Any tips for last hitting as Swain?

If you really need help, try running AD runes until you adjust. Also, this isn't even a bad idea on Swain since his E will amplify your autoattack harass.

Also, Q will apply a tick of damage instantly, so you can use it to last hit minions you might otherwise miss.

Load up customs and practice last hitting with either Anivia or Ryze without using spells.

Congrats, you just mastered last hitting.

For Swain, after 6 he is really easy to last hit though, just use ulti.

If you're learning to CS with a new champion, a good thing to do is just run flat AD runes and slowly swap them out for something else as you see improvement. Ultimately, it's better to have the gold to buy more stats than to have 7 magic pen at level 1 or whatever other marks you might run.

Play Anivia. It won't make you better at last hitting with Swain, but it will make you stop complaining about last hitting as everyone.

AD reds are good on him if you're having trouble, and they're not a total waste thanks to his E AA harass (Swain has a ridiculously strong lvl 1). I know I've had trouble last hitting as Swain. Also try out the far right masteries in the offense tree. The one that gives you extra damage to minions and monsters (Butcher) as well as Feast, the one that gives you health and mana on killing a unit as it helps with Swain's mana (every little bit helps; I run Dangerous Game and Arcane Blade[?] on him as well to help with mana sustain, last hitting, and E AA harass).

Also, Custom games are great to practice last hitting. Don't use any abilities just practice your last hitting and get to the point where you can hit 17/19 in three waves including the canon minion consistently. You can even practice last hitting under tower (with or without abilities) in custom games if you play against a bot and let them push. Either way, it is great practice.

While using abilities, be careful of using your E and Q on minions as they can mess up your last hitting if they are taking damage from other sources (minions/tower). A little trick I use later in the game if I just want to clear the wave is to use Swain's ult while grouping the minions together (before they reach your own wave), wait for a few ticks and then W the entire wave and turn off the Ult. You shouldn't use too much mana and you will receive most of it back thanks to your passive. Disclaimer: make sure you can do this safely as it will leave you very vulnerable to enemy aggression for the next 7 seconds or so.

The skill order I personally like to go is (E, W or Q, Max E, Max W, Max Ult, Max Q). I like to max W second just for the extra waveclear and the cooldown on your root. Some people like to max Q second as it increases the slow and has higher single target damage, but I like W because it does more for my playstyle.

Good luck and have fun out there.

Practice

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I just started playing Swain and I cannot for the life of me cs as him. How do i not suck at it?

I just bought his skin and since then, can't last hit with me to save my damn life... but previously I would actually farm with my E W Q and ult. Swain has to farm, he is useless without itemization so using the skill to farm vs trades will win the lane. I don't run AD quints at all, but have found that doing a quick E harass to rotate the enemy minion wave toward me and backing out of aggro and coming back makes farming a little easier. His base AD is so low it is really hard to last hit initially - and apparently I need to relearn it.