Riot Games breakdown on Swain updated abilities
Since the Swain mid-scope update went live, his now-famous infinite ultimate has been a new and interesting feature for the champion.
Swain’s R, Demonic Ascension, retains its cooldown but is now powered by a new secondary power, Demon Power. Players may refill it by draining enemy champions, which provides him 20 Demon Power each second, therefore his ultimate will continue to run as long as he drains the enemies.
Demonic Ascension (R)
- (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
So, what is Riot’s intention on changing his ultimate to become infinite? LCS caster and content creator David “Phreak” Turley in his patch 12.8 recap to explain their reasoning behind the Swain change, along with game designer Bryan Salvatore and Ezra Lynn.
Swain was mostly used as a support before patch 12.8. Riot Games’ goal is for Swain to spread horror in his solo lane again by resurrecting his dream as a “master strategist and dark, demonic diplomat,” the game developers noted.
The final goal of this Swain mini-rework was to give players a reason to play the champion. Since Swain’s ult is what pushes players to play the champion, it is up to that ability to make the mid-scope update successful. The former design of the ability had a timer: once cast, enemies would escape until it went on cooldown, then reengage easily and kill him.
“We really wanted to create this moment where you press R, the enemies go ‘Oh shit!’. If I don’t get away from this Swain, he’s going to drain the life from me and I’m going to die.”
The devs really want players to really have the feeling of satisfaction when playing Swain, so deleting the timer and on his ultimate and granting it the ability to infinitely drain enemies (until they die) is ideal. Also, Demonflare (R2) acts as a key to make his draining easier, as the slowing feature on the ability allows him to choose when to reign in opponents in a battle. It was also included to compensate for his favored AP item build path for bruisers.
Now that the mini-rework is available on the live servers, what is your thought on his new ‘infinite draining ultimate’?