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Hide yo Teemos, hide yo Ashes, cuz they grabbin' errybody.
Preface
Doublelift's Blitzcrank Guide
If you'd like advice from the #1 ladder Blitzcrank, read that instead. I'm not a high ranked player and I don't know how well the build I've listed here would hold up at 1800+ ELO. Specifically mentioned is that manamune is an expensive early game item and only works well when you're very farmed, otherwise you don't get to be as tanky as you want to be earlygame.
Introduction
I thought I'd start a Blitz topic since he's seeing more usage in ranked matches with the nerfs to AoE-based teams. I've played probably 15-20 games with him during the recent free week and I've taken some advice from decent players, seen him played by Hotshot a few times and used some of my own powers of cognitive reasoning to come up with what I think is a pretty solid way to play him. This topic is both for you and for me, any input in to what would make this build better is welcome.
Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem
Summoner Skills: Flash/Exhaust, Flash/Ignite or Ghost/Exhaust - Fits with the role of breaking up damage on your teammates and saving them from enemy carries.
Masteries:1/8/21 - Strength of Spirit is adorable for lane phase. I like the regen/movespeed/cdr in utility. Going deeper in to defense is another option.
Runes:
Blue - MR, Mana Regen/lvl or CDR
Yellow - Mana Regen/lvl
Red - ArPen or AD
Quints - HP AD or ArPen
Skill Order: Q->E->W then Prioritize R>E>Q>W. Lowering your knockup punch (E) cooldown is very helpful when any sort of fight breaks out, and having it off cooldown earlier if you want to last hit with it helps as well.
Item Build
Core Items
- Manamune - This item is a central cog to any non-AP blitz build I feel. You want your mana shield to be large enough that you're not very focusable in a teamfight, and this item gives you a large amount of mana, and converts mana in to attack damage. At 2000 mana this item gives you 20 + 40 AD which is as much as an unleveled bloodthirster.
- Sheen - Another critical item, gives you a huge damage boost on your E.
- Boots - I prefer the new CDR boots, but Merc Treads are probably the safer choice here.
Mid/Late Game Items
Use your judgement with what you buy out of this list depending on what comp you are facing. The order these items are bought is a very loose guideline.
- Banshee's Veil - Mana, HP, MR. Getting this will help keep casters away, and allow you to roam freely during any teamfights which are probably happening by the time you get this. Well rounded item that should be your go-to buy against well rounded comps.
- Glacial Shroud - CDR/Armor. Buy this earlier if you have trouble with physical carries pounding you. It is a good core item for getting your power fist down to 3 sec cooldown.
- Triforce - Completed from that sheen you bought 40 minutes ago. Makes your damage slightly more relevant as you push in to late game.
- Frozen Heart - Completed from the Glacial Shroud.
- Guardian Angel - Armor/MR/Rez, makes you less of a target, allowing you to pop carries up in the air all day.
- Sunfire Cape - Useful against heavy physical teams.
- Randuin's Omen - Another good item to counteract a heavy physical team, and has CDR to boot.
- Youmuu's Ghostblade - Aspeed/Crit/Damage/CDR + Movement on use. All around good compliment to triforce if you're going to be a more DPS oriented Blitz.
Tips/Playstle/Abilities
Passive - Mana shield. You gain a shield equal to 50% of your total mana when your health is reduced to less than 20%. Doesn't activate if you get killed outright from above 20% hp! So make sure you have some defensive stats/health.
Q - Rocket Grab. Uses? Pulling people out of position, whether it be before a teamfight, stopping a runner after a teamfight, or pulling that enemy carry away from your allied carry. Pulling people through walls is highly effective.
W - Overdrive. Uses? Movement speed on demand, has a 90% uptime at max CDR. Use it to make sure that you can always melee that enemy carry and be able to use your...
E - Power Fist. Uses? Short duration stun/knockup, allows you to break up damage coming in to an allied carry. Making sure you continually powerfist the right target in a team fight is critical. Also useful for last a burst of damage to last hit
R - Static Field. Uses? Breaking up channeled spells like the ultimates of Nunu/Galio/Malzahar. The silence duration isn't very long, and the damage is decent but not worth using it exclusively for the damage if there is something worth interrupting on the enemy team.
Your #1 role is to break up damage. Disrupt the enemy team so that your team may do their damage without issue, be as annoying as possible.
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On January 28 2011 17:31 Dezzimal wrote:
Your #1 role is to break up damage. Disrupt the enemy team so that your team may do their damage without issue, be as annoying as possible.
