Blitzcrank Build Guide by sirell

Introduction

So I am Sirell, a player on the EUW Servers and this will be my first guide here and it will be on no other than Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem. Though there are a few good guides on Blitzcrank here, I feel that they either focus too much on him as a solo-top laner (which he is fantastic at) or there is not enough focus on him solely as a support, on which this guide will focus. Recently there has been a growth on Blitz as a support champion and I thought a more comprehensive guide focusing on him as a support on bottom lane may be more beneficial as that is where I have had the most success with him.

Blitzcrank is the champion I have had comparatively the most success with in ranked and I have played him solely as support in ranked games, never as solo-top or jungle.

So without further ado, let us get into the finer workings of our brotherly Steam Golem.

Introducing Blitzcrank

Before I go on, I would just like to say: if you do not feel that this guide meets your standards for making a support Blitzcrank, then perhaps one of these two be more to your liking:

Weo Weo Blitzcrank - Support RoBot by MrMiyamotoTaco

HOOK CITY DUDE, HOOK CITY! by koksei

Anyway, this is Blitzcrank!

Recently Working On...

This is just what I am working on at the moment:

Laning Partners

Recently finished:

Swapped Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist. I was a dunce not to think of this earlier.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Big Brother

So why would you (or wouldn't you) play Blitz? Let's examine some of those reasons.

Advantages + A lot of CCs, second to Alistar. + Naturally tanky. Item choices tend to make him quite durable, as well as his Mana Barrier passive. + Good zoning power. Anyone who's played against Blitz before knows that a grab can mean some serious damage. Grabbing them to your turret will also teach them to go near you. + Great burst damage at level 6. + Good disruption ability in team fights. + Versatile. In both builds and skillset, many builds can work on him, meaning he can fulfil a great many roles: Tank, Offtank, Support, Melee DPS. Depending on how the game unfolds, Blitz can change to adapt. + Quick cooldowns, especially on his ultimate. One of the shortest cooldowns amongst ultimates. + Between boots and Overdrive, Blitz can quickly ward a map. + Has an effective built in escape in the form of his Overdrive.

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Disadvantages - Difficult to play. A great deal of Blitz's plays rely on his Rocket Grab which is a skillshot which can be blocked by other non-friendly units. Failure to land this will effectively reduce your impact in the game. - Reliant on Carry. Even if you can land your abilities, it's not enough to guarantee a kill without the aid of your Carry. In fact, you want your Carry to be fed, so you don't want to be making the kills yourself. A weak Carry will make it difficult for you to earn earlyy gold. - No sustain. Though tends to be durable, has little in the way of sustainability. - Enemies who know how to avoid Blitz's Rocket Grab render him ineffective. - If not used properly, can find himself very mana hungry. - His build is quite expensive. And since this guide focuses on him as a support, he will also be buying Oracles and Wards.

Golem Runes

This is my rune set-up.

• 3 Greater Quintessence of Gold: Since you won't be farming, you're gonna have to get your gold some other way. Between Runes, Masteries and Items, you sometimes make more gold than someone might in a heavily contested lane.
  
• 9 Greater Mark of Armor: You'll usually be laning against enemy AD carries, so some armour is only natural.
  
• 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Most supports also do magic damage and you'll also need defence against enemy AP carries anyhow. But since you won't usually meet them until later in the game, scaling MRes are more ideal than a Greater Glyph of Magic Resist.
  
• 4 Greater Seal of Gold: Same reason as the Quints.
  
• 5 Greater Seal of Armor: Same reason as the Marks.

Alternative set-ups:

• 3 Greater Quintessence of Health: This will provide some decent hp to help with the durability for that first blood invasion.
  
• 9 Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Blitz can get quite mana hungry, these seals will go into helping him spam his abilities.
  
• 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: These cooldown runes will help Blitz to spam his abilities and constantly keep enemies out of position in teamfights.
  
• 9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: These will help you do the necessary damage to send the enemy back to the fountain, one way or another.
  
  This set-up is for more offensively-based support Blitzcranks.
  
  Other alternatives are:
  
  Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Good movement speed will make it easier for you kite enemies or get into positions for attack combos.

Masteries For Blitzing About

So as a support, you will be maximising your Utility branches.

Blitz uses a lot of abilities, so taking mana and mana regen in Expanded Mind and Meditation are a must.

Since possible summoner spells are Clairvoyance and/or Flash, then a point in Summoner's Insight would be sensible in allowing you to unlock the next set of Utility Masteries.

As a support, I do a lot of warding, so taking 3 points in Swiftness help me move into position to place a sight ward that's been augmented by Scout .

I don't farm creeps in lane, as my AD carry does that. So I need to get gold via Greed and Wealth .

There's nothing more detestable than letting an enemy get away on minimal health whilst your Rocket Grab is 1 second off cooldown. Maxing Intelligence .

Mastermind is pretty self-explanatory. The more often you have your summoner spells available to you, the more you'll have the upper hand. Especially if you're taking Clairvoyance.



So, 9 points left to go into Defense or Offense.

My preference is for survivability, so I put 3 in Hardiness for that extra armour against the enemy carry, 1 in Resistance or Tough Skin so I can access the next level of masteries (You shouldn't be utilising any summoner spells in the Defense section). Then I max Durability and Veteran Scars for the lane sustain and tankiness that Blitz should be exhibiting.

However, if I were to take it in Offense, then I would like a little more burst damage through Mental Force and Arcane Knowledge . This also means I max out Sorcery for more frequent usage of my abilities.

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Alternative Mastery possibilities have been placed into the alternative cheat-sheets. I also now take a single point into Summoner's Wrath when I take Exhaust. It does well in trades between ADCs. Makes all the difference.

Brotherly Spells

Clairvoyance: Reveals an area of the map for 4 seconds (6 seconds with Summoner's Insight ).

