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Vladimir Build Guide by iLikeEmSpicy

Middle Season 8 [8.7] - In Depth Match Ups. SPICY Vladimir Guide

Middle Season 8 [8.7] - In Depth Match Ups. SPICY Vladimir Guide

Updated on April 15, 2018
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League of Legends Build Guide Author iLikeEmSpicy Build Guide By iLikeEmSpicy 10 2 212,146 Views 11 Comments
10 2 212,146 Views 11 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author iLikeEmSpicy Vladimir Build Guide By iLikeEmSpicy Updated on April 15, 2018
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Vladimir
    Sugar, Spice, Everything Nice
  • LoL Champion: Vladimir
    Insane Kill Potential, Seconda
  • LoL Champion: Vladimir
    Infamous 45% CDR, Tertiary Opt

Runes:

Sorcery
Summon Aery
Nullifying Orb
Celerity
Gathering Storm

Domination
Eyeball Collection
Ravenous Hunter

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ghost

Ghost

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

***NEW RUNE SYSTEM***

I highly recommend checking out my updated section for Keystones and Runes. I have 4 optimal rune page set ups and highly recommend reading the notes for each one. After extensive gaming on Vladimir I have come to the conclusion that the best possible combination of Keystone and Secondary path MUST BE some variation of Sorcery, Domination an Inspiration, either being;

- Sorcery & Domination
- Sorcery & Inspiration
- Inspiration & Domination
- Inspiration & Sorcery
- Domination & Sorcery
- Domination & Inspiration

Dabble with these combinations to find the playtyle that suits you but I can tell you that precision and resolve are useless on Vlad as primary's. As secondary paths you may want Triumph or Overgrowth respectively but they are just lackluster in comparison to the way you should be playing Vladimir.
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Introduction

Hello fellow lovers of spice. My name is Adam, and my in-game username is iLikeEmSpicy. This is my first ever guide so the layout may be sloppy and probably not up to the standards that you are used to. I'd like to start off by saying I don't play ranked at al- HA. THAT WAS THE OLD ME. Now I'm back practically spamming ranked games and I'm currently Platinum 5. This is the season where I truly push myself to my limits with Vladimir and I want you all to join my journey. All I can say to convince you further is that I definitely know how to carry and play with Vladimir with over 700,000 mastery points, a 68% winrate with 120 games + and an enormous amount of experience in lane match ups and itemization as well as playing with him since Season 4. I hope you gain some valuable insight from what I have to offer. I picked him up at level 20 and instantly fell in love knowing he would be my main no matter how many champions there were that I didn't try. Right now I lack numbers for my information to sound convincing but I will provide that once I get the motivation to test everything out exactly in a custom game. I wish I could write something to give my introduction a bit more spice but this is all I can think of for now, enjoy the further content! (Note to self: Add more pictures)
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Colour Legend

The point of this legend is to make scouting for Vlad's key stats easier so you can get straight into the content, and most importantly, to add a bit of flavor to my guide.
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- Red will be spicy.
- Cyan will refer to movement.
- Green will refer to healing.
- Orange will refer to health.
- Blue will refer to Damage
- Purple will refer to Magic Resistance
- White will refer to Armor.
- Grey refers to outdated information and should be ignored until updated, in which at that point it will be a different color and you will have no recollection that it was even grey in the first place. Spooky.
- Pink: a re-cap or conclusion.
- Gold will refer to Duration. For example; Zhonya's hourglass active lasts 2 seconds.
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Why choose this build? Why dont I build Protobelt?

