Thoughts on Swain Changes (post 6.9) and How to make him less op
The Swain nerf really does not feel like it's enough, that might be true, but i personally think that it is going in the wrong direction. I have been playing Swain since season 3 now and during this time, he never has been extremely bad or good, he always was a rather balanced pick. I will try to make just some short notes here (IMPORTANT ONES MARKED WITH !!!), maybe i can explain everything a bit more if someone's interested ;D
!!! - Passive Changes: - gives more Mana -- Why? I don't see a reason here, felt it was pretty balanced before, and Roa changes give some more mana in fights anyway... Therefore: Buff without a reason?! Also, Mana-management was one of the main skills you needed as Swain, but due to all other changes to his mana costs plus this one here, it is a lot less important and makes Swain a lot stronger and easier to play
- Q Changes: 6.9: -new mechanic feels really nice and needed (Q felt as old as it looked)
- more options for zoning other than W and bullying (nice, more strats! :D)
- longer CD to keep it down a bit (covers the longer duration) !!! - 100% BONUS DMG TO MINIONS - this in comb. with the one in 6.10, his ult and passive changes eliminates his waveclear problem. Only a really good Swain was able to maintain a decent cs while winning lane before (and under-turret-farming was horrible), now it's a piece of cake. !!! - Mana cost lowered... see Passive, sustain overdose
- AP ratio up by 0.1... why ever... but okay, not that much anyway...
!!! Mid-patch-fix: HUGE damage buff (mostly late); too much, should have removed the 100% bonus vs. minions here
!!! 6.10: - EXECUTES MINIONS BELOW 10 HP (see 100% Bonus dmg 6.9)
- Bugfixes (Meh.)
6.11: - damage nerfed a bit at all times -- WHY YOU NO REMOVE BONUS DMG VS MINIONS ?!?!? [zombie-brand-facepalm]
-W Changes: 6.9: -less dmg on later ranks; needed to compensate for e, nothing big here, (foreshadowing on later op-ness?)
- E Changes: 6.9: - Base dmg down, mainly on later ranks, ap-scaling increased by 0.2 emphasizing laning phase while making it possible to compensate the late-gam nerf with buying ap... basically a nerf to tanky Swain and a buff for AP-Mage-Swain (foreshadowing?) !!! - Dmg-Amplification now always 20% -- HUGE EARLY GAME BUFF RIGHT HERE. I think that is one of the worse changes for Swain. This change removes the restriction of having to max E first, which gives Swain the option to get a lot more dmg out of his Q a lot earlier. It is one of the main reasons for him being so op at the moment, since the former restriction on maxing E kept that power from his Q down. Removing that restriction unleashes a lot of free dmg, was not a good idea and also kind of unnecessary in my opinion.
6.10/11: Nothing. Except a "public service announcement" in 6.10 (see sources) to not max E first (Enter "WHY YOU DO THIS RITO?"-scream here) It really seems like Riot wants to keep that power-package for Swain, and though I usually am not really against Riot, here is a quick Word to you guys on the balance team: IT IS OKAY TO ADMIT THAT YOU F***ED UP :) [slayer-jinx-wink]
- R Changes: 6.9: - +2sec. CD (Mh, okay, nothing big here, a bit less quality-of-life, but ok...) !!! - Manacost-ramp-up now flat 5 per sec. rather than up to 7... again less mana needed, Swain now can fight A LOT longer before running oom, has more sustain, etc., really bad decision, especially with the new teamfight-power of his ult (5 man Rylais Slow 24/7...); also see Passive and Q-Change 3...
- healing vs. minions reduced by 10%... okay... keeping his sustain down to cope with him getting more ravens, necessary for the change below, which is... well... read on... !!! - now sends out 5 ravens instead of 3, but can only hit the same target once every sec. What that does: a lot more useful in teamfights with Rylais (see above), but less dmg in lane vs. 1 enemy. In short, the previous late-game nerfs were to compensate for this teamfight-buff. The problem is, that this means that his former weakness of being not so good at 5-man-really-lategame teamfights is now gone, and not only that, but he is really strong there now. Basically this change is a really good example for "Why Swain Got OP"; It eliminates Weaknesses, while the ones created by it are being compensated for by the other abilities' changes. A really unhealthy change in combination with all the others, but a good idea on it's own. (still probably the worst change of all...)
