Swain takes attack damage?

Velasan·Apr 8, 2015·2 votes·535 views

I've been playing a lot of Swain this season switching over from Viktor pre re-work and then Azir briefly before he got heavily nerfed. One trend I'm seeing a lot of in diamond through challenger swains is they add AD onto their builds to go with the E to get more early game harass.

Has anyone tried this?

I'd run hybrid pen but I lose a lot of mpen in the process and I'm curious how effective this strategy. Saving up IP for a new rune page to test some variations.

All aboard the Swain train.

7 Comments

The5lackerApr 8, 20154 votes

Like...how much AD?

Because if people are, like, building Hextech Gunblade I'm totally in support of that plan. Two single-target spells? Makes strong use of an additional slow? Fantastic slot efficiency? BIRDS WITH SWORD GUNS?

DreadlocksApr 8, 20154 votes

I like to take AD reds on swain cuz I cant last hit worth a damn with him lol

Hard4HamstersApr 8, 20152 votes

Yeah, it's really hard to last hit with him. Lol. I've considered using them on Swain as well. I know it can help his early game before he hits 6.

DreadlocksApr 9, 20151 votes

It's totally worth it for me.. its the difference between 22 CS and 44 :)

Matthias9119Apr 8, 20151 votes

Some AD and/or hybrid pen reds aren't bad. You're not losing THAT much mpen.

Helps his last-hitting, more AA damage on trades as you pointed out.

Kitten of EvilApr 8, 20151 votes

Mpen reds really aren't that much stronger than hybrid pen reds... you get something like 7.8 Mpen versus 5.6 Mpen for a full page of hybrids, while the hybrids also give you 8.1 arpen. Since you'll be using both early game, I'd say it's worth the trade for most mages. You lose a total of 2.2 Mpen. I take these on most mids, but ones who poke a lot with AAs (Twisted Fate, Anivia, Malzahar) can especially benefit.

And some mages sometimes take item 1055 to help with last hitting. I've seen this a lot on Kennen, for example. It's a bit weaker since they changed it back to 3% lifesteal, since 3% of your ~60 starting AD is basically nothing.

Hard4HamstersApr 8, 20151 votes

I use hybrid pen marks on Swain because of his increased damage on his E gives you the incentive to AA. I've considered packing AD reds because last hitting is a pain on him, but with the Offensive Mastery that gives you bonus damage to minions, it's a little better.