Talk:Vladimir/@comment-5211662-20150410222558/@comment-5211662-20150412215103

Rylai is necessary if you want to chase them better. Even with movement speed quintessences, in a meta where champions are so mobile, you want every tool avaliable to be able to make sure that champions do not escape from you. It is not a core item, but apart from that, it is also the most cost efficient item on Vladimir due to his passive.

As for Spirit Visage: It also has HP, which is good for Vlad. Apart from his passive, HP makes him tankier. The extra healing is also welcome too. The main reasons I buy that item, however, is to maximize CDR and because of the magic resistance. If you don't need more tankyness and CDR, then I agree that Abyssal is a better item. Spirit Visage is good on Vlad, though. Just not core, contrary to what some people think.

Liandry is certainly very good in the Cinderhulk meta, but the other items are so tempting that I often have to think twice before purchasing this.

I almost always purchase Deathcap, but there are some situations where I don't. For example, if there is already another AP on my team and I am losing lane, then I tend to focus on tankyness instead of damage. That's when I purchase situtional items such as Spirit Visage, Randuin's Omen and Thornmail, forgoing damage for tankyness. Yes, Vladimir isn't very good as a tank, but when you are a bruiser champion and you are not capable of dealing damage consistently, it's better to be able to at least endure damage. At least as a "tank", Vladimir has his ultimate, which is essentialy an AoE Deathfire Grasp that works for his entire team (and works for physical damage too)

Most of time, though, I am focusing on damage. Deathcap gives a lot of damage, but I tend to focus on magic penetration first because Vladimir's bases are very good but his scalings are not spetacular (but building raw AP is still very good for him due to the passive and heal on Q).