I've been playing Vlad lately and I've found that the bonus AP from his innate is pretty pathetic. I also feel annoyed that he has annoying delays between being able to deal damage.
Do you think he should get any changes or buffs? I'd prefer that you have actually played him if you plan to respond so that I don't get "omg plz no vlad iz cancer" comments.
weeaboomer7 votesyeah, changes as in a rework to make him less cancer.
Mr Vulcanator1 votesHave you ever played him?
Sir Yamazuki3 votes[{quoted}](name=Mr Vulcanator,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=HTuUT3t4,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2016-01-03T15:31:51.719+0000)
Have you ever played him?
Yes, and how exactly is he even close to being weak? Just because you played him doesn't mean you know what you're talking about, it just means you played him poorly.
ZephyrDrake1 voteshe does not need any changes and the HP to AP bonus passive is pretty pathetic but it's not meant to give you a lot of AP to begin with
Vesarixx1 votesWith Vlad you want to build AP to get the health from it, not build health to get AP, you get a lot better returns that way, near the end of the game I usually end up with almost 1000 extra health from the passive and the damage he deals is pretty substantial. The issue Vlad has right now though is that he doesn't really have any good ways to itemize for CDR, as most of the CDR items are mana regen, I've wound up buying Lichbane for the CDR a few times, though picking up an early kindle gem might be a decent idea.
If they were to buff Vlad directly, which they honestly probably won't do anytime soon, they should just allow him to cast his E without interrupting his movement commands, that would actually be huge for him.
Either way Vlad is still an absolute monster once he hits late game.
Mr Vulcanator1 votesI know about AP being important and I've got a good item build that works. Just wish that his innate was more useful.
Also I think that the E change you mentioned would be amazing. Make escaping with Vladimir feasible when your W fails you.
Vesarixx1 votesHis passive is incredibly useful, without it he would be way too squishy to survive in fights.
Mr Vulcanator1 votesI know it's useful, but only for AP to HP. I'd rather the HP to AP part be replaced.
Vesarixx1 votesThe HP to AP is still usefull, it allows Vlad to "double dip" into stats on some items, like 
, since he getsboth more HP and AP from the items than he would otherwise.
Sythriel Draken1 votesHe does not need changes, but GW needs to be changed back to the way it was before this preseason in order to deal with the likes of a fed vlad, mundo, anyone with decent spell vamp/life steal, etc. because it currently only works on self healing(ie regen) and not self lifesteal/spell vamp (tested out thoroughly in a bot game)
Teridax681 votesYes, he definitely needs changes, though right now he's not prominently annoying enough to warrant a high-priority rework for the time being. His passive is boring, his Q has frequently been cited by Riot themselves as one of the worst-designed abilities in the game, and his E is also not really rich in choice or interesting gameplay, both for him and his opponent. On top of that, his health costs quickly become irrelevant once he gets spell vamp, which doubles down on his free healing and is still one of the reasons why the stat can't be made good on more champions.
Personally, I think he should have potentially much more powerful sustain, as well as even better anti-group damage (to me, his niche feels like that of a mage who likes to vamp off of as many enemies as possible by catching them in his spells, particularly his ultimate), but he needs to be a lot riskier than he is now to achieve that. Currently, Vlad's laning pattern just has him hanging back and free-poking the enemy laner until they either lose out of sheer attrition, or manage to get a lead from a hard gank and out-trade him from then on, which makes for really uninteresting, often frustrating, matchups. It doesn't help that he gets tankier from building damage, and vice versa, as it makes lane matchups even more snowbally in either direction (either he gets to out-tank and out-DPS his opponent at the same time, or he ends up flat-out weaker in all respects).
Thematically, I think it would be kinda cool if Vlad used other people as part of his own circulatory system, pumping them full of tainted blood before sucking it out of them to heal himself, and perhaps deal even more damage to them too. In gameplay terms, it could amount to him losing out on his on-demand free healing, but instead have his sustain scale with how hard he commits to fights, with his healing and damage scaling super-hard with how many spells he chains onto his targets. Given the proper amount of risk and difficulty, he could afford to have even lower cooldowns on his Q and E, which would tone down the awkward gaps in his DPS and synergize better with his ultimate.
The Deckowner1 voteshe needs a rewoek, similar to yorick and taric,vlad's kit is completely linear and all it does it deal dmg, no utility, no counterplay, making him strong against certain match up and useless against some others.
SaltyKracka1 votesHe won't need any buffs as long as he's still cancer.
Mr Vulcanator1 votesHave you ever played him?
SaltyKracka1 votesYes.