Blitzcrank is one of the most versatile champions in the game. I've tried Tank builds with Blitz to find I don't have enough burst damage to help enough in ganks, teamfights, and especially laning... other than being a metal punching bag. Then I tried DPS and I was disappointed with his survivability in teamfights, often causing whole team deaths. When people see Blitz on their team, they immediately think tank for some reason, so when you go for a build that isn't tanky, your team doesn't have the survivability to be viable.

Finally, I got fed up with one of the top-voted builds on mobafire for Blitz, the Hardkiller/CDR build because it was outdated and generally unreadable (as of this writing). So I reworked the build into something that doesn't waste CDR items/runes/masteries with the 40% reduction cap, and tailored it to my playstyle.

If you've played Blitz at all, you know early game you try to play defensive near your tower while laning. You grab them into your tower's range, knock them up, and at level 6, ulti their ***. Even without a teammate laning with you, this can kill. Preferably, lane with a champion with a stun, taunt, snare, etc. Keeping an enemy Champion stuck in the tower's range (or even out of their own tower's range so you can keep attacking) is the number one priority. Get your teammate and yourself fed as much as you can early game. The earlier your team has a large kill advantage, the faster you can win the game.

Mid-game: Stick with allies for the most part. Don't get ganked because you aren't 100% tank and can get killed without support. You canNOT 1v1 pretty much anyone (without a tower at least). If this disappoints you, you wasted IP for this champion. Like I wrote, stick with your team, pull stray enemy champions, and help your team finish them off. Yank cowering champs from their towers, kill them with your teammates, then take down the tower. Rinse, repeat.

End-game: When the 5v5 teamfights come, your versatility will be praised. You can pull a champ into your team, starting a full on teamfight before the enemy team is ready. You can ulti, silencing the entire other team and reducing their health by half or more. You can pop up a champ in the middle of the fight to prevent them causing unnecessary devastation to your team simultaneously showing your team who to target next. When my team is winning, the enemy is so frustrated, my team is so fed, we have every single tower still stand, they have 6 to 9 down, they usually surrender before we even get in their base.

If things go wrong: If you get ganked, your W combined with Ghost will have you sprinting faster than Master Yi. If you're stunned, try to time these abilities right after it wares off so you can limp away fast! A pop up can help get you away as all.

Your Q: Pull enemies into tower or your team for an assist kill. Pull enemies out from under their towers to harass or kill. Pull enemies into teamfights before they are ready. Pull enemies away from your fleeing teammate to save their life. Just be sparing early game, because the second you start spamming it, you'll be mana-starved.

Your W: Sprint into an enemy tower, after the defending enemy is pulled and killed, and fast attack the tower into oblivion. Sprint after fleeing enemies. Sprint across the battlefield when your teleport is on cooldown. Sprint out of a gank or a fight gone bad.

Your E: Pop up any enemy after a good pull. Pop up an enemy to stop them from killing a teammate. Pop up an enemy that's trying to kill you just before sprinting away. Pop up the next enemy on their team so your team knows to focus fire on them next.

Your R: Blast them after a pop up for a sure kill under your tower. Blast them when a cocky caster thinks they have a spell that'll give them the upper-hand. Blast the whole enemy team in the middle of a massive teamfight to get lots of kills, assists, and give your team additional killing power while silencing the enemy team into an everlasting slumber. Blast a mass of enemy minions for an instant pile of gold. And finally, when you aren't using your ulti, lightning bolts rain from the sky every 2.5 seconds. I've accidentally killstealed a few times that way, or helped a gold-starved ally farm minions with it.

Your Passive: Just when your enemy and even you think you're about to die, a mana shield absorbs any damage up to 50% of your total mana. I love being near-death as bait to an enemy only for my mana to shield me and my team or tower kills them instead.

Always get your Rocket Grab first. You can get kills level 1 with it above anything else. Go for Power Fist at level 2, to make your Rocket Grabs more devastating. Level 3, get Overdrive so you can sprint in and out of fights to kill and survive more easily. After that, upgrade your skills to your playstyle. If you are constantly waiting for your Rocket Grab to cool down, upgrade to make it faster. If you're getting chased more, upgrade Overdrive to sprint and attack faster. If you're in close-quarters more, upgrade Power Fist to knock the enemy up more. And, as always, upgrade your Static Field whenever you can.

I tend to only use my Power Fist after Rocket Grab early game, and since Power Fist has a much larger CD, I upgrade it first. I like getting Overdrive upgraded fairly quickly as well so I can chase, attack, and flee faster and sooner!

To be honest, I haven't experimented with runes much, so I went flat AP across the board. Because having 34 AP with just my runes at level 1 makes grabbing an enemy oh so deadly. And when you hit level 6, your grab with your ulti and a good teammate or tower is instant death.

9-0-21: As much CDR as possible. This gives 24% from level 1. After your first full item, Shurelya's Reverie, is built, you have 39%. Just under the cap max. Plus you get more gold over time, more experience over time to level faster, a bit more AP each level along with more magic pen, and finally wonderful health and mana regen because you are tanky and mana-starved early game.

This is where most of my thoughts turned for this build.

Start with a Regrowth Pendant for early health regen to lane longer. Upgrade that to a Philosopher's Stone for more health regen, some mana regen, and more gold! I love this little item.

Next go for Sheen, for AP, mana, and most importantly it makes your Power Fist more deadly.

Get yourself some boots next! Blitz is very slow without Overdrive active. I prefer Mercury Treads for the Magic Resist (you are tanky) and because the only thing that can stop you cold are all those stuns, snares, slows, taunts, fears, and sleeps. If the enemy doesn't seem to have a lot of those, I go Sorcerer's Shoes for Magic Pen.

Now finish the upgrade from P-Stone to Shurelya's Reverie because it's a cheap tank item with the only CDR you'll need from items.

Fifth, get Rod of the Ages. It gives you health, mana, and AP, and more over time. That's why I get this early as my second fully upgraded item, to max out the over time effects as soon as possible.

Next, upgrade that Sheen to a Lich Bane. Heatlh, great AP, Magic Resist, a bit more movement speed for slow old Blitzy, and keep that Sheen Effect going strong!

Finally, Rylai's Scepter for more Health, more AP, and slow the enemy down for slow old Blitzy with each grab, pop up, and blast.

If you notice, I don't list a sixth item. That's for you to decide depending on your playstyle and what the enemy team is bringing. I recommend a tank item if you're team is losing or an AP item if you're team is as god-like as this champ.

I love this build because I can do initial burst damage then survive most anything that didn't die. I am curious to find or create a tanky DPS build next, as that seems much harder to do.