Hello. This is my first guide so please don't be surprised if it's not as good as many other guides. I main Vladimir, and if you want a mage with no mana, tons of damage and a passive that turns him into a tank, then Vlad is the champion for you. Vladimir is a powerful top laner or mid laner. This build focus's on building him as an off-tank mage, with an option of full tank and maximizing cdr.

Pros:

+Great sustain.
+Powerful late game.
+Strong farmer.
+Amazing in teamfights.
+Tanky after Rylai's.
+Good against melee champions.
+Sanguine pool, one of the best escape ability's in the game.

Cons:

-His only cc is his pool.
-High cd early game.
-Weak early game.
-Prone to being ganked.

	Flash	The best spell there is. Always take it. It can be used to escape a gank, to chase an enemy, and pass any physical ingame obstacle.
	Ignite	A useful spell that you should usually take. Apart from dealing true damage, it reduces healing and regeneration, which is useful for finishing off an opponent.
	Teleport	This spell is good if you're playing Vlad top. This spell will quickly get you back in lane to save your turret or kill a low life enemy. Additionaly, this is very good for farming, when you see a lane covered in minions.

These runes are pretty standard. You get a nice mix of ap, magic pentration, and health. The health is good for making you tanky and thanks to your passive Crimson Pact, it will also give you some ap.

Alternatly, you could switch the glyphs for Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction .

Crimson Pact Passive: gives AP for helath and health for AP This passive is the key to a tanky Vladimir. The more AP you have, the more health you have, and vice versa. However, the ration between AP per health is a lot lower than the ratio for health per AP. Therefore, building full tank on Vladimir will leave you wanting for AP.

Transfusion Damages an enemy and heals you Vladimir's Q is amazing. It is a point and click ability that not only deals damage to an enemy, but also heals you. In the late game it's cd is as low as 5 sec (without any cdr!). You can use it to last hit a minion or poke an enemy. Always max it first. Crimson Rush is a new feature: after casting [[transfusion] twice, you will get a speed buff, and the next time you cast it it will deal more damage and heal more. What more could you want?

Sanguine Pool You turn into a pool, slowing and damaging enemies Sanguine Pool is vlad's only escape ability, so use it wisely. It has a high price, and it's better to use it when you have low hp. That aside, is can damage and slow anyone who stands on you, and it can avoid anonoying ults like Zed's, Malphite's, Karthus's, Caitlyn's, and so on.

Tides of Blood Vlad damages all surrounding enemies Tides of Blood is your main damage output. Your Q is good for poking and healing, but it never get's very strong. However, Tides of Blood when fully charged deals an additional 10% of your health. Late game, this can be another 300-400 damage. You should always fully charge your tides of blood, because it gives you more damage and slows, unless your very low hp or just clearing a wave that only has a little health left. Don't forget to position yourself so as to maximize the damage against as many opponents as possible.

Hemoplague You increase damage against enemies, and after a delay you damage them and heal. Vladimir's ult is very strong. It affects a group of enemies, damages them, and heals you. Hemoplague should be used at the start of a fight, so as to benefit from the increased damage you deal. Alternately, you can use it to finish off an enemy that you can't catch. Don't forget that it heals you based on the number of champions you hit, so try to hit as many as possible.

Starting Items:

This is a standard tanky start. Doran's has a nice passive, as well as health that blood pact turns into ap. The health pot is for when your low life. I always take these starting items, whether for top lane or mid lane.

Boots:

Sorcerer's shoes give some nice magic penetration, which is good for early game. Mercury's treads are good against mages, though you usually don't need them because you will get Spirit Visage, so don't get them unless the enemy team has a lot of cc. Ionian shoes are the the best way to get 45% cdr with this build, so if that is important to you I recommend you get these boots.

Damage:

This is your main item. It gives you 100 AP (which adds 140 health) and 400 health (which gives you 10 AP). All in all, 110 AP and 540 health. Aside from that, it causes all of your spells to slow enemy, which is good since Vladimir is naturally lacking in cc. Another nice thing about the scepter is that it builds from the Needlessly Large Rod, a Giant's Belt, and an Amplifying Tome, so depending on how much gold you have and whether you need health or ap, you can choose that item first.

Similar to Rylai's Crystal Scepter, this item gives a fair amount of AP and health (although not as much). The passive is also nice, and coupled with rylai's it deals double damage.

Rabadon's is powerful on any mage, and Vladimir is no exception. Not to mention that due to your passive, Rabadon's Deathcap gives a ton of health, making you even more tanky.

The Abyssal Scepter is another standard mage item, that you should get when the enemy has a fed magic user. Additionally, this item is the preferred way of getting 45% cdr, which is very beneficial for Vladimir.

Yet another standard mage item, the Void Staff is good for when the enemy has finally realized how big a threat you are and have bought some MR. Well, it's too late.

Defense:

Spirit visage was tailored for Vladimir (well, maybe). It gives health, 20% cdr, MR, and increase healing and regeneration on yourself. You should always buy this, unless they have no AP, in which the MR will go to waste and you should reconsider the usefulness of this item. I usually get this as my 3rd item, unless I'm desperate for a Zhonya's Hourglass.

Ah, zhonya. A get out of jail free card. It gives (more) AP, armor, and has an awesome active. A nice use of Zhonya's Hourglass is ulting a group of enemies, activating Zhonya, and then getting all your hp back from Hemoplague.

If the MR from Spirit Visage, Abyssal Mask, and Mercury's Treads wasn't enough (or you just chose not to buy them), Banshee's Veil provides some more. In addition, it gives some health and has a nice passive. So if you feel like being more tanky for a relatively low price, take this item.

Personally, I've never taken this item on Vladimir, but if you feel like being having tons of health, be my guest. It complements spirit visage, and has a little cdr, but not much else can be said for it. As mentioned above (in the abilities section), the ratio of AP per health is low, so this 2850 gold item will only give 20 AP.

If Zhonya's Hourglass didn't provide enough armor, then this is the best choice of filling in the gap. It also gives armor, reduces critical strikes, reduces attack speed, and has an active that slows. It's a bundle package, though you usually only need it when your enemies have a very fed AD user.

Laning with Vladimir is pretty straightforwards. Last hit minions with basic attacks or Transfusion. Poke enemy champion with Transfusion or Tides of Blood. When you get Crimson Rush on Transfusion your preferred target is the enemy champion, but since Crimson Rush doesn't last very long, don't worry if your forced to use it on a minion, you'll get it back soon, and you don't want it to go to waste. Feel free to engage the enemy champion, as you probably heal up a lot faster than he can. Save your W Sanguine Pool for escaping ganks or unsuccessful engages. You can also you is for initiating a fight when your jungler is ganking, since it slows.

In my opinion the best way for Vladimir to teamfight is for him to dump his ult on as many enemies as possible, discharge a loaded Tides of Blood, activate Zhonya's Hourglass (assuming they enemy team is focusing you), hit someone with a Transfusion, and then

• pool away from the fight, damaging and slowing enemies above you, and then just poke them with Q's ans W's, or
• pool after the survivors, slowing them with whatever you've got, and then killing them by spamming.

Of course, if your team have abandoned you, then you will have to be pretty fed to survive.... but then again that's what Flash is for.