Talk:Swain/@comment-5077844-20141103224042/@comment-15244341-20141109131001

Nevermove's range is the only thing that keeps him relevant midlane. Try playing against a Xerath/Lux/Ori and imagine a 700 range W. You'd be as useless as it gets.

Also, Swain is stong extremely weak against poke. He has zero outplay potential (Zhonya bait, basically) and is extremely vulerable to ganks. He also has poor lane control (no pushing power, basically). I'd say those cons outweight him being good vs inmobile melee champions. To top it off, he is a snowball dependant champion, which means that if you get behind as Swain, you are pretty much useless.

I don't usually play him top, but honestly, I can't see much point picking him over Ryze. Ryze just does the tanky mage thing better than Swain does (since ignite late game is a thing).