8/21 - Guide Created! Match ups to come later.

Welcome to my second guide on mobafire. Some might remember me from a while back when i posted my guide on Lee Sin that is now incredibly outdated. Unfortunately, with all the changes to Lee, I don't believe i will ever update it as i don't find him to be a good champion anymore. But you're not here for Lee Sin. You're here because you want to become a master of the Blood Lord himself. Lets get started.

Pro's

Strong Late Game!
Certain players just have no idea what to do against you
Easy to get fed
Very easy to learn!
Can literally win a team fight with his ultimate alone
Is the blood lord.

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Con's

Very easy to overuse Sanguine Pool and Tides of Blood early on and kill yourself
Has a very hard time in lane against certain champions
Can get very behind very easily
Ultimate can be a little finicky
Sanguine Pool can literally be the most useless ability in some situations
Is ganked in lane very easily.
Always his time of the month

You can honestly get very creative with Vladimir because of the amount of play styles he supports. My personal page is this:

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Another perfectly acceptable page is:

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There is, however, one more page and its directed at players who can manage Vladimir's auto attacks with his abilities very well:

Vladimir also has quite a few ways you can rune him. My personal ways to rune him against both AP and AD are:Now I know what your thinking; "WHERE ARE THE COOL DOWN RUNES ARE YOU INSANE?". To answer your question, I am slightly, but the reason why i don't use cool down runes on Vlad is mainly because of the champions that he has to lane against now. You need defensive's more then ever and that's what these page's aim for.

That doesn't mean they are bad for him in anyway. If you disagree with my rune pages feel free to try yours out with cool down runes somewhere thrown in there instead. Movement speed runes are also not bad on him as well.

There is actually a lot of controversy of what are the most optimal summoner spell's to use on Vlad. All of the combo's you see players use are good, so instead of shoving my opinion down your throat, I will simply explain which ones suit which play styles.

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This combo is made for an aggressive laner who can still escape ganks. Vlad's biggest weak point is how easy it is to gank him, but at the same time, one of his biggest strong points is how easy it is for him to bully laners around. This combo gives him the best of both worlds as he can finish opponents off with Ignite and escape ganks with Flash.

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This combo is for an aggressive laner who values late game team fighting, more than laning. Ghost, while not being as effective as ignite in lane, is still a fairly strong laneing summoner as it lets Vlad keep up with opponent's trying to escape his bloody grasp. This combo's main strength, however, is its ability to help Vlad maneuver in team fights and position himself where he needs to be at the right time.

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Although teleport was nerfed recently, it is still a strong summoner to use. This combo is used by more defensive and team oriented players. This ability lets you split push easier, gank other lanes easier, and just get back to your own lane easier. This combo is also good against laners who give Vlad a hard time as he is able to back without dying and immediately go back to laning. This is normally ran by people who don't harass often and just try to farm the entire lane.

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To be honest, i don't find this to be a very optimal combo, but it is used regardless. This is an EXTREMELY defensive combo. Without Flash it is very VERY risky to push up the lane with Vlad. If you use this combo, your best bet is to freeze minions right before turret and farm them without risking yourself at all. Having Ghost and teleport means that you can split push easier and your team fight is stronger as you'll be able to run around and manuever yourself with ease. Although Ghost is arguably the better team fight spell, not having flash means it will be harder to get a clean Hemoplague off on the entire team.

In my opinion, Vladimir's Ability sequence should NEVER change!
The sequence is: Why is this the only sequence he should use? Mainly because, if you rank up Tides of Blood then you're actually killing yourself faster than your enemy, and if you rank up Sanguine Pool first....well i don't think i need to explain that...

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Crimson Pact

Crimson pact is probably one of the best passive's in the game to be quite honest. It allows you to become tanky by simply building damage. It used to be a lot more broken then it is now but its still pretty amazing.

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Transfusion

Transfusion is your primary harass and sustain tool. It has a fairly long cool down at ranks 1-3 but as you level it to those final levels, its cool down becomes extremely low and a lot of champions that may have been beating you in those first three levels will probably now start having a hard time since you'll be constantly dealing out damage and healing large amounts up at the same time.

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Sanguine Pool

The notorious "Troll Pool" as many like to call it, is an interesting ability. This ability will most likely determine if you either win or lose a trade. It can be very hit or miss as if you use it too soon, you might be doing more damage to yourself and causing you to lose a trade. If you do it too late then you might just be dead. However, in recent patches, Vlad was given the ability to use items such as Zhonya's Hourglass and Flash in pool which, believe it or not, can really be helpful.

