I'm an avid Swain player but I mostly play SR, and Ive only just stuck my head into 3s. I love playing Swain but Ive been having a very tough time pre-6 in Twisted treeline.

Any experience 3s players been using him a lot? What runes/masteries/early gear do you get for him? What seems to work well for you guys?

Freeze your lane for the first 5 levels. A good trick is to let the opponent get into the lane and last hit 3 or 4 minions before you start last hitting. The lane will snowball in your direction and you can farm safely from your half of the lane.

I play Flat ap blues and quints, mana regen blues and spell pen reds. masteries are 9-21-0 for surviveability.

Early game I just last hit and drop my e on the enemy when ever I get a chance to slowly widdle them down. Once I hit 4 or 5 usually they are pretty low and I hit them with a full combo and most often take them down.

Items I build are RoA, BFT, Hat, Rylas, and then Abyssal. He needs a lot of durability to handle the bruiser meta in TT and the RoA and Rylas does the trick.

Which of those do you build first? Whats your first buy and what do you buy on your first back?

I usually rush the RoA, because the games in TT are short so you don't have as much time to let it grow. If I am confident in my lane I'd buy the blasting wand first back otherwise I will play it safe and get a Cat.

Hmm. Thanks. Do you always take the solo lane?

I play on a ranked team with a dedicated jungler. They are always solo lanes. And I usually take the 1v2 bot. Range lets you hold you lane better than the AD bruiser that needs top because he cant 1v2 and last hit with out being killed.

But if you don't have a dedicated jungler, I'd take the lane partner. Usually with guarentee an early game kill if you can snare one once you have gotten them low with lots of Es