I don't understand why Vladimir has his W.

Hrd2H1t·Oct 14, 2016·5 votes·560 views

It just doesn't fit in well with his kit. Vladimir's kit allows him to lifesteal a lot with his abilities, which makes it weird that he can just negate all damage done to him when in his pool. Of all the champions that need a move for safety, Vlad probably needs one the least. He has no real desire to use it to waveclear and it has no cost, so you can't really wait for it to be down before going in. His W just makes it impossible to ever trade in lane, laning against a Vlad is just an inconvenient farming simulator. I think that Vlad would be much healthier and easier to balance, not to mention more interesting, if he was given an entirely different W to make him not as incredibly safe.

12 Comments

Guy Fox TeemoOct 14, 20163 votes

It has a 20% current health cost and a insanely large CD. You have plenty of windows of opportunity to go on him. He's slow has no mobility and his only CC is his which takes a chunk of his health. He isn't incredibly safe unless he's very much fed.

Whether he's strong or not currently is debatable, but its not because he's "Safe" due to the W.

Hrd2H1tOct 14, 20162 votes

Yeah it has a health cost, but Vlad will usually end up taking less damage than he would have taken. Also, If you use an all in combo on Vlad but he W's out of it, you are probably going to be down a lot of mana if you use mana. This won't really allow you to try the same combo again.

Still though, I do see your point.

Guy Fox TeemoOct 14, 20163 votes

Then don't all in Vlad if he has W up? Bait it out with some ability and pressure, he'll use it and then you can all in after or just zone the hell out of him since he'll have no escape.

DunkinNoobsOct 14, 20163 votes

It's an anti-focus move. And given his propensity to deep into enemy teams with no mobility, it's an anti-focus move he desperately needs.

MunchCrunchLunchOct 14, 20163 votes

why you actually think anyone can tank focus fire of 3 people for more than 4 seconds? a full tank mundo with 5k hp will die if an adc and a mage like viktor focus him down pretty quickly. and vlad that is somewhat tanky? will go down in a cpl seconds. he needs W to either engage safely or disengage

AhristocatsOct 14, 20163 votes

deals no damage has a long cd costs 20% hp

"makes it impossible to trade with vlad" unless he is under rush, vladimir himself can't trade with anyone but Kassadin trash early game.

WoonStruckOct 15, 20161 votes

Actually, he can't even trade well with Kass early game.

Just casts Q any time you're in range (which is basically only when you try to Q him); he has longer range than your Q. It'll eat any damage you try to put out early game with Q, even CR procs.

Your E ends up hurting you as much as it hurts him. Its a pretty stale lane overall. You both end up staying out of range of each other, and he primarily just uses Q and W to CS out of range of your Q.

strutOct 15, 20163 votes

You are simply wrong. -It is essential to Vladimir. Without pool Vlad would lose a whole rotation of spells. It lets him use an uncontested e and also it gives time for his cooldowns to expire. It has fantastic synergy with his kit since the rework as you can wait for your ult's heal in w as well. -He can't negate all damage done to him you just cant target him. He still gets all damage from DoT abilities and targeted abilities that targeted him before he went down into his pool. -You don't use it to waveclear but why is that a problem? -"it has no cost, so you can't really wait for it to be down before going in" What? How does that make sense? Firstly it costs him 20% of his current health. Secondly it has a long ass cooldown so you can definitely wait for it to be down. But even if it had no cost why couldn't you wait for it to get on cooldown? I don't get the logic there -"His W just makes it impossible to ever trade in lane" That's not even remotely close to the truth. You can bait out w and once he uses it he needs to wait for a quite long cooldown timer to expire. Also him dodging an ability with w costs him 20% current health which is sometimes more than he would get from an attack. -Laning against Vlad is about farming and setting up ganks. If you are not much better than him or do not counterpick him you won't really kill him unless he is an idiot. But that is not really a problem. There are safe champions and risky champions in this game. It is how champion diversity works.

ZT XperimentorOct 14, 20162 votes

Makes more sence than ekko having a better boomerang than gnar or sivir; when he's already breaking the laws of physics to move faster, and prevent enemies from moving, all with his glow-stick of destiny.

Papa SlothyOct 14, 20161 votes

I get what you're saying but Vlad needs some way to reach the backline, and the pool isn't a very strong ability. It takes a huge chunk of health and has a pretty long cooldown for a basic ability. I personally think it should be changed, but to something that still gives him movement

CerealBoxOfDoomOct 14, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Papa Slothy,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1gckEcE9,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2016-10-14T06:18:08.724+0000)

I get what you're saying but Vlad needs some way to reach the backline

actually no he doesn't

he only needs this because he is gated due to what his W puts on the table

CerealBoxOfDoomOct 14, 20161 votes

vlad is a champ that sustains and evades. He counters your lane by doing nothing, doesn't die, doesn't recall, nothing. When he is strong its toxic as crap though.