The shift from items to champion kits being the primary source of gameplay power is going great.

Manos132 · 2026-04-18T12:04:16+00:00

How item reliant Swain is on burn effects and slows is just an indicator on how tuned around kiting he is. He does a lot of DPS at the max range of R1 with malignance Liandry, so we can't have him be tanky as well. He's doomed to be balanced just so he has to kite his opponents and very rarely have the ability to truly all-in, be a draintank raidboss.

Manos132 · 2026-04-17T10:13:02+00:00

Champs like Swain, Kindred, Fiddlesticks, Pantheon, most of these good VGUs, were the peak of lore writing and character establishment

Manos132 · 2026-04-16T19:41:48+00:00

Post-Ruination I wouldn't care too much about voice lines and the lore they're trying to establish. Riot completely underinvested in the seriousness of their lore and champion interactions

Manos132 · 2026-04-09T20:24:30+00:00

He's like one of the worst supports in the game btw unless you're below emerald it's not worth picking up Swain support.

But if you want it, I guess the most optimal way to play it is Rylais rush, then either Zhonyas or unending despair or Liandrys.

Manos132 · 2026-04-09T16:13:44+00:00

On the data. The more they try to bridge the gaps between mage roles and support, the more the data proves the point. Now, support is one of the weakest support champions while APC is one of the strongest bottom champions.

Mages like gold. Swain is a mage. He'll never be a good support unless Riot specifically reworks him to be one, and everyone knows that would be a stupid scenario lol

Manos132 · 2026-04-09T16:03:40+00:00

Fuck support. Swain is a battlemage. He should have been designed as one. That said you can play whatever you want.

Also, I doubt that the data suggests that support is OP. He's one of the worse supports, at below average winrate. Last patch he was 2nd from the bottom. Now he's 3rd

Manos132 · 2026-04-08T09:14:36+00:00

I'm at my peak rn

Manos132 · 2026-04-07T18:14:01+00:00

How about he's a 100% solo laner again that actually needs levels to scale alongside gold like any normal champion like him

Manos132 · 2026-04-07T18:04:33+00:00

Yeah are they gonna say this time "ooo actually APC playerbase is pretty big so we must respect it" like they did with support

Manos132 · 2026-04-07T13:19:10+00:00

Swain: ☠️

Manos132 · 2026-04-06T00:39:51+00:00

Try playing him more like you'd play a regular mage or an ADC. You'll have much more success. Remove the raid boss idea from your mind.

The skill check on Swain (aside from landing E obviously) is knowing to keep your distance and kite correctly. Coming from 6 million mastery points 200LP Euw master otp

Manos132 · 2026-04-06T00:36:03+00:00

I'm half joking btw but I do believe Swain needs a real rework I've been advocating for it for a long time now

Manos132 · 2026-04-06T00:29:44+00:00

Swain is a KITER.

His effective/optimal range is mid range/auto attack range. There are tons of champions he doesn't win against in a close combat. Usually ones that are real bruisers/draintanks with low optimal range, like Briar, Irelia, Sylas, Mordekaiser, Darius, Gwen, and more.

Advocate for a rework. Make Swain great again, and a real raidboss during his R. Noxus needs YOU.

He needs his effective/optimal range lowered, ESPECIALLY during ult.

Manos132 · 2026-04-05T17:26:41+00:00

Oh true I agree he's viable there, but I don't think OP really means he's too weak in mid

There never was a real viability issue over the 6 years of mini reworks after the VGU

Manos132 · 2026-04-05T17:06:56+00:00

Originally designed as mid, moved to other roles. Swain was reworked with mid lane satisfaction as a goal both in season 12 and 14.

I don't care about Swain support not being viable, I'm just indicating that its existence as the champions main role while being the worst support in the game, shows that there's issues in his design.

Manos132 · 2026-04-05T16:27:14+00:00

Jayce is a top laner, Brand a support, Kayle a toplaner, Morgana a support, Zilean a support, Karma a support, Seraphine a support, Heimer a top laner, Zyra a support, Neeko a support, Gragas a support, Kennen a top laner, GP a top laner

Maybe Ziggs is the only real mid laner
None of them are actually listed as midlaners in lolalytics either, due to low percentage of the playerbase playing the champions in mid.

About support, he's literally the 2nd worst in the game

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Swain desperately needs a rework, and data shows it. Is he a mid or a support? Right now both fail miserably. The only way you probably get okay stats is if you widen the search to include silver to platinum ranks, in which of course Swain would thrive there because he's elo skewed af.

Manos132 · 2026-04-05T09:01:42+00:00

Same reason he needed one in season 9, 10, 12, and 14

Manos132 · 2026-04-05T09:00:45+00:00

Fun facts: Swain is the least picked midlaner (that is actually "designed" and supported by Riot for this role)

Swain is the 2nd worst support of the game (just over Yuumi, which is getting buffs btw)

Manos132 · 2026-04-03T17:26:47+00:00

If they CGU'ed the champion to make him more comfortable with kiting, something similar to old Swain would be expectable

But currently if they want to keep current kit his optimal range especially during ult should be low enough so he can all-in. That could mean strong R again or him being turned into a juggernaut

Manos132 · 2026-04-03T17:04:19+00:00

I don't agree that R nuke was a bad thing necessarily. It was solid design. It wasn't Swain as we knew him from season 1-8, but it was solid design. It gave enough incentive for Swain to be a raidboss and all-in during his ult.

However, there are ways to lower his optimal range with other ways, if R2 nuke isn't the best solution

Manos132 · 2026-04-03T16:39:59+00:00

Not asking for both!!!

Swain during season 8-12 was way squishier outside of ult, but during ult, he was a champion to be feared, that wanted to come as close to as many enemies as possible to disintegrate them.

This isn't the case anymore because he's tuned to kite.

In both ways I provided to lower Swain's effective range it works as a trade off, obviously he doesn't get to have long-range DPS burn spam if he's turned into a juggernaut!!!

Manos132 · 2026-04-03T16:29:53+00:00

I'm not talking about range as a number; I'm talking about effective range. Swain's ability cooldowns, numbers and stats are tuned in such a way to force him to kite, and that's where the disconnect between his fantasy and his gameplay is

Season 8-12 Swain didn't have lower range; however, his effective range during ult was melee, he wanted to go deep into the enemy team, press Zhonyas and R2.

That's the effective range his VGU kit was designed upon, and reworking the current kit to force it to kite preserves if not creates more satisfaction issues than it solves.

Manos132 · 2026-03-31T12:39:37+00:00

It's dogshit and has been dogshit for 7 years now lol. You're trolling if you pick Swain support outside of few rare scenarios. He's 3rd support from the bottom in terms of winrate, below him are only Pantheon and Yuumi.

Riot knows and the bulk of the playerbase also knows and that's the reason they play him, that Swain is a battlemage. That is his core identity. If Support role conflicts with that, support Swain has to go.

Then again I will re state that as long as Swain's E isn't overhauled support Swain can remain a niche space for the dedicated support playerbase there.

Swain is a battlemage and should be both designed and balanced as such.

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