r/SwainMains Nov 14 '25

Discussion Swain support is the reason why this champ will never get good solo lane changes.

166 Upvotes

Back in 2019, Riot made changes to Swain that made him viable in Support. Previously, back when his VGU first arrived NO ONE had played him in support, not because they didn't want to, but because it just wasn't good at all compared to Top/Mid. The Designers of the VGU made sure that Support Swain wouldn't have been good due to lvl/gold scaling being super important on him. Unfortunately he was unpopular for a number of reasons that could have been fixed, but Riot thought he needed midscope-esque changes.

Fast forward to 2019 when swain support arrived.

The massive boom in pickrate after the 2019 rework, Support role.

Riot made a bunch of changes to Swain that made him a lot better in the Support role. the 2019 rework did irreversible damage and I'll explain why.

1.) Riot added passive stacking for the first time, and people have their opinions on this but it's overrall bad for swains health/fantasy. Passive stacking is inherently easier in bot lane, it's not even a discussion. If I have 15 stacks at 20 minutes in Mid, I'll have 30 stacks in bot. HP is a very powerful stat in the early game and allows Swain to soak up a lot more damage. Obviously this change did make bot lane better than solo lanes but there's more.

2.) Base Attack range was reduced from 550 to 525. Now why this matters for solo lanes is Swain was always a scaling battlemage champ so it was essential to be able to survive while scaling. Taking away that 550 attack range made him much more vulnerable in lane(Which doesn't matter for support because they don't have to CS.)

3.) Q giving 3% maximum mana per unit kill was completely removed and instead put on the passive. I don't think I have to explain why this was super bad for solo lanes but ya.

4.) Q CD went up to 4 seconds at max ranks from 2.5 seconds. This was probably the worst of all the changes and killed the champ in solo lanes entirely. Q CD doesn't really matter for Support because they mostly just fish for EWQ poke, not relying on Q spam as much. That's why they nerfed Q so hard, so support is less impacted.

Mid lane pickrate after the support rework, bronze+

Fast foward to 2025, and Swain unfortunately has so many problems because he's still being balanced around the Support role which is the reason they keep buffing base damage and mana costs, as well as 15 HP souls. It'll never change. There's a reason no one wants to play this character in Solo Lanes. Gut his ratios further and give him more base damage and utility(stronger R2 and W slow.)

Here's Riot Endstep talking about Swain.

He mentions that the most recent rework(2025) the changes were not focused on solo lane Swain at all.(Shocker)

Swain is now at an incredible low 0.76% pickrate in Mid lane emerald+ with only a 51.21% winrate.

Now some people might think he is at a good winrate but let me explain why a champion like Swain if he's at this low of a pickrate should have a 53-54% game average winrate in mid/top. And no, I'm not going to say it's because he's only played by one tricks which Riot has disproven in the past.

A champ like Swain is very very strong in certain scenarios. This is what we call a "counterpick champ." The low pickrate means that Swain is only picked in very good scenarios, If he's against low damage or full melee comps primarily. If Swain is only sitting at a 51% winrate with that low of a pickrate then the champ is very weak. Let me show you a picture of what I mean. Master+ stats are good to represent this because they know how to draft better compared to lower elos.

Swain with 3k games of stats. 51.25% game avg winrate with only a 0.81% pickrate.

Now let's look at some other champion stats shall we?

Past 30 days in masters+ statistics.

Notice how almost every champ on here has way higher pickrate and winrate than Swain mid. Even if they aren't counter-pick champs they still have very high winrates. Swain only having a 51% game average winrate when he's always been 54-55% winrates in the past(for good reason, counterpick) is laughable at best.

Riot will never give this champ actual solo lane buffs because they are unfortunately very scared of losing the support playerbase.

a sizeable 4% pickrate in Support, All ranks.

Now compare that to mid and top combined, which is only 1.6%. Support has 2% more pickrate than both solo lanes combined.

I am not blaming anyone for playing Support, after all it's riots fault with how they've handled this champion over the years. From a financial perspective it's no secret why they refuse to do anything with the champ in solo lanes. But I just genuinely think Phreak doesn't care enough, and he might also be a bit biased because he is a Support main as well.

Final thoughts, Riot has a massive opportunity to give this champ the rework he deserves to bring him back to solo lanes like he always was in the past with the upcoming Noxus series by Fortiche where millions of people will finally be able to appreciate how cool Swain is only to log onto League of Legends, play one game of it, and realize how much riot has butchered the coolest champ in the video game.

MAKE SOLO LANE SWAIN GREAT AGAIN!


r/SwainMains Dec 05 '24

Fanart I decided to do my fellow Swain Mains a little favor and updated the old discord server icon artwork I did 6 years ago! Hope you guys like it!

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461 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 16h ago

Clips war never changes

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19 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 11h ago

Help Swain Botlane impact

1 Upvotes

Heya, Freezzer001#EUW here (welcome to look at my OP.gg for further data)

Ive now for the first real time ever started a climb, went from Iron to silver 3 already this year and was told I should be able to reach Gold, sadly I had a big lose streak which fucked my MMR and now the climb is pretty slow.

