Introduction
Hello people, I am Pingku and this is my first build on Mobafire. First I'd like to remind you all that stuff I write here about are my opinions. If you disagree with something I say or you have improvements to this guide, feel free to comment. I hope you enjoy my guide and find it effective in-game too. Please comment and rate, but only if you have tested this build first.
So, why 
Blitzcrank?
I just feel it's the right champ for me. First of all, I love to trifle with my opponents and Blitzcrank suits that purpose well. Just when opponents think they are safe, moving together in group on midlane, I grab one of them over some terrain, pop him in the air with some lightning bolts following and then look how he/she tries to run away if not dead yet.
The second reason is, that Blitzcrank can be played many different ways. Though this guide includes only AP/CDR/Mana build, I love champions that are versatile and not stuck on one possible build option. Also I like the synergy of stuff on Blitzcrank but more about that later.
The last and maybe the most important reason why I like to play Blitzcrank is because he looks so cool and is so fun to play. I'm not the player who just picks the most effective champion in the game (not saying that Blitzcrank isn't one though). I like to play champions that I find fun to play and maybe not the most popular. After choosing one and maybe reading some guides here on Mobafire, I can start tuning my own, unique build on that champion.
Why AP?
Sometimes I don't like sticking to the mainstream. Since most people play Blitzcrank as AD/Mana, then hell yeah I wanna go for AP, if it's a viable option. Also it would be stupid to write another AD/Mana based guide to Mobafire, since there are so many already.
And if someone wants one more reason, I really find AP build more effective than AD. Some of you might disagree with this and it's okay. Maybe AP just fits my playstyle better. I have played Blitzcrank as AD too but AP just felt better. It felt like it was "my way" to play Blitzcrank. Your way might be AD and it's just good. Even though I wanted to share my knowledge in Mobafire, I don't want every Blitzcrank to be AP. It would kinda take some shine away from playing AP Blitzcrank. I think you all get my point. :)
Updates
2011-03-15:
Published the guide
2011-04-11:
Few fixes to the guide:
- Added this Updates-chapter
- 
Shurelya's Reverie swapped to 
Banshee's Veil. Found this more useful, better survivability, more mana and health, more AP due to 
Archangel's Staff, and very strong passive.
- Re-wrote some parts a bit. Also wroted some new parts like "Why AP?" in Introduction-chapter.
- Almost added a chapter for items, but found it useless: I don't want to write about situational items for this build since I find this item build very solid and very rarely buy my items differently. In fact, only thing I consider changing is when opposing team has strong crowd control. In that case I will swap 
Boots of Swiftness for 
Mercury's Treads. If some people don't like my item build or find better items, then they can swap items of course. I just personally find this build tuned near to perfection, at least for my playstyle.
2011-09-27:
Updating the guide:
- Updated some facts like final AP and mana cap with full build, since some items have changed in latest patches.
Things to add in the future:
- I'm thinking about adding tank and AD build to this guide too.
- I might also add Items-chapter later, even though I thought this guide doesn't need it.
Pros / Cons
Pros
+ Versatile champion
+ Great initiator
+ Good crowd control
+ Grab + Fist combo is great near turrets
+ Nice passive
+ Abilities in good harmony, you will find them all very useful
+ Great synergy of items, abilities and masteries
+ Fun as hell to play
Cons
- Hard to master
- Needs good team communication
- Mana hungry
- Not too good farmer during early game
- Basically a hybrid champ (can do lots of stuff, but isn't the best one in any area)
Abilities
Here I added short summary of Blitzcrank's abilities:
Rocket Grab
Definitely Blitzcrank's main ability. This is what makes your enemy afraid of you and your team love you, given that you can use it well. I could write a whole guide about this ability, but I want you to learn the finesse of it by yourself. So I just say few things:
- It can be used effectively to grab enemies through walls. Having someone to scout the other side of wall makes this easier, if there are no minions. Also this is the reason why you should consider picking 
Clairvoyance.
- Using 
Power Fist right after a grab makes you a nice combo
- During early game, use it to pull enemies to your turret. In experienced player games it wont be easy, since opponents know the trick and hide behind minions.
Overdrive
I'm mostly boosting movement speed with this since this build doesn't raise attack damage at all. During late game this will be active almost all the time and you will probably be the fastest character in your team. I put one point on it before level 6, but after that I don't raise it until I have to.
Power Fist
An ability that works well with your grab. Raising the level only decreases cooldown, but that really doesn't matter. Good crowd control and with low cooldown, it will be hard for your opponents to run away.
