Hello everyone, thanks for taking the time to check out my guide.. My IGN is Blitz, and I have been the best Blitzcrank player in NA for the last three seasons.. I ended season 10 Rank 164, season 9 Rank 77 and was in and out of challenger all of season 8.. I started playing League in season 1, I mostly played for fun and played everything from top to bot. In season 3 I started heavily playing ADC and peaked D1 in season 5 and season 6 and then decided to switch to support. I fell in love with Blitzcrank due to his goofy nature and the fact that he's this giant lovable idiotic robot. Also I find his hook to be the funniest spell in the game. I found that I really liked the freedom that support offered, the fact that I wasn't actually tethered to one lane and could help everyone. I also have an incredibly aggressive playstyle and Blitzcrank compliments that perfectly. I currently stream as a hobby on Twitch, I'm gonna warn you, I'm definitely a little toxic and I do stream slightly inconsistently, but if you have any questions after the guide you can find me there. Good luck in season 11........


Socials:

TWITCH
https://www.twitch.tv/blitzcrank

TWITTER
https://twitter.com/BlitzcrankNa

YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/blitzcrankna

DISCORD
https://discord.gg/BJNdeXw

Pros:

Blitzcrank has one of the strongest level 1, 2, and 6 power spikes in the game. If you can beat your opponent to level 2 and immediately hook either the ADC or Support you can force them to use their summoners.

Blitzcrank burst kill potential at level 2 and level 6 is incredible. People don't expect the amount of damage Static Field and Rocket Grab does.

Blitzcrank has the best pick potential in the game. Catching someone out of position with his Rocket Grab can completely change the tempo of the game. Rocket Grab is the safest hook spell in the game of all the supports. Unlike Thresh, Nautilus, or Pyke (Pykes hook can, but it only works on shorter walls and requires the opponent to be next to the wall), Blitzcrank Rocket Grab can bring the enemies over walls and directly to your team.

Blitzcrank can stack Rocket Grab, Power Fist (E), and Static field (ultP) to pacify his opponent making them easy to kill and unable to escape. These spells are also good tools for interrupting channeling spells such as Katarina ult.

Another cool feature which was recently added is Static Field now removes shields, meaning champions like Karma, Tahm Kench, Mordekaiser, etc all will instantly have their shields removed when you ult (Does not work on Morgana shield Black Shield). It also works on items such as Gargoyle Stoneplate.

Blitzcrank is Fantastic at snowballing and pushing leads bot lane. Also has really strong roam potential with overdrive once you get Mobility Boots.

Blitzcrank passive Mana Barrier is really great early on for using your low hp as bait and for keeping you alive longer.

Unlike most skillshots, Rocket Grab actually comes from your right hand rather than the center of the champions model. Making it easier sometimes to hit certain hooks or to catch your opponent off guard.

Cons:

Blitzcrank is incredibly reliant on his Rocket Grab. It's basically his entire kit, if you constantly miss your Rocket Grab you're going to be useless all game. If your Rocket Grab is down, you're incredibly vulnerable. Sometimes holding your Rocket Grab is the best bet.

Blitzcrank has really weak lane pressure if you fall behind.

Blitzcrank can't harass his opponents.

It's very easy to kite Blitzcrank.

Typically requires an ADC with a strong lane presence because he himself can't clear waves, and ideally needs to get ahead early. Scaling ADCs force him to play passive which isn't ideal when playing Blitzcrank.

The slow on Overdrive counters his entire kit. Meaning you have to use it sparingly and you're forced to always build Mobility Boots.

Your mana costs are really high.

It's difficult to escape if you're caught out of position because you have very little mobility.

Blitzcrank is incredibly reliant on vision control, meaning you need vision of the map to play him optimally and make picks. If your team is not warding or helping you to ward, it is very difficult for Blitzcrank to secure kills. Ideally you want the opponent not to be expecting your hook.

It's fairly easy to sidestep Rocket Grab unless you're using iBlitzcrank which makes the hook faster, and harder to see.

Unlike most skillshots, Rocket Grab actually comes from your right hand rather than the center of the champions model. Making it difficult to sometimes hit certain hooks depending on the position of minions (It's both a pro and a con).

