The support role took Swain and never gave him back. The four hundred players who still send him mid are quietly winning fifty four percent of their games.
Swain shows up three and a half times more often as a support than as a mid laner in Ranked Solo/Duo right now, and most players have simply stopped thinking of him as a solo laner at all. The mid lane version jumped from the bottom tier to the second tier this patch, and the build behind that jump isn't the one his support pages run.
So how does this actually work?
Weird Pick #167
Mid Lane Swain
The support role took Swain and never gave him back. The four hundred players who still send him mid are quietly winning fifty four percent of their games.
Swain shows up three and a half times more often as a support than as a mid laner in Ranked Solo/Duo right now, and most players have simply stopped thinking of him as a solo laner at all. The mid lane version jumped from the bottom tier to the second tier this patch, and the build behind that jump isn't the one his support pages run.
How to Play Mid Lane Swain
- Abilities
- W, Q, E to start, then prioritize R > Q > W > E
- Summoner Spells
-
Flash 
Teleport - Starting Items
-
Doran's Ring 
Health Potion Health Potion - Strategy
- Use Death's Hand [Q] to farm the wave from range early, then swap to hunting single targets once Blackfire Torch and Rylai's Crystal Scepter are online, since a rooted target that can't walk out of Vision of Empire [W] is a target Demonic Ascension [R] finishes on its own
- Core Items
-
Blackfire Torch 
Chainlaced Crushers 
Rylai's Crystal Scepter 
Zhonya's Hourglass 
Liandry's Torment 
Rabadon's Deathcap
Mid Lane Swain Runes Setup
Sorcery
Resolve
When to Pick This
Mid lane Swain wants an enemy team that has committed to health and armor rather than to burst. Blackfire Torch and Liandry's Torment both scale their damage off how much health the target has, and Swain's own ultimate drains harder the more bodies are standing near him, so a comp with two tanks and a bruiser isn't a problem for this build, it's the reason to run it.
He's also the right call when your team has already drafted two or three champions who all die to the same engage. Swain doesn't need to be protected the way a normal mid lane mage does, since Ravenous Flock [Passive] heals him for a chunk of every soul he collects and Demonic Ascension [R] turns a lost fight into a stalemate. Treat him as a second front line who happens to occupy the mid lane rather than as a carry who needs peel.
How It Works
A Solo Lane Finally Pays For The Build
Swain's support games run on a support item budget, which means the Blackfire Torch into Rylai's Crystal Scepter into Zhonya's Hourglass line rarely gets finished before the game is decided. Give him a full mid lane farm and that exact build is winning around seventy percent of the games it appears in, because his ratios were always tuned for a champion who gets to buy real items.
Rylai's Makes Every Ability Land
Swain's damage pattern is slow and sticky rather than instant, and Rylai's Crystal Scepter turns every tick of Nevermove [E] and Vision of Empire [W] into a slow that keeps the target inside the next one. Against a mid laner without a dash, that chain means the root connects far more often than the raw skill shot hit rate suggests it should.
He Gets Stronger, Not Weaker, In Long Games
Swain wins fifty five percent of games past thirty two minutes against fifty one percent of the ones that end early, which is the opposite of most weird picks. Soul Fragments are permanent health, Conditioning and Overgrowth both scale with time, and Demonic Ascension [R] only gets more valuable as teamfights get bigger and closer together.
Potential Pitfalls
Long Range Mages Simply Do Not Let Him Play
Viktor is the worst matchup in the data at under forty eight percent, and the reason generalizes to anything with more range and better waveclear. Swain has no dash, no gap closer and no way to punish a mage who shoves the wave and steps back, so those lanes turn into twenty minutes of farming under tower while the enemy roams. Check the mid lane before locking him in.
The Ultimate Is A Commitment, Not An Escape
Demonic Ascension [R] has to be turned on before a fight becomes bad, not after, because the drain needs several seconds of enemies standing in range to pay for itself. Popping it as a panic button in a lost fight does almost nothing, and the cooldown is long enough that the mistake carries into the next objective.
He Is Not Actually Killing Anybody Alone
Even at six items this build has no burst window. Swain grinds a target down over four or five seconds, which works beautifully inside a teamfight and works terribly in a side lane 1v1 against an assassin who opens on him. If your team isn't fighting as a group, this pick has no way to generate pressure by itself.
Mid Lane Swain Conclusions
Mid lane Swain isn't trying to be a burst mage and gets worse the more you play him like one. He's a durable, sticky damage source who wants long fights, a tanky enemy comp and a team that will fight next to him. Draft him into an immobile enemy mid laner and a health stacking enemy front line and this stops being a weird pick fairly quickly.
Suggested Tier: Tier 2
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