REVISION

Just look above ^^. Never a need to change the order of skills. You may want to balance out your E and W though if you find your self getting caught often. But always max Q first! It is great sustain in lane. And when you have spell vamp, keep stacking that E in lane. It does crazy amounts of AOE damage.

The build guide above + the notes pretty much explains it all :).

Ionian Boots of Lucidity is a viable item to replace Sorcerer's Shoes to max out that cooldown.

You could also start with items such as a Ruby Crystal, Null-Magic Mantle or a Amplifying Tome. The Ruby Crystal is a bit more viable now since it cost 400.

Vladimir has a iffy early game. Not so much damage output, but great sustain/poke in lane. Not only that but has great zoning potential against most melee top laners and a great escape/disengage tool aka his Sanguine Pool. It is essential to have good positioning whilst attempting to poke at your enemy. Attempt not to throw a auto attack at enemy whilst near a minion wave or stay near bush to lose aggro. Believe me minions can do a lot more damage then just 1 of your basic attacks xD. When ever you can try to poke him down with a Q E Basic attack combo. And if you have proper vision control / minion wave control you can proceed to chase. (Ghost works perfectly for this since vladimir is a slow champion. Movement quints works just as well) Try not stacking E Tides of Blood whilst in lane. It can really tax your HP if you don't have proper HP regen or spell vamp.

Tides of Blood! Stacks up to 4 times! Each time it is stacked up he gains more healing and rengeneration. It also does 25% more damage each stack, and cost more HP each time you add a stack. Early on his E takes quite a bit of HP to cost, this is what I call the tax. xD To avoid the tax, I usually go with a Spirit Visage and a Hextech Revolver. Spell vamp and HP regen easily counter this "tax".

I recommend just going by http://www.championselect.net/champ/Vladimir!
Read the comments and ignore the trolls!

Common top lane match-ups:

Renekton This lane can go either way, matters how you play Vladimir and how he/she plays Renekton. Both laners are great at harassing and sustaining most other top laners. Vladimir's only chance of winning lane against this GOD TIERED top laner is poking him down till he forced to kneel before you. Most Renektons wont just allow you to simply harass him. As a lane bully he will attempt to dive on you. In order to take all of his combo you have to pool before he stuns you. :) Simple right? Not always but to avoid his "poke" you need to time your pool before he stuns you! His cool downs are lower then yours so only get near him while your pool is up.

Ryze This lane is very possible to win but can be hard. You can easily out trade and out sustain Ryze early game. But be careful of his 6. Poke him when ever possible. Do not use your E often as it is taxing. Try to Q him when ever it is up! Do not trade with him when he has his ult up. :) And he will outscale you as well. If you don't do so hot early/mid you wont do so well late against him.

Akali You have to play very aggressive pre 6. Deny her any farm. When she has 6 she will jump on you. When she does ult her, whip out your combo. Pool if you get to low or if everything else is on cooldown. You should be able to out trade her every time.

Shyvana This lane is similar to the Renekton lane. Movement quints really help with this lane. A Doran's Shield or Boots start both work decently against her. She outputs more damage then renekton and is faster then him due to her W. The only way to avoid the damage she throws at you is avoid melee range w/ her. So positioning / zoning is key in this lane. Dodging her E will easily minimize any amounts of damage she throws at you which will allow you to most likely win trades.

Jayce His poke isn't too scary in this lane, but his hammer mode combo is. If he ever lands a shock blast on you, he can almost 100-0 you with a quick hammer mode combo with his ignite on you. If you see him switch to hammer mode just use Sanguine Pool and back out until he switches back into ranged. It's okay to get hit by Shock Blast once in awhile as long as you don't take every one to duh mouf and don't let him follow it up with a hammer combo or you're toast. GG

Yorick One of your hardest counters. I do not see him much but! I must say he can easily out trade you! Best thing to do is just try to sustain this lane, farm it out and hope your jungler ganks well. Yorick has very low cooldowns on the ghouls and great sustain in lane as well. Being aggressive early game is near impossible against him since his damage out put early game is cray cray.

Riven This is an extremely hard lane for Vladimir to win. Well if the Riven is any good anyways. All Riven has to do to out trade you every single time she dives on you is, Valor, which is good counter to Vladimir's poking and cancels out most of his early damage. To win this lane you should have T2 boots asap. Movement quints would help tons. Always keep your distance from her and Sanguine Pool when she dives on you. Attempt to bait her Valor with just a couple basic attacks and when she wastes it, poke her down with a Q E combo.

Singed This is a very easy lane for you. Pre-6 All you want to do is play super aggro before he can start to proxy. And if he does Vladimir is that champ who can easily tank the minion wave with out taking damage.

Zac Is one of my other mains. And for Vladimir this is generally a very easy lane. Just play your lane like any other and when he jumps on you just pool to avoid damage.

Gnarr Can easily go either way. As long as you can avoid his Q's you can easily out poke and out sustain him. Avoid Mega Gnar's jump to ult combo, which can easily 100-0 you.

Adding more match-ups later x_x

I hope you find my guide helpful.
Leave comments and such and I will try to holler back at you.

Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/kahlilnc

I just recently changed my IGN from Let Me Kha6 and before that HeartRiven. (Faker Kappa) i am kahlil was my smurf. Cant really say that anymore because it is a higher rank then Faker Kappa now GG.

You may see me playing him sometime ^^

Change-Log:
Started Change-Log as of 5/20/14

5/20/14 - Changed IGN in the intro. Added Akali to Match-Ups.

12/6/2014 - Added more to Match-Ups. Remade intro.

12/6/2015 - I was in a coma a few weeks ago. I am back now and recovered. I updated the item list and made it a bit more neat!