Yea he's slightly strong right now, but there's so many ways to fck him over it's stupid. Morellonomicon is a REALLY cheap item, and it gives a fckton of AP and tons of other free stats, and executioner's calling isn't super expensive either. If all of this isn't enough, just remember that he literally kills himself every time he tries to trade with you, and he's extremely susceptible to ranged poke. Just like Yasuo, super easy to poke him down.
WitchQueen Annie10 votesPeople just run really bad builds on him and then complain he does no damage.
He does BROKEN amounts of damage when played and built correctly. I regularly kill the damage chart with him.
Hint Hint: Don't play him the LCS way, it doesn't work down here. Build damage.
Toastersaot4 votes[{quoted}](name=Vlad Maine ,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Ac7bY1p3,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2017-04-07T01:06:58.639+0000)
People just run really bad builds on him and then complain he does no damage.
He does BROKEN amounts of damage when played and built correctly. I regularly kill the damage chart with him.
Hint Hint: Don't play him the LCS way, it doesn't work down here. Build damage.
Stop spilling the secrets or else we will have to silence you. We must secure the existence of our builds and a future for Vladimir Mains. /s
Arakadia1 votesSo building AP is more effective than tank items? Are Rylais or Liandry's still good buys or should I go flat AP?
Cremepie1 votesYou need to rush 30%-40% CDR is the key, and you need to know your match ups and what first item to rush in them.
Rylais is not a good item anymore on him although you can get it for the hp if you REALLY need it. I prefer ludens for stickyness but this is a case by case opinion.
Liandry's is super good on him. Also only pick one penetration item, this or void staff depending on your opponents.
Always build Rabadons. Never build protobelt unless you're a pro.
Arakadia1 votesLiandry's wouldn't seem very good without Rylais, so I think I'd opt to Void Staff unless I buy Rylais that game.
I like protobelt early primarily because of the CDR, mix of hp and AP, and the active helps clear waves.
Cremepie1 votesLiandry's is still good because you still slow enemies with E and you mainly want it for the flat pen anyway, although the HP is nice too.
You don't want protobelt because its low on the AP side and you would rather want Resists if you going to sacrifice damage. As for wave clear you should easily clear waves after your second item.
A good build looks like this:
Or
or something mixing these items depending on your opponents, with 10-20% CDR runes.
WitchQueen Annie1 votesSo building AP is more effective than tank items? Are Rylais or Liandry's still good buys or should I go flat AP?
Take it with a grain of salt because I'm only Silver... however, EVERY TIME I've gone I have regretted it because it feels like I am hitting targets with a rubber gun while honestly not gaining that much more tankines from the extra health. Rylais is especially bad after the changes; I'm not sure whether or not its simply the LCS not having caught on yet or if they simply play differently but down here it is absolute junk.
You honestly do not need the Slow from Rylais to keep sticking to squishes. Stormraiders Surge + GHOST and Flash is enough in most cases. If you want to build 
its more than enough sticking power. is absolutely bad.
You need 40% CDR as soon as possible but you also want a HARD HITTING core of AP items. In fact, you want to be able to kill squishies in 1 or 2 rotations in the late game.
I think the best way to go is to put 10%/15% Scaling CDR into blues and then go:
or > > 
> > >
You complete the into either or depending on what your comfortable with or what your team needs at any point where you feel you don't have to go straight Heavy AP. Usually I do it before or after , in many games I let a naked just sit there because I want my AP nuke core faster. Sometimes may come earlier.
Once you have in the build you should be VERY DAMN powerful. To the point where you can 100-0 squishies (unless they are running a ridiculous shield comp). If the game ends before then against your team then too bad but if you get most of the items in the build... god help the enemy.
The vast majority of the time I like to have at some point instead of because with just the 1 extra item you are INVULNERABLE in a 1 vs 1 against the enemy mid laner if they are AP and your tankiness just goes through the roof. However, the damage potential from is insane down the road.
I promise you if you replaced or in the above build with you are going to feel like you do NO DAMAGE.
Also... many people do it all the time but NEVER build AND together. It is also going to feel AWEFUL.
Now late game... with any variation of the above build, your power is god-like.
Tides of Blood hits at 100% AP ratio EVERY TWO SECONDS on an AOE blast radius. You have a super easy to aim and INSTANT AOE Ultimate Nuke damage amplifier. If they the pop who cares. Sure the pop damage is INSANE but before it has popped, it makes every single one of your Tides of Blood hit at 100%+ AP ratio damage.
You have point and click Q to sustain and deal massive damage. Its spammable and completely reliable. Who cares if its empowered or not... Tides of Blood + Q = ridiculous damage.
You have no bloody cooldowns. NONE. At 40% CDR and all your main spells on 2 seconds, the only cooldowns are for pool and Ult. Like... you are basically a Castlevania boss on full steroids at this point.
Tides of Blood sucks early but at 4 to 5 points it is simply one of the most broken non-ultimates in the game. With the right build it will be up every 2 seconds so its basically an AOE nuke sustained damage weapon that borderline (if it weren't for the power of MR) makes ADCS near obsolete.
Cloud2736 votesFun fact. Nocturne can actually fear him while he's in his pool. So much for being "untargetable".
Jet Sett16 votesAll tethers still affect the units who go untargetable. of course Vlad sacrifices 20% of his current HP compared to others who do it.