Blitzcrank is actually kinda squishy and dies very quickly if caught out.

Flash and Ignite are the only summoners you should ever run on Blitzcrank..

Flash is actually more important on Blitzcrank than it is on most champions. Something to be aware of, sometimes it's better to die and save your Flash then to waste it and live. There are also situations where you're going to die even if you use Flash. Trading your Flash for a main carries Flash is always worth it. This allows the other members of your team in future fights to capitalize on the lack of mobility the enemy will have with Flash down. The reason for this being that your Flash + Rocket Grab combo can completely change the outcome of a game. It can help to pick off a carry (or enemy who's way out of position), which in return can help your team to force a fight at baron, take drake, or help to siege the enemy base. Flash + Rocket Grab allows you to catch people out of position, force fights you normally can't force and it also allows you to pressure a siege.

Ignite is necessary because of the kill potential it can create in lane. If you're playing Blitzcrank you're looking to force fights, push the tempo of the game, and make people play the way you want them to play. It is important for Blitzcrank to snowball early game. Getting kills in lane, forcing pressure on the map and just overall kill potential botlane. Blitzcrank isn't designed to be played with Exhaust. You don't want to stall the game out with Blitzcrank you want to end it early, force objectives or put opponents in situations where they are down a man. This can only truly be done with these summoners Flash + Ignite...

Aftershock:

Aftershock is necessary for Blitzcrank and most tanks/tank supports. Aftershock provides 2.5 seconds of heavily reduced damage after CCing a champion, this process from both Rocket Grab and Power Fist. With Blitzcrank being squishy it requires him to take this rune as it allows him to frontline for his team or immediately after hitting a hook. It also does add a little bit of aoe (area of effect) damage around you when it ends to add onto your early game fights.

Demolish:

With the current state of the game being really early game centric Demolish is amazing. Demolish helps to kill the enemy turrets quicker after several seconds of being within close proximity of the turret. If you're able to hit the opponents turret and get turret plating each plate is worth 120 gold and is split among all nearby allied champions. This extra gold helps to increase the deficit between you and the enemy bot lane, helping you to speed up the tempo of the game and get items sooner.

Conditioning:

I used to take Bone Plating but I found that the raw stats you receive from Conditioning was much better towards the mid/early game fights around drake. It also helps a lot towards mid/late game fights. Bone Plating is okay but only really works against certain poke supports, and negates very little damage. Most poke supports you can kill anyways just by landing Rocket Grab, making Bone Plating only good if you want to play extra safe early.

Unflinching:

Unflinching is an odd rune. There isn't really anything better to take in this slot for Blitzcrank even Unflinching is slightly pointless. All it really does is provide a little bit of Tenacity (CC reduction) after using a summoner spell. It's not terrible in super early game all ins, or for narrowly escaping at some points in the game. However, it's not that important.

Manaflow Band:

With the newest changes to Presence of Mind it's incredibly bad on Blitzcrank meaning I have to go back to the runes I was using before. Welcome back Manaflow Band. Blitzcrank has terrible mana problems his base mana at level one is 267, another thing is he actually needs flat mana for his scaling off his passive ( Mana Barrier) and to deal with his expensive mana costs. Manaflow Band Provides 250 mana when fully stacked. I know it can be a little difficult to stack Manaflow Band while playing Blitzcrank. Basically each Rocket Grab you hit gives you an extra 25 mana and every Power Fist you hit also gives you 25 mana and after hitting 10 spells it's fully stacked. Please keep in mind that there is a 15 second cooldown on Manaflow Band. This works fine with Rocket Grab because it will be back off cooldown the same time Manaflow Band is. Another cool thing is that once Manaflow Band is stacked you get mana regen. I know this rune is no where near as good as the old Presence of Mind but it's the next closest thing. Also a cool trick is if you're at 100 mana which is the cost of Rocket Graband it hits you instantly get 25 more mana which is just enough for Power Fist sometimes this can help make a massive difference in lane.

