Welcome future Vlad players, as you might not know, my name is TheRealDeal. This very guide will be my first guide ever posted on Mobafire. I have been on the LC forums for quite some time, but never actually posted on Moba. Hope you will enjoy, and don't criticize me too hard.

There is a temple hidden in the mountains between Noxus and the Tempest Flats, where the secrets of an ancient and terrifying sorcery are kept. The area surrounding the temple is littered with the exsanguinated corpses of those who have mistakenly wandered too close. These served only to pique the curiosity of Vladimir, when – in his youth – he trekked through these mountains during his flight from Noxus. A day earlier, the teenaged Vladimir had brutally murdered two boys his age, for no better reason than to enjoy the intoxicating scarlet bloom that surged forth. He realized immediately that he would never be able to suppress his murderous desires, and if he remained in Noxus, his foul deeds were sure to catch up with him. Without hesitation, he abandoned the city-state, and journeyed south.
The trail of bodies led him to a crumbling stone temple. Inside he found an aging monk who appraised him with eyes of pure crimson. Vladimir surprised the monk by returning the wicked gaze with zeal. Recognizing the boy’s sinister craving, the monk taught Vladimir how to manipulate and control the fluid of life, often practicing on passing travelers. When it came time for Vladimir to learn the final lesson, the monk warned that failure would result in death. Vladimir did not fail, but success bore a grisly surprise. During the ritual, every drop of the monk’s blood was drawn from his body and fused with Vladimir’s, imbuing him with his master's magical essence, and that of every hemomancer before him. Left alone and suddenly without purpose, Vladimir resolved to return to Noxus, demanding enrollment in the League to prove the supremacy of his craft. When the Noxian High Command observed the gruesome fates which befell the palace guards, they elected to avail themselves of Vladimir's unsavory talents.

"That which runs through you will run you through."

That's a very good question you ask there. There are more solotops in the game then any other role, so you will have a variety of picks. A few simple reasons why Vlad stands out:

1: Our little vampire is the king of sustain, IF you get spell vamp rather early. Vladimir with a hextech revolver will be able to stay in lane forever, while other champs in top with lots of sustain, like Olaf, will eventually have to go back when they run out of mana. Since Vladimir doesn't have mana, this will never happen.
2: A Vlad top with a WotA is very good in combination with a mid champ like Kennen, Cass, Ahri who also use WotA. This will make your healing in fights even better, and it may help you survive.
3: Vladimir is fun to play. His W can be used in many ways, so does his ulti. And its always fun to suck enemy's blood, am i right??

For runes i take a unusual setup. I dont want to waste lots of time on runes, but i will explain my choices for these particular runeset:
: The magic pen will make your healing from Q even better, and its just the best Mark for Vlad.
: Why armor? Because 80 percent of the time your lane opponent is AD, making you less vulnerable to damage.
: Vlad scales sooo well with CDR, making this an excellent choice. Since my build doesn't include a lot of CDR, this kinda makes up for it.
: Vlad benefits from these due to his passive, giving you extra AP for it. AP Quints might work too, but the health you get from is no so great as the health Quints with AP bonus.

These are just regular AP Top masteries for me, i dont think there is much to say about them. You might want something like buff duration, but i really recommend these.

The items are very standard, but there are some changes u can make to them:

Abyssal Mask can be switched for a Deathcap if more damage is needed.
Guardian Angel can be switched for either a Deathcap or something like a Banshee's or a Thornmail, depending on the enemy team.
Merc Traids can be switched for either CDR or Magic Pen boots.

This is up to you, and items are always situational.

Ghost and Heal give you a very safe laning phase, making you not vulnerable to ganks, and these 2 will be fine lategame as well.

