Thoughts on reworked Swain

noxus bird··10 votes·1,750 views

My excitement for the new reworked Swain was overwhelming. Being a Swain main, I saw this new Swain and his absolutely awesome visual update with himself and all his abilities. Thinking this new kit is going to be really good to top his current kit, and I thought this was going to happen easily seeing his new abilities. But as I play this reworked Swain, I realized, this isn't Swain. His bird especially was what was missing. But his monstrous bird aspect instead of demon was gone. This swains abilities are no where near as good as the pre-rework abilities. The Q has good damage but it isn't really Swain. The W completely has no synergy with this Q (which by the way I hardly find use for). The E is really cool and is a neat mechanic but it's really situational. Now Swains ult, the old ult allowed swain to target 5 champions instead of 3. You only gained health if you were near enemy champions which made sense but now you gain health with even draining hp from enemies. The old ult had a much shorter cooldown, could make Swain less situational, and made Zhonyas Hourglass so much better compared to new. For the new one you really need to have perfect timing and a flash to get really good use out of it. As for Zhonyas Hourglass, you have to hold still meaning the squishes get further away and you cant get that good ult damage. There's just too many negatives outweighing the positives of old Swain. So I'd really love to have Swain's old kit back, but keep these amazing visuals. For the visuals, I was thinking bringing back Beatrice. She can be his Eldritch hand and when Swain casts his Q (pre-rework Q) his hand disappears and is gone until Beatrice returns (Q ability end). I really like the thought of this new Swain but it's just a thought. The old Swain could do it all.

12 Comments

Odysseus2636 votes

I used to play a lot of the old swain. This new one kind of made me hate that my old main account (permabanned for being toxic in ranked, but that isn't really relevant) has mastery 7 on him, when i devoted over 300k mastery score to playing him because he was soooo good. I really just don't like the new swain. Give me back the old swain abilties but keep the new visuals. They are cool.

noxus bird2 votes

{quoted}

I used to play a lot of the old swain. This new one kind of made me hate that my old main account (permabanned for being toxic in ranked, but that isn't really relevant) has mastery 7 on him, when i devoted over 300k mastery score to playing him because he was soooo good. I really just don't like the new swain. Give me back the old swain abilties but keep the new visuals. They are cool.

agreed.

XeroKimo6 votes

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Swain's old ult only had 3 birds, going in and out to drain hp, and it did work on minions, not just champions, but it also had reduced healing on minions like it does now. Also the fact the damage does not apply until the birds hit an enemy, and it doesn't heal you until the bird returns to you, giving it some travel time which makes it worse than it's current ult.

His W is an interesting ability in what it could be used for. This thread explains all it's uses, and I oftenly use 2 of it's uses. https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/YvviQBTA-using-vision-of-empire

His Q is definitely not something Swain would have, but I'm fine with it

Edit: I looked it up, it did get buff to 5 birds in MYMU, but some of my points still stands

AbiwonKenabi1 votes

I think they could stand to lower his ult cooldown a little. That was a big part of old Swain and while I'm not suggesting we go back to near-toggle levels of CD on his ult, right now its really long for not that great of an ult.

I think this new kit can work, but its weak atm.

XeroKimo1 votes

His current kit to me suggests to play him like a ranged ap bruiser, and I find most success like that. By the nature of his current kit, he's really weak early, 2 abilities on high cooldown, farming/main damage tool is costly, so you tend to play passive, and make small aggression moves if you land an E -> W -> pull combo. His mid game is really strong, but lacks wave clear speed compared to other mages. His late game is nothing special, but if you did build ap bruiser, you're tanky enough with your ult to draw aggro of the enemy team and deal significant damage, and burn zhonyas to drop aggro and recover hp

VoraciousX4 votes

I don't think his Q should go back to the way it was honestly. Having a dot that rivals Malz's(probably beats it) and iirc increases all other damage against a champion isn't healthy. Old Swain late game was pretty much just an ult bot that did too much damage. New Swain doesn't feel like it's great but it could probably be fixed in some way rather than just a full on revert. If they reverted anything on Swain it could be his AOE slow, but I dunno, they might do better off just buffing new Swain in some way. Then again I've only tried him once on PBE and I was testing out the new items(wanted to make a build with archangel's and all the new items with mana on them to see how much damage it'd do, sadly I didn't get very far in the game because I was against a Yi with that new ridiculous rune)

Brothardir3 votes

I really wish his new kit retained some form of the DoT and shorter ultimate cooldown aspect from his previous kit. I miss that Swain.

Keepe3 votes

Answering the question, yes and no.

I do feel that his old kit needed help. but I also feel that there are some parts of the new kit that are def improvements. Either way. It does not matter what you think. Rito does not care.

Pandemic Punch2 votes

bring back old Swain abilities but the new ult looks much cooler, and the new E can replace the old one.

The Soulforged2 votes

I miss placing all my aoes in a way where I could lead enemies into the other then morph and eat them.

LyingOnLine2 votes

Old swain was incredibly fucking boring, and his kit was awfully designed.

MalrothDragonia1 votes

the thing about his old kit that when tuned to be viable it was super toxic. There wasn't a lot of counterplay to his aoe Q, and his E damage amp ability was either too good in that as soon as you're near him you have to run away until it's gone, or it was useless.

His new kit doesn't feel quite the same, but it's a much healthier design than old Swain. I miss old Swain, I'm glad they found a way to incorporate the birds into his theme, and running dragon master or overlord at least retain a monstrous transormation. Still, I don't think it'd be a good idea to revert his kit. I do think the pattern around his ult could use some work, as currently it takes WAY too long to charge. They either need it to pierce units when it explodes or need to shorten the amount of health needed.

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