Hi there

My name is TheAfricanDream, or simply just Lans
I am a Grandmaster EUW Swain Mid OTP and was Rank 1 Swain EUW for the majority of the end of last season.

I am South African born and raised, and recently moved to the UK in August 2022. I managed to peak 917 LP Grandmaster and maintained Grandmaster until the season ended.

I started maining Swain ever since his rework back in Season 8. I played semi-professionally in the South African esports scene and now I only play Swain in Solo queue.

I now stream weekdays 7pm GMT on Twitch - TheAfricanDream. Feel free to come by for causal talk about the Grand General or if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them.

I hope you enjoy this guide as this is the first one I have ever done.
I will be updating this guide regularly so feel free to check in now and again for updates on the current build.

Swains Passive Ravenous Flock: Each stack gives 12 max HP and stacks infinitely. Souls are collected by landing and recasting Nevermove on champions, champions hit with your Vision of Empire and dead enemy champions drop souls which can be collected when Swain walks near enough. If you land a Vision of Empire onto an enemy and if they die within the next few seconds, you will not only get the guaranteed soul from the hit Vision of Empire but the soul, which dead enemy champions give, will be collected from afar after a few seconds. This means using your Vision of Empire for playmaking results in 2 souls if the enemy dies after being hit. You do not need to get the kill to receive both souls.


Swains Q Death's Hand: This is your main damage ability apart from your Demonic Ascension. This ability will do more damage the closer you are to your target. This ability doesn't do an extremely high amount of damage but will be used to wear down opponents in the landing phase and in fights. This ability is very good for trading in lane as it passes through minions, however, keep an eye on your mana as Swain has high mana usage.


Swains W Vision of Empire: This is one of the highest skill ceiling abilities in the game. This ability can be used for long-range snipes, blocking paths for escaping enemies, and preventing enemies from engaging on your allies. This ability does not do much damage, but the heavy slow and extremely long range enable it to be a play-making tool while you are inside another lane. Constantly check side lanes to see if you can assist in slowing the enemy as this could lead to them burning Flash or your allies getting a kill. Try placing the Vision of Empire in front of the enemy in the escape path. In choke points in the jungle, this can lead to the person having to Flash or having to be slowed by the Vision of Empire. Try to use your Vision of Empire in sync with your teammates' crowd control or when the enemy has used their mobility ability.


Swains E Nevermove: This ability has a lollipop effect at the end of the ability. This is very useful in the laning phase in particular as you can throw your Nevermove onto the caster minion and if the laner] is standing right behind the caster minion, the Nevermove will land onto them with the circular hitbox at the end of it. Swain can pull all champions hit with the Nevermove. This ability does not do much damage but is Swain setup for the rest of his kit.


Swain's R Demonic Ascension is his core fighting ability. Do not start team fights or Demonic Ascension. Try not to use your Demonic Ascension before main objectives spawn such as drake or baron nashor. Your Demonic Ascension does not do heavy damage but will provide a very strong slow. Save this recast in fights to catch a fleeing enemy by Demonic Ascension and throwing out an Nevermove will guarantee you land the Nevermove or you will force the enemy to Flash. High-priority targets will be the ADC as they are usually the most immobile. Try to always stand in the range of the enemy during a fight to keep your Demonic Ascension. Zhonya's Hourglass and Chronoshift will not cancel your Demonic Ascension and your Demonic Ascension will still be active during the conditions unless enemies leave your Demonic Ascension radius.

Conqueror : This rune looks underwhelming when you look at the healing done, however, the healing is the bonus of the rune. The main function of the rune is the stacking flat ap which it gives. This is very valuable in long team fights where the bonus AP will last a long time. Do not focus too much on keeping Conqueror stacks up in fights as this rune will proc naturally with Swain playstyle. Demonic Ascension damage does not keep Conqueror stacks in fights, you must auto-attack or do ability damage to refresh the timer.


Presence of Mind : Best rune for Swain in this row. The mana from kills in team fights allows him to keep fighting without worrying about his mana. This is the only rune you will take for mana.


Legend Tenacity : Tenacity is important on Swain as you cannot cast your Zhonya's Hourglass while under crowd control. You will be in the frontline for most of the game so you will experience a lot of crowd control. This rune is a must-have for the precision tree.


