User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper/@comment-1876049-20150107134522/@comment-1330314-20150107164847

Their damage isn't really as fat as your average mage nuke, but then again they both have extremely short cooldowns. Though Vlad does have a bit of burst, he isn't a bursty mage by nature, so I'd rather focus on giving him frequent access to spell damage than give him big spells (which would also synergize far worse with his ult). There's also the new passive to take into account: Corrupted Blood doesn't look like it does much, but you have to keep in mind that it gives Vlad access to bonus damage and self-healing on his passive against every enemy caught in the AoE. Crimson Spike looks like a weak nuke, but again, part of its damage comes from its synergy with Vlad's passive, and it's also a root ability with the shortest cooldown in the game.