• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 17:44
CEST 23:44
KST 06:44
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence5Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups3WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3
StarCraft 2
General
#1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues
Tourneys
WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 General Discussion Playing StarCraft as 2 people on the same network
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group C Is there English video for group selection for ASL [ASL20] Ro16 Group B [IPSL] ISPL Season 1 Winter Qualis and Info!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Borderlands 3
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1407 users

[Champion] Swain - Page 5

Forum Index > LoL Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 Next All
mrgerry
Profile Joined September 2008
United States1508 Posts
November 12 2011 04:49 GMT
#81
Go 9/9/12 if you scared with swain, problem solved y0
petered
Profile Joined February 2010
United States1817 Posts
November 12 2011 05:02 GMT
#82
The whole utility tree is just too good on swain. Lower summoner CD on your ignite gives a huge boost to damage (e+ignite is so much free damage).
The buff duration super useful since you are probably the best target for blue buff after the first couple.
Movespeed always good and it lets you kite melee forever with q
Mana regen lets you open boots + pots which is much safer than crystal + pots.

I personally wouldn't ever take anything but 21 in utility on swain.
This, my friends, is the power of the Shikyo Memorial for QQ therapy thread. We make the world a better place, one chainsaw massacre prevention at a time.
R04R
Profile Joined March 2009
United States1631 Posts
November 12 2011 06:07 GMT
#83
9/7/14 lets you go deeper into util
ô¿ô
sylverfyre
Profile Joined May 2010
United States8298 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-12 06:38:52
November 12 2011 06:36 GMT
#84
On November 12 2011 09:53 TheYango wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 12 2011 09:44 Haemonculus wrote:
On November 12 2011 09:41 TheYango wrote:
Given that R is post-mitigation damage now, it's arguable that 15% MPen contributes considerably to your mid-lategame tankiness in fights now as well. 15% MPen is something like a 10-15% damage increase (higher vs. high MR targets, something like 12% damage increase vs. like 150 MR). 10-15% more damage dealt = 10-15% more healing from R, which is probably more significant "tankiness" than 6 armor and 6 MR.

Haha, I hadn't even considered that. Very good point.

Shit, what are the best masteries for swain? I always run 9/0/21 or 0/9/21 depending on how scared I am of the early game.

That's probably the best way to decide, given that SoS is the deal-breaker in that decision most of the time. Personally I think 9/0/21 actually seems to be the better way in most cases right now. Boots+3pot is going to be a way more common start than Blue Crystal+2pot, meaning SoS doesn't kick in to a significant amount of hp5 for a while. Hp5 becomes a significantly less useful stat for you after level 6, and if you're not starting with Blue Crystal, the level 1-5 value of SoS just isn't that high (2 Hp5 at level 1, to about 4 Hp5 at level 5--not going to make or break that many matchups).

Yeah, and if you're scared enough of your lane matchup to pick SOS over mpen, what are you THINKING opening with mana crystal+2pot anyway? 9/0/21 99% of the time imo, because of how Swain's R works.

I don't like 9/7/14 because deep utility is too good. 6% CDR, summoner CD (doubly so for flash CD), 3% MS and 3MP5 are all good and keep you safe in lane more than ~4HP5 will.
overt
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States9006 Posts
November 12 2011 08:03 GMT
#85
On November 12 2011 09:00 xDaunt wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 12 2011 02:56 dnastyx wrote:
On November 12 2011 02:28 Sponkz wrote:
Man swain shits on melee so hard lol.


FTFY

Actually, are there any melee lanes that Swain loses?


I shat on a Swain pretty hard with Wu Kong in one game. It may have just been a bad Swain though.

EDIT: Then again, I was knocking off like 1/2 of his HP with each of my E/Q combos in the early game. Not sure what he could have done.


WuKong lane is pretty annoying and I think it might be secret OP. He just does so much god damn damage early. Regardless, Swain should've went cloth + 5 pot or else played a bit more passive if he was boots + 3 pot.

I don't think WuKong beats Swain in lane though. But I haven't played that particular matchup enough to know. That Swain was definitely bad if you say he died three times in lane. I wouldn't assume WuKong > Swain from just a single game (especially since the Swain was obviously bad).

The most fun part of Swain is just how fuckin' aggressive you can get in lane and how nearly every melee can't really punish you for it.
h3r1n6
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
Iceland2039 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-12 08:45:33
November 12 2011 08:45 GMT
#86
On November 12 2011 17:03 overt wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 12 2011 09:00 xDaunt wrote:
On November 12 2011 02:56 dnastyx wrote:
On November 12 2011 02:28 Sponkz wrote:
Man swain shits on melee so hard lol.


FTFY

Actually, are there any melee lanes that Swain loses?


I shat on a Swain pretty hard with Wu Kong in one game. It may have just been a bad Swain though.

EDIT: Then again, I was knocking off like 1/2 of his HP with each of my E/Q combos in the early game. Not sure what he could have done.


The most fun part of Swain is just how fuckin' aggressive you can get in lane and how nearly every melee can't really punish you for it.



