TL;DR At The End

I owe this forum a disclaimer first.
I suck at writing out my thoughts in a detailed, step by step manner, so I'll just get to the point in hopes of having a legitimate discussion about Swain as a bottom lane champion and others like him (wait wut?).

I've noticed the removal of the Mana Regen Aura has severely restricted swains early game, almost to the point of uselessness. For most, this is enough to pass him up for someone with a more palatable early game. I could go on a tangent with no possible end why its worth wading through, so I will post a build with minor reasoning behind them instead.

The End Result is Always -

1.) Sorcs Boots
2.) BFT
3.) WoTA
4.)Spirit Visage

I start Kage's Lucky Pick + Amplifying Tome + 5 Mana Pots.
--- Essentially this is to maximize presence, and sustainability. It's meant to coddle you until you reach 6.
If I'm surviving (which is all i can hope for) I grab a Haunting Guise ------------ Fk it. I just lost steam for this.

All I'm saying is, maybe folks should start picking Swain bot again. With the (slight) buff to spirit visage coupled with an early revolver and mid-game WoTA, Swain has nudged his way back into the field with incredible sustain, and mind-boggling AoE. I've got 100 SR games played, and 2k Dom games played. I'm just an avid player with a poor sense of humor, an opinion, and no idea how to reach the audience with them. Give Swain a shot, and dont forget to buy mana potions 'every time' you B. I can't count how many kills i've gotten when I looked oom, got dived, spammed mana pots - popped ult - and outsustained all that big bully Malzahar.



TL;DR??

Pick Swain. Build with S2 in mind + BFT. Buy (2-5) Mana Pots Every Recall. It truly makes all the difference.

The mana nerfs were undone.

Why not just start with chalice?

So you would not grab Crystalline Flask despite the fact that you are certain to use multiple mana pots every time you're in lane? AND you're not going to get any mana items? Do you get any sort of bonus to your mana from your runes or masteries?

Never do that. NEVER DO THAT. You aren't going to hold onto the pick long enough to generate sufficient gold, and that's if it even gives you gold (I seem to remember something about there being a gp5 cap which dom is already at). Only buy a pick if you don't have the money to jump straight to a recipe using it, and complete the rest of the components for whatever you're building first. Please.

gp10 does work. I just tested and starting with a pick, you reach 1000g at 2:33, but if you start with a cloak of agility and health potion (same cost) you don't reach 1000g until 2:39. Since gold generation doesn't start until 1:30, that looks like it puts passive gold generation at ~33gp10, so Kage's increases your passive gold gain by ~12%.

start with tear, the more mana you have the longer you can stay in crow form

What kind of crazy Kage's Lucky Pick do you have?!

It feels like they weren't. I'll take your word for it though.



Your never is subjective. I'm saying it works, and you're saying it is never an option to 'ever' be considered. We're that rooted into S3 already eh? Also, didn't I say I build BFT first? 74 ability power, and the potion equivalent of an additional 500 mana as well as 354 MS on Swains already slow-ass is nothing to dismiss. Boots are a non-factor when it comes to "his" survival in the opening lane phase. The enemy feeling an early Q/E/AA/AA - retreat combo in addition to having the Mana to repeatedly do it while W'ing waves however, is a factor to your survival.

I don't start chalice because, although I'm extremely Mana hungry, having the MR and the Mana Regen doesn't keep a malzahar type champion in check. You need to boost your pushing power in any way you can. If they start tear, they come out with roughly 33ish AP on runes alone. I on the other hand have double that, and I have equal (greater?) mana to utilize. If anything, an enemy having a a chalice keeps 'me' in check. It prevents me from harassing with free reign, but that is in no way a disadvantage, because the goal is to safely push/stall the lane until 6 at which point you become (following a BFT) a multi-target killing machine. Popping potions and tanking a full Malz ult through regen is again, nothing to dismiss.

I've found the most success was with incremental bursts of Crow Form rather than sustained "Sit on top of the target forever" styles. Assuming we're at that point in the game, my only intention is to push you away long enough to farm unimpeded...im not sure how to convey what I'm saying really....but "trading" with a BFT swain is, more often than not, outside the enemy's interest. Should they press the issue, they must do so knowing full well that a landed W will result in their death from the "Sit on target forebbar and CTRL 4" style.

This is my first "Try To Contribute" Forum post, so I really appreciate the dialogue guys. I can attempt to elaborate further if you have questions, but I suggest you at least give it a shot. the beauty of this game mode is, the worst that can happen is you get steamrolled, lose in 10-15 minutes, say FK it den, Queue and try something else!!

Who runs AP Runes on Dominion? I spawn with 7 AP on a 21 Offense mage, and I'd have a handful more if I ran AP/level Quints (though I'd run MPen instead of my current MS if I wanted more power).