Welcome to the Vladimir by Belenzor guide.

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Char description.

Well i think i am ready to unleash this reaper into sunlight.
This is my favorite caster at this point ingame. My offensive playstyle that sutes my mains of WW and Yi realy nicely combos with this champion. At last a caster that can take some beating.
If you like to be in the middle of the fight melting faces with your AoE and getting out fairly safely after scoring quadra after quadra... feel free to invest 6300 IP on this champion. It will be worth it.
I saw plenty PLEEEEENTY Vlad builds, tested them but i always had something missing. Not enaugh power... (Even before Transfusion nerf) I started to experiment a bitsy and i did came with this build that i constantly abuse atm.
My biggest succes was winning a 2v5 rated game (paired with Gragas AP). Well for me this **** works. Hope you will like it :)

Vlad is a caster. His main damaging abilities Transfusion and Tides of Blood are AP based. However Vlad is a non mana user caster. Most of his abilities costs health. Due to his HUGE health pool the spells costs are % based.

This build focuses on AP and some bonus health for best effects. Unlike MOST of the builds this is a very offensive build. Not the best for new with the champ ppl due to NOT lvling pool for shorten cd. I will explain that later.

Let's get onto business...

Pros and Cons

Pros
+ Caster with HUUUUUUGE HP pool?
+ One of the best initiators ingame
+ Has one of the best escape mechanisms ingame
+ Great AoE damager
+ Superb harraser
+ Easy Soulstealer stacker
+ Can work alone even 2v1
+ Superb farmer and jungler later ingame (for a caster)

Cons
- Fairly passive till lvl 7
- Dependable on team
- Needs a good coordination and skill timing
- Offensive playstyle might not sute hardcore caster players


Skills
Crimson Pact - Every 25 points of bonus health gives Vladimir 1 ability power and every 1 point of ability power gives Vladimir 2 bonus health (does not stack with itself).

Clarification
The AP into HP calculation is very nice, unlike HP into AP. The scaling of HP is just too weak for HP stacking. Focus on AP than.

Transfusion - Vladimir drains life from his target.
Vladimir drains the lifeforce of his target, dealing 70/115/160/205/250 (+0.6) magic damage and healing himself for 25% (+0.25% per ability power) of that amount.

Cost - No Cost
Range - 600
Cooldown - 12/10/8/6/3 seconds.

Clarification
Your main and only single target spell in your arsenal. Should be lvled ASAP as main skill since the CD dramaticly decreases with lvl up to 3 sec cd on lvl 5. 60% AP scaling for a spell with 3 sec cd and heal is something realy shiny. Your tool for efficient harrasing and lowering targets before full nuke. A bit more tricky to use after the range nerf (650 to 600) so you will have to watch out with ranged champions like Tristana/Ashe and so on.
On higher lvls 4-5 you can efficiently push anyone and still remain on high HP.
This is your healing ability also. If you got harrased too much try to safely lasthit minions with it and replenish hp. Spell that should be REALY ABUSED! it should ALWAYS be on cd if possible. Harras, heal, push whatever. SPAM it. Last hitting minions was never that easy.

Sanguine Pool - Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood becoming untargetable for 2.5 seconds. Additionally, enemies on the pool are slowed and Vladimir siphons life from them.
Vladimir sinks into a pool of blood for 2.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and slowing enemies above him by 50%.

Vladmir deals 80/135/190/245/300 (+ (15% of bonus Health)) magic damage over the duration and heals himself for 12.5% of that amount.

Cost - 20% of Current Health
Range - self - AoE
Cooldown - 26/23/20/17/14 seconds.

