Swain Mid Build

Swain Champion Guide

Role: Mage

Lane: Midlane

Swain Mid performs best with a build featuring Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Mercury's Treads, Winter's Approach, Liandry's Torment, and Zhonya's Hourglass. The most effective rune setup for Swain Mid includes Conqueror, Presence of Mind, Legend: Haste, and Last Stand in the primary tree, paired with Axiom Arcanist and Transcendence in the secondary tree.

Swain Champion Abilities

Ravenous Flock

Swain collects soul fragments from Vision of Empire, Nevermore, and enemy champion deaths. Soul fragments restore 3-6% max health and permanently grant Swain 15 max health (depending on level). P

Death's Hand

Swain unleashes eldritch bolts, dealing 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+45% of ability power) magic damage plus 25% magic damage per bolt past the first damage. Q

Vision of Empire

Swain opens a demon eye, revealing a location for 1.5 seconds, then deals 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+60% of ability power) magic damage and slows by 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70% for 1.5 seconds. Champions hit grant Swain a Soul Fragment and are revealed for 6 seconds. W

Nevermove

Swain launches a wave of demonic power that returns, detonating on the first enemy hit to deal 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and root enemies in the area for 1.5 seconds.

Rooting a champion allows Swain to reactivate this ability to pull all champions rooted by Nevermove toward him, gaining a Soul Fragment for each. E

Demonic Ascension

Swain frees the demon, which deals 15 / 25 / 35 (+5% of ability power) magic damage and drains 15 / 30 / 45 (+5% of ability power) (+1.5% bonus health) health per second from nearby enemies. His Demonic Energy depletes over time but can be recharged indefinitely by draining enemy champions and is fully restored on champion takedowns.

Recast: After 2 seconds and every 8 seconds thereafter, Swain can cast Demonflare while transformed, which deals 150 / 250 / 350 (+50% of ability power) magic damage and slows enemies by 75%, decaying over 1.5 seconds. R

Swain Summoner Spells

Flash

Flash is a location-targeted summoner spell that causes your champion to blink to the location in range of your cursor.

Ghost

Ghost is a self-targeted summoner spell that increases your champion's movement speed and grants them the ability to ignore unit collision for a few seconds.

Swain Runes

Swain Items

Swain Ability Order

Swain Matchups Overview

Strong against

Kassadin

Lux

Taliyah

Ryze

Cho'Gath

LeBlanc

Weak against

Irelia

Akshan

Qiyana

Fizz

Mel

Vel'Koz

Swain Tips and Tricks

Swain is really weak in the early game. Avoid fighting too much and wait until you have some levels and items behind you before playing aggressive. Swain’s E will only trigger on the closest enemies hit on its return. Take aim and try to use it so it leaves little room for the enemy to react and dodge it. Activate your R as soon as a fight occurs to increase your chances of coming out ahead and surviving the fight.

Swain Best Build, Runes and Items for Mid

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Swain Mid build, you should take Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells. For runes, you should pick Conqueror as your keystone, followed by Presence of Mind, Legend: Haste and Last Stand in the primary tree, as well as Axiom Arcanist and Transcendence in the secondary tree. For rune shards, you want Attack Speed in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health Scaling in defense, though it depends on the matchup. Finally, for your items, you should build Rylai's Crystal Scepter as your first item, followed by Mercury's Treads and Winter's Approach. For your last 3 items, you should build Liandry's Torment, Zhonya's Hourglass and finish with Spirit Visage. For the skill order, you want to stick with Q - W - E.

Alternative

If you're looking for alternatives, you can use Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells, with runes being Summon Aery as your keystone, Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Scorch in the primary tree, and Conditioning with Overgrowth in the secondary tree, as well as Ability Haste, Health Scaling, and Health Scaling as your rune shards. The items that this build incorporates are Rylai's Crystal Scepter as your first item, then Mercury's Treads as a second item and Winter's Approach as a third item. You want to finish the build with Liandry's Torment, Zhonya's Hourglass and Morellonomicon. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it Q - W - E.

Off-Meta

If you want to try an Off-Meta Swain Mid build, try Flash and Teleport as your Summoner Spells, Electrocute, Cheap Shot, Deep Ward and Ultimate Hunter as your primary rune tree, and Cut Down with Presence of Mind as your secondary tree. Use Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force and Health Scaling as your shards. For items in this build, you want to complete Rylai's Crystal Scepter as your first item, then finish Mercury's Treads as your second item, and Winter's Approach as third item. The last 3 options are Liandry's Torment, Spirit Visage and Riftmaker. The ability order for this build is Q - W - E.

Situational Swain Runes and Items

Depending on the context of your game, your matchup, and enemy champions, you might want to consider building some situational items or taking specific runes. Carefully examine your team, enemy team, game state, and your matchup to plan your Swain build accordingly! For example, when it comes to rune shards, you might want to take either Armor or Magic Resist, depending on which champion you are about to lane against.