Hey Friends! This is my Guide to Ap Blitzcrank and I would appreciate if you won't click this guide away only because it isn't the actual "Meta" because he has a really nice amount of damage and poking potential. I hope you enjoy it. Btw. This is my first guide so far.

As you see you can use 2 actual builds.
1. Is the standart ap build
2. Is the Earlycrank build which is focused on getting sustain in early

The city of Zaun is a place where both magic and science have gone awry. The unchecked nature of experimentation has taken its toll on the city. However, Zaun's lenient restrictions allow their researchers and inventors the leeway to push the bounds of science at an accelerated rate, for better or worse. It was under these conditions that a team of doctoral students from Zaun's College of Techmaturgy made a breakthrough in the field of intelligent steam automation. Their creation, the steam golem Blitzcrank, was developed to exercise judgment on-the-fly in order to assist with Zaun's hazardous waste reclamation process, since so often the conditions did not allow for human supervision. However, he soon began exhibiting unforeseen behaviors.

Over time, the scientists were able to identify a demonstrated learning process, and Blitzcrank fast became a celebrity. As is sadly often the case though, credit for the golem's creation was scooped up by another - Professor Stanwick Pididly - though most now know the truth. In the wake of the ensuing legal maelstrom, it became evident that neither party truly had the steam golem's best interests at heart, and Blitzcrank humbly petitioned for personal autonomy. Backed by overwhelming support from the public, it took the liberal Council of Zaun only a few weeks to declare Blitzcrank a fully-independent, sentient entity. A unique being, the golem left Zaun, distressed by the controversy and feeling there was no place he could fit in. His travels led him to the one location in Valoran where unique beings have a place - the League of Legends. Fortunately, he was easily able to adapt his design to suit the rigors he would face on the Fields of Justice.

Though Blitzcrank may batter anything that stands in his way, he really has a heart of gold... encased in a framework of iron... in a carapace of steel.

Pros:
- He can zone the enemy out really hard
- Is really rewarding if played well
- Is underrated really often because he isnt played often in mid
- He has an insane moment potential with his grab and his ultimate
- He has got INSANE Aoe damage
- He has got INSANE CC

Cons:
- Quite Hard to master
- Needs experience with the enemy champ to play against him
- Is skillshot reliant
- Is often banned in ranked on low elo (even in high elo)

As farming is really special on Blitz mid I want to explain it a bit more to you:

Play passive and only take exp and 1 or 2 creeps of the first wave. This is important because he pushes even if he doesnt want to and you can grab him more easily. If you know enemy is pushing just kill minions but try to last hit. If you got problems with last hitting try to activate your W to farm.

If you are Level 6 you will try to Get aggressive on him and zone him out from your minions.If you think you can farm just Ult in the middle of the enemy minions. Try to follow him and harass him with your skills. IMPORTANT: Wait until his skills are on cd and then follow him to hell.
P.S.: If you can try to attack him with your E first and grab if he is running away. Much more potential of getting kills!

As Blitzcrank you go offense but you wait until the enemy want to attack you. As your ultimate has a 30 (!!!) seconds cooldown you will always have your ultimate ready! This means every 30 seconds you got a 0,5 sec. shut down on channeling! This ability is really useful on Enemys like Kata/Fiddle/Nunu etc.

Starting Items:

These Items are the only good Opportunity to start with him on mid as they offer sustain and mobility which are both really important early on

First Back:

The Mobility Boots allow you to dodge skills really easy and the Doran's Ring gives you the power to hold on in early game

Offensive Build:

This is the Build i use generally on him as Athene's Unholy Grail provides Magic Resist, Manaregeneration Ability Power and Cooldown reduction and the Lich Bane/ Sheen synergizes REALLY well with his Abilities. Also you can use the passive of Abyssal Scepter really well.

Defensive Build:

This is the Build for Blitz if he gets beaten really hard. It slows down his strength pretty hard but it gives you sustain early on with a Catalyst the Protector. If you want you can replace Rod of Ages with Rylai's Crystal Scepter (not recommended)

Situational Items:

Defensive:

Frozen Heart for Armor and Mana, Banshee's Veil for Poke-Counter, Thornmail for Counter against hard Ad's like Fiora, Zhonya's Hourglass for Sustain if getting focused. You can replace it with Guardian's Angel

Offensive:

Deathfire Grasp for addional Burst, Iceborn Gauntlet for Slow with Auto-Attacks(also makes them stronger), Armor, CD-red., AP and Mana, Void Staff to counter MR, Manamune upgraded to Muramana Passive boost and nice auto-attack boost.
IMPORTANT: Only take one of Iceborn Gauntlet and Lich Bane!!! They won't stack it's passive.

