My beloved Swain, Oh the pain....(new Swain ult analysis compared to old Swain ult)

Ok, I have been playing Mr. Swain since season 1 and started to main him in season 2. He was a very fun champion to play with and I will never give up playing him no matter how weak he becomes. This thread will be solely focused on all aspects of Swain's ult change as I believe and am fairly certain is the change that has hurt him the most.

So disregarding the accidental cast time that was added to Swain's ult as stated by a few Rioters(this will be fixed in patch 6.10), lets begin!

First Change: Cooldown: increased from 8>>10 seconds.

Facts about change: This change is mainly noticeable in lane, it increases Swain's window of vulnerability to All-ins. This can be compensated for in play style by willing to be zoned for a longer period of time until your ult re-charges.

Opinions about change: This is rather insignificant and has been compensated for fairly well by his Q-change, with it Swain can farm more consistently now from a safer distance, and so can afford to be zoned for a longer period of time. This However slightly plays against the persona and vision Riot said they want to preserve about Swain. Riot states in the patch notes description, "Rather than force one identity over the other, we’re looking at ways to enhance Swain overall. Regardless of why you play the Master Tactician, he’s a tanky mage with DoT’s and that’s not changing." I personally love this statement because the Swain I have come to love is indeed a tanky monstrosity that is willing to take a beating in order to deal one, but in a smart and bad-ass way. This change encourages him to think more about when he wants to enforce his strength and bully his lane opponent which often requires leveraging the use of his ult. Other than that this change is not significantly harmful.

Second Change: Cost: decreased from 25 + 5/6/7 >>>>25 + 5 additional mana per second at all ranks.

Facts about change: Not much to say other than this change(along with various other mana cost changes) was made with the new and reworked items in mind. I have not done the math on it so I can not say whether this change is a buff/nerf or indifferent.

Opinions about change: The ever accelerating mana cost of his ult per second that increased upon ranking up his ult made it so in order to keep his ult on for the same amount of time, you would need to continue to buy additional mana/ mana-regen. Regardless, as an experienced Swain player, you gain accustomed to knowing about how much time you can leave your ult on + how many full rotations of abilities you can cast before you run out of mana. The constant changing of the mana cost per second of his ult though was hard to get a handle on and sometimes left even experienced Swain players hitting that E or Q and hearing the "your out of mana" sound. This change helps to have a consistent feel of how long exactly you can keep his ult going based on the size of your current mana pool and overall adds an increased feeling of mastery over Swain.

Third Change: Healing against minions: decreased from 25%>>15%.

Facts about change: Doing the hard math on it, old ult hitting 3 minions = 25% + 25% +25% = 75% total damage done by ult converted to healing, new ult hitting 5 minions = 15% + 15% + 15% + 15% + 15% = 75% total damage done by ult converted to healing. As you can see the amount of healing Swain has available to him from lane minions is roughly unchanged. It is worth skipping ahead and noting another change to his ult which does not allow a raven to hit the same target for 1 second. Considering this change, his Health per second gained from his new ult hitting 5 minions is LESS THAN his old ult hitting only 3 minions. I will explain this later but in contrast, his new ult in a group of 6 minions heals for more health per second than his old ult hitting 3, and in a group of 7 even more.

Opinions about change: See the Facts.

Fourth change: Maximum number of ravens: 3>>5.

Facts about the change: So starting with the Maximum number of ravens which I briefly mentioned in the previous change, it encourages Swain to really get in the middle of a team fight to benefit from the two-fold increase in his aoe damage as well as the increased healing he would receive. Although it does put Swain at a greater risk because he is not a champion that builds like a traditional tank, and therefore can not survive in the middle of the enemy team for long where he would mainly benefit from his new found 2 extra ravens.

Opinions about the change: I personally feel like Swain is most at home on just the out skirts of the front-line of a team fight, occasionally darting to the very front to catch some attention and maybe split the dps focus and priority of the enemy team. For this play style, 3 ravens is most of the time more than enough to hit all the targets inside it's range(700 units). Rarely do I look for going into the very middle of the enemy team unless I have zonyas, and even then I often need quick and reliable peel from teammates to aid my escape shortly after. This is because Swain simply can not survive the damage from 5 people for any significant amount of time unless fed. This has not changed with anything added in patch 6.9, so allowing his ult to target 5 people is not actually a significant change at all. I may be underestimating this change, but I doubt it , besides, this is why it is under the "Opinions section."

FIFTH AND MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE: Pecking immunity: Lesser ravens can’t attack the same target for 1 second.

Facts about the change: The old Swain ult sent ravens out every second regardless if it was the same target, this changes things to where now his ult actually sends ravens out every 0.2 seconds but also has the limitation of a raven not being able to target the same enemy for 1 second. Now lets use an example to demonstrate this new mechanic. Swain ults and a raven leaves his body towards his target, taking roughly 0.2 seconds to arrive and deal it's damage and heal Swain. IN THE INSTANT IT DEALS DAMAGE the 1 second immunity to that target begins. This means that Swains ult actually hits the same target once every: [1 second + travel time of raven(roughly 0.2 seconds depending on distance from the enemy)] This SIGNIFICANTLY lowers his damage output in duels and small skirmishes which he had previously enjoyed. This nerf works against swain two-fold due to his noticeably decreased damage and healing in these situations.

Opinions about the change: Swain's main forte was scraping and dealing with no more than 3 aggressors at a time, Ideally one of them being a support due to their low damage output, maximizing his net healing. This situation for Swain worked extremely well with his "mage brawler" identity, but has been unfortunately gutted by this change. Previously if I had to point to one of Swain's inherent strengths, I would point to his power in small skirmishes and duels if played well. I can no longer necessarily point to these situations as one of his most prized strengths and this deeply saddens me. Also Swain was already on the weak end when it came to kiting him. This change further hurts this situation because if someone is moving away from you while your raven from your ult chases them, the travel time of the raven increases and therefore increases the rate at which his ult hits these targets to I believe an unintended level by Riot.

Conclusion:

I hope someone out there gains a somewhat better appreciation to how these changes, especially the last one, really hurts Swain's identity. Lets not make changes to this champion solely by looking at raw data and statistics, lets actually take every aspect of the champion into consideration because that is really whats at stake here. A champion to many isn't just some assortment of numbers and code.

TLDR: Swain's ult change, Pecking immunity: Lesser ravens can’t attack the same target for 1 second. Hurts him a lot more than people realize, please take more care when introducing such changes to a champion.