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Tides of blood

The tides of blood is your best team fight ability by far, and has the ability to chunk and even half health an entire team if you're positioned right. Its important to always keep this move at 4 stacks during late game as, your going to need the bonus healing it provides to stay alive in team fights. This move, however, has its downsides. The main downside is that it does hurt Vlad to do. This damage is barely noticeable late game, but in the laning phase can actually cause you to die if you spam it too much.

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Hemoplague

The blood lord's ultimate and easily most deadly move. Landing this on an entire team can literally, on its own, win you the fight. Its power late game gets extremely crazy and can easily one shot an ADC coupled with Transfusion and Tides of Blood. This move however, can be a little weird to use if you're not used to its range. It can also be deadly to use as it has a fairly small range forcing you to insert yourself into the center of the team fight. My advice is too wait until they are all focused on one of you're other team members, flash in and ult followed by Tides of Blood and Transfusioning there strongest team member(usually the adc!). If you're not not dying or dead yet, continue using abilities until you win or die. If they begin to focus you use Sanguine Pool followed by Zhonya's Hourglass to delay your death. By the time you become targetable again, the enemy team should be dead.

This champion has a lot of different build paths. There really isn't a set build for Vlad and you might have to build things you aren't used to building if the situation's arise.

Core Items

The absolute BEST item you can pick up on Vlad. It gives him so much raw offensive power but because of his passive, it also makes him extremely tanky. Nearly the equivalent to buying a Giant's Belt. Buying this as a first item after Hextech Revolver is generally a must!



Another must-have item, no matter what the situation. It gives a strong amount of AP (and health because of his passive!) and makes him untargetable for two seconds. When you use this it allows your cool downs to come back up and will help you dish out the damage you need to win any fight. Its also good for when champions like Zed ult you and your Sanguine Pool is still on cool down.



Now I intentionally put this here instead of Will of the Ancients for a few reasons. One this item on its own gives Vlad a very significant boost on its own without having to turn it into WoTA. Two buying this then Death cap is much stronger then buying this and turning it into WoTA. I firmly believe that WoTA should be the last item purchased in your build. This item is basically a god item for Vlad. It increases all his healing by a strong amount and gives him a substantial amount of ap. On top of that, you can start Amplifying Tome which builds into this to make it much easier to buy this. I firmly believe that this item should start Vlad's build every time.



A lot of people feel that building Ionian Boots of Lucidity is better than buying these, but i sincerely disagree. Although the cool down is nice, being able to DO damage is much more important than pressing buttons faster. Whats the point of hitting some one with a wet noodle quickly if you can devastate them with a sword in one swing? Vlads cool downs are low enough to compensate taking Sorcerer's Shoes over ionian boots.

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Strong Items

If the enemy team is building against you a lot of you just simply have other ap champions in your team (which is bound to happen a lot) this item might just be worth your time. It allows you to punch holes in teams that are building heavily against you. There are times though, that you won't need to build this.



I absolutely LOVE when i get a chance to build this. I generally won't build this if they don't have two AP champs or more but if they do, man this item is awesome. It almost seems as if it was made for Vlad, it makes him heal for just plain stupid amounts and makes it extremely hard for him to be moved in lane. If you're laning against an ap champion and build this, I honestly feel bad for them.



This is what i call the alternative to Spirit Visage. Whats better than healing more? Being able to Die twice of course! If they don't have all AP but still have an AP champ this is easily your best bet. It also allows Vlad to participate longer in team fights.



Randuin's Omen? On Vlad? I must be insane. This item is very strong against full AD compositions. Combined with the amount of health you have from all your ap items and the armor from Zhonya's, this will make your quite a horrifying person to go near. Also the active is very nice for Vlad as he does not have a way to charge into a fight, so being able to slow people down is nice.



This item will be prevalent is every build you make, but its in the strong items section because of how non urgent this item really is. The cool down is nice but the ap you get doesn't really compare to any of the other items you need to build first. Always get this item, just not first. I prefer it last.

Situational Playthings

There will sometimes be a rare moment where Spirit Visage alone just won't cut it and you need more MR. When that time comes, this item will become your second best friend. Its stats are nothing to gawk about but it can give you and your team a nifty boost.



Ok I'm officially insane for putting this item in "situational" items. Don't get me wrong, this item is amazing on Vlad. If there was one more item slot i would consider it a core item. But to be honest, this item just doesn't fit most of the time. If you don't need Void Staff this is usually its replacement.