This spell is typically taken on supports. It provides a free 4-second ward anywhere you want on a map. A lot of people say that Clairvoyance is useless. Such people have no imagination. You can check to see that they aren't invading you early game, can check Baron, Dragon... If your jungler wants to counter-jungle, you can ensure his safety by scouting the area. If your team is chasing an enemy who's about to go into the fog of war, use it to keep a track of their progress in chase. Don't have a ward? Pop a quick CV to see what you need to know.


Exhaust: Exhaust slows movement speed by 40% and reduces autoattack damage by 70% and ability/item damage by 35% for 2.5 seconds (also reduces target's armor and magic resistance by 10 if you take Summoner's Wrath ).

The use of this should be pretty obvious. Use it to slow an enemy down so you can chase or escape. Use it on whoever does the most damage on the opposing team to minimize their damage output.


Flash: Teleports your Champion to target nearby location under your mouse cursor.

Probably the most versatile spell in the game. Use it to get into position for an initiate, surprise attack, escape and so on. Only down side is that it doesn't provide a sustainable pursuit as much as Ghost or Overdrive which increases movement speed.

Ghost: Your Champion ignores unit collision and moves 27% faster for 10 seconds (35% with Summoner's Wrath .

Use this to chase down an enemy, return to lane quickly, escape an enemy. Flash is a bit more versatile, but Ghost certainly has more sustainability. Choose Flash or Ghost, not both. You can provide much more as a support if you also take Exhaust or Clairvoyance.






Teleport: After 4 seconds, teleports your champion to target friendly minion or turret. 3 minute cooldown if cancelled (reduces cast time to 3.5 seconds with Summoner's Insight ).

This is just to get to lane faster, to split push, instantly support another lane or even as an escape. Be tricky and teleport to an allied ward for that instant gank. Not a preferred spell of mine for Blitz, but I see why people might take it and I most certainly approve.




Heal: Restores 75 + (lvl x 25) Health to your Champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. All targets healed will have a 50% reduction in heal amount from other summoner heal spells for 35 secs (+10% more heal with Summoner's Resolve .

This will provide at least some for of sustain for you and your laning partner. Not as useful late game, but there are still uses for it like baiting or first blood. Not as useful as other spells, in my opinion.


Clarity: Restores 160 + (lvl x 30) Mana to your champion and 50% of that to nearby allies (Increases Mana restored by 20% with Summoner's Insight ).

If your laning partner is also quite mana hungry ( Sivir, Miss Fortune, Ezreal), then this spell might be a consideration for you as well. Falls off late game like Heal. Not a horrendous spell, I just think other spells are better and I'd never take it.


Promote: Promotes the nearest allied siege minion (in Classic) or super minion (in Dominion) to an anti-Turret Cannon, healing it, granting bonus stats (depending on level), and causing it to grant the caster gold for its kills (increases defensive stats by 15% with Summoner's Insight ).

An often overlooked spell. Will help with pushing turrets, especially late game. You can promote a minion in one lane and then go to another and split push. A siege minion can get quite far before being found out, as promoted minions don't show up on the mini-map. Use in the early game can steal your Carry's farm, so use only when covering for your Carry whilst they've recalled. However, it has a long cooldown and doesn't have very many flexible uses, especially in a team fight. In my honest opinion, don't take it.

Skill Sequence

So I have recently made an overhaul of the skills sequence section and removed the ' Power Fist vs Rocket Grab' section completely. I have heard many things from fellow summoners. I have heard people say to max Q first, W first, and also E first for various reasons, all of which have their own points. I'm going to list

So Static Field aside, reasons why you'd max each skill first:

Rocket Grab - Lower this insanely high CD and also increase the damage done when you initiate.

Overdrive - Positioning is key. Improved speed means greater running power for chases/escapes/positioning. Attack Speed buff isn't a bad thing for taking towers, either.

Power Fist - For CD. But when you're chasing or being chased by someone, that CD could be all that you need to get that CC out there and escape/secure the kill.

From this, I think you should make your own judgement. Particularly in-game.

For example, if you are landing your grabs, followed quickly by a kill secure, perhaps you may want to max the fastest for extra damage and lower CDs. That grab might be important in a chase.

Perhaps you aren't landing your grabs. That makes your Q and E both redundant. Then this might be a situation to max W instead, so you can better position yourself for a grab/punch.

Maybe your opponents are finding themselves a little fond of CQC and try walking straight past you for your ADC. No need to use Q as a gap closer, deter them by maxing E first.

So, try not to stick to rigidly to the Skill Sequence in the cheat-sheet. It's just what I generically use for normal game with no special circumstances.

Blitz's Quadruple-Hit Combo!

So now you have his skills. How to use, how to use...?

Let's begin with his Q + E combo - Kidnapping and Fisting - and add on from there.

What it does:
Basically, any combination of Blitz's provides a lot of CCs, giving your Carry a lot of time to deal damage to your target.

How to do it:
First, you need to land your Rocket Grab (Q). If you can't land this skill, you won't be able to do most, if not all, of Blitz's combination, nor bring out his full potential. After the animation begins for the grab and it is successful, spam press Power Fist (E). This will then make your next basic attack pop them up into the air.

Alternatively, you may activate Power Fist first if you are confident on landing Rocket Grab.

After this combination is done, you may do one of two things: Fight or Flee. Pursue the enemy as they try to run away and do additional damage so your Carry can kill them, or run away the better of the two in that fight, waiting for the Rocket Grab to come up again. In either case, activate Overdrive (W) for the speed buff.

You can also use Overdrive to quickly run into position to initiate the Q + E combo.

Now adding Static Field (R) into the mix.

Common sense just dictates that you use this whenever the enemy is in the vicinity during your Q + E combo. After you've grabbed them, you can pop your ulti, when you've just knocked them up into the air you can pop your ulti, when the enemy have surrounded you you can let your ulti go to help the teammates who are rushing in to help. Just use it in tandem with your other abilities to maximise burst damage output.

