Welcome everyone! Today I'll be going over a really fun build I've been testing out in Season 5 for Blitzcrank Support. It's definitely not the typical build-type for supports and hopefully it becomes a recognized playstyle alternative for many Blitzcrank players out there!

Note: This isn't a generic way to play/build Blitzcrank. If you don't know how to play Blitzcrank the more accepted way I recommend looking at the more common guides first as this one is slightly more difficult.

This build requires the use of Smite. NO EXCEPTIONS!

Aggressive:

Flash is really good for aggressive pulls and knockups (Especially if the enemy uses theirs first and it goes on cooldown for them while you still have Flash up).

Smite will allow you to AoE clear a perfect path for godly hooks (You don't need a clear path always for landing hooks but, it's nice to have as a side dish as the thought of not having minions to hide behind earlygame is an insane amount of lane presence and pressure).

Defensive:

Flash will come in handy during enemy ganks, running out from level 1 invades and for game-turning hooks under tower if people blindly chase you without knowing the safe zones.

Smite combined with the items you build from this page will allow you to instantly heal both yourself and allies nearby which may be the make-or-break clutch survival needed to win trades.


Pros of Smite:

-Helps Jungler clear quicker so they can gank quicker (Also gives you frog buff on Purple Team if jungler starts Frogs!)

-Jungle Pressure and Security (Crab, Buffs, Dragon Stacks*, and Baron)

-Lane Pressure (Stalker's blade relic stacks, basically instant Health restoration and denial of hiding behind minions for protection) Really good for when your jungler comes to gank, you can just stalker smite enemy and close gap with your kit. It offers a huge mobility advantage all game.

-Tower Defender (People WILL be afraid to push when you're present)

-Enemy team will have fear of level 1 invades. Very unlikely they'll try to invade you.

-Completely different field of gameplay style (out of meta)


Cons of Smite:

-No Exhaust, Ignite, or Heal Summoners (This can be a good thing if you play it right)

-May cause excessive rage from teammates sometimes (As expected with anything outside the box, in due time though it may or may not be globally accepted)

For Blitzcrank you want to basically be tanky and unstoppable.

Utility:

3 points of Mana Regen - His Q Mana Cost is unforgiving if you miss. Typically this allows you to stretch out your laning phase enough for more gold income and to make plays without having to worry about running out (still very possible to run out if you aren't careful!).

3 points of Movespeed - This allows you to chase or run away quicker. It also works really nicely with your boost from W, especially for warding. There's always a chance your laning partner (especially in Solo Queue) will get caught or make bad engages while you go to ward river, so this allows you to quickly come back and turn things around.

You really don't need anything else from Utility. It's just extra icing on the cake. Your primary benefits will come from Defense.

Defense:

Typically you want
-Health
-Armor
-Magic Resistance
-Reduced Incoming Damages
-50 shield starting level 1
-15% Reduced Crowd Control

NOTE: Health Regen isn't as great. I personally feel like Blocking incoming damage is FAR more superior for the 1rst 2 points in Defense. It makes Health, Magic Resistance, and Armor even more effective this way. They all work together like a spinal cord to make you tanky.

This allows you to be a tanky juggernaut and be a complete lane bully. You want the 5% Armor Magic Resistance also so you get more benefits from buying resist during the game. This also allows Runes to be purely health which I will explain later.

Typically you can choose whichever runes you want. I personally prefer Health.

Health is like the tacoshell base of tanking. Armor and Magic Resistance are also crucial to have, but it's not effective without the base of Health. It's like the rice that makes the curry more filling. Not to mention most enemies get overwhelmed when they see a lot of Health on a champion earlygame,as it shows off as the bully they don't want to be messing with and will take a lot more work to shred down to even try to net a kill. If you survive and manage to teleport to base, you also get it refilled. So you come back super tanky each time which will also discourage them from trying to kill you.

I like to take a mix of Scaling and Flat.
-Flat helps you out significantly earlygame.
-Scaling will help you out lategame.
- Percent Health Quints overall affect both of these Rune Types, Health Masteries, and Item Health, which therefore also increases your overall bully figure (Works really nicely with Sightstone since it gives Health as well).

Reasoning:

This basically gives you smooth transitions from early, mid, and lategames. Typically when you pull something into pointblank range (especially something you may have thought that couldn't do damage but actually can), you'll need to be able to tank any damage if they focus you. If you're squishy or too low and end up grabbing, it's very unforgiving because then they get a free gapcloser and kill you and/or your lane partner.

