Everyone says to stay behind minions so he can't pull you, but if I'm behind minions, I can't really find some way to poke without risking getting pulled. Not to mention when he gets his speed boost W and runs up to you, knocks you up, and then pulls you back when you try running away. What exactly am I doing wrong?
Blitz is an annoying case because it doesn't matter how many pulls he sends out as long as he lands one. So don't feel bad that you're having trouble with him, we all have at one point or another.
My best advice is a method of practice I wish I saw mentioned more often. Play Blitz. I always play any champions I have trouble with so I can learn what makes them tick, where they get squashed and where they excel. Once I know that playing against them is much easier because you know what to look for.
Of course, if you don't have the IP to burn I can give you a few tips.
Minions. Exactly what you've heard before, Minions are your best friends. However, also be aware of when your wave is going to die and where the next wave is in the lane. If you find yourself without minions to hide behind then you're easy pickings, and the best way to avoid that is know when that'll happen before it happens.
If you're a ranged support, bully blitz. Best case scenario you can pop his mana barrier and make him very wary about pulling anyone to him. Since he's melee he cannot trade well at all. Autoing him from in the middle of a minion wave is a perfect way to deny him opportunities. If you hve trouble with their adc hitting you instead, well that means your adc is in range of them and you should engage. Unless you're near their turret Blitz is infinitely worse when he's engaged upon.
Let his lane push. If your adc is on point they'll only last hit and you two can play defensively and make his pulls less meaningful (as they'll be in the middle of your minions) as well as making them more vulnerable to a gank from jungle. Pulls or no pulls, that's still a 3v2 fight.
My techniques vary depending on the support. Here's my general advice.
Are you a tank? Stay in front of your adc so you will be eating the hooks (if necessary... better if you both avoid it). Then use it as a free engage on the enemy adc, or walk away.
Are you a mage/poke champ? Stay safe and poke when possible. If Blitz misses a hook, harass him and/or his adc as much as possible. Do not miss this opportunity.
Are you a healer? Try to save your adc when he inevitably gets hooked, using any resources you have. NEVER get hooked yourself.
Are you Morgana? Time your spell shields to his hooks (or bait them), then punish him for missing.
Are you Janna? Stay close enough to help disengage your adc if he gets hooked. Don't get hooked.
As a Blitz player, I am always having a fun time playing against squishy supports. Especially when they don't know how to juke my grab.
I play support and ADC's a lot with my husband so we normally team up in case we get a Thresh or Blitz.
Braum- His shield ability blocks a projectile and can make you receive less damage. Though It would be better to use it to deflect/null ults like Jinx and Ez.
Morgana- Her spell shield blocks his and Thresh's grabs, but unless you upgrade it more then the others they have shorter cooldowns then her shield.
Blitz- Husband likes to go around and grab the enemy Blitz and have an arm wrestle contest
Janna- I max my shield first so that way my adc won't take as much damage from his grab or if I'm to late I'll drop it on them before he uppercuts them so they can't get as much damage.
Lulu- Husband plays her a lot, if you pollymorph just before they try to grab you it nulls it
Yasuo- His wind wall blocks his arm grab and thresh's grab, but I don't know the cool down of his windwall
Some really awesome advice in the comment here, and a great question. Sticked this for other to see.
As for a bit of brief advice, I'll mirror what a few others have said:
To add to what Sir said, playing disengage supports like Janna helps as well.
Generally when I see there's a Blitz (or a Thresh for that matter) on the opposing team during blind pick/teambuilder I immediately uninstall the game because I'm not dealing with that overloaded crap.
If I'm in draft and I see that the opposing team are picking one of the above mentioned cancers of League then I generally try and pick either Nami or Janna due to their ability to promptly disengage when things inevitably take a turn for the worse during the oppressive laning phase those supports bring.
An important thing to note about Blitz is that he is incredibly mana hungry, especially early game. Every Q missed is 100 mana wasted. Which means not only does he hurt himself more compared to other missed skillshots, its doubled because it means his passive is weakened. Try and make him waste as many shots as you can. Don't let him sit back and try to regen it. Keep him on his toes, and wear him down.
One of the best ways to counter a blitz is to walk into a bush that the enemy hasn't warded yet and walk to the end of it towards your turret. The Blitzes I've played against usually blind pull, because they think I'm trying to sneak a spell on them. When a Blitz pull misses is the time I go in to do some harassment. If you can harass enough to where his shield pops, you and your adc can probably initiate a fight that'll leave them support-less and net you a double if the conditions are ideal.
Blitz will generally try to get brush control, often through a sweeping lens start, This opens him up to early ganks as the lane will not have much vision, you can also stick to the river side of the lane and keep it warded close to drag to avoid getting ganked yourself. His Q has a long cool down so if you see him miss it punish him for it. I often do a classic start when vs a blitz with 3 green wards and a faerie charm instead of the income item(you can get it once you back), this way you can control vision in the lane despite sweepers and take away a lot of blitz threat. Blitz has very little disengage and no innate sustain, so poke champions that can avoid hooks or disengage will work well, as will all in champions, Karma and Leona would be good choices for each category. Thresh could work but I generally avoid this match up as the trades really end up feeling like nothing was accomplished on either side a lot of the time. I've played vs Blitz's quite a few times and these strategies can be really effective, I've had enemy Blitz's start surrender votes or just give up and go to another lane a few times, the better ones may know how to deal with it a bit better, but it still evens out your chances in lane.
