When players pick Swain in League of Legends, the frightening general says, “fear the power you do not see.” And after seeing the changes that Riot Games has in store for the champion, most mid laners might want to prepare themselves for the power that the crow brings with the massive alterations the developers are cooking up for him on the PBE.
Riot game designer Tim “Truexy” Jiang revealed the latest update list for the Master Tactician today and said the devs are “[aiming] to pull some of his burst power into investing in Swain’s fantasy of becoming a drain-tanking terror while in [Demonic Ascension].” As a trade-off, they are shifting some of his power from his passive away to offset the changes to his ultimate.
First, Riot is taking away Swain’s ability to pull back enemies who have been affected by crowd control. His pull also won’t do any damage, but he will be able to pull all enemies affected by his Nevermove root ability instead. Nevermove’s cooldown will be reduced while in his ultimate ability form, Demonic Ascension.
Some players might be upset that Swain won’t be able to follow up on crowd control, but the changes to his ultimate ability should make up for that. Swain’s Demonic Ascension is being revamped so that players can actually remain in his ultimate form for as long as they need in a teamfight or skirmish, according to the change list.
Upon casting the first part of his ultimate ability, Swain gains 50 demon power. The ult will last as long as the player has demon power, which drains from Swain at a rate of 10 per second. When Swain drains an enemy champion, however, he regains 20 demon power per second. If a player is surrounded by opponents, they can remain in ultimate form until Swain dies or the enemies die. After three seconds, players can then activate the second part of Swain’s ultimate, Demonflare.
Speaking of which, Demonflare is also getting some big changes. For example, the ability no longer requires players to charge it up through health drained. Instead, once Swain casts Demonic Ascension, they can cast Demonflare once. This won’t end Demonic Ascension like in past iterations, which will allow Swain to continue being a life-draining menace in a fight. It also helps that Swain’s Demonflare slows enemies by 60 percent, giving him more time to absorb the life from any unfortunate souls.
It’s unknown when the revamped Swain will drop onto the live servers, but you’ll be able to take him out for a spin on League’s test servers today.
This article includes affiliate links, which may provide small compensation to Dot Esports.
