Hi, I am Vicious Skittle. I am a mid Diamond tier player on EUW whom plays every role to that standard. I've been hovering around D4-D2 since Season 4 and have consistently ended there every Season. I've written guides for more than 2 years, with my experience growing with each new one I write. My ability to play multiple roles at a decently high level makes me good at writing guides for champions across all roles. At least I like to think so.

Swain has been a champion whom I have long liked the idea of his playstyle, but never really felt like it worked the way Riot wanted it to. A battle mage who controls combat with sustained damage and healing whilst dealing damage with a tactical feel. With his rework I really feel like they captured that spirit of Swain. Controlling fights with Vision of Empire and Nevermove whilst keeping the close range sustained damage and healing with Death's Hand and Demonic Ascension. He's no longer a "different vlad" even though ironically they look more similar than before. Overall he's really became a unique champion with this rework, both visually and gameplay wise.

Pros

Cons:

+ High lane sustain + Great Vision Control with Vision of Empire + Solid gank setups with Nevermove and Flock + Insane DPS if you get close enough + Insanely powerful ultimate

- High mana costs - Low range - Ultimate burst isn't instant/on demand - Can be shut down with pressure - Immobile

Swain has some good pros and equally punishing cons. Having high damage and innate sustain with good CC means he has drawbacks. His point blank Qs deal incredible damage, but it's really hard to get into melee range. The CC he provides is telegraphed and dashes can easily dodge it. Lane sustain is tied to CC. The ultimate is game changing, but the burst damage needs to be "unlocked" through using the drain and has a long CD. What all this means is that you need to play Swain with tact otherwise you'll basically be a worse Vladimir with a mini Lulu ult.

Passive: Ravenous Flock

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.

This passive has 2 parts. The first part, Ravenous is like half a Dredge Line that deals mediocre damage but can instantly cause someone to be pulled out of position to their death. It also has the benefit of giving you a Soul Fragment. You can only hold 5 of them at one time, and that's important for your ultimate which I'll cover a little further down this section. This mostly has use for comboing someone but also incredible if your jungler can CC a target. Imagine an Ivern sliding into your lane, and then you yank them even further away from their tower. Super strong. It has a long range too, it's not limited by your auto range (but you can't yank several people quickly like Caitlyn's headshot. Flock is what the fragments do for you outside of your ultimate. They heal you based on your level. This is what lets you have good sustain in lane. Every time you CC a target (or a target is CCd in front of you) you gain a % of your max HP. Same thing whenever an enemy dies nearby. You don't even need to get the takedown to trigger a fragment drop. Think of it like a mini Triumph that fuels your ultimate. So make sure to try and get 5 of these by the time you can trigger your ulti's second half! (Again, more in depth below)

Q: Death's Hand

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.

This is your bread and butter spell. Ludicrous damage if used at point blank, and meh if a target is only struck by 1 or 2 bolts. Most importantly however is that its cooldown drops to a tiny 2.5s. This means that if you can stay in melee range you'll be pumping out damage that no champion can handle. It's also your waveclear ability, by hitting a creep with multiple bolts it's very easy to cause them to die and allow the bolts to pierce, thus allowing another to die etc etc. It also gives Swain back his mana, as it's decently mana gated for teamfights you'll run oom very quickly if you just throw this out randomly. Make sure to kill the creep you're attempting to hit otherwise you're screwed for mana. To harass someone in lane I suggest abusing the fact they're probably melee, or scared of you. Walk up to a low hp minion, or a caster if you're high HP. You then Q through the minion to get some mana back and hit your enemy for some poke damage. Even better if you can kill multiple minions with the spell. It also means enemies can't hide behind creeps if you're dueling in melee range because you'll just melt them and still hit them. Make sure not to spam this though, at rank 5 it has a 2.5s CD and a high 85 mana cost. You will run OOM very easily. This is why RoA/GLP are good buys on Swain. Aside from cost efficiency: HP lets you stride closer without fear of death, Mana lets you spam more Qs, AP is AP and on top of all that you get HP for using mana and mana for taking damage (which as a battlemage you will take damage). Overall perfect. Especially because this is your main damage spell and it has innately a really low CD, thus allowing you to skip CDR. I max this ability first to lower its CD and increase its damage. Not much more to say about it.

