In this guide, I will give you tips and tricks on how to play Sustain Vlad.

The point of playing this set up is to stay in lane until you can pick up your next appropriate sustain item, and to out-level your opponents by staying in lane. This set up punishes people who pick Ignite while going solo, which is extremely common at lower elo. This point is strengthened by the fact that the Assassin Update just went live, which means that you'll be seeing a lot of assassins in top lane who will usually pick Ignite, confident in their killing potential.

To play this set up effectively, you should avoid every and all engagements pre level 6, unless if you are 100% sure that you'll be getting a kill out of the situation. This is because without any items, you'll have longer cooldowns on all of your abilities, especially your E (you'll be spamming it during fights). Your jungler may flame you for getting invaded by their solo laner and jungler, but realistically can't do much with Vlad before getting CDR and your ult.

The second step to sustaining is to use your Q all the time. You should also avoid casting E (unless if it's for a last hit) and especially avoid casting your W since it'll drain 1/5th of your total HP. Make sure that your defensive W's are worth casting, and never cast an offensive W without casting E before it.

After laning phase, you should look to complete your build quickly, at least up until Rylai's, and always go for the squishy carry.

That's pretty much it. Let me know if you'd like me to develop this guide further and go in-depth with some of Vlad's mechanics (lol) and play strats. Have a nice one!