This guy was the first champ i bought with my own IP, i love him! He does damage, carries the game, and tanks a bit. I feel his passive is one of the best in the game! He's a well round champ with an awesome dance!

PROS:
-He can solo lanes
-High damage
-High health
-Great team player
-Harasser
-Can survive in battle and can even last with 100 health and nuke the enemys
-Hard to take down in team fights, can even go 2v1 at times
Cons:
-If silence, Vlad is useless for some time
-Dependent on cool downs
-Spell use is important, if used wrong it will make a huge weak point
-Since Vlad is a team player, he needs a team to do his most damage
-If laning bot or top, he may need to switch lanes depending on his opponent.

Starting off, Vlad is first a caster and not your second tank.
He is strong but is dependent on his cool downs.
That's why his runes are flat cool down, the more times Vlad can load off transfusion the stronger you get, especially early game.

Start with a tome and health potion, it will give you AP and extra life to survive, the potion will give you life back if your low and it's too early to head back to base. The Tome will also help you build to your next item.

Getting the Hextech Revolver will give you your the start of your scary power. Spell vamp is key for vlad, it gives a second transfusion to Vlad, you can life steal creeps and gain more life than lost with tides of blood. It will build to Will of Ancients, which i find better than Megai's Soulstealer, because the snowball effect is risky, the AP boost is not much of a difference late game, and if you manage to get all 20! stacks the Cool down reduction is worthless because you would have a 38% cool down reduction before Mejai's and everyone maxs at 40%.

Next Ionian boots is next for cool downs, simple... Sorcerer's shoes won't be as useful as Ionian because it's made up for with void staff, also the Ionian boots are cheaper

Next Rylai's Crystal Scepter, is great, it synergies with Vlad's passive, which gives more AP and more health, including the add passive of slowing enemy that are attacked.

The next two items are interchangeable, you can get either get void Staff or Abyssal Scepter first, Abyssal Scepter is better to get first for survival tactics, but Abyssal can be replaced by other amour or magic resist items. Abyssal is recommended because it gives AP, which means more health, MR to help against magic damage, and the aura that comes with it will weaken enemy defends so you can do more damage. Void staff is a must because it gives great AP, and maxs out your magic pen to 40% with one item! giving you more damage.

Finally if the game gets to this point of the game you are about to win, if you have the money for the Death cap they are about to see pain! the death cap gives all your items a boost in AP which mean more damage and more health making you a magic tank with 3500 health and over 100 MR

After full build get magic elixir, and for fun get the rest of the elixir, but make sure the magic elixir is first.

Optional items are: Hextech Gunbalde, lich bane, mejai's soulstealer, moonflair spellblade, Rod of ages, Zhonya's hourglass, Banshee's Veil, Randuin's Omen, spirit visage, warmog's amour, force of nature, guardian angel, mercury's trends, sunfire cape, thornmail, boots of swiftness, sorcerer's shoes,

Vlad masteries are simple 9-0-21.
You don't need mana because you don't use any!
Get cool down skills because they are essential for your spells.
The rest are simple choices.

Note: vlad is a harasser, so use transfusion on enemy champs, HOWEVER! Know your enemy, if you can't harass then don't, you'll lose more health than you can gain back

Okay, this is simple upgrade Transfusion, asap!!! AND SPAM IT!!!!!!
It's your ace in the hole when the cool down is 1.8 secs at mid game. It will save your life 80% of the time. For pool get second once and then upgrade later because it's is a wonderful escape mechanism, you just need the effect not the damage.
For tides of blood, it's great farmer late game for the extra cash need, also mid-early game it can farm too if used properly, just be careful not to lose to much life when spamming it.

In laning sides, you always want to start off with a q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,etc...

At mid q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,e,q,e,q,e,etc....

On 1v1 r, ignite, q,e,q,e, (q,e,q,e again if you have time), w to avoid damage burst when ever need.

At team fights....
R in the middle of the group, ignite the tank if possible, flash out, q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q,e,q, if you need to escape, pool(W) away, or if your chasing the few remaining enemy champs pool(W) to slow them.

NOTE: USE POOL(W) as your last resort, if you use it too early the cool down will be too long to use again properly, also don't use it too late either, use it right before the cc because you are untouchable for two seconds

For his summoner spells, ignite because with your ultimate it does more damage and helps when used early in a fight to make your opponent back down leading on a chase that your more likely to win with these items. Flash because as powerful you naturally are, you can easily push, so in times of gank or trouble you can flash out, pool and escape. Also as an AP carry you are targeted more often, so in team fights you need to drop hemo correctly, usually in the middle of the action, so you can flash out and drop the pain with the bonus damage in Hemoplague.

Other options are ghost, exhaust cleanse, teleport, rally, and clairvoyance.
Any other spell would get you killed, especial heal, you are a natural life stealing, self healing vampire, you don't need heal to say alive.

If you have comments let me know, don't hate please, just let me know your opinion and i'll consider it and see if I can improve. There is always room for change, this is also my first guide. This is a starter's guide, advance player would know to conform to the game to be successful. Thank you for checking my guide out