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keep harassing her early game. She wont be able to dive on you unless she wants to flash (i've had that burst happen to me once, not very fun). In twilight shroud you can still hit her with your E and you can ult her and your pool damage will hit her.
Cho'Gath
he has more cc, and early game sustain than you. You can try to harass him but make sure to not get hit by his knock up AND silence. A trick to help beat cho is run towards him when he uses his rupture since he usually tries to catch u running away with it.
Darius
You need to play this kind of like a scardy cat. Once he misses his e you can go in for a ton of harass. You also have a ton of burst once u hit 6 so if you harass him enough that he's at like 75% health you can probably kill him if he pulls you and you dodge his Q heal.
Dr. Mundo
Not sure how to rank mundo. He destroys you in lane, You do have solo kill pressure on him pre 11 especially with jungle help. You only have kill pressure if you play it right. He has more kill pressure on you. Once you get rylais you beat him in teamfights.
Ekko
difficult lane, his % health damage on his w can beat you. However if you get ahead of him you destroy him. His ult cancels a lot of kill pressure you have so if you lane against him run ignite because it reduces the amount healed by his ult.
Fiddlesticks
dodge if you're laning against fiddle. Psych, you can win the game but your jungler needs to have a cc, like a gragas e or something to displace him because once he's displaced he's dead.
Fiora
make sure not to waste your q and e when all inning her on her riposte. It can block both your e and q.
Fizz
DODGE FOR REAL. This little fish counters you so hard. Riot has a really hard time balancing this matchup. You either can use your pool to dodge the shark portion of his ult or you cant. A good fizz will troll poll ontop of you and then instantly shark you. If he hits you with his shark you take the damage, if you pool too late and try to dodge it and it still hits you, then you just do 20% of your current health to yourself. If you pool too early then he gets to hold his fish and get another point blank try for free with his Q. You can win this lane but you need to have the reaction speed of a God. Right now I believe this is his hardest matchup because of the change they made to the shark and pool interaction. It used to be one of the easiest matches now its easily his hardest.
Galio
You wont be able to kill him I don't think, I havent played against a galio in forever. But you easily contribute more to your team than he does.
Gangplank
This guy is pretty good. He's going to parley you a lot early game but you can trade with him with your q. You have kill pressure on him but just make sure you take into account his orange.
Garen
This is a tricky matchup for newer players. A lot of people think garen beats vlad because of his silence. But for this matchup you need to know a lot about garen and how far he can run with his movement speed. When you see him use his q run away from him and harass him when it runs out and he turns back to the minion wave. Try to get an auto attack in when you can to prevent him from healing off of his passive. If you run ignite and you have good early harass on him you will have so much kill pressure on him when you hit your powerspike at 6 it's ridiculous.
Gnar
semi difficult matchup. You need to run ignite and combo the damage with your thunderlords and your hemoplague "detonation". If he gets hexdrinker he's 10x more annoying. His jump distances himself far enough from you that you cant really harass him. It's best to force him to use his jump in a strange way, I will go more into this later.
Graves
he's squishy so you have kill pressure just pool his ult and you're good.
Hecarim
harass him early as much as you can but dont get in long fights with him or when you see his q is stacked up. He does a surprising amount of damage that people arent ready for just like vlad.
Heimerdinger
Squishy that you can kill with your burst. But still heimerdinger so he's going to push you out. Its difficult but once you get hextech revolver you can use your e more liberally.
Illaoi
you have to dodge her spirit pull thing. This matchup gets easier once you have spellvamp but before that if you can dodge her tentacles then you can probably kill her at level 6.
Irelia
Run ignite. You can win this lane but she has so much burst post 6. once you fall behind in this matchup you lose but still winnable if you can surprise her with your damage.
Jarvan IV
very hard matchup. consider taking armor runes for this one and maybe start cloth armor 4 potions. if you can survive against him until around level 9 you'll win.
Jax
If you can pool his stun you'll win. By the time he jumps on you to stun you you can pool away and distance your self farm enough from him that you can harass him a ton. You have a lot of kill pressure because he's most likely going to rush a damage item.
Jayce
Don't lose pre level 6 but at the end of the day this guy is just a squishy who isnt ready for the vlad burst.
Karthus
you can pool his ult. Need I say more?
Katarina
you can pool her ult. Need I say more? She wins early, her abilities hurt more than yours, but once you get spell vamp u win easy, just dont overextend.
Kayle
squishy with a bit more survivability. If she's ulting that means she's scared. You can either back off when she ults or if you know how much damage you have and how many tower shots you can take you can kill her.
Kennen
Pretty difficult matchup, he outranges you. Just see if your jungler can give you some help and you might be able to land a kill.
Kha'Zix
If you can survive his pre 6 cheese you can probably win the 1v1s if you stay near minions.
Kindred
Her ult is annoying since you rely a lot on your ult damage which she can just survive.
LeBlanc
If you dont dodge her chain and accidently pool afterwards then you're dead. You do a bit more to her late game and mid game if you dont feed but she is a very difficult matchup just because of her early game.
Lee Sin
If you can survive the early cheese of laning lee sin you'll win.
