28/11/11 0.942 - Greater Seal of Vitality instead of Vigor
27/11/11 0.941 - Changed skill sequence to use in 2 lvls of Q early game. Kindlegem removed from item build. Minor fixes/proof reading.
26/11/11 0.940 - Did lots on guide actually. Fixed up early paragraphs, added pictures to chapter with story. NEW CHAPTERS: Whats in his kit, skill sequence, item sequence (not finished) and general playstyle.
21/11/11 0.900 - Started guide. Chose items, skill order and introduction was made. Why Sanguine Pool? chapter.

This guide is a different way to play Vladimir from the straight AP mage and is more of a fun build.(still is very experimental, don't dive into ranked without testing!)

I'm going to publish what I have so far because I'm tired *yawn*. I know sections are still missing mainly RUNES, MASTERIES and SUMMONER SPELLS and I have yet to finish my ITEMBUILD but enjoy what's there.

Please ignore the following they're just bbcode testing
Annie
[*]

BLAH! Welcome to my Vladimir guide which is a little different from mainstream Vlads that I see. While most focus on maxing and building AP for more nuke/leech sustain I will focus on maxing and cooldown reduction (CDR)which will allow him to IMO sustain the lane better and be more useful in teamfights. I will go into a bit more detail about the two paths but if your busy and want a quick summary here just check out the cheat sheet and alt tab when your playing. With the new Legendary Blood Lord skin hopefully Vlad has gained some more popularity since his major nerfs so more people can release their inner Nosferatu. So thanks for checkin out my guide and I hope this provides some new perspective for you on THE CRIMSON REAPER. BLAH!

For the diehardsStory/Lore
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."

wat the hell.........

Who is Vlad???

He is the most badass and crimson coloured vampire the League has ever seen (and is also a hero that I spent some RP on). He's so cool in fact that he scared away all the other vampires including the lady ones :( and now he's the only one there really. You could say he's got a few enemies like Warwick ( no ffs please DON'T think of twilight) and Vayne who's probably out to get him cos of the whole medievel theme so he doesn't just run around sucking the life out of whoever he pleases. However, he is quite a dangerous toon to be caught with in the bushes as he has some nasty, zero mana burst damage thats on very low cooldown and an aoe slow not the mention 2 seconds of being 'WTF OP!' as he sinks into the ground and drains your HP bar so don't walk around the bushes alone trying to hunt the vampire without some garlic and a good stake to drive into his head. Or heart. Or wherever it goes (maybe you want to stop his children?). The other option is to take ignite which works well to.

Vladimir's passive is ok it grants him bonus 1 AP for every 40HP and 1.8 HP for every 1 AP he gets from his items so its similar to Jax's equipment mastery . For those builds who get Rabadons the amount of AP you might have with the plus runes will be like 230-240 AP which will give you about 430HP (which is a free =1110G). The HP->AP ratio is quite poor though since you only get 25 AP for every bonus 1000HP and unfortunately we will be more HP oriented in our item selection.


Transfusion
quick note- as i said this is still an experimental build and Q definitely is a worthy ability so you may need an extra point or two in it earlier. I still think it deserves more much more attention than I have given it and should probably be the main damage output on this hero.

His Q ability is what makes him so annoying both in and out of the lane on full AP Vlads. It is a medium ranged single target nuke that does a moderate amount of magic damage and heals him for a small amount making laning against him very annoying because of his semi-poke and sustain with this. It has a very low cooldown of around 4-6 seconds and you can't really stop him from using it because it has no mana or health cost but you can avoid being hit by it or build Magic Resist against him to weaken it but this does not affect the heal. Try not to get too close to him unless you come out on top if you trade blows but usually he will try to heal it back up by Q ing off the creeps. In AP builds this is the skill thats used most and later it can be a very annoying finisher coupled with E because of the good range and low cooldown.
TIP!: Vlad can easily get multikills if many heroes are on low health because he will just use + on each hero so if you see some heroes oom and on low HP then use this as a finisher as it has a decent reach. The damage from the spell is instant but the heal is delayed. You can cast this and then immediately but still get the heal. This skill can help you last hit in lane a lot easier since it functions like a second auto attack but stronger and instant speed.


