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Vladimir Build Guide by

Vladimir, The Crimson Reaper Solo Top

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11 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author GabrielJCD

Vladimir Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (11) More Vladimir Guides

Spells:

Ignite

Ghost

Items

Name

Ability Order

Vladimir Passive Ability

Introduction

Greetings, i'm GabrielJCD from Portugal and this is my personal build for my favourite champion and my main, , and I am going to share is amazing strength.

There is a temple hidden in the mountains between Noxus and the Tempest Flats, where the secrets of an ancient and terrifying sorcery are kept. The area surrounding the temple is littered with the exsanguinated corpses of those who have mistakenly wandered too close. These served only to pique the curiosity of Vladimir, when - in his youth - he trekked through these mountains during his flight from Noxus. A day earlier, the teenaged Vladimir had brutally murdered two boys his age, for no better reason than to enjoy the intoxicating scarlet bloom that surged forth. He realized immediately that he would never be able to suppress his murderous desires, and if he remained in Noxus, his foul deeds were sure to catch up with him. Without hesitation, he abandoned the city-state, and journeyed south.

The trail of bodies led him to a crumbling stone temple. Inside he found an aging monk who appraised him with eyes of pure crimson. Vladimir surprised the monk by returning the wicked gaze with zeal. Recognizing the boy's sinister craving, the monk taught Vladimir how to manipulate and control the fluid of life, often practicing on passing travelers. When it came time for Vladimir to learn the final lesson, the monk warned that failure would result in death. Vladimir did not fail, but success bore a grisly surprise. During the ritual, every drop of the monk's blood was drawn from his body and fused with Vladimir's, imbuing him with his master's magical essence, and that of every hemomancer before him. Left alone and suddenly without purpose, Vladimir resolved to return to Noxus, demanding enrollment in the League to prove the supremacy of his craft. When the Noxian High Command observed the gruesome fates which befell the palace guards, they elected to avail themselves of Vladimir's unsavory talents.

'That which runs through you will run you through.' -Vladimir

is one of the strongest AP carries and very good at counter initiating.

Pros:

Strong throught mid and late game
Good escape/broken mechanic
Good in Teamfights
Crazy sustain with WOTA (Good for double WOTA if your top)
Tanky late game
Can be played mid or top with ease
Legendary skin
Not hard to get the hang of(but can be hard to play very well and know when you can dive)
No Mana

Cons:

Somewhat weak early depending on the matchup
Item reliant for passive
Some abilities cost health
Easy to get greedy with pool and die for it
Long CD Pool
No CC(besides slow)

Timeline 7/26/2010

: drains the lifeforce of his target, dealing magic damage and healing himself for 25% of that amount.
: sinks into a pool of blood for 2.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and slowing enemies above him. Vladmir deals magic damage to targets above him and heals himself for 15% of that amount.
: Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood, damaging surrounding enemies. Additionally, multiple in a short period of time cause them to cost additional health and deal additional damage, and increases his healing and regeneration by 8%.
(Ultimate) : infects the target area with a virulent plague that increases the damage they take for 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, infected enemies take magic damage.
(Passive) : Bonus health gives bonus ability power, and every bonus ability power gives bonus health (does not stack with itself).

Patch Notes 8/9/2010

(passive) tooltip now displays stat bonuses
cooldown increased to 26/23/20/17/14 from 25/22/19/16/13
health cost reduced to 30/45/60/75/90 from 40/55/70/85/100
is now blocked by spell shield.

Patch Notes 8/23/2010

cast range reduced to 600 from 650
buff duration increased to 10 from 8
cast range increased to 620 from 570

Patch Notes 9/7/2010

debuff will now grant assists even if it does not deal damage to the target

Patch Notes 9/20/2010

Fixed a bug where was not restoring enough health from Spell Vamp (not how much the spell heals normally)
Fixed a bug where tooltip showed it restoring less health than it did
(passive) no longer heals when his Ability Power increases

Patch Notes 10/4/2010

Blood Gorged (Passive)
Now grants 1.8 Health per 1 AP, from 2.0 per 1 AP.

