Hi there,
My name is trippies and I'm a decent casual player, I don't play ranked games but I roll normals. This build has takes bits and pieces from several other builds, I will not reference them because it is none in particular, it is just my assessment of what I think is a (nearly) optimal build for vlad.

**NOTE***2LTR people, summary at the bottom will cover everything in short words. I recommend skipping if you are already very familiar with vladimir.

ALSO, stats on top are incorrect, does not seem to add health from AP bonuses/vise versa. Everything else should be right.

My rune page is pretty basic, I don't own that many runes, but I believe the ones I have work fine for vlad.
REDS=MPEN
YELLOWS=Health Regen/lvl
Blues=CDR (MR runes work here as well, though I prefer to be able to pool more often)
quints= 2 health quint
1 movement speed quint(this is because while I normally take swiftness sometimes you require merc/sorc

For masteries I usually go typical caster style, 9/0/21.

**DISCLAIMER** going 21 in utility will require you to take many dump masteries.
3 points in Good hands, 1 point in gold/5, 2 points in monster buff (if you prefer to take flash instead of ignite, you can take one of the points from the above mentioned masteries to put into flash, I would recommend 1 out of Good hands.)

I start the game off with a DORANS SHIELD. Many people question this, allow me to explain. Health bonus = AP (like 7-9), 8health regen will synergize with your yellows, and the armor will help mitigate some damage giving you much longer lane staying power. If you're mid or side lane try to recall after earning about 1550, thats enough to get a hextech revolver and a pair of boots. If you cant afford all, try to get at LEAST boots of speed, amplifying tome, and 1-2 health potions.. Once you have built your hextech revolver, build up either boots of swiftness if you aren't having trouble in lane. If enemy team has heavy CC, get merc treads. If they are tank heavy or you feel they will stack MR and are LOW on CC, get sorc shoes.

Once you have hextech revolver and tier2 boots, upgrade your revolver into a WILL of the Ancients. The reason for this, is that while revolver has been changed to have unique passive spellvamp, unique auras do not count as the same, because of this, you can still stack 2.
After building a WotA, IF you can afford a needlessly large rod, buy it and build deathcap, otherwise build towards another hextech revolver.

At this point you should have about 80-90ap, and 45% spell vamp. This is crucial as prior to level 9 you will be watching every second tick on your drain. Having spell vamp will give you enough healing to make up for the time in between.

At this point, you have options, if you are doing well, you can rush a rabadon's deathcap or if you need more healthrylai's scepter.

At this point you should have:
boots, will, revolver, deathcap.


At this point you have plenty of options
If you want to focus on staying alive, and support in team fights, take rylai's. The extra health keeps you alive+small ap boost, and the slow is amazing. 35% slow on your Q, 15% AOE slow on your Tides of Blood, and 15% on your pool, which stacks with the slow it already has.

If you want to focus on single target kills to help your team, I'll usually rush a Deathfire's grasp. DFG gives you a fair amount of AP, kage's pick gives you extra gold, and the active on DFG synergies with your ultimate.

If team is MR heavy, and you don't have AP heavy team: void staff is great

If team is SOME MR, or you have AP heavy team, abyssal.


Other good options for vladimir are,

Blue=great Green=good w/circumstances Yellow=good but not optimal

Rylai: see above, the health and ap combined give you about 82ap and 570hp, this combined with the slow gives you MAJOR survivability, E becomes an AoE slow making it paramount in team fights,

Deathfires grasp:see above, Deathfires grasp is an amazing weapon, however the active focusses on single target annihilation, if you plan to focus on team fights and general support, the slow from rylais combined with health is a better 'general' item.


Void Staff: if you need MR and there arne't many AP casters on your team, always a good one.

Abyssal scepter: MR, AP, and MR removal, great buy

Banshee's veil: hp(more AP),useless mana, MR, and spell shield is great.

Force of nature: MR, health regen up the ***, movement speed!


Lichbane: not optimal, still decent ap, 80ap is great, mana useless, movement speed is wonderful, and magic resist gives you survival, the passive on it is simply wonderful! Vlad has a pretty decent attack speed later game and synergizes great with your Q and E as the cdr on both are very low. You can easily do upwards of 500-700 every 3 seconds with this, more with your ultimate.

ABOUT GUNBLADE
People ask about this, it is NOT optimal!!! I will almost always sell my second revolver once I have enough AP to make up for the healing,so that I can get end-game items. If you think you cant lose, building your 2nd revolver into a gunblade still provides a lot of great bonuses. The AD will make you push turrets MUCH easier, which I find happens often when you run swiftness on vlad. The AP bonus is nothing to scoff at, combined with deathcap even more so. lifesteal+spellvamp makes you nigh invulnerable, and MOST importantly, the active slow allows you to help your team catch an enemy without you using the most useful tool you have, SANGUINE POOL, 300 dmg isn't much, but when you combine it with your ultimate, ignite, and the fact they cant get away from your drains = sitting ducks.

My spell sequence with vladimir almost NEVER changes.
The only time I change this sequence is when my entire team expect to gank a jungler+backup, then I take sanguine pool first, as the slow gives a better chance of successful gank. Otherwise I ALWAYS take my skills in this order.

