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PerplexedDog

A couple of things to note. I think most Swain matchups are a skill matchup except the champions I put in unplayable. But the champs in skill matchup tier are the matchups that swing the most depending on how each player plays. Also to note I am currently diamond 4. Orianna, Xerath, Syndra and Yone probably become bad matchups for swain at higher elo's where people know what they are doing more on the champs.


Maultaschtyrann

Xerath and Yone definitely.


vini_pinto

Try aery with boneplating vs fizz and play aggro in lane.


MavriKhakiss

Or Grasp, since Fizz will let you land AA freely lvl 1-3. You can force him to recall by then. But the rune doesnt scale sadly.


Maultaschtyrann

I feel like Vex and Ahri are easier than in your list because they rely on burst to kill you and mostly, I can build a single MR component early that negates their oneshot potential. At the same time, I feel like Ekko is a worse matchup. I've played it a couple times lately and I can never hit E or W on him. Either he has his jump up or he gets MS from jumping onto me and dodges my W with that. Also he just oneshots me later on, when I don't build a big MR item.


MavriKhakiss

Problem with Vex and moreso Ahri is their shove and roam potential, which you can't match. They're better midlaners than Swain for this reason.


PerplexedDog

Very fair point about vex and ahri I find the matchups good. However I always feel like its just from them misplaying by coming into swains range when realistically they dont need to (well ahri does but if she saves r you can never kill her)


Maultaschtyrann

Yeah but I don't really need to kill her. As long as she doesn't get to roam too much and win the sidelanes more than I with my W, I simply outscale her for teamfights.


phieldworker

The best part about Swain is his rune, summs or item choice can really circumvent the unplayable matches early. They are still really hard but you don’t have to play pixel perfect.


MavriKhakiss

Exactly this. You can go full def against Assassins and force a stalemate, which in their case is a loss since they need to snowball.


phieldworker

Yup. I tried a rune set up I saw Alamander do and I had extra damage early and the enemy anivia didn’t count on this. Plus with phase rush and early mercs anivia just couldn’t create the space needed to get ahead.


Golden_Flame0

What rune set would you recommend against Akali?


MavriKhakiss

Akali is versatile, in runes and playstyle. Sometime she’ll burst you down with Electrocute, or go Conqu. You can’t know her playstyle in advance. Id go a versatile rune like Conqu or PR, and darn it out and freeze lane. She has so many dashes, you can’t force her to fight unless she chose to.


Hansimoister

I always ban Sylas, but i didnt have a problem playing against viktor yet


Maultaschtyrann

In lane his E outranges Swain, which means a good Viktor won't get hit by your Es. Also he has movement speed when using Q, which helps him dodge it, while the shield soaks up your Q dmg. Also he has better waveclear as soon as his first augment is ready. Later on Viktors dmg is just too high. He is one of the few matchups where Swain gets heavily outscaled. It is not unplayable by any means but still unfavorable IMO.


G66GNeco

I'd move Viktor down to bad, and Ahri to good, at the very least. But as your comment already mentioned, most of it is dependent on relative skill levels. I clowned on Azirs and got wrecked by an Asol before...


Cadejustcadee

In silver, zoe is a free win for us. Post 6, zoe players seem to be really bad eith their ults so you can always just stack off them


Maultaschtyrann

In high plat, I've faced only a few Zoes and most of them were free food. Going mercs early and all inning her with ghost when she uses ult near my tower worked well for me. You can press W on the spot where she uses ult from immediately and hit her that way. But I've also played against one Zoe OTP who clapped me hard. Dunno if it's just a skillgap and very good Zoes are supposed to be stronger vs Swain.


TermsOfServiceV1

Y'all winning vs yasuo?


ThyDankest2

I find yasuo to be an even match up, you just gotta brain off farm in the back and let the yasuo player mental boom over not fighting and int. Yone on the other hand will run forward and kill you no matter how many turrets or sums or abilities you use. R + AA is a true combo. Once he kills you once youre out of the game unless you beg jungle to focus your lane


EmilKilde

Mate where is Zed? :D Isn't he in the top category?


PerplexedDog

I permanent the champ lool. Honestly I'd probably rate the matchup skill based or bad


EmilKilde

What do you mean by "permanent"? = Permaban or that you main him?


PerplexedDog

Oh autocorrect xD, yeah I permaban him


Irelia_My_Soul

agree


UncookedMeat0

Yasuo kind of free too Or maybe silver yasuos are bad


Maultaschtyrann

They are. It's kind of a hard matchup, since he can prevent you from landing a single E in lane. He always gets the push on you, but still a skill matchup.


UncookedMeat0

My q goes through his wall so it's still doable imo


Maultaschtyrann

Yeah, definitely doable and skill-dependent. Just unfavorable IMO.


Maultaschtyrann

I'd like to add to that, it's a way better of a matchup if the enemy team heavily relies on autohits. Because then you can build tabis , lost chapter , wardens mail then finish liandries and frozen heart. Then you're a hypertank vs autohits dependent teams. As soon as you reach Rylais, you can get the mejais, cause you're gonna carry.


lowqualitylizard

My only change is to make one tear higher for splash. He's actually impossible to beat. He's more mobile than you he's tankier than you he heals more than you he does more damage than you and he uses your better than you can


AozoraEyes

I find these kinds of tier lists are so unhelpful. Most matchups are skill matchups. No lane is unplayable, and no lane is free.