Duration reduced to 2 seconds from 2.5
Slow duration increased to 1.5 seconds from 1 second
Damage per second changed to 20/33.75/47.5/61.25/75 retaining the same overall damage
Fixed a bug where wasn't dealing enough damage

Patch Notes 11/15/2010

will now heal even if the target is spell immune
will no longer damage enemies if it is dispelled

Patch Notes 11/30/2010

Fixed a bug where was not providing with enough increased regeneration and healing
Fixed a bug where did not deal full damage if you had 4 stacks before casting

Cooldown increased to 150/135/120 seconds from 120
Damage amplification effect changed to 14% at all ranks from 10/14/18%
Base damage reduced to 150/250/350 from 200/300/400
Ability power ratio reduced to 0.7 from 0.75

Patch Notes 01/31/2011

Slow percentage reduced to 40% from 50%
Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 1.5 seconds
health cost reduced to 30/40/50/60/70 from 30/45/60/75/90
Fixed a bug where would lose health when leveling in some instances

Patch Notes 2/15/2011

Bonus ability power gained reduced to 1 ability power per 40 bonus health from 25 health
no longer grants a speed bonus on use
Fixed a bug where Turrets would sometimes idle while was pooled
Fixed a bug where would occasionally not properly draw aggro upon exiting his pool

Release Notes v1.0.0.118b – 5/23/2011

heal reduced to 15/25/35/45/55 from 17.5/28.75/40/51.25/62.5

Patch Notes 6/21/2011

Cooldown adjusted to 12/10/8/6/4 from 12/10/8/6/3
Damage adjusted to 90/125/160/195/230 from 70/115/160/205/250

Patch Notes 09/13/2011

now counts as a single target ability for items such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Patch Notes 11/15/2011

Fixed a bug where the display range for was much shorter than the actual range

Patch Notes 01/17/2012

cooldown reduced to 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 seconds from 12/10/8/6/4
ability power to health conversion reduced to 1.4 from 1.8
no longer costs 15% of your current health and is now no cost to cast
health cost ramp up reduced to 25% from 50%

Patch Notes 02/13/2012

will now correctly work with all sources of bonus Health (% health runes, Juggernaut mastery)
damage amplification reduced to 12% from 14%
healing bonus adjusted to 4/5/6/7/8% per rank from 8% at all ranks

Patch Notes 04/16/2012

Fixed a bug where could occasionally be hit by projectiles while in

Patch Notes 07/18/2012

Movement Speed bonus now decays over time

World Championship Hotfix Notes 09/18/2012

damage reduced to 60/85/110/135/160 from 60/90/120/150/180

Quotes Blood Lord Vladimir

Attacking 11/15/2010
Play "Feel the life drip away."
Play "Arise and face me."
Play "I want to make this last."
Play "The night shall consume them."
Play "Witness the depths of despair."
Play "Slake my thirst."
Play "Pitiful creatures."
Movement 11/15/2010
Play "Kneel before me!"
Play "The skies will rain red."
Play "In darkness I am truly alive."
Play "No one commands me."
Play "I am lord and master."
Play "There is a monster in all of us."
Play "This is my realm."
Play "So much blood waiting for purpose."
Play "Which vessel shall I empty next?"
Play "I shall leave this place in ruin."
Play "Kneel before Vlad."
Taunt 11/15/2010
Play "Gather together your allies so you can pool your tears."
Play "How long must I search to find a real challenge?"
Joke
Play "Ri...you- *coughing* Ugh, bloodball."
Play "Bask in... *coughing* What did you eat?"

Runes

For Runes, I go with . These marks allows your abilities to penetrate some of the enemies defenses, increasing the damage you output.

For seals, I go with Improve your defense.

For Glyphs, I go with Decrease the damage you take from magic damage.

For Quintessence, I go with Due to the fact that vladimir has no crowd control and no real mobility, and he's a damage over time mage, he needs to be able to move freely and effectively in and out of combat in order to both kite and stay in range.