Alternatively, you can chase your target down and let the passive of Static Field strike them over time after landing your Q + E combo.

Another combination is the Lemme Go! combo, which is basically the reverse of Kidnapping and Fisting. This is the E + Q Combo.

How to do it:

The basic premise of this is when you are confident you can take damage, when you catch the opponent unaware of you, when ganking, etc. This utilises the CQC aspect of Blitzcrank and the escape prevention of enemies. I'll use a scenario in order to illustrate this combination.

So you're in one of the two bushes in bot-lane and their carry carelessly wanders near you. Perhaps he is pursuing your carry to zone them out or whatever. In any case, he is near enough you so that you may walk up to him and attack him. So you use your Power Fist (E) and they get knocked up into the air. Your carry turns around and starts attacking them whilst they are CCed. You continue by bursting Static Field to make sure they don't use in-built escape mechanisms (e.g. Ezreal, Tristana). But then they start to escape (Utilising Flash, Arcane Shift, Rocket Jump, Boots of Speed, 90 Caliber Net, whatever). And you calmly pull them back in using Rocket Grab (Q). Having exhausted their escapes, you proceed to chase using Exhaust and/or Overdrive whilst making sure your carry secures the kill.

I hope that gives you a picture of what to be working with.

If not, here is a video. At ~10:20, Blitzcrank executes the combination on Irelia.

If you're more ambitious and don't care about the element of surprise, you can take the initiative by activating any speed buffs you have ( Ghost/ Overdrive) and run straight up to your target and use your Power Fist, Static Field and Rocket Grab. This combination will leave you vulnerable to pokes and will often require you to weather through a few attacks in order to even try and land the hit. It's also not unsurprising if you try to initiate, but the opponent escapes you easily before you can even get to them. They may also do more damage than you think and make you regret attempting to initiate whilst they successfully kite you. However, the rewards of this combination are great and tend to provide a greater time duration of overall CCs than the Q + E combination might, giving your carry or ganking jungler the opportunity to secure the kill.


If there are any combinations you think I've missed out, feel free to add them in the comments section!

Blitz Super Power-Up Items

This is probably going to be the hardest section for me to write. In addition, many may disagree with the choice of items. Of course, feel free to leave suggestions for me to consider.

I will talk about items in 5 sections: Support Core Build, Blitz's Core Build, Blitz's Regular Build, Item Sequence and Alternative Items.

Supportive Power-Up Items

Philosopher's Stone

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Heart of Gold

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Kage's Lucky Pick

So why these items? And how do they make our Great Steam Golem tick?

As a support champion, you must not deprive your AD carry of any last hits and minion kills whilst they are in lane. As a result, you will be unable to get gold by conventional means of farming, and relying on assists on kills won't get you very far. So how must you get your gold for items? Through Runes, Masteries and Items.

So you get 2 gold every 10 seconds through your Masteries in Greed . If you're using 3 Greater Quintessence of Gold, you get another 3 gold per 10 seconds. If you're also using 4 Greater Seals of Avarice, you get another 1 gold per 10 seconds. This brings the total to 6 gold every 10 seconds. That's 36 extra gold a minute even when you're dead. But why not crank it up? All 3 of these items give an extra 5 gold per 10 seconds. Taking just 2 of them will increase your intake of gold to 16 gold per 10 seconds/96 gold per minute.

So you can take all 3 if you're doing well, but usually, by the time I've bought my second 5Gp10 item, it's usually time to start building mid-game items. Even when you're doing well, you want to buy more game-changing items earlier to try and maintain your dominance over the opponent.

So which two?

So this item gives you mana regen and health regen. Both are important for lane sustain. In addition, taking Faerie Charm for a mere 180g as your first item will leave you enough gold to get wards and potions for map awareness and sustain.

Also, Philosopher's Stone builds into Shurelya's Reverie and Eleisa's Miracle. Eleisa's Miracle isn't worth much mention. It gives higher regeneration and Tenacity against CCs. Its usage to a support is minimum.

On the other hand, Shurelya's Reverie is a popular item for supports to take. It gives the highest cooldown reduction on any one item, gives a respectably high health and regeneration boosts. However, its strength as a support item lies in its Active. As if one speed boost wasn't enough for Blitz, Shurelya's Reverie gives another 40% Movement Speed to you and your nearby allies. This will allow your team to give chase to fleeing enemy or to escape certain doom from chasing enemies.

If you were to take Philosopher's Stone, then you would build it into Shurelya's Reverie, a useful support item. Faerie Charm is also a typical and sensible startup item. Philosopher's Stone is a logical 5gp10 item to take.


Aside from the 5gp10, this item gives a respectable 250hp which will help you establish a tanky role early in the game. This will mean that you have less (albeit, not by much) to worry about when you drag an enemy in and fear that they will just turn around and kill you.

So this builds into two items: Randuin's Omen and Locket of the Iron Solari. I will talk about items later, but suffice it to say, both are great/decent support items to take. Thus, Heart of Gold is also a logical choice to make as your 5gp10 item.


This item gives you 25 AP in addition to the 5gp10. This'll add some, but not much punch to your... well, punches. It'll give Rocket Grab and Static Field a very slight amount of magic damage. In truth, it's not really worth the consideration if you're looking just at the benefits minus the 5gp10.

Moreover, it builds into Deathfire Grasp and Morello's Evil Tome. Neither of which, are suitable support items, as they nuke a single target. True, they make you do more damage and give you cooldown reduction, but with Shurelya's Reverie and your Masteries, you're pretty close to maxing your cooldown reduction anyway. Add a Glacial Shroud and you're pretty much at the 40% maximum of cooldown reduction. And if you do too much damage, you might end up securing kills that would be better off if your AD carry got them. As a support, you should be trying to secure kills for your carry and not take them yourself.

