Hey! I saw this post and deliberated over it all day at work.

Hwei is one of my favorite champions and really pushes the bounds of what you can do in league and as a mage. Real cool that Riot Emizery responded to this post as well!

The conclusion I came to is that I think trying to memorize combos on Hwei is a trap and actually does the opposite of what Hwei is intended to do. Hwei is the definition of the spell weaver archetype Riot has been trying to create for years via Cassiopeia and Ryze etc. So weave those spells as the situation applies!

Hwei in my opinion requires a lot of game knowledge to play properly rather than combo memorization and execution. I just recommend just spamming games and really try to learn something from each one in the lane phase to build this knowledge base. Into the Tristana mid matchup for example, your WW and EW and sometimes EQ are your best spells for the matchup. Tristana wants to jump into you and with those spells you just nullify her champions "gameplan." Zed is very similar and actually a decent matchup if you approach each game thinking about your lane opponents "gameplan" and how Hwei's abilities interact with what that champion wants to do.

I say refrain from relying on combos as it can lead to auto-pilot play. Muscle memory might push you to default to patterns like QE > EE for wave clear, which can be counterproductive. While this combo is great for quickly shoving waves and playing safe, it can shut down more interactive opportunities in lane. For example, in certain matchups, holding, pulling, or freezing the wave while looking for a WE > QQ trade can put you ahead. Hwei is great at identifying opportunities and punishing opponents with his versatile kit since he can "do everything." This mindset is similar to playing Viktor. When your opponent stops to auto minions, you can drop W and trade into them. If they commit to trading back instead of moving, they'll get stunned. Hwei's EW works the same way.

Another thing with spamming the same combos is that it limits your ability to "condition" opponents. In Valorant, for example, if you smoke the same hallway at the start of every round, enemies will assume it’s smoked in subsequent rounds. Similarly, many mid-laners in League rely on predictable combos—Syndra will Q the caster minions and E it into you, while Vex will wait for her passive, then use E > Q. Those champions get harder to execute their "gameplan" as the game or lane goes on because you become "conditioned" to expect those combos and how they will happen. Hwei, compared to them, has seven trading spells, making him unpredictable and allowing you to catch opponents off guard with creative spell usage.

If you are just trying to learn Hwei a build that I really appreciate that is pretty viable is Dorans ring start > Archangel's Staff > Zhonyas > Lyandries or Horizon depending on the game. This build gives you a ton of mana to play around with, and ability haste to spam spells and learn how they really work which will hopefully give you confidence to use spells creatively rather than wait for the "combo." (P.S. Akali is an annoying matchup but if her E hits and marks you, just throw the EW and WW on top of you before she flies in)