What type of dog does every vampire have?

A Bloodhound!


Ok ok bad jokes aside...

Overview -

Vlad on first look is a very strong choice and one of the best mid-lane characters ive seen. He wont start out strong but he has one of the best last hit abilities around. Like I said vlad doesnt shine early against anyone who is up to snuff. But when he hits mid-game (Level 9). He reaches the point where his Q spell is insanely low on cooldowns. If you choose to Harass or last hit with this ability you cant go wrong. It's easy to chasethe opposing champion out of your lane or racking up last hit after (LH). If you follow this build closely enemy champions will have little to no magic resistance. Your Q spell alone will be on a 2.3 cooldown and doing roughly 650-750 damage and also self heal for at least 250 - 275. Bear in mind this build does require you to build stacks and survive appropriately.

Summoner Spells -

I use the summoner spells Ignite and Ghost for the extra damage output and escape ability.
Ignite is very valuable for the fact it scales with Vlad's ultimate (Hemoplague). This ability causes the enemy champions or minions inside its radius to take 14% more damage when afflicted. Therefore Ignite will not do insane ammounts of damage but I have caught many unaware with the combined finishing damage between them killing them when they think they have made it free and clear. I use the ghost spell for initiating and escape utility. It allows your Sanguine pool ability to let you escape almost any situation. In turn it also allows you to catch enemy champions and snare them using the same ability allowing your team to catch up for the easy kill(s).

Skills Build -

(Passive) - Vlad converts
Ability Power into Health
Health into Ability Power (These do not stack together)

(Q)Transfusion (Maxed First) - Easily Your strongest ability - A must have for its insane
Damage, Self Healing Properties, last hit properties,
Extremely low cooldown, and it also allows you to never
leave your lane.

(W)Sanguine Pool (Maxed Last) - Besides doing slightly more damage and having a shorter
cooldown this ability is neccessary for vlad to escape
dangerous situations and slow enemy champions. It isnt
reliable for farming. Because it deducts 20% of Vlad's
Maximum HP this will hurt a lot more if Vlad is full HP.

(E) Tides of Blood - (Farming Ability) - This ability is great for aoe damage it does
slight damage to Vlad but massive damage to
enemies. This ability also increases Vlad's
Regeneration and Healing. (Remember Q)

(R) Hemoplague (Ultimate Ability) - It may not do as much damage as other mages ults.
But combined with other abilites/ults it will
guarantee an easy kill on the enemy team. It also is
great for its delayed explosion which can catch a
Narrow escape. The damage increase is from all sources.

Rune Selection -

Greater Seal of Insight - Magic penetration is key to Vlad's damage allowing him to
penetrate all of an enemys base magic resist.
This Rune gives the most flat magic penetration.

Greater Seal of Vitality - Giving Vlad more health is key allowing him to survive longer
and in turn giving him more ability power from his passive.
This rune gives the most HP over time.

Greater Glyph of Force - Early game Vlad is not very powerful so he benefits more from
AP over time runes. This allows him to dominate the mid and
late game periods. This Ability power also benefits his passive
giving him more health.

Greater Quintessence of Potency and Fortitude -

I mixed these two to give my vlad more starting health and flat ability power so he doesnt get outdone early game. I didnt find the flat penetration runes benefited him any more than these runes. These also benefit his passive ability.


Masteries -

9 / 21 / 0

Reaching Archaic Knowledge is crucial. Flat Penetration aside this along with Void Staff allows you to penetrate 55% of an enemies magic resistance. So even when you meet that pesky enemy tank (stacking magic resistance) you can still do steady damage to them .

I chose the Defensive tree because it gives passive health (48), reduced damage (4%), and increased ability power (4%). I found this to be more effective overall than the support tree.

Item Selection -

(Vlad's bread and butter)
I chose Amplifying tome first for its flat AP and extra health.
I quickly convert this item into a Mejai's Soulstealer
Next I choose Sorcerers Boots to bring me up to roughly 30 flat Spell penetration.
(This is equal to most champions base magic resistance)
I then build my Rylai's Crystal Scepter as soon as possible. By this time I am usually level 9 and can spam transfusion making good use of this items slow ability.
I chose my last 3 items on their high AP and penetration effects.
The last item is up for conjecture but I chose it for the extra survivability. This is totally situational.

I hope you enjoyed my rundown of the champion Vlad.