Out of the 3 support items, it seems to me that only the first two are worth taking.

Steam Core Build of the Golem (REVISED/REMOVED FROM CORE BUILD)

Generic support items aside for Blitz, let us look at items that will help make Blitz, Blitz.

Times were, Blitz was played solotop and some of the core items were based from Tear of the Goddess. However, whilst playing support, I will not be taking these items at all. I have come to realise that rushing a Tear of the Goddess on support Blitzcrank makes him fall behind on more useful items. But since I took so much effort to write this section, I will leave this section up.

Tear of the Goddess

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Manamune

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Archangel's Staff

So what is it about these items that help to make Blitz, Blitz?

Firstly, let us remind ourselves of his passive - Mana Barrier. When Blitz falls below 20% health, he gains a shield based on 50% of his maximum mana for 10 seconds. To maximise his tankiness, not only must have good health, armour and magic resist, but also plenty of mana. Many people will forget about his passive, dive him, only to be stonewalled and realise too late. When it comes to items that expand your mana pool, Tear of the Goddess and its extensions are second to none.

Blitz is also extremely ability dependent and abilities are, of course, dependent on whether you have the mana to cast it.

So the next question is, ' Archangel's Staff or Manamune?'

Archangel's Staff

+ Gives 45 AP compared to Manamune's 20 AD.
+ 25 Mana Regen compared to Manamune's 7 Mana Regen
+ 3% of maximum mana gained in AP compared to Manamune's 2% gained in AD.
+ 400 additional mana compared to Manamune's 350.
+ Gains 4 additional mana per ability use compared to Manamune's 1 per each attack.

Manamune

+ Cheaper than Archangel's Staff to buy.
+ Can make more physical attacks to gain mana than abilities used for Archangel's Staff.
+ Don't have to wait until cooldown on abilities to make physical attacks (minimum wait is 5 seconds for Power Fist to come up and that isn't even affected by AP).
+ Physical attacks are doubled with Blitzcrank's Power Fist.

So from this, we can generally deduce that Archangel's Staff is in many ways superior to Manamune, but at an extra little price. But this is not all you need to consider when it comes to choosing between these two. For example, is the opponent stacking Magic Resist or Armour? If the opposing team is stacking Magic Resist, Manamune might be a wise choice.

AD carries tend not to stack a lot of Magic Resist until their 6th item and even then, sometimes they build Glass Cannon and build minimal defence.

Manamune is also useful for taking down towers quicker if you find yourself pushing.

In any case, examine the situation, then decide accordingly whether you need physical attack damage or magical attack damage.

My preference tends to lie with Archangel's Staff, but I can definitely see why some people uses Manamune.

New Golem Batteries (New-Improved-Super-Delicious-Upgraded Core Build)

Frozen Heart

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Aegis of the Legion

Frozen Heart is a generic support item to counter ADCs who rely a lot on auto-attacking. The armor increase is nothing to laugh at, the CDR is important for sustaining your CCs and it has the highest mana pool increase in one go - perfect for Mana Barrier.

Aegis of the Legion is a decent aura item to take early-mid game. The stats for its timing are pretty decent all-around, defensively and offensively. Part of the core build as a 'must build', but I would decide to trade it out later on as the game progresses for other items.

Upgrading Add-Ons

So we have the core build for both support and Blitzcrank down, which leaves us to fill out the rest of the gaps left. In this section, I will talk about the generic build I use for my Support Blitzcrank.

So you have a Philosopher's Stone, a Heart of Gold and Tear of the Goddess.

The next logical thing to think about is what Boots to get?

Boots of Mobility

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Mercury's Treads

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Boots of Swiftness

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Ninja Tabi

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Ionian Boots of Lucidty

Boots of Mobility are my go-to choice of boots, simply because of speed. These are for getting to the battlefield a lot quicker, getting into enemy jungle, planting wards and escaping quickly before you've been discovered. The downside is that these boots lose the majority of their speed if you enter battle, but regain it if you leave battle for 5 seconds.

Mercury's Treads are for playing against a heavily AP team and against a team that has a lot of CC. Sometimes I take these instead when I notice that the other team is heavy on lockdowns. You won't be as quick, but that extra defense might just save your life more.

Boots of Swiftness are for the people who like speed, but don't like it affected when getting into battle. Compared to Boots of Mobility, they're slightly slower when Boots of Mobility aren't in battle, but quicker when Boots of Mobility are in battle. I prefer Boots of Mobility myself, but I'll leave it up to you.

Ninja Tabi are if you feel you are taking too much damage from physical attacks. I don't ever take these much, but if you feel you need them, they're the cheapest boots you can buy, so you can swap them out later.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are for the early game CDR. Since you max out cooldowns with Shurelya's Reverie and Frozen Heart, I don't think these are necessary mid-late game. Nonetheless, you can always just swap them out later on in the game for other boots.

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Shurelya's Reverie

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Randuin's Omen

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Banshee's Veil

Force of Nature

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Quicksilver Sash

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Guardian Angel

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Abyssal Scepter

Shurelya's Reverie is a natural build from your Philosopher's Stone and is a popular support item. It'll give you extra HP to make you that bit more tanky. It'll give you the most cooldown reduction on any one item and upon activation, it'll give you and nearby allies a temporary speed boost for escapes or chases.

Randuin's Omen is a natural build from your Heart of Gold and is also another popular support item. It makes you even more tanky with HP and armour to counter AD carries. It gives you a small bit of cooldown reduction and more importantly, on being attacked, gives a 20% chance on slowing opponent Movement Speed and Attack Speed by 35% for 3 seconds. This is a natural counter to a lot of DPS champions. The active also slows Movement and Attack Speed further for a longer period of time based on the amount of armour and magic resist. This is to counter AD carries or DPS champions like Teemo.