Waterwalking:

Waterwalking is a really fun rune. You gain 25 movement speed and some adaptive force (more damage) WHILE IN THE RIVER. This especially helps early because it allows you to collapse on (fight/assist your jungler or mid) the enemy jungler or whoever if they are fighting in river. Waterwalking gives amazing roam potential for Blitzcrank especially at early levels when you may only have tier 1 boots. It allows you to gank mid lane from bot incredibly quickly. It also allows you to escape potential fights that may have happened in the river or even cause you to turn a fight around because you can close the gap and have a little extra damage. Waterwalking is a really strong rune for both roaming and early or mid game fights in river.




*******The final armor runes are dependent on your match up bot. Armor for double ad. MR for double AP, MR and Armor if they're both.*******

Mana barrier:

When Blitzcrank's life is brought below 30% health, he activates Mana Barrier. This creates a mana shield around him. Mana Barrier can only occur once every 90 seconds.

When Blitzcrank receives damage that would bring him below Health 30% max health, a shield equal to 30% of his max mana pops up that lasts up to 10 seconds. Mana Barrier is an okay passive, it's mostly good for baiting enemies into picking a fight where they think they can immediately burst you but the shield will save you. The cool thing is Manaflow Band and Frozen Heart both give you solid amounts of mana, making this shield actually fairly strong early/mid game. Another thing is it's great for tricking enemies into using cooldowns. For example, your passive can bait Pyke into ulting you causing him to waste his ult and not kill you because you won't reach lethal range. Granted he doesn't have mass amounts of lethality. It's okay to die as Blitzcrank. Honestly sometimes trading your life for a carry or multiple people on the enemy team is a big win and mana barrier really helps with that. Mana Barrier is on a 90 second cooldown so keep that in mind and do look at the icon to determine if you should go in or not sometimes.

Rocket Grab:

Cost: 100 Mana Range: 1150 Blitzcrank fires his right hand. If it encounters an enemy unit it will stun them and deal magic damage while he pulls them to himself.

Rocket Grab is essentially your entire kit. It's an incredibly powerful spell and is arguably the best hook in the game. The reason for this being that although Rocket Grab has a very long cooldown, it has the longest range by 50 at 1150, does fairly decent burst damage (it also stuns for .5 seconds), and is able to reliably bring enemies over walls unlike the other hooks. Something to be wary of, is don't hook champions like Amumu or Morgana, people with mass aoe (area of effect) damage and a cc. You're basically allowing them to engage on your team for free. For some reason everyone wants to group around the Blitzcrank, which is good and bad. (HOWEVER IF YOU DO, one cool trick you can do with Blitzcrank that most people don't know is you can ult mid hook, causing them to be silenced on arrival, I'll also do this to counter champions like Ezreal and Ekko so they can't escape. Mercury's Treads does negate your silence though.) Also this doesn't mean don't hook them it just means be aware of positioning. One thing to be aware of in higher elo is that Rocket Grab can be sidestepped.

From Plat down to Iron I would say it's fairly safe for you to just aim where they are, they won't really dodge. In Diamond+ I will typically aim my hook about where the opponent could potentially walk in the next full second, or as you'll see in challenger game players will constantly click up or down, and this may sound a little confusing but imagine the opponent has the afterimage from Ekko Chronobreak, I will often aim where they would have been a second prior. However, I won't lie to you, playing Blitzcrank trusting your gut and just building muscle memory of his range and how people on average move is the best way to get good at him. Don't be scared to miss your hook, I see a lot of Blitzcrank players scared to hook because they'll get punished or are useless after, but practice makes perfect. If you come into my stream and watch me or any of my vods, you'll see I constantly throw my hook out. Sometimes you'll even see me close my eyes for a second and throw a quick prayer out because the Rito gods knows I had no business hitting that hook. Max Rocket Grab first for CDR and damage.

Overdrive:

Cost: 75 Mana Range: 1 Blitzcrank supercharges himself, gaining Movement Speed and Attack Speed. The Movement Speed bonus decays over the duration. When Overdrive ends, Blitzcrank's Movement Speed is slowed.

