Thoughts about my blitzcrank support (open to critics and additional insights)

I hated support when I first started LOL; it wasn't very clear as to what I was suppose to do and I wasn't sure if I was having clear impact in the game. My first support as a Sona was disasterous; I felt like I was just a moving healing tower and I was trashed hard. It has been a while since I decided to try support again after watching amusing videos of blitzcrank montage after watching the infamous How2Tryn video (which inspired me to play tryn as top and mid as well when I'm not in a mood for lux).

Start. No $%^ potion. My reason is that for competent blitz sup, you should not rely on potion that will be used and can't be used for built. I try to get aggressive at lvl 2 and particularly at lvl 3 as I have Q and E that would be devastating in a bot lane fight especially early stage (correct positioning and slight stun-like delay for Q) followed by much longer E stun should be enough for competent ad to wreck havoc and by the time it's over, your bot team should have decisive advantage. Just make sure you do this when minions aren't targeting you as they can add a lot of dmg in early stage of game. If they counter well, step back. Farm and recover (ideally in tower). Your Rej should allow fairly efficient health regeneration as you wait for cooldown to reset. If you are camping by tower, enemy bot shouldn't be insane enough to dive you when your health is low (and if they do, I mean one pull/stun could mean they lose with tower firepower).

When you're at lvl 3, try to use W to rapidly charge towards a fragile opponent (especially ad), stun E. Blitz is fairly a tanky sup relatively speaking (DO NOT DO THIS IF UR FACING EVEN TOUGHER TANKY SUP LIKE NAUT... as a matter of fact, never try this tactic against Naut as he will just crush you... only do Q and E on Naut if you're safely camping under tower). So he should make the game favorable for similar reason as discussed earlier. When ad tries to escape, Q pull and by then... the target should be so low in hp so one down... now it's 2v1. Generally stand back for reset cool down and if you have relic shield heal, use that to replenish ad a little and try again. Should be much easier now that it's 2v1. Competent enemy survivor should run for tower or bait us with a jg ready for ambush. Ward appropriately and decide.

After your first recall

Should be utmost priority. Blitz is a slow mofu, so boot helps to get more Qs and make W more efficient. Targon's embrace is a must as it provides free warding after completing quest (3 free wards per recall... that saves a lot of pink wards budget that could be better allocated for building faster)

This is my priority items. This is especially because I use Glacier Augment, which has more efficient slow effect similar to for free that can be used when activating an item. Righteous Glory as killing engage (basically far more efficient W to narrow gap followed by movement slow to ensure you can hug your target tight + plus rune slow). Zeke's Convergence is relatively cheap for its stats, and it also has active that can hug a target with more AOE slow. I like these items as well because their build pathways are so organic. are very budget friendly and gives nice CDR boost while provides good shield. Plus you can budget accordingly. Both require so you can either build Righteous Glory or Zeke first depending on your budget. If you're not doing as well, zeke cause its cheaper. Otherwise, Righteous Glory.

Now you have engage/slow. Next step is now get your blitz to be tanky so you can spam these effects + your abilities as long as possible so that you can cause havoc to your enemies particularly when in team-battle which should be coming soon in mid lane probably whether you win or lose your lane.

If you're anticipating an early team battle in a lane (usually lane), mobility wont be as a huge factor since your battleground is already decided. I then try to aim to build armor asap. If the team battle doesnt seem to happen often and most skirmishes happen in jg, prioritizing is necessary so that you can support your team as soon as possible and scout better. This is how Germans won early stage of WWII; being able to amass as much force as possible in one area and crush the unprepared defenders and bailing when they muster in group to counter. Keep doing that until money/lvl gap is sufficient to fight fairly. My build should provide a lot of CDRs already, so seems unnecessary. Also, if you're losing really hard and you're expecting static team lane battle it may be more prudent to go for more tanky boots like (against dmg) or if you have fed enemy magic champs. I prefer mobility as slow movement is blitzcrank's weakness and I dont like my weakness to be bared too much.

Back to armor, this is what separates from regular blitz to great blitz.