As you will see many Mastery-Choices are possible for Blitzcrank!

You could focus on 21/0/9, 21/9/0, 0/9/21 or 9/0/21!! Each of these ways to build is very rewarding to test. Many are coming out with 21/0/9 so with this you should start. If you get more experienced you should try other Mastery-Combinations!!!!

I take those because they really fit well to my playstyle with Blitzcrank:
- For the Damage early on I take Ap-Quints and Magic-Pen. Marks as they will grant you insane damage with only one grab!

- I take Seals of Armor for several reasons. First they protect me from autoattack damage from minions and Champions because you need to zone the enemy out and as they will see that they dont hit you with grabs they will just throw autoattacks on you. and Second because many Junglers are AD nowadays and I dont want to go back early on just because an enemy shyvana threw 2 skills at me :D

- My Glyphs include much mr because you will need much against ap mid! You sprint to the enemy, throw one combo in their face and sprint away in 5 Seconds. In this time you are vulnerable and so i decided to take Greater Glyphs of Magic Resistance.

Mana Barrier: This one will make you REALLY hard to kill and surprisingly strong. If you and your enemy are poking each other you would grab him into tower and he would try to kill you. But if you have only 20% heal then it goes BOOOOM and you got an shield and dont die. Also it is THE Ignite counter as it turns on automaticly

Rocket Grab: This is your bread and butter and will follow you through the whole gameplay with blitz. If you hit the enemy is screwed but if you don't hit and the enemy goes offensive: God bless you ---->PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!!!

Overdrive: This is really a skill which shouldnt be underrated because in mid game you can turn it on again just as the cooldown is over. I max it 2nd because with Boots of Mobility you can catch up EVERYONE and you can dodge skillshots easy with running up and down :D

Power Fist: One of the best skills in combination with you Rocket Grab. Just use it right after your grab and the CC continues while the enemy is just staying at the monitor not being able to do anything

Static Field: You won't believe me but it's one of the strongest Skills in the whole game. It cancels channeling and silences for 0.5 seconds and the most important thing: You can do around 2500 Damage on the whole enemy team if placed well :D

Now we come to the Spells i take with Blitzcrank

Flash is the most usefull spell on blitz because you can flash to an enemy and grab him or jump away/over walls to escape.

As you have speed on your boots and with your W-Spell you can just ignore because you are already fast as hell.

This is a Spell who can really be rewarding against heavy burst but generally they won't help you. Leave it to Supporters like Sona and Taric.

The other summoner spells are not really useful (what do you want with Surge or Heal and Revive which are only really worth it in early)

The only other ones that are worth it to take are only if you exactly know who your enemy is:

Cleanse Is for HARD CC like Fiddlesticks

Clarity If your WHOLE team needs TONS of Mana and you dont want to build mana items(NOT recommended)

Promote If you know you will be your main pusher and you are premade (NOT recommended

As you all know everybody in low elo says supporter have to ward! And I will tell you that they aren't right. Because why should a supporter who hasn't much gold ward the whole map? That doesn't make sense does it? If you think you have less wards just buy 1 or 2 for around 150 Gold every time you back. This will make your map control much stronger! But don't forget to ward with Vision Ward at dragon and baron!!!

Here is a Map with Ward Locations: Green and orange are most important. The others are optional:
As you will see you will NOT have warded everything at the same time. It is IDEAL so pls don't think that your team has to ward all the map locations on the map above

- Try to always zone your enemy out and don't let him farm

- Train your reaction and try to hit Rocket Grab whenever possible

- Try always to grab your enemy into a tower: Even if they are minions and he isn't focused by the tower he can't attack you because then he would get focused by it

- Always try to initiate with [Rocket Grab] of the Ad-Carry on the enemy team!!!
ATTENTION: Never Rocket Grab the tank of the enemy team !

- Your standart combination is really devastating on 1 target but if you Ult in the whole enemy team it could be worth it because of your huge damage.

- If you want to grab someone you should position so that you can grab him easier (best is if he is running straight towards you or running away from you in a line)

- One Stun with your Power Fist can easily secure kills

- If the enemy trades with you and then is running away try to grab him as late as possible so that your cooldown is used out to is maximum

- Do not try to get long trades! You will concentrate on burst so pls try to get in 1 quick trade and destroy the enemy.

- Your last hope will often be your Mana Barrier so don't forget about it !!!!

