EPT![[image loading]](http://i52.tinypic.com/2rdi2af.jpg)
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Swain_The_Master_Tactician
+ Show Spoiler [Patch Notes] +
v1.0.0.121 - 2011-07-08
Ravenous Flock now heals Swain for 75% of damage dealt versus champions, and 25% versus minions
v1.0.0.120 - 2011-06-22
Ravenous Flock now heals Swain for 50% of the actual damage he deals (instead of 50% of the raw damage he deals), but the heal is not reduced if the damage is shielded
v1.0.0.107 - 2010-12-14
Carrion Renewal now restores mana instantly
v1.0.0.105 - 2010-11-15
Decrepify leash range slightly increased
Torment range increased to 625 from 600
Ravenous Flock cooldown decreased to 10 seconds from 15 seconds
Updated Swain's recommended items
v1.0.0.103 - 2010-10-18
Decrepify
Ability power ratio increased to 0.9 from 0.75
Fixed a bug where Decrepify would slow through Highlander or Ragnarok
Fixed a bug where the damage portion sometimes would not stop after leaving the area
Nevermore ability power ratio increased to 0.7 from 0.5
Torment damage increased to 75/115/155/195/235 from 72/110/148/186/224
Torment ability power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.6
Carrion Renewal regen increased to 300% from 250%
Ravenous Flock now heals Swain for 75% of damage dealt versus champions, and 25% versus minions
v1.0.0.120 - 2011-06-22
Ravenous Flock now heals Swain for 50% of the actual damage he deals (instead of 50% of the raw damage he deals), but the heal is not reduced if the damage is shielded
v1.0.0.107 - 2010-12-14
Carrion Renewal now restores mana instantly
v1.0.0.105 - 2010-11-15
Decrepify leash range slightly increased
Torment range increased to 625 from 600
Ravenous Flock cooldown decreased to 10 seconds from 15 seconds
Updated Swain's recommended items
v1.0.0.103 - 2010-10-18
Decrepify
Ability power ratio increased to 0.9 from 0.75
Fixed a bug where Decrepify would slow through Highlander or Ragnarok
Fixed a bug where the damage portion sometimes would not stop after leaving the area
Nevermore ability power ratio increased to 0.7 from 0.5
Torment damage increased to 75/115/155/195/235 from 72/110/148/186/224
Torment ability power ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.6
Carrion Renewal regen increased to 300% from 250%
+ Show Spoiler [Swain's skills] +
statistics courtesy of leagueoflegends.wikia.com
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/5/5c/CarrionRenewal.jpg)
Passive: Carrion Renewal
Whenever Swain kills an enemy unit, he recovers 9 (+1 per level) mana.
This is what gives Swain a lot of his staying power. Pretty simple. Learn to last hit and you don't need much mana regen.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/e/e6/Decrepify.jpg)
Q: Decrepify (also known as Laserbird)
Swain sends his raven to cripple an enemy, creating a tether between the enemy and the raven, which stays on the same position Swain was upon cast. Over the next 3 seconds, the target takes damage each second and is slowed. If enemies walk out of the tether, the effect ends immediately.
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Range: 550
Leash range: 900 (estimate)
Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 mana
Magic Damage Per Second: 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+0.3 per ability power)
Slow: 20 / 23 / 26 / 29 / 32 %
Inexpensive, good damage gains with levels, and really frustrating for people trying to chase you or get out of close range. Casts almost instantly, so you can safely Q people while running away.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/d/de/Nevermove.jpg)
W: Nevermove
Swain marks a target area. After a short delay, mighty talons grab hold of enemy units, dealing damage and rooting them for 2 seconds.
Range: 900
Radius: 250 - 275 (estimate)
Cost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 mana
Cooldown: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 seconds
Magic Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+0.7 per ability power)
Horrible cooldown at low levels, and the mana cost is too high to justify in lane most of the time. If you're desperate, this can be a long range farming tool, but usually you should pick up just one point in this for ganks (both yours and your enemy's).
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/c/c5/Torment.jpg)
E: Torment
Swain afflicts his target, dealing damage to them over time and causing them to take increased damage from Swain's attacks for 4 seconds. Damage increase applies to summoner spells and items used by Swain.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 625
Cost: 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 mana
Total Magic Damage: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+0.8 per ability power)
Extra Damage Taken: 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 %
This is where most of Swain's damage comes from. The damage increase boosts Swain's autoattacks, his other abilities, Ignite, Deathfire Grasp, Lizard buff... It's a cheap, guaranteed nuke that gives you most of your lane domination and should be maxed first every game.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/leagueoflegends/images/d/d3/RavenousFlock.jpg)
R: Ravenous Flock (Toggle)
Swain transforms into the form of a raven. During this time up to 3 lesser ravens strike out at nearby enemies each second, one raven per enemy. Swain is healed for 75% the damage dealt to champions and by 25% of the damage dealt to minions and monsters. The cost to sustain Ravenous Flock increases every second.
Initial cost: 25 mana
Cost increase per second: 5/7/9 mana per second per second
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 700 (estimate)
This is what makes Swain Swain. The healing has overall been nerfed, so now it IS possible to force Swain to recall. However, with careful positioning in fights (and also in ganks) you should almost never die. This continues functioning through the Zhonya's active, so you get two free seconds of regeneration. Combine with Quicksilver Sash for an easy SAFE button.
Pre-game setup:
Masteries are a choice between 21 defense and 21 utility. This is mostly a matter of personal preference - utility gives you cdr, more Ignites, longer blue buff, and faster level 6; defense makes you much bulkier.
