Swain vs Hwei Counter Pick

Only 100 games sit behind this matchup, a thin base for any conclusion, and the 35.0 percent recorded on patch 16.13.1 comes with that caveat attached. What the number describes is real enough: Swain is losing badly to Hwei in the support role, and the structural reasons are visible without the statistics.

Hwei opens with a subject, either Disaster, Serenity or Torment, and each choice swaps his basic abilities for a different set, so he answers whatever Swain commits to rather than the other way round. Signature of the Visionary primes a target with the first damaging spell and completes on the second, which suits a champion who can pick control, damage or utility mid-exchange. He deals mixed damage, so Swain’s 31 base magic resistance covers only half of it, and he attacks from 550 units against 525 with 2,433 health at level 18 to Swain’s 2,278. Swain’s own path runs through Nevermove landing, then Demonic Ascension holding long enough for the drain to matter, and Spiraling Despair slows the area around its first victim, which pulls the fight away from that plan. Swain gives up reach in every trade and starts on 595 health against 580, a difference too small to bank on. Both are demanding champions, nine on the difficulty scale for Hwei and eight for Swain, and the harder one is currently ahead.