Summoner Spells

I use and they are helpful in multiple ways and compliment Vladimir's style perfectly.
is for putting it up on the highest threat of a target so that he can not sustain back or be healed too much. Ideally, the ignited target is who you are , , and trying to hit as many on. (one should hit this target while they are hemo'd)
as it allows you to clean up kills or escape ganks/bruisers focusing you during team fights. Properly flashing can make or break a lot of situation

Vladimir's Abilities

CRIMSON PACT:

gains ability power equal to 2.5% of his bonus health and bonus health equal to 140% of his ability power. These bonuses do not stack with themselves.

is a passive ability with 2 separate effects, granting an amount of bonus health dependent on his total ability power and bonus ability power dependent on his bonus health.
While specifically noted that will not stack with itself, any ability power gained through will be affected by . The ability power added in this way will be converted into health through . You need to gain approximately 74 bonus health to be granted 1 additional health this way. See here for reference. With pure % health runes the bonus health needed will be 61.

TRANSFUSION:

(Active): drains the lifeforce of his target, dealing magic damage and healing himself.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 90 / 125 / 160 / 195 / 230 (+ 60% AP)
HEALTH REGAINED: 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 (+ 25% AP)

is a single target ability that deals magic damage to a target enemy unit. A mist of blood travels back to afterwards, healing him upon return.
procs spell vamp and slow similarly with all single target spells and abilities with full effect.
Scepter pops Spell Shield.
Scepter will damage .
The healing effect will occur even if Tranfusion's damage is blocked by a spell shield, or prevented by an absorption shield.
If uses immediately after , the healing projectile is disjointed and Vladimir will not be healed.

SANGUINE POOL:

(Active): sinks into a pool of blood, gaining 37.5% bonus movement speed for 1 second and becoming untargetable for 2 seconds. Enemies who stand upon the pool are slowed by 40% for 1 second (this does not refresh), and are dealt magic damage every half second while Vladimir heals himself for 12.5% of the damage done.
MAGIC DAMAGE PER HALF-SECOND: 20 / 33.75 / 47.5 / 61.25 / 75 (+3.75% of bonus health)
MAXIMUM MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+15% of bonus health)
POOL RADIUS: 150

is a self-targeted point blank area of effect ability that turns into a pool of blood for 2 seconds, making him untargetable for the duration. While is active, enemy units nearby take magic damage every half second and are slowed, with healing for a percentage of the damage dealt.
procs spell vamp and slow similarly with all area of effect spells and abilities with diminished effect.
does not pop Spell Shield.
will damage and the slow is negated.
has no cast time.
also scales with 0.21 per ability power due to his passive. (which is 0.0525 per ability power every half second.)
While using , cannot autoattack, use his other abilities, use summoner spells, or activate items.
One exception is , which can be activated while using .
Even though not stated in the tooltip, also gives a 37.5% movement speed boost for 1 second upon activating the ability.
Some abilities such as and can still affect as he enters . He will take damage and crowd control effects, but will still take effect regardless.
is still affected by damage over time effects (like and ) that were applied before going into .
is untargetable by allied abilities during the duration, such as and .
When uses he is not affected by any auras, such as aura or Consecration.
will affect if he is the holder of the item. This means will benefit from the spell vamp and bonus ability power of the aura while in .
cannot use to pass through temporary terrain created by abilities such as , , or .
When in , is still stunned when passing through . If he does this, he will remain in his pool for its duration and remain stunned when coming out if the stun has not expired.

