Blitzcrank is The Great Steam Champion and a very fun champion to play. It’s incredibly simple too – you aim your Q, the grab, and try and pull a person in. They go flying your way and you and whoever else is around you from your team proceeds to beat them to a pulp.

Better players will save the Q and charge in with W for a speed boost, an E knock up punch, before silencing with Blitzcrank’s ultimate and then grabbing the panic stricken player as they try and escape or retreat, bringing them back in for more punishment.

Blitzcrank Champion Spotlight via the official League of Legends YouTube channel. Please note that this video is 3 years old so there may be inaccuracies.

This video goes some way to explaining why so many people are going back to playing Blitz. You can go HAM and be aggressive. You can sit back and be an opportunistic threat. You can invade and steal enemy buffs at 1:55 or catch people out warding (see below).

Video by Prekurso

You can zone the enemy out too with the potential of grabbing – whichever style suits you or the match at the time. The problem is Blitzcrank has significant mana usage, high early level cooldowns, and no healing or shielding capabilities. The hands-on robot is there to cause trouble, not to sustain a lane phase, so why is it such a popular – or even a good – pick?

The Good:

Blitzcrank is a good support tank, pure and simple. Like a lazy Thresh, this robot throws out a leash and pulls you in. This sounds dangerous because if you pull in somebody who hurts then you’re in trouble, but you are going to be a HUGE bully early on. Level 1 is always a grab level because of just how much danger it poses, but Level 2 is the massive power spike for this robot. This is thanks to the Rocket Grab followed up with a Power Fist to hit them into the air. You can easily chunk a player down for half of their HP and put the fear of God into them. This allows your AD Carry to dictate the lane; how far up you sit and whether you want to focus on farming or pressuring.

Video by Gamegrid TV

Level 6 and Level 11 are also big power spikes and the combinations of Blitz’s kit means that a player with quick reactions can shut an opponent out for a few seconds easily, or time moves to ruin abilities. For example, the Blitzcrank punch will interrupt Katarina, and the silence can block her then trying to Shunpo away. This keeps the squishy assassin in a fight that she is not dictating and hopefully it results in her death.

Video by ImpaKt – Diamond 1 Support

Either of these scenarios is a win, it just depends how big a part you can play as to how much gold you bring in and how quickly you can get to being an aggressive roaming tank. To stop the Blitzcrank you can use people like Sivir and Morgana for shielding, but to be really effective you need wards. Wards cost and you can only place three at a time. A smart Blitzcrank will run sweeper lens and keep vision to a minimum so they can sneak in a grab.

In terms of tanking I find it best to compare Blitzcrank to Volibear. Volibear is well liked as a tank (though not so much lately) because of his passive restoring a huge 30% of health when below 30%. The cooldown is long but that one boost is enough to save the day. Blitzcrank operates similarly, with a mana shield appearing at 20% HP or below worth 50% of the champion’s current mana. It’s with this in mind that many players build items such as Tear of the Goddess and Iceborn Gauntlet for an increased mana pool to shield them.

The Bad:

As mentioned, Blitzcrank uses A LOT of mana early. It’s a case of high risk = high reward. Timing is everything and a couple of wasteful grab attempts early on can make Blitz pretty useless for a couple of levels early on. It’s advisable that you take a mastery page with health potions converted into biscuits to generate HP and MP regen, easing the burden on less experienced players.

Another issue is sustaining your AD Carry. While Blitzcrank isn’t really that well countered your AD Carry can be. Blitz can step in the way but offers no healing, shielding, or C.C removal like a Nami or Janna would. You have to be the aggressor or you’re basically a waste.

This can be tricky, because a well worked opposing botlane duo can position the lane in a safe position that means they can dictate the farming of minions to shield themselves from grabs, minimising opportunities for being caught out. Statistically this limits the amount of damage, but also has the psychological effect of lowering moral and potentially forcing impatience, which in turn leads to mistakes, and mistakes can lead to in-fighting or players tilting and losing focus.

Build:

As mentioned, Blitzcrank should be tanky. This means running Face of the Mountain as the support item of choice, along with a Sweeper Lens, Sightstone, and boots. The boots depend on the match. If you lead, or are confident to hunt people down, then go for Mobility Boots. If you’d rather play it safe then Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi are for you, but most pros opt for the ‘mobos’.

Photo courtesy of Galleryhip.com

The core build needs armour and mana. Frozen Heart is very popular because it offers mana, armour, and slows the enemy attack speed, as well as offering a very pleasing 20% cooldown reduction. Tear of the Goddess is a cheap way of obtaining mana regen, so consider this, but also don’t forget the benefits of an offensive tank item like Trinity Force. In the same way you’d rush a Zhonya's as a fed Nami in lane, a well-funded Blitzcrank should look to the power spike this offers.

Other strong items include Iceborn Gauntlet, Randuin’s Omen, Mikael’s Crucible for removing roots and taunts, and Locket of the Iron Solari for team-fighting purposes. Tanks are vital to a lot of teams, and support is a great slot to tank up in – especially with the Blitzcrank engage – because it allows for bruiser style junglers or top laners and strong carry champions. This in turn ups the damage output across the team.

Synergy:

Blitzcrank is popular particularly in China and often used with these AD Carries:

- Corki: can dump a lot of casts onto the enemy
- Lucian: passive double shot for bursting people down
- Jinx: large kit designed for multiple damage sources
- Vayne: can condemn enemies into walls

Corki and Lucian are the most common two because they fit the current ADC meta more but it’s sensible to play a champion you’re comfortable on. The likes of Miss Fortune, Graves, Ezreal, and even Urgot still work with Blitzcrank.

Counters:

One of the big reasons behind people choosing Blitzcrank, particularly in solo queue, is that it’s very hard to counter Blitzcrank.

Photo courtesy of Leaguesplash.com

Perhaps the best options as an AD Carry are Twitch and Vayne, because the Blitzcrank passive doesn’t affect stealth champions, but if not then people with fair range. Caitlyn would be good for poke but struggles for mobility. Lucian would perhaps be a smarter pick with the dash and the double auto he receives from casting. Corki goes well with Blitz and can throw out a lot of casting so in the event of opposing and being grabbed he has more to offer than most in terms of return damage.

With support it’s a similar thing. Blitzcrank needs to be shielded against, so Morgana’s Black Shield is ideal. Unfortunately, cooldown and timing can be difficult. Janna and Karma too offer shields – though not as effective because they don’t stop abilities – so instead it’s a popular option to choose Leona who can out-aggress the Blitz or Nunu who just tanks and consumes to stay alive.

A not-so-aggressive support might choose play Nami or Soraka and sit behind their carry ready to throw out CC and a heal as a reactionary style but this requires sharp awareness and positioning to make up the ground of a grab. This is a low ELO tactic and while it can work, generally those taking the initiative are the successful ones.

The simple truth then is that Blitzcrank isn’t a meta champion and won’t be wrecking the LCS just yet but the solo queue potential is fantastic if you have good reactions and strong map awareness. Aggression is the key to escaping ELO hell, but in the end it doesn’t really matter if you play Blitzcrank or face it because you won’t top Froggen’s domination on it. GG WP.