This is the full Vladimir combo. If executed right it's devastating.

Blood Magicks·May 1, 2017·68 votes·71,605 views

So please do not insult my husbando's skill ceiling. I've only seen Bjergsen do this shit right and you probably need to spend a while in Practice mode before you get it right reliably.

https://gfycat.com/BriskThatKoodoo

Prepare for Crimson Rush -> Start E -> Flash -> R -> Release E -> Q -> W -> Protobelt -> Ignite. Needs to be executed in less than a second.

Hourglass is just for style and so you can yell "WITNESS ME" in chat.

Slow motion:

https://gfycat.com/LeftDifficultEyra

It is perfectly okay and in fact recommended to pretend you are a Pillar Man while executing this.

http://imgur.com/JqpQRVo.gif

66 Comments

Rose MuffinsMay 1, 201713 votes

Let's get this post to the front page so we can educate.

Blood MagicksMay 1, 201711 votes

Yep. Here's a video of someone doing it ingame http://plays.tv/video/58f949d28b3a44de8c/the-perfect-vlad-combo

Sir FuzziMay 2, 20173 votes

He sure blew literally every resource he had, sometimes twice, in order to kill her. He even got Hemoplague down before dealing any damage.

I don't understand. Is this actually considered imbalanced? You better fucking believe he deleted you; he did a flash engage and dropped his ult with perfect timing to catch his E, used his Q and W to add to that damage and circumvent some of his own, and still had a getaway plan. That play was amazing and deserves to be absolutely rewarded. In fact, he probably deserved more credit.

Good play-- and that kind of expenditure of resources-- should always be rewarded. Similarly, good timing with her own ult would have earned Cassiopeia an opportunity of her own. She was clearly not prepared for that situation, so that's on her.

GGLineaRMay 2, 20178 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sir Fuzzi,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1l7KtuVe,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2017-05-02T04:18:30.947+0000) He even got Hemoplague down before dealing any damage.

Well, yeah. It's a damage amp. You can't amp damage you've already done to them.

Sir FuzziMay 4, 20172 votes

Right. And if he had gotten it on after his damage, it would have been a blunder-- which he didn't do.

The express point of that was to draw attention to how exquisitely Vladimir planned and played that. The video is 17 seconds and the fight lasts about five, so Vlad did a lot more to make that work than Cassiopeia did to stop it.

Besides, we have very little info on Cassiopeia. A lot of variables go plain unseen, which would make it difficult to properly gauge if Vladimir was the problem, or if either player was (skill gap, for instance).

I've watched it a few times and every time I notice one more thing Cassio screws up. She's sitting there blowing Twin Fang on minis while Vlad is clearly gearing up at least two components of her kit (Q and E) and hasn't visibly blown his defense in front of her-- good play suggests she should A) expect that powered Q to be for her, B) expect the Tides to clear minis and nab her in the process and C) assume his cooldowns are up and reserved for her if she hasn't seen them recently.

I know what a damage amp is gimme some credit, I'm sayin' the Vlad played like an ace and smoked every one of his cues, while she dropped nearly every chance she had flat on its ass. She has windows aplenty to see it and stop it, she just makes very hackneyed attempts. This isn't imbalanced, this is what happens when you think things through carefully and focus on a specific goal without backing out just because of a turret. It's also what happens to Cassiopeia when you think Vlad hasn't got something up his sleeve for a turret.

GGLineaRMay 4, 20171 votes

lol Alright, alright. It's just the wording you used made it sound to me like you thought he should've used it after, not before.

ChaoticPineconeMay 2, 20172 votes

Well, yeah. It can be unbalanced.

We arent talking about a full damage assassin or mage blowing all their spells with perfect skill usage to delete a carry. Thats expected. The problem is when its a Vlad who is 1/3/2 with a Protobelt, a Seekers Armguard, and Negatron cloak doing it.

If he wasnt 1/3? Maybe. If he was building damage? Maybe. If he was fed? Sure. But come on - you cant really believe that balance means, "Even though I died a few times and built tanky, I should be able to one combo you."

PB4UAMEMay 3, 20173 votes

The dude may have been 1/3/2 (which isn't even that bad of a score) but he also had almost 140 CS at 18 minutes despite those deaths, then he blew 10 fucking minutes worth of cooldowns and every single skill he had, in two rotations with more golds worth of items than most people can get by that point in the game, and at a point where his lane opponent reacted extremely poorly and had little to no defensive itemization.

If Vlad didn't get the kill here, that would be imbalanced.