W: Vision of Empire

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.

What this skill lets you do is pretty crazy. Its base damage is 100 at level 1, its range is longer than most ultimates, it has a heavy slow when ranked up, it gives vision on champions/an area and it gives swain fragments which heals him and empowers his ultimate. What an ability. Too bad it has a mana cost that rivals Destiny and an insane cooldown. Plus it's on a spicy long delay meaning you have to follow it up with CC or on blind players. Its damage is reduced on creeps too so you can't long range farm with it easily. (but lets be real, you're totally going to roam halfway down a river to sniper a cannon creep from your ally.) You'll want to use this ability to scout objectives or delay people. It's also going to deal a lot of damage if it connects, so combining it with allied CC or your own combo will let you deal a lot of damage. The soul fragments are not to be ignored either, if you can hit 2-3 champions with this on some AoE lockdown ability like Cataclysm you'll not only heal a lot, you'll prep your ultimates burst if you didn't already have some fragments. In the late game, this is what will let you get fragments because unless you get lots of takedowns, or picks, you wont be getting a lot of fragments. I max this ability LAST because its mana cost is way too high, and without CDR you won't be spamming it a lot anyway. The slow is really good, as is the vision control, but those are more important later anyway.

E: Nevermove

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.

You'll want to be using this to catch enemies out to let you maneuver around them and connect your other abilities. It has the lowest mana cost of your basic abilities and an average cooldown, the damage is decent too if you land both waves. The only downside is that its got a really mediocre AP ratio (the base damage is alright). I've mentioned it before, but the combo evolves around this ability. What you do is you begin by casting Nevermove and if you're sure the second wave will return and hit the target you cast Vision of Empire infront of your victim. Then after the second half of Nevermove hits your target, you use your passive pull from Ravenous to yank your target into the detonating W. Then they're heavily slowed/out of position and damaged you can smack them with a point blank Death's Hand. This combo does cost a lot of mana so it's only really going to be used when you all in. Another big thing to mention about this ability is that the root is a small AoE. That means you can root multiple people and even some who are just in front of a minion. Whilst you can only pull one champion with your passive, you can root 2-3 with Nevermove. I max this ability SECOND because you want its CD as low as possible to create picks if you cannot rely on your team to do it (Hint, you never can).

R: Demonic Ascension

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.

This is one hell of an ultimate, aside from how amazing it looks, it's incredibly powerful. First thing you might notice is that its cooldown is static. This means that only CDR will drop it, and because you don't buy a lot of CDR usually it'll always be kind of high. This is why I suggest The Ultimate Hat as it's a multiplicative CD reduction, so it's better with less bought CDR and Swain will only get 15% with an average build. Second, it has NO MANA COST. This is important to note because all of his basic abilities cost a lot of mana. You don't have to worry about being OOM to cast this. It grants you bonus health on cast, what that means is it's very similar to Wild Growth in that your max HP will go up for the duration, but you also get that HP off the bat (If you're 1hp and you ult, you'll have 151hp) The HP gain is also unaffected by Grievous Wounds, and any positive effects like Spirit Visage so you know exactly how much health you'll get when you press it. The hp 'restored' also doesn't go away after the ultimate ends, you get to keep it. Your maximum health will of course go back down to it's normal level though. Now its drain damage is pretty whatever, it's unlikely to go over 100 dps which means most champions can out damage you or out-sustain you (both if they use lifesteal/have sustain) but it's an AoE. The healing is based off of a base number and AP, not off the damage you deal (even if you're doing next to no damage, you'll still heal a lot). The healing will also be trippled if you're against 3 champions (3 drain tethers = 3x healing). The healing will affect minions and monsters so it's not totally useless in lane, but it'll shine against multiple opponents. Once you drain a certain amount of HP (based on the ability rank) you'll then be able to cast an AoE nuke based on the number of Soul Fragments you have. Each fragment adds a little more damage, with 5 it's up there with Chronobreak and Primordial Burst for damage. In a huge AoE. This damage is really, really high. I should note that you have to wait for your drain to deal enough damage, which means you need to build a fair bit of AP to get this off more quickly. You can continue to cast your other abilities whilst you're draining. You have so many uses for this ability, but your most obvious one is to make sure you have 5 soul fragments and drain enough health quick enough to cast Demonflare and nuke everyone. If you don't have 5 fragments but you can cast Demonflare you can wait a couple of seconds to try and get one from your other abilities. After 12s you automatically end the drain and trigger Demonflare using all your shards (if any). I max this ability whenever I can (6/11/16) , because it's an ultimate.

