A while ago, I bought Swain. I stopped using him quickly because I got frustrated that I couldn't land the stun... Well, only recently I realized it's really easy as hell. If you want to be a good swain, you need good positioning (and it's really not that hard to have it). MAKE SURE YOU READ THE WHOLE GUIDE, AND IF YOU DON'T-MAKE SURE TO READ THE SKILL SECTION. My best game with Swain so far has been 22/1/10, but he's easy to jump into and easy to get used to. The first game I played with him after going on hiatus from him i went 18/3, so you'll get used to him quickly.

Pros:
Can get literally every kill, especially with the ult
High mana allows you to use your skills whenever you want
You look like a pimp
STUN
DOT means less chasing to get a kill

Cons:
There will be games where people will take all your kills by chasing after guys that you know you don't have to chase after to get the kill
Slow (not that it matters)
Umm...oh yeah cooldowns are somewhat long (also not that it matters)

The items can be interchangeable, but mostly you want to get items that have health and ability power the most, which is why i get first. It's very important to start out with the two mana items ( and Catalyst the Protector), as you'll be using a lot of it. I've never run out of mana this way. At around 20 minutes, you can have five kills with no AP items (except for , and only AP from the runes. Once you've gotten and you'll be doing huge amounts of damage and the last two items will be easy to get.

Ignite is a MUST for swain. Can't tell you how bad the dot of all your skills destroys people, and with ignite, if your skills are on cooldown-it doesn't matter.

Also a MUST. If you need to dive turrets, pop pop your skills or ignite, then flash out. Swain doesn't take a lot of turret damage, and ravenous flock will definitely save your *** when flashing out. Also, it usually doesn't happen because of positioning (which is easy with swain), but if you get focused in team fights, use it to get the **** out. Usually you're the last man standing if your team has been screwed, anyways.

Seriously, get these two summoner spells because you NEED them. You don't need any other summoner spells.

The runes can be interchangeable, but this is just what I use. For instance, you can use cooldown reduction instead of evasion, but I find the extra dodge to be extremely useful with ANY champion. The extra ability power is a must, as you won't have any for a while because of the focus on mana items.

GET THE BLUE BUFF. Period.

Farming with swain is difficult for a lot of people, especially early on. Last hitting is very important. Since you're getting loads of mana early on, you need to harass to make minion killing easier. Make sure that THEY are pushing, not you. Once you've reached level six you become a lot better at farming. Pop your on the back row of caster minions and then pop on by the casters. Make sure to pop it off after one or two swarms of crows have gone out. Always pop on the wraith camp and wolf camp if no one else is taking them.

Level 1-5Most important early on is harassing. At level one harass with . It's called torment for a reason. Once you've gotten , start popping it BEHIND the enemy champion, so they'll run into it. If you notice that they aren't moving quickly enough when you pop it, then you can pop it so that they are in the center of it. Once you've stunned them, run at them and pop a on them. This combo alone will drain a lot of their health.

Level 6+ Once you've gotten your ult, you're a killing machine, AP or no. Pop , run at them, pop then then your . Once you've done this, it's VERY important to chase after them, making sure that your ult is dealing continous damage to them. If you need to, pop . If you can, pop again. Remember, is a KILLING TOOL. If someone's getting away, flash towards them and pop ignite or one of your skills (or all the above), if you know it will kill them. AN EXTRA KILL IS ALWAYS WORTH WASTING FLASH.

Teamfights In team fights, your team will be relying on you to hit with your , which is really easy in teamfights. Let everyone initiate, then pop it where it will snare the most enemies, then run in and pick a target you want dead, pop then then (or if your team's health is decreasing fast, pop before going in for the kill.

Final Word Know your enemies. If a jax is running at you with an empowered staff, pop a on you so that when he jumps on you, he gets stunned, then pop the rest of your skills and BAM. Quite a turn of events. Also, when you get to low health, pop your ult around minions. KNOW THE RANGE. You can stand behind your minions and still get healed. MORE MANA IS BETTER THAN MORE HEALTH! If you're under half mana and are at half health, pop the ult for a few rounds of healing, then pop it off. You're useless without mana, so never leave your ult on. Oh yeah, stunning by turrets=WIN.