ChaoticPineconeMay 3, 20171 votes

What are you saying - that 1/3/2 is a good score? 1/3/2 is a bad score. Its not feeding, but it isnt good. Watch it again - it wasnt two rotations. It was one rotation + Flash and Ignite.

And by the way, "more gold worth of items than most people can get by that point in the game" is a terrible metric to go by. Who cares if you get more or less gold by 18 minutes per game? Want to know the important gold stat? The one that compares your gold to your enemy's gold. If youre 1/3/2 with those items and average CS, whats the enemy doing with the gold from your 3 deaths? Whatever advantage you might have, the enemy has more.

If other similar champions cant do the same, then I see it as imbalanced. If a 1/3/2 Swain/Ryze/Rumble cant one-combo you in less than 1 second with Flash+Ignite, then i dont see why Vlad is the exception .

Sir FuzziMay 4, 20171 votes

What do Rumble or Ryze have in common with Vlad? Both of those champions are missing one damage skill compared to Vlad, one does his damage almost exclusively in close range anyway and relies on autos and the other gets extra scaling, hard CC and cooldown resets. Rumble isn't even 'resourceless' like Vlad; once he hits 100 heat, he silences for six seconds. Two of Rumble's three damage skills are over time and his passive is mostly an AA amp. Did Vlad even basic in there once?

I'd give you Swain, except even he wants to zone more than he jukes or harasses like Vlad. He can't trade terribly well and has to rely on staying well out of his opponent's range. His ult is inversely effective, that is, it'll provide more for him when he's outnumbered than it will one-on-one-- more likely is that for Swain, his ult will be a waste of mana and put him in danger, for most opponents he'll face.

1/3/2 is not a bad score. At the very worst, it's under average. Besides, if Cassio didn't buy HP or MR then it doesn't matter what she did with that gold-- being that she didn't attack Vlad for a consistent time, she was either hoping to have enough buys to literally one-shot Vladimir (okay) or she didn't have any defensive buys, which would make her very vulnerable to a two-summoner, one-item, full-kit all-in.

What's so bad about this? Are you telling me Annie, Lux, LeBlanc or Katarina couldn't one-shot Cassiopeia with all their damage, summoner spells and a Protobelt mixed in?

ChaoticPineconeMay 4, 20171 votes

The last sentence sum up my point exactly - Annie, Lux, Leblanc, or Kat couldnt onecombo Cass with all their damage, sums, and protobelt in the same amount of time as this Vlad did (LB would need to wait 1.5 seconds at least, Kat would need a full channel. pretty sure Annie and Lux cant). Especially if they were 1/3/2 and only had a Seekers and Dark Seal as additional damage. Thats the point. Vlad's combo, executed perfectly, gave Cass practically no reaction time to that amount of burst.

I have problems when a DPS or sustain fighter has that much burst without going heavily offensive. Ryze and Rumble, two other DPS/fighter type mages, dont have that kind of burst. No, Vlad didnt auto even once and thats part of the problem I have with this - he went defensive on a champion thats a sustain fighter, yet he still had this much burst. I can understand a Vlad winning the sustain fight with his score and itemization - getting a Negatron, trading, healing up, then going for an all-in. Getting one-comboed with less than a second to react is different.

Imagine if Fizz was 1/3/2, itemized Protobelt + Seekers + Dark Seal + Negatron and was able to one-combo the enemy in less than a second. I'm pretty sure the boards would be in an uproar.

And Swain is fine in a 1v1 if you time your fights. You just need to fight when there are creeps.

Sir FuzziMay 5, 20171 votes

It really doesn't happen in less than a second and yes. If they all made their plays with literally 100% success and 0% retaliation... most every champion you listed could, in fact, destroy an enemy. In fact, if Rumble made all of his damage (the over-time on R and Q included with two Es and as many basics as he can fit in 6sec) then yeah, I'd expect Cassiopeia to eat it pretty much every time.

Look, you're clearly just set in your point. Vlad's not even that bad, play physical with item 3123 and better mobility than Cass. Vlad itemizes very well into MR compared to Armor, and relies on his healing to get his fight done. AD currently has a hilariously easy time itemizing into MR (to the point that it's a gripe lately) and Executioner's Calling happens to upgrade into the item that will basically ignore what armor Vladimir does manage.

But don't take it from me, I donno jack all and Vlad is just super terrifying because Cassio got melted in that video.

ChaoticPineconeMay 5, 20171 votes

You cant treat burst and DPS the same. Yes, Rumble has the potential to do insane amounts of damage due to his abilities, but like you said - it takes 6 seconds to do so. In those 6 seconds, Cass can Ult, land Q, maybe a couple E's, exhaust, or flash out of the damage.

