I know that Swain needs some nerfs,

Bârd·Jun 15, 2016·5 votes·425 views

but tripling the cooldown on his ultimate without any compensation is just too much.

If you really must do this, here are some ideas to keep him a decent champion (not all, just one. Or none, and skip a few lines to a less overboard nerf)

If you get a kill (either during the ult or while it is on CD), some of the cooldown is refunded. If you kill an enemy champion with Ravenous Flock active, the mana cost per second will reset to its initial value. If Ravenous Flock is active, killing a unit restores double mana from Carrion Renewal.

On the other hand, you could just nerf him in another way.

Make "Torment" only amp damage by 10% at rank 1, and make him need to scale it to get 20% damage amp.

5 Comments

QuephaJun 15, 20163 votes

I think the ult really needs to have the cooldown increase. It's so easy to find time to toggle it off and wait out the cooldown and that resets the entire mana cost to the minimum. Without a real tradeoff to resetting the mana cost then there's nothing that restricts it, and it does way too much damage and heals way too much to not be restricted somehow.

Compare to Maokai who is known for having a fairly short cooldown on his ult. The impact of Swain's every second is comparable to that thing yet Swain's cooldown is microscopic compared to Maokai's "short" cooldown of 40 seconds in the late game.

If he needs compensation buffs they'll probably add them, this is just the first iteration.

MisterShamelessJun 15, 20161 votes

Off-topic: Same can be said for Quinn's ultimate cd, really hope they raise its cooldown as well. Quinn's ult should at least cost mana while in use.

SaltyKrackaJun 15, 20161 votes

It would probably be better to just nerf the shit out of his ult's mana costs.

ErockandrollJun 15, 20161 votes

Well I wouldn't think this would be all the changes we will be seeing. But it's a pretty fair change simply as a concept. Swains ult, doesn't have much inherent Counterplay, as it basically targets anyone in range. And one way of adding counterplay would be to play around a longer Cooldown.

That said, If they did go though with this, He probably should be less reliant on his ult in general. Let's say, Increased damage on his Nevermore, particularly against minions, so he doesn't have to rely as much on his ult for wave clear, and Swain can still save his ult for the team fight.