Dominion is a really, really fast way to play League of Legends.

With the frantic tempo of Dominion matches comes the need to always stay active and reacting extremely quickly to the actions of your opponents.

With his lvl 5 Overdrive alone, Blitzcrank is already one of the fastest heroes in the game, making him ideal for Dominion gameplay. This Blitzcrank build takes this advantage further by focusing mainly on movement speed and exploiting the unique characteristics of battles at the Crystal Scar, such as the Setup Phase, the health relics and the terrain.

11-10-10 - Reformatted the Pros/Cons chapter.
11-10-10 - Added a note on Lich Bane to the Items chapter.
11-10-10 - Reformatted the Items chapter.
11-10-10 - Added chapter: "Why not play Rammus instead?"
11-10-05 - Exchanged Flash for Ghost, helps a lot during the initial rush to top and throughout the game. Turns out you can't have too much speed... :)
11-10-05 - Added discussion on why Priscilla's Blessing is a bad idea for this build.
11-10-04 - Changed the masteries to get two points in Utility Mastery - never realized that it prolonged the effect of speed shrines, awesome!

Upcoming updates

• Analysis of alternative items - Phantom Dancer, multiple Zeal
• Initial strategies for the first captures after the gates open
• More on capturing and defending points
• What to look for when watching the minimap and how to prioritize your actions
• Ideal routes between objectives
• Champions to watch out for
• Tips and tricks with Rocket Grab

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SPEED - This is so key to winning in Dominion. You'll always be where it matters the most for your team.

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Tear of the Goddess - an essential Blitzcrank item - is more powerful in Dominion since you can spam abilities during the Setup Phase. This technique essentially gives you an additional ~50 mana for free at the start of the game.

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Absolutely no mana problems, whatsoever. I have never run out of mana with this build, even when constantly spamming all my abilities as soon as they are up. Not once, no joke.

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Escapes well with speed, Mana Barrier and Ghost.

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Lots of great uses for the Rocket Grab / Power Fist combo in Dominion - disrupting captures, defending points, sniping people around ramps.

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Activating Static Field can clear massive minion waves quickly if they are pushing your towers.

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Going for speed sacrifices other stats such as AD/AP/AR/MR/etc.

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Requires constantly watching the minimap to be able to react - on the flipside, if you see something happening you can be there in a whiff!

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Rocket Grab requires a lot of practice to land consistently.

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Buying Blitzcrank is pretty expensive at 975 RP / 3150 IP.

Rammus is videly considered one of the best champions in Dominion and fulfills a role much similiar to this Blitzcrank build. So why would you ever pick Blitzcrank over him?

• Rammus got banned - in Draft Mode, this happens all the time.
  
  
• Someone on your team picked Rammus - great! One great strat to try is two people hold Windmill up top, one holds bottom and Blitzcrank and Rammus harasses the opposition together, and gets back in a hurry to defend wherever it is needed.
  
  
• Rocket Grab is better than Powerball at initiating under enemy turrets.
  
  
• Static Field is better than Soaring Slam - better effect, lower cooldown and a kick-*** passive.
  
  
• Flexibility - Rammus pretty much has to build armor to be at maximum efficiency, Blitzcrank can tailor his defense to the opposition.

Since you start at lvl 3 in Dominion, grab one skill point in each of Rocket Grab, Overdrive and Power Fist ASAP during the Setup Phase so you can start spamming them for mana with Tear of the Goddess.

Focus on leveling up your Overdrive as soon as possible to boost your movement speed further (this is the speed guide after all), grabbing points in Static Field when possible and filling out your Power Fist after that to lower the cooldown for even more ability spamming. Finish your Rocket Grab last - it's the pull you are after, not the damage, so you only need one point in this to be effective.

TLDR? In the setup phase, grab Q-W-E, then R > W > E > Q.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - Well, this is the SPEED guide after all...

Greater Mark of Desolation - Most of your damage will be from attacking a lot with your increased attack speed from Overdrive so Armor Penetration will increase your early damage a lot.

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - Lower cooldowns equals more ability spamming for Tear of the Goddess and will keep your Overdrive going almost constantly.

Greater Seal of Armor - Frankly, these are the least set in stone of the runes. Armor gives you some nice survivability against AD champs early game but feel free to change these to better suit your own playstyle.

The focus of the build is on spamming your abilities and a 0-9-21 build is most suitable for that kind of style.

You will have a large mana pool due to your Tear of the Goddess so Strength of Spirit is well worth it. Expanded Mind helps with your mana pool as well, improving the efficiency of Manamune and Mana Barrier.

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First off, buy your Tear of the Goddess right when the Setup Phase starts, hit Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+E to level your starting skills and activate them all to start building up your mana pool.

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995_gold

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Then pick up your Boots for you initial speed. A lot of people will buy their Movement 2 boots right off the bat so you might be a little slower initially, but that will change quickly...

