User blog comment:Commander Marko/Strix, The Vampire Leech/@comment-84.146.145.17-20130123142014

His E screams Vladimir if you make it work that way. Why not let him stay above the ground?

Let him dig his hands in the earth, causing him to leave the spike trail, partly covering himself in spikes or something similary hard (to explain the reduced damage/increased regeneration) and at the end throwing his arms in the air, causing the ground to erupt as the AoE.

And if he leaves a spike trail already, why not use it to deal a fixed amount of damage to enemies that step on it?