Red runes are magic penetration without many other options. Yellow runes can be armor, scaling hp, scaling hp regen, dodge, or scaling mana regen. Armor is my preference. For blues, take scaling AP, armor, scaling mana regen, scaling magic resist, or flat CDR. I use scaling magic resist, since my build is fairly light on MR. Quintessences are the most varied, and just about anything already mentioned will work. The best choices are movespeed, magic penetration, armor and flat AP.
Summoner spells are Ghost or Flash and Ignite. Ghost vs Flash is personal preference; you need at least one. Ignite is non-negotiable. Not only is it practically necessary for someone with as much DoT as Swain, but it's also amplified by Torment, meaning it's a 600 true damage nuke late game.
Items:
What items you buy at any point depends largely on what enemy champions are most threatening and how fed/farmed you are. With that said, here are my recommendations:
Come to lane with a Doran's Shield or Doran's Ring. The Shield is my preference, since Swain's passive gives you the mana you need.
The HotshotGG opening is Faerie Charm, 6 hp pots and 2 mana pots into Philo Stone. Less health, but the pots make up for that quickly. I haven't played this myself.
Your second item should be Tear or Catalyst.
- Catalyst is immediately safer, lets you boss your lane around more, and builds into a lot of useful things.
- Tear of the Goddess is riskier, but a charged Tear will give you several life-saving seconds longer to ult in teamfights. Archangels is also a wonderful lategame item.
Your core AP items are Deathcap and Hourglass. The order in which you get them is primarily determined by the enemy team. Hourglass if they have champions like Kennen, Vladimir or Nunu whose ults often need dodging; also Hourglass if you need the armor. Deathcap if you can afford it.
Late game, upgrade Catalyst to Banshee's Veil and Tear to Archangel's. Pick up Tear if you went Cata first (you can do this post Deathcap, too, if you feel the lack of mana) and Banshee's Veil if you went Tear. The importance of Banshee's is also heavily dependent on the enemy team - get it to stop things like Ashe arrow, Amumu bandage/ult, Blitzcrank pulls, and strong initiation in general.
The core items should be supplemented/replaced with the following
Guardian Angel if you are public enemy number 1. Never buy this before Hourglass.
Spirit Visage as a catchup item or if your team has lots of heals they want to use on you.
Quicksilver Sash to deal with pesky suppression, ignite and other nuisances. This and Hourglass combine to make you truly frustrating to deal with.
Mejai's Soulstealer is a nice late game item if you aren't getting crushed in teamfights, and a nice early game item if you are dominating everything. Don't buy it too early though. It's usually better to get Deathcap a little faster than to get this.
Void Staff should show up as your sixth item, if not before, especially if the enemy team is tanky.
Skills:
Maxing ult is your highest priority, of course.
Of Swain's basic skills, Torment should be maxed unless you need to max Nevermove and Laserbird to win lanes. Torment is where the vast majority of Swain's damage comes from.
For Laserbird and Nevermove, you have some choices.
Maxing Laserbird gives you the most reliable damage, at the expense of some CC.
One point in Nevermove but otherwise maxing Laserbird is the best option, though you can't throw out Nevermove wildly.
2-3 poins in Laserbird, then maxing Nevermove is better when you need Laserbird to dominate your lane but really like Nevermove. The shorter cooldown is extremely noticeable.
Finally, maxing Nevermove should only be done if you are in a lane where landing good Laserbirds is difficult.
Swain in Lane:
Before level 6, you have no health regen advantages at all. You do have nigh-unlimited mana as long as you can last hit and stay in creep range, so I like to open Doran's Shield and be a fat meaty brick.
Swain in a duo is about as strong as Cho'gath, but this gimps him mid- and late-game with his lower levels and reduced farm. Try at least to duo with someone who has reliable CC, and max Nevermove and Torment.
Harass people with QE. Your casting time is minimal and you have 650 range, so most heroes can't stop you. Swain hard counters almost every tanky melee, since they usually have to eat an entire Laserbird if they want to last hit.
Against ranged AD, try and calculate how well you trade against them. Don't get too aggressive, since if they don't force you out before 6, you become a godlike force of laning. Laserbird is less effective, especially against those with a blink (Tristana, Ezreal, et cetera). I rarely encounter solo top ranged AD though so you should be fine.
Against nukers, you outdamage 95% of them at level 1, thanks to Torment boosting autoattack damage. You may need to max Nevermove to last hit safely. Try to last till 6, because you basically autowin then.
Once you hit 6, push the lane out when you get the chance and buy Tear, Catalyst or Spirit Visage. You now are immovable from lane short of mad ganks or possibly Vlad or something. Now that creep healing is reduced, you aren't quite as godlike, but you still heal up quickly enough that you shouldn't be in any danger ever. Your goal is to farm up an Hourglass or Deathcap before teamfights start.
Swain in Teamfights:
Your priorities are, in order from most to least important:
1) stop their assassins/tanks from getting to your squishies
2) draw fire
3) stay alive
4) throw birds at as many enemy champs as you can
5) DoT down squishies
0) /all CAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAW
Try not to turn on ult until you've started to take some damage - it really doesn't do very much damage until you have ~200 AP and it WILL suck up a ton of mana if you aren't paying attention. You want to be able to activate Zhonyas and have it last for the full two seconds when you're low health. Positioning for this is very important - it's tough to hit only the champs you want to with it so make sure you know the birds' range. (It's actually quite generous - you don't need to hug them Garen-style.)
In this thread:
Page 2: discussion of how to lane vs Swain.