Banshee's Veil is specifically to give magic resistance, because this build lacks magic resist, but also because of its other benefits. The health makes Blitz more tanky and the mana contributes to Mana Barrier. Of course, the one use spell shield every 45 seconds is another bonus.

Force of Nature carries some heavy magic resist and hp regen. However, a fairly expensive item, but worth it to counter AP champions or for enemies who take Madred's Bloodrazor. Build from a Negatron Cloak.

Quicksilver Sash carries decent magic resist, but you look more to its active. As Blitz, you can't do your role of disrupting the enemy if you yourself have been CCed. If you see a CC heavy team, consider investing in one of these.

Guardian Angel gives decent all-round defense. Sometimes you may find yourself tanking too much. A built-in revive may prove useful during a teamfight, or you may just die for real. May be worth taking. I'll let you decide.

Abyssal Scepter has AP and magic resist. This will give Blitzcrank some extra defense and damage at the same time. However, the kicker is in the passive - it reduces enemy magic resist. Particularly useful if you find yourself in mid-late game and teamfights are breaking out over and you'll be standing side-to-side with your AP carry/jungle/toplaners.

Build Sequence

In this section, I will outline the sequence in which items are bought throughout a game and why. This is probably the most important part of this entire 'Items' section, albeit perhaps the most wordy.

So with complete Masteries, I start with 515g (or 495g) at the beginning of a game. Using this, I buy a Faerie Charm, 2 Sight Wards, 1 Vision Ward and 1 Health Potion. Alternatively, you may start with 4 Sight Wards and 1 Health Potion, or 1 Sight Ward and 2 Vision Wards. Sight and map awareness are highly important. Since your AD carry needs to focus on getting their damage output items, it is down to you as the support to get wards and provide the map awareness to avoid ganks from mid-lane or enemy jungle. Vision Wards are to challenge the opponent's wards and deny them awareness from the nearby bushes.

Whilst laning, you need to recall whenever your wards begin to run out to get more wards. You should not ever push the lane past the river without warding the river first. More on 'Warding' can be found in this fantastic and exhaustive guide by Panglot:

Warding Guide

Wards aside, you should first recall when you have amassed at least 620g, preferably 970g. This will let you complete your Philosopher's Stone to start amassing the extra gold and also let you buy Boots of Speed for getting quickly back into lane and for kiting the enemy. Any extra gold should be spent on wards, or if you have sufficient amount of wards, saved to go towards the next item.

The next item I go for is Heart of Gold for the gold. At this point, if you are doing well for gold and can afford a Oracle's Elixir, then it may be wise to invest in one. So long as you survive, they will be more cost effective than Vision Wards in clearing up opponent wards.

Now it is time to complete your boots. Assess the situation then choose your boots accordingly. I usually take Boots of Mobility, but heavy lockdowns can lead me to take Mecury's Treads.

Now here comes a quick choice - Are the opponents doing mainly magic damage or physical damage? If they are doing physical damage, I would rush a Glacial Shroud first. CDR is good for Blitz for obvious reasons. You can then rush the Glacial Shroud into a Frozen Heart or even out your defenses with Aegis of the Legion. If the opponent is primarily doing magic damage, then rush Aegis of the Legion before starting on Frozen Heart. Alternatively, if you feel that the opponent is doing FAR TOO MUCH magic damage, then Banshee's Veil, Abyssal Scepter or Force of Nature are some viable considerations to take instead of Aegis of the Legion (the CDR from Frozen Heart is far too valuable to do without, in my opinion).

Let's review.

By now, you should have:

Philosopher's Stone
Boots of Mobility/Other boots.
Heart of Gold
Aegis of the Legion
Frozen Heart (or possibly Banshee's Veil, Force of Nature or Abyssal Scepter)
Oracle's Elixir

If you are being quite well fed with assists, then complete Randuin's Omen or Shurelya's Reverie. I usually go for Shurelya's Reverie first because of the Active and high CDR, but if you feel their AD champs are doing too much damage, then perhaps Randuin's Omen is a better choice. After completing one, complete the other.

Here, you make another choice. If you are doing well, then you can leave the last item slot free to continue using wards. Most cases, the game has ended by now. If other members of your team are also warding, then you might forego wards yourself and take the Frozen Heart, Banshee's Veil or whichever items that you don't have but wish to get. If this is the case, I usually swap the Boots of Mobility for Mercury's Treads as well. You forego the speed for defence.

So the end build for me usually goes thus:



OR



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When your build has finished, all you do with your spare money is to buy Oracle's Elixir, Elixir of Brilliance, Elixir of Fortitude and Elixir or Agility, prioritising in that order (though feel free to change according to the circumstance).

EXTREMELY SITUATIONAL ITEMS

So each game has its own circumstances and you might find that some items are more better suited for your usage when you somehow amass too much gold for a support to handle. Alternatively, you may be doing very very badly. I will list a few down below.

Highly viable alternatives:

Trinity Force

SPACE

Lich Bane

Trinity Force is an extremely expensive item which gives you a bit of everything. Due to Blitz's versatile role, Trinity Force is a very apt item. This is an end-game item to give you that extra edge in team fights. The problem with this is that it doesn't give auras to your allies and will only serve to help you become a tank without fulfilling the support role as much. As such, I would not begin to build this early-mid game. This is for when you need that extra carrying ability in your team. Exchange for Banshee's Veil or Frozen Heart.

Lich Bane is a lot like Trinity Force in that it is specifically for killing enemies. Gives you mana for your Mana Barrier, so you become a bit more tanky, along with magic resist. The Sheen proc and AP give you extra damage to kill those enemies. Again, not an aura item, so it only helps your teammates insofar as killing targeted enemies. Another end-game item. For when you need that extra carrying ability in your team. Exchange for Banshee's Veil or Frozen Heart.

