Swain's Problem and Easy Fix

Swain needs tons of mana, 2 HP+AP items, maxed CDR, high AP, high mag pen, armor and mag res. These are his baseline necessities to function properly and He cannot do so without them. Granted, he can get all of that...at full build. But as any Swain player can tell you, he pops like a balloon at late game.

At late game, 145 armor (roughly 18 plus Zhonyas total) is NOTHING. Marksmen negate half of it anyway. 103 Mag Res (base+ME glyphs+Abyssal) is pitiful. Anything gets a void staff and you're done, nevermind Swain has to be in Abyssal range to do anything. 2700 HP (18+Liandry's+10-stack RoA) is just pathetic, especially on something with low resistances. By the time you get all that, it doesn't matter anymore. Observe:

1. MAX CDR is absolutely necessary because his cooldowns are all high to the point of absurdity. 20% is practically nothing when the LOWEST his basic spells can get at max rank is 10 seconds. Even 30% is far too little.

2. Void Staff is mandatory if any enemy builds a single MR item. PERIOD.

3. Magic Resist is non-negotiable

4. Zhonyas is a must-have

5. Boots are a must-have

6. RoA is only about half the necessary mana, even at full stacks

7. RoA is only about 2/3 of the health he needs, even at full stacks

8. He needs as much magic penetration as he can POSSIBLY have to help compensate for his low damage/mana efficiency

So that leaves us with a champ who needs at a bare minimum: 40% CDR, ~800 bonus hp, ~1000 bonus mana, at least 100 total magic resist, at least 120 total armor (and that's still very low), high mag pen, about 500 AP

That means you need: Morellonomicon, RoA, Zhonyas, Abyssal, Sorc Shoes and Liandry's just to get the mana, defenses, CDR and mag pen to kill carries. But it took a full 6 item build to hit the bare minimum needed stats.

There is an easy and obvious solution to most of this: Swain's ult needs to drain defensive stats in stacking increments on each hit of his ultimate. Torment should amplify that effect. Few mages can debuff stats, giving Swain a niche useful in any meta. It also lowers the efficiency of stacking resistances, which allows him to opt for more HP items. It also makes Lucidity boots less punishing to buy. To top it all off, if he has survivability, it leaves more room to tweak his damage, cc duration and mana costs so he isn't always on the line of always winning for his team when he's buffed and always winning for the enemy team when he isn't.