Vlad main since s2 - vlad ult's early level cdr needs buff
I'm a diamond Vladimir main who has been playing Vladimir top since season 2.
Vladimir hasn't been on patch note for so long (except for some bug patches -those bugs are reoccuring after 5.1 patch - and non-balance related ones) that his current state is impossible to fit into recent meta where players no longer farm and hug turret until 30 minute.
Consider these non-utility, damage focused ultimates (similar to vladimir's) of champions that comes up top lane frequently and their level 1 cooldown:
200 + 1.0 AP + 175 auto attack range +40% attack speed /// 100 seconds
300 + 0.7 AP + 6 auto attack range + 90 health /// 80 seconds
160320 + 0.751.5 AD /// 120 seconds
320 + 1.3 Bonus AD /// 130 seconds
200 + 1.0 AP + 50% slow /// 100 seconds
175 + 28.57% of missing health /// 120 seconds (buffed on PBE)
200 (300) + 0.2 (0.3) Bonus AD + 45% 1.25 seconds slow (stun) /// 120 seconds
320 + 2.4 Bonus AD + 25% Spellvamp /// 70 seconds
200 + 1.5 Bonus AD /// 120 seconds
240 + 1.2 AP + 1 second stun /// 120 seconds
12% HP /// 120 seconds
240 + 1.8 Bonus AD + 75 auto attack range + 20% Bonus AD /// 110 seconds
650 (130/s) + 1.5 (0.3/s) AP + 35% slow /// 105 seconds
175 + 0.7 AP /// 17.65 ~ 150 seconds
150300 + 0.60.8 AD /// 140 seconds
20% HP + 100% spellvamp + steal 20% armor and resist /// 80 seconds
80 + 4.4 AD + airborne + 5%~20% movement speed /// 120 seconds
75 + 1.0 Bonus AD + 15% current HP + 15 armor and resist /// 120 seconds
200 + 1.5 Bonus AD + extended airborne + 50% armor penetration /// 80 seconds
350 + 1.0 AP + airborne + 20% 1 second slow + 20%~50% movement speed /// 130 seconds
AND
150 + 0.7 AP + 12% increased DMG /// 150 seconds
(Highest maximum dmg he can pull out from level 1 ult by himself through bonus DMG is 57.6 + 0.18 AP)
EVERY SINGLE ULT has STRONGER DMG AND LOWER COOLDOWN
Most of these ults also have some added utility which vladimir doesn't have. I Agree that Vladimir ult is very good for teamfights, because it also boosts teammates' damage. However, level 1 ults are not really meant for teamfight, but for lane phase which Hemoplague's bonus damage means little. It is understandable that Vladimir's early game burst should be weak, because he is late game beast. Yet, because of such high cooldown time on level 1 ultimate, after trading ultimate, no matter how well Vladimir player outplayed the opponent and wins trade or even get a kill, he has to play extremely passive for 30~60 seconds because enemy laner's ultimate goes off cooldown always first. This not only let opponent snowball on Vladimir if he makes a mistake, but also punishes good plays by Vladimir player since he is not rewarded for his good usage of ultimate, but rather get forced to play passively. I noticed Garen's ultimate's early level cooldown time just got buffed in PBE, which had similar problem as Vladimir's ultimate. So why not Vlad's ult too?
