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Choose Champion Build:
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Phase Rush
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Electrocute
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Conqueror
Recommended Items
Runes: Mana Sustain
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order Standard
Ravenous Flock (PASSIVE)
Swain Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Vayne
Has mobility and true damage, besides her strong late game.
Caitlyn
Lots of damage and range. Careful with the interaction between your grab and her trap.
Caitlyn
Lots of damage and range. Careful with the interaction between your grab and her trap.
Champion Build Guide
Introduction
I am a Brazilian player who really likes playing Swain. I started playing in the middle of 2017, and from there until today I’m still stuck in silver. This last season I almost reached gold. But I promise I’ll reach at least platinum this season! I can’t stay one more year in silver.
I am not mono Swain yet, my mastery with him didn’t even pass 100k :( , but I’ll still playing him until the day I have a decent mono mastery.
I like playing Swain because he is like a fighter when he has ult, but he is ranged and mage. Mostly in low elo, people don’t expect you becoming so strong in the late game.
Swain is easy to learn, but he also has interesting combos and tricks, that I’ll be showing you here.
Good news: I reached gold, right now i'm gold 3, and my mastery with Swain is increasing. I shall reach at least platinum this year.
- If you are brazilian like me and wants to view this guide in portuguese, here is the link:
About Swain: what does he do?
Pros:
- Swain has a strong assistance potential thanks to his passive
Ravenous Flock;
- Swain impacts a lot in team fights; he can be the frontline and the one who most remains alive;
- Swain has a lot of life and regenerates it when grabbing someone, hit someone with his W
Vision of Empire or activates his ult
Demonic Ascension. Because of that, Swain is not that easily killed;
- Swain’s W is one of the strongest skills in the game. Initially it has 5500 range, and maximized it has 7500. It reveals enemies, slow them and gives a lot of damage when you have 3+ items.
Cons:
- Swain’s mana ends really quickly, and that’s why I use
Manaflow Band and
Presence of Mind. With these runes, you probably won’t need to buy
Archangel's Staff;
- Swain is weak in the early game; he has too few mana, almost no damage from his skills, and has high cooldown. You can leverage your early damage by using
Electrocute;
- In the team fights, normally you get in the middle of your enemies, because of Swain’s ult. But his ult lasts 12 seconds, and if the tf lasts more than it, you may stay surrounded, mainly if your team is losing the fight;
- Like many of the ranged mages, Swain don’t have any escape or mobility skill, and that’s why I almost always use
Phase Rush (also because the sorcery path is the best one for Swain).
Best Lane For Swain
- As Swain has one of the best ultimates to fight, you can pick a support with the same characteristic and make a great combo. Supports with good range, damage and cc can really make a incredible synergie.
- Swain is also strong playing support as well, and with the right adc you can easily win any match-up, but I still prefer to play him as adc, because he can be even more impactful, carrying the game and being the most important piece on the team fights.
- As Swain has a weaker early game than most of the midlaners, it's hard to become strong during the game. In that role, you may lose many match-ups and wont be able to carry or help your team; your team will have to help you. To be a good Swain as midlaner, you will need to play very well.
Runes
Phase Rush | Electrocute | Conqueror |
Phase Rush: It is the one I most use; I like the mobility it gives me, and mainly the sorcery path, that gives me extra mana from
Manaflow Band, Ability Haste from
Transcendence and extra damage from
Gathering Storm. By chosing this rune, you won't have the early damage you can cause from electrocute, but you will have the mobility you need to position yourself into the team fights, besides that your late game will be stronger.
Electrocute: I almost never use this rune; The domination path is good, like electrocute is. I prefer phase rush, but they have different purposes; electrocute is better in the early game, so if the enemie team have a stronger late game, you may use it to snowball the game and end it before it's too late (or you can just take the rune to have more damage if you think phase rush and the sorcery path are useless for the game you're playing.
Conqueror: To be honest, I changed my opinion about conqueror for Swain. For me, this rune is very situational. When playing adc, I won't use it because it's important to have the other runes in the lane phase; but these days I had played against Xerath on midlane and used conqueror. I liked it because Xerath practically don't get close to my range, so I would almost never activate electrocute nor phase rush on him.
It's a great rune on team fights, and when you have high ability haste, it activates pretty easy. The only problem is that in early game it is kinda difficult to activate it.
Items
- The first one is when your team doesn't have damage, for example: a
Maokai on toplane, a
Nunu & Willump on jungle, a
Malphite on mid. In a game like this, the only source of damage from your team is your adc, besides you. Situations like these are rare, but when they happen, to build carry items can help a lot.
- The second one is when your team has damage enough to deal with the oponents, and because of that they don't need you to buy damage items. For example:
Darius on top,
Katarina on mid,
Elise on jungle. In a composition like this, your team has 4 champions that deals a lot of damage (with the adc), and because of that, the best build you can make is utility. If you don't wanna keep the two vision items (
Bulwark of the Mountain and
Vigilant Wardstone), you can still buy other utility support items, like
Redemption.
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: It has a great synergie with all Swain's kit, but mostly with his ult (the enemies burn forever). It gives you mana, which is necessary for Swain, damage and ability haste. The mythic passive from the item is extremely good (the one that gives you ability haste from other legendary items).
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: This item provides you more burst for your kit, giving you up to 30 magic penetration depending on how many legendary items you have. Luden's Tempest is more interesting when the enemy team has in most champions with low life (not much beyond 2000).
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: Imperial Mandate is a great item to amplify the damage from your team. It's cheap, gives you good status and has a great synergie with your kit. But, as Swain only have two crowd control abilitys (
Vision of Empire and
Nevermove), to further explore the item potencial and create a awesome synergie, it is essential that you buy
Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Test and see.
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After Rod of Ages (
Rod of Ages) exclusion and all the items changes, there are less mana avaiable from items to buy. If you don't want to build Luden's or Liandry's, you'll have to buy Archangel's Staff, cause in this season it's much harder to control mana. Even with mythic items that gives you it, it always ends.
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First of all, it can be a good item for Swain. Gives you good status and sustain; the item's passive has a good synergie with the champion, but, you will miss your mana, and when your ult is over, you may feel you're not dealing so much damage. I recommend you to buy a lot of ap, cause if you don't have it, you won't heal. Try also to buy
Tear of the Goddess.
R.I.P.
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