Hey MOBAFIRE Friends! This guide is currently being Updated(?)! Riot decided to hit Blitzcrank (especially AD) with a couple nerfs, so I'm gonna be testing some stuff out... If you have any questions, leave a reply!

This guide is an ADAPTATION of an S10 MASTER Blitzcrank Top build/playstyle. I have not reached Master with Blitzcrank Top, but I have watched a lot of MyPrim0, who is a Blitzcrank Top main who has reached Master. This guide represents essentially everything I have learned from my own experience as well as watching Prim0's streams and replays. Of course, League always has new items so I've done my best to adjust the build to work with them. You can check out Prim0's channel HERE, however he is currently on break and the time of his return is unknown. If you would like me to ask him a question for you, leave a comment on this guide!

I stream sometimes! Check out my channel on Twitch @masoncatLoL

Why is this Viable???

Blitzcrank has a 175% AD ratio o_o

Although playing Blitzcrank in a solo lane sounds like an absolute int, it definitely is not (as long as you know what you're doing...). The reason Bruiser Blitzcrank is so strong comes from their huge level 6 powerspike, E spam, and item/rune build. Everything about this build will be explained in depth in this guide.

Notes

Blitzcrank's teamfighting isn't necessarily weak, but unless you are hooking the enemy carry, the enemy toplaner is most likely going to be more useful than you in a 5v5. Surprising damage + tankiness are something that might even surprise you (the player!) so make sure to try to push your limits in your first couple games :) Also, I wrote easy to get kited. Depending on the champion you are against, Overdrive can get you killed, since it is your only gap closer and you slow yourself after the move speed.

Mana Barrier is Blitzcrank's Passive. It gives Blitzcrank a shield based on their Max Mana when they get low, which is why items with Mana like Frozen Heart, Rod of Ages, and Manamune are so good on Blitzcrank. Runes like Biscuit Delivery and Manaflow Band that increase Maximum Mana also benefit Mana Barrier. It also gives Blitzcrank synergy with runes and items that buff shielding, like Revitalize and Spirit Visage. It can be used to bait enemies into fights where you are low HP but have your Mana Barrier available.

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Rocket Grab is Blitzcrank's Q. While this is what Blitzcrank is known for, it won't be the focus for Blitzcrank Top (in most matchups). Blitzcrank Top usually uses Rocket Grab for re-engage/damage, or a gap closer for matchups that are harder for Blitzcrank to get on top of. Rocket Grab has a 100% AP Ratio.

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Overdrive is Blitzcrank's W. It gives them a 5 second burst of move and attack speed, then a self slow. Self CC sucks, so we can reduce it by building Mercury's Treads or Boots of Swiftness. This will be Blitzcrank's main gap closer, rather than their Q, unless Overdrive isn't enough to catch up to your enemy.

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Power Fist is Blitzcrank's E. This ability is why this build works. You will max this ability first in most games, in order to get it's cooldown very low. Power Fist has a 175% AD ratio, so building AD is very good. There is also synergy with Sheen and other Spellblade items, as combined with E you get massive damage with one empowered auto, and maxing E you can abuse Sheen items' low cooldown. E is also an auto reset, and you should ALMOST always use it as one. E also benefits from Crit, which has great synergy with Sundered Sky.

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Static Field is Blitzcrank's Ultimate. It has two parts, the passive and the active. The passive zaps your opponent shortly after autoing them, stacking infinitely. The active is a large AOE silence that deals AP damage, and disables the passive until Static Field is off cooldown. Because of this, you should use the active only when you won't need the passive to keep fighting, like using it as an execute or to push a wave for a recall. The Passive Lightning also procs Malignance.

Blitzcrank Combos(??)

Blitzcrank doesn't have combos, just hook them then knock them up! Right???
Wrong.
Blitzcrank can basically use their abilities in any order, but in order to counter specific champions and not let them get away, you should know the correct combos.
[WIP section :)]

Q-W-E

Q-Auto-E

Q-W-Auto-E

Q-R-E

R-Q-E

W-Auto-E-Auto-Q-R

Press the Attack is a great rune for letting Blitzcrank deal way more damage than they should. Press the attack allows you to win short trades at early levels, which Blitzcrank otherwise fails. The reason press the attack is so strong on Blitzcrank is because of how easy it is to proc with your Power Fist, which should almost always be used as an auto reset. To easily proc PTA, after hitting a Rocket Grab, W-Auto-E-Auto. If possible, you can also save Rocket Grab until after PTA is procced to deal bonus damage.

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Triumph is powerful in general. This allows Blitzcrank to have extra survivability against champs with burns/ignite after killing them. It's also great sustain for teamfights. I take Triumph over Presence of Mind because we will be building Tear of the Goddess anyways, so Mana is not a problem.