Static Field
Good ability to finish your damage burst after Grab + Fist combo. If you are pursuiting an enemy and there is no minions around, you might want to let passive effect hit a few times before activating to ensure you get a kill. Also good way to farm minions during late game. Just activate it in the middle of the group and they all perish. With low cooldown it doesn't feel like wasting the ulti.
Mana Barrier
Some champions have bad passive abilities but Blitzcrank's is awesome. It gives you the lacking survivability so you don't need to buy defensive items. Gets boosted by mana items, which makes it even better on this build.
Masteries
For masteries I wanted to go 9/0/21:
Offense: I used points to boost magic damage and CDR, with one point on Cripple, since I use Exhaust spell:
- Cripple
- Archmage's Savvy (3)
- Sorcery (4)
- Archaic Knowledge
Utility: I focused mostly on boosting mana, regens and CDR. 3 points on Quickness helps, because Blitzcrank has base movement speed of 300 (base movement speeds vary from 300 to 330):
- Good Hands (1)
- Perseverence (3)
- Awareness (1)
- Expanded Mind (4)
- Greed
- Meditation (3)
- Quickness (3)
- Blink of an Eye
- Intelligence (3)
- Presence of the Master
Late Game
When you can afford upgrade your 
Sheen to 
Lich Bane. Your damage will get nice boost now since you have good AP and get bonus effect from Bane. Teams start to move together and you will be your team's key champion to initiate fights. Try to grab squishy enemy champions from their group. If you succeed it will be easy kill for your team. Usually if you get to kill enemy team's DPS champions the enemy has to retreat because your team has now an advantage. Use this advantage well and push, you might get their turret down or if they stay to defend it you might get an opportunity to grab more of them.
Next item will be 
Rabadon's Deathcap, you might want to buy 
Needlessly Large Rod first to boost your AP, since the whole thing is expensive. Keep killing Golem if other players in your team don't need it. If there are other mana hungry champions, you might not need it so desperately, especially if you upgrade your 
Glacial Shroud to 
Frozen Heart, which gives you even more cooldown reduction.
If it's a long game you might get to finish the item build by selling 
Philosopher's Stone and buying Banshee's Veil. This item can be also bought earlier if opposing team has heavy magic damage.
So, in the end of the game, if opponent didn't get fed and beat your team up all day long, you should be pretty much a monster. AP should be over 500 (506 with a full build), so Static Field's active should deal over 1000 damage. Lich Bane effect adds that 500 to your next auto-attack after using an ability and since your CDR is almost 40% you can be spamming abilities all the time to trigger that effect. Rocket Grab will deal about 700 damage and pull the enemies to you. You will be able to spam Power Fist every 3 seconds so enemies will have hard time running from you if you get to fight 1v1. Overdrive raises your movement speed to 507 so you should have no problems catching enemies. With mana capped to maximum (3654) you get huge shield with Blitzcrank's passive Mana Barrier if your health goes down to 20%. When passive triggers you better start running, at least if they are hitting you all the time. This passive will save your life many times.
If the game keeps going past finishing the item build, just start buying elixirs to use your extra money. 
Elixir of Brilliance caps CDR to 40% and gives AP (raises it to 546), so it's the first elixir to buy.
Synergy (items, abilities, masteries, runes)
Before ending this guide I still wanted to talk about one thing that makes Blitzcrank strong. That thing is called synergy. I'm not the best one to describe stuff but I define it like this: When different things work well together they have good synergy. In League of Legends those things can be champions, items, abilities, masteries and runes. I feel that Blitzcrank has very good synergy in all of these areas, at least in this build.
I start explaining from items, abilities, masteries and runes because they have synergy together. After that I move to champions. I try to keep it short so people don't get too bored. Some people might not care about this chapter, though I find it the most exciting part of this guide and very important to tell you about it.
Mana, Regen and CDR
Items related to this part:
Tear of the Goddess, later upgraded to Archangel's Staff
Glacial Shroud, later upgraded to Frozen Heart
Lich Bane
Philosopher's Stone
Banshee's Veil
Elixir of Brilliance (not writing about this item really, it's just to cap your CDR to 40% if you don't have mana buff)
Runes and Masteries related to this part:
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
All mana related masteries
Mana is an important part of this build. It helps Blitzcrank's Mana Barrier, which works just amazingly, because this build will get 3785 mana. It means that if you go down to 20% health you will get shield of over 1800 HP, given that you have maximum mana. Usually you don't have maximum mana, but it still gives great shield. This passive also means that you don't have to buy too much health items, mana will benefit your survivability too. So, this ability has awesome synergy with mana items, runes and masteries of this build.