Other options are:
Flash (but ghost/W is wayyyy better)
Ignite (but always instead of heal)
Exhaust (not recommended, but if your supp takes CV, you might want it)

His passive Innate: Every 40 points of bonus health grants Vladimir 1 ability power and every 1 point of ability power grants Vladimir 1.4 bonus health. These bonuses do not stack with themselves.
Q:(Active): Vladimir drains the lifeforce of his target, dealing magic damage and healing himself.
W:(Active): Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood becoming untargetable for 2 seconds and slowing enemies above him by 40% for 1 second. Additionally, he deals magic damage every half second to them and heals himself for 12.5% of the damage done.
E:(Active): Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies.
Each cast of Tides of Blood gives him an Empowered stack, which increases his healing and regeneration and causing his next Tides of Blood to deal 25% more base damage but cost 25% more health. This lasts for 10 seconds, and stacks up to four times.
R:(Active): Vladimir infects all enemies in the target area with a virulent plague which increases the damage they take from all sources by 12% for 5 seconds. After these 5 seconds, infected enemies take magic damage.

Use:
Transfusion is very good for laning, but not the best dmg skill out there. Use it wise early, because the CD is quite long till lvl 7 at least.
Sanguine Pool is the best escape skill in the game. Combined with Ghost you will never be caught.
Tides of Blood is a good farming item, and keeping it stacked will benefit you very well. Try to keep this up as much as possible, but be warned! Early it costs a lot of HP.
Hemoplague is a good spell due to its damage over time, but it is not very spammable due to its high CD, and doesn't burst people down. Wait for teamfights to use it on everyone, or you wont be able to do much in fights.

Yes, i take this because Vlad is vulnerable earlygame, and this will help me escape lvl 2 gank from Lee or Shaco. You can get E at lvl 2, but for safety take W.

Vladimir is a very good ranked pick, but he might get banned sometimes. If you play ranked, make sure your AP carry will get a WotA as well, for a wayy better teamfight.

Early Vladimir is very vulnerable, wait for him to get till lvl 9 or so to be able to dominate the lane.

Midgame Vlad is quite decent, but not the best of all, mostly you want to survive this phase with few to none deaths.

Lategame Vlad is beast. Yes it is. He can completely lock a target down, stay on him and win you fights. A good lategame team with Vlad can be : Vladimir, Ahri, Vayne, Nunu & Willump and Trynda(jungle)

All together, this is how i play Vlad. THIS IS NOT the best build out there, but i use it and wanted to share it with you. If youre not busy please rate and leave a comment,
good criticism is always appreciated.

Thanks a lot and have a good day.

Special Thanks to:
ArmyOfTheUndead (ingame name)
TSU Imotion (ingame name)

Some fun trivia:
Vladimir was designed by Ezreal (person).

Vladimir's name is inspired from Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century Romanian King that later inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.

It should be noted that Vladimir is a Slavic name, as Vlad comes from "Vláda" meaning "Reign", while "Mir" meaning both "World" and "Peace". So Vladimir's full name means either "reign of peace" or, more likely, "reign over the world".

Vladimir was the second champion released in Season One, Xin Zhao being the first.

Vladimir was one of the champions chosen for the Noxian pool available during the Ionia vs. Noxus match. He was one of the selected champions.
According to Vladimir himself in the Journal of Justice, he does not directly drink blood. Rather, he drains the life force out of his victims.

Many of his lines are plays on popular lines meant to reflect his vampiric attributes, such as "The clot thickens." instead of "The plot thickens."
Vladimir's joke is a pun on his blood type.
Blood Lord Vladimir's quote "Kneel before Vlad." is a reference to General Zod, a prominent villain from the Superman comics.
His quote "I am lord and master" is a reference to Foamy The Squirrel from the Neurotically Yours web-series.
SkinsEdit

Vladimir's Count skin is in reference to Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Vladimir's Marquis skin is in reference to Lestat de Lioncourt, the vampire from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles.

Vladimir's Nosferatu skin is in a reference to the 1922 movie Nosferatu, the very first vampire motion picture ever made.

In the Chinese Vandal skin art, you see a clear figure of Brand on the other motorcycle, and Gragas is behind him on his own.

Blood Lord skin is the second non-comical legendary skin, the first one belonging to Tryndamere.