Swain Hotfixed Immediately After League of Legends Patch 12.8

League of Legends goes through regular maintenance and changes to provide the players with the best gameplay experience and balance out the plethora of characters in the game. The game also fixes bugs and other issues that have been plaguing it. These changes are done through patches, and the main attraction of these patches are the buffs and nerfs that are made to the existing Legends.

One of the Legends that received a major rework in the League of Legends Mid Season Update was Swain. League of Legends Patch 12.8 saw major rework for Swain, as the game wished to bring the character back to its former glory. According to LoL, Swain is a character that should strike fear in the others’ hearts all by himself and not need support from other characters. Check out their description for his rework and changes made in Patch 12.8 below:

The goal for this midscope update was thus to revive his fantasy as a master strategist and dark, demonic diplomat, rather than someone who must rely on others to execute his plans. In addition to mana buffs across all his abilities, of note are some changes to his crowd control capabilities.

Swain can no longer pull enemies CC’d by allies, but his E now lets him pull everyone he snares, making him all the more terrifying in bottlenecks and narrow corridors. Together, these changes should help Swain players in all roles feel like the ruthless yet tactical ruler he is—especially when he unleashes Demonic Ascension, which now lasts for as long as Swain can sustain himself with his enemies’ souls. Sacrifices must be made.

PASSIVE – RAVENOUS FLOCK

• HEALING FROM SOUL FRAGMENTS 4/5.5/7% of maximum health ⇒ 4/5.5/7%/9% of maximum health (at levels 1/6/11/16)
• MAXIMUM HEALTH INCREASE PER SOUL FRAGMENT 5 ⇒ 12
• REMOVED PULL-E MECHANISMS Swain can no longer use Passive – Ravenous Flock to pull and rip out Soul Fragments from immobilized enemies (see E – Nevermove)

Q – DEATH’S HAND

• DAMAGE 55/75/95/115/135 (+40% AP) ⇒ 60/80/100/120/140 (+38% AP)
• BONUS DAMAGE PER ADDITIONAL BOLT 8.25/15/23.75/34.5/47.25 (+6/8/10/12/14% AP) ⇒ 12/22/32/42/52 (+8% AP)
• MAXIMUM DAMAGE (5 BOLTS) 88/135/190/253/324 (+64/72/80/88/96% AP) ⇒ 108/168/228/288/348 (+70% AP)
• COOLDOWN 9/7.5/6/4.5/3 seconds ⇒ 7/6/5/4/3 seconds
• MANA COST 65/70/75/80/85 ⇒ 45/50/55/60/65

W – VISION OF EMPIRE

• MANA COST 70/80/90/100/110 ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80
• NEW VANTAGE ADVANTAGE Pinging W – Vision of Empire nows display a list of visible enemies within range in team chat (similar to Twisted Fate and Nocturne ults)

E – NEVERMOVE

• NEW PITIFUL PAWNS Can now be recast to pull all champions rooted by E – Nevermove, ripping out 1 Soul Fragment from each of them
• REMOVED SILENT SACRIFICES Swain’s pulls no longer deal damage
• NEW A TRUE VISIONARY Now grants vision of all rooted targets
• NEW DEMON DISCOUNT E – Nevermove’s cooldown is reduced by 20% during R – Demonic Ascension

R – DEMONIC ASCENSION

• COOLDOWN 120 seconds ⇒ 100/80/60 seconds
• DRAIN DAMAGE PER SECOND 35/50/65 (+14% AP) ⇒ 20/40/60 (+10% AP)
• DRAIN HEAL PER SECOND 20/35/40 (+16% AP) ⇒ 15/40/65 (+25%)
• REMOVED BIG BIRB No longer grants Swain 125/200/275 bonus health while active
• REMOVED TWO BIRDS ONE SOUL No longer doubles the health gained from Soul Fragments while active
• REMOVED ACTIVE DURATION 12 seconds ⇒ Based on Demon Power
• UPDATED DEMON POWER Activating Demonic Ascension grants Swain 50 Demon Power, which decreases at an initial rate of 10 per second. After 5 seconds of Demonic Ascension, Swain’s Demon Power decreases faster at a rate of 15 per second
• NEW SOUL STEALER Swain gains 20 Demon Power per second while draining enemy champions
• UPDATED BIG DEMON ENERGY After 2 seconds of Demonic Ascension, Swain can recast his ultimate as R – Demonflare. R – Demonflare can only be cast once and does not end Demonic Ascension

R – DEMONFLARE

• DAMAGE 100/150/200 (+50% AP) ⇒ 150/225/300 (+60% AP)
• NEW CONFLAGRATION Demonflare now slows enemies by 60%, decaying over 1.5 seconds
• REMOVED EXPENDED, NOT STORED Demonflare no longer deals additional damage based on health drained from enemies

Even after going through such a massive rework ‘The Grand General’ did not reach his ‘grand’ status and players were still having trouble playing and winning with the character. LoL was quick to recognise the issue and provided a Hotfix for Swain just moments after the Patch 12.8 released. The Hotfix consisted of increasing Swain’s Base Armor from 23 to 26 and increasing his Base Move Speed from 325 to 350. Hopefully the Swain Hotfix should help the Legend fare better in the cutthroat competition.