Let me preface this by saying that I refer to Blitzcrank's Q as a "hook" rather than a "grab" only because I'm used to playing DotA with Pudge. This is also my first guide, and I'm always open to constructive criticism. With that said, let's get started!

I know, it sounds crazy, doesn't it? This build maximizes spell usage, cooldowns and mana while also creating a tank in the process. In concept, I think both tank Blitzcrank and DPS Blitzcrank can be viable in many team comps. I just like to play a more secure type of Blitzcrank, which can hook for team fights but be able to take lots of damage. The problem is, in order to play either, you need to know how to play Blitzcrank. So, if you're not good with skill shots, combos, or this game in general, this might be kind of tough for you to master. Other than that, I'm sure this build can take you to great heights. *DISCLAIMER* This build is not concrete. There are only the three core items and the rest is dependent on what kind of team you're facing. I'll go into more detail later.

Let's list some of the positives and negatives about Blitzcrank. In my opinion, his positives outweigh the negatives.

Pros:
- His Q is a great initiation tactic and can often times isolate an enemy which will give your team a 4v5 advantage.
- His base HP, armor, and magic resist are great for tanking.
- He has THREE crowd control effects which, if used right can keep anyone person at bay.
- His W will allow you to chase and to escape very easily.
- He can protect his carries by hooking, knocking up, or silencing.
- His passive is absolutely ridiculous considering how much mana you'll have in this build.

Cons:
- If you can't hook, you lose.
- If the match drags on too long and the enemy team is smart, they'll grab banshee veils to eliminate the isolation tactic.
- If you can't hook, you lose.
- Did I mention that if you can't hook, you lose?

I normally solo lane as Blitzcrank to get some early kills for more gold, but it is entirely on what your preferences are. I use sort of a DPS rune page only because you can deal some massive early-game damage and get your tank items much quicker. I grab ArPen for my marks and Quints. After that, I like to grab CDR seals and flat CDR glyphs. Maximizing cooldowns can prove useful when hooking and popping your W.

Obviously, as a tank, you should go into the 0/21/9 mastery set. Increase your tanking capabilities as much as possible by increasing health, armor and magic resist. The utilities spec is just so you can grab some extra EXP and regeneration. Again, this is only preference, and if you'd like you can go into a 0/9/21 mastery set for more utilities. This is solely based off of the other team's character composition.

First of all, your CORE items are as follows:

IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY

OR
MERCURY'S TREADS

Both of these items are acceptable. You might want to think of the other team's character composition before randomly buying one of these though. Teams with massive amounts of CC effects should be countered by getting Mercury's Treads. If not, then you can just go for your Ionian Boots of Lucidity for some extra CDR.

BANSHEE'S VEIL

This is a crucial item to your build. I mean, really, what's not good about this item on a Blitzcrank? It gives you extra health for the tank feel, it gives you extra mana for more harass and/or more HP on your passive shield, and it gives you a spell shield to block any negative CC effects trying to stop your deadly hook.

FROZEN HEART

This is almost as good as the Banshee's Veil. Why? It also gives mana, which increases the amount of shield you get from your Mana Barrier. It provides you with extra armor, and if the enemy team is even a team, they'll most likely have some sort of AD carry. It also adds the last piece of the mountain of CDR that you need in order to be more effective with Blitzcrank.

LANING

In order to increase lane sustainability, I normally grab a Regrowth Pendant and a Mana Potion at the start. I try to make enough gold on my next trip back to buy Boots, a Ruby Crystal, Sapphire Crystal, some more potions and a Sight Ward. Then I just follow the build as it goes up at the top on the items section. Sometimes I get my Banshee's Veil first, which just depends on what kind of team they have. If they have a heavier magic team with a good initiation CC (i.e. Ashe's frost arrow), then Banshee's Veil will get you out of tough situations. If not, you can buy your Ionian Boots of Lucidity first in order to decrease the CD on your Q and W. By the way, the more CDR you have, the better. At some point you'll be able to keep popping your W constantly.

POST-CORE ITEMS

WARMOG'S ARMOR

I usually get this after the core items in order to increase the tankiness of Blitzcrank. At this point, your magic resist and armor should be decent, so you should put up a little bit of health to back it up.

FORCE OF NATURE

You can also get this if the team has a lot of damage output that's leaning towards the AP side. More magic resist and HP regeneration wouldn't hurt, yeah?

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Now, you're just annoying. Not only do you live forever and hook the enemy team into your team of 5, if they even think of focusing you, you're just going to come back and destroy them all over again.

**AGAIN, this is all situational and your last three items can be whatever your team is needing at the moment.

MANA BARRIER [Passive]

Alright, this is one of the best passives in the game in my opinion. It gives you a shield based on the amount of mana you currently possess. With this build, your current mana at all times is going to be pretty high. This will give you the extra tanking power that no other tank can provide, besides for Malphite (he has a wimpy shield that he gets if he isn't hit for so many seconds). Your mana pool will be huge, so this shield will be huge. How much tank will be going on with this passive? A lot.

ROCKET GRAB [Q]

This is probably the most important ability out of all of Blitzcrank's skill set. It's the initiator, the Cat Daddy and the executioner. When you pick Blitzcrank, your team now revolves around your ability to hook and create prime openings to ace the enemy team. So try and learn how to hook. Read people's movements and aim where you think they're going to be, not where they're at at that exact moment. I max this out first.

OVERDRIVE [W]

This is a free ghost. Its buff lasts pretty long and its cooldown (when using this build) is very low, allowing you to pop it more often and move more quickly around the map. It's great for chasing and escaping. Use it often. I get the first point of this at level 4 and then make it a second priority behind Rocket Grab.

