Important: Keep in mind that the first build is core, the rest are viable core options and the last one of team 1 has all items that I feel are good on vladimir. (Some are very situational though... I almost never get thornmail for example.)

The first builds are really standard and I don't really need to explain those, but the last 2 are kinda situational. Most of the time I use these when I know we'll have trouble late game and my lane will be a very farm oriented one. (Opponent can't kill me, but I won't be able to kill my opponent.)

This is mainly to see how I progress. Not so much for others. It allows me to think and rethink my strategies and maybe come up with some new ones.

I currently play at around 1500 elo, which i guess is not horrible, but its certainly not optimal. These build has let me stomp here though.

For the first 4 it's very simple, The runes are there to be able to trade as good as possible in your lane and not have to be more afraid than necessary. (All Runes kinda speak for themselves though) (Obviously get magic resistance to be able to DEAL more dmg) x)

The second rune build I feel I have to explain. This is not optimal in lane, and I don't really recommend them if you feel that you might have a hard time in lane. I've found that spellvamp is not very good on lower levels. 15ap gives you more dmg and not that much less health. But for late game spellvamp really does let you tank a bit more.

Same goes for CDR, early it won't help as much, Vlad doesn't have trouble farming at all and most of the time you can wait for your CDs. Late game CDR pretty much gives you the same % more dmg in team fights. Which is awesome.

Most of the time I go 21/9/0 because I feel that Vlad is often focused, and in most situations the higher health and the higher burst vlad has the more useful he is. The extra AP helps out early too.

But sometimes I go 9/0/21. This I do because of the CDR, spellvamp and the experience boost. It lets me get into late game faster, and I also become much stronger in late game since CDR and Spellvamp scales better with items than the 21/9/0 build.

Rather simple. Bursty AP = Abyssal, Fed Melee or many melee = Randuins Omen, Fed ad carry = thornmail, AD heavy = hourglass. Very simple. The spellbook of snowball can also be a very fun. Not really viable if you can't stack it... Insanly viable if you can. Just get if you think its little to no risk.

Use E if you feel safe pushing, otherwise just keep yourself at full health and freeze the lane best you can. I think its very comfortable to just push your creeps into the enemy turret and then harras the person under it. Usually you can take a turret hit and still win the trade be safe past lvl 7.

It's almost never a good idea to initate as vlad. Maybe pop your ult to make your team go in, but vlad is not 'that' much more tanky then other APs anymore.