For those freaking about the Swain buff shown from the video, there is something your missing.

Shmeeve·Jul 8, 2019·9 votes·7,578 views

The guy playing as swain in that video has 1k stacks... idk how the stacks work but to me, it would seem like the game would go on a ridiculously long time to just get that many soul fragments, my bet is you get one stack for each soul fragment taken in, even if it exceeds the limit for the soul fragments used for demonflare. I guess is that it temporarily amplifies his max health, and regeneration or life drain, which is what every swain main wanted. They wanted the same impact as what old swain's ult did, make him feel like he is an unstoppable demonic bird.

17 Comments

BeersteinJul 8, 20195 votes

Also, don't forget to ban Kled.

Kled [Changelist]

Bear Trap on a Rope (Q)
    [New] When yanking an enemy, reduces all healing on them by 60% for 5 seconds

ShmeeveJul 8, 20191 votes

For sure.

TheMan292Jul 8, 20191 votes

{quoted}

For sure.

as Kled is my main, a couple bans here and there is a price I am willing to pay for such a buff

ReySolomonJul 8, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Also, don't forget to ban Kled.

Kled [Changelist]
Bear Trap on a Rope (Q)
    [New] When yanking an enemy, reduces all healing on them by 60% for 5 seconds

Ohh man this sounds like a good counter to vlad lul.

Critmaster GarenJul 8, 20192 votes

why is he changed by the way? the concept of his current kit isnt weak.

RalanrJul 8, 20194 votes

Makes him a stronger counter into stall comps apparently.

These buffs are more about better counters than being weak. Look at Renekton.

Zero Skill TankJul 8, 20193 votes

It is, though.

His current ult is more or less useless when behind, since he will rarely survive long enough to cast it and if he does it most likely won't do much damage, because enemies won't just let him stack for free.

And he will almost always be behind, since his early game is absolutely terrible.

New iteration of the ult at least gives him a realistic chance to scale.

Critmaster GarenJul 8, 20192 votes

{quoted}

It is, though.

His current ult is more or less useless when behind, since he will rarely survive long enough to cast it and if he does it most likely won't do much damage, because enemies won't just let him stack for free.

And he will almost always be behind, since his early game is absolutely terrible.

New iteration of the ult at least gives him a realistic chance to scale.

how does swain really fall behind as a ranged top laner? he could easily play safe and farrm under turret with that mana refund on his q. cant really poke him in that position like you could poke a melee champion.

im saying all this, because ive played him a lot recently. mostly because he takes a giant shit on morde.

Zero Skill TankJul 8, 20193 votes

Right, you could do this - if someone lets you keep your freeze, which with his pathetic early game waveclear just won't happen.

In turn, most toplaner champions, melee and ranged alike, are able to easily freeze against Swain, at which point he is more or less a free kill.

I know that hating on ranged toplaners is fashion on those boards since like season 5, but you can easily find statistics showing that even if you do take Swain top, he still falls behind on gold early game, maybe except against tanks.

Not sure about Morde matchup, can't speak from experience since both of those champions I barely see top, Morde because he is always banned and Swain because if someone picks him he is just free food. But at least statistics show that it is Morde taking a dump on him in decent ELOs.

Critmaster GarenJul 8, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Right, you could do this - if someone lets you keep your freeze, which with his pathetic early game waveclear just won't happen.

In turn, most toplaner champions, melee and ranged alike, are able to easily freeze against Swain, at which point he is more or less a free kill.

I know that hating on ranged toplaners is fashion on those boards since like season 5, but you can easily find statistics showing that even if you do take Swain top, he still falls behind on gold early game, maybe except against tanks.

Not sure about Morde matchup, can't speak from experience since both of those champions I barely see top, Morde because he is always banned and Swain because if someone picks him he is just free food. But at least statistics show that it is Morde taking a dump on him in decent ELOs.

thats weird. swain can stack easily on morde off his e, and lvl 6 he can straight up all in him and wins if he just sets up the lane properly.

maybe not enough matchup data as a result of what you just said?

ThefrostyvikingJul 8, 20192 votes

swain can stack easily on morde off his e,

Except that E is a slow ass easily dodged projectile that is also very obvious, takes some real iffy business for this thing to hit much of anything normally.

Swain can easily all in mordekaiser? If Morde sits in his minions and makes sure swain cant get any Q´s off then Swain does no damage and Morde should outlast him......optionally bring ignite/merc threads if that doesnt work.

Critmaster GarenJul 8, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Except that E is a slow ass easily dodged projectile that is also very obvious, takes some real iffy business for this thing to hit much of anything normally.

Swain can easily all in mordekaiser? If Morde sits in his minions and makes sure swain cant get any Q´s off then Swain does no damage and Morde should outlast him......optionally bring ignite/merc threads if that doesnt work.

morde is also very slow and easy to hit with a pretty large hitbox.

just my experience so far.

ThefrostyvikingJul 8, 20191 votes

That he is.

But Swain´s E was made so that even Karthus should be able to dodge it if he keeps his wits about him, so far the only time i find myself reliably able to land the damn thing is when i somehow land a max range one, otherwise the opponent just walks to the side and it misses.

I mean sure, Morde cant dodge the majority of the stuff that goes down toplane but Swain was made to have pretty much everything aside from his Q and R be easily avoidable >.<

Trundle BundleJul 8, 20192 votes

We went from a champion with a toggle drain tank ult that gave you a ton of freedom in using it with the capacity for self destruction, to a glorified nuke that was based on whether or not they threw you someone who was safe to sucker punch before actually breaking out into the next team fight. Regardless of kit strength, there was room for improvement in the execution. I'm not trying to downplay the value of the current heal here, but you absolutely can't afford to not get that nuke off as Swain, and more often then not it means tapping out of the legacy part of his kit really early.

Ult wise, this is a nerf to his early kill potential against solo champs and longer time in the drain tank fantasy (even with full minions it's about 2 to 2.5 seconds extra before you're at the damage peak, which is about a fifth of the max duration), for a significantly shorter wind up in best case scenario teamfights, but with a higher opportunity cost for cashing in on the nuke early. 5 man healing, especially with the extra added bulk, actually gives a much more compelling reason to stay ulted and fight normally first, whereas his current state often comes off as way too frail for it and forces you to have a trigger finger on the nuke part. All the while no longer penalizing you for the enemy team choosing inaction in between uses.

So I think the added bulk and the ult changes are justified. The Q changes... I'm not going to pretend that they aren't something I've been wanting, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should have them. Extra pushing power (as needed as it feels) and the ability to punish melee's harder with Q (though this ought to be gated somewhat by not wanting to push early, and the mana returns being isolated entirely behind catching your opponent) are a lot of volatile power. On paper there's room for this to work though, and I think this set up is a lot more engaging to use, even if some scaling down ends up being necessary.

GankLordJul 8, 20191 votes

This is a great joke

KXNGJAHJul 8, 20191 votes

wait what is this ?

Wild GeeseJul 8, 20191 votes

Watched about 3 gameplay videos, and it seems like Swain tends to end up with about 15 stacks early game, 45 mid, 100 late; in a good game (like pbe youtubers would post a game that went badly...).

So like 75/225/500 bonus hp; about equal to the health you'd get for a tier of item at that game stage. Seems pretty fair.