Talk:Vladimir/@comment-23838403-20150618092629/@comment-24010081-20150806153040

Long post here goes.

Vlad is actually way harder than his simple kit appears on the surface. He's a weak mage with awful burst, no hard CC and virtually no soft CC worth using, dangerously short range, horrible mobility, and weak defences (until very late game).

What he does have is strong sustain, that allows him to lose trades on repeat, and then heal back up until he steadily crushes his oponent.

1. Master Pool - This is the number one hardest thing to do on Vlad. You gota know ever champ and what and when to pool. Don't use this thing to engage ever. This is your escape. And remember it's actually a pretty weak ass escape as it ofers almost no mobility and takes 20% of your life. So do save this until the last possible moment. Do use it to dodge key skill shots that might get you killed (lee sin sound wave, ahri charm, veigar horrizon etc). You can also use it to dodge some targeted abilities mid flight. Pantheon Jump, Xin Zhao dash, Annie fireball etc. Don't pool too early. God I can't tell you the number of times I've been ganked by Udyr, pooled and then had him run me down under tower and kill me. Where as if I just took the stun, ran back to tower and then pooled under tower I probably would have killed him or he would have retreated. Also things like Kha'zix are no brainers. If you pool before his jump you're dead, if you pool after he jumps, you live. Things like that.

2. POTS!, POTS! did someone say POTS! Vlad's an hp draining monster. He wants to spend HP to do damage. POTS are your Doran's items. I love starting with 5 pots, I love buying 5 pots every time I go back for at least the first 2-3 backs. My favorite start is Rejuv Bead, 5 pots, pink ward (if I need to dodge lots of skillshots boots/4, if strong burst AD armor/5). All the hp regen will allow you to actually use your E early game which is a game changer for a lot of Vlad players, who I think are often overly conservative and fearfull early of hurting themselves. E can do a ton of damage to your oponent and increases the amount your pots heal. I'm not saying spam it to death or keep it stacked to full, but you can use it when your enemy gets in range or to secure CS.

3. Flawless Farm! Vlad is pretty awful at securing kills. When alone he relies on a low hp enemy being too stuborn to just walk out of lane. Vlad is also an awful roamer. Enemies will just walk away from you. Vlad is heavily item dependant. His passive and escalating cd on Q and W converts him from being a super weak mage early game to a monster Bruiser/Mage late game. All this combined means Vlad wants to farm, farm, and then farm some more. I almost never roam. I root myself in lane, I buy wards to keep an eye on my lane oponent, and I pray my teamates don't ignore the 50 retreat pings and the Akali walking over 2 of my wards as she heads to a different lane. If they retreat we win, if they die, well they were dumb and I still break even becuase i've stayed and got farm and her tower ate her farm. Hopefully they learn for next time and aren't put to far behind becuase of it.

4. Ward! If you want to play Vlad you should get good at warding. (You should do so on any champ, but its especially important on a guy who's never gona leave lane) Buy a ward every back, upgrade your trinket at lvl 9.

5.GO FARM SOME MORE! Big team fight, small team fight, low hp? Dont back! Go push a lane. You're Vlad, you'll be healed back to full by the time you reach their tower. While everyone else on both sides is licking their wounds, and/or buying their items, you're getting further ahead. (Now don't stick around for their whole team to come back out of base and kill you, pushing to tower is good enough, then go rotate to another lane or steal their jung, etc. Again wards will keep you safe)

6. Control lane flow! Getting good at this is really key to becoming a monster on Vlad. Body blocking minions just out of range of your tower is often worth the damage you take to freeze the lane there. Early game this can allow you to farm in a really safe position and keep your oponent in a very bad postion for ganks.