Learning to play new Swain
I'm trying to get into and learning how to play dark birb man, anyone have any tips, tricks, build, runes or anything like that for the fresh raven dood 
that they wouldn't mind sparing?
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Swain is a close-range self-healing battlemage who loves clumped up teamfights and skirmishes. You want to build health, mana, and AP, snagging a good armor/MR item later on to round out the build, and your runes should be strongest in the mid-to-late game in teamfights. Dark Harvest, Phase Rush, and Aftershock are good choices. Grasp used to be good on him, but with his lowered AA range, it'll be harder to proc now.
Swain's new passive gives him health and mana back whenever he lands an E, lands a W, or is nearby when somebody dies, plus stacking extra max health. This sustain is percent based, so the more health and mana you build, the more effective your sustain is. Definitely rush Rod of Ages as your first item.
Swain's R2 damage is based on the amount he heals, not the amount he deals. Revitalize and Spirit Visage will help you charge your Demonflare faster and give you overall more sustain. Honestly, I'd even consider Mikael's Crucible for extra sustain and the cleanse if I'm going into a stun-happy team.
You don't have mobility and your ranged spells are easy to dodge. Avoid pushing the wave, instead matching your enemy's clear and looking for opportunities to poke and CC them to stack your passive and discourage an all in. Your goal is to make your lane look juicy to your jungler so you can catch the enemy with your E and set up easy ganks. Your waveclear is decent, but you don't need the minions to be gone in order to land your skillshots. In fact, leaving them there makes it easier to land Es and gives you more sustain when you use your ult. You're not really looking to shove and roam. You want to play it safe and farm up until you become a beast. Demolish is really good on Swain, since you're going to get pretty tanky regardless, and the extra tower pressure means your enemy loses plating if they get bored of your safe tactics and leave.
Keep an eye on the river, and be sure to ward effectively. (Sticking your ward right in the bushes lining the river is a baby ward. If they're already to that bush, it's too late. You want big boy wards. Put it just past that bush a ways into the river so it covers all river entrances and gives you more warning.) Your lack of mobility means that if you shove too hard and get ganked, the only way you're getting out of there is if you clutch it and 1v2, which you can totally do if you have your ult and play things right. Your W is a great tool for helping your jungler. If you see them get in a fight, you can drop a W to turn the tides or at least force the enemy to back off.
Pick Vlad. He's the exact same champ, just better ( self healing battlemage )
land hard cc and w and use passive to get even more stacks, get a lot of stacks and use the new q to wave clear, get a visage on top or roa and your probably set
learn how to use your abilities correctly. don't research old builds on swain - they don't work anymore. playing swain requires you to focus on the wave during early laning phase due to mana costs. late game you become a teamfight initiator.
you dont really need a ton of AP or a ton of mana. all you really need is things that will help you keep from getting locked down.
these items depending on your situation work decently.