Hello all, my name is Abnegates and I'm currently Diamond V on the NA server. I'm writing this guide to instill upon you all some knowledge about my favorite champion, Vladimir . Throughout this guide I would've hoped to instill all of the readers with more in-depth knowledge on how to encounter success as Vladimir, against various different matchups and situations.


The rivers will run red...

Pros

+ Great Sustain + Clutch Untargetability + AOE Damage Amplification + Manaless/Negligible Health Costs + High Damage AP Off-tank + Great Waveclear + Godly Lategame + Amazing AOE Damage

Contrary to popular belief, Vlad most definitely has his weaknesses as well as strengths. He doesn't have mobility, but rather an amazing move that renders him untargetable for a nice 2 seconds, in addition to slowing enemies standing on the pool, and giving Vladimir a brief MS boost. His sustain is only matched by only a handful of champions, and has an amazingly unique AOE ultimate that increases damage taken (and is the only one like it!) that doubles up as a timed burst. His passive allows him to become a pseudo tank by building only AP, giving him tons of health come mid/late game.

Cons

- Vulnerable Early Game - Long CD's Early - No Mobility - No Innate CC - Weak to Anti-Health Mechanics - Ult Can be QSS'd - Weak Against High DPS

However, with strengths there are always weaknesses. Vlad's early game is very vulnerable, especially to gapclosing bruisers or those with aggressive early games (Cass, Riven). Health burn item's such as Liandry's Torment and Blade of The Ruined King do well to counter Vladimir due to the fact that you will inevitably have a lot of HP as you build, thus making these items more effective against you. Furthermore, while Vlad has good sustained damage, other sustained damage bruisers ( , ) do well against him because Vladimir is gated by decently long cooldowns early, while they rely on mostly auto attacks and enhancers.

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Offense Tree Tier I. - Here you'll want 4 points in Sorcery and 1 point in Butcher . Having the additional 5% CDR from masteries is very important for Vladimir because combined with the 10% from runes (15%) plus Ionian Boots of Lucidity (30%), and finally with Will of the Ancients (40%) you will have achieved a perfect CDR cap. This also allows you to sub out Ionians for Mercury's Treads and grab Spirit Visage to still be virtually capped on CDR. Tier II. - Fairly obvious choice, grab 3 points in Mental Force for some tasty scaling AP. Tier III. - Take the point in Arcane Mastery for a nice chunk of free AP, and finally grab 3 points in Executioner . This means you'll always be doing increased damage to anyone under 50% by 5% which may not seem that big, but it can mean the difference between a kill or an "oh damn he survived with 4 health again". Tier IV. - Grab three points in Archmage , this is a necessity for not only Vladimir, but basically every standard AP midlaner. Also grab a point in Dangerous Game , having this will allow you to make some clutch survivals especially considering the nature of Vladimir's kit. Tier V. - Take 3 points in Devastating Strikes , the extra magic pen along with your flat MR pen reds will allow you to shred through a decent chunk of enemy MR. If they don't have any magic resist you'll be doing close to true damage and will hurt a lot early. Also pickup Arcane Blade as it allows Vladimir to last hit easier. It's not very noticeable early on, but Vlad's last-hitting is kind of hard and it helps you a bit more. Tier VI. - To wrap up the offense tree grab Havoc . There's no explanation needed here, who doesn't want free straight up damage kappa?

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Defense Tree Tier I. - Fairly straightforward, grab two points in Block as this will help mitigate a small amount of auto attack harass. It may not seem like much, but to put it into perspective, if you get auto attacked ten times, you've successfully mitigated 20 damage which can mean life or death. Also grab Recovery for a small amount of health regen. Tier II. - Take Unyielding for a tad bit more damage mitigation, and Veteran Scars for some much needed flat health. Tier III. - Finally grab Juggernaut for a nice bonus of 3% MAXIMUM health. This goes very nicely with Vlad's passive and will give you a nice extra chunk of health early.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Standard quints for most AP midlaners, these greatly bolster Vladimir's early game especially considering you aren't a viable candidate for Doran's Ring, and Amplifying Tome isn't a viable start. You may opt to sub these out for Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, however those are better suited for toplane where it's more dangerous and a bit more MS can mean the difference between you getting hooked by Darius or not.
  
