Vladimir is one of the few mages that can go top and still be tanky, fitting well in a lot of enemy compositions and your own team compositions.
A good reason to pick Vladimir is because he has huge sustain, has great dueling potential, if you make him tanky or sometimes full tank and he will still have a decent amount of damage, or build full AP and still have decent tank stats, all because of his awesome passive.

For the runes you should consider this do you want to be offensive or do you want to be tanky.
Actually you must get:
- Percent health Seals
- Spell Vamp. Quints
- Magic Pen. Marks
- Magic Pen. Glyphs

This is optimal for Vladimir

Consider having 21-9-0 Masteries getting the Max. HP Defensive Mastery

At lvl 6 this should be your basic combo:
- Wait until you have the 4 stacks of your E.
- Start with your Ult.
- Use Q.
- Then use E, if you can start the fight with enemy minions clsoe to you it will mean more heal from E.
- Some auto-attacks.
- Use rapid Q and E.
- Use W to prevent scapes.
- If enemy survives follow with some more Q and E.

If you are having troubles you should get Q, then E, then W.
Max Q first, then W, then E, so you can escape easier, because Vladimir has no gap closer or dash.

If you feel confident Max Q first, then E, then W.
This will let you heal more often with E and get more damage.

Do not forget to get Ult. whenever you can.

For summoner spells this are the best
Flash: To pass walls in hard situations.
Ghost: Pool + Ghost = Easy escape.
Ignite: To get kills, also its enhanced with his Ult.
Heal: Enhanced with Spirit Visage meaning more for Vladimire since he uses HP as resource.

Pros:
- Good poking
- High sustain
- Always tanky
- Great synergy with most of champions
- Easy to learn, Medium to master
- Can go in all lanes

Cons:
- No stuns
- No gap closer, dash or boost of speed(but the pool grants a bit of speed when used for a second)
- Uses HP as resource
- Weak aginst stuns
- Weak against Liandry-Morellonomicon
- Weak against champions that can deal percent hp damage,Grievous Wounds or constant damage such as poisons, burns, etc
- Ignite can be extremely effective

Your most important role is to apply your Ult. to the Max. ammount of enemy champs as possible, so your team can deal more damage, beside that your role is to safely poke with your Q and E, and if possible to tank with your defensive stats.

While chasing your duty is to pool your enemy to make your team work easy.

Vladimir is the olny champion that can directly heal while using abilities that cost HP.

His unique passive makes him tanky regardless of the item build.

His Ult. is the only one that affects how much damage your entire team does to the entire enemy team if used well.

Try to farm as much as possible with auto-attacks.

If possible try to use your E to poke and farm at the same time.

Save your Q to poke instead of farm.