a bird, a different passive so he has to think more about mana costs etc) but leave his scaling and team fight potential 3) His taunt "another opponent... another disappointment"