!!! 6.10: - healing change from 75% of dmg dealt to flat healing with ap-scaling; Yet another buff for ap-mage-Swain (ap-scaling)? No, this is a HUGE buff for Tank-Swain, since he doesn't even have to deal that much dmg anymore for the heal. One more case of compensating changes, this time compensating for making tank Swain weaker (see E Changes and above; also see "suggested changes")
- Priority of Ravens is now: Champs over all; closer targets before targets further away --- REALLY GOOD AND HEALTHY CHANGE [slayer-pantheon-thumbs] GOOD JOB RIOT ON THIS ONE (no sarcasm) [slayer-pantheon-thumbs] this one makes teamfights much more interesting since positioning now actually matters on Swain, which helps sepparating good from bad Swain's and giving him something he can do except "stand around and kill". This really emphasizes his need to stick to targets. Actually, i think that this really is THE ONLY CHANGE HIS ULT NEEDED since it was a pretty well balanced and nice ability before, except for the lack of need to position yourself correctly.
6.11: - flat heal vs. champs reduced, especially in late-game (trying to compensate in the wrong direction, see "suggested changes")
General (lol) changes: 6.9: - Basic attack Missile Speed increased by 300 ... Why? To make lasthitting easier i guess... not really necessary, but ok...
!!! 6.10: - Health growth increased by 12 --- WHY SO MUCH!?!? This really made Tank-Swain the monster he is now, in combination with the ult-changes this patch. A little increase of maybe 3-5 would have been nice and needed, but this is way to much and is probably the biggest buff for tank-Swain ever, making him a lot more durable and tankier for... nothing... (It's like riot said: Here Swain, have a Ruby Crystal. For free.)
TL;DR: -New Q Mechanic is nice -to much compensation for nerfs -Ult changes in 6.10 and health growth over the top/unnecessary (see
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- above/"suggested changes"), making tank Swain too strong
- some weird unnecessary changes (missile speed???) -Swain has a lot more mana-sustain... eradicating one of his biggest weaknesses -Swain got waveclear... eradicating his second big weakness -Non-scaling-Dmg-Amplification on E buffed his early game too much and unleashed his Q's power
Suggested Changes: The following Changes are what i would have wished for in patch 6.13:
- Revert changes to the Passive (less mana)
- no bonus dmg/ execute dmg on Q vs Minions (less waveclear)
- make his Dmg-amp. on the E scale again (puts leash back on the Q)
- Ult only send out 3 Ravens (less waveclear; more positioning needed in combination with the priority-change; makes Rylais less op on him)
- Ult heal vs. champs now either scales of dmg dealt again or has nearly no base heal (nerfs to tank Swain, I would prefer the first, but it may be a bit conservative) - keep the healing vs. minions though, so his early game won't be hit too much
- make his ult's mana-cost-ramp-up get bigger with levels again (aka make his mana cost great again ;D)
- reduce health growth stat by 5-10 (nerfs for tank Swain, and for his general (heh) ability of being annoying)
These changes are just some suggestions by myself, i don't think that they are perfect, but this is what i would at least try if I had to decide what to do about the Swain-Problem at them moment. I am sure that there are better ways, but i would at least test this out for a bit on the PBE, maybe it helps. ;)
Sources: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-69-notes http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-610-notes#patch-swain http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-611-notes#patch-swain http://www.surrenderat20.net/2016/04/419-pbe-update.html#10
Me in LoL: - Gold 2 last season, not playing ranked atm for... dynamic reasons
- Level 6 with Swain, playing him since season 3 (mid)
- mostly playing Top/Mid/Jungle, sometimes adc
- other favorite Champs:
- playing on EUW since season 2 (since the release of Sejuani)
Thanks to the possible 1 guy who made it all the way down here, i hope i did not offend anyone and still made my points clear. If you want, I am always open for a little discussion ;)
Sorry (not sorry) for the extremely long and boring text, here is a (Beatrice-)potato for the 9gaggers reading this and anyone interested: http://www.hanttula.com/media/uploads/pre2007/oneleggedbirdpotato-arjenva.jpg
