Vladimir is currently a very weak mage that does not excel well as a solo mid AP carry. In fact, with his nerfs, he has little going for him with the exception that he can still sustain himself in lane. The catch is, he does very little damage. As a result, he becomes an AoE tanky dps late game. At this stage in time, he is very comparable to Nunu, who once was a god of the jungle but spiraled down to oblivion. Anyway, here is my Vladimir guide.

I go with a 8.5 Magic Penetration (Marks), 175 Health at Level 18(Seals), -5.8% Cooldown Reduction (Glyphs), and 15 Ability Power (Quints) rune build.

The flat cooldown reduction is not necessarily essential and could be replaced with cooldown reduction per level or ability power or even more magic penetration. It's really up to you.

Otherwise, I find that everything else is fairly crucial.

The masteries I go is a 10-19-1 build. This build helps meshes nicely with Vladimir's overall game, whether late game, mid game or laning phase.

These items are very basic and helps Vladimir transition nicely from an AP Carry to a Tanky DPS throughout the game. In fact, this build is like a catalyst for his exceptional mid game power.

Again, these are fairly basic.

Transfusion: Your main weapon which you should be constantly using to harass enemy champions. If you are using this to farm most of the time, you should practice with his auto attacks more.

Sanguine Pool: Escape ability; Pops projectiles; Troll pool; "Broken"

Tides of Blood: Small AoE (up to unlimited targets in range) nuke. Spam this ability like no tomorrow after you have decent spell vamp or health.

Especially since Vladimir fits as a tanky dps late game, Ghost is a stronger tool in that sense. Early game, it works in conjunction with Sanguine Pool. I do not recommend Flash unless you do not position very well.

I do not recommend going into Ranked games with as Vladimir at all. Unless the situation is that your team requires: (A) A tanky dps; Top Solo , (B) More Magical Damage , (C) More AoE Damage.

This has been my Vladimir guide. Although he was once my favorite champion (probably because of the win rate LOL), I do not think he's very viable at the moment. Thanks for reading and good luck!