TIDES OF BLOOD:

(Active): unleashes a torrent of blood, damaging all enemies within range.
Each cast of Tides of Blood gives him an Empowered stack that lasts 10 seconds and stacks up to 4 times. Each Empowered stack increases Vladimir's healing and regeneration by a percentage, and also increases both the base damage[2] and cost of his next Tides of Blood by 25% per stack.
MAXIMUM COST: 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 health
MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+ 45% AP)
MAXIMUM MAGIC DAMAGE: 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 / 320 (+ 45% AP)
HEALING AND REGENERATION INCREASE PER STACK: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8%

is a point blank area of effect ability that sends out projectiles of blood at all enemy units in a radius around , dealing magic damage on impact. Upon cast also gains a stacking 'Empowered' buff for 10 seconds that increases the effectiveness of healing and regeneration upon himself, and increases the base damage and health cost of subsequent casts.
procs spell vamp and slow similarly with all area of effect spells and abilities with diminished effect.
pops Spell Shield.
will damage .
Tides of Blood can be activated even if there are no valid targets in range. Vladimir will still gain a stack of the Empowered buff.
can target and hit enemy champions that are not visible to , including those in Fog of War, in brush or in stealth.
The Empowered buff increases the effectiveness of , healing effect, allied champions' heals, health regeneration, and Heal.
However, it does not benefit life steal or spell vamp.
The Empowered buff stacks with passive ability.
The Empowered buff does not affect bonus ability power damage on in any way.
can hit out of range enemies due to the length of the animation. When is moving away from the enemy and presses E at the edge, will hit the enemy about 50 extra units away.

HEMOPLAGUE:

(Active): infects all enemies in the target area with a virulent plague which increases the damage they take from all sources by 12% for 5 seconds. After these 5 seconds, infected enemies take magic damage.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 70% AP)
RADIUS: 175

is a ground targeted area of effect ability that debuffs enemy units in the target location for 5 seconds. Debuffed units have all incoming damage amplified, and upon debuff expiration they take magic damage.
Hemoplague's delayed damage procs spell vamp and slow similarly with all area of effect spells and abilities with diminished effect.
delayed damage will damage .
Spell shields will pop upon initial cast, preventing the debuff from being applied.
Spell shields will not pop on delayed damage.
amplifies damage from any source, including , his allies and neutral monsters.
[Hemoplague]] amplifies both physical and magical damage, but does not amplify true damage.
has no cast time.
bonus % damage dealt stacks additively with on magic damage, resulting in 32% increased damage.
Casting on a recalling enemy will not cancel the recall, because the damage is delayed.

Matchups by MarineRevenge

Easy Difficulty 11/15/2010

You can just walk away from him whenever he tries to get aggressive and poke him endlessly. Don't be too crazy about getting near him and pick up early boots especially if he does and you'll be perfectly fine.

He wants to farm and you want to farm, but you can poke him and he can't hurt you. This is a great lane to get fed off of if you're jungle can assist around level 6.

He has no MR/level and can't really do much too you. Shen can go all in level 1-2 and kill you if you get horribly out positioned for some reason but after level 4 you just dominate this lane all day long. Just continue to pressure him so he can't ult to other lanes and abuse his low MR by dealing a ton of damage to him.

is another champ who has no MR/level AND he has to walk up to you like other easier wins for you. You can just shove singed out of lane from the start of the game and he has no recourse. Just don't let him walk up to you and fling you or you could take alot of damage. If he uses his slow area to cut off your escape and tries to fling you, you can use sanguine pool to avoid him since you speed up and it slows him down and you can mitigate his slow field.

You have to be careful until level 4 typically but after that you can just harass trundle down from a distance quite easily over and over and he can't close the gap if you play properly and maintain good distance.

He has no ranged poke and his only gap closer is his ult. Just don't go below 50% health (should be really easily if you arent ganked) and you can just walk circles around him till he dies.