God I hate this spell. After the slow nerf a few seasons back it's just something else. Basically, what it does is it makes you attack (attacking faster is basically pointless you'll only get like 1 or 2 extra autos in and usually people will run away) and move faster but for only a brief period of time. This spell is something interesting because essentially you can use it as a short gap closer or to reach an objective or teammate quicker, but it literally slows you after which is just counter productive to Blitzcrank. I'll tell you some cool tricks you can do with Overdrive. First, let's say you arrive to lane and the enemy ADC or support is by themselves hitting your turret for that extra gold, if your ADC is close by you can actually use Overdrive to quickly run at them and past their minions and if you hit the hook, sometimes you'll be able to stall long enough for your ADC to come clean up the kill. Another cool trick I'll do is I'll start walking backwards to fake the security that they can walk forward and I'll immediately blitz them with Overdrive and either go for the knock up from Power Fist or the hook and I actually get a lot of kills in lower elo doing this (granted my adc knows how to right click). Basically this skill can be used to gap close or run away from opponents. I level Overdrive at 3 sometimes, 4 if i'm being greedy with the extra hook damage, but personally I max W second, I'm one of the only Blitzcrank players who does this but I really find that the speed increase between each rank does a lot more than the minor cdr in leveling Power Fist instead. Your Job as Blitzcrank is to get there and hit the hook I like having Overdrive on a lower cooldown more than Power Fist.

Power Fist:

Cost: 25 Mana Range: 300 Blitzcrank charges up his fist to make his next attack deal double his total attack damage as physical damage and pop his target up in the air.

Power Fist causes your next basic attack to be empowered doubling your attack damage and knocks up the opponent. Briefly stunning them. It's also an auto attack reset. Sometimes what I'll do is I'll Rocket Grab + auto once, Power Fist and then auto again for the most damage out of it. Only do this if you know the opponent doesn't have Flash or a way of them escaping. Otherwise, what you want to do is immediately click E Power Fist while the hook is going out that way you'll knock them up once they come back. Also don't worry about using it because it only cost 25 mana so it won't really impact your mana too much. Something you should try to do is rush to level 2 before the enemy bot lane. Level up Power Fist and then go for a hook. Usually you can get an early game kill or force their summoners. Getting rid of someone's Flash is great for Blitzcrank. It provides so much kill potential. Some small cool tricks you can do with your E Power Fist is you can knock Vladimir up while he's in his Sanguine Pool if you do it immediately. The same applies to Fizz and his escape. One really important trick to do bot lane against champions like Pyke and Tristana, you hook them and they don't use their jumps to escape if you wait about .25 seconds and then use Power Fist you can usually stop them mid jump putting them in a really vulnerable position. Also if you run at Ezreal and knock him up if he Arcane Shift away he'll be stunned for about half a second and you can shoot a quick Rocket Grab at him.

Static Field:

Cost: 100 Mana Range: 600 Enemies attacked by Blitzcrank are marked and take lightning damage. Additionally, Blitzcrank can activate this ability to remove nearby enemies' shields, damage them, and silence them briefly. Passive: While this spell is available, lightning charges Blitzcrank's fists, marking enemies. That are shocked for magic damage. This stacks up. Active: Destroys damage shields on nearby enemies, deals magic damage, and silences.

Static Field is an aoe (area of effect) burst that silences and removes shields. Static Field is really great for getting kills in lane or roaming on the opponent early on. It does surprisingly high damage. Your full combo level 6 without Ignite does around 500-600 damage. Making it really easy for you to kill any ADC and just about any support by landing a hook on them even Aftershock supports. If you do hook an Aftershock support I recommend you do what I said earlier in the guide. Ult while they're coming to you and immediately follow up with Power Fist. That way they are unable to proc their Aftershock and are already going to be below half by the time they can proc it. The passive of Static Field is terrible. The only time you can really use it is if you know the enemy champion you're hitting doesn't have an escape (You honestly don't spend a lot of time straight up just autoing opponents as Blitzcrank, or you shouldn't be). Usually when you're playing Blitzcrank you want to use all of your burst immediately to get a target low/stop them from escaping/stop them from producing Aftershock (There are exceptions).

