My initial impressions about Swain were unflattering to say the least. He just didn’t “bring it” like other champions did. He caught a buff, though, and I have to say, I’m starting to like the guy. I almost bought a skin at full price for him!

The bottom line for me is that Swain does have a fun playstyle. He has a lot of control, the nice bonus of healing himself in lane for what sometimes feels like a lot of mana, but the mana comes back. Oh, he also does great damage. With an ignite it’s very easy to get some early kills in a side lane.

The biggest place Swain struggles is the big team fights. Yeah, sounds counterintuitive with his bird, but he just doesn’t heal enough to keep himself alive through a full-on, five-man explosion of AoE. He’s great against three, though (hmm, might have to try him on TT some time soon), and he only gets better as the numbers go down. The fact that he can slow you, stun you, then immediately slow you again means you better hope to god you have Flash and he doesn’t.

Though the current metagame seems to limit Swain, I don’t think it’s a stretch to do well with him in ranked games.

This post is about as long overdue as they come, but I just got my first chance to test Swain and all I can say is, I understand all of the complaints. Despite having one of the cooler character models, a great looking ult, an interesting design concept, and a nice AOE cc, Swain has a tough time farming and, thanks to his low AP ratios, a tough time turning a kill.

I think the biggest problem Swain faces is that his design was changed last minute so that he no longer had a Maledict type spell. The fact that Torment now only increases the damage you deal at a flat rate means you have to stay right on top of your target to give respectable damage. The obvious problem there is that Swain is a caster, not someone you want in the mix. Plain and simple, Swain was rushed out, released too quickly when Riot decided that the Maledict mechanic wasn’t readily identifiable to young players.

Swain also suffers from his low cooldown ult. I’d much rather see it deal respectable damage, be capable of keeping him alive in a fight than the current mediocre damage/negligible heal combo he has. His ult is his only real farming tool as well, which is a big problem if you don’t have much AP. A full ult is incapable, in many cases, of even killing off caster minions. That’s a big problem.

If you’re an experienced Googler, you know a lot of this stuff is set to change, but for now, Swain remains near the very bottom of my ranked-game-viable toon list. We’ll see how he looks tomorrow.

I didn’t spend too much time thinking about the splash screen art in the game, until now. Riot released a time-lapse video that shows the creation of the Swain splash, definitely one of the cooler splash screens in the game, and it’s pretty awesome.

The video takes more than nine hours of work and compresses it down to just six minutes. It’s a great way to see the kind of care that goes into this kind of thing, and it’s a good resource for anyone looking to get into video game art creation.

I’m still in Ohio due to a family emergency for my girlfriend, but I’ll be trying to update as often as possible throughout the week. After watching this video, I’m crazy pumped to get back and give Swain a go, but I’m willing to bet he’ll become a highly desirable champion, much like Miss Fortune.

Swain borrows a skill from DotA’s Witch Doctor with Torment, which deals increasing damage based on the damage you deal to the target while Torment is active. From what I remember of Maledict (the DotA version), this is a really fun mechanic and it’s great for bursting down carries when you have a team with a couple targeted nukes.

You’ll also notice from the video that Swain’s ult works like Anivia’s, draining mana as long as it’s active but with unlimited duration and what looks to be a very short cooldown (eight seconds once Phreak has Deathfire Grasp and the golem buff in the video). All in all, I hope you guys have a lot of fun with Swain. I’m looking forward to getting some time with him.

Once again I’ve managed to plan a trip out of town on the week of a new champion’s release, which explains in part the absence of new content here. It’s been a little crazier than that, lately, and the rundown is kinda funny, so here you go.

A friend of mine got married in Missouri but decided to have the reception in Ohio in the fall (which is the greatest season, don’t test me on this). My girlfriend and I were crazy excited, but planned a trip up north without knowing the following:

1 – Our current home would get two feet of rain (yes, two feet) in just four days, be declared in state of emergency, and experience weather that would preclude going outside for anything but the most dire of circumstances resulting in somewhat spotty internet the day before a ten-hour road trip (not great when you work on the web).

2 – Once at the reception, I would be coerced into playing a game of basketball in the dark, in bone-chilling rain, after six hours of feasting and drinking any beer that started with the word “Imperial.”

3 – We would visit my brother – he attends our undergraduate alma mater – and spend the better part of an hour trying to find a restaurant that was open on Sunday night in a small, Ohio town. All three of us would then proceed to eat ourselves sick on grinders from the best greek restaurant on the planet (yeah, should have just started there).

4 – We would spend almost as much time in the car at home as we would to get from North Carolina to Ohio and back again.

And last but certainly not least, especially as far as you all are concerned:

5 – I would be out of town until Tuesday night, unable to enjoy Swain’s launch day and give you the expeditious updates on the latest LoL patch that you so deserve.

One of these days I’ll figure out how to plan a trip. in the meantime, spend some good time with Swain, so you can teach me how to play him when I return. As you might guess, FG LoL Mondays are off for this week, as I’m out of town until Tuesday. Until then – lane well, ward often, and above all, rage like the Hulk if you start to lose.