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350_gold (=1345_gold)

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After the game has started, Mobility Boots is your first buy after you hit your first 650 gold. It's not necessary to go back at this point (unless you die) as you are still roughly the same speed as champions with Movement 2 boots at this point thanks to your Overdrive so you shouldn't get chased down and killed.

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650_gold (=1995_gold)

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Instead wait until you have 1910 gold and recall to grab the boots and Sheen which is fantastic on Blitzcrank.

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1260_gold (=3255_gold)

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To priotize movement speed, we then get Zeal and Trinity Force. A bit unusual compared to other Blitzcrank guides since we get these before...

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2810_gold (=6065_gold)

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... Blitzcrank's staple damage and mana item, Manamune. This give you much needed attack damage to go with your improved attack speed from Overdrive which should be maxed by now.

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1115_gold (=7180_gold)

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Glacial Shroud and later Frozen Heart is great for lowering your cooldown and giving you some additional Armor and Mana which help your survivability. AD seems to be a bit more powerful and popular than AP in Dominion, at least this early after release, so extra Armor should be very helpful.

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2775_gold (=9955_gold)

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If the match is still going after this point, you probably need to increase your damage output and sustainability as everyone is pretty stacked at this point. Hextech Gunblade improves all of your damage output and gives you some extra sustain through life steal and spell vamp, which is nice since it is tough to sustain on health relics alone later in the game. Remember to use the active as well, it is especially easy to forget in Dominion since gameplay is so fast.

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3625_gold (=13580_gold)

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Your final item (should you get this far) is Force of Nature for extra survivability and move speed. If your opponents are stacking a lot of AP you might be better off getting Force of Nature right after Glacial Shroud instead (you still need Glacial Shroud for the CDR).

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2610_gold (=16190_gold)

Even though Blitzcrank is a fantastic capturer, I don't get Priscilla's Blessing like every other capturer guide seem to recommend. I know this is a bit controversial, but give me a chance to explain.

Priscilla's Blessing is a great item. In fact, every item is great by itself, since it gives you abilities that improves your champion. Since gold is the limiting factor here, the question is rather: What can we have instead?

Let's start with the 15% capture bonus first since that is the defining feature of the item. This helps you in a very specific situation in the game - namely, you are trying to capture a point. Granted, this is perhaps the most important action you can take in Dominion, and certainly for a dedicated capturer such as Blitzcrank. On top of all this, this particular bonus only exists on this item, so we have to get it then if we want to capture points fast, right?

However, isn't there any other way we can capture points earlier? Yes, several in fact:

• Get to the point faster - less time spent walking, the earlier you can start your capture, which gives less time for your opponents to react.
• Have minions assist your capture - clearing minion waves gives you extra capture speed and gives you gold and exp as an added bonus.

So essentially, you can substitute the capture bonus from Priscilla's Blessing with getting more movement speed / DPS which is also useful if you need to defend a capture point - another important action something that the capture bonus from Priscilla's Blessing doesn't help you with at all.

Now granted, you also get a very temporary movement speed burst every 60 seconds and some moderate healing but at 1600 gold, I'd rather get a Zeal and a Vampiric Scepter for 1645 gold that indirectly give me that capture power and also boosts the rest of my gameplay.



What we are after is the life steal, although the other bonuses are quite nice. Zeke's Harbinger has an edge over Hextech Gunblade in that it builds much smoother with good life steal straight off the bat:

Vampiric Scepter > Emblem of Valor > Recurve Bow > Zeke's Harbinger

At 1825 gold, Bilgewater Cutlass can be compared with Emblem of Valor + Recurve Bow, with Zeke's Harbinger only 700 gold away - at that point, we need 1800 gold to complete the Hextech Gunblade.

I'm experimenting with building this right after Zeal right now, and so far the extra life steal has been pretty nice but since it is only 1615 gold to complete Trinity Force which is a big boost to your overall power at that point, it doesn't seem to be worth it.



The unique passive on Lich Bane and Trinity Force doesn't stack, so we only benefit from building one of them. And since this build is so light on ability power, Trinity Force is the clear winner here.

Regaining health - Dominion style
This build lacks early lifesteal or health regen on your items. This is by design to prioritize movement speed instead which will actually be your main way of regaining health, as weird as it might sound.

To regenerate a lot of health, recall to your nexus and get back out there again with your speed. Forget about the drawbacks of recalling on Summoner's Rift. Recall times and walk distances are much shorter in Dominion so recalling is often an excellent option and should always be considered when you are really low on health, especially since you gain money much faster in Dominion as well.

If you are hurt but can't afford to go back, run and pick up some of the nearest health relics. This also gives you something to do when you have to camp a capture point. Other champions often can't afford to waste the time to pick up the health relics behind each capture point but your superior speed gets you back into the action in a hurry.

With your speed, it usually pays to take a slightly longer route to pick up the inner health relics as well, especially when you are moving together with a slower ally (because let's face it, they are all slower than you).

Thanks for reading this far, I hope you now feel eager to start up your LoL Client and start dominating Dominion by abusing the SPEED of Blitzcrank!

This is my first guide so feedback and comments are very welcome!

- Sysp