League of Legends patch 12.6 preview details all expected updates for Swain

All Swain updates hitting the League of Legends 12.6 PBE cycle (Image via League of Legends)
All Swain updates hitting the League of Legends 12.6 PBE cycle (Image via League of Legends)

Swain will receive a significant number of updates in the upcoming League of Legends patch, as Riot Games will look to make him a viable pick in the season 12 meta.

Swain has been struggling over the last couple of seasons to be relevant in both the pro scene and standard solo-queue matchmaking. The Noxian General did receive a lot of nerfs over the years, and the season 11 item changes did him no favors in terms of providing him with some agency in the game.

Things might soon be slightly different for him, and his place in the meta as Riot Games is looking to buff his kit in 12.6.

Riot Truexy, a game designer on League’s Summoner’s Rift team, discussed some of the tentative changes that the developers will be looking to introduce in the PBE test server before officially shipping it to the main patch if all goes well.

This will be the first significant set of adjustments that Swain will receive since patch 11.1, more than a year ago.


All Swain updates hitting the League of Legends 12.6 PBE cycle

Most of the changes expected to hit Swain’s kit will reintroduce focus on making him more enjoyable and allowing him more agency both in the solo lanes and as a support. Riot Turkey states that:

“Goals here are shifting power out of less satisfying places and into the spells that make Swain, well Swain. More spammable Q in lane, and higher uptime on Ult. This should help both Swain in Mid and support by giving him better access to his meaningful spells. We expect it to be a small/mid-sized buff to Swain everywhere. Birds.”

Riot Games highlights the following changes that are expected to hit his kit in 12.6:

Ravenous Flock (P)

  • No longer deals 20-105 (+30%AP) magic damage

Death’s Hand (Q)

  • Cooldown: 9/3 seconds >>> 7/3 seconds
  • Mana: 65/85 >>> 50/70

Demonic Ascension (R)

  • Cooldown: 120 seconds >>> 120/100/80 seconds
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To counter some of the buffs that he will receive, Riot Games will be removing the additional passive, and upon bringing in immobilized champions, Swain will not be doing extra damage. However, he will be granted soul fragments.

Q cooldown and its mana cost will be lowered at all levels, allowing him to spam the ability a bit more, and have more leane pressure early on in the game and not just during the later stages.

These changes to the Swains kit are much-required, and hopefully, the Noxian General will finally make his way back into the League of Legends meta once patch 12.6 officially drops.