Clarification
This skill is considered an OP spell. It doesnt do much damage but... from lvl 1 it slows down significantly (50%) anyone that stays in rage of the pool. This also makes you untouchable for short period of time. This makes ppl less focus you due to "he will pool out anyway so dont focus him", that paired with quite big HP pool makes you a realy hard to kill target. Later on, Ring will be a great addition to your arsenal.
This spell is realy costy. 20% current health is a HUGE cost keep that in mind. Sometimes it is better to take that spell on the chest and save the cd for lower HP so be wise about using it. Also this guide doesnt focus on this spell much and i suggest lvling it last so the CD will be quite big till endgame, but enaugh to feed yourself.
On low HP use the spell on big waves of creeps to accialy replenish health instead of loosing it.
In my tactic this will be a move in and move out spell. Also support style for catching those fleeing enemies.
Mastering using this skill is a key to succesfully stacking Soulstealer :)


As MANY ppl missinterpetes the "Vladmir deals 80/135/190/245/300 (+ (15% of bonus Health))" i want to clarify the mechanics here.
Ppl tend to say why do you get Warmog? I say: To boost Pool damage via HP. I constantly get answered "but you already have 4000HP isnt it enaugh?
Well it isnt!
Let me say this way: "15% of bonus Health"
That means that HP from lvling, HP converted by your passive from AP does NOT influence the damage it does. Bonus Health is health you get via items such as Warmog, Rylai and so on.

Tides of Blood - Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood, damaging surrounding enemies. Additionally, multiple Tides of Blood in a short period of time cause them to cost additional health and deal additional damage, and increases his healing and regeneration by 8%.

Vladimir unleashes a torrent of blood dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.45) magic damage to nearby enemies.

Each cast gives him an Empowered stack (max 4), increasing his healing and regeneration by 8% each. Additionally, his next Tides of Blood deals 25% more damage and costs 50% more Health per stack.

Cost - 30/45/60/75/90 Health
Range - Area of Effect: 620
Cooldown - 4.5 seconds

Clarification
A very underestimated spell. It deals HUGE damage and it deals it on AoE style.
I will not focus on the passive it gives since i dont care about hp regen. This is a DPS TOOL. GREAT ONE! Many vlads only uses the pool and trans spells to deal damage and treat this as a weak aoe. Well They dont know how strong it realy is. Scaling is a bit worse than transfusion and stays at 45% mark, but you deal that damage to all targets within 620 range.
Preparing this spell before fight is a good idea. Try to get at least 2 stacks before engaging enemies in a teamfight. Make it casuall, farm mobs with it and look at the timer. After 2 stacks you are ready to go. using it 2-4 times in 1 teamfight is nothing special, and the damage you deal is huge. Just keep an eye on your health, if you get focused too much i suggest stopping using tides for some time since 3-4 stacked ToB costs over 300HP.
Good thing is that this spell is not niticeable that much. So we can call this a silent killer.
Later on you will use this to 1 hit creep waves.
Learning this spell and "feeling" it is the key to your DPS succes. Before it i was missing the damage. But longer i played with this build and skill order priotizing ToB over pool made me a very succesfull killer.

Hemoplague - Vladimir infects an area with a virulent plague. Affected enemies take increased damage damage the units take and deals damage after a few seconds to infected enemies.
Vladimir infects the target area with a virulent plague. Affected enemies take 10/14/18% increased damage for 5 seconds.

After 5 seconds, infected enemies take 200/300/400 (+0.75) magic damage.

Cost - 15% of Current Health
Range - 700
Cooldown - 120 seconds

Clarification
Vladimir ultimate is a GREAT way to start a teamfight. Catching whole team in it will ensure a win in most of the cases. 18% damage increase with a HUGE damage burst after 5 sec makes your enemies drop dead like flies. They will feel quite safe even with it on their head, but getting a 700-800 damage instantly after the period of time is something you cant realy underestimate.
Usage is quite clear and depends on the situation.
On 1v1 fights or 2v1 use it rather for "last hitting" low HP enemies. On teamfights this should be the 1st spell you use. Try to catch as many enemy champions as possible. Delay on using this skill to catch more champions is something you should always consider when ppl are rather scrattered.


Skill order

Your priority should be set this way:

-> -> ->

In this build i give you more power for cost of less survivability, but if you read my other guides i am quite an offensive guy :P So beeing squishy is nothing special for me.
Just keep in mind the longer cd of pool and you will be fine.