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Legend: Alacrity is always a good option for AD Blitzcrank. It synergizes with Overdrive so you get a crazy amount of attack speed. It allows Static Field to put more lightning strike stacks out.

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Legend: Haste is good when you are building AP, hybrid, or a tankier build. Cooldown reduction is a great stat on Blitzcrank, and during a lot of games you will not build many items with item haste.

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Last Stand synergizes with Blitzcrank's passive Mana Barrier. Their passive shield activates when Blitzcrank reaches a low amount of HP, allowing Blitzcrank to deal maximum Last Stand damage while their passive shield is active, and any other shield items he has built (Shieldbow, Sterak's). Many fights will come down to Blitzcrank using Mana Barrier, so this is a lot better than Coup de Grace imo.

Revitalize helps Blitzcrank survive in close fights, which happens often. Revitalize increases Blitzcrank's healing and shielding from items like Eclipse and any Lifesteal and will also always maximize the increase on Blitzcrank's Mana Barrier, because it only procs at low HP. Pairing this with Doran's Shield and Second Wind gives Blitzcrank a ton of sustain. Prim0 finds this more useful and safe than any other options.

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Second Wind is the best option, because you will almost always take Revitalize which it synergizes with. It provides you with enough sustain to win almost every short trade. Second wind also gives you nice sustain in extended teamfights if you have built a decent amount of health items.

Cheap Shot is one of the best Domination runes for Blitzcrank, because of how much CC they have. Blitzcrank can always proc Cheap shot off cooldown, guranteeing a lot of extra true damage. This helps a lot vs Tanks, and can even help one shot squishier champs.

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Ultimate Hunter is my favorite 'hunter' rune on Blitzcrank. Blitzcrank NEEDS their ult up to win duels, as Blitz's passive lightning on Static Field does not proc unless their ult is available. Ultimate Hunter allows for huge uptime, and allows you to use ultimate for waveclear in the midgame.

Manaflow Band is perfect for Blitz, as Blitz loves Mana! It benefits Manamune damage, giving you bonus AD, also increases Mana Barrier shield, and increases Static Field on-hit damage. Beware- it can be hard to fully stack in some lanes.

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Celerity is my favorite other Sorcery option (or Transcendence!). Celerity boosts Blitz' W and boots and any movespeed items you purchase -- usually just Trinity Force. It helps you get in and out of fights, and proc Sundered Sky on multiple targets.

Unsealed Spellbook is a good rune for Blitzcrank because all summoner spells work well on Blitz. Being able to switch from TP to Ignite for an early solokill happens all the time, or ghost to win a 1v1 by dodging abilities, or exhaust to prevent yourself from getting bursted. This rune takes time to get used to, but is a lot of fun.

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Biscuit Delivery has several benefits for Blitzcrank. Biscuits refund Mana and HP, helping Blitzcrank with early sustain. They also give Blitzcrank permanent bonus mana, which buffs his Mana Barrier and gives you bonus damage with Manamune. Some opponents will also play greedy when they see you have no mana, then you can use a biscuit to get enough mana back to hit that lane-winning hook!

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Hextech Flashtraption is a very cheesy rune which is also very strong on Blitzcrank. It lets you find unique angles for hooks or ganking other lanes, and you can also gap-close with it from a bush. When you are running Hexflash, I suggest switching to Sweeping Lens after you use your flash to look for these bush plays.

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Cosmic Insight is in general a good rune for all champions. It lowers Summoner Spell cooldowns, and Item cooldowns, such as Eclipse, Sundered Sky, and Sheen items. This synergizes well with the sustain build.

Items ( A LOT )

To summarize, always get a tear early to begin stacking for Manamune. Manamune will be first item usually, then Sundered Sky vs bruisers/range, Eclipse vs HP stackers/tanks, or Rod of Ages if you want to build AP. Finished build ideas are shown at the beginning of the guide, but I will explain each item in depth here.

Boots

Boots of Swiftness are my go-to. Movespeed is a must on Blitzcrank, as he is melee with no dashes. They make the self-slow from Overdrive slightly less aggravating. You can also get into fights and escape easier.

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Mercury's Treads are good into magic-heavy teams or CC-heavy teams. Like Swifties, they make the self-slow from Overdrive less annoying. Against AP top/jg, I'll almost always take Mercs.

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Plated Steelcaps are good into AD teams or champions with strong empowered auto attacks. Steelcaps are a MUST vs Jax. Even if your laner is AP, its still worth taking steelcaps if the rest of the enemies are AD champs.

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Sorcerer's Shoes are your boots if you're building AP, or you are your teams only AP damage. If you are your teams only AP, the enemies won't be stacking Magic Resistance so you will get more value from these than other boots. Even if your first couple items are AD, these can still be worth it as Blitzcrank does a ton of AP base damage.