recently i have been doing amazing against blitzcrank if my adc isnt derping and getting pulled
one of my main tactics is useing his pull agaisnt him to engage on the carry, this is pretty dependent on the situation and requires you to know you can escape and that you wont be bursted down to dead or that you can garuntee your sacrifice ends in a double kill, you set the battlefield and be aware of where you are and where you will be pulled, great for if your jungler needs a distraction to get in unnoticed, this tactic can be used in the lategame as well to ensure that he pulls you and not one of your squishies or someone who cant escape baiting a blitz to pull you requires ward coverage
WARD COVERAGE IS IMPORTANT AGAINST BLITZ the more of blitz your team sees the less likely they will be to get surprise fisted, ward as if you were playing against a reksai or fiddles or lee sin
the best way to beat a blitz is to punish him as hard as possible for walking up to you guys early, or take advantage off his cd when he misses a hook to engage or put on some good harass
as hymendinger or shaco you can actually use your turret/box to block incoming thresh hooks and blitz grabs
Lot's of good advice listed already. The best advice I saw was to play blitzcrank though. That way you understand his limitations. You get an idea for how long the hook cooldwon is so you know your windows of opportunity to harrass, how much mana it truly takes to cast (this is especially impactful at early levels), and gain a general understanding of his weaknesses and how to exploit them. For example, in your first few games as blitz, if you get wrecked, what did the enemy do to you specifically that set you back?
Build coin.
I often play Morgana support, and aside from trying to bait his hooks into shields, I keep an eye for when he moves into bushes. A number of Blitzcranks I've played against like to wait in bushes for an opportunity to grab, so when I see him hiding I toss my q in there to make him pay for it.
bait the grabs or even let them grab you depending which support u pick. when they grab they tend to comitte, i often find its such easy dmg out trade on them and realy easy to bait them into ganks from jungler.
Your job as a support is NOT TO POKE. Your job as a support is to SUPPORT YOUR ADC.
Wait who are we worrying about again?
play a punishing tank support, such as braum, leona or alistar, so that if you get pulled, you can get out alive or turn it on them.
an alternative is playing morgana and blackshielding so he doesn't knockup/pull
lastly you could get boots on first back and learn to sidestep, if he runs up to you and knocks you up, you are out of position. Your adc should be able to smack him in the face if he gets to close. Make blitz learn his place.
But yeah, stay behind your minions, ward the brushes, punish overextending blitz's
As an occasional blitz player... just wanted to add something to the conversation. If the ADC is hiding in the minion wave, I will wade in and try to land my E (the knock up punch). I love trying to disrupt the ADC's farm, yeah I'm going to get beat up on, but usually after that knock up the ADC panics and starts running away (and usually out of the minion wave that was acting like a grab shield) that's when the hand comes out. Of course playing Blitz like this means talking with my ADC a lot so we are on the same page. Not all of my engages are me going for the kill, I'm just trying to screw with your farm.
I know that a lot of cranks don't play like this, and Yes I would much rather lurk in the bush and grab, but blitz is too much fun to just sit and wait. However if this happens to you, (the blitz running into the wave with knock up) Don't panic and run, land and start wailing on him and hope your support starts doing the same.
Everyone here is going to tell you to "hide behind minions" or "ward the bush". Any decent Blitz player would expect this from you and it's not really a counter if they prepare for it.
The true way to counter blitz is by shoving the lane completely and force him under tower. It's incredibly difficult for him to pull without the advantage of his minions or the bush.
Save that ward for the river to spot a gank instead. Back then I used to pick Soraka against blitz and I would spam my Q safely behind my minions to push the lane back. Tell your adc to shove the lane so blitz is visable. When your minions push to the turret, fall back if you run out of wards. If he runs towards you for the knockup, you will have a minion advantage and win the trade.
I take and stand in front of my ADC. He pulls, you take the hook and "E" to the ADC.
Bait. Gotta bait the hook by bobbing and weaving around minions and strafing side to side. and keep his Bush warded. Punish him every time he misses a hook if you and your adc are in sync.
Blitz grabs with his right arm, so you can predict the angle of where his pull will come from. I understand that Blitz is a pest and he basically pulls you to your doom and waddles away (hate and love him), but he has his flaws. if you want to defeat your enemy, then become the enemy and learn what makes him tick. Play blitz and get a feel of his strategy.
The best advice I can give you is to keep moving. Just like with all skillshots you will be harder to hit if you're moving. of course stay behind minions as long as you can and just pop out from the side and poke if you see a chance.
If you're a squishy support stay behind minions and poke from there.(this is expecting you're playing champs like Nami, Janna, Lulu, etc.)
If you're a tank stay in front of your adc as much as possible especially if blitz gets closer so you can take that grab, or if he gets close enough to just stop him from doing anything
Also very rarely you're gonna want him to grab you. it's a free gap closer to get closer to their adc but it's best to use your owns gap closer since blitz's grab still does damage. Plus he'll most likely knock you up right after he grabs you.
It's also very easy to tell when Blitz is gonna grab. His attempt at getting into position is very obvious so just watch where he goes. If he goes into a bush he'll most likely be at your end just waiting for you to take that one step closer to him.
So in general just keep moving, stay behind your minions, and keep your eye on where he goes.
