Is New Swain Weak?
He's "S Tier" on many lists but I just don't see how.
His whole kit is tied to landing his E which is a very awkward skill shot that can be dodged.
His itemisation is also super awkward (you're supposed to go Zhonyas and ROA early for a supposed "bruiser" effect but I find that even with a fully stacked ROA, many champions (at the same level as you) can still kill you with a single full combo when you're in Ult form. Its like it provides the ILLUSION of tankiness rather than actual tackiness.
At 2-3 items Vladimir and Viktor are MUCH MORE reliable battle mages. Vladimir brings way more burst and DPS (and all of his skills are super easy to land and spam while Swain is tied to his wonky E). Viktor has way more range with his lasers, more AOE zoning, and his Lich Bane Q-AAs chunk.
What does Swain have? You are super short ranged. You have no CC besides your E and your passive and your damage is MEH. Even with a "bruiser" build you can no longer tank anything with your Ult. Also, its near impossible to actually land a Demonflare on an experienced team (the ability is SUPER gated behind so many factors its impossible to really plan for them).
So why is he S tier?
because it makes him very tanky, that people can't run away from him, and he hurts like a meteor. I used Sorcery+Domination for runes, Domination for secondary because I wanted the cheap Ravenous Hunter.