Medium Difficulty 11/15/2010

can get some good silences off and if you don't dodge his rupture it can be painful, but generally with good movement you'll be fine in this lane. Just be careful about getting silenced right as the enemy jungler tries to gank you or you'll likely die 100%. Use sanguine pool to avoid his ultimate when you get low health.

has strong poke but goes oom quickly. If she doesn't rush chalice you'll be able to out sustain her poke until she has no mana left. Careful for her getting ballsy in spider form. Use sanguine pool after she uses her spider leap if possible otherwise she'll just close the gap and you'll die anyway.

has good poke against you early and can close the gap with his MS boost and his slow which parrrley applies, but if you stay safe till 5 you'll win the lane off cooldowns alone.

can be a little hard to handle after he's 4 but your weakest phase (1-3) he's not much of a threat. Jax goes oom quickly if he has to constantly use leap strike so just use sanguine pool to avoid his stun if you can't walk out of it and you'll live longer than his mana pool with last allowing you to lane freely. Because he has hybrid damage it's better to get more HP via items or ability power on your passive in terms of item selection.

can be a little painful early but if you dont get too close when her range boost is up you can poke her down when its on cooldown and sustain freely otherwise. Be careful for kayle slowing you right as her jungler might try to gank. Sanguine pool breaks the projectile so use it if needed to avoid the slow and escape safely.

manages to get up close to you it can be really scary but with proper positioning you can avoid dying to him too much. Typically you'll be fine unless he gets his slow off on you and then tries to resonating strike. Just be careful about getting too close to his minions so he can't dash to it then try to kill you. You win this lane starting around level 7 if you didn't die early.

You can out poke easily but he can be scary if he pushes really hard early. Vlad has a hard time CS'ing under tower without a few levels in tides of blood and it hurts his already weak sustain power early on really badly. Just try to not let malphite out push you and you should be fine.

can hurt really bad if you let him walk in range. Dodge his axe-slow and you'll be able to poke him freely forever. If he ever starts to get too close, sanguine pool is often better than taking his true damage nuke -> axe -> aa -> axe -> nuke combo, so use it if you think he can all in you.

can go oom pretty quickly so start cloth, spam Q dont let him push the wave too much and you'll out last his manapool with liberal potion and Q usage. He can all in you really easily if he gets some armor pen or if you're too close to his tower early on though so play really passive until you have items, even at level 9.

gets close he'll eat you alive but you should be fine if you dodge his harpoons. His flame spitter duration is about as long as sanguine pool so if he does get close, use sanguine pool about a half second into his flame spitter and you'll avoid all it's damage, but it may be better to take the damage from him if you're full health since he shouldn't be able to kill you outright with only 1 combo.

you need to just dodge his pokey-arm thing. If you do that you should be okay. He can all in you if you get too low on health but see'ing how you're both hp/cooldown casters who deal AP damage and sustain off their own abilities the matchup should be pretty even overall. If his poke doesn't hit you, you'll be winning trades even if you don't deal damage to him sine his health costs hurt.

Hard Difficulty 11/15/2010

is easy to handle pre-6 but post-6 she can just continuously gap close and burst you over and over. You'll need to rush revolver with some magic resist in this lane. Try to kill her before she gets 6 with your jungler help or you'll have a terrible time.

If he grabs you once, you're dead. That's literally how this lane goes. I'd take sanguine pool at level 2 for safety since you can pull his grab if you're fast. That's the only chance you have to survive this lane.

can jump on you repeatedly and burst you down with her true damage. If you can kill her before she's level 5 with your jungler help you can win this lane, but otherwise you'll need to get revolver and some HP from an item like haunting guise to keep her from being able to 100-0 you.

poke isn't too scary in this lane, but his hammer mode combo is. If he ever lands a shock blast on you, he can almost 100-0 you with a quick hammer mode combo with ignite. If you see him switch to hammer mode just use sanguine pool and back out until he switches back. It's okay to get hit by shock blast once in awhile as long as you don't eat every one and don't let him follow it up with a hammer combo.

[[Jarvan IV] If he lands his combo on you at level 2 this lane gets really hard really fast. When he hit's 6 he can all in you if you're low. However if you dodge his combo this lane is really easy since you can poke and sustain and he has no sustain and if he uses dragon strike to poke, he can't jump on you and the lane is alot easier then.

can auto attack you to death forever and ever. Your only choice is to let him push and try to freeze it outside of your tower and beg for jungle help. When you get closer to 9 the lane gets infinitely easier. You may want some extra CDR in this lane (think Ionian boots).

