Champion Overview:


Vladimir is a manaless Tanky-Dps mage, who runs on health. His kit is build around sustain and Teamfight Damage. Vlad is a strong late game champion, he is strong top as he has the range and sustain to survive much of what top lane will throw at him and make it to the late game he is strong in. Vladimir is hard to gank for as he does not offer much CC, nor does he have a very good burst early on.

Skills Overview:


Passive: Crimson Pact- Every 40 points of bonus health gives Vladimir 1 ability power and every 1 point of ability power gives Vladimir 1.4 bonus health (does not stack with itself).
A really good passive. Building AP makes you tankier and building HP makes you more damaging. Typically you will be building mostly for the Ap-HP as you will need the damage to be useful for your team, and you will get tankier from building the damage.

Q: Transfusion- Vladimir drains the lifeforce of his target, dealing 90/125/160/195/230 (+60% of ability power) magic damage and healing himself for 15/25/35/45/55 (+25% of ability power) of that amount. Cooldown 12/10/8/6/4 seconds. Range 650.
This skill is your poke and sustain, I use this whenver its up and the enemy is in range (Unless I need it to CS). The CD early on is high but once it reaches max rank, it is a spammable good source of damage and sustain.

W: Sanguine Pool- Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood for 1.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and slowing enemies above him by 40% for 1 second. Vladmir deals 20 / 33.75 / 47.5 / 61.25 / 75 (+3.75% of bonus health) magic damage every half second to them and heals himself for 12.5% of the damage done.
This skill is Vlad's escape/safety tool. Using this skill causes you to become untargetable for a few seconds, allowing you to dodge enemy skills, wait for CDs, or gain distance when you are getting ganked.

E: Tides of Blood- Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood dealing 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+45% of ability power) magic damage to nearby enemies. Each cast gives him an Empowered stack (max 4), increasing his healing and regeneration by 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 % each. Additionally, his next Tides of Blood deals 25% more damage and costs 25% more Health per stack up to a maximum of 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 health and 120 / 180 / 240 / 300 / 360 (+45% of ability power) damage.
This skill is SOOOO good. The damage and sustain it offers is really high once you get a Hextech Revolver. In teamfight this skill will be causing massive AoE damage to the enemies. In lane this gives you the ability to clear waves very fast.

R: Hemoplague- Vladimir infects the target area with a virulent plague. Affected enemies take 12% increased damage for 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, infected enemies take 150 / 250 / 350 (+70% of ability power) magic damage. Rnage: 700.
This is you I want to commit a fight move. Using this gives you and your team a damage amplification buff on all enemies hit for a few seconds, after that period is over the debuff fades and the enemies take damage.

Combos/Skillorder:


Skill Order:
Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Combos:

(Charge E before a fight if you have sustain)-R to go in for a kill)-Q-E-Q-(W to chase or escape).

Matchups:

Easy

Malphite (You can heal off his Qs and pool when he tries to ult you), Teemo (Trade back when he hits you), Sion (You can poke down his shield with your combo, and sustain after his harasss if you get hit), Shen (You can poke back when he Qs and you can pool if he tries to taunt), Nasus (You both get strong late, you just have a stronger early), Singed (You can poke him down and do not have to go in the poison, you can also shove the wave back when he pushes it to you.), and Kennen (You can trade with him, and when he ults you just need to pool).
Hard

Fizz (Healing Debuff and burst damage), Ryze (Q harass, he builds MR, and kages you before you pool), Swain (Has sustain too, has as much burst as you), Fiddlesticks (You can't stop his drain, it keeps hitting you in your pool), Riven (Shields you Q, bursts you down), Wukong (He wrecks you early game and he scales well into late game), Lee Sin (Sustains and does alot of damage), Irelia (She can live through your early harass and kill you, and Akali (Similar early damage, but once she hits 6 you are dead.)

Playing AS/VS:

As:
  • Charge your E before a fight
  • Use your W as an escape/Safety mechanism, its damage is not that great and it takes current 20% of your hp to use.
  • Build spellvamp as it makes your E heal you more then it hurts you.
Vs:
  • At early levels if vlad blows a spell you can jmp on him and kill him.
  • Try and force vlads pool whenever possible as doing that to him causes him to lose 20% of his own hp.
  • Ignite vlad in a fight to stop his sustain and make him easier to kill.

Big Item Choices::


Will of the Ancients- NEED THIS ITEM. It has Spellvamp and AP which makes you godly in lane as it allows you to spam your E.

Zhonya's Hourglass- Allows you to safely wait for CDs, like having another pool.

Rabadon's Deathcap- Makes you very strong and very durable

Void Staff- Counter their MR.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter- Gives you a slow hp and Ap (Which gives you more hp and AP Hue.)

Abyssal Mask- Gives you MR, AP (Thus hp) and Reduces the enemies MR.

Gametypes:

SoloQ:

Vladimir is a decent champion in soloQ. He has ok lanes, but should only be picked if you know who you are fighting. Vlad is strong late game if you are able to make it there.
Ranked 5s:

Vladimir is really strong in ranked 5s. His ultimate works very well with coordinated teams, and he allows your team to take a double WotA comp.

Conclusion:


This was my top facts Vladimir. Vlad was always a champion I liked the design of, but I did not really understand how to play him until I got into my level 30s. Vlad is fun to play as well as being a strong pick for the team. As always summoners I hope you have a good day, and good luck on the fields of justice!

SERIES UPDATE:
I plan on releasing these every day/other day until I get all of the top lane picks in the league ( about 50-60 of them) if there are any requests leave in the comments below and ill work on them. I want to make this series for others to better understand the champions of top lane. Once I am done (Or once I have a few top facts out) I will release some Facts about top lane mechanics, eventually I will probably put everything into one generic top lane guide, however until I do that I will continue to watch and update my blogs as needed. Tips and tricks I missed under my Top Facts would be helpful if you put anything I don't have in the comments I will be sure to add it. I will be forming a guide called The complete guide to Top lane or something in that nature. The intention of this series is not as a "Build guide" or a "play guide", these are more like facts you should know about the champion. These are to inspire people to think of new champion possibilities they might not have thought of or to help a new player with the champion. I do not list runes masteries or a set build ( I give a kind of recommended items) in here due to the fact I want people to think of that for themselves and try new things. This series is an attempt for the LOL community to try new things and have fun in a fun game. Thank you for reading and have a nice day :P