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: These are paramount or pretty much every AP midlaner, it offers some nice flat magic penetration that helps ignore enemy magic resist and thus lets you do more damage. These, in comination with Sorcerer's Shoes, will almost allow you to completely ignore an enemy's base magic resist if they aren't running any, however they aren't the most optimal buy on Vladimir as you want that whopping 15% CDR from Ionian Boots of Lucidity.
  
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: These glyphs allow Vladimir to hit the CDR cap with your standard core Will of the Ancients, and Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Although they are scaling rather than flat, this is perfectly fine because you wouldn't be able to get 10% with Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction anyway.
  
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health: Most optimal seals for Vladimir in the mid lane. Considering that they're aren't many meta AD mids ( Yasuo, Talon, Zed, Varus, Jayce), compared to the huge mass of AP midlaners, you won't be needing armor seals. You also gain free AP thanks to your Crimson Pact, and although the health to AP ratio doesn't scale as hard as the AP to health, it's still very ideal.
  
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: More scaling power to ensure Vladimir scales even harder into the mid-lategame. These also go well with your passive, which in turn will grant you even more additional health as you level. You may opt to sub these out for Greater Glyph of Magic Resist if you wish.

Flash is hands down the most important summoner spell in the whole game, almost to the point where you question on whether it's either overpowered, or the other spells are underpowered considering you NEED it 90% of the time. Always take this on Vladimir, you can easily make great Flash plays and surprise full combo people with --> --> . An alternative to Teleport or Ghost, a good summoner spell if you're in a matchup where you feel like you can easily snowball early, or want to force a level 2 cheese early by + + . Also a good choice if they have multiple healing effects or rely heavily on healing ( Dr. Mundo, Swain, Soraka), and as well as teams that build a lot of lifesteal. An amazing summoner spell in general, having the ability to arrive at a location within 3 seconds and be able to turn a gank around, gank, or even bait the enemy into a forced retreat is amazing. It's also becoming meta for many midlaners with weaker laning phases to grab Teleport due to the fact that it allows them for much faster backs, and a way to keep up in farm/xp if they get forced out of lane. I personally take this more often nowadays over Ignite because of the sheer map presence it grants you. It's also an extremely worthy spell that retains it's effectiveness deep into the lategame. Ghost is yet another viable alternative to Ignite or Teleport, and a lot of very high elo Vladimir mid players take it occasionally. While Ghost doesn't grant as much kill potential like Ignite, or map presence with Teleport, Ghost is amazing for skirmishes and drawn out teamfights where it grants Vladimir big movement speed for a huge duration. This allows him to chase, kite, and step into an engage or dis-engage zone at will. It also adds extra safety from ganks, and can be used during Sanguine Pool. The long duration means you can potentially make multiple plays in one instance and is flexible especially in combination with Flash, will make you very slippery.

I. You'll want to always max Transfusion first as it is your bread and butter ability, main harass tool, and the damage/healing increase, as well as the cooldown getting reduced per level making this the most optimal skill to max first.

II. Secondly max out Tides of Blood because it is the second most important ability in your kit, granting you increased damage up to four stacks on your Tides of Blood, increasing your healing AND regeneration by a stacking amount, and is also an AOE non-targeted ability making facechecking a bit safer as well as revealing champions in stealth or out of vision such as Teemo, Akali, Shaco, Rengar, Kha'Zix, and Twitch.

III. Furthermore, max out your Sanguine Pool last as it's mainly used for the utility/survivability and is no where near worth maxing before Transfusion or Tides of Blood.

IV. Finally, put a point into your Hemoplague whenever the chance arises at level 6, 11, and 16. Your ultimate can be a HUGE gamechanger and is an amazing teamfighting ult as it increases damage taken by from all sources by whomever is afflicted, and has a delayed burst at the end of the duration.

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Crimson Pact: This is Vladimir's unique passive, and the only one like it in League of Legends. Crimson Pact rewards you with health for building ability power, and ability power for building health. This means that come mid-lategame with a full AP build you'll have close to almost 4k health all while doing massive amounts of damage, effectively making you a pseudo tank. Unfortunately the health to AP ratio doesn't scale as hard as the AP to health ratio, meaning build tons of health won't grant you loads of AP, and they don't stack with eachother because...well I mean you'd have broken amounts of HP/AP LOL.