Abyssal Scepter is for when your team is doing well, particularly your AP carry. Or perhaps they're not doing well enough. This makes Blitz tanky and helps lower the enemy's magic resistance, helping your AP carry do their job. If your AP carry doesn't have this item, this is a worthwhile item to exchange for your Banshee's Veil.

Perhaps you feel the need to be partnering up and working solely with one other champion. Maybe that Ashe has got her high-speed auto-attack on and you want to speed it up. Perhaps you are playing as a 'protect the Kog'Maw' team. Here are some other items you might take.

Weaker suggestions:

Locket of the Iron Solari

SPACE

Zeke's Herald

Locket of the Iron Solari is a possible development from your Heart of Gold, but not really that strong enough to make as big an impact than Randuin's Omen. It can give your team strong sustain or recovery leading up to or in between teamfights and can really save a team-mate when in a fight, but it just doesn't seem to be worth it.

Zeke's Herald is for when your AD carry is doing very well and the enemy team want to shut him down using Randuin's Omen and Frozen Heart. Zeke's Herald goes a way in doing this or helping your AD just carry that much more better. Makes you a little bit more tanky and makes it easier for you to take turrets down. Not a ridiculously bad item, but there are just better items. Take this only if you have Manamune as well, doesn't combo at all with Archangel's Staff.

Alternative end-builds may look like this:

AP Heavy Team-Fighter Blitz



AD Heavy Team-Fighter Blitz



Supporter Team-Fighter Blitz



Turret Destroyer Blitz/Counter-AD

Blitz Tips

This section will be on things to keep in mind whilst playing Blitzcrank.

• Make a grab whilst under the turret, surrounded by team-mates or some other form of support that can help you weaken/kill the enemy.
  
• If your Carry is being chased, even if it costs your life, you save them. They get more gold for killing carries, because they have more kills. As a support, your kills will be minimal to non-existent and thus you will be worth less gold if you die. Of course, if for some reason, you have more kills than your Carry, then you might want to consider letting your Carry die... Decisions, decisions...
  
• You can't always do something. Sometimes it's better to flee from a fight and leave your team-mate to die. It's always better not to feed the opponent any more than they already might be.
  
• In team fights, always make sure to focus the enemy carries or squishy enemies with your Rocket Grab when looking to make kills.
  
• If you are unable to make kills from the team fight, at least disrupt the opponent from focussing your carries or tanking for their team. Zone them out of the fight and try and minimize their effect in team fights. Pull a tank over the wall to you to make sure your team can focus the carries instead of stonewalled by their tanks. WARNING. THIS MAY GET YOU KILLED.
  
• Don't pull if your team mates aren't ready! Don't just recklessly pull an enemy towards you, it might just be your undoing. Ping your target before you pull, if possible. This will give your team some forewarning.
  
• Don't forget to ward! Ward all buffs, prioritising on the most important ones in the river to the ones in your jungle. Ward their jungle, ward your jungle, ward over the wall so you can see where to make the grab. If you have just invaded, ward their jungle so your jungler has an easier time counter-jungling!
  
• Your carry will be focused on farming or trying for kills, so any time you are passive, make sure to check the mini-map and keep a tab on how the team is doing overall. How long do your wards have left? How is your carry doing compared to theirs? Do you need to try a pull for a kill?
  
• Sometimes it's worth grabbing an opponent just to force them to use a Flash or Arcane Shift or Exhaust.
  
• Check your health before making a grab. You don't want to hasten your own death.
  
• Space your attacks appropriately. After making a Rocket Grab take a breath then activate Powerfist, then take another breath and activate Static Field. By spacing all these attacks, you maximise the amount of time the enemy is under one CC or another.
  
• If your opponent keeps using an in-built escape system from your Rocket Grab such as Tristana's Rocket Jump or Ezreal's Arcane Shift, then switch up your combo and follow up your Rocket Grab with a Static Field to silence them and prevent them from using their abilities and give you time to use Power Fist.
  
• Overkill is underrated.
  
• Use common sense! This is really the most important tip I can give. Take a moment to think things through before performing an action. Better you play under the turret than feeding and then facepalming yourself on your lack of foresight!
  
• Have fun! So maybe you missed that Rocket Grab and your friends are laughing at you for that mistake. Take the extra effort to have that fun and activate that Power Fist to show that minion who's boss! If the comedic moment calls for it, steal that kill!
  
  
  If you have any further tips for me to add here, they would be greatly appreciated!

SUPER-ROBO-INVASION-TIME

OK, so you've loaded into game and your team thinks that the enemy lineup is favourable for y'all to make an invasion to steal their buffs, creeps, go for First Blood... whatever it may be.

Blitzcrank is a strong component to an early invasion because of his Rocket Grab. If the enemy is unsuspecting of an invasion, you can quickly pull one in for your team and quickly burst them down. Alternatively, you may ward their buff and steal it when it is low on health at minimal risk to your team, whilst perhaps setting back the enemy jungler.



This is a basic invasion guide video guide. I actually have a few things to highlight in just a second.



This is a very simplified example of how to steal their blue using Blitzcrank's grab. Usually, it won't go so undetected, because mid and the respective lanes where the buff is will be standing guard to deter/scout for invasions.

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In terms of routes, it is usually advisable to go via the lane and not passing the wraith camps on either side (regardless of which buff you are trying to invade at). Whilst in the above video, he says to take the shortest possible route when invading enemy blue (passing the wraith camp on your side of the map), this will also reveal you a lot sooner to the enemy champions should they be guarding in the brush on the opposite side of the trees to the blue buff. This may lose you the element of surprise, which is very important for the invasion.

As such, these are the routes I propose:

When invading red, the route I propose is pretty much the same as Zephilim's in the video, but for the blue buff, I advise going via the lane instead.

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• At level 1, it doesn't matter who you grab, no matter how tanky they seem. So long as your team focuses the one you've landed the grab on, first blood is usually assured. Just try and land the grab whilst your team-mates are nearby and not whilst they're still running up to you.
  