My playstyle for Vlad is to carry and dominate my lane no matter who I am facing. You do not sustain from building tank, you sustain from building damage because of your Q AP scaling. You will heal 40%+ of your missing health with an empowered Transfusion with this build late game. To do this I focus on building damage early on, lacking a bit of CDR unfortunately. You will notice my match up difficulty may vary quite a bit from other Vlad guides. This is because I have 700,000k + points on Vlad and have true experience against every match up multiple times. I will most likely provide move combinations and starting items for each match up and will teach you how to fight against match-ups that other people would claim to be hard. You get the best of both worlds from this build, being able to tank and pump out fantastic damage. This build will maximize your healing, DPS, defense, and most importantly WILL ALLOW YOU TO CARRY. is such a noob trap, it is extremely situational like when up against people who will out sustain you and you need to burst them with your combo. That is it. I don't know why people prioritize it over . You do not need since you hit 40% CDR easily late game, I know people have their arguments to justify building it for early game sustain and the fact that games usually don't last for you to get 6 items, but you are here to carry, and you need penetration for that.
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Ability Run Down

PASSIVE: Crimson Pact;

INNATE

For every 40 points of bonus health, Vladimir gains 1 Ability Power. For every 1 Bonus Ability Power, Vladimir gains 1.4 health.


This is Vladimir's unique and extremely powerful passive. It is similar to Singed's or Ryze's passive as in you gain free stats for building a different stat. In Vladimir's case it is between health and ability power. It only applies to bonus health and ability power, meaning your base health growth WILL NOT give you bonus ability power, however, Runes and Masteries will give you bonus stats. Items that give both health and ability power such assynergize unbelievably well with this passive and that is why it is a core item on him. offers so much AP it would be foolish to pass it up. Late game with this build you should be getting a free bonus 800 health and bonus 20 ability power. Yes, bask in the free stats my friend.
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Q: Transfusion;

RANGE: 600 COOLDOWN: 9/8/7/6/5

ACTIVE: Vladimir drains the lifeforce of the target enemy, dealing magic damage and healing himself.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 / 160 (+ 60% AP)
HEAL: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (+ 35% AP)
Each cast of Transfusion generates a stack of Bloodthirst over its cooldown, which is displayed in his secondary resource bar. At 2 stacks, Vladimir gains Crimson Rush for 2.5 seconds and 10% bonus movement speed for 0.5 seconds.


CRIMSON RUSH: Transfusion deals double damage and heals for an additional 30 - 200 (based on level) (+ 5% (+ 4% per 100 AP) missing health), reduced to 35% against minions.

EMPOWERED DAMAGE: 150 / 180 / 210 / 240 / 270 (+ 85% AP)

Vladimir's Q is a targeted ability which has two components to it as you can see. The first half of the ability which can be activated allows Vladimir to deal single target damage to his chosen enemy champion and then heal himself based off his Ability Power. This is why building ability power rather than tank is more beneficial, because you actually heal more from building damage. The heal does not apply to Vladimir until AFTER the animation reaches him. So don't expect to Q someone and heal instantly, however this is not as bad as it seems because it usually tricks people visually. Now, the second part to Vladimir's Q was recently added in his rework. It gives Vladimir access to a much needed movement speed burst. This second half can not be activated and it will automatically give you movement speed when the bar below your health turns red. The second half of this ability is Vladimir's bread and butter for damage as it is what makes people scared to try and trade you during laning phase. Furthermore, because of the nature of Vladimir's kit you DO NOT have to play agressively during laning phase. People mistake Vladimir as a champ who should be constantly dominating his lane. This is not true, he should be able to survive his lane and avoid giving the enemy kills which he can do extremely well. Do not be afraid to just sit back and heal off minions with this ability when needed.

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STILL NEED TO ADD W
STILL NEED TO ADD E
STILL NEED TO ADD ULTIMATE

Bear with me <3
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Keystones (NEW)

Keystone Choices



Sorcery
Aery: Aery allows for Vladimir to amplify his poke in lane, and later in the game amplify his single target damage aswell, it most ideal keystone under sorcery because compared to Comet, which is used in conjunction with long range cc abilities (Which Vlad has none of), Aery is always a guaranteed hit. Phase Rush is too gimmicky to pull off in lane because Vladimir lacks three instant disposable abilities, you would need to Auto Attack to activate it. You can test all three Sorcery keystone for yourself but in my experience Aery is the best by far under Sorcery.