How much time was there for Cass to react from the moment Vlad flashed to when he pooled? (Because thats the only time you can really target Vlad to fight back).

[{quoted}](name=Sir Fuzzi,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1l7KtuVe,comment-id=000100000000000100000000000000000000,timestamp=2017-05-05T03:22:43.974+0000)

Look, you're clearly just set in your point. Vlad's not even that bad, play physical with and better mobility than Cass. Vlad itemizes very well into MR compared to Armor, and relies on his healing to get his fight done. AD currently has a hilariously easy time itemizing into MR (to the point that it's a gripe lately) and Executioner's Calling happens to upgrade into the item that will basically ignore what armor Vladimir does manage.

If this were all true (except for the itemizing into MR part. which i agree is true) I wouldnt have a problem. But the clip shows that a 1/3/2 Vlad did not need his healing to "get his fight done". He used his burst to 100-0 the Cass, and didnt use his heal at all in that fight. Even if there was a Grevious Wounds on him that entire fight, it wouldnt have made a difference.

Sir FuzziMay 5, 20171 votes

Cassio blew it man, you gotta realize that. She doesn't seem to have much health or MR built either. Cassio is a bad pick into Vlad because he can (clearly) work around her ranges pretty effectively.

I know you're mad and Madimir's a good one but if they gut his damage or healing anymore he's going to have nothing.

Cassio could have blown her ult, there was a clear window for it. She also shouldn't have been so far up when Vlad is very much mostly point-blank damage. Nobody should be near Vlad with empowered Q. When it's up is his window of power.

Cassio could have done any of that to Vlad. She could have seen him coming and prepped Exhaust. Don't tell me it's not possible-- Vlad did it with his ult, she can do it with exhaust. If you watch the video, as soon as Vlad goes in was a pretty obvious window for her to react with an ult, but she doesn't; instead she haphazardly tosses poison behind Vlad. She blew it, and as a result, Vlad got the kill.

And of course he didn't need his healing, you big palooka. He didn't even get dropped below 80%.

She had all the indicators that she was going to be very under attack. She just didn't heed them as she should have with Vlad.

Does he need a more clear indicator for empowered Q and charging E?

ChaoticPineconeMay 5, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sir Fuzzi,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1l7KtuVe,comment-id=00010000000000010000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2017-05-05T07:49:10.222+0000)

I know you're mad and Madimir's a good one but if they gut his damage or healing anymore he's going to have nothing.

I'm not mad. Not sure why you think I'm mad. In my ELO, I have never seen a semi-decent Vlad, much less one who can execute this combo as well as this guy did. My issue with it is a general problem with Vlad and balance. Nobody in my ELO can pull it off, but seasoned Vlad players can.

No champion should have that much potential upside despite being behind. If my enemy laner dies 3 times and builds defensive, that should set them far enough behind that they cant one-combo me.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again - It doesnt matter who the champion is. If Fizz onecomboed me with those items while being 1/3 in lane, thats a problem too. If its Orianna, then thats a problem too.

Now, theres something to be said about outplays - those should still happen, even when behind. But outplays generally require SOMETHING more than statchecking the opponent quicker than they can statcheck you. Maybe dodge a skillshot or something, and there is something to be said. Flashing on them and them 100-0ing them in a second isnt really an outplay.

Cassio could have blown her ult, there was a clear window for it. She also shouldn't have been so far up when Vlad is very much mostly point-blank damage. Nobody should be near Vlad with empowered Q. When it's up is his window of power.

I dont know what to say to this. Aside from the fact that his Q, E, and R are very much NOT point-blank damage (600, 600, 700 respectively), she was fairly far away. Flash is 425 units, Protobelt is 275, and plus his abilities - well, unless youre saying that whenever Vlad's empowered Q is up you need to stay 1500 units away, you dont really have a point.

And the window for Cass to blow her ult was very short. It was from the time of the Flash and to the pool - about 1 second. Take in reaction time, and its really not possible.

Cassio could have done any of that to Vlad. She could have seen him coming and prepped Exhaust. Don't tell me it's not possible-- Vlad did it with his ult, she can do it with exhaust. If you watch the video, as soon as Vlad goes in was a pretty obvious window for her to react with an ult, but she doesn't; instead she haphazardly tosses poison behind Vlad. She blew it, and as a result, Vlad got the kill.

If only you can read the mind of your opponent. Planning out what youre going to do (and executing it) will always be faster than someone reacting.

