Why choose Swain over another better top laner or higher damage mid laner or even an actual healer for a support?

Swain can do everything other laners can do and quite a bit more. This guide is meant to, guide you, and show you what Swain truly is!

His abilities all pair incredibly well together in almost any order AND his passive allows him to go down the AP tank path while his other abilites allow him to be somewhere between a grab/root support or full AP burn mage. Depending on how you like your characters built Swain has many more build paths than what I show, but I enjoy these builds and hopefully you will too.

Passive: His key ability, when he pulls with his E or hits a W Swain gains 12 bonus health and gets a varing amount of max health in return based on level. Late game you should be a beefy tank whether you are sup/mid/top. Building stacks early helps you shrug off burst damage early so if need be just spam E and get stacks until you get ult where you can initiate better.

Q: High poke damage early and high burst damage late that pairs well with literally every other ability in his kit? Sounds amazing right? Every bolt that lands on a target deals an increasing amount of damage that can burst the opposing team if you can get in range. As you have the mana you should be popping this every time you have the chance. Including on minions.

W: Good for helping people long distance while also pairing well with his E, you can get multiple stacks for free based on how well timed you can use your W E combo. His W is also his only other source of passive stacks so if you are going to be aiming his W make sure you look on the map before you cast because the cooldown can be long. Only use this in a pinch to get away if you have no other option because of long cooldowns but it can provide a good slow.

E: By far the best ability in Swains kit, he can root and pull towards him which can help during get-aways or to end peels early. Swains E is also his best way of getting passive stacks and getting that tanky health faster. This ability is the initiator because you must use this to pop your Q and W and even a good starter for an R

R: Another amazing ability Swain has up his empty sleeve. Swain stays in his ult so long as enemies are within range, this along with constant heals make you feel stronger than you are so don't get carried away with the killing BUT if you can root more than 2 people while your ult is active most of the time you can get at least a kill or two. Never waste a re-cast, it should only be used while multiple targets are low around you