Enemy has insanely fast attack champs/items. (ex. enemy ad that has insane attack speed) (enormous armor, CDR boost and passive slows enemy attack speed)

Enemy has powerful true dmg (ex. fed Fiora) (your armor will be useless against true dmg so max up the health and heal so you can absorb their dmg and still be fit to fight back)

Enemy has insane regeneration/heavy dmg armor (ex. fed Mundo) (you reflect dmg based on your armor as magic dmg and grevious wound that fucks up their regeneration)

Enemy has insane crit (ex. fed yasuo,tryn) (reduces crit damage and slows their attack speed similar to frozen/thorn)

Enemy has strong magic burst (ex. veigar, zed) or . Both provide same magic resistance and similar in cost (visage being cheaper), but visage provides more tanky survival and has boosted heal passive (which compliments nicely if you have someone like soraka who can heal u to stay tanky longer). Aby Mask provides more mana instead and provide magic passive where enemy teams are more vulnerable to magic attack. This will compliment nicely if your team has competent/strong magic champions.

If possible DO NOT get both Thorn and Randuin as they both have same cold steel passive that reduces attack speed by 15%. Overlap passive is bad as your build is now less efficient. If you really need to, sure but know that you're not getting the same gold value as you should be getting. If you have really fed crit and regen/tank, maybe that's still the best way to go. Ideally avoid this, that's all I'm saying.

I love Frozen armor + thorn personally as insane 100 Frozen armor (along with many armors you got from Righteous Glory/Zeke) will be actually complimenting your thorn's passive as your armors will increase how much dmg you can bounce back.

I try to get 2 armors to act as a good tank to keep me alive in frontline enough to provide max. slow and abilities to fuck the enemy team (especially in team battle). Often team will be mixed, so it'd be your judgement call as to what armors you want. Maybe they have enemy yas but he sucks or is not strong, then maybe randuin is not necessary a must. They have Fiora but he's been feeding your top so maybe he's not worth the threat to influence your build.

However, if the game lingers... you may have to sell your Targon's Embrace/upgrade.

If the game lingers, I try to ditch as you should be all roaming in team and should not be caught off-guard. It depends on the situation; are your enemies have good map awareness? Is it a game of chess where people are roaming jungle carefully and ambushing the one who got left behind? If so, upgrade Targon's Embrace. You get 4 wards now with boosted health/regen.

But if map awareness is not the most crucial factor (ex. your teams are now roaming as a group and waging cold war in specific lane), then you want to get even beefier. Get third armor. Or maybe get a little more AP items to give your team a little more edge.

Runes http://puu.sh/zlMFr/d257877dc8.jpg

Glacial Augment - free and arguably more efficient . As a beefy tank support, your priority is to get tankier rather than building more AP or AD imo. If you have low attack dmg, doubling that isn't as efficient as other AD champs (ex. 50 -> 100 isnt as good as 300 -> 600).

Hextech Flash = harder to use than flash as you have to hold and wait to make meaningful flash, but it's a gamechanger; you get more flash while your main flash is on cooldown (and much shorter cooldown). For mobility-handicapped blitz, this could be a game changer as doublelift demonstrated. It's harder to execute instinctively as regular flash however so practice is needed. I often forget to use it myself despite playing blitz for long time but when used correctly... you can spam flash it's amazing.

Future Market - find it amusing as a stock trader lolz (SMH). Still, it's like you got a free kill as you have more budget for item purchase upon recall. Makes a difference by building faster. Useless late-game, but late game is not common. Most games end before you can completely finish your build. Very powerful in early stage of game.

Cosmic Insight = enhance CDR and cooldown on summoner's (including hextech flash). Nice compliment to what Blitz needs... more flash and spam abilities more often.

Secondary is more your call. I feel primary rune is the most important I wanna share.

I also know and are also popular sup item but I am sketchy about them for variety of reasons. These make sense when engaging team battle where everyone's concentrated in specific area and even then... will these abilities be useful? As a tank sup, you should disrupt enemies from harassing your ad and other champs. You should be prioritizing on your survival. Better to make u tankier than providing iffy heal/armor to everyone imo. I could be wrong, and these items could be powerful depending on situation but is it must for tanky blitz? Hmmm...

I like this as it still provides stat perks I want but this is not feasible unless orrn is on your team.