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Spells:
Flash
Ghost
Items
Ability Order
Crimson Pact (PASSIVE)
Vladimir Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Irelia
Irelia's damage and mobility are the bane of your existence. She's able to close the gap to you very easily, and can sustain fairly well, comparable to you. Her stun can set up ganks very easily, and her kit helps her keep up with you in every step, whether it's sustain, gap closing, or CC. In teamfights, she's generally very hard to pry off of carries, so the best thing you can do is just hit hers. She's easier to kill late game than you are, seeing as you have plenty of ways to drop aggro, where as she has nothing.
Vladimir, THE UNSTOPPABLE!
Vladimir is a champion who can be described by many things. Tanky, DPS, hypercarry, mage. He possesses great AoE power, and is overall a very strong champion, if played right. He has his limits when it comes to certain matchups, but even with the hardest matchups he can outscale them very hard if you play it correctly. |
Pros
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+ Strong teamfighting + Good sustain (Post 9) + Tankier of the mages + A monster when fed + Strong teamfighter + Good escapability + Fairly good bounce back + Great AoE DPS |
Vlad is a great champion, so long as he just farms up and stays safe for the larger part of the early game. Basically, know where he's good. 1v1's, aren't where he's good. By bounce back, I mean unless you get absolutely DESTROYED in lane phase, you can generally come back and be a good help to the team through your AoE damage. |
Cons
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+ Short range + Low Sustain (Pre 9) + Very fragile early game + Has a lot of awful matchups top and mid + Item/farm dependent |
Vlad has some issues, most of which revolve around his early game. He can't sustain, he's not very pokey, he's not very durable. Some of the matchups you'll face will literally make you hate playing him, but if you learn how to "beat" them through passivity, you'll be fine. |
Crimson Pact: This ability allows Vlad to gain AP off of HP, and HP off of AP.
- Any item that gives both HP and AP, like Rylai's or Liandry's makes this ability very effective.
- Rabadon's Deathcap also increases your HP by 1.05%.
- This is why Vlad is considered one of the tankiest mages in the game, if not THE tankiest.
- This is best coupled with some resistances, making your effective HP even better.
Transfusion: This is what makes Vlad, Vlad. A damaging ability that heals Vlad for a base amount plus a bit of his AP.
- This is a very spammable ability late game, getting to less than 3 seconds with enough CDR.
- It's best to last hit with either or else your autoattacks, to save this ability for harassment/counter harassment.
- This ability is the reason why Vlad's level 9 is insanely strong, and only gets stronger from there.
- The normal heal from this ability, coupled with Spell vamp AND a Spirit Visage allow Vlad to heal for insane amounts from 1 spell, upwards of 600 or more.
Sanguine Pool: This ability makes Vlad untargetable and allows him to slow enemies above him.
- Sanguine Pool is a great escape, especially now that summoner spells can be used in it.
- At the same time, Sanguine Pool can also be used as an engage with to help your teammates catch up.
- If you know noone's going to gank you and your opponent has backed, Sanguine Pool can heal you for quite a bit if used on a group of minions.
- Beware of damage over time spells, as they will continue to hurt you in your pool!
Tides of Blood: This is an AoE, which, every time it's used, boosts healing effects and deals more and more damage.
- Be careful of spamming this early game, as it costs a great deal of HP early on.
- This ability is best stacked before you use or as it will increase the healing you gain from them.
- Try to keep this stacked before you enter late game teamfights, as with full stacks, you'll be dealing nearly 500 damage in an AoE around you every 2 seconds.
- Tides of Blood boosts ALL regen effects, so feel free to use it while you pop a health potion.
Hemoplague: THIS is what makes Vlad a literal monster in teamfights. 12% damage amplification to affected enemies for 5 seconds, in an AoE.
- This ability amplifies ITS' own damage!
- Hemoplague is best used on as many enemies as possible, as it generally guarantees a won teamfight.
- This ability is why Vlad works so well with tanky AoE initiators, like or .
- When coupled with , the result is horrifyingly strong, as you'll kill most squishies within 2 spell casts of this.
- Combined with a DFG, Vlad can have 32% damage amplification on a single target.
As you can see from that, I was a great deal of our team's damage and gold income, thanks to both being fed and then mainly the farm that I had, virtually double the rest of my team's farm. The idea is to have the highest gold income (which is the point of any carry, but especially hard carries) so that you can dominate the enemy team. Whether you do that by farming or by kills, it doesn't matter, but farming, FOR VLAD ESPECIALLY is the easier and safer way. Generally speaking, Vlad shouldn't be going for kills early, as he couldn't duel his way out of a paper bag.
Oh baby. AP. Yeah no, 80 AP isn't why this item is delicious for our blood lord. The 20% spell vamp and 10% CDR is. Imagine, your spells that already heal you, HEAL YOU EVEN MORE. Your improve spell vamp by a percentage, making this item even more effective than it already was. Generally, I like to get this item first.
These boots allow Vlad to have some good mobility and magic pen all in one. If you're wondering why I don't go for , I get my CDR from other areas. Generally speaking, I go for the Distortion enchantment so that my summoner spells are always up, that way I can engage much easier.
If you were wondering where my CDR was coming from, this was it. 10% CDR, when coupled with runes, masteries and , is very strong. It also gives you some good HP and regen, which, thanks to your passive gives you a bit of AP. But the BIG reason this item is so great, is because of the passive. Boosted healing effects. On a champion, where everything besides ONE ability is a healing effect, and when combined with WoTA, EVERYTHING becomes a healing effect, this item is great. I like to get it third after my WoTA and boots.