I dont know what kind of God-tier player you are - people dont react that fast. If you seriously think that its "obvious" and you actually think Cass ample time to react and turn, you should be playing in the LCK against Faker.

And of course he didn't need his healing, you big palooka. He didn't even get dropped below 80%.

Which. Is. My. Point. I dont know how much clearer I can be on this.

Does he need a more clear indicator for empowered Q and charging E?

If you can unleash a R-E-Q combo in less than a second and burst someone down from 100-0, even though youre 1/3 and you dont even have full offensive items?

Thats not an indicator problem. Its a damage problem. You can give giant flashing lights over Vlad, but if your only option for "counterplay" is run 1500 units away then its unbalanced.

Sir FuzziMay 6, 20171 votes

In closing, the only reasons Vlad made that combo work was that Cassio played like she wasn't even working for ELO-- she was havin' a grand old time in lane until Vladimir showed up, playing the game.

KDA isn't everything. I'm not ranked and I know that.

And yes. When somebody flashes into you with offense at the ready and you've not done anything to pre-empt it, retreat is going to be about all you have against everyone except, maybe, full-melee like Garen.

Your point falls apart, though, bruh. You can't be clear because you're missing the fact that Cassio put up a laughable resistance, was out-of-position to begin with, and didn't spare even a single cooldown. When Cassio gets up from that death and is still as ahead as we can surmise from the team kill comparison, she'll likely have cooldowns and Vlad will have none.

About the only thing I really don't like about Vlad is that he has to power his Qs rather than just having it on a cooldown like before. Otherwise, that play isn't a bad thing and a lot of champions could have fought back.

Cassio was just (a lot) worse than Vlad, that's all. The play would look less impressive if Cassio pulled... anything off.

Does her Grounding block Vlad's pool?

ChaoticPineconeMay 6, 20171 votes

Alright "bruh".

Your point falls apart since you apparently think its okay to die a few times in lane and still have the advantage in a fight. This is exactly what people talk about when they talk about damage creep - you still have enough damage to one-combo someone even though youre not doing well on a bruiser-ish sustain mage. We arent even talking about a high-damage burst Assassin here who deals a lot of burst, or a champion that build heavy damage. We are talking about a champion that wins fights by out sustaining his opponent who built tanky.

And how would you know if Cass was a lot worse than Vlad? You saw a grand total of 4 seconds of her alive. Are you really going to judge a player based on 4 seconds of their play? I'm pretty sure you can even find 4 seconds of Faker looking terrible - so Faker must be a lot worse than his opponent, right?

And her grounding does not block Vlad's pool.

Sir FuzziMay 7, 20171 votes

Ya got it, "bruh." (I'm just having fun with that at this point)

What Vlad doesn't have is raw damage; what Vlad does have is literally everything else going for him, as much burst as possible for Vlad (short of maybe an Abyssal too?) and again, no defense. Cassiopeia is then arguably one of the worst against Vlad because if her ult doesn't stop him, he's going to jump down her throat regardless. She has no real way to stop him since he can shed slows and gain movespeed.

I'm assuming Cassiopeia has done very little for defense builds which is what I class her as 'worse off' for-- she doesn't appear to have much MR if any at all. If she had, say, a Negatron too, she'd have had maybe an easier time. It does not appear, judging by how much Vlad can deal, that she has invested much of anything into defense.

But since we've exhausted the debate factor, what exactly is it that pushes Vlad over the edge here? He has to charge up his E and land it, so the timing for that is pretty specific; he lands his ult before any of his other damage, which is-- again-- fairly fickle timing (compared to, say, the work Annie invests). He's got a charged Q before the fight, and while I won't put up the time-out argument, Vlad does have to either charge it off a minion that's near or have an even better engage than he did have.

Like I said, Vlad made no mistakes, landed everything at peak capacity, and lumped in both summoners and an item on top of that. I'd have expected him to pull most of Cassio's health off; he even managed to stay under her with pool for most? of the duration. What exactly is offensive about Vlad killing her, provided he did everything to almost tutorial levels of perfect, and Cassiopeia (being underfunded against Vlad in the first place) did very little to resist or prepare for the attack (which was arguably pretty highly protracted)?