Keep in mind that using your ultimate for it's silence is viable even if the silence is brief. For example running at an Ezreal and immediately silencing him so he can't escape or using it to pop Sivir's Spell Shield or stop her from using it all together. A good silence can completely change a fight so later in the game or against certain opponents you will want to save it. Such as stopping an Ekko from ulting Chronobreak as he gets low this way he just dies, interrupting a Katarina's Death Lotus, or running at a champion like Ahri or Ryze (it will completely stop Ryze Realm Warp, it will only stall Ahri Spirit Rush) and stopping their ults from letting them get away. These split second silences can honestly win you games. Be aware of when you use your ultimate and what champions are on the other team.

Relic Shield:

Relic Shield is the first item you get. Relic Shield will allow you to execute a minion who is below 50% of their maximum health. Killing a minion by any means with a charge grants you and the nearest allied champion gold. Typically you will want to use the first stack on a melee minion in the first wave and the second stack on a melee minion in the second wave. This is one way to get level 2 faster. To get to level 2 you will need to kill one full wave and 3 melee minions. On Blitzcrank Relic Shield is much better than Steel Shoulderguards, the reason for this is because of the ability power you get. The rest of the stats on the item are the exact same, however the ability power you get will scale with both your Rocket Grab and Static Field damage, that extra damage early on can help you secure kills.

Boots of Mobility:

Mobility Boots will be the first item you always want to rush on Blitzcrank. This item is necessary on Blitzcrank, the other boots don't work nearly as well. The reason for this is, that a lot of the time you're going to be rushing it trying to immediately get a hook and catch the opponent off guard. Boots of Swiftness don't provide the necessary movement speed to do this correctly. Also what rushing Mobility Boots will do is, it will cause you to have massive early game pressure. It will allow you to roam from bot to mid very quickly. It will also allow you to get wards in the jungle easier and get wards mid easier. Another reason to get Mobility Boots early is it allows you to roam with your jungle and cause constant pressure on the map. Putting pressure on the map setting a certain tempo to the game is what Blitzcrank wants to do. Keep in mind that if you're hit while Mobility Boots is active you will lose most of your movement speed increase. If you can get this on your first back it's ideal, however it should be gotten no later than your second back.

SHURELYA'S BATTLESONG:

Shurelya's Battlesong I have found that this item is currently the best MYTHIC item in the game for Blitzcrank. Mythic Items are the core item to your champion, it's basically what will scale your champion and cause them to be weak or strong in the current game. OKAY, with the new state of the game essentially just being glorified team death match, this is now the item I am going. The reasoning behind this is that it allows you to close a large gap for you and your team by increasing everyone's movespeed by 60%. You can also use it to escape. Shurelya's Battlesong also gives great pick potential with its active ability. Along with also having a great mythic passive for Blitz by giving more CDR.

Frozen Heart:

Frozen Heart is now typically what I go second after Turbo Chemtank. The reason for this is Frozen heart has really strong defensive stats and is only 2500 gold. You aren't going to be utilizing the unique passive too much but the Aura for 15% AS is really great. On top of that it also gives mana which helps with Mana Barrier his passive giving you a larger shield and helps fix his terrible mana pool. Frozen Heart also gives 20 ability haste which is awesome so overall it's a really great item on blitz. If the enemy team comp is really AP heavy feel free to go Abyssal Mask instead.

Vigilant Wardstone

Vigilant Wardstone is the item I build 3rd after Frozen Heart typically. Vigilant Wardstone allows you to have up to 4 normal wards and 2 controls wards on the map at once. Rather than 3 normal wards and only 1 control ward which is the normal thing. Keep in mind this item can only be bought when you are level 13. The main reason I go this item third though are the stats. 10% MS and 40 haste. Both of these stats are incredibly strong on Blitz. Since all of your spells have long cooldowns and the whole point of your champion is to make a pick these are the best possible stats for you.

Knight's Vow:

Knight's Vow is the second item you will typically build on Blitzcrank UNLESS YOUR ADC IS A MAGE, then you will build Knight's Vow first. Knight's Vow is similar to Zeke's Convergence because it needs to be assigned to an ally, however, the cooldown for assignment is 90 seconds so keep that in mind. Basically why Knight's Vow is so good on Blitzcrank is it will grant you more CDR and allow you take damage for your ADC but also you can heal off the damage they deal. Don't forget to assign this item to your allies in fights because it can change the outcome of a fight just by the minor damage mitigation or healing you can receive.

