so we all know swain isn't played as much as he should be. he likes to lay low and **** on you for your mistakes. so lets get started with one of the best champions in the game of league

these runes are basic but effective. Greater mark of insight for magic pen is nessecary or your damage will be futile. mana regen because without blue buff you will die without mana and last hitting can be trouble some sometimes. ability power glyphs are cheap and effective. ability power quints are also effective for early laning.

the masteries are this way to insure late game damage. also to keep a blue buff for a much longer duration

these items are they way they are because since your mid and swain needs to be defenseive with the negatron cloak against say leblanc. leblanc will truck swain without neg cloak or a catalyst. with swains tornemt his damage is amplifyied to the utmost extent to beat almost any opponent that comes at him. also merk treads are good for magic resist and the fact that most ap champs have some sort of cc on them. sion, leblanc, viegar, ahri. so merk treads are a great item in any game.

torment is your main source of damage so max it early. nevermore is only cd dependent so put on point early and leave it till lvl 14. get decrepfy up next because of slow and damage output. always get points in ravenous flock to heal up and farm. or bully your opponents or lane. or as a kite move when your trying to stay alive

ignite to finish enemies off like vlad so they dont heal as much and do more damage. flash is just a great utility no matter what so always use it.

in ranked always last hit as much as possible, call for blue buff, and play safe. that is the biggest thing with swain. if you don't play safe you will drain all your mana and be a sitting duck.

pros:
great early game damage
sustain
awesome passive
doesn't need that much ap to be effective
very tanky
cons:
blue buff dependent
focused a lot because of healing, so ignite is always put on him

the only thing you have to worry about with swain is mana. if your low on mana, you have to last hit and use minimal spells to get your mana back up. in the jungle, just call out for blue buff.

in team fights, swain can walk right through an enemy team and focus the carries with his merk treads, bird and snare. never focus the tanks with swain or in general anyone. keep your bird on in team fights to maximize the damage you're doing.

swains tornment is basically vladamires ult as an E move. it amplifyes his damage by 20 percent at rank five. if possible always lead out with torment to maximize your damage