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Choose Champion Build:
-
Standard Set
-
High Burst / Nuke
-
Anti - AD
-
Anti - AP
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Mana Heavy
-
Tank Swain
Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Ravenous Flock (PASSIVE)
Swain Passive Ability
Introduction


He specializes in bullying melee champions, dealing damage indiscriminately, peeling for the AD Carry in team fights, being incredibly hard to take down, and getting off consistent damage on low cool downs.
I continuously see Swain being underrated. Many people especially do not seem to realize the kill potential he has during Laning Phase.
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If you are interested check out any of the following links to seek more information:
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Pros
- Strong Mana Sustain in lane via
Carrion Renewal
- Good Health Sustain in lane post-6 via
Ravenous Flock
- Strong early game harass with
Torment +
Decrepify
- AoE Snare with
Nevermove
- Movement Speed Slow on
Decrepify
- Melts any and all targets indiscriminately
- Has viable builds that are not reliant on
Rabadon's Deathcap
- Becomes incredibly durable due to
Ravenous Flock and itemization
- VERY potent nuking power
- High kill potential during laning phase
- Exceptional at peeling for the AD Carry in team fights
- Helps thicken your team's "front line"
Ravenous Flock continues casting / healing when inside the stasis from
Zhonya's Hourglass (mechanics like this are always fun to abuse)
- Very flexible itemization
Cons
- No gap closer
- Must harass from close proximity / weak versus long range
- Vulnerable to enemy AD Carry late game due to being a relatively short-ranged caster without a gap closer or hard CC
- On the slower side as far as movement speed is concerned
- Severely weakened by
Ignite and enemies w/
Morellonomicon or other forms of healing debuffs
Good Choices








I personally prefer theese 2 Summoner Spells but there are situations when others are viable.



Bad Choices







Rune Setup:
I use the following Rune set nearly every game on

2x

1x

9x

9x

9x

This setup gives you 9.8 (~10) Magic Pen, 9.9 (~10) AP, 12.06 (~12) MR, and 12.69 (~13) Armor.
I get the 1 Magic Pen Quint because the ~10 MPen just seems much cleaner than an awkward 7.83 (~8) MPen on the in-game stats. OCD I guess? I also genuinely think it scales better, especially considering Swain has good base damage.
Magic Penetration Marks are honestly the only way to go on

You really want Flat Armor Seals. Even if you are not laning against an AD opponent, these runes can still reduce the damage taken from minions during the laning phase as well as provide a much needed stat going into the Mid Game.
Occasionally I'll run Flat MR Seals to help shut down an enemy's damage but only if I'm up against a double or triple AP comp.
I've seen a lot of players use flat mana regen, scaling mana regen, scaling health, and scaling armor seals.
You get enough Mana Regen from


You can easily itemize for high HP.




I used to run scaling Armor Seals. Doing so taught me what many players tend to ignore...
The reason FLAT Armor Seals are so good in Mid Lane is because of something that often factors into early game engages that frequently determines who gets First Blood / lane dominance:
MINION DAMAGE. Whenever you harass an enemy champion in lane, you will usually pull minion aggro. Repositioning in between poking helps reduce the amount of time that you hold minion aggro but you will inevitably take damage from minions. Early game, champions have low armor and low health so minion damage is a huge part of damage exchanges. With the armor boost from Flat Armor Seals you should take considerably reduced damage from enemy minions.
I prefer Magic Resistance Glyphs over Ability Power Glyphs simply because

15/0/15

This setup may seem strange but Season 3 has brought a lot of previously unconventional setups to the forefront of power. Mastery Points in the mid tier of each tree are worth a lot more than they used to be. You used to only really care about the end points in a tree but now you have viable choices all up and down each Mastery section.
You're basically trading a little extra AP for spell vamp, the





