Talk:Vladimir/@comment-25252206-20150621090334/@comment-24496127-20150621222145

A lot of the frustration is that few champions can go in hard enough early. Only a select few champs like Fiora and Trynd can go in hard enough to not get kited(although fiora still might if he stays out of the range of one lunge), and maintaining pressure can only work for so long when he outsustains basically everyone. Also his range means you'll usually have to fight him in his minions, which really hurts early.

If it's a Vlad mid that's slightly less annoying, but now there's no chance of getting a kill under tower(not that he's easy to tower dive), and eventually he can 1v1 any laner I can think of at the moment except for Malzahar or Swain. He has a strong kit for avoiding burst and quite franky most midlaners just can't push him out without running out of mana. I played syndra against Vlad once, and it was seriously the most frustrating lane I've had aside from going against a Nasus.

I would like you to elaborate on what you mean by maintain pressure, because I just don't see how you can do that unless he makes a mistake early. He has the advantage of being ranged, doesn't really push hard, and can and will outsustain you and kite you since he can start boots or dorans shield while having his pool to escape. Unless you can zone him completely away from minions, how can you keep him from just poking you down?