to all the people saying the swain rework is trash
git gud
in all seriousness though, i think youre playing him wrong. so far of the games ive had the issues ive had with him that arent explained away entirely by lack of experience with the new kit, poor playing in general, or other things that are unrelated to the power or lack thereof with the rework have been few and far between. his waveclear and consequential mana sustain are really good if you do it right, he got a 50 range boost to his aa's which is huge if you arent aware and ive found it makes farming and poking the enemy laner easier to a shocking extent. his damage potential is really good, his combos are very straight forward while still having some wiggle room for creativity (especially with the pull on his passive), his w has an ungodly enormous range, his heals from his passive and ult have very high potential, and his ult can make a big difference in teamfights.
give it time before you start crying about the rework, its literally been a week. if you expect to reach a full understanding of how a champion can and should be played in a week youre either playing a whole freaking lot or you need to lower your expectations. even if he were weak, again, he JUST got released. they almost ALWAYS have to do tweaking to new and reworked champions after they hit live
and for the last item ill leave as a sort of situational filler item. ive had success so far with
and
although granted thats only after playing 1 or 2 games with each of them. i would say spirit visage is all but required for him although usually you dont want to get it until youve got boots and at least roa and zhonyas. i agree that the rylais is super useful especially with his ult. i always rush roa into zhonyas or if im really ahead and dont even need to worry about dying i might go ahead and get liandrys, followed by liandrys if i got zhonyas second, zhonyas if not, or if i could really use the mr and healing bonus ill go ahead and get spirit visage (ps the spirit visage ups his teamfighting power ENORMOUSLY because of the heal boost, lets him stay alive for much longer and thusly dish out more damage)