Massive Swain updates set to hit League of Legends PBE patch 12.8 cycle: All passive changes, ultimate tweaks, and more

Swain is gearing up for a significant number of changes in League of Legends patch 12.8, as Riot Games will look to introduce a plethora of tweaks to every part of his kit.

The changes the developers are planning to ship with the next official patch will first be making their way to the PBE 12.8 cycle today. The League of Legends associate game designer gave fans a glimpse of some of the changes that fans can expect to hit the Noxian tactician’s kit in the upcoming patch.

According to the developer, Swain’s changes will focus more on helping his time in the solo lane and support role to give him more flexible options in team compositions.

There will be a lot of quality-of-life updates making their way, along with some ability nerfs to balance it out.

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All Swain updates expected in League of Legends patch 12.8

When talking about some of the goals behind the Swain tweaks, Riot suggested:

“This version of Swain aims to pull some of his burst power into investing in Swain’s fantasy of becoming a drain-tanking terror while in R. We’re upping how often Swain can use R and removing the “ticking clock” on how long he can stay in his form. As long as he’s draining enemies, he can go infinite. We’ve shifted the power from his Passive pull-off allies into more agency for the Swain player themselves within the Q/E/R changes. As always, numbers are always subject to change pre-ship.”

It’s important to note that the updates listed below are tentative and might not entirely reflect in the official update.

The Swain tweaks will first hit the League of Legends PBE later today, and Riot will test them out and make updates if necessary before shipping them off with the official patch.

Ravenous Flock (P)

• [REMOVED] Swain can no longer pull crowd-controlled enemies.
• [REMOVED] Swain’s pull no longer deals damage.
• Healing: 4/5.5/7% (levels 1/6/11) maximum health >>> 4/5.5/7%/9% (levels 1/6/11/16) maximum health.
• Health Per Soul Fragment: 5 >>> 12.

Death's Hand (Q)

• Mana Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 >>> 45/50/55/60/65.
• Cooldown: 9/7.5/6/4.5/3s >>> 7/6/5/4/3s.
• Damage: 55/75/95/115/135 (+40% AP) >>> 60/80/100/120/140 (+40% AP).
• Additional Bolt Damage: 15/20/25/30/35% >>> 12/22/32/42/52 (+10% AP).
• Maximum Damage: 88/135/190/253/324 (+64/72/80/88/96% AP) > >> 108/168/228/288/348 (+80% AP).

Vision Of Empire (W)

• Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 >>> 60/65/70/75/80.
• [NEW] Pings now display enemies in range similar to Twisted Fate (R) and Nocturne (R).

Nevermove (E)

• [NEW] Can now be reactivated to pull all champions rooted by Nevermove.
• [NEW] Cooldown is reduced by 20% during.
• Demonic Ascension (R).
• Cooldown :: 120s >>> 100/80/60s.
• Drain Damage per Second: 35/50/65 (+14% AP) >>> 20/45/70 (+10% AP).
• Drain Heal per Second: 20/35/40 (+16% AP) >>> 20/40/60 (+16% AP) > >> 15/40/65 (+25%).
• [REMOVED] No longer grants 125/200/275 health.
• [CHANGED] Upon casting Demonic Ascension Swain gains 50 Demon Power. Demonic Ascension lasts as long as Swain has Demon Power, which drains at a rate of 10 per second. While draining an enemy champion, Swain gains 20 Demon Power per second. After 3 seconds, Swain can cast Demonflare (R2).

Demonflare (R2)

• Demonflare Damage : 100/150/200 (+50% AP) >>> 150/225/300 (+60% AP)
• [NEW] Demonflare now slows enemies by 60%, decaying over 1.5 seconds.
• (CHANGED) On casting Demonic Ascension, Swain can cast Demonflare 1 time. This does not end Demonic Ascension.
• [REMOVED] Demonflare no longer charges up based on health drained, up to double damage.

The Swain updates are expected to go live with League of Legends patch 12.8, set to drop in two weeks officially, i.e., April 27.