Talk:Swain/@comment-68.68.107.78-20121111121305/@comment-178.166.24.118-20121112003020

^ It is a monster item for Swain since he necessarily has to be at super close range to deal his damage at full potential. Everyone who plays Swain and doesn't get fed in lane knows he's gonna have a hard time in teamfights since you'll just blow up thanks to the low range on spells compared to tier one mages (Orianna, Anivia, Karthus, etc.)

I admit I never even considered TotG/AAs for Swain, I always thought it was a crap item on him and weaker than Chalice/Grail in every aspect except raw AP. It was also incredibly difficult to stack the Tear due to Swain's long cooldowns. But now he can afford to get the item because they lowered the base price by 295g, lowered the maximum mana through stacks and improved the stacking method for champions with toggle abilities. You can easily buy it early game without compromising your tankyness too much, and then upgrade it as soon as it is close to being stacked.

Point is: Swain is already painful to deal with due to his constant healing in fights. Give him an extra 750 hp shield to activate when he reaches half his life bar and he becomes a beast. Not to mention that AAs is still the best AP enhancing item after Rabadons.