Hello there, I'm benzofan, a player of the champion known as Blitzcrank, and this is my first ever guide on Mobafire. Blitzcrank is a moderately tanky support champion who excels in disrupting team fights with his full arsenal of CC (crowd control). Although many complain that Blitz has no late game, his grab can be the defining factor in a late game push, as a well-timed grab on either the AP or AD carry will put the enemy team at a hefty disadvantage in a team fight. His knock up is useful for disrupting channeling spells as well as attracting your teams attention to a target in cases where focus is lacking. His silence lasts long enough where your carries should be able to facemelt whichever unlucky carry was caught in it. Blitz is an aggressive support and, when played correctly, can lead to an exceedingly fed AD Carry.

Pros:
+ can change team fights for the better
+ silence leaves AP carries useless
+ great mobility, rarely gets caught while warding
+ he's a freaking steam golem

Cons:
- can be hard to master, hooking takes practice
- easy to ks and take kills from the carry
- will take heat if few hooks are landed
- no heal/sustain in lane

Here's a real quick explanation of runes. At low levels of play (pre-30), runes are not as much of an attraction as buying the new champ, BUT runes make or break the early game. On Blitzcrank, I like to get gold per 10 sec. quintessences to help out with the gold issue that some supports may face in a farm-off between the carries. I know that some of the pros like Nhat Nguyen prefer to also get gold per 10 sec. seals but I personally feel that seals can be better used elsewhere, although I am not claiming to be better than Nhat Nguyen of course :) For marks, I get flat armor marks to help tank a bit of damage early on from the enemy AD Carry and allowing me to play more aggressively in the lane and zone out the enemy carry from CSing or even EXP. For seals, I get mana regen seals because this allows your skills to constantly be up and allows the enemy to play passively so as to avoid getting hooked. It is a subtle difference, but a difference maker for sure. Finally, I get magic resist glyphs because there will be many instances where the enemy support is AP heavy and I need to be able to take their pokes without losing too much health because the ultimate focus is grabbing the carry and getting the kill.

As for masteries, I run a bit of an unusual build, going 1/15/14 instead of the typical 0/21/9 or 9/21/0 build. This is to maximize all the little details in the game, as you will later find out, Blitzcrank is all about precision. I put one point into Summoner's Wrath because that early exhaust after a successful grab nearly ensures a kill because of the enemy carry's reduced armor. I put a few points in magic resist and armor masteries to beef up Blitzcrank at early levels, with points in flat health and health regen masteries working to the same effect. I put points into the movement speed bonus above 70% health because as Blitzcrank, a key aspect of your gameplay is your speed; speed is the key to intimidating enemy carries from even approaching the minions and this speed boost has a noticeable effect later on. Having reduced flash cooldown means more chances to either escape or attempt very risky but rewarding flash + grabs that could turn team fights around. Having extra movement speed helps the cause and flat mana and mana regen masteries both allow Blitz to ignore the mana issues stemming from his spamming of abilities. The extra gold allows you to buy a Faerie Charm, 3 Wards, 2 Health Pots, and 1 Mana Pot for full warding potential in addition to lane sustainability.

For items, you generally want to follow this pattern:

Starting with a Faerie Charm allows Blitz to shrug off any mana issues as long as you prudently attempt hooks and avoid spamming Overdrive at early levels. The three wards are essential and here is a map of where wards should be placed.


At the start of the game, don't ward immediately. At around 2:20 ~ 2:40, you can ward near dragon in the river and in the tribush - this goes for both blue and purple side. This is when junglers usually come in to gank after getting their necessary buffs. As a support, you have to know the game really well. If you know that a champion such as Amumu has a disable that he might level up to gank bot lane, then you should place wards earlier to avoid this. Playing support means that you need an immense grasp of junglers and their habits, routes, etc. As for the pots, use them wisely to stay up in health and mana and maintain a big presence in the lane.

After this, when you go back, you should consider getting level 1 boots or finishing Philosopher's Stone. Getting boots will help make your Overdrive noticeable in lane and you can zone the AD Carry out of CS while getting Philo Stone will help you gain more gold to buy more wards, boots, Heart of Gold, etc. But remember, a good support will always carry AT LEAST two wards on him: one for river, one for tribush. If you are really wealthy by the time you go back, finish Philo Stone and pick up a Heart of Gold for both mana regen and tankiness.

As for boots, it is a must have to either get Boots of Swiftness or Mobility - I personally prefer Mobility.

With regards to wards, good supports always carry at least 1 or 2 wards on their person at all times. This keeps you aware of enemy intentions and prevents your lane or your teammates' lanes from being ganked. If you are getting ahead in kill and creep score, buy an Oracle's Elixir . This not only knocks out wards, but it sets up the enemy to get ganked more and snowballs your lane harder and harder. If you are really struggling in your lane, invest in an Oracle's as well. The reason why you are struggling may be simply due to superior ward coverage from the enemy team so be sure to invest in one and knock their vision out. However, be wary about dying when you have Oracle's; strategically speaking, it is a loss of 400 gold and may lead to an advantage for the other team if you decide to buy another one soon after. But, it may prove to be a worthy investment, especially when playing against champions with stealth capabilities.

