Talk:Swain/@comment-174.134.122.166-20120326062937/@comment-71.233.127.32-20120326160530

Never start with mana crystal, you're just kind of asking to get owned. Pretty much every mid nowadays opens with boots + 3 pots since dodging skillshots mid is so important and the extra pot lets you trade a lot better (not to mention that w/o boots you're very vulnerable to ganks even in mid lane). You're going to want boots before catalyst anyways unless their jungler is in PvE RPG mode.

Mpen boots are OK, just don't count out merc treads or ninja tabi for extra tankiness (you need to survive for as long as possible for your ult to be effective).

Finishing RoA that late is silly, it takes 10 minutes to charge and become effective so you either rush it or you turn your catalyst into BV. I'm not much of a fan of BV but I'm even less of a fan of a 30 minute RoA when the game is probably already over. The resist works better with the rylai's anyway.

Rylai's is actually not that bad for chasing and kiting.

Abyssal is situationally good but having a QSS for when you're ignited is usually better. I'd only buy abyssal on swain when I'm on a double AP team vs enemy team with lots of magic damage. WotA is alright on double AP team and/or when you have spell based AD teammates like pantheon/urgot.

A lot of people get zhonya's on Swain, the active is a great way to buy time to heal. My build would go boots/RoA/boots2/zhonya's or deathcap/QSS/deathcap or zhonya's/void staff.