Swain = boss.... That's all you need to know.

When you play him for the first time, you'll realize how much easier LoL could have been for you all those years past. There's literally no reason you shouldn't play him, love him, and absolutely DOMINATE with him.

Really, you can probably use any combination of any magic rune that you like, that's just the particular rune set build that I use for all of my AP mid champs, so I figured I'd post it. But bottomline, as long as you have some AP, mana regen, and mana... you should be fine.

I chose the Masteries listed because it just makes sense.

Swain is an AP/Mid/Carry champion. He needs to have some high damage output, and it's good to have that magic pen and ability power boosts that you get from the 21 mastery points on offense. Couple that with some defense, flat health, and regen on the 9 defense masteries, and you're all set to have some incredible lane sustain in which you never have to leave!

Unless you want to buy items of course ;)

Here's where it gets tricky...

I've played a lot of different Swain builds.... and this is always the point that people argue on.

Some people tell you to take Will of the Ancients for more health regen, but it DOES NOT STACK w/your Ravenous Flock, therefore I see no need to take it.

Some people also recommend that you take 1 or 2 Doran's Ring before you get the tear, but in order to max the mana and upgrade to the Seraph's Embrace quicker, I usually just skip those. Plus, with your lane sustain from your passive/ult... you really shouldn't need too much mana regen early on, just don't overuse abilities!

Zhona's is the final item, but what makes your playing field that much easier. Once your ult is running, you jump into the middle of the crowd that you stunned with your Nevermove, and then you activate your Zhona's. Your ult continuously hurts the enemies around you, while healing you at the same time. It's truly incredible to watch them panic when this happens ;)


Anyways, to sum it up, purchase the items in the order listed at the beginning, and you should find no problems with playing a pro swain after just buying the character.

The only comment I have about this is that the first 3 levels can be taken as you see fit...

I like to start w/the stun first to help block invades or to help invade myself, but there's nothing wrong with starting with a q to slow, or an e to hurt them overtime and amplify your ignite.

After level 3 (when you should have 1 point in all abilities) you should then proceed to max your E first, followed by your Q and ending with your W. Of course you'll want to take your R at 6,11,16 to max is ASAP!