Swain is my favourite champion and I want to share my builds with you. He is a very strong champion and even can tank if needed. This is my first build on mobafire so please don't be very harsh :).

Pros:

1) Nuker;
2) Can get easy frags with Nevermove;
3) Mage but if fed can tank 1v3 easily;
4) can go offtank;
5) Fun to play (atleast for me).

Cons:

1) Squishy early game (until level 6);
2) Is focused for high damage;
3) Takes some time to master Nevermove.

Most of the matches ends too quickly before I start fraging, that's sad. But the results are still nice.

It's 9/0/21. You need 21 points in utility because it's reduces your summoner spells cd (increase's your survivability and successful ganking chances) and increases AP (the most important thing you need).

Runes are pretty simple - straight AP from glyphs & seals ( Greater Glyph of Ability Power x9; Greater Seal of Ability Power x9) and some magic penetration from marks & quintessence ( Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9; Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration x9).

The core items:

or

Most of times I use this build:


This build gives you 745 AP, a nice 25% spell vamp and 417 MS that can help you catch some frags. There is another version of this build against high enemy magic resist. Instead of Lich Bane take Void Staff. AP falls down a little (718) but you get a nice magic pen.

Build against AD:


It's for those annoying AD's, with this build you get 233 armor but your AP don't fall too much (673).

Build against AP:


This build is good when enemy team has 3 Magic DPS. It rises your magic resist to 162 and again AP stays high (629)

Offtank build:

It's useful if your team already have 3 DPS. You just charge into the middle of team fight use your skills, Zhonya's active skill and whatch how enemy team falls while trying to kill you. With this build you get 134 armor, 105 magic resist and 668 AP.

This is a very good passive skill for laning. All you need to do is last hit some minions and your MP is growing.

Slow that does DoT until target is in range or the skill duration ends. Of course slow is always good for chasing and escaping.

This is your snare. It's good offensive and defensive too but it requires some practise before you can land it more often than fail to land. Nevermove is very good while ganking if you land it on someone it's about 90% you or your teammate will get a kill. Nevermove is very effective in team fights. You can use it while everybody is in a crowd then nobody can escape or help your team to flee. If you are being chased by assassin like Master Yi, Jax or Akali who does damage in melee combat, land Nevermove in your curent position and you'll escape easily.

Good DoT spell that increases any damage you do next by 20%. Be sure to start your spell combo with this one.

This is your ulti, awesome HP reg skill. Thank to it you can be offtank and absorb huge amount of damage. But still you are mage it is better for you to increase your damage not armor...

I'm always playing with flash and ignite. I think they are best for Swain. Flash is very useful in both: offense and defense. And Ignite just adds to the DoT mess.

Other good summoner spells:
Same as flash helps offensively and defensively.
Good for not loosing any exp after recall or helping your teammates in other lanes.

As a first skill I highly recommend Torment for 20% incresed damage. Just use it and then hit your target with single hits. When you reach lvl 2 take Nevermove. By now land nevermove use torment and hit him. Lvl 3 - Decrepify. Your target should have half of his HP unless he used a potion or has healing skills. But if not land Nevermove, Torment, Ignite, Decrepify and you've a kill. If he used a potion don't waste Ignite damage him with your champion skills until he has half of his HP. You can struggle if he can heal with his skills. It's going to be harder. You need somebody to gank him or just outsmart. Let him feel more powerful than you wait for him to hit you near your tower and use Nevermove. If he isn't that dumb it's nothing you can do about only ask your teammates for a gank.

Swain is very useful for team. He's very strong DPS so everybody wants to take him out first. But he isn't as squishy as other DPS. Just use your ulti and don't get in the middle of the fight if they are trying to kill you first. Better buy Zhonya's Hourglass use it and wait for your team to slaughter them before they kill you.

If enemys aren't focusing you first teach them a lesson. Nobody can run away from TF if you play right. Of course first of all focus on they carries. Just snare and blow away. When they will see that they are loosing a TF land a Nevermove correctly. They will be lucky if at least one of them survives...

It's difficult to farm in early game but in mid and late just use Nevermove and Ravenous Flock to farm and you'll kill minions in no time.

So this is my thoughts about Swain and how to play with him. I hope you'll like it. Feel free to comment. I'll take positive and negative comments gladly and maybe upgrade my build.