Guides to old and new swain (by your swain main truly)
Before this starts, people are probably are going to be asking why did I add guides of new and the old version, wouldn't they care more of the new version since its... you know... existent? Well I added the old version in here so I can tell you how riot reworked his kit from his base original kit to where he is now. With that said time to begin https://media1.tenor.com/images/0c496536a9e236638a342f96c2b53abe/tenor.gif?itemid=13246734 Old Swain: My favorite champion since when I first played this game. He was in a league of his own, being a mage that is able to survive a lot in team fights due to his ult. What do you build on this guy, oh idk, mana. and. ap. His passive already gives him mana sustain enough too to add on top of that. His q throws out his bird and it makes an aoe zone sort of similar to fiddlestick's w... only it doesn't drain health, instead it deal damage per second and slows opponents hit by it. Worried about cs, throw out your q and let your bird do it for you. His w nevermove (nevermore) is one of the strongest abilities during the initial release of league, it roots EVERYTHING in the aoe after the channel, while dealing ap damage for a decent amount, which you can use your q to slow them before using your w, so you have a better shot at it. His e is basically free DoT on a target enemy champion, what can I say about it, it does great damage over time. Now for his ultimate, he turns into the biggest birb and sends birbs out everywhere on minions, monsters, and champions around him, dealing damage for every bird hit and healing him, it is basically a universal fiddlesticks w around him. What's more, as long as you have a crap ton of mana, and mana regen and reductions, you could have this ult on nearly infinitely due to his passive also adding on top of it. Oh also the guy can dab did I not mention that? http://i.imgur.com/hPq28Qw.png
Reworking: When Swain was being reworked, Riot literally changed his kit almost completely, but kept the name of one of his abilities except its for his e... I don't get it. Anyway, they wanted his ult to not just be a self projected AoE Drain, but have some more power to it, which is understandable. So Swain was due for a rework and honestly I felt depressed after hearing this since my favorite champion was being reworked, was it going to be another thing like galio's rework making galio mains quit? Well, I waited for the day he released, tried it out, and honestly...
I. FREAKING. LOVED. IT.
His kit was very fleshed out, had a unique mage playstyle, that of fitting his old playstyle, but also making him feel more of a tactician based champion. Which I will get to why in a minute. However there is one issue I had with the rework, his ult doesn't make him a full birb... Unless you had the tyrant swain skin which I promptly bought.
New Swain:
Let's get down to the basics
Swain's new passive is basically his ultimate.... I kid you not. Well not exactly, after auto's a cc'd champion (excluding slows) he pulls the enemy champion toward him a fixed distance, which damages them and a birb plucks out a soul fragment while doing so, adding 1 out of the 5 soul fragments you can possess while healing you for a fixed amount, AND dead enemy champs also leave soul fragments behind so you can pick those up as well by just being near them, which allows you to have sustain not only in lane, but also in team fights greatly, but they still had the drain birds at it again like his old ult. His Q is very simple, it sends a 5 fingered shotgun blast of lightning that deals damage, which reduces every time an extra bolt is hit, but its still going to deal a LOT of damage up close, so melee champions like yasuo or zed that dare cross the midlane, beware, for this mage fights both afar and up close. The short CD on his q makes it quite spammable too, so you can punish greedy enemy up close champs as well. His w is soooorrrrrt ooooooof like his old w, except its slows and doesn't root, but it deals a fair amount of damage too after a delay, which enemies with dashes or high movement speed can EASILY escape from unless they are cc'd or are too greedy, but what this ability SHOULD be used for is tactics, it has a long range and reveals the area for a second or two, so you can see the movements of enemies if you have it activated over them, and you could luckily hit them too. and that's not all, if you do hit anyone with your w you get a free soul fragment for every enemy champ you caught in your w, this ability also works well with dark harvest for far finishers. His e this time IS the root, he fires out a skillshot doing low ap damage on opponents, then returns to swain like ahri's q and explodes on the first enemy hit instead of passing through them, but remember its an explosion so you can root more that one opponent in it, and the root also can apply to your passive's use, so you can pull them in, and follow up with a q. You can also use minions at the tip of your e's range to catch enemy champions in the explosion range. OR you can use your e to snare opponents trying to escape if they are in range, pull them in, and q. Finally his ultimate, he turns into a bir- he grows wings........... why must you get rid of bird riot? Anyway, he has a circle around him which not only protects him from sea bear attacks, but also deals ap damage over time to 3 opponents (prioritizing champions) in the field, while also healing for every damage inflicted on those champions, which allows him to survive a lot, and people don't understand how strong this ultimate is, it does around 60 damage per second at some point in the game, and this ult lasts 12 seconds. Oh and to add insult to injury, at the end of the duration he releases demonflare which is the same range as his ult zone, it deals great damage which magnifies for every soul fragment he has to every opponent in the range. This ult is one of the most powerful team fighting tools, because he sustains from having enemies in the zone, and helps his team by greatly damaging them in it. However after the demonflare, all the soul fragments he currently is holding is lost, however if you kill an opponent with demonflare, since it kill them, it drops their soul fragment as usual for killing anything as swain (or if your allies do) so you get a free soul fragment after ulting. For runes, I would mostly use dark harvest for him not just because dark harvest is good, but it applies very well to not only his w greatly for securing faraway kills, but also for his ult in team fights since the damage over time zone can proc the dark harvest, EVEN HIS PASSIVE, and then put in triumph for free little sustain after kills or assists which helps in team fights, then coup de grace so you can have more damage for low opponents for again... faraway secure kills. And for building, just build the usual liandry's, luden's, those two items? Then have sorcerer's shoes for your movement speed and magic penetration, and then you can build from a list of these items for your last ones.
For skin recommendations, I would rate these skins from lowest to greatest: Bilgewater, Dragon Master, Northern Front, Tyrant. Bilgewater mostly changes the model which doesn't look that interesting to be honest... still has the same spell effects too which is lame, could they at least try to make it bilgewater like? with like idk... WATER!? Dragon master is alright, I like the skin n' all, but is just doesn't fit swain, we want birds not dragons! Northern front swain however is great, has still birds but you got freakin owls that will steal the enemy team's souls which is awesome, and the design of Swain as an army general just works so well since he is after all the grand general, also the blizzard effects to his abilities look beautiful. And finally tyrant swain, his ability effects, design, and his ult are just what all the og swain mains want, bunch a raven feathers, big birb form, and green flames all are what we wanted since day one of this champion, and we got to admit this skin makes him look like a boss.
Place in Meta: Swain works actually quite well in this meta, he is not too easy to play, but he isn't too hard either too in this meta. He works both from fair range and up close, so he can deal with champions like lee sin, yasuo, irelia, and so on. Also his w adds a lot to his team, for granting him and his team a couple seconds of free vision over a selected area, just so they know where his enemies are, and he can also use it to poke, secure kills, slow, or even STEAL BARON AND DRAGON. His ult adds a lot to team fights, by dealing damage to opponents around him while healing from that, then he can nuke the enemy team with demonflare so his team can have a health advantage. His Q and E are also greatly used for utility, his q for good spammable damage, and his e for decent cc. He can also put up with tanks due to his ult, up close q, and if you build liandry's. This Bird does a lot in this meta.
Comment your thoughts.
