Swain is a mage who can devastate enemies from the back row with little to no peel. Swain has quite a bit of crowd control. Even if you do not get fed on Swain, you can get quite tanky while at the same time deal good amounts of damage. If you do get fed well, lets just say you 1v9 easily. With that being said, let's get on with the guide.

Ravenous Flock(Passive)

Swain's ravens collect Soul Fragments that heal him. Swain can right-click an immobilized enemy champions to pull them closer to him, dealing damage and ripping out a Soul Fragment.
His passive allows him to heal quite a bit of health when damaging enemy champions with his E or W or any other crowd control effect and is super useful during laning phase.

Death's Hand(Q)

Swain unleashes five bolts of eldritch power in the target direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemies they hit. Enemies can intercept multiple bolts, taking bonus damage.
Bolts that kill their targets continue onward and restore 3% maximum mana. This can repeat indefinitely until the bolts reach their maximum distance.
Magic Damage:
55 / 75 / 95 / 115 / 135 (+ 40% AP)

Bonus Damage Per Bolt:
15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%

Swain's primary source of damage. It has a ridiculously low cooldown as you level up. Combined with the fact that you regain mana based on the number of enemies they kill this ability is OP and helps you stay in lane longer.


Vision of Empire(W)

Swain summons a demonic eye at the target area, revealing it for 2 seconds, which explodes after 1.5 seconds, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit, halved against non-champions, and slowing them for 2.5 seconds.
Enemy champions are revealed for an additional duration and have a Soul Fragment ripped from them.
Magic Damage:
100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+ 70% AP)

Slow Strength:
25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65%

Reveal Duration:
4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

This ability is Swain's source of vision. Laner missing? Walk up to your midlane turret and use Vision of Empire on drake/herald/baron to instantly find out if the enemy is trying to capture those neutral objectives. Enemy champions hit by this ability give you one stack of your passive.

Nevermove(E)

Swain launches a demonic wave in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies it passes through.
Upon reaching its maximum distance, the wave returns to Swain, detonating at the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies and rooting them for 1.5 seconds.
Magic Damage:
35 / 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 (+ 25% AP)

Detonation Damage:
35 / 45 / 55 / 65 / 75 (+ 25% AP)

Swain's primary source of engage and crowd control during laning phase and teamfights. When he drags enemies towards him, he receives one stack of his passive based on the number of enemies he had pulled.

Demonic Ascension(R)

Swain frees the demon within for 12 seconds, gaining bonus health.

While Demonic Ascension is active, Swain drains the 3 enemies closest to him, prioritizing champions, dealing magic damage to them each second, and healing himself for each enemy hit, reduced by 80% against minions and monsters.
After restoring 125 / 300 / 450 health with Demonic Ascension, Swain can end its effects early to cast Demonflare, and automatically does so at the end of its duration.
If Swain dies while Demonic Ascension is active, he loses all of his stored Soul Fragments. If Swain dies during the channel time of Demonic Ascension, the cooldown and all Soul Fragments are fully refunded.

Bonus Health:
150 / 275 / 400

Damage per Second:
35 / 50 / 65 (+ 14.167% AP)

Heal per Second:
20 / 35 / 50 (+ 16% AP)
8.14 Edit: Max Explosion Damage Ratio decreased from 1.35AP to 1.05AP

Swain basically becomes really tanky for the duration of his ultimate as he is constantly draining health from enemies within his ultimate range. His ultimate is really usesful during team fights. Note:You can also use Zhonya's Hourglass during your ultimate to become invulnerable yet charge up your ultimate's blast.

Pro's:

• Good Early game
• Amazing Teamfights
• Lots of Crowd Control
• Scales well
• Lots of damage even while tanky[/color]
• Good vision

Con's:

• Weak against assassins and champions with all-in potential
• Susceptible to ganks
• No mobility related abilities
• Lots of skillshots

For this guide we will be primarily discussing a Domination + Sorcery Rune paths. With the new 8.13 patch, Sorcery as a secondary now gives 20AP instead of AP.


Domination Runes:

Electrocute Electrocute: Swain's abilities have ridiculously low cooldowns. Hitting an enemy with a E Q W combo procs electrocute for massive amounts of damage. Its easy to all in during laning phase.

Cheap Shot Cheap Shot: Swain's E- Nevermove immobilises enemy champions when its returning back to Swain. This means that Swain's next abilities will deal true damage contributing to the amount of damage Swain already does.

Zombie Ward Zombie Ward: Nothing much to explain about this rune except that this is a useful rune during lane and even for warding neutral objectives.

Ravenous Hunter Ravenous Hunter: Takedowns on enemy champions increase healing on ability use, making Swain even more tanky then he already is during his ultimate duration.

Sorcery Runes:

Manaflow Band Manaflow Band:Swain is a mana hungry champion. While his Q: Death's Hand returns some mana to him, he still drains quite a bit of mana. Manaflow Band does not solve this problem but helps a LOT.

