Blitzcrank: Get Rid Of That Annoying Ashe Problem Once and For All

I’ve been getting a million friend and tip/trick requests for a while now, so I thought it would be a good idea to write down a solid mini-guide for people to join the FOTM wagon.

I. Item Build
-Start the game off with a Doran’s Shield. You need to build your tanky roots early, because at a certain point you’re going to be on the squishy side of melee champs.
-Edit: You can start with a Sapphire Crystal too, if you realize that their lane bottom won’t be harassing you too hard. Get an earlier Sheen, but build a Heart of Gold afterwards to make up for it (It’ll build into Randuins anyways). Still go Doran’s if their lane looks like it’ll be dominant and harass you hard.
-Sheen should always be your next item. It provides the bread and butter of his combos to deal massive damage, in bursts.
-Either Phage, or a Catalyst -> Banshee’s Veil, depending on whether or not your team needs you to be a tank and peel off melee from your team’s squishies, or be a tanky DPS.
-If you choose the Phage route, finish up Triforce, get a Catalyst, and finish Banshee’s Veil.
-Randuin’s Omen is an amazing item on Blitz. You have naturally high movement speed from Overdrive, so running in, punching a carry, and then using Randuin’s will disable their DPS for long time.
-Brutalizer is also very good, in case you want to go the tanky DPS route, it provides very nice stats that synergize with his abilities. You don’t want to build this into Youmuu’s (or you can if you really need it for some reason, it’s up to you).
-Infinity Edge should be your next item after this.
-I almost never get anything other than Mercury Treads. Berserker Treads is a waste, and Swiftness would be good if not for the fact that he can already outrun nearly every other hero. I find myself being slowed/CC’d to death more than outrun or out-DPSed.

TL;DR: Triforce, Banshee’s Veil, Randuin’s Omen, Brutalizer, and Infinity Edge are all items that are never a bad choice on Blitz.

Edit: This last patch made it so that PF isn’t affected by lifesteal. It’s absolutely stupid, and I’ve put up numerous threads pointing this out. Lifesteal is no longer viable on Blitz unless they fix it

II. Tips and Tricks
-Blitz is a tanky DPS with an insane amount of CC and carry-protecting power. Use this mindset to make sure that you’re not ulting to dish out damage, but rather cancel Warwick, Galio, Nunu, Malz, etc ultimates on your teammates.
-In the cases that you are not able to initiate via pulling one of the opposing team’s squishies, make sure that you are off to the SIDE of the fight (still engages, but not in the very middle of everything that would otherwise block your hooks). You should be able to always peel the other team’s melee off of your casters/ranged carries via Hook -> Powerfist combo.
-If you want to keep someone locked in CC, the timing can be tricky. Hook -> IMMEDIATELY POWERFIST -> hit R on their way to the ground. This is for heroes such as Kassadin and Shaco, who would easily blink out, but would be unable to through your CC lock.
-If you want to maximize DPS in a combo, you want to Hook -> Autoattack (Sheen) -> Powerfist -> Wait a brief moment -> Overdrive -> Autoattack (Sheen) -> Proceed to chase and hit R to kill.
-If you want to maximize your DPS, save your ult for when they are low, as the passives will continue to tick as you chase them.
-Flash is your friend. Initiating can be tricky, so one of the best ways to do it is to run in to the enemy team, Powerfist a squishy, Flash + Hook them on their way to the ground into your teammates.
-Flash can also be used to flash over a ledge and hook someone out of position in a teamfight. Use this only on heroes such as fed Pantheons and Xin Zhao’s that have already charged in. You are basically taking yourself into a 1v1 while counting on your teammates to 4v4, win, and help you.
-The biggest mistake I see in these first-time Blitz players is that they are too hasty to hook. Your hooks should be extremely accurate, and blind hooks into fog of war and through terrain should be made precise. You should never miss a simple hook on someone who is running straight (as in, all you need to do is lead them with your hook)
-Lead in hooks from initiators such as Malphite and Shen. If they land their stun/taunt on someone, hook the squishiest of the bunch into your teammates. More often than not, the opponent can’t do anything about being hooked. Getting juked happens to everyone, but leading hooks to synergize with your team makes you a good Blitz.

Edit: New exploits that will likely get patched sometime soon:
-You can hook dragon if you’re on blue team by hooking on top of the ledge directly to the left of Dragon. You cannot move him, you cannot PF or use any abilities that would displace him, but he’ll stay if you hug the edge when you hook. The safest and gayest way to deal with dragon.
-You can also hook Golem through the wall in case you want to steal enemy golem. Simply hug the part that is closest to the Golem’s spawning point (it should be fairly obvious when you look at it in-game).

TL;DR: Peel for teammates (huge priority), play out your hooks with teammates, be creative with them, and get your combos down to a science.

Finally, while Blitz is very good, has lots of potential, and is fun to play, if you aren’t good at landing skillshots with uncanny precision then don’t bother playing him in ranked. Your job relies on your hook so much that it would be stupid to pick him over a hero such as Malphite or Gragas if your hook accuracy is up to par (try not to miss more than one out of 5).

Written by Doublelift at http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=375962