1 thing I don't understand
How is Swain so much better than Vlad. Oh wait that's right he has everything in his kit that he needs. He has an ult that does constant damage even while Zhonya's is active (and it doesn't even drain mana). His kit has more dps and more burst. His kit has innate mana sustain to make up for the mana. He has a hard CC and a slow and a damage amp all in his normal abilities that have relatively low CDs. His ult has no downtime as long as he has mana.
On top of this Swain has more range, a better early game and a better late game and a better team fight. He can also build Morello and not sacrifice gold efficiency. So why would anyone pick Vlad over swain? You have less range, overall less utility, and overall less sustain. Sure you can amp damage by 12% and put a delayed damage on them, but that doesn't mean anything if your team dies before they do.
Path's to even out the gaps that puts Vlad in a much worse spot than Swain.
- fix Swain's ult so it stops working Zhonya's or drains mana (should happen regardless of him getting nerfed or not)
- his damage amp should not proc on itself. And it should not scale as hard (talking AP ratio here). It is a damage amp that syncs extremely well with his kit enough that it alone shouldn't do a ton of damage.
- lower Swain's range to about the same as Vlad's. Or increase Vlad's Q range so he doesn't get full combo'd if he ever goes in to Q Swain. You could also make Swains snare slightly smaller instead
I feel like Swain and Vlad should be rivals. They have similar kits and similar roles. Yet Swain clearly outclasses Vlad even in competitive play in both DPS and utility. There is a reason why you never see Vlad in the LCS but Swain does show up quite often (compared to other non-meta picks). But if you go the route of buffing Vlad you have to remember that he does struggle against a lot of champions. He doesn't really counter many champs and most of them he does relies on him getting ahead and staying ahead or losing.