Sidedishes:

Works well with Targon Active, Relic Shield, Crucible Active, and other external Heals, Shields and Champion Kits... IT'S GREAT! *Flips Table* :D

Level 1 ALWAYS get Q. NO EXCEPTIONS

Reasoning: Great for invades, counter-invades, and pulling people into tower (Typically tower will zap people hard at level 1-6, and this scares people most of the time so they will be guranteed to burn Summoner Spells). Expect enemy teams to defend their jungle because you have Smite and can potentially grab Buffs or Monsters as well for the steal and EXP advantages.

Level 2 get E for more crowd controls.

Reasoning: W won't really benefit you unless you have Q and E for your basic combo.

Level 3 get W to help reposition for additional E knockups or to reposition to safety.

Reasoning: Now you have all 3 skills unlocked. It's pretty self explanatory.


Max E FIRST since the cooldown is fairly low and it's a solid crowd control. You can pull off 2-6 knockups in a single teamfight. Typically it's better to W up to enemies and E them before grabbing. This way if they Flash or dash, you still have the Q Grab to bring them back in and by then your E will be up again to re-knockup.

Max W after E is maxed out (you can alternate points into both if you want), this allows you to basically roam and/or constantly reposition yourself for knockups and grabs. This also helps you get to lanes and defenseless towers quicker in any case your towers are being seiged mid-game.

Max Q last; only time you really want to Max Q first is if you're going pure glass cannon damage. Q is pretty high cooldown in general and having E at 3 seconds cooldown with maxed CDR is far more effective than being able to grab slightly more often. You shouldn't be missing grabs in general and it cost too much mana to constantly grab. Grab once and make it count!

Typically just play it safe. Try to let the wave get close to your tower so the enemy has to extend to farm. You can always Smite + Instant grab someone into tower if they're not aware of the powers of Smite. This is the hardest part of the game since you don't really have mobility, sight-stone, or Stalker' Blade yet. Just use Relic Shield and scrap up as much gold as you can before 1st buy.

Good high-scores to go back:

(Try to have 100-200 gold added onto these values for Green Wards and Health potions every return)
-500 gold = Level 2 Relic Shield

-850 gold = Stalker's Blade

-800 gold = Sightstone

-1k+ = a combination of these items.

By now you should have Sightstone, Tier 2 Boots, Stalker's Blade, and Level 2 Relic Shield or Targon. (Always have a Pink Ward setup somewhere [Personally I prefer places you can contest it, otherwise it's just free gold for enemy upon killing it). *Boot prefences are up to you guys, I prefer to buy Movespeed +5 Boots since it's cheap and scales well with Blitzcrank W. I change this near endgame to Ninja Tabi or CDR Boots when I have all the core items.

This is where you have to think critically on which enemy is doing the most damage and what their primary damage source is. Health alone is not going to cut it at this point, since enemies will probably have core-burst items and shredding. If the wrong resists are taken, it'll leave you open as a giant ball of meat.

Against Magic Damage Sources:

-Banshees Veil (Very Strong) *Recommended*
Reasoning: Absolutely amazing at absorbing Burst damage and crowd controls. This let's you get to primary targets (whether it be enemy or ally) a lot more smoother.

-Crucible (Fair)
Reasoning: Not as protective as Banshees, more of a cleanse and heal. This item is more hyper-carry oriented. Champions like Riven, Yi, ADC's, and in general anyone doing tons of unstoppable damage benefit from getting your Crucible Active as it allows them to live longer and do their dirty work.

-Iron Solari (Fair)

It's definitely Magic Resist, but the shield active is fairly small. The two items above have spellshields or cleanse and should be bought first. I'd only build this AFTER getting Banshees and/or Crucible. It's like the last-line of defense Magic resist if the enemy team literally has no Attack Damage Source.


Against Attack Damage Sources:

-Randuin's Omen (Strong)

Reasoning: It's Health, Armor, Attackspeed Reduction, AND an AoE Slow for Teamfight Repositioning and Kiting. Overall this is a really effective item.

-Frozen Heart (Fair)

The Mana on this item helps with Blitzcrank passive which can be a substitute for Health stats. It also offers Cooldown Reduction. Personally I prefer Randuins though.

-Iceborn Gauntlet (Fair)

This is more for Aggressive playstyle and if you're significantly ahead in the game (meaning enemy team will probably not come back and you won't be in any danger of death anytime soon). It offers Armor, Mana, and Slows, but it's primarily Damage. I'd only buy this if the enemy team had no Magic Damage Source and I already had Randuins or Frozen Heart.

