Talk:Vladimir/@comment-4372473-20140201020347/@comment-24430045-20140202141426

He's great on top against many popular picks (except Riven and Fiora...those two will just ruin your day). Unsurprisingly, he pretty much can't survive on mid nowadays, with how many assassins live there now. He doesn't like when enemies are constantly trying to get in close to him and can wreck his face if they do. His biggest weakness is his early laning phase. His Q's early ranks have rather high cooldowns, and it's basically the only ability you'll be using for harrass and sustain, so he's extremely dependent on it. But he can outsustain the best of the top lane bruisers if played right. Once he finishes rushing his Spellvamp item, he can start using E stacks for increased sustain and damage. Then he reach six quickly, and his power spikes dramatically as a result. This usually proves to be too much for just about any lane opponent. Starting with Boots and Pots is just about the strongest option, so he can have greater safety from ganks and the melee bruisers. I've been able to make Vlad work very well in the meta, despite the only viable spellvamp item forcing him to buy mana-regen. He seems quite niche, but he really just demands smart play to be good. And having a good Vlad on your team can make winning teamfights almost trivial.