- Never stay in a 1v1 too long! You got burst and not DoT

- Try always to grab over walls! They are surprised in most situations and can't handle with that

As always in the League of Legends Teamwork is HIGH PRIORITY. If you cant work in team and want to play your own thing then Blitzcrank is the wrong champion for you. You have to get kills but dont steal everything and let you team fall behind. I think you know what I mean so I won't say anything else to this.

Even if you are lowlife you can try to use this to your advantage and try to bait them. For example you could try to get them near a bush where your mates are waiting so you can grab them to death ^^.

I'll soon upload some videos about this and the other Gameplay Tips in Combination with Gameplay Tips!

Ahri: Easy-Hard: As you will see it really depends on who is playing your opponnent Ahri. If she's good you won't have great posssibilities other than farming and ganking. BUT IF SHE IS NOT GOOD you will get EASY FREE KILLS!!! Just hope for an easy matchup

Akali: Easy: Really Easy Lane!!! You'll see that she has to get in melee range to kill you but this will just really in hard CC and damage for her!!

Anivia: Easy-Medium: Depends on how she can hit you with skill shots and how good are you in dodging of them. But at all you won't have big problems! You also can GRAB HER EGG !!!!!

Annie: Medium-Hard: As she will just burst you down if you get stunned by her you really have to pay attention. Just wait until she makes a mistake

Brand: Easy-Hard: Depends on how good you are at positioning and awaring of your lane!!!

Cassiopeia: Easy: As you will see you can just dodge her skills easily and she wont hit you with her spells because of your speed!!!

Diana: Medium: As you will see she won't be a problem if you don't feed her and dodge her Spells. Just call for a gank if you got Problems

Evelynn: Easy: if she gets near to you just Ult and she will be revealed XD

Gragas: Medium: Just try till he makes a mistake and dodge his Alcohol :D

Karthus: Easy: He can't hit you cause of your speed and if you grab him you will kill him in 1 Single Burst. Just Pay Attention on his Ultimate

Kassadin: Easy-Medium: Most of the Time you will get Kills at Level 3. But if not you will get some Problems caused by his Rift Walk Just try to wait till he walked to you and then grab him to hell.

Katarina: REALLY EASY: She has to get in range to do REAL Damage to you and you can interrupt her Ultimate with 3(!!!) Skills :DDD

Kennen: Hard: As you will see his stuns are really annoying!! Try to avoid that lane if possible. Otherwise just stay passive and farm.

LeBlanc: Medium: As you will see LeBlanc is a burst champ you can just interrupt her combo and she will be dead herself really fast. But if she gets you you will get problems.

Lux: Medium: Always try to dodge her skills and you'll be fine!!

Malzahar: Medium: Even if you think you can beat him you should try to focus on farming as his ult will break you really hardly.

Morgana: Easy: If you surprise her she can't activate shield in time so you should kill her easy. If you don't have to do sth. try to farm

Orianna: Easy: Dodge her Ball and you are totally fine!!!

Ryze: Hard: If you pull him in melee range he just does 1 Combo in Combination with his Ultimate and you will get hurt really badly.

Syndra: Medium: Even if she fails of her skills 1 Single Ultimate can burst you to Hell.

Veigar: Medium: Just avoid his cage and you are fine! Attention to his Ultimate XD

Viktor: Easy: You will just always dodge his skills in result of your speed so you shouldn't have problems.

Vladimir: Medium: ALways try to grab him into your team mates and wait for grab till he wastes his W.

Ziggs: Medium: Just try to stay away from his Mines and you are fine!!

Zyra: Easy: Easy to dodge her skills with your speed so you shouldn't have any Problems!!

As you will see most people will try to counter a Blitzcrank support as it is more actual meta-game. You can use this as an advantage for your own team. Also most people won't expect Blitzcrank on Mid so it is ideal to use Blitzcrank with easy mid laners such as Nidalee. This will make your game balance much more like the following:
- Earlygame: Underrated Power and Counters on Botlane -> Won Early Phase
- Midgame: Got Kills From Early Game -> Much easier Mid-Game
- Endgame: Advantages from good Rocket Grab's as initiator will win team fights -> WON GAME!!

Attention: You will see this is only a theory but for me it works most of the time ^^

If you liked my Guide I would really like if you like this guide and give constructive criticism to me in the comments.

19-02-2013: Added "Earlycrank" with Work in Progess Status as Request of a community member
18-02-2013: Added Ranked/Draft Pick and Counter Section
18-02-2013: Changed some minor things
15-02-2013: V. 1.1 with many changes including the items
15-02-2013: Created V. 1 of the Guide with AP Mid