The #1 job for blitz is to grab that ashe and fist her
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Sheen instantly adds damage to your E, depending on order of used skills (proc cooldown)
If you only want to calculate how much damage you will deal with and without sheen: (calculated for 100 armor [50% reduction] and 18 lvl blitz [119 base damage])
Without: 2*AD*50%= AD
With: 2*AD*50%+119*100%*50%=AD+60 damage.
Glacial shroud is perfect item for blitz, really cost efficient item.
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So I've been playing blitz a lot, (only level 22 though) and trying both sheen and manamune routes, I find manamune much more effective. With tear and boots, I have indefinite lane staying power, and can zone out most dual lanes with a decent partner. I never have mana problems, so I can throw hooks around like candy, and I usually get off more hits on things I take a chance on rather then an obvious one. Come early-mid game, I have merc treads and manamune at least, and then I can fill in as a tank no problem. I feel like a fucking pseudo tryndamere when mana shield activates and it's literally adds half my health.
The sheen route makes me feel so restricted, I have to be really conservative with my mana, and I really only boil down to my combo, and while that does hurt, it doens't seem to have that much relevance in an early teamfight, where my mana gets too low to make mana shield of any significance. I always get sheen after manamune.
Am I overlooking something? Is getting sheen that early really important? Its not hard too farm up enough for it. I've watched and faced people play blitz with and without manamune, and I usually see muneblitz as a bigger threat.
Perhaps I am just a scrub?
Edit: Oh I also always get flash/CV, because after years of playing pudge, I feel having access to a free maphack is too good to pass up lol...
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I get Catalyst as my first item because it's really good on anyone with mana (and you want a Banshee eventually anyway) and with that plus another mana crystal I never run out of mana, so I don't particularly like Manamune. I'd rather work toward Triforce since every stat it adds is nice on Blitz (and getting both Triforce and Manamune is not really possible unless you're in a crazy long game).
Re: OP skill order: I really don't see the point to leveling Q before W. Q only gets more damage and a lower cooldown ... which is nice, but you don't use hooks for the damage and you typically only get one shot anyway. W's scaling is fairly decent and I feel like maxing it out is important so you can keep up with people who have Ghost (and it makes you kill towers/creep waves much more effectively too).
I usually run Flash/Exhaust if someone else takes CV, or Flash/CV otherwise. You already have a built-in Ghost in your W so I feel like there's no reason to run Ghost as a summoner spell.
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oh I always get manamune and triforce...
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I dunno, I usually end with something like boots of choice (usually mercs) + banshee + heart of gold (maybe 2) + trinity which is about 9k-10k gold. Another couple hundred on wards + pots ... I very rarely earn more than 10k as Blitz since he's not a champ who needs lots of gold anyway so you're better off leaving big minion waves for your teammates in most cases.
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I go both sheen and manamune, but I only pick blitz if our team is tanky enough already (usually if our team has little or no CC). Blitz turns a team full of solo-queuers into a coordinated, focus-firing machine and right now I'm 3-0 with him in ranked.
I usually pick blitz when our team is all or mostly melee/tanky dps, since post-initiation, one of Blitz's best jobs is peeling guys off the carries. On Treeeskimo's advice I go mobility boots instead of taking ghost, since they let you close in (with W) and line up that grab at the start of a fight.
Also flash+exhaust is mega fun, I'm not even considering any other spells until I hit 1600 or something.
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Manamune is like the best item on blitz. It lets you spam all your skills, gives tons of mana for your shield, and also adds decent damage which is great cause W adds aspd too. I always rush it and then follow up with sunfire and whatever other tanky items are needed. I always max Q last since the damage/cd reduction are not really worth leveling over W.
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blitz is an asshole, don't play blitz or you'll get top 10 solo queue and still be worthless in real games.
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IMHO Manamune shouldn't be core item on Blitz.
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The problem with Manamune is that Trinity Force is ridiculous on Blitz as he benefits significantly from every single stat, particularly the movespeed, the slow and the proc. They aren't the same price, but Sheen's damage isn't that much less than Manamune early on if at all and you can either build tanky from there first or dive straight into Trinity Force.
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i played blitz in a couple games, and I feel he is too op sometimes. his pull is almost instakill, winning teamfights before they even happen. I think his skill sets are just way too good, or my enemies werent too good. either way hes fun to play, but i have never dominated so much so fast with any other hero.
