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Thoughts on Vlad?

Ze Unit·5/27/2015, 8:52:31 PM·1 votes·503 views

In an attempt to improve myself before school finishes so that I can play ranked properly I have been clocking in more hours of League (woop woop). As someone who "mains" top-lane, I have come up against a lot of Vlads (and fucking Rivens...). I was wondering what people think of Vlad in the current meta.

To put it straight; I feel like Vlad really thrives in the current meta, maybe even to the point of being over-powered (strong words). Top-lane and jungle nowaday consists of tanks and bruiser, so there are few who can contest Vlad early where he is weak and prevent him from getting to the "point of no return" where he essentially never falls below full health. Granted champs like Riven and Hecarim are popular, who can shutdown Vlad when needs to be done. However I feel like in rise of tanks and fall of assassins, heavy poke champs have been nerfed top, the people who really pooped on Vlad.

So, what are people's thoughts? I appreciate it's easy to only point out champ's strengths without regarding their weaknesses and this makes them seem OP.

4 Comments

EffectFX5/27/2015, 9:03:01 PM1 votes

Vlad's problem is that his early game is poop. Low range, slow movement speed, long cooldowns, and exceptionally squishy. However, he scales well with levels and items. Gaining high DPS even when using defensive items like spirit visage instead of abyssal scepter (and as a trade off becomes even more frustrating to kill).

So yeah, Vlad kinda craps all over tanks once he gets items. With a Wota/Spirit visage, there isn't a tank in the game that can kill him 1v1 without equal gold and/or Vlad doing something incredibly stupid. Even if they spend their gold on MR, Vlad can constantly wittle their HP down with low cooldown poke from Q/E.

As a vlad main, loving the current meta.

Caeler5/27/2015, 11:51:29 PM1 votes

Top lane now consists of tanks and bruisers? Top lane has always consisted of tanks and bruisers. Tanks have become stronger, but only jungle-wise. Top lane is mostly unaffected from what I've seen.

Vlad thrives when there's nobody on the enemy team who has enough damage to burst him down quickly enough. Having another tank on your team instead of a bruiser means that Vlad will be harder to take down unless some of your team's CC is specifically aimed at him. Overall, he is stronger than he used to be because of the shift to longer, more drawn out fights.

However, tanks also bring more CC to the table. Vlad, like every other champion, can't do his job when he's being CC'd. The additional CC also helps deal with any other champions that have become particularly troublesome.

Bear in mind, as well, that he still has hard counters, some of which are also exceptional picks in the current meta.

Irelia and Swain in particular completely destroy Vlad in lane and are strong picks against tanks.

Just things to keep in mind.

Summonerrr 18/28/2015, 3:29:35 AM1 votes

Ban him until Riot brings drain-tanks back into line where they should be.

WalkingInACircle8/28/2015, 3:37:29 AM1 votes

As he has short ranges, no mobility and no CC, I think that so long as you respect his damage he's no threat at all.

Laning against him, you find what you need to do to make him pool, and then you do that repeatedly and if he ever comes near you while its on cooldown you do it some more and he dies.