User blog comment:Fistful of Force/Spirit of the spectral Wraith/@comment-74.14.12.61-20130213065927

The thing about Hextech Revolver upgrades on Vlad is that you don't really have to rush them, you can just sit on Revolver and build more damage or tanking stats depending on what you need at the time, and then upgrade the Revolver later when you need more Spellvamp or whatever. Since SotSW it only an 800G jump up from Revolver you can pretty much grab it whenever you need it by simply backing, so going for damage in the mean time should be completely fine.

As for Elise, it's never really been a great lane for Vlad as is, so the fact that you couldn't out trade her is not really surprising. I've found the best way to approach the lane is to just push and keep her occupied with your minions under her tower while you poke her for free. Obviously you need to have good map awareness and ward coverage to do this, so that you don't die, but it's the best way to do it. If you're afraid of being all-in'd then just push a wave super fast and go back. This allows you to back for "free" and makes sure she doesn't kill you and/or chunk your tower with her massive AS steroid. As Vlad your best bet is to farm better than her and make the difference in team fights using your ulti and Vlad's innate teamfighting ability. When your lane is pushed, and you have SotSW, go take jungle camps as the lane evens out, so that you're ahead on gold the whole game.

Elise is a really annoying champion to trade with because her base damage is so ridiculous, on top of the fact that it scales with YOUR HP for the most part, meaning she can simply buy utility/penetration and still damage you. This just reinforces the need to simply push and back out, especially once her Warmog's is finished, as your trades won't stick as hard as hers will with its regen. You could try building something like Spirit Visage, but I really think going something like Revolver>Deathcap would serve best, or even Revolver>Haunting Guise+Sorcs to keep you damage up. Additionally, you could try out Abyssal Scepter to get a mix of damage/hp/penetration/tankiness, but it's not terribly cost efficient anymore unless there are at least 3 enemies around and/or you have more than just you dealing magic damage. Most of all just practice you Vlad.

Lastly, a major problem with other AP's is that other than Morde you don't really buy Spellvamp on them, so SotSW isn't that great because damage will always trump sustain on these champions. Take Ahri for example, she's best with just damage, Veigar is the same thing. Even Elise would rather build utility/tankiness than the sustain from SotSW. I can see it being kinda fun on Cassio because a lot of players build Revolver on her already and getting some mana regen to boot wouldn't be terrible, and maybe even Nunu, but otherwise damage is generally better. Remember, you don't have to worry about sustain if your opponent is dead. The reason Spellvamp is so core on a character like Vladimir is because his kit is just very good with it, the heal his Q already gives him is only enhanced by the spellvamp, as well as E providing buffs to all heals on Vlad.

My thoughts are kinda a mess, but if you read these walls of text I think you'll get the jist of it. I tend to ramble when I type, but the information and ideas are there. Hope this helps.