Flash

+

Teleport

Flash This summoner spell is one you should always take and the one you'll always see. Flash has a billion and one uses, from flashing in to get a kill, from flashing away from danger, flashing over walls and flashing over abilities. This is something you should be very familiar with by now and it's something you should ALWAYS have. There is never a situation where you don't take flash.

Teleport Teleport has no direct combat use, but it's an incredibly tactical spell. Getting free recalls by tping back to lane, flanking from pre-placed wards, ganking other lanes, general map control and just map pressure are all things TP lets you do. If you're top it's even more important because otherwise you'll be isolated so hard in the early game.

Ignite A direct combat summoner that straight up helps you duel and secure kills. Being able to get a level 3-4 kill from players who don't suspect your damage or being able to duel someone who has sustain in their kit is what Ignite does best. It's also something you should be very aware of as it directly screws your healing with Demonic Ascension and your Flock passive. It got buffed fairly recently so I would suggest using this a lot more often now.

Ghost One of the problems Swain has is mobility. Ghost is an on-demand summoner that gives you that mobility. It's kind of redundant with Phase Rush but it's still incredibly strong to have.

Phase Rush

Phase Rush is just the best rune for Swain in every situation. It gives you good lane pressure as if you land your E you'll always be able to trigger it with a passive activation. The high slow resistance and general ease of proccing makes this rune compliment the battle-mage style of swain perfectly. I would never take anything else.

Nimbus Cloak

One of the most important things about Swain's gameplay is getting into proper position during Demonic Ascension. Nimbus Cloak has perfect synergy with this making it the only choice. Manaflow Band is really necessary thanks to the fact you'll nearly always be rushing a Rod of Ages.

Transcendence

Whilst you'll rarely get to 40% cooldown reduction as Swain it's not from a lack of wanting some, but it's that the playstyle dictates you need to buy more ability power/health based items like Rod of Ages and Liandry's Torment. You'll also be in a solo lane making it fairly easy to quickly gain levels in order to make use of this rune. It's the one of the only viable ways to gain cooldown reduction on Swain so I'd consider it the best rune.

Gathering Storm

Scorch is just too weak to ever use. Instead, Gathering Storm further cements Swain as a mid-late game mage by gaining large amounts of ability power as the game progresses. These is no other real option in this tier.

Inspiration Biscuit Delivery Cosmic Insight

Inspiration: Perfect Timing/ Cosmic Insight are the 2 runes you'll be taking here. Perfect Timing is a must because being able to use a Zhonya's Hourglass before finishing the item has an infinite number of uses, especially on a champion like Swain who really can abuse the stasis effect. Then once you fully finish the hourglass it will have a shorter cooldown allowing you to make more plays with it. Cosmic Insight is the second rune to take as the extra cooldown reduction to everything makes for a small amount of consistent power. Having your summoner spells up faster than everyone else and having even more time off your Zhonya's Hourglass cooldown is second to none. The extra 5% base cooldown reduction is also nice as discussed earlier with the Transcendence rune.

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Offence: Ability Power +10

Flex: Ability Power +10

Defense: Health +15-90

Swain can only make use of the bonus ability power in the first 2 rune options. Whilst the scaling cooldown reduction would be nice, it just takes far too long to become useful making the only viable choice the ability power. As for the last rune you can take any of the 3 but overall the extra health will be the most consistent. If you're against a hard matchup however I would suggest swapping to either armour or magic resistance depending on the opponents damage type.

