How to win lane as Swain against Locke · 49.2% win rate over 628 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Level 1 is even — your Q poke against his on-hit trades, with no favourite. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | At 2 the lane hinges on whether your E lands, not on raw stats. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | Level 3 stays even, revolving around your root cooldown. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Through 4-5 him dodging your E keeps the trades a coin-flip. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | At 6 your R heal offsets his fresh ult in a drawn-out fight. |
| First item | Locke | At his first item, Purgatory executes you through your R drain before it stabilises — his stage. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | With items your drain-tank scaling neutralises his single-target burst — even once more. |
The whole laning phase is an even chess match: your Q poke trades into his on-hits and everything pivots on whether your E lands. Root his commit and you win the exchange; whiff it and he wins. Play the cooldown honestly, farm with Q, and keep the coinflip stages from becoming deficits.
The full Swain vs Locke report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Locke vs Swain guide →
All Swain top lane matchups →
Also played in: Mid Lane