jaméssSep 24, 20171 votes

Dude if decent zed had 139 cs and 1/3/2 against cassi with no armor weq auto would've gotten her down to 2/5 health. ult e auto with passive would've killed her after csing that much at 18 minutes count as having a few more kills than 1 Also like vlad literally hit EVERYTHING Amplified by his ult, i saw it did 380480 damage on every single spell then protobelt then ult damage with ignite.. enought to kill a 1300 health Cassiopeia The thing is he was channeling protobelt when she threw the "ground" poison so he was able to protobelt out and cast w reason why people keep saying Cassiopeia is bad is that to get that much damage from 130 ap vlad you literally have 0 mr. most people dont appreciate the power of vlad because not a lot of people play him much like if it was yasuo everyone would've rushed ninja tabi because at that point he would've had 100 % crit. I get that Cassiopeia looks like she's getting judged but faker would've went mr and wouldn't have had bursted like that good day

Toa of DeathMay 1, 20179 votes

As someone who is trying to learn Vlad, thank you for this. I really like him, a lot more fun than I thought he'd be.

Over InnsmouthMay 2, 20179 votes

Waking up to this gives me a special blood rush.

RomtheguyMay 2, 20172 votes

And many lenny faces were had. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Over InnsmouthMay 2, 20176 votes

My default expression is more or less a lenny face, with a goatee.

It's a side effect of every second sentence being a pun.

mrgiraffeweevilMay 3, 20172 votes

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/ca/ca47580b0e4c03cdf6952e80366c17064eb5b5ecd4255859c778585a022ded0f.jpg

Troll for TrumpMay 2, 20177 votes

Pillar Man Vladmir skin pls

Chromatic EagleMay 2, 20173 votes

Needs to be a legendary so we can have this log in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sblR0eIRW-I

Troll for TrumpMay 3, 20171 votes

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NpTEKTLVKCE/maxresdefault.jpg

TwinkieProMay 2, 20177 votes

I do something flashy as Lee Sin and all I get is "broken champ, no skill"

SirΤeemοMay 1, 20174 votes

a normal vlad , will just Q you when it's ctr time , and get your 30% of your health , idk why this guy needed so many abilities ..

Blood MagicksMay 1, 201736 votes

The point is to delete the backline lol

NymzoMay 1, 20174 votes

Wow, this combo is quite bloody

WoonStruckMay 1, 20174 votes

Ignite is such a waste, as you can see in the video.

Ghost is better in almost every imaginable way for Vlad.

PrinceOfStormsMay 2, 20175 votes

If you have stormraiders you don't need ghost as much, and ignite helps with early kill pressure.

ErockandrollMay 1, 20173 votes

Been playing Vlad in LotPK. And getting similar results, using the poro toss to engage. Though I had to Prioritize SV instead of Proto belt, to survive and sustain the constant 5v5.

I would still be using his Q in those combo's, if your goal is the back line, you should make sure the priority targets are dead. That will increase your chances of surviving the ensuing fight.

I should Point out that you can actually channel your E, pool, and still hold your channel while your in pool. This can be useful to prevent your channel from being interrupted, while allowing you to preposition and insure your E hits the most targets.

Blood MagicksMay 1, 20172 votes

I should Point out that you can actually channel your E, pool, and still hold your channel while your in pool. This can be useful to prevent your channel from being interrupted, while allowing you to preposition and insure your E hits the most targets.

This is true and I agree some people will pool immediately after flashing but I did this because it provides the maximum burst. There are multiple ways to do it but if you're after raw nuking this is it.

Mira Arya EntheMay 2, 20173 votes

That combo was beautiful. I should pick Vlad back up. Only have two games on him this season I use to play him a lot.

TakeAGuessNerdMay 2, 20173 votes

you forget one part, you need to pose too...

Blood MagicksMay 2, 20174 votes

What you on about, I posed and became golden. That's the JoJoest cast animation out there

MelledoneusMay 2, 20173 votes

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/103/522/14e.gif

TheIronRevenantMay 2, 20171 votes

avoiding spoilers using the original one, noice

VasilisGreenMay 2, 20172 votes

Do you even pose?

Sad TyrantMay 2, 20172 votes

The only things wrong with Vlad is how his Q doesn't line up with W anymore and his reliance on Protobelt and Zhonya's. used to be grand how you could just go WoTA and Rylai's and you were set.

MelledoneusMay 2, 20171 votes

Why not charge E while in the pool?

PrinceOfStormsMay 2, 20171 votes

You can't start E while in pool.

MelledoneusMay 2, 20172 votes

No, but start the channel, then complete it unhindered in the pool while slowing everything around you so they can't run out of its radius.

Project omenMay 2, 20171 votes

You can actually. It's probably a bug. If you have a lot of cdr, charge E to maximum and go into pool right as it's about to be released, you can start charging a new one while being in pool.