Not to long ago I saw the top solo Q player build vladimir. It was a confusing build, I tried it for myself and moving the items around and adding some of my own. I finally realized, that season 3 is calling vladimir back into the meta game. This guide is for Solo Top vlad. You will be an off tank and still be able to dps and carry your team if needed.

Pros

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+ Great Harassment
+ Pretty Tanky end game
+ Crazy Heals with Spamable skills
+ Max 40% cooldowns with build
+ Sanguine Pool makes you untargetable and can dodge many skills (even homing like Fizz ult while marked can be dodged)
+ Sanguine Pool one of the best skills in the game
+ Great DPS all game long.
+ Hemoplague is great for your team, making everyone damage go up 12% (also summoner spells and items)

Cons

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- Ignite can always be annoying
- Long cooldowns early game.
- In till vamp items, you can be pushed out of lane pretty easy
- Late game is amazing, early game can be rough.
- No cc skills other then Sanguine Pool, which is your main escape tool

Flash is a great spell for getting into range for a kill, or getting away. You can pool into a flash or other way around to get a really good distance away from people. Also flashing into someone to pool and slow them down.

Ignite Great spell for any carry. If you use your ult then ignite, it does some pretty crazy damage. I feel this is a must get skill on vlad.

Teleport You are solo top so this is a great skills. Try not to use it just to get back into lane unless you have to. But this skill is better used teleporting to wards bot for ganks.

Exhaust Like I said before, vlad has no cc skills. So early game this is a great skill to help you 1v1 the other solo top, but I honestly don't think its worth giving up ignite or flash for this skill on vlad.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Top lane normally have magic resist runes but this is not only a pick to counter that, but my build doesn't give a huge amount of magic pen because your role is more a off tank dps.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health - The more health vlad has, the more AP he gets. Really helps vlad out in many ways. Pretty cheap runes too!

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power - If you look at my build, I don't have much AP early on. Also over all I don't get to much AP. This will help you have a good bit of AP late game without having to build a lot. But remember your role is off tank DPS.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - After you get Furor and have crystal, you will be so hard to catch and the other team will find you very annoying. With 40% cooldown you will be fast and perma slowing anyone who is trying to catch you.

Offense

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Fury - You don't need the 4% cooldown because this build maxes it. So 2% AS will help you with last hitting. You want to save your Q for harassing and only use it to last hit if you need to heal.

Butcher - Also to help you with last hitting. Vlad last hitting has a bit of a learning curve so this will help you out.

Blast - Along with your runes this will help you end game with that extra AP.

Havoc - You need as much damage as you can grab. The more damage you do, the more you heal and this build is built around healing and cooldowns.

Arcane Knowledge - As I said before. This build doesn't build a lot of magic pen. So you want the most you can get from masteries and 8% for free is huge.

Mental Force - It's good to have a bit of early game AP. But remember late game is where you shine.

Spellsword - This is manly for hitting towers and minons rather then auto attacking champtions. Just over all makes you have more dps.

Archmage - This will give you a good 30 ap at the end of the build. Thats a good bit from a mastery, well worth it.

Executioner - God does it feel good to kill someone with your Q. This mastery will really bring down that hammer.

Defense

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Perseverance - (I know its garens icon.) Will help you early game if you get a bit long, if you have stacks on E too it will make your over all health regen higher.

Durability - Vlad uses health as his mana and many other things. Grab as much as you can!

Hardiness - Top lanes tend to be AD so this will help you stay in lane.

Veteran's Scars - 30 HP doesn't sound like a lot. But at lvl 1 it really his, vlad lives off blood so give him more!

Crimson Pact - Vlad is not a vampire. He is a Murderer that learned the art of controlling blood, then drained his master of all of his blood enfusing him with magical powers. This crisom pact gives him more AP the more HP he has and vise versa.

Transfusion - This skill is what makes vlad. At max cooldown, its cast time is 2.6 seconds. With enchanted boots, that is almost a perma speed buff. This skills heals you like crazy and does great dps. Learn to love this skill. Max first. "That which runs through you, will run you through."
―Vladimir

Sanguine Pool - Perfect, just a perfect skills. When used vlad gets a speed boost that decays. He also does damage based off his MAX hp, also using this skill deals 20% of your current health. This skills should never be used to farm, it should only be used to dodge high damage skills, cc, and escape. It should only be used to deal damage in some team fights, but not often. Max Last.

Tides of Blood - This skills stacks up to 4 times. Each stack increases the cost, damage done, and healing of all types. Mid to late game try to keep this stack up before team fights start. Max second.

Hemoplague - Game changing ult. After you use, it makes foes. During that 5 seconds, all damage done to targets are increased by 12% FROM ALL SOURCES. Meaning your whole team will do more damage. This ult is huge for your team. After 5 seconds, mark explodes dealing massive damage. Max as soon as you can.

In the lane you want to last hit with auto attacks and harass with Q. Early game is when your at your weakest. So if you need to play it safe do so. Try to stay in lane till you have 2000 gold then buy your Spirit of the Spectral Wraith and a ward. After you get back in lane you should be able to start dealing damage and winning your lane. By this point its ok to last hit minions with Q because of your cooldowns. They will try to trade with you, but with your massive heal off minions it shouldn't matter. Try not to E around minions to much or you will push the lane to the tower. Try to control the wave and keep it right out side your tower (but not in tower range) Mid to late game you should be a farming freak. A wave will only take 2 E to clear. So run around and out CV everyone.

More detail is coming along with a video.

This build isn't for Mid vlad. This is a top lane vlad. Meaning your off tanking. Your job is to take some damage and still deal DPS. You still very much have the power to carry your teams most game with this build and still be tanky. This build relies on heals and cooldowns so items are meant to keep your cooldowns and vamp at max.

- So why this item? Oh my friend, this item makes this build. It's cheap, gives you 20% spell vamp, gives you 10% cooldown. Also helps you with dragon and picking up CS easy from the jungle. This item is better then will of the ancients on vlad by far. It also frees up more items for you because it gives you 10% cooldowns so you don't need a lot more cooldown items. I love this item and it is the reason this vlad is back.

+ Combo - With E. This is crazy. You perma slow everyone with a cooldown of 3 seconds or less, also dealing damage based off there HP. Because of the slow from Crystal, the passive on Liandry is doubles by all of your spells. Just a flat out deadly combo and its the reason you can be tanky with dps. Also with Furor boots, you will be slowing everyone while making yourself faster, and it feels good.

- Give up armor for this item. Gives a lot more AP and an awesome active for vlad. Deals 15% of there max health, but more importantly, all magic damage done to target by 20% for 4 seconds. This stacked with your ult is a total of 32%, You can deal some crazy damage to someone with both of these effects on!


- You can pull some cool stuff off with this. Your cooldowns are really fast so sometimes you just need that 2.5 secs to get another pool off to get away. Always an item that will save you in a bind.

- Another item to replace something with and keep that 40% cooldown. It gives ok armor and AP. I would pick the other items over this for sure, but its something to think about.

Play Video

In the process of being made.