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Transfusion (Q): Vladimir's signature ability and what he's most known for, Transfusion is a targeted manaless/no health cost ability that instantly does damage and then heals you for an amount that increases with ability power (and later heals you off the damage with Hextech Revolver). The fact that this is completely cost free is important as that means you'll want to use it everytime it's off cooldown, preferably on your enemy laner. Early game it doesn't heal for very much, but it scales very nicely and is also great to ensure you don't miss last hits as well. NOTE: While the damage from Transfusion is instant, the base heal is not due to the fact that the stream of life has to travel back to Vladimir. This can cause you to die in situations where the Transfusion was mid-flight, and you not receiving the (non-spellvamp) heal. This ability does not count as a projectile and thus cannot be blocked by Wind Wall, applies the full effect of spellvamp, and applies the full effect of Rylai's Crystal Scepter being single-target. Spell shields ( Banshee's Veil, Spell Shield) will block the damage of this ability but NOT the healing.

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Tides of Blood (E) : This is Vladimir's second most important ability aside from his ultimate. Tides of Blood is a non-targeted AOE ability, meaning if you're in range of something and use this, it will always hit that target unless they're untargetable/invulnerable, even in stealth/out of vision. The fact that you can see where the tides travel makes this ability act as a counter to stealth champions or champions that are out of vision/other side of a wall. It has an amazing stacking mechanic that increases your healing and regeneration up to four times, as well as the damage and cost of Tides of Blood. Because of this you ALWAYS want to combo using Tides of Blood+ Transfusion(EQ), rather than Transfusion+ Tides of Blood(QE). This is because you want the healing from your Transfusion to be buffed by your Tides of Blood, as well as replenishing health lost from the cost of Tides of Blood. Furthermore Tides of Blood has a .25 second cast time just like Transfusion, and the stacking bonus is multiplicative, thus meaning at 4 stacks you will receive ~36% additional healing rather than 32%, and with Spirit Visage a disgusting ~63% increase to healing effects! Tides of Blood counts as a projectile and therefore can be blocked by Wind Wall and Unbreakable. Tides of Blood may also be cast freely without any valid targets allowing you to "pre-stack" before you get into lane.

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Sanguine Pool (W) : The infamous "troll-pool", this magnificent ability will save you countless times from things that would otherwise kill other champions. An amazing two second untargetability that gives you a hidden burst of movement speed upon cast, as well as slowing AND doing damage. What's not to like? Thanks to the mechanics of untargetability, this sole ability completely and absolutely makes Zed's Death Mark irrelevant. By using your Sanguine Pool during the initial animation of his ultimate (where he laughs and you see the X), the game cannot register you as a valid target that exists for Death Mark, and will cause it to go on a FULL COOLDOWN. Of course this means that Vladimir hard-counters Zed (see champion matchups above). It can also be used to immediately drop turret agro AND negate a tower shot you would've otherwise taken, making Vlad an extremely effective tower diver. NOTE: Using Sanguine Pool DOES NOT break tethers ( Bountiful Harvest, Ethereal Chains), nor does it prevent the damage from DoT's ( Ignite, Malefic Visions). If you're already afflicted by one of these and pool, you're only (literally) killing yourself, especially considering that it costs 20% of your HP.

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Hemoplague (R) : Alas, Vladimir's amazing ultimate Hemoplague. This is a disgusting ability with a completely unique effect of AOE damage amplification. There aren't any other abilities like this except Torment, and Vengeful Maelstrom, however the former is a single target ability and the latter is an AOE damage mitigator. Hemoplague has an instant cast time, HOWEVER, there is a .5 second self-silence upon use that prevents you from instantly EQ'ing right after you ult. Hemoplague increases damage from virtually every source in the game except true damage. It is also very important to note that you will always want to cast this before you EQ simply due to the fact that you want the damage increase on those abilities. Hemoplague also has more range than your basic abilities thanks to the radius of the ult, meaning if someone is low enough and barely out of your E/Q range you can nip them with the edge of the radius of your ult.

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• How much AD does your character have?
• How fast is your auto animation?
• How much health does the minion have left?
• How much damage is the minion currently taking from your minions?

COMING SOON! :)