Swain Champion Reveal!
Champion Update: Swain, the Noxian Grand General
Here we go boys!
EDIT: I WANT TO PLAY HIM SO BAD!!!!! HE LOOKS SO BADASS!!!!!
198 Comments
Uhhhh... im not a Swain main or anything, but... i feel kinda disapointed that the new ultimate doesnt turn him into a complete demon bird like the old ult... now he just.... grow wings? i mean... sure is cool i guess... but i preffer the old raven monster
https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4jl9l7dAC1qdcj3zo1_1280.jpg
After all, its not like we dont have a humanlike creature with bird wings in the game already 
.
BOOOO WHERE IS HIS BIRD
I love the kit riot, but why remove one of the biggest aspects of his character, that makes swain a memorable character, and replace beatrice, the crows, and his entire style for a stupid edgelord demon look? It completely kills the uniqueness of his character and makes him look like the darkin and Vlad. Im completely dissappointed with this update as it just makes him look as bland and boring as the rest of the edgy demon champions in the roster.
Honestly speaking; while this new character doesn't look bad, it also doesn't feel at all like Swain.
All the key elements that made him have his unique flavour (his walking animation and cane, his bird, his transformation) have been removed in favour of dark magic that is generic and disappointing. I didn't even consider removing these things would be an option when they're literally the most iconic thing about the character.
I thought we were past the point where reworks completely changed the core essence of characters. Why have we gone backwards on Swain and given so little care to respecting the established unique identity he held??
No opinions on the kit, but I really don't like the new look. He just doesn't read as Swain anymore to me. Where's Beatrice? Where's his limp? Both of those were majorly significant to the character.
Not really fond of the white hair, either. If you're going to give him a luscious flowing mane of hair, go for a dark color. Especially with his raven connections.
If you guys are really married to this new look, please, please, please do a Traditional skin.
No cane, no limp, no eyepatch (outside of Northern Front), no Beatrice, no full bird demon form - this honestly doesn't feel anything like Swain anymore from a visual standpoint. It looks more like an upgrade for Blood Lord Vlad. Really disappointed. :(
So, I feel torn. I understand one of the cohesive goals here was to make him look more properly Noxian. I wasn't supremely attached to his old look (I mainly used Tyrant with bits of classic/Northern Front/2% or so of Bilgewater), so I'm not going to mislead there.
Beatrice not being on his shoulder in some form irritates me to no end, however. I know there's passive crow usage and the nod with the ultimate. But it was an important character relationship to me. I assume it was not included because she could be visually misleading in some way or make him too busy. But I also don't see why she couldn't have some kind of perch on his old jacket.
I've been trying to eyeball his jacket/Swain himself in-game to see if it's really create a clash to re-imagine his old perch. I don't think it would sans with his ultimate and that's still an IF. It really hurts his character to have the raven-theme diminished for a more generic overlord/warlock look.
Which ties into the ultimate---and is more of a secondary complaint. It felt like this was no reason not to keep the full transformation look as well. I don't know if it's because there was deadlines with modeling or what. But it was one of the fun parts of transforming and felt like you really embraced the transformation. I'm not really fond of the "just the wings" aspect with the graphical pop-in. Graphical pop-in looks great---I don't want to pay it disrespect, but it's brief. The movement animation looks a bit awkward (kind of reminds me of Kayle/Aatrox ult). It's still readable though for an in-game perspective, so it works.
Though I really liked his present kit (I was very happy with the Q rework; I like him as a dot mage), I'm going to try to be optimistic here:
The kit on the other hand barring numbers looks promising without him being as oppressive (though now it's a lot of skillshots of varying length and delay). With the increased vision/CC, I understand wanting to gate him. I'll have to see it in actual practice. I imagine rylai/glacial augment might play well with him. Especially since I presume he'll still be wanting hourglass.
How could u take Beatrice from us riot ;_;
I'm torn on being excited or not... His kit looks interesting, but... That's not swain, don't kid yourself. This should have been a kit on a whole new champion. Not only does the gameplay not feel like "swain", he doesn't even visually feel like Swain. They just removed Swain from the game and gave a new champion his name. So, I mean... I'm excited to try this new champion, but I want swain back...
There's nothing in this that feels like swain. They completely removed the majority of his character elements; The limp, Cane, Beatrice, Morphing into a Demonbird, the hiding of the face, etc. The new kit in no way reflects Swain. There's no DoT, no zone control effects, no transformation on demand and mana management. They created an entirely new champion with the thinnest veneer of Swain and tacked on the shitty edgelord anime look.
Riot used to be so good with subtle changes to a kit or design that really improves on the character while keeping identity intact; Sejuani, Ashe, or Malphite being perfect examples. But lately if you like a character and kit older than 3-4 years better kiss it the fuck goodbye. Rito doesn't like how your champ plays and is going to strip it down to a name, turn every ability into a skill shot, and tack on the edgelord...
He looks.. Worse off then before
I am honestly really put off by the Lucius Malfow look
Rest In Peace, Beatrice. The bird is no longer the word...
Can't wait for Riot reworking champions i don't Play. First Galio and now this... No Beatrice, no cane, no crow transformation, no laserbird and no dots anymore you could have named him Swoin and no one would have seen that it was based on Swain's design.
I guess the champion will be strong and people who didn't like Swain before will like him more that way. The graphics are nice, but that just isn't Swain.
https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/500x/67285662/oh-no-hes-hot.jpg
Holy shit, that Pirate Swain skin.
Things i liked: Kit looks interesting, maintains battlemage style Plenty of chances for skill expression with combo's (root, into passive pull, into eye?) ultimate is no longer just stat-check of whether you can out damage his healing Look is overall good and feels very Noxian, big plus on the coat-cape
things i wish were there Beatrice. While he does still have some raven ties with his soul collection effect, i still wish she was there. Full Raven transformation. Ult effect is fine...but part of the allure of Swain was going full monster-raven mode. hopefully his relationship with Beatrice is still present in the lore, and he still has her around, even if not in-game
things i dont like and NEED to go That hair...give the man a proper short haircut
It's funny that they teased a potential upcoming Dragon Master Swain skin. What is the point when there are no more birds (and thus no dragons) =/
(Because tiny dragons carrying his soul fragments for him would totally be awesome /s)
I never thought Lucius Malfoy would rock red
7/10 Needs more birds.
I was really hoping they would expand on the raven theme - definitely disappointed by that.
Other than that, it's a big improvement over his old kit. I am concerned about his ult cooldown and mana costs, though.
Anyone else feel like red isn't Swain's color? I feel like the people or person who made that choice really messed up.
Quick question, Riot, did you give him long hair specifically to troll me?
Where is his limp??????
The kit itself looks interesting i like almost everything about this rework BUT... his face! and Beatrice????!
The thing i liked about Swain before, he looked cunning , mysterious , at same time you wouldnt suspect him to be a mastermind of a great nation.
but now you can see a bad guy face on him from 10 miles away!
That Tyrant spash though :O damn!
Kit looks interesting but I’m really not a fan of the visuals. It doesn’t look like Swain - it looks like Vladimir’s lost brother.
Dragon Master Swain https://images81.fotosik.pl/973/bc501537fe661c54.png
I like the new look and lore, but I'm not really sold on the kit. I like the interaction with his passive and his E, but Q seems like a pretty boring/generic short range wave-clear and his W looks like it will be very situational. No problem with his R - that's neat. To me it looks like he's going to have a difficult laning phase, but I'm a potato so what do I know?
Ugh why did they make him red? It's incredibly minor, I know, but a green colour scheme was a really great aesthetic fit for him. Kind of disappointed to see it gone.