• If even one person doesn't go for the invasion, you abort it and revert to a standard opening. Either you all go or none of you go.
  
• ALWAYS take Rocket Grab first if you're invading. It is so much safer than invading with Power Fist or Overdrive.
  
• After you grab First Blood or their team has retreated, you must commit to one of three courses of actions: continue with the invasion and go for another kill if it seems plausible, steal their buff whilst they try and consolidate on their disadvantage, or leave their jungle and secure the buffs in your own jungle, regardless of whether you got First Blood or not. All this depends on what timing you used for your invasion and as such, have the buffs spawned? How long have they got to respawn? Is your team low on hp/mana?
  
  All these things should be taken into account using your common sense judgement. Ask yourself: Is is sensible to continue? Sometimes playing ambitiously pays off. Other times, it will heavily set you back.
  
• Often is the case in solo queue, there will be someone who doesn't have the same idea of how to invade as yourself and your team made end up having a poorly coordinated invade which does nothing but cause them to retreat whilst you meaninglessly spend your mana, time and effort invading. Should this be the case, it might be best to simply call it quits and recall so you can regroup.
  
• Sometimes your invade goes off a bit too early and it may leave the opponent with a chance to go around and steal your buff as well. As the support, you should have wards. Before you invade, you can ward your own buffs (you should have time, provided you invade precisely at 1:50-1:56). If you don't ward your buffs or you forget to, then on your way to your lane, if it's convenient to do so, you should quickly facecheck your buffs.
  
• As mentioned earlier, always take a second to think about your situation on the Fields of Justice, especially whilst invading. Use your common sense when surveying the map. Where do you have sight? Where might they come from? Where might they go? You should have multiple wards, so feel free to use a few (keep one for laning, though). Who knows, it might even set-up for a later counter-jungle/gank. One game, I set a ward by the wraith camps when invading red against a Rammus. We didn't get any kills when invading, but we stole the red. In any case, the Rammus came by the Wraith camp a bit later, where our Lee Sin and Lux promptly killed him. Roughly a minute later, Rammus stumbles by the camp again, where Lee Sin quickly kills him a second time. This won't happen 100% of the time, but setting back the enemy jungler can go a long way to making sure your lanes stay safe.
  
• Learn to use pings for simpler commands, like 'Go', 'Be careful' or 'Retreat'.

Well, for the time being, that's all I can think of. Maybe I over-thought some parts and said something silly. If you could be so kind as to point it out to me, I'd be very grateful! =D

Enemies To Look Out For

Here, I will talk about popular counter-picks against Blitz, or at least, difficult laning opponents to be facing and possible ways of dealing with them.

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The Problem:
What makes a good Sivir is her ability to counter enemy abilities with her Spell Shield. If she is able to anticipate when you're going to try your Rocket Grab and uses Spell Shield, you will only be giving your mana to Sivir. Not only does this help render you useless, but actually a detriment against your own team. Her poke with Boomerang Blade is comparable to the range of your Rocket Grab so she can return the attack in kind.

Possible Solutions:
So she can only block your Rocket Grab if 1) the player has good intuition or 2) can see you prepare for it. If it's the former, there's nothing you can do. These guys are pros who can see 3-5 moves ahead of you at least. If it's the latter, there's a number of things you can do. You can grab her from a brush, so she doesn't see you prepare for it. Use Vision Wards to clear the brush so you make sure she doesn't have sight to you. Then she won't know when you'll make the grab. You could also use a surprise Flash into a Rocket Grab if you are confident on hitting her. However, this still gives her a fraction of a second to respond, which might be enough. Another possibility is to simply zone her out and deny her farm, whilst your Carry gets their farm. Otherwise, if it's plausible, then focus her support instead.

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The Problem:
Almost NEVER EVER EVER grab Alistar. Any CC you give him will just be returned in kind threefold whilst his carry focuses you into the ground. Generally, he is more tanky than you, more sustainable than you, zones just as good (if not better) than you. He is better than Blitz in a lot of ways, especially if they know what they're doing.

Possible Solutions:
Simply don't grab him. Try and target his carry when they're out of position. Wait for a more favourable situation, like when your jungler ganks and you are unable to focus the Carry and can focus Alistar instead. Wait for him to use up his abilities, so you know when it's safe to try grabbing him (if the situation is favourable for it).

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The Problem:
This guy combines some of the best manoeuvrability and burst damage in the game, especially for an AD carry. Not only can his Arcane Shift avoid your Rocket Grab from landing in the first place, but even if you do land it, he can beam right away before your Power Fist comes into play. If the Ezreal player is good, he might even return damage in kind! It's like trying to grab explosive jelly with this guy...

Possible Solutions
If your laning partner has form of their own CC, like Caitlyn's Yordle Snap Trap or Teemo's Noxious Trap for you to pull them into, then combination attacks like this would maximise your chances to deal damage to an Ezreal. Try and grab from the brush, so he can't anticipate a grab so easily and just hope your AD does enough to burst him down or force him to recall. Zoning him is slightly more difficult because of his manoeuvrability and focusing his support might give him the opportunity to burst you down. Find an opportune moment when his support moves out of position or when Ezreal has recalled. Another way is to try Lemme Go! when you are certain you will have a clear shot with Rocket Grab after he Arcane Shifts away. The lack of escapes thereafter should make it easier to clean him up.

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The Problem:
Leona is the Queen of CC. Every single ability causes slow or stun. She has killer initiates and is tanky. Probably my favourite support if it wasn't Blitzcrank. Her passive also gives her ADC extra damage as well, if that wasn't enough.

