Hi! I'm dżem I play on EUW and I've recently started maining Swain. I noticed that I disagree with most guides on here on how to build Swain and have decided to create my own. After experimenting with many different runes and items, I found these to be the best providing sustain as well as high damage throughout the game

Currently I feel like Swain is really strong and underestimated so here is my guide for him

Electrocute - As opposed to the popular arcane comet, this gives you more damage in lane and you are able to kill you lane opponents easier. This also allows for an easy level 1 (E, Passive and Auto Attack) combo that deals a lot of damage

Cheap Shot - With this your full combo as well your better basic combo do more damage. This will allow you to damage you opponent more frequently and will give you more utility than Taste of Blood

Eyeball Collection - Great for after you start roaming and get kills in other lanes. Zombie Ward and Ghost Poro are useless on you

Ravenous Hunter - Brillaint for use with your ult and full combo as it gets you more HP back. Choose this over Relentless Hunter as your role is not to chase opponents down but to destroy them when they engage on you

Manaflow Band - This allows for sustained damage throughout laning phase as well as better sustain with mana later on in the game so that you do not run out of mana if you only build the core mana items

Transcendence - Extra Cooldown Reduction will help you with casting spells later on and is vital for spamming Death's Hand

Other worthy mentions:

The Ultimate Hat - I have tried playing with this however late game your ultimate cooldown is at 72s and I feel like it is a waste making it any lower

Gathering Storm - Swain already has enough damage without this and it is better to prioritise early Cooldown Reduction and then build AP through items

Basic: | E: -> Ravenous Flock -> Auto Attack | - Electrocute Proc

Basic but better: | E: -> W: (in front of target) -> Ravenous Flock | - Also procs Electrocute and does more damage

No ult combo: | E: -> W: (in front of target) -> Ravenous Flock -> Q: | - the highest damage combo possible

Full Ult: | E: -> W: (in front of target) -> Ravenous Flock -> R: | - R: before then combo for damage ensuring target(s) stay in ult as long as possible. For teamfights or long fights, combo first then R: then combo again

With Swain, Ideally you want to use Demonic Ascension with 5 stacks of your Ravenous Flock. These can be obtained from lane or before teamfights when your team applies light CC to targets, allowing you to pull their soul out

Try to pull back and destroy the enemy adc in fights with Nevermove and Ravenous Flock. Q deals more damage the more bolts it hits with so try to get close to target for maximum damage

Remember: Swain is not an engage champ and therefore he does not initiate fights. Wait for the engage from either team and only then go all out

As opposed to the 'standard' E max that everyone suggests, a W allows for greater damage with W as well as a bigger slow. This is because it scales with 70% bonus AP and E only scales with 25% AP. A full combo will allow you to oneshot a squishy target

Passive: Ravenous Flock

Ravenous: Swain can right-click an immobilized enemy champion to pull them towards him, ripping out a Soul Fragment and dealing (20-105 based on level (+30% AP) magic damage (12-6 second cooldown based on level)

Flock: Enemy champion deaths create a Soul Fragments. Swain can collect Soul Fragments to restore (4%-7% total health)

Swain can store up to 5 Soul Fragments

Q: Death's Hand

Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 Mana
Cooldown: 7.5/6.25/5/3.75/2.5

Swain unleashes FIVE bolts of eldritch power that strike the first enemy they hit and pierce through enemies they kill. Enemies hit take 65/85/105/125/145 (+40% AP) magic damage, plus 15/20/25/30/35% per additional bolt. Max Damage: 104/153/210/275/348 (64/72/80/88/96%AP)

Each unit killed by Death's Hand restores 3% of Swain's Maximum Mana

W: Vision of Empire

Cost: 90/100/110/120/130 Mana
Cooldown: 22/21/20/19/18

Swain opens a demon eye up to 3500 range away that deals 100/150/200/250/300 (+70% AP) magic damage and slows for 25/35/45/55/65% for 2.5 seconds

Champions hit grant Swain a Soul Fragment and are revealed for 4/5/6/7/8 seconds

Damage is reduced by 50% against minions

E: Nevermove

Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9

Swain launches a wave of demonic power, dealing 35/70/105/140/175 (+25% AP) magic damage to enemies it passes through

Swain then commands the wave to return, detonating it on the first enemy hit. Enemies hit take 35/45/55/65/75 (+25% AP) magic damage and are rooted for 1.5 seconds

The target will take a total of 70/115/160/205/250 (+50% AP) magic damage if they are hit both parts of the wave

R: Demonic Ascension

Cost: All Soul Fragments
Cooldown: 120

Swain frees the demon within for 12 seconds, gaining 150/275/400 bonus health. Every second, he drains the 3 closest enemy champions for 35/50/65 (+14% AP) magic damage, healing him for 15/30/45 (+16% AP) health. After draining 150/300/450 health (based on level), Swain gains the ability to cast Demonflare

Demonflare: Swain unleashes a nova of soulfire dealing magic damage and ending his transformation. Damage per Soul Fragments: 45/60/75 (+27% AP) for a maximum 225/300/375 (+135% AP) damage with 5 Fragments

Swain can drain non-champions to heal for 20% of the normal amount[/b]