League of Legends (LoL) Question: Vladimir help

Hey, no build order should be linear. You should buy items according to the situation. You will have core items, but core does not necessarily mean "buy this in this certain order" because that will lose you the lane half the time. You have to buy what you need at the right time. Sometimes you have to delay your core for that.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - great because you're entirely reliant on cdr, but sometimes you have to buy Mercury's Treads because of CC (i'm looking at you, Fiddlesticks). You can't cast and regenerate if you're bursted to a bloody pool on the floor.

Zhonya's Hourglass - this is core. Combined with your pool, you'll have a good 4.5 - 6 .5 seconds of invulnerability depending if you can get two Sanguine Pools off in a fight.

Will of the Ancients - also core since this gives you all the stats you need. Nothing is wasted.

Liandry's Torment vs. Rabadon's Deathcap - you need to look at the enemy's team composition. Are they mainly bruisers? Get Liandry's Torment, especially if you can't get to their backline and have no choice but to peel for your carries. Remember that Liandry's Torment does not give you a huge amount of AP. As Vladimir, more damage (AP) = sustain. A Rabadon's Deathcap gives you more sustain and damage to annihilate their backline.

Void Staff - is better than Abyssal Mask in every way.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - i'm calling this borderline core because you have no CC in your kit. This item is very important if your team has no CC.

Spirit Visage - Normally, the health - AP ratio on Vladimir is worse than the AP - health ratio. However, this does provide a decent chunk of MR and adds to your sustain. Against a poke heavy composition I would take this or Banshee's Veil.

I hope this cleared your question. tl;dr no build is linear and set in stone. Build to adapt to the situation at hand.

EDITS: I didn't proof-read and had typos.

Hi! I see some top Vladimir getting some health and AP items (like liandry and rylai). Sometimes when I use Vladimir I tend to get Rabadon for the large AP. I don't play Vladimir much, so I don't know what is his "full build". But usually when I play I will get Liandry, Rylai, Rabadon and the boots depend on the game.

Hey, in my latest games where I was agaist or with him in the team, the vlad builds varies a lot.
In the most of the games, he went straight for a bruiser build to push havily the lane out to roam mid or even went straight for the dragon fight. But tbh. he was most on the top lane. About the APC Vladimir I can't tell much about it. I think here would be the "AP Heavy Mage Build" in a hugh advantage. But some experienced player can surely answer us more with some in depth knowledge.