Riot Explains Mid-Scope Updates for Olaf and Swain

Following the release of Renata Glasc, League of Legends has 159 champions in total and the first-generation champions are naturally very different from the latest ones. To change these champions and bring them on par with the new ones, Riot has been giving the old roster visual effects updates, gameplay updates, and also reworks and mini-reworks.

Riot Games has time and again said that the “mid-scope updates” are not complete reworks but rather slight adjustments to champion’s kits. These updates are aimed at improving the champion’s pick rates in League of Legends and help them regain their charm. Taliyah, Olaf, and Swain are getting their ability kits tweaked in the coming days.

On 29th March, Principal Champion Designer August “August” Browning wrote on Twitter that they were giving Taliyah and Olaf mid-scope updates. He said, “We're beginning to ramp up work on ‘mid-scope updates’. These are larger sets of changes for champions that can take a couple of months to lock down. The recent Ahri and Janna adjustments are examples of work in this space. Mid-scopes for Taliyah and Olaf are currently in flight.”

Following this, on 7th April Browning added that Swain was also being given a mid-scope update after his changes in the Public Beta Environment did not go through.

With this being said, the Olaf and Swain mid-scope updates are up and running on the current Patch 12.8 cycle of the PBE. Browning wrote, “The Olaf and Swain mid-scope updates should be coming out to PBE later today! @TheTruexy and RiotAxes will be posting later with details.”

While Lead Gameplay Designer Bryan “Axes” Salvatore shared the Olaf changes on the PBE’s subreddit, Associate Game Designer Tim “Truexy” Jiang detailed the Swain changes on Twitter.

Olaf mid-scope update live on PBE

The Olaf mid-scope update is live on the PBE and the changes are intended to ship out on LoL Patch 12.9. But Riot developers have put Olaf up for testing to get early feedback. The new Olaf will be live on PBE for about a week and then will return when the LoL Patch 12.9 PBE cycle kicks off.

On the Reddit post, Salvatore wrote, “Olaf has a number of urgent issues we’re looking to address. First, he is (and has consistently been) the least deeply played champion in League—on average, that is (Olaf one tricks don’t @ me.) If Olaf is a champion you play, he probably makes up the lowest percent of your games played, and has consistently been among the lowest for many years now.”

He added that Olaf is a “pro-bound champion: his win rate is kept lower than would otherwise be ideal because he tends to take over pro play when his kit is tuned to win games in Solo Queue.”

Salvatore pointed out that he has also been deeply impacted by the system changes made this season and that Olaf is in a bad spot with the current item system in League of Legends. Riot’s goals with Olaf are to add excitement to his kit and remove the pro-oriented power that he has. With these changes, Olaf should be able to use Juggernaut items effectively to scale better.

In short, most of Olaf’s abilities have been reworked including his passive. With the new changes, it seems like Olaf will have good sustain in the lane or jungle, and also can shred the armor of enemy champions, making him a scary juggernaut. The biggest change so far is the fact that his ultimate can now be extended indefinitely by auto-attacking a champion or hitting them with E - Reckless Swing.

According to Salvatore, the following are the changes:

Base Stats

• Attack Damage: 68 (+3.5/level), 127.5 at level 18 >>> 68 (+4.7/level), 148 at level 18

• Health: 575 (+100/level), 2275 at level 18 >>> 575 (+105/level), 2360 at level 18

• Mana: 316 (+42/level), 1030 at level 18 >>> 316 (+60/level), 1336 at level 18

Passive - Berserker Rage

• Calculation reworked to grant max effectiveness at or below 30% health

• Maximum Attack Speed granted :: 99% >>> 40-100% (levels 1-18)

• [NEW] Now gives up to 12-35% life steal (levels 1-18), based on Olaf's missing health

Q - Undertow

• [NEW] - Shreds 25/27.5/30/32.5/35% armor for 4 seconds on champion hit

• Damage: 80/125/170/215/260 >>> 60/110/160/210/260

• Minimum Range: Approximately 300 >>> 425

• Mana Cost: 60 at all ranks >>> 40/45/50/55/60

• Cooldown: 7 seconds >>> 8 seconds

• Cooldown refund on axe pickup: 4.5 seconds >>> 5 seconds

W - Vicious Strikes [REWORKED]

Salvatore pointed out that the ability may be renamed.

• [NEW] Resets Olaf’s basic attack

• [NEW] Olaf gains 70/115/160/205/250 (+25% of Olaf’s missing health) as a shield for 2.5 seconds

• [REMOVED] No longer grants Life Steal

• [REMOVED] No longer amplifies Olaf’s healing based on missing health

• Attack Speed: 50/60/70/80/90% for 6 seconds >>> 40/50/60/70/80% for 4 seconds

• Cooldown: 16 seconds at all ranks>>> 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds

R - Ragnarok

• [NEW] Hitting a champion with a basic attack or E - Reckless Swing extends the duration of Ragnarok to 2.5 seconds. Olaf can refresh Ragnarok indefinitely.

• Duration: 6 seconds >>> 3 seconds

• [REMOVED] R - Ragnarok's passive's bonus resistances are no longer lost for the duration of the cast

Swain changes on PBE

On Twitter, Jiang wrote, “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'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.”

The mid-scope updates for Swain are aimed at making him a better solo-laner whilst also helping him thrive as a support champion.

Following are the changes made to Swain’s ability kit:

Passive: Ravenous Flock

• [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

Q - Death's Hand

• 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)

• Previous Equivalent Damage: 8.25/15/23.75/34.5/47.25 (+6/8/10/12/14% AP)

• Maximum Damage: 88/135/190/253/324 (+64/72/80/88/96% AP) >>> 108/168/228/288/348 (+80% AP)

W - Vision Of Empire

• Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 >>> 60/65/70/75/80

• [NEW] Pings now display enemies in the range similar to Twisted Fate (R) and Nocturne (R)

E - Nevermove

• [NEW] Can now be reactivated to pull all champions rooted by Nevermove.

• [NEW] Cooldown is reduced by 20% during Demonic Ascension (R)

R - Demonic Ascension

• Cooldown: 120s >>> 100/80/60s

• Drain Damage per second: 35/50/65 (+14% AP) >>> 20/45/70 (+10% AP)

• [REMOVED] No longer grants 125/200/275 health.

• [CHANGED] Rather than lasting 12s, upon casting Demonic Ascension Swain gains 50 Demon Power, which drains at a rate of 10 per second. While draining an enemy champion, Swain gains 20 Demon Power per second. Upon running out, Demonic Ascension ends and Swain returns to normal. After 5 seconds, Demon Power drain rate is increased to 15 per second. After 3 seconds, Swain can cast Demonflare (R2)

R2 - Demonflare

• 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.

It is to be noted that these numbers may be reworked or changed according to the feedback received by Riot Games. It has been confirmed that the Olaf changes will go live on LoL Patch 12.9 and as for Swain’s changes, they will get shipped right on time for the Mid-Season Invitational on LoL Patch 12.8.