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Ionian Boots of Lucidity are for-fun ish. In this guide, most of the items have CDR, so with Ionian boots there are too many diminishing returns. The summoner spell haste is nice, but the ability haste does not provide much value once you get a couple of items.

Legendaries

Sundered Sky (SS) is CORE on Blitzcrank. The guaranteed Crit on each target synergizes with Power Fist, which can crit. E is basically a double auto, which with SS crits for 150%, so you are basically getting a triple auto + whatever sheen damage. The cooldown is only 6s per target, so in a fight you can proc this multiple times, especially if you have Item Haste. Although E is an auto reset, once you finish SS, make sure your first auto on each target is an E when possible to get the big crit. It also gives a heal that increases with missing HP. This works well with Blitzcrank because of Mana Barrier. You get low, get the shield, and then have time to get big heals from SS to keep fighting.

WIP :]

- Trinity Force is very good if you plan to 1v9. It allows Blitzcrank to push very quickly, do a lot of damage, and move faster. This item is good vs a longer range squishier comp. The procs offer more damage than Divine against squishy targets, but less against tanks/bruisers.
- Wit's End is good vs AP opponents. It gives you a lot of extra sustained damage and chasing power. The on-hit passive makes your auto attacks do bonus magic damage, so combined with your Static Field on-hit passive your autos will be doing massive AD and AP damage. It can also be built later if the enemy comp has AP outside of mid lane.
- Death's Dance is always a strong option. It gives you great sustain in teamfights and can also help win 1v1s. It also prevents you from getting bursted pretty well, and gives you some nice AD and ability haste.
- Frozen Heart should be built when the enemy team is majority AD, or they have a lot of champions reliant on attack speed ( Master Yi, Jinx, Twitch, Kog'Maw, Warwick, etc.) The cooldown reduction is helpful for Blitz and also gives you a lot of mana to boost your damage + shield and a lot of armor.
- Spear of Shojin is a fun damage and chase item. It gives you a ton of CDR from your other items letting you CC enemies for WAY too long. The movement speed buff also synergizes with your passive, whether you have to catch up to an enemy in a close fight or escape.
- Black Cleaver is a good option against tanks. Lategame, it is about the only way you are going to deal any damage to a tank. Cleaver allows you to shred their armor as well as stay on top of them. CDR is also a great stat for Blitzcrank.
- Randuin's Omen is a good buy when you are against 2+ champions with critical strikes, or a very fed Jhin or Caitlyn. Build Randuin's if the enemy ADC is building crit and they have a Graves, Yasuo, Garen or any other champ who is building crit. Most of the time it is not worth it if one of their "crit" champs has 25% or less critical chance. VERY situational, I rarely build this.
- Force of Nature is a great item if you need more magic resist after Wit's End and Abyssal Mask. It lets you survive burst mages and stay alive against AP damage in longer fights, as well as chase enemy mages down.
- Anathema's Chains is a super situational 5th or 6th item. If the enemy team is full AP or AD besides one champion, build this and smack it on that lonely mage / marksman. This will allow you to CC them for longer helping your team, and also take less damage from them without building resistance against their damage type.

I'm currently working on a spreadsheet for each matchup in S14 with the new items. I will most likely post that here, or a summary for the main matchups.

Early Laning Phase

Early laning phase for Blitzcrank Top sucks versus Ranged matchups, but isn't half bad against Bruisers or Tanks. Ranged matchups will easily kite you at levels 1 and 2, but Blitzcrank is able to make decent trades with most melee matchups early on. Here is a list of everything you need to know to survive early laning phase:
- YOU MUST GET USED TO LAST-HITTING EARLY GAME- in order to scale, you have to farm!
- Buy Cull vs tank matchups- it's really unlikely to get a kill on a tank, so just farm and try to hit your Divine Sunderer item spike ASAP.
- Make sure to ALWAYS use Power Fist as an auto reset, especially when taking Press the Attack.
- If you have a larger minion wave than the opponent and can Rocket Grab them into it and knock them up, the minions will deal a suprising amount of damage to them in early laning phase.
- VS ranged you will not have any kill pressure until your power spikes, and you will usually have to land a Rocket Grab or use Overdrive as a gap closer. However, at level 6, you should be able to all in them easily.
- Boots first vs ranged matchups can be useful for spacing and setting up Rocket Grab angles. (also getting back to lane when you get poked out :])
- Getting an early jungle gank against a ranged matchup will help you win lane.
- The best position for the wave is either a Freeze or somewhere in the middle of the lane- you don't want to be pushed up because Blitzcrank is susceptible to jungle ganks.
- Farming Under Tower: You'll find that you will be doing this ALL THE TIME as Blitzcrank. You can kill tank minions after they take 2 tower shots, you can kill casters after 1 tower shot IF: You have ~20 bonus AD, you have Static Field up and you can proc the On-Hit lightning before a second tower shot, you set up the caster with another auto, or you use your Power Fist. Also get used to using your abilities to secure the cannon.

