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In the 2017 Champion Roadmap, lead champion producer Reav3 announced that Swain will be the next big visual and gameplay update after Evelynn. This is big news for everyone’s least favorite bird man. Swain spent a very long time as a bizarre champion before emerging into the obnoxious, impossibly tanky top lane mage that he has become today.
Reav3 starts the post off by saying that Swain’s visuals are bad and his theme, Master Tactician, isn’t represented in his gameplay at all. When talking about the problems evident in Swain’s gameplay, he states that players can’t really do anything about Swain’s abilities. Basically if he is just within your vicinity, you are taking a ton of damage and there is nothing you can do besides kill him.
Swain is also in a state that makes him impossible to balance. Reav3 talks about how he is either feast or famine, becoming an unstoppable monster or a worthless dud depending on how his early game goes. While they are still very early on in the Swain rework, Reav3 mentions that he wants a champion worthy of being the leader of Noxus. Swain’s idea will be kept in tact, but he will have a completely new kit, built from the ground up.
Swain is still a ways off, likely coming in the early parts of 2018.