Skill usage

Your dps should mainly look like this.
First off you need to "soften" your target a bitsy, you can throw fiew transfusions on him/her to check your damage output.
So 1st of all throw fiew on target. if you have some mobs around use at least 2 times before engaging. Than:

on 1v1 and 2v1, storm in using your on the way + when you are close to them. Sink into and try to cut his way of. After you are done with , use your again and finish of with . If the target is alive, or barely alive, you can decide to either drop a or or even both on the target while you safely run away.

On teamfights is fairly situational.

You should always harras and soften targets before fights, if possible ofc. On teamfight you should also run in with + combo, when you see your teammates engage, drop a and sink into . This will make enemies focus other targets. After the you should again do a + combo, and than use (if you have it) . After the effect ends, use + again, and pool away from the fight.

Mastering this quite long combo is realy important. Try not to panic, you have your pool, you have your ring, you have your flash/ghost.

Dont be greedy, you can stack up Soulstealer even on assists alone. And counting that you do AoE damage you should get ALOT of assists.


Summoner skills

I use Ignite and Flash as summoner spells. But i am a total Flash addict. A superb and for most ppl better suted spell should be Ghost instead of Flash.

Other than that, i dont find any other summoner skills even valid to mention here.
Ignite is a muss to feed yourself early games on ganks, and to stop incoming heals, works great with Ulti + Ignite combo. And Flash/Ghost is your escape mechanism mostly.


Masteries

As mastery build i always use 9/21/0.
Saw and tested Vlad using 9/0/21 but the CDR it provides is marginal. Your spells have very short cd anyway. Alot of mana user masteries in utility tree is not needed. I prefer defensive masteries to be more offensive. It also protects my precious Soulstealer stacks.


Runes

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

My standard caster rune setup. Mpen and AP. I realy suggest getting those blue/yellow AP/lvl ones since you will be offensive from lvl 7 anyway and those runes will be better than flat ones from lvl 6 anyway.
I like flat quits for those last hits in early game.


Items


CORE



Clarification

You should always start with Amplifying Tome and 1 Health Potion.
Tome will give you both AP and HP, you dont need anything more for early game. You should stay in lane untill you gather 1900g Not less not more. On this stage you should port to base and buy:
Sorcerer's Shoes + Mejai's Soulstealer. No matter how good you are with Vlad, Soulstealer is the way to go. With 3 out of 4 of your spells are AoE, you will get tons of assists even if you dont kill enemy champions. Keeping Vlad stacked is realy easy. Loosing stacks is realy hard with Flash (or Ghost for some ppl) and Pool. If you die, you are probably just doing something TERRIBLY wrong or got ganked by whole team (which should be avoided by paying atesnion to miss/mia calls or simple map awareness.
After boots and book go straight for Rylai's Crystal Scepter. It has everything you possible want. HP and AP paired with slow. Atm even your transfusion is counted as an AoE spell - no idea why and should be fixed imho - so it will slow only for 15%, but this is just a small bonus which should be enaugh for you.
After getting Rylai you will be quite bulky already. Stable AP, already big HP pool and slow. Now it is time for some defensive mechanism.
Take Zhonya's Ring next. It will be a core item for your spell rotation mentioned above. Now that you have your Ring as a defensive mechanism we can put Pool into more DPS'ish tool.
Pool damage is quite low due to us not focusing on getting bonus HP since we were getting enaugh from our passive. To realy start dealing some damage via pool we are taking Warmog's Armor. Now we have enaugh AP to farm creep waves in 1 Tides of Blood, so stacking that lately bought Warmog is not a problem at all. Ppl that buy Warmog as 1st item and say that they want to stack it asap coz it takes alot of time probably failed on the ToB usage.

This ends up your core item setup. Next item is a situational item. If you did good and you feel fed and godly, you can get even more AP. My suggestion on AP boosting item are (in order of my personal choices):

Abyssal Mask - imho best 6th item. You tend to go srtaight into middle of the fight. That means you will very effectivly debuff all enemy champions with Scepter passive. It also gives you quite nice defensive stat of 57 Magic resistance! On the sidenote, it gives 70AP. That means AP and HP :P But we have that already dont we :P

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Another one? Well... it is an option :) Even more AP and even more HP. This item is godly for Vlad even if you ignore the passive.