WitchQueen Annie5 votesYou want most overrated champ in League?
Handy Sandy 3 votesMorello only works when he falls below 35% health, and seeing how his core is mages won't really dmg him to get him below 35% until they reach mid/late and build void
BlackFlux1 votesNot to mention those times where he pulls 500 HP out of nowhere. 
also only works for physical damage which can have some problems when having to AA as lets say,
I guess.
Requiemsfire1 votesWhy would you even touch that garbage as a mage? Grevous wounds in laning phase is rather useless especially against a champion like vlad with out of combat sustain who can heal off the minion wave will just downright out trade you easy peasy. Also Ryze is a decent pick into vladimir.
Your best bet into Vlad is either , a second 
, early 
( or a mana item in general) to try and waveclear effectively, a 
or 
.
Böäz7 votesVisage is core on vlad in season 7? This is news to me
NineTailedMystic1 votesIf he's mid against an AP I don't see why he wouldn't build an item that practically makes him invulnerable to early harass (Spectre's Cowl), and then building into an item that makes him impossible to burst as an AP.
Cia Is My Waifu3 votesVlad is the champion that punishes stupid people who don't understand zoning or resistances. He's short range, hes nearly as slow as Anivia, and takes a lot of items to start ramping up to get in line with other champions.
Prior to the rework people NEVER stopped complaining about Vlad's healing. So you know what they did? They took 3 of Vlad's old Q's and put the healing into the new 'Empowered Q' gave him a big flashing bar under his name so that everyone with eyeballs can see when he's going to cast it. Regular Q rarely ever trades even into anything. While empowered will almost always trade even or overtrade of Vlad is ahead in items.
The solution? Just dont go into Q range when its about to come up. You might say "oh well eventually he has so much damage he can just flash on top of me and kill me instantly"
With that, consider that Vlad had to invest in those damage sources. And if hes killing you, that probably means you didnt build the appropriate defenses either. Not only that, you ignored the telltale signs that he was going to flash as he charged his E with an EmpQ coming while no minions are nearby and hes walking towards you....HMM. better have your hand on that flash/dash/zhonya etc. This is the kind of stuff you have to deal with with all champions at higher elos. Vlad is one of the most predictable thanks to Riot basically having sirens going off anytime he does something.
Vlad is strong in the same way illaoi is strong. Lots of big numbers and instant death for clueless folks who don't pay attention.
Ben Sharpio2 votesoh yeah except for the ungankable laning phase that makes him so fucking stupid to play against
Tuffnar2 votesSeriously, champions like him are toxic for this game.
Nanuk Pihoqahiak9 votesHe's completely gankable. His pool has a 28 second cooldown at rank 1, costs 20 percent of his current health, and he's gated by cooldowns on his offensive abilities early game. There's so many champions that can abuse him early on, yet most don't until higher elos because "omg it's vladimir he's going to Q my health away ;; ;; ;_;!!!!!!"
NineTailedMystic1 votesNo, because it feels pointless to trade with him like it feels pointless to trade with an ADC who has Soraka as a Support. Get a favorable trade early game, look at his HP 30s later and he's already recovered half of the damage from the trade.
Nanuk Pihoqahiak1 votesHe's going to heal up the damage from a trade over 30 seconds? Does this even deserve anymore of a reply than I'm already giving? Lol.
NineTailedMystic1 votesGet a favorable trade early game, look at his HP 30s later and he's already recovered half of the damage from the trade.
Please actually read what people say.
Anyways, it's likely he regained enough HP to be at a higher HP percent than whatever champ that he's laning against.
Nanuk Pihoqahiak1 votesFalse. He is easy to trade with early game for a majority of the top laners that are currently popular. Just because landing a Q on someone means that he won a net trade, doesn't mean he's going to win a fight. He almost never starts boots and has a measly base 330 movement speed. Something like Riven, Yasuo or Gnar, hell... even Yasuo if he appears top, can easily stay on him and fight him during the recharge of his Q, and the 28 second cooldown of his pool. He doesn't start the game with anything but 1 percent cdr assuming CDR rune setup, yet people treat him like he'll be Qing them nonstop for the first 10 minutes of the game.
What's worse is that all of the listed champions he'll also never catch outside of Flashing for them, and that's if his abilities will even finish them off after they invested in a Hexdrinker to help negate his ult.
NineTailedMystic1 votesI hate mid Vlad, where he can just get a Spectre's and basically never die in lane, and before that he can just chill and be pretty safe.
Top Vlad is a conundrum that I never see.
doubleguac1 voteshe's extremely susceptible to ranged poke.
Is this actually true? He has a LOT of mana-free sustain built into transfusion.
I think he's vulnerable early on to all-ins, but in my experience, he can outlast a lot of champs' mana pools.
Terror131 votesHes got his ups and downs.
Pros: Hes got powerful defenses, powerful damage late game if built right and is a strong duelist/teamfighter, and truly exceptional at defending towers with a team or alone, my favourite aspect about him.
Cons: He has VERY telegraphed attacks, hard shutdown by cc, gets bodyblocked extremely hard, very weak damag early game, has very low range and no mobility, and a slow kinda awkward auto attack that is even lower range.
There is only a very few amount of champions that are truly overpowered in this game and hes not one of them.
btw.
With a couple of others being anti-fun, but not really op perse.