Hello mobafire memebers, This will be my first guide with my favorite champ of the league, Vladimir the Crimson Reaper. This build is a AP nuke with a dash of sustain, and if played correctly, you will be practically untouchable.

Pros:
VERY hard to bully out of a lane due to sustain.
Not a "squishy" caster.
Fun champion to play once mastered.
Once fed correctly, practically un-killable.
One of (if not) the best and most versatile W's in the game.

Cons:
EXTREMELY squishy early game.
Will not put out large DPS till around level 9
Best in a solo/mid lane. (Perfectly fine to duo if needed)

Greater mark of Insight + Greater quintessence of Insight: Great magic pen early game, and with your boots, will give you about 25% mage pen.
Greater glyph of Focus: Good cooldown reduction, and late game will make your Q even more spamable with a cooldown of under 3 seconds.
Greater seal of Regeneration: Will give you insane hp regen late game.

You can use other runes like HP per level seals or replace the Quins for something else. But this is just my personal build I've had the most success with.

A basic 9/0/21 build with spell pen for your spells and basically all non mana related support skills.

No surprises here.

You could do 9/21/0, however I don't believe you need to be any more tanky then you are, once you have warmogs, if you play smart, you will not be caught in a situation you can't handle, or escape from.

Your regrowth pendant is not only a small step towards your warmog early game, but also makes you sustain even better early game.

Your next purchase should be boots, so you can poke the enemy with your Q and back off.

Now you should wait till you have around 1225 gold, and gold purchase your Sorcerer's shoes and ruby crystal.

Now you make your first big purchase, Warmogs. I always get **** for this choice but i'll tell you why it works.

VERY Tanky early game-
Snowball's the passive early on-
Gives 20 ability power due to Vlad's passive-
When late game comes around, you will have around 4.5k HP and STILL have great burst damage-

Alright, now that we're done with that explanation, your next essential purchase is Will of the Ancients.

Not only will it give you some nice ability power and health, you get the much needed spell vamp, Now you can Q and E a creep wave and get your health back in no time. Not only that, in teamfights, all of your team will have this as well.

Now you need some damage, you have your sustain, and you have your SV, time for Rabadons.
This will give you the mid game damage you need, and the late game damage you want.

Finally the last two items are your choice. If things are going well, I get a RCS for the slow, and not only that, bonus health and AP. And then a Void Staff, to just tear through champs like butter.

If things are not going your way, I would get an Abyssal Scepter first, and then a spirit visage for the boost in health regen and spell vamp.

Max your Q. As fast as possible, since it will be your main damage output.

Upgrade your ult, whenever possible.

Get your W and E to level 3, and then MAX W. This is very important. Why you may ask? This is where team fights will pop up left and right. And you want your W on a nice low cooldown, and if your smart, before you enter the fight, you should have your stacks of E ready.

Your basic combo should be E then Q, so you have the stack if your arnt prepared. Your role in team fights is not to initiate, but once they have initiated, to drop your ulti because the extra damage dealt is a savior, and hit the most High priority DPS with your combo.

Sanguine Pool as a LAST resort, if things go wrong, best case scenario is to either ghost, or if you used Sanguine to damage, which is sometimes appropriate, wait for the 9 second cooldown, and hope to escape.

NOTE: Sanguine Pool is Vlads trademark in my opinion, although Transfusion is his most used skill, knowing when to Sanguine and when not to, determines how good of a Vlad you are. You can not only heavily damage a group of enemies, but slow them as well, but without ghost, Sanguine is your only effective means of escape

Like I might have stated early, your ghost is for escaping from any dangerous scenario you may encounter.

Exhaust is for the enemies who think they can DPS vlad down early/mid game.

Other Viable Options
Flash- Perfect get out of jail free card if your W is on cooldown, Pop flash over a wall and get to an allied turret as fast as possible.

Heal- Not as great of a choice, unless you expect trouble. Sometimes laning against a Brand, Orianna, or Kogmaw may be troublesome. In this case I would lure them in on low health, initiate with E then Q pop Heal, and then use W to slow them and if needed, use my ulti, but if not, pop them with another Q and it should make the enemy less pushy about your actions, which is what you want

Ignite- Great to combo with your ulti, and Q on an unsuspecting champ for a quick kill.

Overall, Vlad is a fun champ to play. He is squishy early game, and needs proper care to be used successfully, but once you get the ball rolling, Vlad can be an amazing DPS spellcaster and sustain. He has some of the most unique spells and mechanics in the game and can turn the tides of most engagements.

P.S This guide will be updated frequently this week as I add and tweak some things. And also to any down voters, I do not mind if you disliked the guide, but please tell me why in a comment as this is my first guide, and any constructive criticism will be useful as I update my guide throughout this week.

Thank you.