Hello! This is my first build guide, so here's my brief introduction on Vladimir. I love playing Vlad, he is in my opinion the most fun champion out there. First things first, most people mistake Vlad as a burst carry mage, he isn't. He is a sustained, tanky mage that does good amounts of damage and harassment. You have to be very precise and mathematical when thinking about using his abilities. Some of them can kill you very easily!

For my runes I choose magic pen. marks, for obvious reasons. Health per level seals, so it makes him more tanky late game, and gives him more AP with his passive. And flat ability power glyphs, so he can do a lot of damage early, and late game. And, flat AP quints, for the same reason. This rune build makes him more tanky, and even more powerful.

Depending on how you want to build Vlad, I take different masteries. For a high damage build I take 21 in offense, and 9 in utility, putting one in spell vamp. For a more consistent, but a little less damage, I take 9 offense, going up to the magic pen. and 21 in utility, taking sage and swiftness. For an in between version, I take 24 in offense, 3 in defense for the magic res. and 3 in utility in good hands.

For his spells, obviously I choose to get Transfusion first. Very early game, with this spell, try not to harass so much, and try more to get last hits on minions. Stay towards the back while Transfusion is on cooldown and don't use it on them, unless they attack you first. Focus on farming. Next I get his E. Try not to use this too much early game. I usually use it for last hitting minions while my Q is on cooldown. Although you can use it every once in a while for extra damage. At level 4 I get Sanguine Pool. This ability is tricky to master. I even use it at the wrong times still. Do not use this ability when you have full, or near full health. It will just kill you faster. Normally my attacking of abilities is Q, E, W. Then once you're out of the pool, your Q and E should be up again. So, Q and E again. By that time they should be dead. On his ultimate, the most wrong thing you can do with it, is ult at the end of fights to try and get them like you would with ignite. I used to do that, and now that I don't, it has worked out so much better. If you know you're gonna kill someone, or you just want to, ALWAYS ult first. The 14% extra damage that you get is amazing. You are almost guaranteed to get the kill, if you are about the same level.

While using Vlad, try to stay away from the more tanky champions like Garen, and Singed. Try and kill the more squishy ones, such as Vayne, Caitlyn, Brand, Veigar, Twitch, and so on. I hope these builds help everyone! It does work, trust me.