Gathering Storm Gathering Storm: Nothing much to be said. This rune gives you AP over the course of the game ensuring Swain's damage keeps up.

Basic Combo

Q < E < Q < AA
Your basic level 2 combo. You use Death's Hand first. When hit, launch your Nevermove and then drag the champion towards you. You will get a stack of your passive, by which time Death's Hand is off cooldown again. Fire it again to proc Electrocute for that sweet damage and finish it off with an auto attack.


Level 3 combo(Variation 1)

Q < E < W < Q < AA

This is the level 3 all in combo which deals tons of damage. It starts out the same way as the basic combo above but, as soon as your enemy is rooted and you have dragged the enemy towards you, use Vision of Empire. You have to use it quickly as your W has a delay to when it deals the damage. Use it too late and the enemy will get out of its range. Once the enemy is caught in Vision of Empire he/she will be slowed. Walk up use Death's Hand again and then AA him to watch at least half his HP bar drop.

Level 3 combo(Variation 2)

Q < W < E < Q < AA

This is similar to the combo above, however you use Vision of Empire before Nevermove. This is a little more risky as you use your W in a predicted position, i.e you place the W such that you are confident in hitting your enemy with Nevermove and then dragging your opponent into the Vision of Empire radius. It is a risky move as you have to be confident that you will be able to land Nevermove in time to drag them into Vision of Empire.


Further combos include adding your ultimate into the mix. You can either use it at the start and then use all the combos listed above, or use any of the combos above and THEN use your ultimate. It works in anyway.

Core Items

Rod of Ages: This item works really well with Swain. Swain is a tank mage who gains health from his ultimate Demonic Ascension. His tank nature makes it such that hte unique passive from this item works really well with him. Other than that, the base stats from the item also help Swain a lot.

Zhonya's Hourglass: An obvious choice due to its stats and unique active. The unique active also synergises very well with Swain's ultimate as it ( Demonic Ascension) continues to charge even during stasis making for an easy and safe ultimate.

Luden's Tempest: This item grants a large amount of Ability Power, Cooldown Reduction, and a nifty passive which deals extra damage upon casting spells once you have full charges.

Item Pool

Mejai's Soulstealer: Buy when ahead and really confident. Doing well with this item can grant large amounts of Ability Power. However it is also pretty risky if you are down.

Morellonomicon: Get this item if you need magic penetration or if you need to be able to inflict *grievous wounds*.

Rabadon's Deathcap: Pretty straightforward. Buying this item will give you a huge increase in AP.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter: This item provides lots of AP and HP. It has a useful Unique Passive which can be used to slow enemies when a spell is casted on them. Useful when you are facing very mobile champions.

Abyssal Mask: This item is more of a defensive/supportive item. It provides CDR, HP, MR, and Mana while also increasing amount of magic damage taken by enemies. Buy this item if you are facing an AP laner and you want to increase the magic damage they take, or if your team is AP heavy.

Spirit Visage: Again, a defensive MR item which provides CDR, HP, and Health regen. This item works very well with Swain's ultimate Demonic Ascension as it increases all healing and drain effects on yourself by 30%.

Laning Phase

During lane phase, it is important that you don't feed. If you start to fall behind Swain will become completely useless in terms of damage or tanking as you won't have the gold to buy items. Even as long as you just hold your lane while CS'ing well you should be fine. If you are facing an assassin such as Talon or Zed, DO NOT LET THEM GET AHEAD. At no cost should you let them get ahead as it will be disastrous. Zhonya's Hourglass is a must against assassins such as Zed and Talon. With your W: Vision of Empire you have exceptional vision for neutral objects such as Drakes, Rift Herald and Baron Nashor . Use this to provide vision and information to your teammates at all time or whenever you can.

Mid Game

This is uaually Swain's time to shine. If you have done well enough during lane, even if you haven't got fed, you should be strong. During teamfights you play the part of the initiator i.e you start the fight. How do you do this? Well, your E: Nevermove can bind upto 2-3 champions depending on how well you time it. Drag these helpless champions towards you and watch as your team decimates them. Proceed to end the game or Baron, whatever. During the teamfights it is important that you keep on dealing damage or tanking it if you are using your ultimate: Demonic Ascension. Use Zhonya's Hourglass to help you charge up faster and then press R to get a Pentakill(if you're lucky, dont sue me :) ).

8.15: Nothing to report on the mage side of things. Should be a good patch for Swain.
8.18: No new changes to report.
8.22: No new changes to report.

So let's just recap everything from the top:
Swain is a control mage who excels at initiating fights. He can build tank items while at the same time have tons of damage. He can provide excellent vision with his ability Vision of Empire. He has a strong early game which can lead to a good late game if played right.Though almost all his abilities are skillshots, through practice it becomes easier and easier to land them.
I hope this guide was useful and helped you at least pick up a new champ which you may have wanted to learn but didn't know if you could. Thanks you for viewing this and best of luck on the rift(oh and the treeline and abyss ;) )