Domination
Predator: Predator allows for Vladimir to substitute Ghost, but is not an equal replacement. Predator is inferior to Ghost because the movement speed is deactivated once in combat. Predator keystone allows access to one of the most rediculous runes on Vladimir which is Ravenous Hunter but don't forget you can easily make Domination a secondary path and gain the healing from that. I just put Predator here to allow you to see that it is still a viable option if it fits your playstyle. Dark Havest and Electrocute are the other contenders but they are inferior as well in the same way that Phase Rush from the Sorcery tree is; they require auto attacks to activate and during laning phase people WILL NOT give you the chance to Q,E, and Auto unless they fully engage you.

Inspiration
Unsealed Spellbook: Unsealed Spellbook is the best option under Inspiration. The reason why you would wan't to get into the Inspiration tree in the first place is because of the free Zhonya's component, and the Approach Velocity rune which does work with Vladimir's E, thus, compensating for the absence of movement speed quintessence which no longer exist. Anyways, unsealed spellbook allows for the option to bring Teleport/Ignite at the start of the game for the best possible laning and then switching to Flash/Ghost for the late game.

Resolve
Grasp of the Undying: seems unreal but it is so lackluster because of the halfed healing and permanent health. I laned against a Shen and 30 minutes into the game I only gained 100 health which is not even worth it at all compared to the other keystones. The only upside is the fact that you gain access to overgrowth which gave me around 400 health 40 minutes in. Don't forget that you can gain access to overgrowth through the secondary path so you should seriously not use Grasp.

Sorcery Keystones and Inspiration Keystones are the best options but having Ravenous Hunter under Domination is highly reccomended in some way which concludes to some combination of; Sorcery/Dom Inspiration/Dom Sorcery/Inspiration or Inspiration/Sorcery.

What Each of the VIABLE(for Vlad) Skill Trees Bring to The Table.



Sorcery (Pros & Cons):
- Access to free 10% Cooldown (Makes up for loss of CDR glyphs)
- Acess to massive scaling AP through gathering storm
- Amplifies lane bully potential with Aery.
- Lack of movement speed options unless you sacrifice the cooldown for Celerity (not ideal)

Domination (Pros & Cons):
- Say hello to good ol' Spellvamp my friends(Relentless Hunter)
- Slight scaling AP through Eyeball Collection
- Best vision through runes (Zombie Wards & Poro)
- Gimmicky movement speed option
- No access to cooldown

Inspiration (Pros & Cons):
- Solid options for increased movement speed (Enhanced Boots and Approach Velocity
- Massive snowball potential with Future's Market and Zhonya's component
- Access to increased CDR cap
- No synergy with damage or healing(Major parts of vladimir's kits)
- Susceptible to nerfs because this tree is overpowered.
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Runes (NEW)

So for the runes I've only put the ones you'll ever need to consider on Vladimir.

Precision
Overheal: Decent for laning phase. Pretty hard to get the full shield and maintain it because of your E. (You must be at full health to start charging the shield). Still viable.

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Resolve
Overgrowth: This is THE ONLY rune you would ever get in resolve making it a must for your secondary path IF you are going to get it. The health gain is ridiculous and of course works so well with Vladimir's passive. You can potentially reach 4000 health with my build if it hits late game with this rune. Still would not recommend over the Sorcery, Domination or Inspiration trees.

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Domination
Taste of Blood: Pretty self explanitory. It's the old feast but works with abilities and heals slightly more.

Eyeball Collection: Mini scaling AP rune that promotes dismantling wards to stack it up, any AP is good AP for Vladimir.

Zombie Wards/Ghost Poro: If you're not a fan of Eyeball Collection, then then any of these are a good substitute.

Ravenous Hunter: This thing is broken on Vladimir. It's easy as hell to stack up and practically gives you 15% spellvamp for free, with spirit visage it goes up to 19.5% rounded to 20% spellvamp from this rune. Seriously consider getting this in somehow.

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Sorcery
Nullifying Orb: Good choice if you know you aren't going to be building a second magic resistance item beyond spirit visage. Because penetration runes do not exist anymore, I like building Liandry's over my recommended Banshees Veil so I bring this rune.

