Hi guys! If you are reading this then I hope you are ready to see how powerful Swain support is!
I have played Swain for about 2 years and when he was re-worked he went from being very broken to being maybe a C+ Mid laner and top lane prolly worse or similar. Swain is a weird champ who currently mid lane is rocking a 52% WR mid BUT with a less than 1% pick rate, so that means basically only 1 Tricks are playing Swain currently Mid but having solid success. Now I am not a One-Trick but I do Main him and have Mained him for past seasons.

The general theme behind this champ as a Support is 2 really powerful things that have been ignored by everyone! Swains E (his Claw that hooks/Grabs multiple ppl) goes THROUGH minions and also returns back to Swain that means that ppl must dodge not 1 hook but 2 and Minions dont really block it (on the way back it does but not on the way to). This means you can setup trades with just autos if need be or even W > AA type of trade if Minions are blocking your Q..But if they aren't blocking and you land this combo and include a Q procing your Electrocute you are gonna get a big burst on ppl consistently while you have healing and defense to absorb any trades back..Also taking Biscuits and Stopwatch further add to your aggression as a Support!

For all the great things I just ranted about there is a bit of a learning curve that originally I didn't really expect. Playing Support Swain is a LOT different than solo lane, like this transition wasnt nearly as easy as some of the other ex-Mid laners who are supports now (Brand/Zyra/Malzahar) see with Swain I notice I have to play around not just the CD of E early but also Electrocute, once Electrocute is up that's when I want to be fishing for E's but when it's not up I want to be playing pretty passive and only Auto Attacking champs if they walk up to CS.

In theory this seems super simple and the best thing I have experienced is right at Lv 1 with your claw, you want to grab someone early and get that burst on them (it usually drops them to like 60%-70% give or take...Once you do that it puts ppl on the backfoot and it makes your lane phase generally go much better. So lv 1, claw someone and make sure you get Electrocute to proc on them, then you just rinse and repeat. I try and be unbiased with targeting, literally anyone who steps up who maybe clawed you want to get em!

See ppl can generally dodge that first claw wave (not always though) but it's that Return claw that gets em so often, and then you pull them (aka thresh Flail from range) and get a auto and bam you chunked them! At lv 1 it's like you already have 2 abilities which is why Lv 1 Support Swain CAN be strong.

There are some matchups that Swain gets pooped on but I have noticed that it's not so much level 1, it's more like lv 3 but if you chunk them down early and make them back then it won't matter!

See that's really the goal here, honestly you don't have like great kill pressure although it is very good. You do have great trade pressure though, so you may not kill someone when you claw them but they will be chunked really bad and you do that 2 times and they will have to back for sure and that's where you get your advantage although I have played with ADCs who will go ham when they see blood in the water (appreciate these guys a lot) generally speaking most of them won't

Lane phase as Swain you play around Electrocute and your E I've talked about but Mid-Late is when you transition from the setup Lane AP Mage to becoming what Swain is known for and that's a very disruptive Drain Tank that can be extremely difficult to kill while doing great damage! This is why we play Swain because with Zhonyas and Liandrys first 2 items you are going to be a very very very big threat and this is good because it's going to shift the focus from your ADC or your mid laner (whoever WAS your win condition) to you. The enemy team will really start focusing you, this is good because it means multiple ppl will have to be sent to where ever you are and that means your ADC can farm or can just safely stay behind you and free-hit because mid game YOU will be the focus if you have those 2 items (and sorc boots) provided your team didn't feed their ***es off but even if they did, if you did good like how I talk about in the first chapter, that means you prolly walked out of Bot with a lead over the enemy. Even if you are a few levels below the solo laners as Swain if you have your Soul Fragments and 1 or 2 items you will be a big threat, way more than a ADC unless they are draven or lucian.

The biggest thing I've learned is that you will absolutely have to buy a Death Cap after those first 2 items and then a Zekes or whatever you want / need. Death Cap gives you the pressure you need to continue being a threat, without it your dmg just plateaus and you can't really faceroll 1 v 9..

This is something that some ppl make not like doing or hearing as a Support but to be able to afford a Death Cap as a Support that isn't Brand or some 1 shot mage you have to get Farm..Yeah I know ppl won't like hearing that but you are going to have to find ways to manufacture gold if you play Swain Support. So I look for Side Lanes that can be quickly pushed out (Swain can push pretty decently tbh but runs out of mana kinda quickly since we aren't taking ludens here or tear) but then you will prolly have to base or try and steal a blue from the Enemy Camp (try not to take your Mid laners blue unless they tell you).

So here's the other option when Death Cap just isn't possible, say you are having a bad game and feeding a lil. Hopefully you got your Zhonya's and Liandrys but maybe Death Cap would just take too long which is absolutely possible.

This is when you go for really budget support items but things that make you uber annoying..

Zekes, omg it's basically a Rylais but also a great Steroid for your ADC as well so if you are having a bad game for sure look for this thing.
Honestly I don't get Death Cap every game but that would be ideal because it gives me enough AP to be relevant for awhile; Zekes basically says "I'm not going to be relevant with pure Dmg cause I'm Behind" So you are going this route to be just annoying as hell and to also make it so your ADC does what they generally should.