If you let renekton combo you early you can die. If he has a lot of fury you need to be really careful. The one good thing is many renektons push easily because of their Q on minions so just try to wait for at least level 3 before going for any risky CS.

If you let her get close you're dead. The one thing you have going for you is you can sanguine pool her ultimates execute ability really easily she Riven telegraphs it pretty hilariously with her golf-esque backward into forward swing.

AP really crushes on vlad early on. His DoT's will out-damage any regeneration you can do and if he pushes the lane to your tower forcing you to use Tides of Blood to last hit it can get really hard really fast. Try to keep the lane away from the tower as much as you can. AD Teemo is a lot easier to handle post-6 but AP teemo is hard until level 9 and revolver, typically.

is easy to poke down and kill if you do it properly but if he gets you to use sanguine pool and then he spins onto you again while its down he can kill you super easily with the mocking shout slow. If the tryndamere is hyper aggressive he can really punish you but if you manage to avoid his early aggression you'll quickly win the lane if you don't let him get you behind. You win around level 7 if you didn't miss too much farm or die in a silly way.

Game Over Difficulty 11/15/2010

Jumps on you, bursts you over and over. Stupid poke. Really dumb lane.

Jump from the bush over and over, no cooldown on that! yay! Rengars in a bad place but his stupid bush jump mechanic lets him get in your face with no cooldown meaning even this garbage champion can kill you really easily early on. The range on his leap is huge.

If he hits you with his homing device not even sanguine pool will save you. He'll just be like droppin bombs on your face until you die.

You can't stop him from killing you when he jumps on you. Even if you sanguine pool immediately, if his slow proc'd on you he'll catch up to you as soon as sanguine pool ends, knock you up like a prom queen and repeat the proceess until you die. Vlad is weak to people with gap closers and CC, and xin zhao has two CC's with strong AA's and auto attack resets as early as level 2. You just die here, pretty much.

Spam's ghouls on low cooldown over and over till you die. You can't out sustain and you can't survive his manapool. Beg your jungler for pressure till you can make it to level 9 and then you might have a chance.

Items

Starting: and 4X

Core: is the best possible early game item on vlad because of his super strong lane sustainability. You almost always want to go this item.

are very good on vlad giving 20 more of magic penetration or giving +15% Cooldown Reduction.

Another Core Item: is absolutely the best ap carry item.

: If you're lacking Health, and you want to be more tanky and do sustain damage. You want to go this item. I usually go this item after however if you're dying and feel like you need the survive, i would go this after the and before the .

Focused down by a heavy magic team:

If you're confident that you can avoid focus:

How To Play

This is a video i've done to show you how to play the entire game.

Farming/ Early Game

is a mid or solo top champion so he need too farm alot and make sure that happens, you want to be superior all the time against the champion in front of you so be patient. Use normal atacks to kill minions and sometimes to keep full health. If you want to harass your opponent, try to only trade 1 attack for 1 and heal up with . Do not trade multiple attacks with your opponent, otherwise they'll be able to zone you from experience and farm.

Mid Game

As soon as you reach level 9 or 10 with and or , you can begin denying your opponent and harassing them. If you kill the enemy champion or he retreats go help your team mates or press the lane to destroy the tower.
Make sure to Sight Ward or your lane properly and then you'll be able to completely dominate at level 9 until laning phase is over.

Late Game

You probably have zhonyas and deathcap by now, just ult as many people as possible go in pool spam all the keys on your keyboard. Don't bait your team, you are the damage amplifier with the zhonyas. If you survive until your ult ends you gain back atleast 200 hp or so, this is really important because every HP counters on vlad. You can clean up well, the longer you are in the fight and the higher the CDR the more damage you will do and be a huge problem to the enemy team.

Conclusion

I hope whoever reads this can learn a thing or two about , and if I cause any player to try him out I'll consider this guide a success. If you have any comments or criticisms regarding either my playstyle or guide-forging powers, please let me know in the comments below!