Released back in October of 2010 and under the then title, The Master Tactician, Jericho Swain went through a lot of changes when his rework arrived in February of 2017. Visually, he was given a more menacing look and with that new look, came with a menacing, albeit relatively same, kit. The only big changes came with his Q, W and his passive, as his Q no longer relied on his bird companion Beatrice, but instead on demonic eldritch power with his new left demonic hand. Surprisingly however, he has not seen much gameplay in the mid lane like he did when he was first released and in fact has been used more recently as a mage support. Does this mean he should be shrugged off and ignored in favor of more meta champions like Zoe, Leblanc and Cassiopeia? No, he shouldn’t and I’m here to explain why. I will go over his strengths and his weaknesses, as well as the runes that would be the best to run for the leader of Noxus when he faces the mid lane.

He’s serves as a great front line

Because of his new passive, where he gains permanent health on every soul fragment he gains from pulling a cc’d champion and Vison of Empire, he slowly becomes more and more of a frontline mage. When built with the right items, he can become a good frontline for a team that could potentially lack one, especially whenever his ultimate, Demonic Ascension is available. With his ultimate providing life steal from not just champions, but minions as well, Swain thrives on being positioned in the front line and diving headfirst into battle, casting his ultimate and providing a way to soften up the targets for his teammates to take down. While we are on the topic of damaging his enemies…

He can deal unexpectedly massive damage

When he was first released, Swain was described as a mage who always poses a threat to targets of low health, like ADCs for example. He still lives up to that description after his rework. When a Swain gets ahead, whether it’d be by a CS lead or a kill lead, he can become a massive problem. Not only does Swain serve as a good front line as previously mentioned, but he can deal massive amounts of damage to anyone who is unfortunate enough to get caught in his 2nd part of his ultimate, Demonflare. Not only does it deal magic damage plus 50% AP, it also deals 37.5% of the health he drained as damage. Meaning, that if he gets enough health drained, he can detonate Demonflare like a nuke against an enemy team, forcing them to fall back or met their demise by your hands or the hands of your teammates, thus giving your team the advantage to go for objectives, like the Dragon or Baron.

He wins against most mid lane matchups

According to League of Graphs, Swain can excel at traditional mid lane matchups against fellow mages and a select number of assassins too. What makes Swain difficult to lane against is because of his tankiness. With the correct runes and good poking with an E, W, Q combo, he can trade good as well as stack his passive, which makes him a bully to play against during the laning phase, especially when he is in a melee matchup with champions like Qiyanna and Akali. Furthermore, his ultimate grants him an additional 125/200/275 health when cast, depending on the level of the ultimate. Because of that extra health, it helps him when he is against a champion that relies on heavy burst damage to function, such as Zoe, Annie, and Brand.

His learning curve is relatively easy

While Swain sounds daunting to play, don’t be nervous. Swain’s kit is easy to use and understand. The only part of Swain which will take some practice is with landing his E, Nevermove. It will take time to use the ability, as it can be a challenge to use when your lane opponent is not behind minions, making the root more difficult to land. However, once you’ve mastered landing your Nevermove, you should have no problem landing your combos.

With all this information given about how strong Swain could be, it is also very important to note his weaknesses.

He is weak against highly mobile and long range champions

Take this from experience, playing against champions that have high mobility and getaways are very difficult for Swain. Swain’s kit relies on his lane opponent to be immobile so he can accurately land his skill shots, particularly his E and W. When he plays against champions like Katarina or Fizz, they could easily dodge his E by dashing right into his face or sidestepping. Furthermore, when placed against champions that excel at long range poke, such as Xerath, Lux and Viktor, it can make his laning phase and his ability to harass difficult, as his abilities don’t have the range like the previously mentioned champions do.

He can become dead weight if he’s behind

For a Swain to be a threat, he must get ahead of his opponent in the early game. When he does get ahead, it makes it easier for him to scale and become a late game threat. However, when he gets behind, it will certainly have an impact on the rest of the game. As previously stated, Swain thrives when ahead, becoming a team fighting monster when he does. When he falls behind though, he can become a weak champion.

His team fighting heavily relies very heavily on his ultimate

For the most part, Swain’s damage mostly comes from his ultimate. His ultimate is an essential part of what makes him great, especially when it comes to team fighting. However, if he is without his ultimate when the time comes to fight as a team, it can be difficult for him to do so. His other abilities have long cooldowns, albeit depending on what type of build you take, but regardless, if he goes into a team fight without his primary team fight ability, it will be difficult for him to do much other then apply cc and light damage with his other abilities.

Best Runes

Conqueror with Resolve

With the changes made to conqueror during the offseason, Swain can excel with its healing. When he uses his combo, he can easily get a fourth of the way to activate Conqueror, as his pull also counts towards the rune. When going with the rest of the primary rune tree, Presence of Mind is the go to, as mana will quickly go away if you decide not build items like Luden’s Echo. For the second part of the tree, Tenacity will also be very useful, especially when it comes to team fighting, as it is essential to keep moving and trying to dive into the backline to eliminate the carries. Finally, Coup de Grace, as it will help take out the low health enemies. Now when it comes to Resolve as your secondary tree, you have a plethora of options. You could run Demolish to get extra turret damage, Revitalize to make your healing stronger, etc. etc. From personal experience, I highly recommend Bone Plating and Overgrowth, as Bone Plating will help reduce the initial damage you receive plus Overgrowth helps you gain more HP alongside your passive.

Grasp of the Undying with Sorcery

Speaking of healing, if you decide to use the Resolve rune as your primary tree, you will be seeing your HP bar climb up real fast. With Grasp of the Undying, alongside with the rest of the tree, Demolish, Bone Plating and Overgrowth, you will gain HP in nearly every exchange you make with an opposing champion. This rune can do wonders in matchups where you can be easily bursted down, because when you gain more and more HP, it will make it more difficult for your lane opponent to secure the kill onto you. When it comes to the secondary tree, Sorcery, you should run Manaflow Band, as you can quickly gain mana to help keep you sustained in the early game when you make trades with your lane opponent. For the second part, it is up to personal preference. You could run Transcendence to get the free CDR, Manaflow Band to gain mana and stay in lane longer during the early game, or Gathering Storm, as it will keep you relevant with the scaling ap, even if you fall behind.

Glacial Augment with Domination

This one is a bit unorthodox, but it can work well with landing you Nevermove and keeping your opponents from escaping your ultimate. For the rest of the inspiration rune tree, you should run Magical Footwear in the first slot, as it will give you free boots and saves you an extra 300 gold. Secondly, you should take Minion Dematerializer, as that will give you a good amount of free gold, especially if you save it for canon minions. Finally, depending on what you decide to run when you first start, you can run cosmic insight if you take the Doran’s Ring/two health potion or Time Warp Tonic if you take the Corrupting Potion. When it comes to the Domination tree, run Taste of Blood, as that will add on the healing and the last part can be either Ravenous Hunter to go along with the healing with Taste of Blood or instead go for Ultimate Hunter, so you can get your ultimate more often.

Conclusion

Swain is a pick that can be utilized to carry someone in low elo out of the depths and can be a good dark horse pick in high elo. Like with any other champion, you still should practice him first before taking him to the fields of ranked. But once you master the Noxian Grand General, you can become a grand threat on the battlefields. GLHF and see you on the rift summoners!