It's crazy to me that Swain over the years has evolved into this mainly DoT statchecking kiter battlemage kind of champion. A gameplay loop which shouldn't be put on post-VGU Swain. Post-VGU Swain wants to press R every 120 seconds and 1. bait the enemies into jumping on him 2. chase them in their faces until they explode

Pre-VGU Swain on the other hand was a champion made exactly for what current Swain does in many ways: Space out the enemies and tickle them down to low HP, play front to back in teamfights, have lots of DoTs, bully toplaners, the list goes on. He was a great champion made for this specific niche.

And we can't have him. Not even in the gamemode specifically made for nostalgia

Hitting W on the mini-map.

Happens nearly as often as trying to pinpoint and target it, but its way easier.

Bot gone afk we literally 4 vs 5 the whole game, I play as support swain have did my best but tbh we lose this match, not because I did not try my best but my team ff.

Some explanations:

>Easy: Match ups where you can win without too much problem, either because the enemy champion is low range or lack movement/dash

>Winnable: Match ups you can win but with more patience and caution.

>Insufferable: Hell on earth, you'll get outranged, out scaled, poked to death or ran down lvl 3 without being able to deal too much damage back (Forgot to add Syndra here xD)

I main yone and it seems no matter the skill level i get stomped and have to sit in a corner vs ahri. her crutch of a charm is really an equalizer. am i looking in the right direction with swain?

Swain warwick combo might be the most fun I ever had playing this game. Loving new W buff

Hey guys! I want to preface this by saying im not a new player but I NEVED played Swain before. That being said, I REALLY struggle to understand how I should be playing him.

My first instinct is to play at mid range and carefully position myself. This works but I feel like I only tickle people. It doesnt matter if it's the early, mid and late game, it just feels like I do barely any damage.

Even when I build towards ap, something just feels off. Then comes his stacking mechanic: it feels... bad? Like I can have 1 billion stacks and I still get burst down fairly quickly. Im supposed to play in mid range but his ult kind of encourages me to go in, but then I die in a Pico second.

It just feels like the early game is bad, the mid game is decent and I get outscaled in the late game. How am I supposed to pilot this champion? Is he just in a bad state now?

Hiii I thought it would be cool to share this around here. Swain has been my main since before the rework so what a better way to honor him.
If anyone likes this, i have a lot more art around my blog, just not all swains.

I don't understand how giving a flat bonus to his W, then taking away a minor amount of armor in exchange for a minor amount of mr, is supposed to "normalize his mid and bot lane performance" as Riot claimed was their goal in the patch notes.

The character feels the exact same but now your W, the ability that has 90% of its use case being just a guaranteed stack upon landing your E, is off cooldown more. Know the big reason why swain bot is so prevalent? THE STACKS.

They buff the ability that gives stacks, to give a buff to the lane where you barely get any stacks, and to also "normalize" the performance he has bot lane, the lane where you get tons of stacks?? I don't even know why I expected anything logical from the team that admitted they didn't even play old swain before reworking him...

On swains birthday I went to a cafe to celebrate with an ita bag i made !

The swains inside are from the china cha panda noxus collab and one riftbound card. The chibi outside was commissioned a long time ago and theres the drawing my friend drew of me as swain. The clicky keychain i made myself ~~

I usually play mid and take bft into liandrys 2nd
Aery
Apc same build ?

What is the best build for Swain midlane? I got Chosen of The Wolf from a chest and wanted to play him, I've seen many different builds and I'm not sure which is the best to go with when learning Swain, so far I have seen

Conqueror with BFT - Sorcs (or defensive) - Rylais - items as needed (Zhonya's, Liandries, tank item etc)

I've seen the same items with Aery instead

I've also seen Aery with full tank Rylais - Lucid - Fimbulwinter - other tank items (Frozen Heart, Randuins, etc)

Tried the buffs, went mid to play vs an ap champ, had sylas matchup and it went well.

The issue I'm sure everyone is finding is your damage items don't actually give you much more damage. It soon falls off hard and you're just tickling people, you can only really win a teamfight if you land clutch high priority or multiman E.

Please riot just let us be relevant throughout the game. We don't need healing buffs, mana cost buffs, resistance buffs or anything that helps us in a lane phase, when even a good lane phase turns to nothing because we drop off a cliff.

This is not a list of what changes to perform, nor does it include stat changes, as I am not knowledgeable enough to suggest those; these are just some modifications I thought would make him more interesting if some were to be implemented. Each ability has some suggestions; I would like to see how you would want the champion changed or adjusted, rather than simply increasing damage, resistances, or other stats.

Passive:

Reduce HP granted from 15 to 5 (necessary, otherwise he becomes too strong with the suggested changes).

1. Also restores mana, using the same percentage as the health.

2. Increases health restoration, perhaps scaling from 4% to 8%.

3. Can pull again from teammate crowd control.

4. Deals max HP damage on pull.

Q:

I think that for this, either the pierce would have to be removed or the "pierce only on kill" mechanic would need to be reintroduced.

1. Deals max HP damage if at least 3 bolts hit.

2. Pulls a shard when at least 3 bolts hit.

3. Fires more bolts based on stacks (or more damage per bolt)

4. Executes based on stacks (not the biggest fan of this due to too many executes are in the game)

5. 1 second CD in ult form

W:

1. Massive damage increase, i am talkimg like xerath q and similar hard to hit abilities.

2. Like Wild rift, crits on cc'ed targets for more damage

3. More damage based on how far away the W is

4. Marks target for increased damage for some time or lowers mr

5. Lower explode time im Ult form

E:

1. Like anivia q, can be recast to turn back at any point.

2. Explodes when hitting a champion

3. Ignores minions, pets etc

4. When returning explodes around swain

5. Larger hitbox or speed in ult form

R:

Remove permanent ult, it is so low elo skewed it cripples his change potential.

1. Massive increase in healing and damage, works just like aatrox ult (base duration plus increase per kill or per stack ammount, whatever is best)

2. Demonflare pulls shards from hit enemies but has longer cooldown, or marks enemies so that the next demonflare pulls shards.

3. Each demonflare does more damage, like 20% or sth

4. Gives hp on cast and doubles stack health. Health gained on cast could also be based on stacks with a base ammount (like 100/200/300 + 50% of stack health)

5. Ult area size increases with stacks

Which one would be your favourite change combinations? You can also pick more than one per ability.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/x3KqAX

Felt so gut

I recently played a mayhem match where i was ult-ing more than not! I'd be using ult so long that it would be off cooldown by the time it would end! We did end up winning!

my penta was robbed riot >:(