Redemption:

Redemption will reveal a target area for 3 seconds. After a 2.5 second delay, a beam of light strikes the ground. Allies within the area are healed based off your level and enemy champions will take 10% of their maximum health. Redemption is an okay item on Blitzcrank. However as everyone does such large burst damage now with the season 11 items it's not as good.

Mikael's Blessing:

A Quicksilver Sash for your adc or anyone on your team. The CDR is nice and if the enemy team is AP heavy the MR on it is really great, It's a great item for support overall (it's not ideal on Blitzcrank but it's still viable certainly) mostly just if the enemy team has CC. If the enemy team is really CC heavy, let's say they have people like Leona, or Morgana, Mikael's Blessing is great for helping your ADC or other allies to escape.

Abyssal Mask:

Abyssal Mask if you find yourself against an AP heavy team comp I HIGHLY recommend going this item. It gives 60 magic resist 350 health and has an INSANE unique passive. When you immobilize an enemy champion meaning if you Rocket Grab or Power Fist them, they will now take 10% increased damage for 4 seconds. Making it significantly easier to burst the opponent. This is incredible on any hook or engage support when up against an AP heavy team comp.

MANTHEON:

F*CK THIS CHAMPION, F*CK THIS CHAMPION, F*CK THIS CHAMPION, F*CK THIS CHAMPION. OKAY MANTHEON IS NOT BALANCED.

Well, if you have decided you hate your adc and team to the point that you don't ban this champion WHO HAS A BASE MOVESPEED OF 355 WHICH IS FASTER THAN YOU WITH Boots, AND WILL 1 SHOT YOUR ADC WITH HIS OBSCENE EARLY GAME DAMAGE.

There are few ways to play around Pantheon. If you can get a level 1 hook on him and outtrade him then immediately shove for two and attempt to kill or force his Flash this will make lane easier in the beginning. It will also allow you to go for hooks on him or his ADC who will most likely have lower HP than you and your adc at this point. Outside of that the only real way to win lane is get a crazy hook on his ADC and manage to burst them before he kills your adc OR wait until level 6 and go for a hook and nuke him or his adc with Static Field. (Keep in mind Pantheon has a point and click stun and does insane burst damage.)

The other trick is either have your jungler camp him, as Blitzcrank works great with every ganking jungler or try and get good vision around their bot side jungle and attempt to kill his adc when he roams.

(I personally ban Pantheon in high elo)

Morgana:

You should be banning Morgana every game. If you're not that's fine but playing around her is very difficult and depends on you being able to hit your Rocket Grab during brief openings. SO THIS IS IMPORTANT, Black Shield COOLDOWN IS LONGER THAN YOUR Q!!! There is a brief window after she shields your Rocket Grab, 6 SECONDS, if the Morgana is good, she will max her Black Shield first. Lowering your brief window by 1 second for each rank essentially meaning at level 5 you only have a 4-second window.

There are other ways to play around her, such as ulting before she can click her Black Shield and immediately casting Rocket Grab. Another method is attempting to bait the Black Shield out by running at her and then clicking R. Your R can destroy her shield, however, if she's maxing it, it doesn't always work depending on her AP. Another method is aiming for the target you think she's not going to shield (baiting won't work in higher elo, D4+). These work but they're a little tricky and are slightly more advanced tactics..

Morgana completely counter Blitzcrank. However in lane, unless it's something like Morgana + Caitlyn, there's a very little chance she'll actually be able to kill you unless you're overstaying or you get ganked.

You can outroam Morgana, for example, if your ADC is useless, you know one of those guys who can't even right click, I highly recommend abandoning lane and roaming with your jungle or ganking top and mid. Morgana can't follow as effectively.

Nautilus:

Okay, so everyone's favorite ocean diving anchor wielding a**hole. Nautilus is not balanced, his hook hitbox is broken and his survivability/damage are honestly insane.

If he hooks your ADC there really isn't much you can do because he will pull them closer to his ADC and snare them on top of that. You can attempt to hook his ADC in return to try and stop them from killing your ADC. Hooking Nautilus will be pointless because he has most likely already used all his spells.