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ive been playing blitz a lot recently, and even though im a noob so my opinion cant carry too much weight, i dont understand the draw of an AD blitz. you still cant head to head with any real melee champion in the laning phase and your utility doesnt do anything if you are just pulling them around in melee range ;/
then in late game, blitz's only aoe is pure magic damage and he needs decent CDR to be able to do much of anything. cdr synergizes so well with everything he has, even massivly boosting his melee, through W, as an ap champ.
my enemies are probably just retarded but blitz seems to be borderline OP as an AP champ, building tear > cdr > ap, you have alot of staying power, a decent shield from your passive and a crap ton more control than building AD.
his burst is also insane opening up with 1k damage seems to synergize so well with Q because you can pull in 1 person, burst them, then run away a bit. as an AD champ you kinda have to commit as you have no escapes beyond flash.
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Manamune can't be a BAD item on blitz, it gives damage, mana, helps with your passive. I believe its not OPTIMAL for HIGH elo games. Takes too much work to get to, sheen deals way more damage right when you get it, and it builds into the best item on blitz which is tri force.
Since you are going to be dual lanning bot with an AD carry you can't really afford to get manamune and trifroce and gold per 5 AND take care of the warding its just not possible.
So I recommend like HoG + Philo into wards, boots2, triforce rush (while buying wards whole game). Should be pretty do able.
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On September 25 2011 13:40 VictorianPark wrote:
Manamune can't be a BAD item on blitz, it gives damage, mana, helps with your passive. I believe its not OPTIMAL for HIGH elo games. Takes too much work to get to, sheen deals way more damage right when you get it, and it builds into the best item on blitz which is tri force.
Since you are going to be dual lanning bot with an AD carry you can't really afford to get manamune and trifroce and gold per 5 AND take care of the warding its just not possible.
So I recommend like HoG + Philo into wards, boots2, triforce rush (while buying wards whole game). Should be pretty do able.
Terrible suggestion in my opinion. No CDR, you're getting sheen so much later that it really only kinda keeps you relevant in the game as without it your burst wouldn't be worth anything. Philo I'd agree on for early laning phase but sheen before hog and from then you need CDR.
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Jungle Style Blitzgank.
Get a ton of attackspeed in your runes, like reds and blues, use some armour yellows, and of course the lovable choose your own quints. I use armour pen.
masteries go 9-21-0
Start cloth and 5 pots and go do standard route.
Or start with a long sword with a potion, and go wolves, wraiths <smite>, golems, buy cloth and pot, blue -> red.
Or start long sword and go golems <smite>, wraiths <pot>, wolves, blue <smite> mana sheild will pop, base for cloth.
Take one point in knock up then max w with one point in hook at 2, 3, or 4 depending upon when you're gonna gank.
Your jungle is slow before you get madred's and unsustainable until you get vamp scepter, so you're gonna want a fast wriggles, but once you get your mobility boots and lvl 5 w you're gonna be flying around with 500+ ms speed (get a triforce for extra speed on the blitz gank).
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The problem with Blitz is that he is so much stronger early game than he is late game. So I dont think building Manamune first and going for late sheen is a good idea. My suggestion would be to get boots and pots for sustain. Rush sheen, have some flat AD runes, and then go for gp10/manamune. The idea is you should be making use of your strong early game to get a headstart on opponents by either getting kills or zoning them and not save up for your mediocre late game.
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Late game he's still very strong, when carries can destroy bruiseJust avoid amumu & galio of course except if you're team can 100 0 them during the time you disable them.
Blitz is my second highest winning ratio champ and he's really fun. You have to go Q E W then max R W E Q. grab is not the real initiate tool, you want to use your speedboost to run to them to fist them up, they will often run in a straight line because they see you arrive so fast, then you just Q them for the Q E R combo. You try to use R just before they land the ground so it increases the time when they can't flash. Maxing W is also great to help take turrets or drake faster. It also allows you to roam to mid very fast and it will be on when you arrive to mid bush. Blitz has great roaming power, as with his movement speed he can travel very fast and help to take the towers down. Besides he often can escape easily with MS + shield and still make his combo if a mate came to help. An ennemy running striaght up to you is really easy to grab.
To lane efficiently, you go 9 0 21 for CDR with armor yellows and quints because the initate method from engaging with W can make you take some damages. It also increases the strenghth of your shield obviously and they can die because they prefer to finish you and in fact they can't.
I used to love cv but with the new meta I take exhaust but you can still invade very nice, specially against junglers who start wraiths red with no flash : go in river bush invade at 1 35 grab & get your team the first blood.
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EPT
