Talk:Vladimir/@comment-5211662-20140420170628/@comment-5211662-20140429082825

Vladimir does not really counter Zed until he gets an Hextech Revolver. Because Vladimir has such weak early game, Zed can take advantage of that. If he gets a kill on Vlad before Vlad has a Hextech Revolver and is level 9, he can have a chance to dominate the lane. If he fails to do that, however, he will lose the lane hard for the rest of game. Vladimir may be a good pick against Zed, but Fiddlesticks is a more reliable counter, and is the only champion that I never lost lane against Zed.

Also, you cannot really treat Vladimir's W as a Zhonya because unlike the item, Vladimir's W does not make him totally invulnerable, it just makes him untargetable, you still take damage from DoT spells that were already affecting you, as well as Ignite. Not to mention the huge health cost of this spell. That's why you should still rush Zhonya as your first big item against Zed (after Hextech Revolver, of course) - you want to save your W for escaping or disengage instead of wasting it to save yourself.

I think people don't play him because he is more of a late-game champion and people prefer to stomp just by early game to win the game as early as possible. And there are many champs that are extremely powerful early game on mid lane, that could deny Vladimir's late game. But it is entirely possible to carry games with Vladimir; I've done that numerous times. I even consider Vladimir as an hypercarry, as he fits on the definition of a hypercarry; a champion that is extremely hard to stop late-game but has a terrible early game that many other champions can take advantage of, and deny. I say that because late-game Vladimir is tanky, has a lot of sustained damage, an ult that brings an enormous teamfighting advantage, and he has so much sustain that you coult bring him to almost zero HP and is still possible to him to heal all back without having to go back to base, by just healing on the jungle or lane creeps.

Most mid laners have a lot of burst, but they are so squishy and have no sustain... Not only they can't deal well with tanks, but if they don't kill the squishies on the enemy team, they are killed by those squishies. Vladimir does not have problems with that, his only problem is having no burst, but that sustained damage allows him to deal better with tanks, and having more chances to kill squishy targets without having to be killed himself.

Vladimir is a lot like Ryze on many aspects. But I prefer Vladimir, to be honest. The lack of hard CC is compensated by Vladimir's extra mobility and having an ability that can be used to escape.