The League of Legends development team is taking steps to solve several main problems related to Swain in the Season 14 meta, with a series of changes that will make him stronger in the bot lane. These changes are expected to make the battlemage feel more rewarding to play, especially for those who prefer him as a support character.
Former commentator turned LoL balance guru David “Phreak” Turley revealed the changes on Monday. While currently only in the testing phase, the future changes will affect several of Swain’s abilities, primarily his E and Ultimate, while minor changes are to be made to his base stats, Q, and W. These changes are in line with Riot’s goal of improving Swain’s gameplay experience across the board, not only support, but mid lane, for which he is well suited.
Swain’s Ability Changes
Swain’s E, Nevermove, will have increased damage and cast speed, with the goal of making both the first and second cast “much faster.” His Ultimate, Demonic Ascension, will also be changed to let players use the damaging Demonflare more often and push more power into the ability’s soulfire nova.
“Our main focus is to increase the satisfaction of mid and bot lanes,” Phreak said. “We are not trying to increase his win rate but rather make compromises that make Swain feel good to play. We want him to be fun and liked by everyone, then from there, work on making him a support character without making his win rate too high. For the diehard support Swain players—which is most of the player base nowadays—we want him to feel useful.”
Phreak also teased that there could be a mini rework for Swain by the end of the year, but the aim is not to increase his win rate which is decent, but to make him fun to play.
The Balance with Swain’s Buffs
However, even now Swain is a strong pick, and he is only going to become even more popular in the future, primarily in the bot lane. U.GG states that the Noxian Grand General has a win rate of 53.53% when played as a support hero. His mid lane performance is almost as good with a win rate of 52.35%. However, Swain’s pick rate as a support is only 1.2%, which means that there is potential to make him feel more rewarding for playing as support.
“Swain wins a lot in both mid and bot lanes but he doesn’t always feel good to play,” Phreak pointed out, adding that it has become a “chicken and egg” situation to determine whether Swain is good to play because he is strong or if he is strong because he is good to play.
Riot now has the challenge of making Swain relevant and fun to play as well. Whether these changes will be implemented in time for Patch 14.21 is unknown and they could be saved for Season 15. However, Swain mains will have some cool changes to look forward to as it will make the battlemage a much more enjoyable pick in various positions.
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