Talk:Vladimir/@comment-24795478-20160513201746/@comment-26001789-20160517061942

The problem is that the current scaling of the ability doesn't allow him to spend current health to be as effective as max health and allowing the ability to have no real pressure to use would allow Vlad to come back to the same issues he had before, where he doesn't die as fast when he uses his more costly spells and just sustains the damage done to him using his Q.

Let's take into account your suggestion and swap the costs of W and E together, ok? You now have an AoE spell which is half of your damage output in fights that is now prohibited of damage when you are below a certain threshold of HP. When you have 3000 HP, it actually hurts, gaining a 300 damage scaling + 70% AP + base damage. When you are low instead, say like 1500, he only gains half of the damage pay up. In the Max HP scenario, he woulda pay 300 HP still but he would still be a threat of actual damage with his E still. The same can go if he had 500 HP only. He gets as low as 200 but he still keeps up in his damage instead of just keeping himself alive.

Also, now that I think about it, 20% Current HP is actually more painful for Vlad than 10% Max Health at least when you have a lot of HP early on. This is actually kinda of a reach, but hear me out: Let's say you get ganked or ambushed, as a 2000 HP Vlad. If you had W as a Current Health cost, you pay up 400 HP to go untargeteable for 2 seconds. If you go by Max HP, he pays 200 HP for it. That's if he presses the skill the moment before he takes any damage. That's huge, actually. Even if you say "Oh he pays up 20% Max Health instead of Current" that still nets him at 400 HP. But then, you also have a problem when Vlad gets low, because then he is paying up more HP for when he is low already. At that point, Vlad is already paying up a prohibiting CD instead of his own life with the current scenario and he cannot fight anymore. The "Max HP" cost makes him so that he dies after he pools because he isn't paying up that much HP to fight up, but to run away.

Even if what I say is "wrong" or "bad", that still comes to the point of "Does Vlad really need to sustain his own waveclear and damage ability that much?" Especially considering he has pretty good sustain with his Empowered Q in battle alongside being pretty beefy and annoying with Pool. If he had good Waveclear that was sustainless and also was a good teamfighter while also being slippery...I don't know.