Unlike most champions where mana stacking only helps offensively, on Blitz stacking mana makes blitz's shield much stronger, while with the addition of Manamune he becomes a formidable physical dps as well.

I choose to buff my AD over my AP early on because:
Manamune is a much cheaper item,
ad + sheen is very strong early on,
AD helps more with farming,
overload skill can be up 80% of the time with only the listed CDR meaning your physical dps with the overload AS is high and sustained,
the early on fighting is mostly single target fighting so we are going to max single target focus early on.

Many people may be confused as to why I chose Manamune as the first item I build and still call this a tank build.

The benefits to Blitz with manamune are tremendous.

Blitz's 4 abilities require no target, so they can be spammed for mana gain anytime so getting Manamune's passive asap is essential

Once charged manamune provides Blitz's shield with 675(+5% from mastery) additional hitpoints. It also provides Blitz with the ability to output damage in early teamfights due to the extra ad.

The extra mana and ad helps blitz farm allowing him to continue down the build order more quickly.

The item continues to get better as the build continues to develope. Each additional mana via leveling or item purchase increases the value of the manamune.

The AD has extra value on Blitz due to his increased AS from overdrive and AD being applied to power fist.

This Blitz is a AD dps/support initiator. Your job is to provide good ganking opportunities, soak damage, and provide good damage for your team. If you happen to kill a few along the way, great! but your main purpose is to protect and support your carries.

We are going Utility 21 Defense 9 (0/9/21).



We are going Utility to help our mana availability and to get extra CDR. The extra xp will get you to the point where you can farm effectively sooner (lvl 6) and the extra MS helps with positioning and chasing.

9 In defense gets strength of spirit, which will help our sustaining presence early on considerably. The extra armor and mr will improve the effectiveness of you health pool and shield considerably.

CV- nothing scares the piss out of a jungler more than a MIA blitz and a CV on their face. I've seen even the mighty WW tuck tail and abandon the dragon or blue buff for fear of being High Five'd. CV is the single best SS for an experienced Blitz as it allows you to keep track of enemies and this allows you to land game-changing grabs.

Flash- I pretty much run flash on any champion with a melee range CC ability. Being able to flash to land a powerfist is very powerful when ganking or chasing.

When we think of Blitz we often think of the rocket grab being his defining feature. What many don't consider is the value of Blitz's mobility with overdrive.

Blitz can disappear from a lane and have someone grabbed into a gank position in no time if you level his overdrive first. It also happens to give him sustained damage as well with all the AS associated with the skill, making it a great farming and pk'ing skill as well (especialy with the AD bonus of a manamune). It is also the most spammable skill Blitz has making it great for ramping up stacks on the tear/manamune.

We thus are maxing out overdrive first. This is non-negotiable.

We of course want the power fist/ rocket grab combo asap so we take our first points into these.

Your secondary skill to level really depends on what you are up against and your team's carry damage type. Basically, look at the buffs and debuffs available from your teams abilities, also look at the enemies items and see what they are defending against. If magic damage is favored take rocket grab, if physical take power fist. Remember, that you have more armor pen (see runes below) and the cd on power fist is lower so if its a tie take power fist as your second to level.

marks- desolation (armor pen)

Quints- Move speed (make overdrive more OP yeah...)

seals- flat armor

glyphs- flat MR

I start with a Doran's blade. This item provides a nice damage boost, some life steal and a significant health boost. Blitz has very good range and is a major threat in a dual lane. Because of this, he can build fairly aggressively with a blade rather than defensively with a shield. Strength of spirit provides some health return and you have defensive runes so you can mitigate some harass.

I return to the shop and get components to a manamune second. Sometimes I get a kill or two at the begining and I'm able buy the manamune on my shop visit.

[See manmune's chapter above for explaination. At this point start spamming skills every 3 seconds to build your mana pool] Overdrive is a great one to spam as it costs very little. I like to get Golem at this point so that I can free spam all my abilities for the buff's duration.]

I next buy boots. I prefer Merc Treds for the Tenacity and MR.

I then buy a sheen.
I then buy a cutlass. I really enjoy getting life steal on blitz. Since he has an attack speed buff and an on melee hit CC ability in rocket fist, he is well suited for getting in and staying in melee range.

I then buy a Trinity Force. Trinity force is a very very good item on blitz because of his low cds. Since you have a moderate amount of life steal on top of this, the Trinity force procs also help your sustainability and pump out bursty damage on top.

I next build a Banshee's Veil. This protects blitz from some counter cc and harass when positioning for a grab. Nothing is more frustrating than having a grab lined up and having a soraka get you with a clutch silence. This item also gives MR, HP, and MP (more shield). It also silently gives more hp/5 through strength of spirit.

The next item is a Glacial Shroud. This is a great CDR item, that also gives a great armor boost, and a AS debuff for the enemy.

I now upgrade the cutlass to a hextech gunblade. This item will help your ult and rocket grab damage and provides a good boost to self healing- not to mention the powerful active.

[This will make up for some of the armor you are lacking and defend the team with a AS debuff. Oh and yeah more mana!]

I finally finish the build with a Frozen Heart. It's everything we like about GS but more of it. Not hard to figure out why we make this upgrade.