oh Hai der, this is my first guide so be nice =p. That being said I will do the best I can. I recently fell in love with Vlad, especially when you build him to give no ****s. I should give a shout out to zjozwiak, his guide Sick of squishy?- Tanky Vlad inspired me to buy Vlad and fall in love. I would encourage you to read his guide as well, as mine may look similar with a few minor adjustments to my play style. Keep in mind that I normally play with a 4-5 man premade in ventrilo and we all have roles to play. So without further ado, enjoy!

I have chosen these runes with my role in mind, which happens to be solo top in my premade. In my mind the goal of runes are to give you that extra edge early game. Runes dont come into play much late game. That is why I have decided to go with flat magic resist glyphs, flat armor seals, magic pen marks, and ap quints. The seals and glyphs add tankiness early game to help farm while being harassed. The magic pen helps early game to punish your enemy for making mistakes, this also applies for the quints and hey they give you a bit more health as well :). You could I suppose replace any of these with health runes, but I would caution against that. With your q and starting ruby you should be good to go.

The masteries I feel are self explainitory, they once again dont really come into play late game, they are for that little extra oomf early game, with the exception of Juggernaut. This mastery set up is best for accomplishing what the build is trying to accomplish.

My items sequence is set up to provide the most sustain possible while in laning phase, and get you tanky enough mid game to start becoming a fixture on your team. Starting out with the ruby gives you a nice chunk of health and a bit more ap which is nice. It also leads right into the heart of gold for that 5/10. Keep in mind that any left over monies after buying your next item each time you b, should be spent on health pots and wards. Next big item is level 1 boots, by this time your enemy should have a pair if they didnt start out with them. These will help you to catch up and get your q on them to harass if you so choose. If you are getting beaten in lane even with all your sustain you might want to think about Kage's lucky pick for that extra income and a little ap, and therefore MOAR HEALTH! If you are doing fine, start on that warmogs by getting a giants belt. It should be smooth sailing in lane once you get this item, not much is going hurt you finish out your mogs and get your robyourmoms deathcap =P ap is always nice and what else? MOAR HEALTH! God I love that passive. At this point you might be realizing that Vlad virtually has no cc, well he has a slow... but I'll explain that later ;). Rylai's will fix this and gives a nice 500 health and 80 ability power sooooo MOAR HEALTH $ MOAR ABILITY POWER! All in one convient package, oh yea I forgot, it slows people to. The rest of the build I think you can figure out. If the game makes it that long. You might be scratching your head and saying why Leviathans? To that I say, why not? Between your pool, and the amount of health you should have not many people are going to be killing you if you play smart, and uhhhh 15% reduced damage? Comon? Nuff said, but I suppose you could swap if with another mogs.... -sigh- or a zhonya's for a total of 4 count them 4 seconds of not being targetable and decent amount of ap. Spirit visage has cdr, health, magic res, and a cool passive that increases health regen and healing effects on yourself. WofA has spell vamp and some more ap.

My skill sequence is designed for maximum laning ability, the q for harass and sustain, it just so happens to be one of if not the best last hitting mechinism in the game imo. W is your get out of jail free card, or can be used to tower dive like a boss. DO NOT USE IT TO FARM MINIONS UNTIL LATE GAME. If even then. E is great for mid game, when team fights start happening. and Ult is self explainitory.

I run flash,exhaust most cases. The reason for this being, flash is an amazing summoner spell it can be used in combo with your w to either get out of almost any situation or again with your w to tower dive like the hero you are. Exhaust early game is virtually your only form of cc, it can be used defensively, or in combo with your flash to help set up a gank. Ignite can be subbed in, but leaves you without any cc of any kind...

When in lane, last hit all day with that q man... I mean it. That ability is god's gift to you, god wants you to feed and sustain. It does tend to push lanes a bit, so if you notice that. stick to timing out your basic's until the enemy minions push you back again. If you have the upperhand in lane, stand on the back side of his minion wave and deny him gold. Q him if he comes close, make him pay for it. If he makes a move on you and gets the drop, w to saftey.

In team fights, your job is giving no ****s, that is your moto, plop that ult on as many of their heads as possible and spam your e, like you have no life. Game over as both of them are AOE and decimate the entire enemy team, for good measure late game you can pool and add another AOE effect, get a q in there I guess as well. After winning a team fight, tank towers like a hero. Your team will love you, make sure to ping so everyone knows. Dont get greedy, take the win and the tower, the b and start the cycle again.

P.S. dont forget your ult deals initial damage, then deals more damage at a later date. If they dont die initial keep at them!

Pros

+tanky and late game gives absolutely no ****s
+uber lane sustain (if you ever feel like trolling try a soraka/Vlad lane combo)
+super fun
+super punny =P
+still feels like a carry

Cons

+no cc
+gets eatten alive by ad carries with madreds (ww,kog,some teemo's)(also tryndaqueer can crit your health down pretty fast)

That's it for my first guide =P, I would appreciate constructive criticsm. Please don't troll vote me. Have fun and good luck!