Sanguine Pool
This is imo, with some quick reflexes, Vlad's best ablility and yes can be quite Over Powered . He sinks into a pool of blood and becomes UNTARGETABLE (so immune to most spells and damage) for 2 whole seconds. While he is in the pool he gains movements speed and slows enemies above him in a nice range also damaging them every second making it a great double as both escape or chase tool. The great thing about this spell is the evasion it gives you allowing you to potentially dodge all skill shots and even most delayed aimed spells like Brand's and Leona's .
Miss Fortune blasting you with Bullet Time ? no problem. pool away.
Nunu & Willump channeling Absolute Zero ? No problem. Pool away!
Ezreal lining up Trueshot Barrage ? NO PROBLEM. POOL AWAY!!!!
And before you ask, YES you can dodge frickin Lux's OH SO ANNOYING LAZERBEAM finales funkeln. Yes, this skill is teh hax but you can say AHUEHUE to it!
The spell costs 20% OF VLADIMIR'S CURRENT HEALTH (so you can't die from it) but he does heal a % of the aoe damage dealt so the more enemies you can get under the more life you gain back. I will not actually suggest spamming this when its off cool down because you will be walking around with 20% health less than everyone else. Usually you can heal off the cost with a normal creep wave but be careful if you are alone and you do that.

IMPORTANT: It scales off of your bonus (from items and abilities) HP at about 12.5% I think so if you have nearly 1000HP from your thats an extra 120 to ALL UNITS above you so more heal aswell. However, if the enemy team starts building MR then the amount of heal fighting them is reduced so you might want some MPen so you can keep sucking that blood. When you get your using this on a creep wave will give you great healing while letting you farm the wave within a couple seconds. So those times you are on low health you will really start to feel like a vampire looking for large creep waves to feast off and this how you can indulge in your blood thirst.

TIP!: During the lanes phase or even early ganks where there tends to be a lot of creeps around, coupled with usually kills most of the creeps around you so you can tip the fight slightly in your favor with the added damage of your own creeps!(which is more than their dead ones).
Only do this if you will win the exchange (should kill them) and are safe from a gank.
As already mentioned, this skill is fantastic at spell evasion but if you are juking the enemy/baiting for your allies make sure the your 20% life is put to good use (and the lack of escape) . For example you don't need to dodge every one of Ashe's volley but if you step on one of Caitlyn's traps you should pool (i think you can) to dodge the incoming peacemaker and auto attacks. Always beware of the limitations of this move .

NB: While in the pool you CANNOT cast summoner spells OR regular spells and you will still be affected by damage over time effects such as and . You cannot cast it to escape roots/binds either and there IS a short delay before you sink into the ground too so time it well. Also spells that are "leashes" cannot be removed until you get out of their range so you can't avoid spells like or D= . Check out this page for more on the specifics of Vlad's skills
Leaugue of Legends Wikia


Tides of Blood
This is AP Vlad's primary AoE damage spell and coupled with can take off a large chunk of your health if you're not carefull. This hits every target that is in range with a blood projectile for the same amount of damage so Vlad canfarm very well with this and harass at the same time. The spell does cost HP though which increases with levels but it also places a stackable (up to 4 times) buff on Vladimir that increases the damage from and health regeneration . Stacks however increase the HP cost of so you can't always spam E to keep your stacks up.

TIP!: You can check for stealth heroes and wards in bushes especially or at important ward places like baron, dragon and your own jungle buffs, mainly blue. This is like a built in oracles. If there is something you cannot see the blood projectile will home in on the target. When pooling creep waves this move is used to finish off the creeps because you want maximum heal first.