Laning Phase: As swain your biggest goal in lane is to get your Rod of Ages as fast as you can. Good farming and wave management are your friends. You have lowish damage early and also don't have a lot of reliable ranged spells. Your Vision of Empire does have a very long range, but with a 2.5s arm time it's only going to be good as part of a combo or to scout for the enemy jungler. However just because you're looking to play safe doesn't mean you're useless if your jungler comes to gank. Ravenous Flock lets you pull a target towards you which is incredibly powerful for when someone ganks for you. Together with your Nevermove you have the ability to setup and followup with a deadly jungle gank, just don't expect to kill them alone easily. Your combo is fairly simple but somewhat hard to consistently land. You start by throwing out your Nevermove then when it first tags the enemy champion you judge if it will be connect on the return (thus rooting them). If you think it will root them cast your Vision of Empire between you and your victim, placing it right next to them (but not on top of them). Then when your nevermove roots the target you begin walk up to them and pull with Ravenous Flock to yank them into your Vision of Empire detonation. They're now slowed, pulled closer and rooted which gives you plenty of time to get close and zap them with a multi-bolt Death's Hand and if they're low enough begin your Demonic Ascension. With the root + w + pull, and you have the rune, Phase Rush will proc allowing you to close the distance much eaiser for a point blank Q and the ability to mostly ignore any slows they might fling your way to stop you. If you're going Unsealed Spellbook then I would suggest starting with Ignite or Ghost to give you some solid killing power against your laner if your jungler comes. If nothing ever comes to fruition then once you recall swap out the spell for something else. Teleport can let you return to lane instantly, or more importantly allow you to gank anoter lane with your map pressure. Ghost gives you unrivaled mobility on demand and Ignite will be situationally useful against teams who need the Grevious Wounds debuff to die. It's a rune that has a high skillcap and you should always treat it as though you have access to every summoner when you're on that platform.

Mid Game: In the mid game you're looking to follow up or create picks in skirmishes (2v2/3v3) that lets your ultimate and CC shine. Ravenous Flock is the perfect follow up on something like Dark Binding or Charm and being in a 2v2 or 3v3 fight allows your ultimate to drain/flare several enemies. 5v5s aren't out of the question, but more often than not you'll be still farming side lanes or mid lane to keep the income rolling. Don't be afraid to use Vision of Empire to scout with your jungler/support to get deep vision safely. Having vision on the enemy at all times allows you play with the map so much more easily. If the enemy jungler is farming their botside camps then you can pressure baron/top/herald without fear of a flank/smite fight. I cannot stress enough how important vision control is, and with an ability like your W you have the tools directly in your kit to create and manage that vision.

Late Game: Once teams group a lot and you have several items you become a very deadly champion. With Demonic Ascension and absurd healing it offers you with the AP you have, you'll be very hard to kill whilst dealing a lot of damage. Vision of Empire is still as useful as ever with the long range vision control that lets you spot flanks and sneaky barons. Unless you have a tank who is able to hard engage, you're still a pick based champion who thrives on catching someone with a Nevermove and/or Ravenous Flock to kill them. Except now you can 100-0 someone fairly easy if you get close enough with a Death's Hand. As you won't reliably be trading blows with someone, you'll want to try and grab soul fragments whenever you can. Throwing out Vision of Empire to try and catch a free fragment on someone if they're not paying attention will be a huge benefit once you ult. Make sure to stick close to your team if you're focusing on picks, or if you're split pushing make sure you can duel the enemy pusher. Champions like Irelia, Fiora, Jax and highly skilled Gangplank's are probably ones you don't want to split against as your ramp up is too slow against their kits and they can turn on you even if you fully combo them. Not to mention they can easily buy Grevious Wounds thus destroying your healing/dueling potential. Just judge them based on their skill so far in the game and the items they have. Also it's not smart to split against global teams. Twisted Fate can make any 1v1 a 2v1 which can snowball losses faster than 2s . Always pay attention to your map and keep the vision going to make better choices!

Swain is what Riot classify as "Battlemage". Rumble, Vladimir, Aurelion Sol and Ryze are champions who most match this tag and who have a playstyle you can compare to your own. Getting closer than a normal squishy AP would want to, but have a kit based around higher DPS than what AP champs get too. Usually tied in with extra roaming power to create the battles they want or some form of defence to let them thrive in fights. Your job is to get to the midgame to dismantle the enemy team with high mid-range damage and top tier abilties for picks/vision control. It's a unique playstyle for sure with a lot of mastery required to land everything but hopefully this guide has given you a solid foothold to become a general who can control demonic eldritch forces.