How to beat Swain

Been seeing a few threads about Swain lately, and thought I'd do the same for him as I did for Vladimir in this thread here.

First off, the champions you should be picking vs a Swain. Keep in mind, this only works if you're somewhat decent at the champions I suggest. You can't just expect to win in champ select, but the following champions when played well will beat most Swain players. Good early sustain, high mobility, heavy burst, can easily build , not too many mana problems so she can rush damage while Swain rushes mana. Swain is absolutely atrocious at farming under tower early on. His AA animation is god awful and he only has one waveclear spell that I assure you he isn't maxing first. Push him to tower and he'll fall behind. Cho also brings a great amount of burst, which can definitely be useful in beating Swain since his healing isn't instantaneous. Just be careful once you start getting tanky and he builds his Liandry, and make sure you're warding if you're pushing him.
Again, push him to his base, once it gets later in the game, burst him down. and are your best friends in this match up. Early game you'll bully him, push him to his tower, heal when he puts his E on you. Burst city. Show him a few targeted abilities of your own. Easy access to , nice burst, some mobility. The key to winning this lane is to bait out his ult, then you've got 8 seconds to go in, ult him, and do what you will with him. Tank or AD you should be able to punish Swain during the lane phase pretty hard with Olaf. Push that lane. You've got sustain, and more importantly you can make sure he can't move around while he can't do the same with you thanks to Black Shield. High burst as well, Morg's a great pick. Push the lane, outsustain. It even rhymes. Shield his EQ, dodge his W, burst him down. Can even push the lane way harder than he can keep up with. This champ does it all. Waveclear, shield, easy stun because Swain lacks mobility, high burst, can build although it's not popular on him. Outrange him, kite him, burst him. Don't forget your first item: . Huge lane bully. As long as you don't get snared you're good to go. Can also build Hexdrinker pretty easily. Teemo's a major lane bully vs Swain, and he can kite the ult pretty well as long as he doesn't get snared. Here are some champions outside of where Swain is going to be that give Swain a tough time throughout the rest of the game. Swain's got no mobility, and his range isn't the highest. A well played Ori can keep your team away from him and him out of the fight. She can also build morellos. Tons of peel. Swain will run oom long before he kills his target with Lulu around. Same as Lulu. See previous two. Healing reduction, 'nuff said. True damage, stealth, and a late game like no other. Healing reduction and the ability to kite and zone Swain. Also has a lot of burst. Another very good kiting support. Spellshields and teamwide mobility.

That's about it for champions that beat Swain.

Items is pretty much only one, . Cut his healing reduction and he's a chump.

Summoners: Obviously , but also is very effective against Swain. He has 0 mobility, so mobility is doubly effective against him. is also a great option for any top laner, assuming he's going top. Gives you extra movement speed, and heals you a bit. If you can survive until Swain runs oom, you're golden. I'll throw up there too, for the same reason as heal, but honestly this spell isn't very good. If it gets buffs any time in the near future, definitely consider taking it vs Swain.

Alright so the best playstyle to beat Swain in lane is to be aggressive. He's going to slap you with the EQ regardless of what you do, so you might as well get some damage off on him while he's damaging you. Like I said earlier, pushing the lane hard to his tower is really going to put him behind. Most Swains have a really hard time farming under tower pre ult, and if they're using their ult to farm under tower you've got an 8 second window of weakness to exploit once they turn it off. Now once Swain gets his ult, you should probably back off the aggression, maybe let him push and poke you until he runs oom or until your teammates show up. If your champion doesn't have innate sustain and is AD, consider some lifesteal to heal off his EQ poke. This might be redundant advice, but seriously, do whatever you can to dodge the W. If you get hit by that W, you're dead. Luckily it's pretty easy to dodge.

After lane phase, especially if Swain won his lane, you should avoid teamfights. Ward everywhere, play the catch out game where you 5 man goon squad that one poor soul that's out trying to ward alone. Set up traps at objectives. If they engage on you, do your best to disengage. That's why champions like Janna and Lulu really come in handy. You've got to play smart to outmaneuver the so called "Master Tactician". Backdooring is also a valid option vs a team built around Swain. Another good option is the 'poke and bait" strategy. To do this you simply poke Swain with your spells. Nine times out of ten, if Swain takes any damage he's gonna panic pop that ult, once he does that and realizes there's little reason to be wasting his mana, he'll turn it off. That's when you engage. You can then burst him down, he'll probably pop the Zhonyas he definitely will have, but that's fine since he won't have his ult on. By the time his ult comes back up, he should be below 40% and your morellos should kick in.

One last thing before I end this, Swain's ult has a neat little trick where if you Zhonyas during it, it will continue to do damage and heal Swain, but it will also continue to drain his mana. So if Swain has Zhonyas and is looking deceptively low, be cautious, he could pop it and come out near to full health again.

That's all I've got for you guys. Happy Slaying!