Talk:Swain/@comment-5969046-20130513162159/@comment-6016076-20130605120003

I've never seen him played competitively in S2 or S3.

I know that the meta for mid champs for a long time has been

1) Strong, gank resilient laning phase

2) Exert pressure around the map

3) High burst damage

It might be that the pros haven't found a reason to use him yet, but I think Swain's biggest problem are his mana costs, which means he can't simultaneously wave clear and harass efficiently and is heavily blue reliant; he has no escape, and he lacks map pressure. For example, TF has no escape, but he isn't blue reliant and has amazing map pressure. Anivia doesn't have map pressure and is blue dependent, but she has incredible wave clear, is a safer lane due to CC/wall/passive, and is still more mana efficient than Swain.

I also think his niche is Tanky AP sustained damage champion. So his burst isn't overwhelming, and he relies on his tankiness to deal lots of sustained damage. Pros are exceptionally good at igniting him when he ults, so his tankiness suffers and he ends up not bringing a whole lot to Teamfights compared to other champs.

That's my guess. Maybe he could be played top if mid didn't need blue. But that would really only work on blue side. I'm not sure how well he lanes vs. top bruisers