Power Spikes in Laning Phase

- Blitzcrank Top's most significant power spikes are level 3, level 6, First Item, and Manamune.
- Getting your Rocket Grab at level 3 allows you to hook the enemy behind your minions which can help you win trades harder (IF THEY AUTO YOU AND TAKE MINION AGGRO).
- The level 6 powerspike is obviously strong, as you unlock your Ultimate Static Field.
- Unlike most other champions, your level 6 powerspike makes you stronger without actually using your Ultimate.
- Blitzcrank's Ultimate has an on-hit passive which deals extra magic damage to anything you auto. This helps you win trades even harder!
- The Manamune powerspike is strong because it will consistently be stacking mana as you use abilities and use auto attacks. The mana provided will give you extra damage as well as a larger Mana Barrier.
- Sheen is a large powerspike because it gives you a nice damage boost to your Power Fist. It is a strong synergy with your E because both items make your next auto deal extra damage, resulting in a huge damage auto attack.
- Divine Sunderer boosts the power of Sheen and gives several important stats like magic pen and armor pen. The Divine Sunderer + Manamune item set is when you start one shotting squishies! Build Sunderer into tanks and tankier bruisers!
- Trinity Force also boosts the power of Sheen and gives several important stats like attack speed and move speed. Build Trinity against squishys, bruisers, or anything if you plan on split pushing!
- Muramana is a big powerspike because it deals bonus damage based on your mana. The more mana you build, the more powerful it will become.

Mid game is where AD Blitzcrank shines the most, if you are not EXTREMELY behind. His most powerful attributes include: ONE SHOTTING ADCS AND MAGES, GETTING PICKS WITH HOOK, AND WINNING 1V2S IN SIDE LANES. It takes a LOT of limit testing, but AD Blitz can take a lot of fights that seem like he would lose. E with just Triforce/Sunderer + Manamune almost always does over 400 damage. That paired with your Q and R and Press the Attack is an ~1000 damage combo. The MASSIVE passive shield that scales with mana is super clutch for what would have been close fights. Overall, I'd say play ~10-20 norms of AD Blitz to learn the limits- you'll be very suprised, as are my lane opponents when I chunk them with a few autos.
If you go even in lane(or you were a little behind), you will be able to 1v1 the enemy ADC with ease, as long as you can land hook and they do not have strong CC like Ashe R to kite you. Even if they are super fed, your damage from Press the Attack and first 2-3 items will kill them very quickly, and they won't be able to output enough damage to beat you unless they kite you perfectly.
If you go even / have a lead out of laning phase, look to fight fed enemy players. They underestimate Blitzcrank's damage all the time, and you can often collect easy shutdowns.
If you are losing lane, and the opponent freezes, look to get picks to put your team ahead, or even catch up yourself. Try to help your jungler as much as possible, especially during scuttle/objective fights. Your cc helps junglers with high damage output a ton. Blitzcrank's New W does an absurd amount of damage to jungle monsters, as you will find out.

Lategame as bruiser blitz, you can either splitpush or teamfight and look for squishys. If you are ahead, you can draw a lot of pressure because of your 1v2 capability- just be cautious about the locations of the enemy, and make sure you have adequate vision when pushing. If you are not ahead and do not win 1v1 vs the other toplane, you should teamfight. Try to peel for your fed carries (damage midlaners / adc) by hooking opponents away from them or knocking them up before they get on top of your squishies, or go for the enemy carries. If you can hit a hook on a non-tank you and your team can blow them up. Also, use your ult a lot because in the lategame the cooldown is super low so you should use it for almost every kill/fight. If a fed squishy mage or adc is caught out, don't be afraid to flash E-Q-R them to blow them up, and if they live use W to chase. Make sure to put some thought into your 5th and 6th item choices.

How to Become a Professional Blitzcrank

Know their pronouns. Blitzcrank uses he/they pronouns.
Blitzcrank can kill a ward without a sweeper, if they are placed on top of him and he uses Power Fist as an auto reset.
Hexflash + W is a massive gap closer. If you are confident you beat your opponent, use this to get on top of them.
[WIP section :)]

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my first guide! It is strongly based on MyPrim0’s diamond/master blitzcrank top build. He used to stream on twitch- he has some great clips you can check out! If anyone has any questions leave a comment and I can ask Prim0 himself for an answer! Thanks for reading and good luck on the rift!