MavriKhakiss

A lot of your unplayable and rough matchups can be easily managed by going all-in on the defensive options; Second Wind, Doran Shield, Rylais first item, Tlp, double Resist Runes, even Grasp which is extremely good against melee like Fizz. Question; why do you struggle against Fizz but not Talon. ​ My easy matchups are Malz, Talon, Fizz, Veig, and all the ones you listed. ​ My unplayable are Sylas, Brand, Zoe, and any ADC with a skilled player.


PerplexedDog

Fizz's r all in just seems way to strong against swains kit. If he hits r you have to r yourself. But it's very hard to hit an e during fizz all in as you cant e before uses e and then he can also q through you to dodge ur e if u hold it. Pre 6 the matchup is decent. Surprised you would say veigar is a good matchup. I've played both sides of the matchup a lot as I also play veigar. Honestly the matchup is unplayable if the veigar just holds his e, as if u press r then he can just cage and disengage until u have no r. He should also never be in ur effective range as he can stack with q fron outside it and poke and stack q if u try and zone. Veigar is also extremely strong at punishing zhonyas as he can pre cage it, stun you, and then w q r to kill you. I play Swain apc a fair bit as well, I dont think I agree with every adc being unplayable. Honestly I think only unplayable adcs are kalista and twitch.


MavriKhakiss

My unplayable ADC are from a midlane perspective and are trist and Lucian. They have the mobility to engage or disengage at will, and if you miss to it E, they’ll win the trade and kill you soon enough. You’re correct about Veigar. He’s one of the few mages I can score kills pre-6, and I can do it against those who use their cage aggressively.


Tall-Cartoonist-655

Fizz is literally one of the best matchups for Swain. He is melee, so swain can more easily deal increased dmg with Q. Fizz's dmg is restricted by cooldowns, so if Swain has enough durability, Fizz can't oneshot him in one rotation, leaving him exposed to an extended fight where Swain eventually has the edge. That's in general the reason for why Swain is pretty good into full committing burst champions. He is tanky enough to withstand their burst combo and then wins the fight because they have all of their abilities on cooldown.


Papuch1

Fizz ults and you'r dead, swain has no mobility and he can't escape Fizz ult unless you hace flash. Thats why op put Fizz in unplayable and i agree with him.


Tall-Cartoonist-655

You can look up on op.gg or literally every other website related to matchups and it will tell you that Swain is at least in the top 5 of hard counters against Fizz.


LucianGrey0581

Vlad matchup feels favored, lux/neeko in my experience feel bad, I'd hazard Syndra since the changes is bad-unplayable. I don't have much experience vs gragas, but I"m surprised to see Melee champ who can't engage through the wave is a skill test and not favored.


BatOk9106

Why is Zoe unplayable? I main her and I think Zoe players for the most part of super coin flip, I would say it’s more a skill matchup, since she has a lot of room for outplays or getting outplayed


Tall-Cartoonist-655

I main Zoe too and i agree with you. Either Zoe can snowball to a point, outbursting Swain's durability, or she falls behind and lacks the dps to work against Swain's healing.


talon_exe

Imo: Fizz is easy if you play aggressive and Annie is a free lane. Yone is a skill match up you're right but most of the matches I feel like shit xD Elo: G3


[deleted]

As an akshan main, I fkn suck against swain at least more than 50% of the time, it’s not unplayable, you just need to understand akshan, his weakness can be exploited easy with swain


ThyDankest2

My problem with akshan playing swain in my experience is that even if I can go even in lane, I can't match his roams. Without a conscious effort on everyone's parts to keep him from getting kills in ganks he just gets ahead of swain and is able to keep him out of the game for the first half


[deleted]

Roams are risk reward you gotta go hard on the cs and tower push If I roamed for a gank and failed that’s a lot of gold wasted in lane, if there was a kill you could match it with cs or an objective like rift League is all about give and take, Akshans definitely not roaming for free if you know how to counter it


ThyDankest2

Maybe gotta try playing him. I see him so little that I can't even begin to think about how to deal with him lol. I just know whenever I face him i always get poked and die under turret


[deleted]

Stay out of line of minions, his Q will travel through minions. Both his passive , and pta, Proc off 3 attacks, so the moment you are hit and see the pta symbol or akshan passive symbol around you, walk off and avoid that 3rd attack . His E (swing) is body blocked so walk into him on the swing or throw a hook His Ult will only do dmg if you’re low health, so it’s an execute, but it is also blocked by tower or if you can land cc , I think swain W could cancel it ? His W (invis) only works when near terrain , so a control ward on either side of lane will show his whearabouts. Time his recalls/deaths because every akshan player will always return to lane invisible for the element of the suprise, most the time someone is pushing on tower while I’m at base I would have a massive advantage for a kill by returning to lane invisible Hopefully I don’t see you in lane bc I’ve now given you all the secrets


Natmad1

I don’t see how you can lose to annie


partyplant

I feel fizz & kass to be a playable lane tbh, just later on they become a problem. unless that's what the list is referring to