Other abilities also benefit from good mana pool. Since this build gets to 40% cooldown reduction and Blitzcrank's abilities have low cooldowns already, you will be spamming them all the time. So you have to have mana to use your abilities + some extra to gain shield from Barrier.
As I just said, Blitzcrank's abilities have low cooldowns so getting them even lower is one of the points on this build. When CDR hits 40%, your Overdrive's cooldown will be 9 seconds. Since it's active for 8 seconds that leaves you 1 second before you can activate it again. Power Fist's cooldown goes down to 3 seconds so you will have happy time popping enemies up. With Rocket Grab and Static Field there is nothing special to tell, though you get your ulti ready faster (18 seconds with 40% CDR) after unloading the storm on your enemies. And it's always nice to have your abilities ready. :)
Damage
Items related to this part:
Archangel's Staff (Maybe the item that has most synergy with this build, it ties mana, AP and survivability through Mana Barrier together. I love it!)
Lich Bane
Rabadon's Deathcap
Runes and Masteries related to this part:
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
Offense masteries
So, damage of this build is raised by three items. I find them all very useful here. Staff boosts mana and AP + converts mana to AP, so I think it's pretty much a must item here. If my calculations are right (don't trust my calculations, I don't know if there is some real formula on this), staff gives about 100 AP with that convert power, added to the base 45 AP of the item. Bane adds adds 80 AP and some mana to boost staff, while also giving awesome passive that makes AP useful while meleeing. The last item is Deathcap just to maximize AP on this build.
The final AP should be 506. Since Rocket Grab has AP ratio of 0.8 and Static Field 1.0, you will get good profit from this AP. It also boosts Bane's passive and this ends you up to huge damage burst if you use Rocket Grab -> Power Fist -> Static Field combo.
Survivability
Items related to this part:
All mana items should be here because of Mana Barrier, but I don't talk about it again.
Boots of Swiftness
Glacial Shroud, later upgraded to Frozen Heart
Lich Bane
Banshee's Veil
Runes and Masteries related to this part:
Greater Quintessence of Health
Mana related masteries ( Mana Barrier) and Quickness
Let's start with movement speed. You will not be the most tanky character, though you will have better survivability than squishy carries. This is why movement speed gets bigger role and I think it's one part where this build shines. Boots of Swiftness give you high running speed and it is boosted by Quickness-mastery and Lich Bane. Overdrive boosts your speed even more and you will have it active almost all the time. All this added together, your movement speed should be 507 with your Overdrive.
I don't have much more to say about survivability, since it wasn't my priority when making this build. Frozen Heart gives nice armor boost though, while Lich Bane and Banshee's Veil add some magic resist. Banshee's Veil also grants strong passive, which blocks 1 spell completely every 45 seconds.
Summary
Okay, this the first part of the chapter about synergy. I don't know if it was or wasn't helpful to some you, I just felt I want to write about it. This chapter doesn't really have everything I could say about synergy on this build. I probably forgot some things, things that I don't even think about while playing. If you try this build you might find more synergy between stuff. I just tried to write some of the most important points here.
Summary
So this was it! My first guide on Mobafire.
Please try this build, write comments and suggestions. This guide might need some fixing, so I will appreciate your help very much. I hope you enjoy your time playing Blitzcrank as much as I do.
Peace :)
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Build Guide
Discussion (73)
Clarity
Teleport could be used, but since you have 
Regrowth Pendant from shop to get some early health regen, so you dont have to come back right when you take damage. I don't usually buy mana potion though Blitzcrank might have mana problems, you can buy if you feel like it.
Boots of Speed and upgrade your Pendant to 
Nunu
Absolute Zero range. Also since Nunu has good slowing ability (
Ice Blast), it's impossible for opponents to run from you. And if that's not enough, Nunu also has shareable movement and attack speed boost (
Blood Boil). Nunucrank, an awesome combination!
Teemo
Move Quick), so you two can make deadly fast combination ganking enemies around the map.
Alistar
Pulverize and 
Headbutt added to Blitzcrank's crowd control abilities make this combination pretty tough. You can grab enemy champion towards your turret and Alistar can knock them even further. Nice combination.
Karthus
Defile or to make them go through 
Wall of Pain.
Fiddlesticks
Drain or 
Crowstorm.
