Vladimir is an AP carry with great damage output, Incredible self heals, and an Ult that increases all damage to that person. Great champion and brings so much to a team comp.

I run magic pen reds for added damage, flat Health yellows for survivability and they scale with his passive, and flat CDR blues because I find the CD on his Q is long early game and that extra CDR gives you more lane sustainability and damage output.

9/21/0. Even though casters will generally go for the utility tree. It's not worth it on Vlad. Many of the masteries in utility are mana based which is pointless because Vlad has none. Defensive tree gives you more survivability and added HP which scales with your passive.

Starting with amp tome and health pot is my standard build. This however may vary depending on who I'm laning against. ex: Karthus. Against karthus I will go with boots to help dodge his Q. This also gives me more HP pots giving me more sustainability.

In most cases I level in this priority R>Q>E>W. However this is all situational. If I find myself having to Sanguine Pool out of fights left and right I'll put more points into that. It all depends on how things are going for me. You should be able to tell for yourself what you need to level first but Q is still the priority because its a hard single target nuke with a heal built into it. Definite necessity.

Flash + Ignite is what I rock normally. But if you wish Ghost + Ignite is also a viable set of skills. I prefer flash though simply because it is such an OP summoner skill and should really be used on every champion you play. So much can be done with it, in both defensive and offensive situations.

Vlad is currently not a top tier pick for AP carries. This means people don't often play him in ranked. The reason for this is simply that he doesn't make the CC that an Annie, Anivia, or Brand can offer. Aside from his slow from his sanguine pool he is purely damage.

Pros: Great damage, Self heals, Escape is easy sauce, Increases total output of team, Overall great team fighter
Cons: Despite his large health pool is still squishy, not a lot of CC, is often out ranged by other AP carrys which may make laning slightly difficult.

Harassing with Q and last hitting with E is what I try to do. But you may not always be able to hit the enemy or you need health back as quick as possible. This makes using Q as a farming ability acceptable.

One of my favorite champions to play. He doesn't take extreme skill and brings great attributes to a team.