Vlad

[quote=Thalia Kael]I've been seeing Vlad a lot lately, and he's actually become my main mid and top. So far I'm 7wins/2losses with him, but I feel like my build is a little wrong for some reason. What I generally build is this : Bead/5pots/1ward --> Spectral Wraith + Boots + Seeker's armuguard --> Liandrys --> Zhonyas --> Rabs --> Rylais Is there something I need to change in this? A lot of people dont like liandrys on him but I don't see why. It has the 3 stats vlad wants : Mpen, Ap, Health, and the passive also goes well with his kit IMO, especially because he counters those tanky laners like Singed and Malp. Another thing is the cuonterpicks to him. Lots of people/counterpick sites say that J4 is really strong against him or that it's impossible for Vlad to win, but I don't see why. At lvl 1 Jarvan can poke him with his Q for high damage, but it's a huge mana eater and Vlad can still poke at him with his Q and autos. They say that at lvl 2 Vlad is finished because J4 can E-Q combo and then autoattack and it apparently does over 1/2 of Vlad's health, but Vlad can just pool the instant he sees J4 start his combo, negating all the damage, taking mroe of J4's mana and avoiding the knockup. J4 also gets into a kinda bad position, because Vlad has around 10 seconds to auto and Q J4. After that it's the same thing except J4 has a shield and Vlad can poke at him a lot more because his Q gets so strong around lvl 7 and his E is great for poking melee champs that are running away from him (J4 after his combo is pooled). At lvl 6 I can see why Vlad could be in a little bit of trouble because he can't get out of J4's ult, but what he can do is pool while J4 is in the air to negate his damage and then just Q and E to wait out the ult, and can also just flash out if needed, and at that point J4 can't do much until his ult is back up, so Vlad can just poke away at him and even get a kill. Vlad also has no trouble escaping ganks unless J4 ults, especially since J4 will be pushing a bit harder since he will play so aggressive. The only way I see J4 being so strong vs Vlad is if he gets an early lvl 2/1 kill because of his high damage compared to Vlad at that level or because of a good gank. And after he gets his revolver, he can outsustain J4 and his dmg, especially if he spams his combo because he will run out of mana. Thoughts? (btw I've done this matchup before)[/quote]

[quote=AngryCoco]I played against a vlad as J4.. I gave him 2 kills to begin with (I seriously got tired of always winning toplane so easily xD). I had a bit of a harder time.. Ultimately outplayed vlad and killed him. I guess it's more of a skill matchup with a vlad vs J4?[/quote]

[quote=Berzerk]J4 is considered a counter because he is a good early game bully and can lock him in his ult when he goes to pool.[/quote]

[quote=Melchee]Yeah, you can pool, however, pool cd > combo cd + you will loose a got amount of healt from the pool alone. And you can't always react fast enough to pool through his complete combo. Anything that gap closes, can stick to him a bit and outdamage him early can normally give him huge problems in lane.[/quote]

[quote=GrandmasterD]Jarvan loses to a good Vladimir because Vlad outscales him and Jarvan has no sustain. Hard counters to vlad top are: [[Wukong]], [[Akali]] and [[Yorick]]. A couple of other hard matchups are [[Swain]] and [[Rumble]]. I wouldn't recommend playing Vladimir mid-lane.[/quote]

[quote=Melchee][quote=GrandmasterD] Jarvan loses to a good Vladimir because Vlad outscales him and Jarvan has no sustain. [/quote] True with most of the Top Laners vs. Vlad, but still doesn't protect him too much from his bad early which can result in hard snowballing for his oppenent.[/quote]

[quote=Thalia Kael]If jarvan keeps comboing he will oom himself though and when you get zhonyas his pool + zhonyas is pretty much cataclysm's duration[/quote]

[quote=Melchee][quote=Thalia Kael] If jarvan keeps comboing he will oom himself though and when you get zhonyas his pool + zhonyas is pretty much cataclysm's duration [/quote] Or he will kill you before his mana runs out. Vlads Sustain istn't that high on early Lvls. to withstand his damage for long. Later tough this will be different.[/quote]

[quote=Thalia Kael]With 5 pots and a bead it's pretty high (when they run out i agree it's low till he gets lvl 5), and 2/3 of J4's combos will get pooled anyway [quote=GrandmasterD] Jarvan loses to a good Vladimir because Vlad outscales him and Jarvan has no sustain. Hard counters to vlad top are: [[Wukong]], [[Akali]] and [[Yorick]]. A couple of other hard matchups are [[Swain]] and [[Rumble]]. I wouldn't recommend playing Vladimir mid-lane. [/quote] I usually don't just go mid with Vlad, I pick him into equal or favorable matchups or if I have a high pick I take him but wait to see their top and mid to chose where I want to go. And some people say that in teamfights Vlad gets countered by J4, but if Vlad is top and J4 uses his kit on Vlad, you have your mid and ADC untouched by him which is a pretty good situation, and tbh Vlad can still teamfight during Cataclysm, he can ult from inside it almost all the time and if he needs to get out of the cataclysm Zhonyas + Pool will be about the duration of his Cataclysm and if he leaves it on he will be trapping himself and not doing anything while Vlad is untargetable and if he turns it off while you pool you can escape and go hit their back line. Another question though : When I teamfight with Vlad I usually stay with/near our front line because I'm pretty tanky and can take the focus off of me with Pool and Zhonyas and sometimes I charge into their backline with my ult. Is this what I should be generally doing? I know it depends on the situation but should I usually be peeling or doing what I said? I know I'm hard to understand what i'm saying I barely understand it myself[/quote]

[quote=Melchee]2/3? That won't always be the case.[/quote]