Swain gets emergency buff after League of Legends rework falls flat early

Noxian Grand General Swain has flocked into the League of Legends meta since his rework, but he’s not making as much of a ruckus as Riot hoped. With his win rate continuing to fall, the developers have shipped a new buff 48 hours after the update.

Of all the changes in League of Legends patch 12.8, the Swain rework was the one all players had their eyes on. The Noxian Grand General had floundered in support for years, losing touch with his drain-tank identity.

Riot pushed forward a host of changes to up his sustain and damage, taking aim at his utility as a trade-off. On paper, it worked.

Swain has seen a massive rise in play across mid and top lane ⁠— where Riot wanted him to move back to. This includes a 3.84% pick rate in mid and 2.8% in top. However, his win rate is still sluggish at just above 49% in the former role, and 47.5% in the latter.

While the rework was praised by the community on the PBE, it was toned back a bit before hitting live servers. Too much so, by all appearances, given Riot is dropping a hotfix within 48 hours of the patch.

Swain is getting a base stat boost to try and alleviate some of his issues following the rework. This includes a five-move speed boost, up to 330, and extra base armor. This should make him less squishy and able to keep draining down enemies while in his ultimate.

“He’s a bit on the weaker side,” developer ‘TheTruexy’ admitted.

The added buff hasn’t stopped some players from complaining about a lack of damage though, with Riot looking at more buffs across the week if their first tune-up doesn’t hit the mark.

The emergency buff for Swain is live now, as of April 27, across all servers.