So first thing, the rune page while making this build doesn't show the right glyphs I normally use for Vlad, which are Potency (flat ability power). I feel these work better than the @ level 18 runes because it gives a better early game.

-Guide isn't completely finished but I'll update it as time goes on.

For runes I always take the following.

Greater Mark of Insight x9 - +.95 Magic Penetration (+8.5 Magic Penetration)
Greater Seal of Focus x9 - +.29% Cool down Reduction (+2.65% CDR)
Greater Glyph of Potency x9 - +1.19 Ability Power (+11 Ability Power)
Greater Quintessence of Potency x3 - +4.95 Ability Power (+15 Ability Power)

Including the masteries and the amplifying tome, this gives you 54 AP at level 1. Which is enough to keep you sustained until you can really buy something.

This is where I put my defense masteries since I use runes for it. I build Vlad 21-9-0 for offense instead of CDR. I feel he has enough CDR because, lets be honest, 3 seconds on his Q really isn't that bad especially if you get used to it.

For the offense page, you want all the AP/Magic Pen because if you picked up Vlad, you typically want to play him mildly aggressive unless you're up against Fiddlesticks mid, which is pretty much the only ******** counter to Vlad.

For the defensive masteries, it depends whether you want to play him solo top or solo mid (and what the current meta is at the time) Since typically the current meta at this time says AP mid is much preferred, you'd be 3 points in magic resists and 1 in armor, 4 in 'Durability' and 1 in 'Veterans Scars'. If you're playing solo top and there's an AD, you'd just switch the magic resist for the armor and you're set.

-The stats in the beginning are wrong, I end up all the time with above 3k health (around 3.5k because of Rylais)-

Items are almost all the time situational when it comes to mid/late game. Although 3 of my core items that I always get first are Will of the Ancients, Rylais Crystal Scepter, and Sorcerers Shoes/Boots of Lucidity. The boots really depend if I'm doing extremely well in farm or not. If I feel I'm a bit under-farmed and could use the extra damage boost I'll go ahead and get Sorcerers, but if I'm doing extremely well and pushing them back, I'll buy Lucidity boots to keep on the extra harass.

Usually I like to get Void Staff over Deathcap but once again, if you're doing extremely well and can afford Deathcap relatively soon, go ahead and buy that.

Also I see some people who build boots and 3 hp pots at the start, but personally I don't really like that as it doesn't give much of a harassing feel since you're lacking a bit AP. But it's all personal preference I suppose.

Another item I see people get in Warmogs on Vlad, and I'm not criticizing but when I build extra health instead of ability power, it keeps you doing less damage than you could be doing. You get enough health to sustain (in my own opinion) with building straight AP. And when you're complete with your build, buy elixirs! They help so much and buying just the blue elixir during laning phase is a great help as well.

Obviously you want to max Q first as it's you're main offensive spell. Next should be you're E *Tides of Blood* for great farming potential. Once you hit level 7 and you're Q is at level 4, it becomes so much easier to balance farming and harassing with that semi-low cool down.

You should take 1 point in Sanguine Pool and leave it there since its usually a utility spell. I usually only use it if I'm getting ganked while laning. But you can also dodge a number of spells/ultimate's with it. For example, Karthus' ult, Fizz's ult, Caitlyns ult (which I'm not sure if it resets hers back to cool down or not, but even so that's around 4 seconds to get away.

For summoner spells I like to grab ghost and ignite since it's what I've been using since the start of playing him, but flash isn't really a bad choice either. Plus flash is a longer cool down compared to ghost, and the mastery in the offensive tree gives a bonus to both ghost and ignite so its knocking two birds out with one stone.

Other good spells but not really necessary
-Exhaust - Nice to have but you can slow with you pool if you really need to catch it. The reason why I don't like it is because whether or not you have exhaust they most likely will just flash.

Pros
-VERY good sustain in lane, especially after hextech/WOTA
-Excellent kiting abilities.
-Good amount of damage to balance farm/harass.
-Funny to call when they're going to die with his ult (lol)

Cons
-One get-a-way spell, with a relatively long *** cool down (if you blow it while chasing someone, you're very vulnerable within the ~20 seconds its down)
-Squishy defense wise (Yeah his passive builds off AP/HP but he doesn't really have much MR/Armor. So he just soaks all the damage and goes down semi-quickly.

From levels 1-5 you should focus on auto-attacking the creeps instead of using your Q on them (since the CD on Transfusion is a bit high early game). I like to save my Transfusion for when I go in and harass a bit of when I absolutely need HP (when they're aggressive as hell).

Hemoplague can be used as a good initiator since during a team fight everybody loves to stick together. I've noticed Fiddlesticks ult along with Hemoplague is a really good initiator as well (kinda obvious, both AoE spells)