Possible Solutions:
Like Alistar, you can simply not focus her. However, there are some factors about her that you can take advantage of. She is an all-in champion. When her Zenith Blade hits, she will fly to the furthest champion hit by her sword. Sometimes, this may take her out of position. Take advantage of this and you may secure a kill on her. If you force her ultimate from her, it'll also make it easier for your jungler to gank. If her Zenith Blade misses, you can also take advantage of this opportunity to harass or zone her out. Until she gets items, she has incredibly long CDs. Just try not to be too aggressive and pick your moments to initiate. Simply trying to zone her with your presence is unlikely to work well.

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The Problem:
If Alistar is the King of CC, and Leona is the Queen of CC, then Janna is probably the princess of CC amongst supports. Ranging from slows to knock-ups and knock-backs, you'll be thrown all over the place. Whilst not particularly difficult to deal with, she can be very tricky to deal with.

Possible Solutions:
There is usually a sound made when Janna casts Howling Gale. Unfortunately, it still makes it difficult to predict the trajectory sometimes, since there are no tell-tale signs. Nonetheless, it means you can prepare for it and make an effort to avoid it. If this ability is used up, then it'll be quite safe to make a grab for her should you wish. Always keep in mind where you'll wind up should she cast her ultimate, Monsoon. Without Howling Gale or Monsoon, it makes it difficult for Janna to escape from enemies should she find herself trapped. Take advantage of this and try for early kills against Janna pre-level 6. Otherwise, find opportunities when she has used Howling Gale and Monsoon.

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The Problem:
Tristana has an escape mechanism and can deal a surprising amount of burst damage. Even if you grab her, she can find it relatively easy to escape. With her Rocket Jump and Buster Shot, she can easily distance herself from you, or, reposition you to something more to her advantage.

Possible solutions:
Tristana is also quite mana hungry. Take advantage of when her mana is low to grab her. At level 6, you can change the combo to use your Static Field after your Rocket Grab so she can't use her abilities to escape during the brief moment she's silent. Then take the opportunity to use Power Fist. And also as with Ezreal, you can try the Lemme Go! combo where you are sure you can make a grab on that Megling after the Rocket Jump (though I'm quite certain it's actually out of your grabbing range). May require Overdrive to land the Power Fist.

Katsuni gave an interesting bit of insight about the buggy nature of Riot which Blitzcrank users can exploit!



If you see this comment in the comments, please give it an upvote! =D

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If you have any other champions which you feel Blitzcrank would struggle against, let me know so I can think about it and try to come up with ways to work around them.

Conclusions

Well, as far as Blitzcrank goes, that's all I have to say for him as a support. Of course, it would certainly be nice for the Mobafire community to give me pointers and tips to consider. Help me to learn more about him as well. I won't ask for upvotes, because I'll get them if I deserve them, and if I get downvotes, then I hope to see constructive criticism for me to make this guide as good as my ability allows.

Also, if you have anything to contribute towards the design of this guide, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Even though I got all the information down, I am still relatively lazy in terms of the design and aesthetics. I'm very acutely aware that pictures and videos are lacking and I hope to rectify this somehow, somewhen. Maybe a video or picture or relevant screenshot will happily find its way to my inbox...? ;)

I hope my guide has helped you one way all another, because Blitz is a really fun champion to play, even if he can be a little frustrating at times.

Of course, if you help me, I'll put you into the credits, no matter how small the addition is.

So good luck and have fun!

Credits

It would be rude of me, of course, not to mention the many people that there are to thank.

First, to jhoijhoi, who's Guide to making a Guide was highly contributive towards my making of a guide, whether it be in templates, learning coding or whatever.

To Panglot for his exhaustive guide on warding.

To Derpasoarus/CrazyDante, my friend, who got me into playing LoL for real and pwning my butt with Blitzcrank.

Potential Sections

This little bit is just on sections which I considered writing and decided that provided I had time, I'd get onto or because I felt I needed some more research and experiment time to do. If you feel there are any sections here that I should prioritize, let me know.


Ideal Laning Partners
Video/Pictures Section
Hall of Fame
Other Recommended Reads

Changelog

14/11/12[/u]

Changed runes. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist to Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

28/10/12[/u]

Changed build to omit Tear of the Goddess. I have found that it is true that it makes you fall behind on the rest of your build - it's simply too expensive to get for a support champion to make it practical.

Changed Masteries to include 1 point in Summoner's Wrath for takers of Exhaust. Courtesy to JEFFY40HANDS for this simple yet somehow overlooked suggestion.

Removed Power Fist vs Rocket Grab section. Redid Skill Sequence section.

Added a new Core Build section.

Added some additional items to take ( Force of Nature, Guardian Angel, Quicksilver Sash, etc).

Included Leona into the 'Opponents' section.

21/08/12[/u]

Added extra bit of information on playing against Tristana generously supplied by Katsuni!

18/08/12

Shifted the skillset focus to maxing Power Fist.

Modified the guide to include a third build that doesn't utilise Tear of the Goddess. Thanks to Apfeljack and jhoijhoi for advising on this.

Included Aegis of the Legion as part of the main build. Thanks to KoreanSP and Apfeljack for advising on this.

13/08/12

Included Rocket Grab VS Power Fist section to outline the benefits of focusing on either. Brought to my attention by Xenotechie and jhoijhoi, as well as other members of my ranked team.

After much consideration, added Ionian Boots of Lucidity as a viable early game boot selection.

Added some videos for Blitzcrank.

06/08/12

Finished the Invasion section. Thanks to Cluncked for advising on this.

Started including a second alternative build that goes without Tear of the Goddess to explore alternatives.

Included a 3rd section for Spells which are deemed to be unworthy of use, but worthy of a slight mention. Thanks to Apfeljack for advising on this.

25/07/12

Changed the guide to require a comment to vote. Thanks to 87alphaone for advising on this.

Added a second cheat sheet with different skillset and item build order and fixed the columns in the 'Advantages and Disadvantages' section. Thanks to Xenotechie for advising on this.