Last Stand : Since you are a frontline, you will take a lot of damage and will be about half HP or below in fights. This rune allows Swain to do more damage while he is lower on HP. This works well with Zhonya's Hourglass as you will end up using Zhonya's Hourglass when you are about to die.


Conditioning : A great rune for keeping you a frontline battle mage. You will receive about +10 armour/magic resist from this rune. This will help keep you alive in team fights after 12 minutes. Go this rune if you are able to free scale in lane.


Overgrowth : This rune gives you permanent Max Hp when minions/monsters/enemies die near you. Take this rune for mid/late gaming scaling. This rune gets a lot of value later in the game when Swain has more passive stacks. This helps him be tankier if you go with a damage-orientated build.


Bone Plating : This rune helps deal with champions who like to do trade combos such as Zed, Irelia, Qiyana, Katarina. These champions will try all-in you and have no poke. This rune will help to reduce the damage of their combos.


Second Wind : This rune will heal after a few seconds you when you take damage from enemy champions. Take this rune against champions who will poke you down in lane such as Syndra, Viktor, Vel'Koz, Xerath. This rune will help keep you healthy in abusive poke lanes when you are outraged by the enemy laner.


Revitalize : This rune will slightly increase all healing received. This rune by itself with Swain is quite underwhelming as you will not heal enough to get great value out of the rune. Take this rune only if you have a Soraka or a Yuumi on your team as you will get max heal value with those champions.


Unflinching : This rune gives your increasing Slow resist and Tenacity based on how low on HP you are. Take this rune in games where the enemy team has a lot of crowd control.

Swain has a strong level 1 and 2. Look to start Doran's Shield into long-range poke-heavy matchups like Syndra, Viktor, Xerath, Vel'Koz and Azir. Elsewise, start Doran's Ring. This helps you have early mana regen for lanes in which you can have kill pressure. Look for Nevermove in the early levels in lane and try to farm your Ravenous Flock with your Vision of Empire. Look to farm until 1300 so you can recall and get Lost Chapter. This will solve your mana issues in lane as Swain abilities use a lot of mana. This means you can play a LOT more aggressively in lane and you can look for multiple-ability trades. Swain hits a massive power spike when you get your Demonic Ascension. You can look to all-in at level 6 if the enemy laner is around half hp. Most mages are easy to kill as long as you dodge their crowd control ability. Assassins will have kill pressure on you at level 6 unless they are really low on hp.

You will need to look for early roams to get some early kills or try and get your side lanes ahead. Since you are a drain DOT ap mage, playing for your ADC bot lane is crucial as you will need solid AD damage in team fights. Try to shove and clear the entire wave mid before you roam as you do not want to lose CS or experience by roaming.

This is the point in the game where Swain is the strongest. You should look to close out games around 25-30 mins or less. You should have your Liandry's Torment and Rylai's Crystal Scepter by this point and should be building towards your Zhonya's Hourglass. Teamfighting is when Swain starts to shine. Try to focus one of the high-priority targets in a team fight such as the ADC or Midlaner. Place yourself between the enemy damage dealers and your ADC. This means you can both do damage to the entire enemy team, as well as protect and tank for your ADC. It is important to balance damaging enemies and to protect your allies as Swain can effectively do both simultaneously. Use Zhonya's Hourglass as you are about to die as you will start to rapidly heal while in the stasis effect. This also works well with your Last Stand rune as you will have the increased damage at low hp. Swain will do a lot of damage by applying Liandry's Torment and Rylai's Crystal Scepter to everyone in Demonic Ascension range. You should not try to side lane as Swain is very vulnerable to side lane split pushers as he is weak in the 1v1. Play with your team and try to start team fights when you have your Demonic Ascension. You need to be proactive in starting team fights as Swain will get outscaled by other mid lane mages.

This is the point in the game where other mid-laners would have outscaled you. They will be able to kill you very quickly with full penetration items such as Void Staff or a Lord Dominik's Regards. You should still be permanently grouping with your team as you will lose in the 1v1 to other champions full build. You will deal a lot of damage at this point but be ready to use your Zhonya's Hourglass as a full-build ADC will cut you down very quickly. Continue to play for your ADC and peel for your team in team fights as stated previously.