Lissandra
she can ult herself if you all in her, and she can kite you like a mofo.
Lulu
if you can survive her early game you'll win, she can't beat you with only 2 damage abilities when you have sustain
Malphite
If he gets ganks you lose, otherwise its a pretty decent matchup. Like garen you should throw in an auto when u can to prevent his shield from regening.
Malzahar
his burst hurts also his silence is very annoying, with ganks though you can win also if you manage to get a hemoplauge on him and force the fight before he can set up his combo onto you.
Maokai
Annoying matchup, you spam your skills and he heals off of it so you dont have too much kill potential on him so play for the late game.
Kassadin
Kassadin is very difficult for vlad. His Q range is the same as your range so when going in for trades you have to wait out his shield or else he wins the fight 100% of the time. He has more mobility than you, he is like maokai and gets a bonus based on how many abilities you spam. It's just not a fun matchup for vlad since he has 2 abilities that deal with your abilities.
Morgana
tank sustain vs squishy sustain, just try to dodge her q incase she's getting a gank.
Nasus
This dog is annoying. Nasus mains say that vlad counters nasus and he does if you play the matchup right. If you get ganks against him its easy and you definitely win early game. Nasus just wants to farm against you so you can get a ton of free harass off on him. Only problem is wither is such a powerful cc to ***isit junglers. What I tend to do in this scenario is push him up to his tower, make him understand that he's only going to get farm if he takes damage from you. You need to ward deep though and make sure you watch the minimap for their jungler, because when he gets ahead and starts to build MR you wont do anything to him from the MR damage mitigation as well as his stupid bonus lifesteal.
Nautilus
only have played against one top lane nautilus, just survive the early game and you'll see the matchup slowly turn in your favor.
Olaf
very very scary viking. He can cheese you pretty well early game cause his axes do so much damage, his ult being able to break out of cc doesnt really apply to you so that's nice that you're not giving him the full benefit of his abilities. Later on in laning phase you can win but you gotta make sure to dodge the axes.
Pantheon
VERY VERY VERY hard matchup. Ask for ganks, when panth gets behind its sad it's like Steven Seagal beating up a child. But for this matchup you may want to start cloth armor 4 potions just because of how braindead his kit is.
Poppy
You win this lane, you get to harass her a lot and unless she gets ganks all the time you shouldnt have a problem with just harassing her enough that she wont want to engage.
Quinn
annoying adc, but still a squishy. If she hits u with a q and then does her vault, you can still e and it will hit her even though you can't see her. When all inning make sure you keep her in melee range so you can land ur spells and abilities. If you are a newish vlad player she might seem absolutely broken but around 15+ games under your belt she will get easier.
Renekton
Renekton seems to be a really easy matchup for vlad, yet I've heard many people talk about how this matchup is one of his hardest. Maybe in diamond or challenger the renektons will save their abilities to harass you with, but in lower elo he will most likely use his q on the minion wave to heal up, when he does this you are free to go in and harass him. If he ever uses his e to dash into you, you can just pool so he cant land his w. The same effect occurs like with jax where he's slow and you're far enough away that he cant auto you. Of course when he runs back to the minion wave hit him with a bit of harass.
Rengar
havent seen much top rengar lately but he's a squishy adc too, note for all inning about his w because it does heal him for quite a decent amount, also if you all in him and he manages to go invisible, your e will still hit him if he's in range.
Riven
Skill matchup, even if you win early game she can still easily burst you at 6. The basic thing to know about riven is she sacrifices damage for mobility. You can harass her a lot early game but she can also burst you at level 2. This matchup gets easier with amount of games played on vlad but sometimes you mess up and riven does the classic riven snowball and there is just no hope if she's good enough to carry her team.
Rumble
somewhat difficult, try not to harass him early game when his shield is up because he'll probably win that trade especially if he lands 2 harpoons while his flamespitter is hurting you, you win it later on though once you get more health and more sustain.
Ryze
make sure you watch for his early game burst. His passive will allow him to burst you very hard, you can however pool through most of it. Try not to get harassed by his q as it outranges you so you need to understand your own range well enough that u know when you can get a quick jab in with your harass.
Shen
You win this matchup, new shen doesnt have nearly the sustain as he used to, and his dodge sword ability thing doesnt do much to you. His q wont hit you either if you stay at a good range and keep an eye on your surrounding. For this lane I recommend pushing up to turret around level 3-4 and make sure to ward deep because shen's cc will keep you in place for their jungler for a long time. Basically harass him under turret and make him sacrifice health for farm. Also since you're running ignite instead of tp, when you see him ulting someone go in and burst him as much as you can. With 45% cdr your ult will be up in no time and you want to allow ur teammates to easily kill shen once he teleports.
Singed
early game he can be such a pain, but once you get sustain you can proxy better than him. And once you get rylais its over.
Sion
He has a lot of base damage. But you can pool under his ult which dodges a lot of damage. Also you can get a lot of harass since he's just a melee but try to dodge his q at all costs since it hurts like a mofo if he maxes it.