The Ultimate Hat: Well, if you're not taking Null Orb then take this. It's not that great since you don't really spam Vladimir's Ultimate but still an alternative if you don't like Null Orb.

Transcendence: Gather around fellow Vladimirs. Transcend the feeble state of mind that is all other champions compared to Vladimir. SHOW THEM YOUR SUPRIOR STATE OF MIND. TRANSCEND LIFE. TRANSCEND LEAGUE... One of the best runes for Vladimir.

Gathering Storm: Best option, free AP. Scales well into late game and goes with Vlad's passive.

Scorch: Combined with Aery, you'll be one annoying bastard in lane.

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Inspiration
Perfect Timing: I don't know why you would take any of the other contraptions over this. It's a free 600 gold and builds directly into a core item for Vladimir

Magical Footwear: Between this and Future's Market because, this is my favorite option. The reason being because I like to rush my first item then complete boots and I'm usually in lane for the 10 minute mark. Ofcourse if you need a boots start for certain match ups you would not take this. You also get flat 10 more movespeed which Vladimir needs.

Future's Market: Overpowered. Combined with the free gold from the stopwatch and maybe even Kleptomancy you are snowball at a ridiculous rate.

Approach Velocity: Best choice if you don't gain your extra movement speed through the other runes, still a good choice even if you do because your E and W impair movement regardless.

Cosmic Insight: Can't go wrong with cooldown right?
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Pros / Cons

- Extremely High Sustain
- AoE Damage
- Unique damage amplification on his ultimate
- Unique untargetable ability.
- Can play mind games with his opponent.
- Disgustingly strong late game.
- Free stats from passive.
- No mana.

- No mobility
- Is not actually a vampire
- Takes understanding of the champion to use abilities effectively
- Defenseless early game
- Long cooldowns early game.
- Weak objective control.
- No CC.
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Unique Skills

Vladimir's most unique skill is his Sanguine Pool, which can actually interact with his Tides of Blood ability thanks to the Vladimir rework. The technique I am about to share is a costly technique that will make you loose 28% of your health if you fully charge your tides of blood. It is simple to pull off, but hard to use it effectively. All you need to to is press E and W at the same time, and Vladimir will cast his E while in the ground! Basically you with this technique you can force your enemy to make a decision of chasing you through the pool or to back off and avoid taking the damage. This is the most offensive use of the pool and I would highly recommend saving it instead for more dire situations that call for defensive measure. Use it wisely!

If you happen to face a Zed you can use your Sanguine Pool to completely block the mark of his ultimate. To do this all you need to do is press W while he is invisible in the air. He will come on top of you but not apply his mark. Also, you can not pool underneath player made terrain such as:
- Jarvan Ultimate
- Anivia's Wall
- Taliyah's Wall
- Yorick's Ghoul Trap
- Ornn's Q

TLDR; Use E and W at the same time to do a spicy skill combo.
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Farming

Farming in the lane for Vladimir can be done in some unique ways due to his Tides of Blood ability if you know what you're doing. Early game your annoying AA animation will probably deny yourself some CS but the only way to overcome this is to practice and practice. Using your Transfusion to last hit will make you vulnerable because of its long cooldown early game; try to avoid this against facing a Jax and/or riven whom you should save your Transfusion against to out trade. If a champion has a strong all in he will abuse your early Transfusion cooldown. If you do need to use your Transfusion on a minion be prepared to follow up with Tides of Blood so you can still poke, but be wary of shoving your wave. Farming under the tower is nearly impossible until mid-late game. This is why as a Vladimir player you must not get shoved under tower, nor can you shove because of your lack of escape. Sometimes it is best to not use your empowered Transfusion on a minion if you cant land it on the enemy champion because it will shove your lane and will probably one shot the caster minion. Another technique for pushing hard is to move to the far left side or right side and charging up your Tides of Blood. If you go between the caster minion wave and melee minion wave you are setting yourself up to be engaged by the enemy laner.
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