Talk:Swain/@comment-5969046-20141211190022/@comment-9048637-20150107020227

RoA is core and what you want to be rushing most games. Gives you mana, health for survivability and some AP. In general, delay it only if you really need a particular other item ASAP (say, for instance, you're kind of feeding Zed and really need Zhonya's). That alone can often be enough for mana, especially if you're getting regular blues. If not, though, I find an early Chalice (after RoA, say) to be quite nice, especially against AP's. Athene's isn't as strong as it once was, but I'd still rate it as good on Swain - CDR is a rather nice stat on him as the game goes on, and it still gives a modest bit of MR (and Swain's main enemy is burst, which is often magic damage). I'd say it comes down to 'try it and see', everybody has their own play style. I caution against Tear, though; theoretically, it could be good on Swain, but I always find it just takes way too long to give results, especially since Swain lacks away to quickly charge it (leaving your ult on for extended periods of time not being something you can do willy-nilly). Some swear by it, but I've never found it that good, and I think I'm with the majority here.

Give or take that Chalice I metioned (and boots at the usual kind of time, of course), Zhonya's should probably be your second big item most of the time. It's obscenely good on Swain, as I doubt I need to elaborate on. Against standard team comps, I often find it's all the armour I need.

Liandry's, to my mind, is Swain's core 'pure damage' item - though granted, one of the things that makes it so nice is that it does also give a little bit more health. Penetration is absurdly cost-effective at the moment, and flat pen is usually best on the squishies Swain wants to be gunning for. As for the passive, it synergizes with Swain's DoT nature, and while Swain shouldn't be aiming for the front-liners usually, he still tends to damage them with his ult when he's wading through the middle of the teamfight, so he gets good mileage out of it there. Sometimes, though, you want Void Staff, either because the enemy squishes are all rocking Banshee's Veils, or because there's some problematic bruiser who's sitting on your ADC's face and your main priority is blowing them up.

Rabadon's I very much caution against. It's very expensive, meaning that in terms of 'damage per gold', if you like, it works out unfavourably to the pen items, and doesn't give you any defences beyond the extra damage on your ult (which scales badly with AP; also, see the last point) (Void Staff is also pure damage, of course, but it's much, much cheaper; that said, I don't normally get Void Staff on Swain either, I just recognize it as a situational option). That latter point is especially important given that, as the guy above me points out, you only really need somewhere in the region of 300-350AP to burn squishies as Swain; anything else is just overkill, and if it's the tanky champions you want to kill, well, either they've stacked health or they've stacked MR - Liandry's or Void is the way to go depending. So yeah, I advise against getting Rabadon's. Like, ever.

As for build finishes - you usually want MR since, as mentioned, Swain's chief enemy is burst and that's usually magic damage, and you don't get scaling MR (by contrast, Swain's base armour is actually pretty respectable). My personal favoured option is Spirit Visage, which has obvious synergy with Swain and also gives you CDR. Abyssal is perfectly fine in a more damagey build, though, particularly if you're not the only magic damage on your team. And then there are the games where you just want Banshee's Veil to intercept big-ticket spells (the Blitz hook being the perennial example, of course). Play it by ear. Athene's, even if you're getting it, isn't usually enough, though.

After that... as I mentioned before, CDR is a good late-game stat on Swain. Athene's is what I already mentioned; Morello's is also good if they have problematic self-healing; Frozen Heart is not something to be overlooked if they have a lot of AS-reliant champions, or if you just want more armour anyway (my earlier point about Zhonya's usually being enough isn't universal, especially if they have a melee carry as well on the enemy team) - yes, it gives you no direct offensive stats, but more mana for your ult is always appreciated, and again, CDR. There are other things to consider, of course; you may want Thornmail, you may want Void Staff (as already mentioned), Rylai's can be nice situationally, whatever. All builds should be somewhat situational, particularly once you're getting to your last item.

That about wraps up my thoughts on building Swain, as someone who's played him since early S3. I hope it helps, though I know I'm a little late to the party.