The way to beat nautilus in lane is by hooking him from really far away so that his ADC can't participate in the trade. Hooking him while his Aftershock is down, or by aiming for his ADC. Blitzcrank has very high burst damage potential so if you can manage to pull his ADC there's a good chance you can win the fight before he can react accordingly.

However, I recommend aiming for his ADC or going to hook him at max range so you can win the trade. Overall he does more damage and offers more CC than you do, so the only way to beat him is by burst or catching him out of position.

If you can Rocket Grab + Power Fist + Static Field in that order or Rocket Grab + Static Field + Power Fist to stop him from procing Aftershock you do have a good chance of killing him. However, Nautilus does win this matchup.

Broken sun champion:

Leona is incredibly broken as well right now. So basically what Leona wants to do in this lane is go all in on your ADC. She can also go all in on you, however she can only do this is you're in the middle of the minion wave.
Leona capitalizes on the fact that she has a very large amount of CC and is incredibly tanky.

Winning this lane is similar to the Nautilus matchup in the sense that poking Leona down with long range Rocket Grabs is pivotal here.

There's another more difficult tactic that you can use to beat Leona. When Leona uses Zenith Blade, where she throws her sword at you. So if you get hit by her Zenith Blade she will then land behind you. This is actually a really good opportunity for you to kill her ADC.

Normally ADC players will hide behind Leona and with her jumping behind you from the use of her Zenith Blade you have a brief moment where you can hook her ADC. If you manage to hit her ADC with your Rocket Grab, in this moment you can capitalize and there's a good chance you can kill the ADC.
(You can only use this tactic if you're not standing in the middle of the wave). Typically this is best done by standing near the wall or alcove players wont expect you to do this. You do a lot more burst damage than Leona does. However if she gets on your ADC and you can't immediately Rocket Grab theirs it's over.

The only reason I give her a 4 is because it requires you to know Blitzcrank at a higher level. However, its honestly not a terrible match up.

Sivir:

Sivir and Ezreal are the only ADCs that "counter" Blitzcrank. The reason why Sivir is so high up on here is because she will basically mitigate your entire early game lane pressure if she's good. (If you have a mage adc you actually crush her in lane though)

Similar to Morgana you can actually Rocket Grab her during a 3 second window once her Spell Shield cd is down. Your Rocket Grab is about 3 seconds shorter than her Spell Shield. Sivir is a pain because your Rocket Grab doesnt do any damage to her either.

The only real way to counter a Sivir lane is to roam or wait until you're level 6. At six you can ult her which will silence her for a breif moment and you can hook. (KEEP IN MIND your silence lasts for .5 seconds meaning you have to hook instantly, also if she is far enough away she will be able to Spell Shield before the Rocket Grab hits.)

Braum:

Braum will basically nullify most of your kill potential in lane. Don't hook Braum unless he is way out of position or your ADC is NOWHERE NEAR YOU, because if his Concussive Blows procs on your ADC you will lose the trade.

Basically this is a lane where you want to widdle him down or go for hooking his ADC. He doesn't really have any kill potential on you but at the same time you can't really do anything to him either so it's very skill dependent. Overall really boring lane, but you do have the chance to kill him.

The cow:

This matchup is kinda hard and it's really dependent on you. Basically you want the hook the cow at levels 1-2 and if you can hit 6 before him that's a good time as well.

Alistar can't really do much to you, unless he's able to land his full combo on your ADC or if you pull him poorly. Similar to Braum you don't want to hook Alistar if your adc is standing next to you as he'll knock them up. However, keep in mind if you do hook Alistar that you NEED to immediately Power Fist him and RUN (use Overdrive if you have it) BACKWARDS or he will then knock you up and most likely kick you towards his ADC with your spells down. If you can Power Fist him in time he won't be able to kick you backwards however he still may be able to knock you up.

Similar to Braum, this matchup it's very skill dependent and revolves around you either killing him at 6, hooking his ADC or killing him before he's level 3.

Thresh:

This matchup is pretty even and heavily skill reliant. Basically against Thresh it comes down to who has Aftershock up.
If Thresh flays you, he'll proc Aftershock at this moment you can Power Fist him or walk backwards. Once his Aftershock is down you can hook him freely and he's actually really squishy. However if he doesn't waste his Aftershock the key to this lane is whoever can hook the opposing ADC will win.