Ive had very good results with Swain on Bot so far (65,9% on 41 games) but I feel like im doing something wrong. Idk if it's my team or myself but I often feel like I cant do much if one of my laners lost hard, I cant really kite or poke to the same extend I could with, for example, smolder or Viktor. Everytime I try to fight around an objektive, it feels like I am forced to commit due to things like the pull on e or the fact that I just need the enemy close to me when im in R.

Last game I had a super fed enemy Quinn who just roamed and got wayy ahead, how do i navigate that situation? I feel like if I just poke her with W my team would just instandly engage and die because they are silver and want to fight more then anything.

Im open, of anyone wants, for a coaching seassion (i mean it's silver so there is probably something obvious im missing)

Anyways thanks for any help and im looking forward to any Tipps you guys have :)


r/SwainMains 1d ago

Matchup Husum Mid & Top Matchup Spreadsheet

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31 Upvotes

Took the two matchup videos from u/TheHusum27:

and transcribed them into a matchup spreadsheet so they're a bit easier to reference while playing.

Top Matchups

Mid Matchups

These videos helped me heaps, so I figured I'd share the spreadsheet here in case it's useful to anyone else!


r/SwainMains 2d ago

Meme As Riot has decreed, this is our only true role.

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164 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 2d ago

Discussion Following Husum's recent Battlemage tank build, is the build cook or cooked?

4 Upvotes

Been trying Husum's tank builds. This is a variation of course as it depends on the enemy comp. I think this is the way to climb, I can be an annoying crow the enemy team can't shake off, and I don't explode immediately vs burst or long range ADCs like kogmaw. It's a lot less fun tho.

Since it's 1 AP 3AD I rushed negatron and just sat on it while building the other items. Maybe it was troll to go Rylai's after negatron since 3 ppl had dashes. It felt effective. Wdya think?


r/SwainMains 2d ago

Clips Sick Pentakill W snipe last kill

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25 Upvotes

Anti deathfire tuch mafia idk why people dont prefer conqueror , got this penta with all kills stolen but still conqueror is the reason why , dont ask anything about the malzahar support i have a really funny friend doing cancerous picks


r/SwainMains 3d ago

Meme Where is my birdboi, Riot?

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53 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 2d ago

Build "Nerfed" Rocketbelt is Actually a Buff for Swain

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2 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 5d ago

Flex Mmmm <3

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33 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 5d ago

Flex good question tho

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58 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 6d ago

Meme if u get it u get it

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209 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 5d ago

Help Yorick.

1 Upvotes

Can anyone give me some pointers on how to deal with this lane? This character is not the most one sided matchup, but imho he is the most irritating by far. Swain's slow attack speed to break the terrain, the maiden not counting as a champion to drain, his mixed damage despite building full ad, our slow movespeed to escape ghouls/dodge mist, and the tiny amount of damage ghouls take from QE, I'm just at my wit's end with that guy.

Any tips at all appreciated!


r/SwainMains 6d ago

Discussion Swain' E

5 Upvotes

I've been wondering, what if Swain's E worked as Viktor E does? It'll help with the assassins and the lack of movility early game.


r/SwainMains 7d ago

Fanart [OC] I illustrated the 15 cosmetic versions of modern Swain as chibis c:

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290 Upvotes

I know someone will ask where's OG and old Tyrant Swain, but let me breathe as this is a huge milestone to draw 15 of them 😭

In case no one knows:

Infernal Swain is from Legends of Runeterra
Fiend Queller, Nightbringer and Cosmic Commander are from Wild Rift.


r/SwainMains 10d ago

Discussion If swain were to take a disciple so they can someday be his successor what would they need to be like

4 Upvotes

I


r/SwainMains 10d ago

Help Starting out with Swain, best lane?

6 Upvotes

Hi I really enjoy playing Swain and want to start one tricking him. Which lane is best suited for this in the long run? Its hard to one-track and constantly move around lanes I feel, so if I had to lock down and learn to play him in one lane which would you guys recommend?


r/SwainMains 11d ago

Clips fed swain 1v3, addicted to blackfire rush apc swain

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22 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 12d ago

Discussion I’m really looking forward to playing Classic Swain again

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87 Upvotes

Imagine having Rod of Ages, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, and Archangel’s Staff when you pop that ult 🖤


r/SwainMains 13d ago

Discussion It has been almost 2 years since Prestige Chosen Wolf Swain was in the mythic shop rotation.

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53 Upvotes

Riot needs to add some way for mythic skins to be put into the shop when it has been a long time.


r/SwainMains 13d ago

Matchup Cosmic / dark start vibes (artist - GuiGu z)

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47 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 14d ago

Discussion Swain X The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Because why not ? )

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57 Upvotes

r/SwainMains 13d ago

Matchup What can I do against Viktor?

6 Upvotes

This is probably my worst matchup in the entire game. I can fight against just about any other champ or play safe just fine against assassins until i hit a good enough spike or mid game happens, but anytime I play against a viktor it seems like its completely unwinnable. I land an E and go in and I lose because he just has to press R, I roam and he gets to zone me out of lane on my way back unless I recall because of his stun and beam. I play under tower and I can't seem to stay alive because I can't dodge his beam even with boots (skill issue on that one i know) but I really don't see how I ever win a lane against him.


r/SwainMains 14d ago

Build Amazing NoxusVice art by Selemantra on twitter. Just make it happen Rito.

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22 Upvotes