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Vladimir - Thirsty for blood.
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Spells:
Ghost
Ignite
Ability Order
Crimson Pact (PASSIVE)
Vladimir Passive Ability
How to be a Hemomancer




9x

9x Seal of Vitality - Not many seals benefit Vlad, unless you build tank and use Armor. I take these HP/lvl because the flat ones are quickly out-scaled, and they wind up giving you a little AP late-game.
9x

3x

If you don't like these, some useful replacements are: Flat HP Quintessences, flat HP yellows, Armor yellows (if you build tank), or AP/lvl blues. In the end runes won't make or break you; that's up to your skill with the champ. Runes should support your own play style, so pick the ones that will work best for you. :)
Masteries
With Vlad, masteries are very forgiving. I go 9/0/21 because it is most useful to me. I tend to get ganked a lot, so the quickly-refreshed Ghost is great. Not to mention I can start with nearly 15% CDR, have my Ignite up when I want/need it, and get the wonderful buff duration extension.
I have tried many other mastery builds, and here are some successful ones:
10 / 19 / 1 - You get the bonus 10 AP from Ignite usage, 4% AP and survivability benefits from Defense, and the Ghost mastery. I often use this if I see I need to build off-tank for the game.
9 / 21 / 0 - Fairly similar to the previous build, except you're tankier.
9 / 16 / 5 - Gets you to the bonus health and gives you a small dip into the EXP mastery. I didn't really like this one, but it did work well.
In the end, Masteries are very flexible. Just do what you like most. :)
Ah yes, the infamous question: "Wtf is that build, Vlad?" When I first used this build, I had great late-games. My early-game was ****, but it kicked off HELLA' hard. Worked on it and worked on it, and eventually settled on how to gain maximum efficiency:
Start with an
Amplifying Tome, and quickly build into
Hextech Revolver. The Spell Vamp gives you even more regen from Q, especially when you start getting high AP. It allows you a lot more freedom for harassing early-game, and will keep you in the lane a lot longer. Tried many other starting items, and they are all trumped by this baby.
Next you get your
Boots, then a
Blasting Wand. Upgrade the boots depending on the enemy team (you may need Merc Treads, or if you can tell it's a faceroll get Boots of Lucidity for more spam). Follow your boots with
Kindlegem for more spam, and then get
Rabadon's Deathcap.
From here on, it's fairly situational. I usually build pure caster after
Spirit Visage, which further improves the HP gain from Q, getting
Rylai's Crystal Scepter and
Will of the Ancients, and finished with
Void Staff. But sometimes things require you to build differently.
If you need to build tanky, try to get items that give HP and resistances. That way your passive doesn't make the items completely useless (HP = AP). Some other good items are:
Morello's Evil Tome - Good AP, great CDR.
Randuin's Omen - HP, Armor, AoE speed/AS debuff.
Sunfire Aegis - HP, Armor, AoE damage. Phreak was right, too: Real vampires sparkle. :P
Aegis of the Legion - HP, Armor, MR, and a very important team aura.
This came to me when I played a game with a friend quite some time ago. They were playing aura Sona and rushed Will of the Ancients. I got it too since it was effectively a +110 AP item then, and then I realized: 40% Spell Vamp.
WHOA. WHOA NOW. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Math time:
Let's say
Transfusion, rank 5, hits for 500 damage with your 250 AP. That means:
Ability heal = (500 x .25) + (AP x .6) = 125
40% Spell Vamp heal = 500 x .4 = 200
325 is now increased by 15% from Spirit Visage, meaning a net heal of: 374, EVERY 2 SECONDS.
Soraka and Nidalee got nothin' on you. I'm so surprised I never see Vlad's using this item combo, because it's just... it's almost broken, in all honesty. That means abuse it while it lasts! :D
Start with an


Next you get your




From here on, it's fairly situational. I usually build pure caster after




If you need to build tanky, try to get items that give HP and resistances. That way your passive doesn't make the items completely useless (HP = AP). Some other good items are:




Q: Why Hextech Revolver/Will of the Ancients?
This came to me when I played a game with a friend quite some time ago. They were playing aura Sona and rushed Will of the Ancients. I got it too since it was effectively a +110 AP item then, and then I realized: 40% Spell Vamp.
WHOA. WHOA NOW. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Math time:
Let's say

Ability heal = (500 x .25) + (AP x .6) = 125
40% Spell Vamp heal = 500 x .4 = 200
325 is now increased by 15% from Spirit Visage, meaning a net heal of: 374, EVERY 2 SECONDS.
Soraka and Nidalee got nothin' on you. I'm so surprised I never see Vlad's using this item combo, because it's just... it's almost broken, in all honesty. That means abuse it while it lasts! :D


Once you get some CDR, this thing is killer. It has a high AP ratio, great HP return (especially with Spell Vamp and Spirit Visage), and less than a 2 second CD with max CDR. If you get Rylai's, you can basically permanently slow someone with this thing.

DO NOT INITIATE WITH THIS ABILITY. It makes me laugh when I see a Vlad use this for the damage. This thing is a middle finger to any ability your enemy throws at you, so WHY would you use it for damage? Save it for when they throw their ult at you, dodge it, and laugh as you rape them.
Sometimes you need to use this for the slow. It's a large AoE slow, which can save an ally. You really need to learn when to use this, because supporting someone with it can gimp your escape later on.
BE WISE. Don't pool at full HP, unless you have to. Of course if you're about to face-tank an Ashe Arrow, dodge it. But please just take those little harasses if you have enough HP, because that could literally be a life-or-death choice. Saving this for the last second usually means you turned a death into a kill.

You do rank this last, though, for one important reason: HP cost increases with rank, but healing gain does not. At level 1 you still gain 8% increased healing per stack, so it's really useless to rank it. The damage is only good late-game when you have high-AP and can out-heal the cost.

The biggest thing I see people do wrong is initiate with this. If you use this first, people just run. They wait it out, take the damage, and get healed up. You wasted it. However, if you wait for the fight to start, then use it, you gain full effect. They can't run because the fight has already started and your team will just chase, and staying just means more and more damage. It really screws them over!
For team fights, you have a pretty standard combo:
Poke with
Transfusion, keep
Tides of Blood stacks up.
Use
Hemoplague when you know the fight has started.
Spam
Transfusion and
Tides of Blood.
Use
Sanguine Pool when you get focused and are about to die.
You tend to not get focused as Vlad, just because people see your high HP bar and know you have Sanguine Pool. Often I find people try to bait Pool, then go all out when you come out of it. Try not to take the bait. If they harass you down, find a creep or champ to Transfuse. Hold off on Pool as long as possible!
Poke with


Use

Spam


Use

You tend to not get focused as Vlad, just because people see your high HP bar and know you have Sanguine Pool. Often I find people try to bait Pool, then go all out when you come out of it. Try not to take the bait. If they harass you down, find a creep or champ to Transfuse. Hold off on Pool as long as possible!
Vlad is a great champion IMO, but he's not the best caster out there. If you're looking for a pure-AP nuke, you're better off reading a guide on Annie. But, if you're looking for a powerful AP nuke with incredible safety nets, Vlad is your guy. He's fun to play, and getting good with him usually means you can win games for your team.
Also, please don't be a troll and downvote. It's not nice and accomplishes nothing. On that note, if you do downvote, please comment on why. I don't mind negative feedback, but please make it constructive. Consider this guide a way of helping me too. This is my way of building him, so giving suggestions helps me as well. :)
Thanks for reading; now get out there and destroy!
Also, please don't be a troll and downvote. It's not nice and accomplishes nothing. On that note, if you do downvote, please comment on why. I don't mind negative feedback, but please make it constructive. Consider this guide a way of helping me too. This is my way of building him, so giving suggestions helps me as well. :)
Thanks for reading; now get out there and destroy!
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