This is part two of the the Glass Cannon analysis. In this part we’ll be looking at Alistar, Blitzcrank, Irelia, Nasus. Let’s jump right into it. If you haven’t read Part 1 I suggest you do.
Alistar
Type: AOE Disrupt/Engage/Defensive Steroids/Sustain/Cleanse
Alistar is a very deadly Glass Cannon. He is capable of a 1 time cleanse that comes combined with a 70% damage reduction. When he is a large source of damage it forces opponents to waste 70% of their damage trying to bring him down. Alistar suffers from numerous problems that make him really difficult to play. Alistar suffers from a low base movement speed, high mana cost, and a tricky method of gap closing. You must know how to “Combo W and Q” into an almost instant Ultimate if you are engaging. If you do not need to, save your ultimate. The good part about alistar is that his ultimate grants him a large AD steroid. Alistar is also tricky to farm with because it is very hard to constantly keep your mana pool up if you are trading in lane. He also clears the jungle moderately slow. To solve this you want to make sure you avoid using your Q to clear waves and pick up an early sheen for trading in lane.
Core Items: Trinity force, Hydra
Alistar must pick up and early trinity force, the low base movement speed he has is very hindering if you are attempting to chase down opponents. The spell blade also adds greatly to his procs. Since Alistar has built in % damage reduction, the health on trinity force is actually pretty effective. The Ap scales decently into your healing. But by far the most important part about trinity force is getting the movement speed to chase down foes.
The second important item Alistar must buy is Hydra. Since you are going to be deep in the fights you want to be a large source of AoE damage. The Hydra adds some good upfront burst if you are engaging on a full team. By perfectly landing a perfect W,Q,R,Hydra combo on the enemy team you can drop a lot of their health points. The Hydra also adds wave clear that isn’t as mana draining as spamming Q on waves. The life steal helps keep the cow alive.
Follow up items: Zephyr, Phantom dancer
Zephyr is great when that one time cleanse is not enough. If you see opponents are constantly trying to keep you down with crowd control you can pick this item up. The CDR helps keep your crowd control up. Another big part of this item is the movement speed. Since Cow has that large 90 damage steroid you want to be able to stick to targets and have the attack speed to deal major DPS. This is a great 3rd Item
Phantom dancer is also an option. It is sometimes very wise to buy both the items as you can never have enough movement speed on Alistar, the critical strike adds much needed DPS compared to the Zephyr, but it lacks the tenacity and 5% worth of movement speed. If you choose to only buy one, opt for a heavy damage item like Infinity edge.
Roles: Mid, Top : Alistar Cannot farm the jungle fast enough to get the gold needed for his items. He is better off going mid or top and trying to gank as much between farming.
Blitzcrank
Type: Solo Killer/Ganker/Utility
Blitzcrank is insanely scary to deal with alone. He has the movement speed, attack speed, and knock up to take you down quickly. On top of that he can hook you and literally kill you on the spot if he has the items for it. The silence also lowers the chance of you flashing away. If that was not enough, his ulti also grants passive magic damage every 2.5 seconds if you are next to him. Blitzcrank is amazing at just simply keeping people demoralized. He takes insane advantage of mana as a defensive option due to his Mana Barrier. The main problem blitzcrank has is the large mana cost on his grab. Other than that if you want to just walk around solo killing people blitzcrank is the guy for you.
Core items: Muramana, Trinity force
The muramana is very important to blitzcrank. That being said NEVER SIT ON A TEAR OF THE GODDESS. Blitz’s high cooldowns do not allow him to stack the item. Instead you must upgrade it instantly as soon as possible, and stack it based off of auto attacks. The reason this item is important is it scales defensively with your passive. With a large mana shield never be afraid of fighting when you are low health if you know the barrier will save you. Keep track of your mana as you do not want to burn it all with Muramana to be left with not a large amount for your Mana Barrier.
Trinity force should be the follow up item because as it not only has mana but provides a unique mix of stats that are beneficial to blitzcrank. The main idea here is that once you hit a max level power fist it becomes more spammable on a 5 second cooldown. Blitz should pick his target and hunt him relentlessly until you force a flash or pull him right back with Rocket grab. The trinity force allows him to do this.
Follow up items: Frozen Heart, Infinity edge
The frozen heart grants some CDR to increase the spammability for Power fist. The mana scales solidly to the damage on Muramana and the size of the Mana shield. This should be about your only defensive item but you mostly buy it just for the offensive bonuses.