POWER FIST [E]

In the early parts of the game, this ability does some massive damage and creates wide openings for your teammates (mainly your jungler) because it is a knock-up. It's just a good CC effect overall. I only get one point in this at level 2 in order to knock-up. You're normally not going to be chasing long enough in the beginning to keep popping it, so why level it?

STATIC FIELD [R]

This is where it gets fun. You can run circles around enemy champions and smack their health down without even touching them. As long as they're isolated, it will deal damage to them every few seconds. And the active is an AoE silence that can be used to stop channeling effects or to stop the enemy team from casting that last spell on your carry.

Summary

This is one of the most important parts of this guide. As I said earlier, I like to max out damage output first, that way you can grab some early kills up top. This being said, I normally max at my Rocket Grab as fast as possible. I get my Power Fist next, and follow to max out my Overdrive. At this point, you want more movement speed and attack speed in order to chase more efficiently, so I only grab one level of Power Fist. Obviously, level up Static Field every possible chance you can.

I use a large range of summoner spells for Blitzcrank, but I use Ignite and Flash the most. Let's go ahead and list some of the positive parts about some of the summoner spells that one could use and some of the summoner spells one shouldn't use.

Good Summoner Spells

FLASH

This is a no-brainer. There are so many tactical possibilities for Blitzcrank when he has flash. You can use a technique called flash-hooking, which I'll explain later. It gives you that gap-closer for chasing but it also gives you even more variety on how to escape. I ALWAYS use flash for one of my summoner spells, but again it's just based on what you're used to.

IGNITE

This is a great summoner spell if you're soloing top lane. It gives you that last amount of killing power that you'd need to finish off a kill. If not, then this won't be of much use to your because you'll be too busy trying to help your carry down bottom get some kills.

EXHAUST

This may be used to help out your team, AKA your carry, that way he/she doesn't get pummeled into the ground by the other team's orgy fest of AD damage. You can also use this to slow people down in order to chase more efficiently. Their strafing patterns become slower and the amount of openings to hook are increased. Either way, it's a great summoner spell to have on Blitzcrank.

CLEANSE

Cleanse is useful when their whole team has lots of CC effects. The enemy team will realize that if they can stun you or get you down, they'll have a small window of opportunity to kill your carries. I don't use it much because I just grab Mercury's Treads instead.

TELEPORT

Teleport's just one of those summoner spells that has the potential to be useful. If you see yourself getting harassed by top lane and can't handle the pressure, then you can farm up gold for your items, buy and teleport back to your lane without losing any CS. It also helps you get into team fights faster if you're out of position, and you could teleport to one of your towers if it's getting pushed out. The only problem with that is that Blitzcrank doesn't have much AoE, so his creep-clearing abilities aren't what you want to go clear out a lane.

CLARITY

Clarity is a situational summoner spell that isn't needed very often. You can regenerate you and your team's mana, but you should already have a large enough mana pool to keep going for ages. However, when you're being chased and low health, you can pop it that way you get the most out of your passive, Mana Barrier.

Bad Summoner Spells

GHOST

This is probably the most useless spell on Blitzcrank, especially with this build. Your W is a free ghost and it has a short cooldown, which means you can use it pretty often. There's no point in running around with a summoner spell that's already built into one of your abilities. That's just silly.

FORTIFY

You won't really be needing this if your team is on the offensive most of the time. Which is hopefully the case.

RALLY

Lol.

REVIVE

Lolol.

Game play is pretty easy to master with Blitzcrank, besides for the Rocket Grab. A popular tactic used by most skilled Blitzcrank players is the tower grab. If you can grab someone while at your tower and pop them in the air, you're guaranteed to deal some massive damage or even the kill. This can be used in combo with something called the Flash-Hook. Smart enemy players will hide behind creeps in order to avoid getting hooked. If you can time it right and hook correctly, you can flash to the side of the creeps and hook through the angle. Another popular technique is the use of your Static Field. Your ultimate has a passive that deals massive damage to a random enemy unit every few seconds. If you isolate someone, then your passive will continue to pound on him as long as you can chase him (you should be able to if you maxed out your W enough). Enemy players will try to dodge your hook by running in a zig-zag formation, but they don't know that your real goal is to DPS them down with your Static Field passive and hit them with your Power Fist. All of these things are most effective when you're soloing top. I don't ever solo mid because the gap between the towers is much shorter, which restricts the amount of space you have to chase. Bottom lane is also an option, but I don't recommend it with Blitzcrank because you'll probably be laning with someone who needs the creep kills and champion kills.

Teamwork is crucial here. You and your team need to know when the hooks are coming and how to chain the CC effects as much as possible. A lot of good game play comes from hooks that are unexpected. Think of it as sort of a Fiddle ultimate or a Nidalee poke, for all of you people that hide behind trees and cast spells. You want to hook behind trees or fog of war where your team is in order to grab the kill. This will make it an easy 4v5 and you and your team can run a train on the rest of them. Blitzcrank is also very useful when defending. If you can hook an enemy champion into your tower, one of two things will happen. That enemy champion will die and the enemy team will back off because it's 4v5, or the entire team will initiate at the tower, making it a 6v5. Either way, your team grabs the upper-hand as long as you are all competent.

I don't see much of Blitzcrank in ranked play, and when I do they always go into a DPS build. I think Blitzcrank is mildly viable ranked matches. I put mildly there because if your enemy team is smart, they'll farm up a Banshee's Veil to counter your isolation tactic. At the same time, you're still a tank who can initiate, chase and escape easily. Your hook is a big part of your game, but you still have your tanking capabilities.

Overall, Blitzcrank is a great addition to any team. He's a great team player due to the effectiveness of his Q, and he is a superb tank. I would recommend everyone to try this build out, especially if you have a harder time with skills shots. I hope you enjoyed my guide, and thanks for reading!