Will of the Ancients - Wanna be more Team-friendly? Get this one. Nice AP boost for you and your teammates and also spellvamp! yay even more healing. Should be considered only if you have AP users in your team.

Haunting Guise - Item that could fill you up while you gather gold for something more valuable. Should never be bought early game. Filler not a core.

On the other hand you could feel suppresed by enemy champions focusing on you. This might need some defensive items. (No order here since this is very situational item selection)

Randuin's Omen - The most picked item for vlad as a defensive tool. Some HP, Alot of Armor and HP regen is nice for teams that are physical damage dealers. Nice Active debuff can save your *** plenty of times. We cant ignore the 15% CDR it provides. Overall great item for vlad if you need some protection.

Thornmail - Enemy has Hard Physical carry (Yi, Trynd, Ashe, Trist...)? Well this will for sure make them focus som1 else :) With your HP pool, Healing from abilities, and armor you can take quite some beating. Thornmail returns 30% of the UNMITIGATED damage so Trynd or Yi that are <25%-30% lifesteal will surely die from own damage only :) SUPERIOR item for champions like this.

Force of Nature - Enemies are casters? Veigar hurts you plenty? Ryze has some nice AP? Enemies are buying Deathfire Grasp just to get you lower on hp and kill you? Well Force is for you. With your HP regen and HP Pool you will gain insane HP regen just by standing in place for some time. Passive lifesteal just by being idle :P

Guardian Angel - Mixed team, everything is quite hurting you? Well get this. Armor+Magic res and great passive. For late game makes teamfights more tricky for enemies and kinda makes it 6v5 if this is the only Guardian/Zilean in game atm.

Spirit Visage - Want some utility FAST and cheap? Get this while you gather gold for more complex defensive item. Rather filler than core. I realy laugh when i see vlads with it as 1st item.


Items that should be avoided (alphabetic order):

Archangel's Staff - No mana no use.
Banshee's Veil - Force is way better, also no mana no use.
Deathfire Grasp - You dont have time to use it. Anyway you should never need it. Also Mana regen - no mana no use.
Lich Bane - No mana no use, you are already spamming abilities, you dont have time for meleeing, costs ALOT.
Rod of Ages - stacked is better than Rylai... but it takes ages (like the name says) to stack. no mana no use, wasted stat.
Sunfire Aegis Why do you need more AoE Damage? There are better items.

Playstyle

You should ALWAYS call for going mid. Vladimir is not the best champ early game. Transfusion CD is quite big on low lvls. That is why you have to get that lvl ASAP. Also his ulti is an AoE so helping other lanes with gank is very easy with that spell. Usualy it is even the only spell you have to use to let that 3v2 fight on double line a 3v0 in 1 spell.

Early game

You will be probably harrased early game alot. Try to stay in the back and farm creeps using your Transfusion as a last hitting spell.
You can get a bit more offensive on lvl 5 already. lvl 3 Transfusion has a nice CD so you can prepare your prey for kill. Harras a bit. On lvl 7-9 you should already have the nessesary 1900g for boots and soulstealer. Check the double lanes for some EZ Soulstealer stacking. Try to harras alot with your Transfusion. Your mid game begins when you get Rylai.


Mid game

Mid game is about ganking small groups of enemies. Pushing side lanes. You are not the superior 1v1 champion yet but you have quite a harrasing tool already so pushing those towers should be easy job for you. Assist wherever possible to constantly gain stacks on the soulstealer. You can fill the semi tank job even if your dedicated tank is somewhere else. Your lategame begins when you get Ring.


Late game

Now you have everything that you need. Never roam alone now, join every teamfight possible. No matter what dont die and loose your stacks. Get Warmog and stack it while pushing lanes. Always go in fight right after tank. Try to keep an eye for fleeing enemies, keep an eye for your health. Follow the rules of spell rotation. No rocket science here.



I hope you will enjoy my way of playing Vlad. It is less survival but way more offensive than most of the ones i've read. Keep that in mind while going in. You have quite big hp pool but remember you are NOT a tank :) your HP drops fast due to no AR/MR.