I just put up a swain guide a few days ago and I've been reading others that are here on the site, I prefer to start with meki pendant and pots for middle, my focus being staying in the lane until 6.

But my real concern here is the choice of archangels, especially as your last item. I used to build my Meki Pendant into a Tear of the Goddess(to start gathering bonus mana) and would update archangels as last item. But my games tend to last 34-40 minutes after I crush the middle oponent, so I end up with about 350 mana on my most fed games. I feel that because Swain doesn't spam his abilities as much as say Annie, the Archangels is a bit of a waste on him.

I also consider Zhonya's Hourglass to be a key item for swain.

Yeah, I was pondering for a while whether or not to mention Lich Bane, and decided not to because the magic resist and passive I feel don't really apply to the mix. Often enough I'm trying to get the combo off as quickly as possible. So overall the lich bane procs end game wouldn't be going off as often as other champions using it. After all, swain is slow when it comes to his attack speed. Good idea on the Will of Ancients though, for some reason that completely evaded me when writing this up, I'm going to add it to the list of alternatives now. =) thanks.

And interesting you'd recommend selling the RoA, I mean it sounds viable, but I've only been in like 2 games to ever run that long =p. I don't think too much of it, but having an early Catalysy/RoA to support you through the levels is a really useful for Swain, especially when not using Clarity or Mana pots.

hey man nice items but i have to recommend 2 more items as alternative will of the ancient for the spellvamp and lcih bane is also a good idea because gives yo the movement you need and i the best swain i have seem didnt use at all deathfire grasp even though it is a good item . and i really dont like rod of ages in late game you can cataclysm and make it banshees veinand this id a very good idea against other caster. but the build it works for you so it is good and each one of lol players use his unique build for each champ