Talk:Swain/@comment-5969046-20141211190022/@comment-5256197-20141212141406

Before Athene nerf and Swain's innate buff I always felt it was core on him, but now I always go for ROA. For me it has enough mana to cover me for the entire game, sometimes even having more mana after a team fight. It's just about the mana conservation. Q and W are pretty bad to cast at a whim, whereas E has good mana-to-damage ratio and R in bursts.

Zhonya is core.

Rab's and Void staff of course are basics for any mage, but sometimes he has to finish a lot of other stuff before Rab's, and for some matches it might be better to have Abyssal than Void.

If you feel that you're being nuked instantly, a Spirit Visage is super good on him against AP heavy teams, and Frozen Heart for AD's. And that extra CDR feels so good on him though he really doesn't need it.

I usually forgo Rylai & Liandry, but those might be really good against some teams. I'd rather have a dedicated armor/MR item than more health, for obvious reasons.

For me 300-350 AP is the breaking point for Swain (that's ROA, Zhonyas and one more AP item + runes/masteries), with that your combo will kill squishies. Everything above 350 is gravy. Just try to fish squishies out with W, and when you catch one R - E - Q ~ Zhonya. Congrats, you have just killed their carry, initiated, took some of their cooldowns on to you, made some AOE damage, and emerged with (almost) full health. That's of course the most optimized situation, but far from being unrepeatable.

Of course getting to that point can be a pain since he is countered by burst, range, mobility and shields. One thing I've learned of him at laning is that you'll need to do your own thing and try to avoid falling in to the only-trade-damage-pit (they'll walk out of your Q range and therefore your W wont hit), when at high mana try always go in for E (or more) and retreat back to last hitting. Just be out of the threat zone until you have your long cooldowns back again.

One thing I usually do after shopping is to just walk up the lane up their face and see if they run. If not then E - R - Q  and bait their flash/dash and then lock them down with W. I've had so many kills this way even if somewhat underfarmed.

And of course take everything into consideration. Might just wait the jungler against that Ignite DFG Syndra.