If the game is still going on beyond 50 minutes then both teams are having difficulty closing the game and it's pretty much a coin-tossup on which team makes the throw first.

At this point even the smallest stat gains can make or break this situation.

These are some things you can do to get the final edge over the enemy team.

-Upgraded Trinket: More Vision Control (Really good for initiations and capitalizing on mistakes)
-Elixir of Iron (BEST ITEM EVER! [You literally become an oversized terrifying Crowd Control Juggernaut)
-Upgraded Sightstone to Ruby (Probably best if done during Midgame, but sometimes Emergency Resists are good to buy before doing this, so it's understandable to upgrade later on)
-Upgraded Movespeed +5 Boots to Tabi (Optional preferences here)

PROS

-Mobility Control all game
-Helps Jungler with Level 1 clear-time
-Fun in both Casual and Tryhard Scenarios
-Insane Lane Presence
-Tons of Heals
-Completely New Playstyle
-Indirect Jungle Pressure
-Extremely Tanky
-Lots of Peeling

CONS

-No Exhaust
-No Ignite
-No Heal
-No Direct Damage (Your damage will be indirect; only from teammates if you can keep them alive, so if they're not damage or dead, you're screwed)
-Can cause rage from teammates who just want to stay inside the meta box.
-Extremely hard for people who can't steal Dragon or Baron with Smite.

*1. It's crucial to know when to pull people.

Reasoning: Pulling someone is also the equivalent of giving them a gap closer if they're dangerous. If you or your allies have low Health then pulling someone into them can end up in the enemies favor. Some champions I avoid pulling in general are Amumu, Jarvan, Alistar, Leona, and other frontline Initiator/Divers. The only time I'll pull them is around level 1-5 under tower when they're still fairly vulnerable to tower hits or if they're the last ones alive after a teamfight is near finished. Grabbing someone also grants the whole team vision of your location (If Nocturne uses his ultimate and suddenly you pull even a minion to your location, now he has vision of your location)

2. (Old but still worth mentioning) You can Auto Attack + E to refresh a 2nd Auto Attack for speedy damage or Tower/Ward Clearing.

3. Try to clear wards as often as you can (Blitzcrank in the dark is a lot more terrifying than other Supports).

4. If you have a gut feeling about someone hiding in a dark bush, don't overextend to ward because chances are they know it's not warded and expect you to go nearby to ward. Same goes for Ward Clearing (it can be used as bait for greedy supports).

5.(*Highly Situational) If your team is very behind but your jungler is very good at smiting, buy a Blue Trinket.
Reasoning: Typically snowballed teams will indirectly have more pink ward coverage so when they Dragon or Baron, chances are they'll deny you vision while taking it. This is probably the only time Blue Trinket is useful because it will bypass any Pink Warded areas.

6. If the timestamp doesn't literally say "Enemy has slain Dragon/Baron" then manually type in the estimated respawn time (it's very predictable if you can see enemy team instantly walking out from the pit.

7. Rocket Grab can be used as a separator (similar to Alistar Knockback, but harder to pull off). If you're too far from the people you need to protect and you see Fiddlesticks or someone about to dive. Pull them even if it means losing your life. This way your team has higher chances of not getting AoE roflstomped by Fiddle ultimates.

8. You can potentially waveclear a full wave under tower with Trailblazer Smite + R. Use this to your advantage against ADC's who push by themselves (don't pull if you have too low health though).

9. Mana Shield can be useful when you are about to go back to base and a huge wave needs to be frozen slightly away from turret range. This way the minions don't get wasted by tower and your lane partner can get a significant Creep Score lead/redemption. It's also good to know when it's active so you can tower dive without dying.

10. Your R passive will still be active even when you have no Mana *As long as you didn't use the active*. Sometimes it's better to just chase people down without using R Active until the very end for maximum damage. If this is during teamfight though, the AoE silence is better used immediately in a group. The R passive is also useful when helping jungler with Dragon.

11*IMPORTANT*. When playing with Relic Shield, Trailblazer, and Smite on Blitzcrank Support, be aware of ANY monsters in the area. Any of them can potentially heal you in crucial situations.

This is definitely a completely different playstyle from the typical Exhaust meta. I hope to see it someday in both competitive and casual gameplay. Season 5 definitely has a Jungle dominant theme to it and I feel that Smite may be used a lot more on Supports and other champions than just Junglers in general. Happy Rocket Grabs to all the people who try this fun build out! :D

Comments,Feedback, Ratings, and Sharing this are greatly appreciated!

- Dancing Eel