This is the first guide I've ever made. When I first started playing Vlad i could not find any builds that fitted my play style so I decided to create my own build. This build will allows you build Vladimir as a semi tank while still being able to deal "tons of damage".

Pros

Very tanky
Lots of aoe
Great at escaping ganks
Manaless
Great lane sustain
Low amount of cons

Cons

No hard cc
Squishy early game
Sometimes referred to as the easiest most op champion

Vlad's passive is crimson Pact. For every 40 points of bonus health gives Vladimir 1 ability power and for every 1 point of ability power gives Vladimir 1.4 bonus health. This is what allows Vlad to semi tank while still being a powerful ap Champion.

Vlad's Q is Transfusion. This ability does a lot of damage and heals your self for around 24% of the damage dealt. Upgrading this ability will decrease the cd of this move to 4 seconds allowing you to easily lower your opponent in lane.

Vladimir's W is Sanguine Pool. Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood for 1.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and slowing enemies above him by 40% for 1 second, and deals magic damage over the duration plus heals himself for 12.5% of that amount. This move is great for slowing down the entire opponent team right after you use Hemoplague and dodging skills. In lane when you are ganked try to use this skill to dodge moves like Nunu's iceball and Lee sin's Q. This skill will allow you to dodge most cc. Make sure in your lane when your trying to dodge a spell make sure you save more hp then it costs you because it does cost 20% of your current health

Vladimir's E is tides of blood. Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.Each cast gives him an Empowered stack (max 4), increasing his healing and regeneration by 4/5/6/7/8% per stack for 10 seconds. Additionally, his next tides of Blood deals 25% more damage and costs 25% more health per stack. This spell is great for farming minions and doing a lot of Aoe during team fights. This spell will hit invisible units. If your near a bush and you use it you will be able to tell if someone is hiding in a brush or there is a Teemo hiding. It can also be used to kill people like Rengar and Twitch or keep track of there movements when they are invisible. Since this spell gets more powerful with each stack try to anticipate the team fight so you can start out with 4 stacks before the team fight even starts.

Vladimir's R is Hemoplague. Vladimir infects the target area with a virulent plague which increases the damage nearby enemies take from all sources by 12% for 5 seconds. After these 5 seconds, infected enemies take magic damage. This is what makes Vlad a good team figher. You can easily turn a team fight into a victory if you land this Skill on all five of their team members

Runes

For Marks I take flat magic penetration for more early game power
For Seals I take flat armor because the majority of top lane champions are ad bruisers
For glyphs I take magic resist per level because the amount of magic resist it gives will pass flat magic resist by level 9 and before then you most likely will not be dealing with any ap champions.
I take Move quints because most top lane champions are bruisers and move quints will allow you to kite them

Masteries

For masteries i take 9-21-0. I take nine if the offensive tree to get the bonus 10% magic penetration. I take 21 in defense because I do not find the extra ap as help full as the extra tankyness in and the move speed team fights. The extra tankyness will allow you to dive into there team and put out as much aoe damage as you can with e,w,r while slowing them down with your rylai. The extra move speed will allow you to keep up with your enemies while they are running during a teamfight and slow them down letting your team members to catch up.

This item will allow you to cast more transfusions and tides of blood. More transfusions and tides of blood=more damage.

This item will give you a lot of life steal especially in a team fight or when there are a lot of minions you will be able to regenerate back a lot of hp using tides of blood.

This item is a good item to get on Vlad after Hextech Revolver and before Wota if you are lanning against an ap champion such as rumble. Sell this item for Rabadon Deathcap at the end of your build

This item will allow you to keep up while chasing enemies and give you more cc in a team fight which Vlad lacks. Consider taking this item right after boots if your fighting someone such as Darius at top lane and he won't be able to touch you because of the slow. It also will give a good amount of hp and ap which is even better because of Vlad's passive.

This will give you some extra magic resist and a ton more damage. Since Vlad dives into the opponent team with sanguine pool you will be able to catch everyone in abyssal scepter's aura and amplify all damage dealt by ap champions

This item will give you extra ap and armor to increase your damage and tankyness. Late game you will be able to dive in to a team fight and not immediately die after coming out of Sanguine Pool. Consider getting this item before Abyssal if the opponent team is heavier in ad rather than ap

More damage. You already will have over 3500hp and 100 armor and magic resist.

People to Avoid

If you get Riven the best thing you can do is cloth armor 5 health potions. Riven can easily shield your early level harass and at level 3 you will not be able to trade against Riven. Just try to farm and not dying.

If Irelia is half decent he will kill Vlad. Champions with gap closers such as Irelia are deadly against Vlad and Vlad will not be able to trade damage at low lvls because of her true damage and mobility. All you can do is cloth armor 5 health potions. If the Irelia plays passive, farms all day and does not zone or harass you you will be able to beat her. Vlad is a much better farmer and latter on Vlad will have so much lane sustain Irelia will not be able to kill you.

Similarly to Irelia Xin is a dangerous Champion because of his gap closer. The most you can do against Xin is cloth armor 5 health pots. When Xin dashes try to Sanguine just before he reaches you and slows you down.

People to Laugh at

Trololol your up against a Shen. You out range him, he won't be able to taunt you, you out cs him, you can zone him hes dead.

Against Singed all you need to do is make sure you don't get to close and just kite kite kite. Get a Rylai and it's gg before you get Rylai harass him and when ever he slows you and is about to slow you just Sanguine pool and walk away.

Against Jax Assuming he starts using Counter Strike before he leaps just Sanguine pool before he lands on you and you'll dodge the leap damage and the Counter Strike. Just zone him and he will not be able to trade damage with you.

Against Darius your Q should out range his pull and spinny thing so he should not be able to get a single hit on you. If you make a mistake and get pulled just Sanguine pool away.

Well that's all for now. Keep in mind this is the first guide I've made. If you have any question, recommendations, or find any typos please feel free to comment or give me some advice, I'd appreciate it, Thx.