So, we're done with the core stuff. Now onto THE FUN STUFF!
Oh lord I love this item. Armor, AP, and a bit of HP from your passive! However, that's not the best part about it. This goes INCREDIBLY well with , being able to go from being untargetable to invulnerable BACK to untargetable! This also can be used to survive a fight where you know will kill the enemy, and when you would die if you could otherwise be hit. It's great for baiting out certain ultimates as well, like and , if your pool is on cooldown, anyway.
My personal favorite MR item outside of Visage, for Vlad. Given Vlad's short range, the aura of this item is almost always applied, allowing him to both have increased damage through the MR reduction and the AP. In addition to this, patch 4.20 gave this item a slight buff, increasing the MR the item itself gives, which is great for Vlad.
With all the aggro drop abilities Vlad has from and , why not have one more? GA has great resistances that help make Vlad very difficult to kill in the first place, coupled with his ability to be untouchable through both pool and hourglass. The other thing that makes this item beautiful, is the fact that when is stacked while Guardian Angel pops, you revive with even more HP than you would normally, and Spirit Visage only makes that amount even larger.
GLORIOUS CC! This item right here is MADE for Vlad. A lot of HP, which in turn gives you AP, and a lot of AP, which in turn gives you HP. But that's not all! Your spells now apply SLOWS! YOU CAN ACTUALLY STOP SOMEONE! CRAZY, RIGHT?! Rylai's is a wonderful item if you find yourself in desperate need to kite or chase, but with the summoner setup I use, I don't find it necessary. HOWEVER, I'm just some dude typing letters on a screen, so if you want it, go for it.
Oh lord. Tons of AP. Which means tons of HP. Percent increased AP. Which means percent increased HP. Generally speaking, unless a very large portion of my team is tanky and we need more damage, I don't buy this item, as Vlad needs resistances to stay in a teamfight for a good amount of time, which he needs to deal out DPS. But again, everything is situational.
Who ever you need to LITERALLY erase, this'll help you out. Combine this with Hemoplague for 32% damage amplification. WTF. In addition to this, this item gives good CDR and good AP, and in turn, HP. All in all, this is very situational, as it isn't that great in terms of damage output compared to .
This is a great item to burn through HP with, and thanks to your passive, you gain good HP and AP from it, even more so than usual. This isn't an item I get often as usually Vlad doesn't have a huge problem until someone hits over 4k HP.
Do you hate MR? Does the enemy team love it? PUNISH THEM FOR IT.
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OFFENSE TREE
In tier 1, Sorcery and Butcher helps Vlad to spam his spells and CS better, as his autoattacks suck. In tier 2, Expose Weakness allows your Hemoplague to give damage amplification to your team even after it's proc'd, along with all your other spells, and Mental Force gives you good scaling AP. In tier 3, Arcane Mastery gives you good flat AP for the beginning of the game, and 2 points into Executioner helps you to deal more damage when finishing off an enemy. In tier 4, % boosted AP works wonders with both your passive and just your overall damage. |
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DEFENSE TREE
In tier 1, the HP regen helps you to sustain, and reduced AA damage helps you early game vs. many top laners. The % increased resistances comes into play late game, when you're extremely tanky in part thanks to it. In tier 2, Unyielding helps to again reduce damage you take from champions, and Veteran's Scars gives you some nice beginning of the game HP. In tier 3, Oppression helps as generally speaking Vlad's team will have at least a bit of CC, allowing him to stay healthy from the reduction in damage. In addition to this, Juggernaut works very well with Vlad's passive, allowing him to gain a bit more AP because of it, in addition to giving good HP. |
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UTILITY TREE
In tier 1, I pick up the move speed, as it helps me kite around my opponents and get into teamfights easier. |
Now runes step up to the plate.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: These give you a nice boost of AP and HP thanks to your passive, yet fall off a bit late game.
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: These quints allow you to kite quite a bit easier, and enter fights quite a bit easier, good generally all game.
Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp: These quints are a great choice for survivability, and help a bit during lane phase, and a lot in late game teamfights, allowing you to sustain very well with them.
Greater Seal of Scaling Health: These are my personal choice for seals, as they work well with Vlad's passive.
Greater Seal of Armor: If you're against an AD lane you're not sure about, these will help you survive your early game troubles.
Greater Glyph of Ability Power: Whether they're scaling or flat, these work well for an increase in AP, and therefore HP.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: I prefer a mix of scaling and flat, that way I get to about 35% CDR with my full build, and still have survivability early game, as the flat CDR allows me to spam my Q more.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: These work well if against a hard AP lane as flat, say , and give you good resistances late game as scaling ones.
Vlad's early game is god-awful. Your cooldowns are long, your trading sucks, and overall, you're just useless. Stay safe, and just farm up.
MID GAME
Around here is where Vlad hits his infamous level 9. Guess what's at full rank! That's right, your ...wait, I mean your ! Your true strength is just now attained, and yet your enemies have no idea of what approaches.
LATE GAME
Vladimir hits late game like a boxer hitting a speed bag. Now is when teamfights occur. Now is when being able to heal up quickly is your ally, and where long cooldowns are your enemy. THIS is where Vladimir becomes Vlad. If you've stayed on top of your farm and not dying, you're going to be a gigantic threat, if not the biggest one.
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Ziggs has AMAZING AoE potential, to the point where everything he has is AoE. While he doesn't help a ton in the CC aspect, AoE damage is his specialty. |
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Graves is an AD carry with lots of AoE burst, capable of dealing a lot of damage to a lot of targets at once. Combo his AoE with yours, and you have a terrifying amount of doom. |
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