Q,W,Q,E,Q,R,Q,W,Q,W,R,W,E,W,E,R,E,E

Basically take R whenever you can,
RUSH your Q at EVERY level possible until you max it, except to take R.
Get your W to at LEAST level 3 before taking anymore points in E, you can take *1* extra E before your W is level 5, but no more than that.

The reasons. Q at lvl 9 provides you with your best dmg/healing available.
W lvl 5 will give your sanguine pool a MUCH needed cooldown reduction.
Sanguine pool WILL be your get out of jail free card. NEVER USE SANGUINE POOL TO INITIATE. Once you come out of it, you WILL die if you cannot kill them with your Q.

Quick and easy, I take ghost with mastery point for extended length, and I always take ignite.
Ghost = escape/catch
Ignite...= ignite synergizes with your ultimate, allowing you to be able to take most people down at lvl 6. Also, ignite is CRUCIAL against certain champions. Vlad vs fiddle before lvl 9 will almost always lose w/o an ignite. Ignite helps shutdown a LOT of champions that rely on healing (including other vlads).

Vlad is NOT a jungler, however, once vlad hits level 9, he can jungle anything besides dragon or baron without problems. Early game you want to play conservatively, your cooldowns are FAR too high to rely on healing and pools for every situation where you will take damage. Try to last hit with auto attacks and save your Q for a SAFE harrass, if you are getting pushed back, use it on minions to keep your health high, your Q should never be off cooldown for longer than 1-3 seconds if possible.

At level 4 you get tides of blood which will make killing creeps a lot easier. Careful because tides AND pool both use health, and at this level your Q is too high on cooldown to rely on it to make up the health lost.

At level 6 people will be more cautious around you, at level 9 you are a monster. Spam Q as much as possible, and use it to constantly peck at your enemies, bringing them down enough to do your ult combo.

Teamwork with vlad is pretty straight forward, during lane just peck enemies and keep last hitting, any time your partner goes in, try to make it hurt that much more with a Q on top of it. Any time your partner will GET a kill, but might not catch the enemy, use your pool and stay under him, this will slow the enemy letting your partner finish him off. ~~~ONLY stay under the whole time if you KNOW you two will get the kill~~~ (otherwise pull back right before the end to be safe again).

TEAMFIGHTS: this is where vlad truly shines. You want to stay towards the back and run in/out pecking whereever you can safely, once all hell breaks loose, wait until the enemy team is grouped together, drop your ultimate, hit your E, and pool immediately underneath the group, make sure to leave the fight BEFORE your pool is over or you will get focus fired and die.
Once you have gotten some distance, go back to step A and heal yourself/kill with your Q and safe-distanced E's. You will rack up tons of assists, and last hitting with Q is relatively easy, specially if you have swiftness.

If you took DFG, your new spell combo is, R, (activate DFG), ignite, Q,E,W,Q,Q,Q,Q,Q,Q etc. :)

NOTE(about pool): pool WILL dodge the following: karthus ult, caitlyn ult, fiddlesticks ult, lux ult, MF, etc.
Pool will NOT cancel the following: fiddlesticks drain aka(channel spells), any "chain spells" (nocturn fear, morgana ult, etc.) also, ~~ANY~~ damage over time that is on vlad BEFORE he pools, will CONTINUE to do damage while you are in pool.

This means that if enemy ignite you at 200 health, and you pool. You'll guarantee that you kill yourself. Pool costs 20% current HP, at max health thats a lot, at low health that puts you even closer to dieing.

Because you RELY on pool to get away, be careful of status effects, such as stun, fear, and SILENCE. I cannot tell you, how many times silence has gotten me killed, and it typically lasts longer than normal stuns. If you cannot pool away from CC you will die.
*exception*: snares, if you are level 9+, and you are 1v1, snares will not be nearly as dangerous, the reason for this is, you can mitigate damage if they are in rage of your Q, you can also POOL, even though you will be stuck in place, often times when I get snared, I will Q them, and right before snare is over, i pool away. If you panic and pool too early, you will be untargettable but also unmoveable, when you come up, if you're in a bad situation, ghost (or flash if you prefer), can save your life here.

last note: when it comes to using your pool, there are many tricks you can do. If caitlyn ults you, don't let your teamates take the hit, make sure to pool.
Also, if someone BEGINS an animation for an attacck, and you pool, they LOSE their target, this will cause them to stop their 'casting animation' as well as their movement. Its an easy way to 'ghetto juke' someone as they don't expect to just stop moving, and by the time the click you have increased the distance between you. Timing is tricky, and crucial you have to basically anticipate the move.
ex: if you pool while a turret is firing at you, an early pool can cancel the shot entirely, a late pool will still get hit by the turret shot, AND you spent 20%hp.
Sions stun, will dissappear if it JUST started travelling, if you wait too long it will 'snare' you while you are in pool.

Practice is really the only way to master the pool, by far his most useful skill. (you cant drain if you are dead).

masteries: 9/0/21, spell pen, utility side, fill in time dead, gold, monster buff, drop 1 time dead for flash if you prefer it

runes: mpen red, Hregen yellow, CDR blue, 2xHealth, 1x MS quints

items: dorans shield, boots, hextech revolver, tier2boots, revolver>will, 2nd revolver, deathcap....(see items section for late game options).

Skill priority: R,Q,W,E (Q by 9 ALWAYS).

Thanks for reading my long *** guide, please critique and comment :)