Swains harassment in lane is like a speedshuttle with a reaver and 2 dts in it :D
Cloud9157
Profile Joined December 2010
United States2968 Posts
November 12 2011 09:02 GMT
#87
How does Swain fair against Kass?

I've played the matchup from Kassadin's side, and the first time I had difficulty and barely killed him (both low HPs). Second time I completely roflstomped Swain.

I know Kass is a huge anti caster, but how can you really kill someone who sustains as well as Swain? Swain just needs to play passively until lvl 6 imo, then he can go out and farm till his heart is content without being that afraid of Kass.
"Are you absolutely sure that armor only affects the health portion of a protoss army??? That doesn't sound right to me. source?" -Some idiot
Alaric
Profile Joined November 2009
France45622 Posts
November 12 2011 13:39 GMT
#88
From the little experience I had against LB/Kassadin, knowing when you risk getting bumrushed and pressing R preventively can help quite a lot around level 6-9 since if you're both full HP they shouldn't be able to overkill you enough to pass through that healing. But that was more threatening to kill them too in the process that really tanking their aggro that made them hesitate.

Also, thoughts on new masteries? 21-0-9 looks like it'd be quite strong on him (choice between flat mana pool and ms tho, but I think my inner MS whoring will speak).
Cant take LMS hipsters serious.
Shawngood
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany473 Posts
November 12 2011 13:50 GMT
#89
The other day Chauster said on his stream that Swain owns Kass and he proceeded to win toplane quite easily. Q/E-harass any time Kass went for lasthits. Later on he didn't even have to preemptively hit R when Kass would go for his combo. Just heal back up afterwards... Then again that Kass went for Philostone first so I doubt he played it right.
@ESL_Shawn
h3r1n6
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
Iceland2039 Posts
November 12 2011 14:01 GMT
#90
On November 12 2011 22:50 Shawngood wrote:
The other day Chauster said on his stream that Swain owns Kass and he proceeded to win toplane quite easily. Q/E-harass any time Kass went for lasthits. Later on he didn't even have to preemptively hit R when Kass would go for his combo. Just heal back up afterwards... Then again that Kass went for Philostone first so I doubt he played it right.



Without any sustain items or blue buff, kassadin will sit there oom, while swain just dicks him out of lane with full hp and mana.

As for the new masteries, spellvamp cdr and +experience, vs ap, damage and more ap. And 15%cdr on summoners vs 6% more damage against targets below 40%.

Since the ap and damage increase will increase the healing too, it should be much better than the spellvamp. CDR and experience gain is nice, but I'm leaning towards 21 offense.
Cloud9157
Profile Joined December 2010
United States2968 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-13 00:26:55
November 12 2011 18:52 GMT
#91
So you can trade E+Q with Kassadin's Q?

Q is so annoying as my enemies have told me, haha.

Edit: Was just looking at the new Mastery tree, and I'm thinking about a 10/10/10 build for Swain. Key is to get magic pen, +30 health, and +3% spell vamp.

Dunno how viable it is, but just an idea so far.
"Are you absolutely sure that armor only affects the health portion of a protoss army??? That doesn't sound right to me. source?" -Some idiot
Alaric
Profile Joined November 2009
France45622 Posts
November 13 2011 01:09 GMT
#92
I wouldn't like that. Too few spellvamp considering it's already reduced to a third by the fact that it's AoE, just getting more AP from the offense tree would be more effective post-6. Probably viable, but not the best available.
Cant take LMS hipsters serious.
Malderon
Profile Joined September 2009
Netherlands136 Posts
December 06 2011 15:11 GMT
#93
On May 17 2011 00:50 Slayer91 wrote:
Also catalyst-->deathcap-->zonyas-->bveil pretty standard swain build atm I think, just hog blue buff as much as possible.


Won't this build leave you too squishy? On Malzahar I like it a lot, because he isn't nearly as big of a manaslurper as Swain, and in teamfights he can just sit back and cast his crazy AoE damage from afar, whereas Swain needs to close in more to get the most out of his ultimate. These two factors make rushing Rod of Ages seem more attractive, because Rod gives you the health and mana much earlier than Cata->Dcap->Bveil.

Would it be reasonable to conclude that the amount of bulk you need on Swain depends on how well your team can protect you, and the amount of mana on how much you can see yourself getting Blue buff? This fledling bird would love to hear the opinion of experienced Swain players on this matter .

Speaking of mana, all of Swain's spells cost are fairly expensive and have fairly long cooldowns, making Tear seem unattractive to me unless as an emergency measure in case you can't get blue buff enough. Any thoughts?
Tooplark
Profile Joined October 2008
United States3977 Posts
December 06 2011 16:15 GMT
#94
Wukong should only beat swain if swain
a) commits to early trades or tries to bully wukong at level 2
b) doesn't react fast enough to EQ wukong while he's nimbus striking you
If Wukong nimbus strikes you he is GOING to eat a full EQ combo unless he manages to Decoy away before you get him.