Hemoplague
Hmmm. The ultimate skill which is claimed to be so broken that it warrants a complete revamp (hah!) of the champion. But when I say broken I don't necessarily mean overpowered just that the design of the skill and how it fits into Vlad's playstyle is supposedly terrible. This skill amplifies the damage dealt to all units in a target area by 14% for 5 seconds after which moderate damage will be dealt to the infected units. Comparing it to other AP mages' ults like
Annie's Summon Tibbers
Anivia's Glacial Storm or
Cassiopeia's Petrifying Gaze
getting to that all so important level 6 is kind of lacklustre for Vlad in terms of burst damage because it isn't the best finisher. You can't exactly flash to GG your opponent. Any player who knows Vladimir's moves will retreat as soon as you start moving and if you waste at the start of the fight (because you should be opening with it) then you must wait 150 whole seconds for it to cool down gain while they sit there all smuck at the tower because juked your ult. In terms of raw power, yes the spell is waaaaay weaker than other AP mages but in large teamfights where you can hit 2-4 enemies the damage amplification can work well with other AoE spells that you or you allies have giving you increased AoE damage across your team. I can see this adding a lot of damage with (say if you went solo top)
Anivia's Glacial Storm
Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero (which already does like 1K damage if fully channeled) and
Brand's W,E,R combo
And don't forget about your own combo. If you feel like it (LOL!) can be set up for some extra devastating aoe damage. Yes it can fail a lot and make you wish you had a better ult but at least with the CDR build you will not have to wait as long if you misuse it.

VS

Transfusion

+Good range
+Good damage
+Low cooldown/no mana = spam
+Scales well with AP
+More ranged harass/poke
+Increased lifegain
+Better and safer last hitting
+Your life bar is less accurate
+Well managed Pools can keep you safe

-Less escapability
-SQIUSHIER
-Weaker AoE damage (maybe not)
-Less chase/slow capability

Sanguine Pool

+State of near invulnerable for 2 SECONDS
+More dodging/escapes
+Allows for 2 pools rather than 1 most fights (1 for the chase/escape)
+Turret diving (idk, the announcer calls it that)
+Hard to push against this move
+More immediate heal
+Better AoE damage and more frequent slows
+Want tank items naturally

-Weaker harass
-Team should know what you're up to
-Less target damage
-RISK OF 20% OF HP

As you can see the second option more useful in my opinion with more escapes/survivability, great creep wave farming and pushing resistance rather than just more harass/poke and single target damage. I feel that with this build you are not just a ***** blood sucker Q ing and E ing all day at the side of the fight then running away with but you can be the AOE BRUISER (think singed but vampire style) getting right in the middle of the fight and sucking everyones blood like a menacing vampire should. You want them to focus you and hate you and then just pool away while your team rips them apart. Then you come back and chase them down while they run BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Q lovers don't be too depressed! =D You're still getting decent damage on your nuke from just the levels come later in the game. As I've already explained maxing first is what we want and then because you want a sustainable nuke not as W can eat away at you life if your not careful. We take points in when we can because it provides a AoE damage boost to your whole team and after all it IS your ultimate. Its not the best ultimate but not as useless as some people would think. We take last because this move requires you to have a bit of HP and that comes later in the build when we've gotten our core spellvamp and CDR items. At the start it is not as efficient because it costs too much HP to level up and we want low HP cost for ward/ stealth checking and later to keep stacks of Empowered.

Note about sight wards sight ward
IF you can afford one after shopping, BUY ONE. The only person that will regret it is YOU because you didn't see Fiddlesticks hiding in the mid bush. In fact, if you can just get those extra 3-4 last hits so that you CAN afford a ward then everybody's happy. I won't tell you where to ward, look up a warding guide! All I will say is DON"T RELY ON OTHERS especially your support to ward your lane or be 100% with their MIA calls.

DO IT YOURSELF

Starting Items

A standard start for hextech revolver.

This item is vital on Vladimir as it synergizes so well with his abilities giving him a small damage boost and extra sustainability. This is always a core item on Vladimir as its cheap cost and upgrade to beats buying most other items right off the bat since he gets the benefits straight away and uses them the entire game. Since Vlad has a weak early game he will be in the lane 90% of the time and we don't really need the ms from boots yet.
====>
Now we need that extra movespeed to keep up with other heroes so we shouldn't delay this too long. CDR boots are cheap and give a good 15% reduction off our spells and since W is so high already the reduction helps A LOT so get it after revolver.

We get this after boots because the extra spell vamp mostly, regardless of how many other casters are on your team. With this item you can heal very easily with any creep wave when you and it pretty much gives us everything we need before we start building HP.

This used to be at this spot but is removed because it holds precious space in your pack and is a gives mediocre gains for the massive delay to your warmogs. Instead just go for earlier.