So here's the rundown...
Offense Tree:
- 1 Point in
Summoner's Wrath for +5 AP/AD during
Ignite's CD
- 4 Points in
Sorcery for +4% CDR
- 2 Points in
Butcher for +4 DMG to minions / monsters
- 4 Points in
Blast for +1 AP per Level / +18 AP @ LVL.18
- 1 Point in
Arcane Knowledge for +8% Magic Penetration
- And either 3 Points in
Mental Force for +6 AP OR 3 Points in
Havoc for +2% Damage Dealt
Utility Tree:
- 1 Point in
Summoner's Insight for -15 seconds on
Flash's CD
- 3 Points in
Meditation for +3 Mana Regen per 5 seconds
- 3 Points in
Mastermind for Summoner Spell CDR OR 3 Points in
Expanded Mind for bonus Mana (whichever you prefer)
- 2 Points in
Artificer for CDR on
Deathfire Grasp /
Zhonya's Hourglass
- 1 Point in
Runic Affinity for longer duration on Blue Buff
- 3 Points in
Vampirism for +3% Spell Vamp and Lifesteal
- 1 Point in
Biscuiteer for extra early sustain
- 1 Point in
Explorer for a free short-duration ward that will help against invades and level 2 ganks
You get last hitting power and % Magic Penetration in Offense. Stronger Last hitting from







21/0/9

I run this page when I'm running AP Glyphs and planning on building aggressive AP items like


9/0/21

This setup gives you +10% CDR from Masteries, good sustain, and that lovely movement speed at the end of the Utility Tree. This is a really strong setup if you itemize to abuse it.
9/21/0

This page doesn't necessarily make you all that strong but it does make you incredibly hard to kill. I run this when I'm playing against dangerous assassins or plan on going Tank Swain.

This is your passive. It provides Mana restoration for every unit killed. This will help keep your Mana up in lane. Last Hitting is always important but doing so on



This ability is very strong and has deceptively high damage. It lists the AP Ratio as 30% but the tool tip describes "damage per second" for an ability with a 3 second duration. If an enemy unit takes the entirety of the spell duration, this ability realistically has a 90% AP Ratio. This ability's damage is also increased by




This ability provides good utility via an AoE Snare. This tool is wonderful in skirmishes and team fights. It has good base damage with a 70% AP ratio. It is the only ability in


This is what your damage revolves around. Max this 1st.
Always use this ability first in your combos, even before DFG.






During the Laning Phase, you can spam



This is an awesome Ultimate for a close range bruiser-mage.
This makes

Remember that this ability heals you for:
25% of damage dealt to minions / monsters
but 75% of damage dealt to champions.
This ability is not known to prioritize enemy Champions in its targeting system and will send Ravens to the nearest targets and occasionally will seem a a bit random in its auto-target selection.
It's good to attempt to consciously position yourself to where enemy champions are closer than enemy minions. If you get ganked / are fighting in clustered areas, try to position yourself accordingly so that you are hitting champions with it more so than minions or try to bait the enemy champions away from the minion wave.
I've seen bad Swains that let their Ult hit only the minion wave while fighting enemy champions due to their positioning. Please do not be one of them.
Starting Items
There are quite a few options for Level 1 purchases depending on team compositions, desired build paths, etc. These are some of your options:
If you go slightly into the Utility Tree then in addition to whatever you pruchased, you'll be able to start with these:


The

- You can place it at the entrance of the jungle while you assist your Jungler at Blue / Red.
- If you are worried about the enemy Jungler invading the secondary buff, you can ward it before going to assist your Jungler at their primary buff.
- If the enemy Jungler does not have the power to invade you can simply use it as a ward to guard for early ganks.
- If you feel that you would be wasting it if you placed it early, then save it for when the enemy blue is about to come up. You can ward over the wall to gain vision to attempt a steal or to assist in a coordinated invade on your Jungler's second route.
Basic Laning Phase Items







These are generally all good purchases early game depending on what Build Path you are taking. I'm not saying to get all of them just that they are all viable purchase options.
Magic Resistance Itemization Options




There are plenty of items that provide Magic Resistance that you can buy so don't waste your boots selection on buying










Armor Itemization Options



If you're laning against an AD mid, you might consider grabbing and early










Life Sustain Itemization Options











Bonus Health Choices























CDR Sources






You can get +4% CDR from the Offense Mastery Tree from


































Nothing about

















Use the

Harass with


Save







You can also use













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