After you get these, you should be able to start either terrorizing your lane or roaming to mid to pick up an assist, maybe even steal blue. By the team both Heart of Gold and Philo Stone are built, if you played your early game well, your carry should have an easy time trading blows with the enemy carry provided you hook well. This is where your item build really becomes situational. If you are totally dominating your lane (I mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 0/0/6 or 1/0/5, something to that effect) you will want to consider building a Sheen to build into a Trinity Force which will allow Blitzcrank to snowball indefinitely as it provides you with extra tankiness, mobility (because you obviously need more), and that slow that makes it nearly impossible for enemies to get away, an all in all great utility item. However, if you find yourself in a farm-off between carries and only got assists/kills from a gank, then you may want to consider going for a Frozen Heart because the enemy AD carry will most likely have farmed up at least a B.F. Sword and a Pickaxe. This'll give you more mana pool in case you get bursted down and need your Mana Shield and it gives you extra armor to shrug off the blows. After this, you can either go for a Shurelya's Reverie because the CDR is amazing or a Randuin's Omen to finish both your Heart of Gold and Philo Stone. By this time, the game should pretty much be over but here is a list of priorities with regards to item build:

>> >> >> >> >> with luxury/situational item (can swap this for Randuin's in my opinion because Shurelya's still grants cooldown reduction which is vital for Blitzcrank)

Skill sequence is going to be fairly straightforward; there are two main ways you can build it.

If you are good at hitting your hooks (my build), then go for this path:
>> >> >>
Here, the ult obviously has the highest priority, but the hook is maxed first because it is a key aspect of your burst, and the cooldown reduction is very necessary. Overdrive is the next skill as it increases your speed which will only be truly utilized mid to late game in my opinion.

If you are decent at hooking but just need better positioning, I suggest you follow this path:

>> >> >>
Here, Overdrive is maxed first because it will grant the user much better zoning and positioning capability while in laning phase. Power Fist is still maxed last because, well, let's face it - the upgrades that come from leveling it are hardly tidechangers in team fights.

All in all great summoner spell, it allows you to increase the ways to play Blitzcrank. With a well-timed flash with proper positioning, you can pull out grabs from seemingly nowhere and you can avoid being bursted down by avoiding stuns. Take this anywhere from 90% to 100% of the time.

Great summoner spell, especially for support. Use it to secure first blood or prevent an enemy carry from chasing your carry. Can be used both offensively and defensively. Take this 85% of the time.

A big summoner for supports, don't get this unless you are familiar with jungling paths or are laning and on voice chat with someone who does. Mainly used to prevent ganks, check objectives like Baron or Dragon, but requires good knowledge of the game and keen map awareness to be used to full effect.

Since you already have Overdrive, there's not that big of a necessity to get this summoner. Flash works better because you can get out of the range of most skillshots or have them pass right by you.

It COULD work if you are playing with a pre-made team, but just know that you either lose a flash that could save you/get you better positioning in team fights or an exhaust that gets the early first blood.

Not really necessary because of masteries and runes + starting items; avoid getting this.

Normally your AD Carry should get either this or ignite; you can get it if they want you to though.

You can get this if your AD carry gets exhaust and you guys want to play a more aggressive lane.

Why do you do this...don't get this unless you want to troll your carry.

Never get this summoner on anyone except for the SLIGHT possibility of karthus if you are running phantoml0rd's infamous revive + teleport karthus.

Honestly not that necessary of a summoner, also used to troll.

Jungle Blitz? I think not. This is a SUPPORT Blitzcrank guide for a reason.

Mostly taken by the carry, you won't need it because they will rarely focus you knowing you have your Mana Shield.

With Blitzcrank, it is important to know a few things:

1) You are an aggressive support. As such, your job is to control the bush. If the bush is not controlled, the enemy AD carry will have the guts to actually farm, and we can't have that happening. They need to constantly be aware of the fact that they could be grabbed into one beast of a CC-combo. If they ward the bush that you are in, that may actually serve you better. With vision of you and your actions, all you really need to do is use Overdrive and pretend that you are going to try and hook them.

2) All good Blitzcranks know when to hook. Observer your enemy AD carry's movement patterns; if you know that he/she is going to go back then come ahead, time your grab accordingly so that you can grab them as they move towards your hand. Oftentimes, your grabs will hit on moving targets rather than still targets, so definitely practice predicting enemy movements. It takes time, and is an art.

3) Know the range of Blitzcrank's grab. To do this, I highly suggest getting rid of line missile display. I was watching Saintvicious stream a while back when he was on CLG and I noticed that whenever he was going for a skillshot, he had a circle instead of a single line. This can be done by going to the More Options (I think) area when you're in-game. It is a little box that has "Line missile display" next to it and uncheck the box. What this does is it makes a circle displaying all the possible areas you could click in for your grab and this may or may not help you with hitting moving targets. Also know that you can still hit a hook a few units out, I'd say about half an inch on-screen, meaning that if you and your carry hide in the first brush at the bottom of river next to that rock wall, you can pick up the AD carry if he gets close enough. Try out various things; you might not like it, but it may help you with your perception of positioning of moving targets.

4) Don't grab the tank. If you grab the tank, most times it will allow him to initiate on your team and it will turn out to be a losing fight for your team. Try to pick off the carries (this takes practice) and if you can land a full combo on them, they are guaranteed dead in teamfights.

5) Learn the combo. Hook, punch, ult. Lather, rinse, repeat. In some cases, you may need to ult before you knock up so that they won't flash, but most times if you charge up your knock up while hooking, it will proc on the first attack you land anyway.

So that's my extensive guide on Blitzcranking! I hope that I helped you out a little bit and I'd love to get feedback on my work. This is my first guide, so I would appreciate it if you could let me know how I can improve my guides in the future and the things you liked and didn't like about it. Have a great time Blitzcranking and feel free to add me: benzofan. See you on Summoner's Rift!