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Runes:
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health
Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Ravenous Flock (PASSIVE)
Swain Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Zac
There is Korean duo who are using Zac+Swain in Master elo, Zac has huge amount of cc which Swain loves for his passive.
Zac
There is Korean duo who are using Zac+Swain in Master elo, Zac has huge amount of cc which Swain loves for his passive.
x Combos x Synergies x Counters |
x Runes
x Situational items x Laning phase x Teamfight |
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SUMMONER SPELLS
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Conqueror is curently best rune choice for Swain. It helps Swain at what he already excels at which is all-ins with his Demonic Ascension and team fights. . |
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Electrocute gives Swain kill pressure in the lane and allows him to play more aggressive without his Demonic Ascension. |
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Phase Rush can be used both to escape a sticky situation or to chase down a mobile enemy.It gives you cleaner and safer trades, as you'd usually land an E, pull into W, AA and either back down, dodge retaliation skillshots or position yourself to Q and AA. |
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Presence of Mind is best rune choice for Swain in this tier, mana sustain in late game teamfights is insane, and if you get some early kills/assists, it helps you with mana sustain in lane too. |
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Legend: Tenacity is obvious choice in this tier considering that two other runes are not viable for Swain at all. It provides you tenacity that is really important in late game teamfights. |
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This rune choice depends on your playstyle. Personally, I'm taking Last Stand becuase of it's buffs from few patches ago and because of fact that it usually outdamages Coup de Grace. |
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Cheap Shot is best rune choice here, considering that you will usually play with cc supports on lane, you can proc Cheap Shot easily with Ravenous Flock and Nevermove. |
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OR |
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Ravenous Hunter is great rune for Swain considering that you are already running Conqueror and that you are getting heals from Demonic Ascension. It usually heals you for 4k-5k trough normal game. Even though I was totally sold on Ravenous Hunter I was recently started playing with Ultimate Hunter, and honestly, I think that this rune could be good contender to take spot over Ravenous. |
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Luden's Tempest This item gives Swain everything that he needs. It gives him mana/mana sustain, cdr, but also gives him additional poke damage/wave clear with it's passive. |
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Sorcerer's Shoes I like this boots the most on Swain, even though you can go for deffensive ones if you are facing full AP/AD team comps. Also Mercury's Treads are not bad choice if enemies have a lot of CC. |
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Liandry's Torment Combining your Demonic Ascension and the way you want to play teamfights, Liandry's Torment is BY FAR best second item on Swain proc'ing it's passive on all 5 enemies and figthing longer for it's full stacked 10% more damage feels just so good, and it's really good if enemies are stacking HP. |
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Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya's is insanly good item on Swain, considering that Swain heals up with his Demonic Ascension during the time he's in active of the item. It's also good if enemy team comp wants to go into you or if they have a lot of assasins. Overall, this item is great, and core for Swain. |
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Rabadon's Deathcap This item simply ramp up your damage A LOT and even it has bad build path, the final result is just so powerfull. |
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Void Staff Void stuff is great final item for many mages, and Swain is definetly not exception. It can be built as 5th item too, if enemy team is stacking too much MR already. |
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I like to buy Dark Seal early into laning phase, even on first back, and if the laning phase goes well I usully upgrades it to Mejai just to snowball harder. Overall, item is underrated, it's gold efficient on 10 stacks, everything over it is just |
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Even though this item is really good on solo lane Swain, I don't like building it when im playing on bottom. Reason is really obvious, you are damage carry, and for that you need to build raw damage, anyway, this item can be built if you are facing a full AP team comp. |
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Great item for Swain if you are facing hard AP oriented team, you can also buy this item even though you are playing against hybrid damage enemies because it also amplify your healing from Conqueror and Demonic Ascension. |
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Obvious good choice if you are facing a lot of enemies heal, like Soraka, Yuumi, Senna etc... |
You are using Early Ravenous Flock to finish off enemies with your Vision of Empire and Death's Hand. Proc'ing your passive really early can be good in chase, if you hit your Nevermove you can use fast Ravenous Flock and by doing that, pulling enemy into other form of cc in your team.
You are using Late Ravenous Flock when you want enemies be cc'ed as long as possible, this works for all cc abilites, you can wait to proc your passive by waiting last moment of any cc, this is especially good if you are playing with Zac, Thresh or Nautilus. Instead of instant right clicking enemy, you should wait for last moment of their cc and then right click to proc Ravenous Flock.
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This combo is easy to do, you use your Nevermove and after it hit's enemy champion you throw your Vision of Empire in front of cc'ed champion and then pull them with your Ravenous Flock.
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You use E>W>Q on lane for short trades, if you are running Phase Rush this combo will proc it and you will gain massive movement position to move in/out in fights.
Usually I use this combo to harass in lane, and then I all in with Demonic Ascension.
You want to open lane with your Nevermove, you are looking for early stacks of Ravenous Flock by hitting your E or just following up cc of your support. |
On level 2 you want to take Vision of Empire to combo it with your Nevermove or any other cc. I explained combo here. |
From level 3 to 5 you are level uping Death's Hand, and still using Nevermove + Ravenous Flock combo to harass enemies. |
On 6 you get access to Demonic Ascension and probably already have Lost Chapter, you are looking for potential all ins with your support. You are usually stronger in 2v2 than enemy bot if you are even at that point. I would recommend you to harass enemies with your other abilities a bit before going all in with your ultimate. |
On 9 you get access to 5 point Death's Hand and at that point it's cooldown is 2,4 seconds, at that point you are super strong and you continue to look for all in's with your Demonic Ascension. |
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Thresh is similiar champions as Nautilus, he has 2 hard cc abilites and is really good when paired with Swain. Playstyle is similiar, you are looking for him to hit Death Sentence first into Flay, to then follow up with your Ravenous Flock and Nevermove, target could be cc'ed for 4+ seconds if comboed well so you will probably need some pratice. Just like Nautilus' hook you should wait at last moment of Death Sentence to proc Ravenous Flock. |
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Just like Nautilus, Leona has 3 forms of hard cc. Weak side of Leona is that she has more skill reliable cc, both her Zenith Blade and Solar Flare are skill based abilites, unlike Nautilus's Depth Charge. Good thing is that Swain can help her hit those skillshots easier with his Vision of Empire slow and Nevermove root. |
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Honestly, this is my favorite synergy, and I might be bias because I'm Jungle main, but this is combo I had THE MOST SUCCESS playing Swain with my duo. As Swain, you are waiting for Zac to hit his Stretching Strikes and then you proc your Ravenous Flock into his Elastic Slingshot and then end the cc chain with Nevermove, of course if you are 6+ Zac can simply Let's Bounce! on enemies. As Zac you want to take Stretching Strikes on level 1 and on level 2 you want to have Elastic Slingshot. |
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Lux, Xerath, Vel'Koz are all counters to Swain because one reason and that is, of course, HIGH RANGE. The way you want to play this lane is similiar as you want to play Caitlyn lane, you want to force level 3 trade and then wait for 6 and your Demonic Ascension to all in. All of these champions don't have any escapes, so once they use Flash on lane, they are really to chase and kill, especially if you hit your Nevermove. |
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