There comes a time when you are just SO fed, that you cannot resist the temptation of this item. It's ONLY good if you are a living breathing god and cannot be stopped in game at the moment. I'm talking about like 15-0 by 10 minutes strong.



To be quite honest, this item skipped right over my head because of how infrequently I buy it, but it does have a very solid purpose on Vlad. If you're dealing with some kind of MR stacker in lane, (IE: Nasus Dr. Mundo) then this item should be taken over Hextech Revolver. It will make your harass not something they can ignore with ease (like they generally do against revolver. Not to mention all the sustain with revolver is wasted since these guys don't really attack you at all early on.

THE EXCEPTION

Remember that part in the guide were i said i would talk about this item? Well here it is, the item that i have ingeniously named "The exception". The reason i call it that is because this item can actually do a very enormous amount of damage. Basically a third spell in the form of an auto attack. The item should only be built if you have extremely powerful management skills. You have to be able to manage all of Vlad's abilities, maneuver yourself around in a team fight so that you don't die, constantly watch your hp so that you can zhonya's to stay alive, be aware of whats going on around you so you can blood pool major cool downs, and be able to track sheen procs for extra damage. Its a lot harder than you would think.

Laning as Vlad can be the easiest thing in the world, and also the hardest. There are a few tricks to know about it but generally laning with Vlad takes a lot of experience playing top lane rather than playing Vlad. I have played over 3000 top lane games and still have trouble laning with Vlad because I'm doing a poor job at laning. If you are doing poorly with Vlad when you first start out with him, do not fret, it takes practice simply because he is only as good at you are laning. When i first started out playing him, i fed pretty hard for a long time. Now I pull out great scores constantly with him. It takes a lot of time and practice to master laning in general, but once you do you will become nearly unstoppable with Vlad. Some techniques that I use to lane are as follows:

The "Poke" Game

How I like to play in lane is by saving my Transfusion exclusively for the enemy laner. Never go out of your way to hit him with it as thats how minions aggro to you and they are given a good chance you chunk you a bit. Just stay calm, don't play THAT aggressively and every time he goes to farm melee minions hit him with a Q. If you're at a significant health lead don't be afraid to add Tides of Blood in there too. Just not to the point where you're actually dying from it.

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The "Turret" Game

Its very important to memorize the turret safety circleThe trick is, when you're at your opponents turret, to constantly harass and poke them and make them lose out on farm. Stand right before the safety circle (as depicted in the picture) and constantly Q and E them until they are forced to back. If they are standing slightly out of this range do not worry. Wait for a turret shot on one of your minions, run in and as soon as the turret shoots, harass and walk out of the turret. By waiting for the shot you are giving yourself the largest amount of time possible to escape the turret before it shoots. If it does shoot, its better to Sanguine Pool it so it does less damage, but by doing so you become vulnerable and should stick to just farming and not taking risks until its up again.

If the enemy charges you from turret in an attempt to kill you or stop you from playing this game with them, simply blood pool away. If they are insistent on fighting you make you sure you fight them in your minion wave. By charging you they are losing out on farm and thats exactly what you want.

Here is a list of scenarios that you should blood pool from and not pool from.

WRONG

Enemy Jax jumps on you and you immediately pool.

RIGHT

Enemy Jax jumps on you. Being the smart Vlad player you are, you Q and E him. He then Counter Strikes in order to stun you. You pool the stun and as he runs away you get another Q on him.

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WRONG

Riven Valor's into you and you immediately pool.

RIGHT

Riven Valor's into you and stuns you. Being the good Vlad player you are, you save your pool for her Broken Wings combo as thats where a lot of her damage comes from. You run away until shes out of movement cool downs to catch you with and proceed to combo her.

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WRONG

Renekton Slice and Dice'es into you and save your pool for later. There is no later.

RIGHT

Renekton Slice and Dice's into you. Being the good Vlad player you are, you know that the way Renekton trades makes him extremely hard to trade back with. You immediately pool and run back. If he A: uses the second slice and dice to catch up to your pool, keep running back until the stun buff fades then hit him with your combo. B: Dash's back into his side of the lane, you run back and try to combo him.

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As you can see, being good at Vlad is one thing but knowing the match ups is what truly counts. If you're not doing to well with Vlad when you first start out do not be discouraged.

Thats about all I have to say about this champion. Hes an awesome character and a strong champion who can annihilate teams later on.

The guide is not yet finished so don't judge it too harshly! A Match up section and a jungle section will be added with time.

My in game same is Give Me Top Lane and i would recommend adding me in game if you have any comments regarding this guide.

Thanks for reading.