Infinity edge is to get that extra strength in your punch. A critical Power fist is a large burst even if though the power fist bonus damage doesn’t crit. Infinity edge will also help result in quick clean kills. Blitz is a very strong Solo Killer in terms of picking off enemies. He can be tricky however.
Roles: Mid, Blitz has very strong roam and ganks and should always go mid for his farm. His high mana cost early limit his ability to play the top lane.
Irelia
Type: Tenacious/True Damage/Sustain
Irelia does not technically excel at anything she does other than true damage. However what that true damage means is that once she is strong she remains strong for almost the whole game. The problem with the true damage is that it cannot critically strike. The tenacity allows her to dive deep and be relatively ineffective by crowd control. Yet if you aren’t tanky it is not a good idea. The key to playing a good glass cannon Irelia is to take advantage of the tenacity not to dive a whole team but to take on 1v2s and even 1v3s. Having an additional source of tenacity with your passive is a great thing to do. The problem Irelia has when being played Glass Cannon is a lot of her damage lies in her W, but you do not want to stack just attack speed. The key to battling this situation is to get attack speed items with secondary effects.
Core Items: Trinity force, Blade of the Ruined King
Irelia excels with the chasing ability and kit synergy she has with trinity force. It grants her the needed movement speed and allows her to benefit from using her abilities. It brings some good burst in combination with her Q and E. It may be an old school build but it is far from bad or weak. The change in phage cost also increases the strength in the build. Granting irelia a mix of stats helps her out dearly.
Blade of the ruined king is an alright source of attack speed. Dealing %s of people’s health also helps deal with the only counter to true damage which is building health. It is a very strong item on her. She builds much like Jax except she should not go down the hybrid route and instead should find more ways to add attack speed. BoTRK also adds lifesteal which increases Irelia’s already good sustain.
Follow up Items: Zephyr, Wit’s End
Zephyr is a great item for Attack speed and movement speed. The cdr also increases her ability to proc trinity force and keep her W active for the true damage. The tenacity also helps irelia be that unstoppable auto attacking force. It is a solid buy.
Wits end adds not only magic resist to irelia but magic damage. This allows her to be a force of mixed damage and makes her very hard to itemize against for the enemy team. Having bonus magic resist allows you not to fall victim to hard hitting spells. Since it also drains magic resist from enemies you can increase the damage your magic dealing spells do.
Nasus
Type: 1HKO/Infinitely Scaling/Penetration/AtkSpd Slow and Mvmt Slow/%Health into Damage Steroid
I would just like to say that the reason Nasus is never really built Glass cannon is that he technically will 1HKO anyone eventually. Going Glass Cannon only Allows it to happen much sooner. You end up sacrificing a lot of defenses and team utility that Nasus normally has. However that does not make him weak as a Glass cannon, it just means he has to be very careful and play only as a secondary tank. The strength in Nasus is that he can force 2v1s easily when split pushing because as a glass cannon the point where players cannot deal with him alone comes much quicker and at a much more deadly rate. Nasus has no problem dealing with 2 players who attempt to stop his push. Being able to deal at least a fourth of their health into the mid game with one good Q is insane. Sticking to enemies when your ultimate is up also provides you a lot of extra physical damage. Wither shuts down the DPS of a lot of enemies.
Core Items: Trinity force, Zephyr
Trinity grants good amount of bonus damage on his spell blade procs. It grants movement speed which is very important for Nasus to chase down enemies. His main problem is getting kited for he has no gap closer and relies on slows to chase down his foes. He also is granted critical strike which can grant some pretty solid bonus damage. The extra health is helpful when fighting, the bonus mana helps you farm.
Zephyr grants CDR, movement speed, and attack speed. While the attack speed may not be too important the rest of the stats this item gives just helps you not get kited as hard. The CDR increases the amount of Q’s you are able to get off. It also adds a little bit of bonus damage.
Follow up Items: Ghost Blade, Infinity edge
Ghost blade not only grants that critical strike, but that critical cdr, and movement speed as well. It is a solid buy on nasus and the extra penetration helps your Q dominate even tanky opponents. Activate it if you do not want your opponent to get away at all. It is better to make sure you are fully stuck to your foe before popping the active so you can take advantage of the attack speed.
Infinity Edge adds that 1HKO potential it’s a must buy if you are trying to pull his off. You can top this on a final buy Frozen heart if you want that Max CDR Glass cannon nasus
Roles: Top : You want to farm early and you can do this top without worrying about having to gank people. Also Nasus beats every top laner EVENTUALLY.
Side Notes: Easy Lane, Easy Life.
