Please, don't lump Vlad and Swain together.

Yes, they are both drain tanks affected by the mage update. Both recently hit the meta and became good in competitive and somewhat fearsome in ranked.

That said. I see people complain about both of them a lot. But in my opinion balance-wise they are completely different and only one is truly problematic.

This has to do with the fact that both had dated kits, but one got a careful, extensive update and the other only a minor one. As a result:

• One has an absurdly high winrate across divisions whereas the other is balanced/on the sub-50% side depending on division (and bad winrates in LCS if I've been following right)

• One has a (still) dated and rather statchecky kit whereas the other involves high risk health management

• One just needs to "morph and eat them" whereas the other has considerable counterplay and heavily telegraphed kit (bar, blockable aoe)

• One just needs to sit in the middle of a fight and wait for the ravens to do their thing whereas the other is highly vulnerable to CC to finish his channels (Q is a channel too) so has to position carefully

• One will stay oppressive and broken until nerfed whereas the other requires game knowledge to deal with and will become less annoying as people encounter more of him, possibly turning into the next Sion

• One has legitimate ways to 1v5 with their hard CC and perfect reliability whereas the other requires the team to set up for them and sync with them

With two previously unknown champions appearing in the LCS it's normal that people will see them doing their things (eg. Vlad healing 1.5k on a big Q) but that's like complaining a Kog'Maw hits 5 attack speed. Every champion has their own little way of being ridiculous BUT should be able to be dealt with with practice and research.