Swain
difficult matchup 1v1, but let your jungler know that he is an easily gankable target. He only has 2 moves that damage more than 1 target and they dont do very much damage. Basically swain is like you, an immobile mage and if you run ignite you will have more than enough damage to kill him with your combo if a jungler is there to back you up.
Syndra
you can pool her ult and burst her hard.
Tahm Kench
he's a demon. His grey health heals for so much and in such a short time. Hopefully later on riot will change his grey health healing to require him to not be getting hit like garen or malphite's passives, but for now he heals too much for you to really be able to kill him by yourself, ganks make it definitely possible to kill him but for now just try to farm for teamfights. You contribute so much more than him in teamfights. You can also push up to the tower and harass him since he will most likely give up some farm to not get harassed even though you cant do any meaningful damage to him because he has 3 health bars.
Taric
dont get caught in his combo. If you do try to pool away after the stun wears off. I've been seeing taric top a lot recently and vlad destroys him early game and even when he gets spirit visage he doesnt have the damage or mana pool to continually fight you. Let him go in for some damage then sustain back up. Look for many many many early kills on this guy.
Teemo
Squishy like an adc, but be careful his q outranges your spells and is very annoying about how much damage it does. You can destroy him if he comes close enough to get bursted post level 6.
Trundle
his ult wins this entire matchup for him. Try to get jungle help for him. I was playing a game and I was 11/3 and this guy was 2/8 and he could still 1v1 me because of his ult.
Tryndamere
Don't get cheesed early and look for your jungler to gank. Don't all in him or his ult will block the damage from your ult and his counter engage on you will probably kill you.
Urgot
Difficult in the 1v1 because he outranges you has more cc but you contribute more to your team in teamfights
Vladimir
if you read this guide and he doesnt you should be able to win.
Volibear
play safe early, if he cant snowball he blows.
Wukong
kind of life riven except he doesnt have the same kind of burst at 6. If you play safe early you'll probably do better mid and late than him. Gage what he does though in laning phase, if he burns his cds to farm minions or doesnt engage on you when he has the opportunity then you can definitely spend your time harassing him.
Xin Zhao
play as safe as you can early, he will wreck you, try to get jungler help
Yasuo
Easiset matchup in the world. I have never lost laning phase to a yasuo as vlad ever. use your auto attacks to poke out his shield, play safe early game though. Once you go back and get hextech revolver you win trades so hard and you get to heal up. Eventually against yasuo you can bait him by getting hit by his tornado on purpose so he'll ult you and then you can burst him down. his windwall will block your e but not your q damange, however it will block the health you get from your q from returning to you.
Yorick
is this a league of legends champion? I havent played against this guy since season 2 so I cant give much commentary on him, play safe until you get hextech i assume.
Zed
after he goes into his shadow to apply his death mark onto you you can pool. If you do it at the right time you will just kind of dodge the application of his death mark. Watch out his auto attack animation is so fast and he can easily combo it with an e for a surprising amount of burst if he's getting his passive too. Other than that, you dont even need to get zhonyas because of the pool trick. Just dont overextend too much. I would say this is the most balanced matchup for vlad since his mobility counters you and he gets more free damage early game but if you can dodge his shurikans you can win the matchup
Azir
his soldiers slow and outrange you like crazy, play safe early game and see if you can get jungle help. You can pool his ult wall if he goes for the shurima shuffle onto you. Also if he uses his E in and ends up with bad positioning feel free to kill him, he's still a squishy.
Ahri
pretty difficult matchup, she just gets more damage than you and more range, and more cc, and more mobility. Just try to get your wota, if she makes a bad play you can pop her before she gets to use another charge of her spirit dash which is nice. This is a skill based matchup that I'm confident in >gold vlad will win.
Diana
careful for her level 6 all in. You can harass her a ton early game and she's moderately squishy so with jungle help you can burst her.
for vlad all you really need to know is his e+q combo for harass. Really familiarize yourself with the range of these abilities. For quick harass use your e before you use your q because it takes less time to get all the damage out and you're more likely to hit them with both abilities. Note though that if a champion like fiora ripostes she can block both of your spells. And if both of your spells land at the same time, champions like sivir will block both abilities as well. Another thing to know about vlad is his q has a .5 second cast time which sucks because so many times you feel so close to killing someone but it wont go off. Next comes a little handy dandy tip about your pool. Your pool grants you a tiny bit of movement speed that slowly decays over time. Use this information how you will.
the burst
the burst
your burst. I usually E=Q for quick damage, then ult then pool then ignite while in pool, then e+q when I'm out of pool and this usually kills them. Depending on the champion in laning phase you can kill most non tanks from about 60-70% health with this combo. One tip to do is if they're low enough run at them while they're under their turret. Your pool is fantastic at dropping turret aggro so if you continue to run they might turn back to try to "outplay" you under their tower but you will most likely still get the kill.
That's it for now
That's it for now
I hope you all enjoyed reading my guide, I hope to do some more work on this analyzing pro play of vlad and showing you what they do and dont do right and what you should take with you back to your solo queue games. If you have any questions or comments on a specific matchup or in general about vlad please put it in the comments (if there is a comment section) if not you can add me on league, I'm on NA, IGN: DonnieTrump.
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