Hey there, you curious Swain lover! I am Jochnes and have been playing League of Legends since Season 2! I put a lot of thoughts into the update of this guide so feel free to leave a vote and give me your feedback in the comments so I can improve it even more! Click Here if you are only interested in gameplay related tips with short video clips! Otherwhise just scroll through the guide, it will also explain a lot of the new/changed items, answering questions you may have about them!

Corrupting Potion Swain can gte bullied by high ranged mages that you will face most of the times in Mid-lane. The 3 pots allow you to look for early to refill them again and will get you through lane.

Doran's Ring Doran's Ring gives insane Mana sustain when killing minions and also help with last hitting due to it's 15 AP and 5 on-hit dmg against minions. Never buy 2 of them thought, since it's passive is unique!

Sorcerer's Shoes Increases your damage against champions drasticly. With Sorcerer's Shoes you deal 11,6% more magic damage against enemies with 34 Magic Resistance.

Mercury's Treads Against enemies with a lot of CC Mercury's Treads are a reasonable choice, especially because you get Zhonya's Hourglass most of the time and will lack some magic resistence.

Riftmaker It's a really strong item for champions that want to fight for a long time. Swain will get unkillaable once he gets to full stacks on Conqueror and Riftmaker as long as he can stick to the enemy team. This is probably the best choice against less mobile teams, but also a good choice in every game probably.

NightHarvester Extremly strong in teamfights, as long as you have enough AOE to trigger the marks. Help you to stick to enemies and dish out a lot of dmg. It should work realyl well with Demonic Ascension.

Hextech Rocketbelt Now that it grants 75% movement speed towards enemies, it might be a really strong item for Swain. Enemies won't be able to run away from you and if you bought Rylai's Crystal Scepter the bolts will also slow them for you to get close. I'm not sure thought if Night Harvester or Hextech Rocketbelt is the better item on him. Looking at the Mythic bonus, Night Harvester is better against tankier teams, and Hextech Rocketbelt is better against suqishies.

Rod of Ages RIP

Demonic Embrace Synergyzes with AOE Dmg spells and gives really strong sustainable Dmg. It makes you really strong for teamfights and enemies will have a hard time killing you with the bnous armor and magic resistence that's gained from AOE spells hitting the whole team!

Zhonya's Hourglass Seeker's Armguard can be build against physical damage dealing assasins though you don't need to rush for Zhonya's Hourglass! Finish it later on but for early and mid-game the stacked up 45 armor should be enough. On Swain the active is always useful to stall out fight and heal up with Demonic Ascension again.

Void Staff It's really strong in combination with the flat magic pen from Hextech Rocketbelt and Sorcerer's Shoes and should be bought later on.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter Allows you to never let your enemies get away from you once you areclose to them with Demonic Ascension. Also synergyzes well with Hextech Rocketbelt as the bolts will apply the slow.

Everfrost It has one of the best stat lins from all of the Mythic mage items and is really strong for early game. You can combo it with Nevermove to hold your enemy longer in place and get close for a full hit Death's Hand. With only 20 seconds cooldown you can probably use it everytime when Nevermove hits. ItÄs best against ranged champions that you want to pick off with a CC spell so your team can kill them.

Cosmic Drive It's good for getting Ability Haste if you havn't gooten it from other items yet and the movement speed is really useful for chasing down enemies wth Demonic Ascension as you always apply to effect with it.

Spirit Visage Ravenous Flock and Demonic Ascension have a lot of healing, that can be increased by Spirit Visage and also gives Swain a good option for a magic resistende item. Also increases shielding and healing from other sources, so keep that in mind.

Start with Nevermove at level 1 and try to all-in your enemy when he goes for CS! Don't use it when there are minions behind the enemy as it would hit them instead and stop there.
Hitting Nevermove will also allow you to use Ravenous Flock and proc Phase Rush so you can auto attack him down.
Especially later on when you got your other abilities, hitting Nevermove is a guranteed won trade, use this combo:
Play Video


Use Death's Hand to push the wave but don't just use it all the time, you need to keep some mana! Killing enemies with Death's Hand grants some mana back, so try to push faster than your enemy by last hitting the minions with it! Prepare them with auto attacks before using it, so you kill as many as possible with one cast!
Play Video


When you all-in your enemy with Demonic Ascension try to only auto attack when you are very close to him, you don't want to let him out of it! With the movement speed from Phase Rush and Nimbus Cloak he won't get away though! Only reactivate it when it's lethal damage and not as soon as possible, because then you would lose a lot of DPS and healing!

If he somehow manages to get away from you, use Demonic Ascension to push the wave and heal some health!

Use Vision of Empire to scout areas and like Baron Nashor, dragon or specific jungle camps to know where the enemy jungler is or was! Also gather Soul fragments from Ravenous Flock when hitting enemies, Demonic Ascension will consume all of them and deal damage equal to how many you've gotten! They will also lay around where enemy champions died, you have to pick those up by going close to them.
Play Video


The best way to hit Vision of Empire on long range is to cast it whe nenemies have to walk into a small are and can't take another way (for example when they are being chased), or when they are beign cc'ed.

Try to adjust the boomerang effect from Nevermove by walking in the direction that you want it to hit as it will come back to you!
Play Video


When using Demonic Ascension in teamfight's, try to stack it up on their front-line and then you can start threattening their backline, because you can one shot them by reactivating it, in combination with your other abilities.
Use Death's Hand to kill the front-line and increasing the damage by walking close to them, only go for the back-line when you got backup, when they are cc'ed and you can combo on them or when there is an opporunity to one shot with Demonic Ascension Flash Death's Hand
Play Video


Spam rightclick on important targets when your teammates are about to cc them, so you can Ravenous Flock off on them. Be careful with it though it could mess up combos from your allies, for example Lux hits Light Binding on Ashe and you use Ravenous Flock on her, Lux could miss her Lucent Singularity by that!

Thanks for reading my guide, if you have any question you can ask me!
Leaving feedback and a vote is appreciated!