ways to repair swain

jusho1··2 votes·328 views

1st so you know where im coming from and my experience playing him. i have mained swain for 2-3 years this season i had a 65-70% win rate using him in my elo. no im not master or diamond but against similar skilled players i was really strong with him and ever since these changes i win one out of 7 games with him and have lost rank trying to make him work.

As everyone who plays swain or is used to fighting against swain knows that the recent patch kinda broke swains back. his damage is nearly cut in half and with his E change his ability path is different.

swain used to max out E and use it as his main harass tool. made even better by death fires touch but now there is no reason to get more then one point into it. His Q is now extremely easy to avoid and the damage on his W got reduced the only up side is the mana drain on his ult. he just isnt swain anymore.

so some things that can bring bird man back and not all needed to be done but some.

**Pecking order **has GOT to go. his birds not being able to hit the same target for 1 second is devastating. in both laning phase and his ability to team fight. sure now he has 5 birds but in a team fight with no minions around every other second his ult is doing nothing, not damaging and not healing him

His Q. is toooo easy to avoid the area that it inhabits is just to small. just side step it and get back to fighting swain and you negated a lot of his damage. Im down for being able to toss Beatrice out but she needs to be some type of threat not something u just ignore if you take two steps to the left. I also think if we are keeping this kind of Q that how it works also needs to change. either it does more damage the longer you get his by it OR the slow increases the longer you get hit by it kinda like wither.

His W sigh his W never move?? now with the Q change its more like never land on anyone. the time to active should be more along the lines of brands W reduced slightly. how it is now yous not hard to walk out of before u get hit and if you get boots of speed you will never land it.

The flat scale on his E i guess is fine it just changes how ability order but not sure if its a glitch but it does not apply on hit effects which is the biggest part of his E. E and death fire touch was godly

the worst part of all this is the items that are core on him all got a stat adjustments while at the same time his damage also got reduced so his over all damage out put got hit twice. core items like item 3027 item 3157 and item 3070 which may not have been core but sure was nice.

3 Comments

Romans 82 votes

I totally agree. Swain was my first main champion because his kit was so cool. I loved the lock-down and healing aspect of his kit. For 3 seasons I mained Swain- and I played him exclusively mid-lane. While he had difficult opponents, with skill, he would still carry through. He was always a strong, well-balanced champion and every time an update was announced, I hoped Riot wouldn't touch him. It really angered me when they decided to nerf his Nevermove snare time, because it was so essential to his kit and ability to engage/outplay longer-ranged opponents. Now that they reworked his entire kit, he is totally useless and my heart breaks.

However, I understand that Riot’s wish to demand more skill requirement for playing him. Here are my thoughts and suggestions for his kit:

Decrepify, or Lazerbird (Q): I think it’s interesting to turn this from target ability to skillshot, however in the recent rework, the tether range is too short and is easily dashed or kited away. Also, while it does help to focus on tormented opponents, sometimes a player needs to initiate with Decrepify, especially when they can’t reliably land a Nevermove. Since Swain’s kit revolves around locking-down opponents and dealing DOT damage, the grounded debuff from Cassiopeia’s new rework Miasma applies the best to this move. It’s too easy for opponents to dash away from Beatrice’s tether. Applying it to her tether would not only fit Swain’s theme, but help hold his entire kit together, after the many changes this season.

Nevermove (W) Nevermove is a key aspect of Swain’s kit and affects his ability to land his other abilities. As he is a short-ranged mage, I still avidly advocate for his 2 sec snare to be returned at all ranks for him to actually have an impact against many long-ranged mages and other popular opponents.

Torment (E) I didn’t like Swain’s kit being changed, as he was in a very solid, balanced state since I started playing in season 2, but I understand the idea of adding player skill to his kit. Since his Torment damage amplification is 20% across all ranks, it means that the player must be able to damage the opponent to take advantage of it. However, Swain’s medium-ranged auto-attacks and slow mobility puts him at risk, especially in his very early levels before he gains his ultimate. To compensate for his Torment modification, Nevermove(W) snare time should be reverted to 2 sec at all ranks and any other modifications (here are some ideas): • Longer range tether on Decrepify • More slow added to Decrepify • “Grounded” debuff added to Decrepify • Increase range on auto-attacks • Increase mobility added in some aspect to his kit (probably Decrepify- maybe he also moves faster in the direction he sends Beatrice)

Ravenous Flock (R): My favorite part of Swain’s kit and what made me main him. As everyone else has suggested, the 0.25 sec cast time is awkward. I never saw that before the re-work. Thanks for removing it, if it is planned, and if not, please do.

Sacred Curse1 votes

I have an Idea about swain's mobility issue and it is very similar to Elise. Make it so that while swain is in his bird form, he has his base movement speed increased. This is pretty balanced because he only has this increased movement speed while his ult is running, and he can not keep that on for long. Just a minor increase to his base movement speed, not much is needed.

Besides he has wings in this form and he is no longer crippled, it makes sense thematically for him to be able to move a little faster right?

Sacred Curse1 votes

Did you guys know Swain's old Q used to retain the slow on his target, even if the tether was broken preemptively. It would last for about 1 and a half seconds after the tether was broken which really helped him catch down mobile champions, This is not the case anymore which is saddening! What has Swain done to deserve this? He was already an underdog champion at higher elo's and now he is probably among the bottom 3 champions in league. He will always be my favorite champion but I mean come on man.....

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