These first 2 1/2 core items are not too pricy (total cost so far = 1050G + 2100G + 1110G = 4260G)and should be no problem to get during mid game if you are not dieing every trip to lane. The good thing is there are no major gaps like buying a 1600G but Vlad's farm is very good so you should be able to complete items on trips back. Hopefully you have managed to keep last hitting safely and maybe done a gank or two or even FB ^^ to get lane power. Hitting LvL 9 with 30%CDR you should have your pool off cooldown about every 10 seconds. This means if you use it you have 10 seconds of vulnerability before you can AHUEHUEHUE so even though I talked it up do not try to spam it. A safe place would be pooling a heavy creep wave at your own tower for example where you're protected. Or if there are no mias and you want to chunk off some HP from your opponent. After a kill when you are on low health in the early stages I advise that you blue pill rather than try to regain health because you will be at high risk without it.

(will probably insert an AP item here)


Now we want to start building some tankiness for late game and the goal here is Warmog's . This part depends on how the game is going for your particular match. You already have a giant's belt for 430HP to give some needed survivability and some damage(remember is scales off of bonus HP). The HP also gives a small amount of AP due to your passive (yey). Then if enemy AD is strong then grab a chain vest on your way to warmogs. If AP is a threat then take the negatron cloak instead but you shouldn't really buy both because you want to start farming for 's bonus quickly so as soon as that's complete grab the other armor type depending on which you chose first. You can even skip those two if you are doing well and farming well to go straight for .


From here onwards I guess you can choose what to build out of the remaining items and you should always try build for the team. You can even go for a second just be careful of things like Vayne's and especially which can shred your hp pretty quickly say if you get CCed or being hit by .

( not finished! )

UGH! I dont want to write this...

....

... too much work.



greater seal of vigor

Vlad has been said to have one of the weakest early games of solo heroes and I will have to agree with this statement because he is fragile, two of his moves cost HP, can only harass you for 1 second and he tends to push the creeps.
Being an AP hero that relies both on lvls AND farm this means 2 things:

1) Vlad will have to level up as fast as possible to get the blood rolling (lol idk)
so will have to take a solo lane. Exp masteries help.
2) Vlad will stay in the lane most of early game because that's where you get the most experience.
3) Vlad will not jungle D=

Early Game:
Vlad should play safe for the first few lvls and the early level
should be kept for ganks (avoiding them). Usually you will take mid or top solo lane, I think mid is preferred, and just stay to farm your first few items and gain some levels in . If you want to try harass with put a few more points in. Q should be used to help last hit and sustain your low HP. I reckon if you are ganking, you can start with W to get that inital slow off and your team mate has time to approach the enemy. After that, R, Q and E, igniting if you need to.

Mid Game:
You should have farmed up your first core items which provide spellvamp, CDR and some HP and your W should be getting stronger and faster so you are much more deadly now and can harass and move around like a scary pedophile near the pre-school(errr....lets hope not). No not really. You're still quite gankable and can't do 2V1 CMON!. You can do ganks when you have boots pretty much if you can get back to lane without too much XP loss or turret damage. Use R at the start of teamfights after your tank goes in and use your EQWEQ combo to deal serious damage to the enemy AD or whoever's out of position and slow those that try to reach your own AD carry.

Late Game:

Same thing start with R AFTER your tank and unleash the TIDES OF BLOOD on whoevers unlucky enough to come across you. You should be unexpectedly tanky now for the enemies and while still a threat. to protect your carry or if under a lot of focus. If you start with advantage you can W to initiate to slow them as they retreat. Continue to farm waves of minions and defend against large pushes. Stick close to your team 90% of the time and keep buy wards to help out with dragon and baron watch or jungle watch.

So far writing this guide has been pretty fun and I recommend it if you have something to share, spend a lot of time on LoL and want to make a piece of work. I guess I should thank JhoiJhoi for her guide on making guides ->Making A Guide 101 . If you want to see an awesome guide check out her Ashe guide -> "psh, look it up lazy snob". Nice work to the other Vlad guides too since they gave some core items for my build.(good work Mobafire^^) Even if my nooby guide doesn't reach 80-90% I can see what my ideas can bring to others. BLAH! Lots is still missing I know and eventually I'll get it done. Bye.