Swain doesn't need much survivability at all once he gets zhonyas. If you're getting focused down early either your team sucks or you're way out of position. (It's usually the second.)
Your team's job isn't to protect you. It's to follow up when you catch someone with a nevermove, or kill people while you kite them in birdform, or to clean up after you almost kill the enemy team. AP helps you do all of these things better than tankiness does.

Catalyst -> DCap -> Zhonya -> BVeil is about the safest, most durable swain build.
Tear -> DCap -> Zhonya -> QSS -> AA gives you more damage, a bigger mana pool and a GARENteed ult->zhonya in fights, especially useful if they have some jerk with suppression, but at the expense of a health pool, spell block (can't qss blitz hook!), and early laning durability
Glacial -> DCap -> Zhonya if you're fighting a physical dick and having trouble, and/or the enemy team is heavily phys.

If you need more survivability than this, usually it means you're playing wrong. Some games you actually do need it (fed melee dps that you can't kite, etc) and you should get zhonya's first and delay deathcap for Guardian Angel or Randuin's. Deathcap is such a juicy power boost though that I strongly recommend getting it second.

How do the high costs of his spells make tear less attractive? Blue buff regeneration scales with mana pool, so the more mana you have the sooner you'll have enough for a spell if you carelessly ran yourself out. Blue buff will never let you ult indefinitely, unlike with, say, Anivia. It just adds to the duration. Tear is good because the bigger your mana pool is the longer you can safely ult.
WHAT POW'R ART THOU WHO FROM BELOW HAST MADE ME RISE UNWILLINGLY AND SLOW
Malderon
Profile Joined September 2009
Netherlands136 Posts
December 06 2011 17:31 GMT
#95
Thanks for the swift response, that makes a lot of sense.

Regarding high spell costs and Tear, I figured that such costs combined with high cooldowns would make it take forever to charge up the Tear. High CD being the most limiting factor if one has Blue. Furthermore, Lazerbird is cast immediately after E, within the cooldown of a charging Tear, so out of those two spells you only get one charge.
FieryBalrog
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States1381 Posts
December 06 2011 18:22 GMT
#96
I think you can cast 2 spells in the window and get charges for both.. at least when I've done it and looked at the mana bonus after each cast, it goes up both times....
I will eat you alive
57 Corvette
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Canada5941 Posts
December 06 2011 18:45 GMT
#97
Is it ok to get hourglass before deathcap in some situations, or should it be a mad dash for the cap as early as possible?

I played a game yesterday against morgana mid, but luckily she wasn't being agressive early and it got to the farm-fest point. I went Boots+pots > dring > Boots2 > hourglass > deathcap , and in that time between when I had hourglass and not deathcap, the active saved me at least twice.
Survival is winning, everything else is bullshit.
nosliw
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States2716 Posts
December 06 2011 19:31 GMT
#98
What masteries do people put on him? Now that SoS is gone, no more def points?
h3r1n6
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
Iceland2039 Posts
December 10 2011 21:45 GMT
#99
On December 07 2011 03:45 57 Corvette wrote:
Is it ok to get hourglass before deathcap in some situations, or should it be a mad dash for the cap as early as possible?

I played a game yesterday against morgana mid, but luckily she wasn't being agressive early and it got to the farm-fest point. I went Boots+pots > dring > Boots2 > hourglass > deathcap , and in that time between when I had hourglass and not deathcap, the active saved me at least twice.


Of course it is. You sacrifice damage for survivability, but it's ok. If you can make good use of the active its worth it.


On December 07 2011 04:31 nosliw wrote:
What masteries do people put on him? Now that SoS is gone, no more def points?


21/0/9. Offense tree is too strong to pass up on and the buff duration is a must have on Swain.
ManyCookies
Profile Joined December 2010
1164 Posts
January 19 2012 15:38 GMT
#100
Does anyone else have enormous difficulty last hitting with Swain? I have to run AD runes+Quints and take AD+Minion damage masteries just to last hit with the consistency I do with other champions.
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 16m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ZombieGrub229
NeuroSwarm 163
UpATreeSC 147
JuggernautJason61
Lillekanin 11
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 722
sSak 18
ajuk12(nOOB) 16
Dota 2
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K408
Foxcn282
Super Smash Bros
PPMD68
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu512
Other Games
Grubby3976
FrodaN3433
summit1g2769
shahzam467
mouzStarbuck269
ToD159
C9.Mang099
SortOf81
Trikslyr60
Nathanias23
fpsfer 2
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 21 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• RyuSc2 51
• sitaska26
• davetesta24
• Psz 11
• Kozan
• Migwel
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• FirePhoenix16
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2850
• masondota22375
• Ler84
League of Legends
• TFBlade655
Other Games
• Scarra1223
• imaqtpie945
Upcoming Events
OSC
2h 16m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
12h 16m
Afreeca Starleague
12h 16m
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
2v2
13h 16m
PiGosaur Monday
1d 2h
LiuLi Cup
1d 13h
RSL Revival
2 days
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
4 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
4 days
[BSL 2025] Weekly
4 days
BSL Team Wars
4 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Online Event
5 days
Wardi Open
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 20 Team Wars
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.