Thresh does have a minor advantage because he can hook you, however if you can survive and immediately hook him after his Aftershock pops, it's fairly easy to kill him. Thresh is really squishy early on.

Rakan:

Rakan is an interesting champion.

If he's with Xayah, you're pretty screwed in lane, unless they really misplay. You can hook him, and he is really squishy, but if he's with Xayah they just enable one another too much freedom.

However on his own he's actually really easy to kill and someone you can hook and knock up fairly easily. However, do keep in mind that if your ADC is really close to you he can knock them up in return and potentially kill them. Always be aware of your ADCs positioning.

Pyke:

Pyke is a bit of a weird one for Blitzcrank. Pyke is incredibly easy to kill, just he's really hard to lock down. If he manages to hook your ADC, the ADC is most likely gonna die.
Pyke can't really kill you because he doesn't have the burst for it, plus at 6 your passive actually stops him for executing you typically unless the Pyke player is good and waits.
To beat him as Blitzcrank is something that takes practice, when you hook Pyke if you wait about .25 seconds and then click your Power Fist instead of instantly, you'll actually stop him mid dash, most Pyke players will immediately Phantom Undertow after being hooked and if you wait just a tiny bit you'll usually catch them off guard and stop them from escaping. It just takes practice and eventually it becomes muscle memory. (you can do this with Tristana's jump too if she doesn't buffer your Rocket Grab).

Bard:

The Bard matchup is pretty Blitzcrank favored. The only real issue is, is that if you miss your hook he can beat the hell out of you. You can try to run up to him with Overdrive and Power Fist him, however, it's usually not a good idea. This matchup is just really dependent on whether or not you hit your hook. If you hit your hook, he blows up because Bard is really fragile. I actually play Bard to counter Blitzcrank because it's pretty easy to side step Rocket Grab.

Ezreal:

A lot of people think Ezreal counters Blitzcrank, but the thing is his Arcane Shift CD is really long and he has to spam his Mystic Shot to lower it. On top of that he takes damage every time you Rocket Grab him and is forced to jump away which costs him 90 mana. Ezreal has really big mana problems so spam hooking him early on actually makes it really hard for him to stay in lane. Once he gets Tear of the Goddess, it becomes a lot harder. However, at 6 you can basically just run him down by ulting him and then using everything else on him. Also if you manage to Power Fist him (and not use Rocket Grab) before he jumps away he'll be stunned for a brief second and you have an opportunity to hook him. I don't mind the Ezreal matchup because he still gets hurt by Rocket Grab and his mana is terrible. Sivir sucks because she doesn't take damage and gains mana from being hit.
If you're new to Blitzcrank, Ezreal can be a little rough at the start.

Taric:

The thing about Taric is, he has no mobility, a CC that's really easy to dodge and once his stun is down he's incredibly easy to kill. This match up is similar to the Braum or Alistar match up. Just be aware of where your ADC is when you hook him so your ADC doesn't get stunned however it's safe to hook him whenever because he doesn't do much.




Karma, Lux, Lulu, Nami, Janna, Sona, Soraka, Senna: Everyone who I have rated as a level 1 threat basically dies the moment you hook them. All of these matchups are very easy for Blitzcrank. They just rely on you hitting your Rocket Grab. If you're scared you can hold it to pressure them away however, hooking them is pretty free in terms of kill potential. Most of these picks are poke heavy champions. Keep this in mind. You don't want to allow them to abuse you by wasting your hook to frivolously. Holding your hook, can sometimes be just as good as hitting it. Also in some of these matchups the moment your look at your opponent when they cast a spell. Often in these moments you'll see players hesitate or not react nearly as quickly. These are good moments to go for a hook. One massive downside to Blitzcrank to keep in mind is that you do rely on your ADC more than most supports would. The reason I say this is, is because sometimes you'll get an ADC who doesn't know how to right click or an adc who won't thin the wave out and will just want to cs and you'll constantly get shoved in (making hooks really difficult). Hooking under your turret can definitely be your friend just be aware of your positioning and your ADCs.