I think the balance team misunderstood the Vlad rework from the start
Note: these are my thoughts on tank Vlad and how he could have been more balanced without being completely deleted
Ever since Quas played tank Vlad top the balance team decided everything wrong with 
's kit was his ability to scale with tank stats. I remember the patch notes in 6.13 which set the direction of all his future nerfs:
I thought classing him with tank Fizz and Ekko from the start was a bad idea due to his low mobility and substantial differences in kit and playstyle. Essentially, Vladimir has a way of regulating his effective health though spell HP costs. This lead to the opportunity of creating the following formula:
Vlad is tanky if he isn't dealing damage AND when Vlad deals damage, he isn't tanky
I think it would have lead to a lot more interesting gameplay if the design team had decided to instead increase the HP costs of his E so that the 5.5k HP Vlad would think hard before trying to pull off a fully charged E in the middle of the enemy team. Another mistake was, I think, removing the update where he solidified upon detonating E in pool (right after the rework W would be interrupted if E was detonated, giving enemies a window of opportunity to burst him down while he Qs).
Essentially adding more HP cost on E and possibly a longer channel time (imagine a cost of up to 30% current HP, making a 5k hp Vlad a far squishier 3.8k mage after one E) would have lead to a mage who is incredibly hard to make a pick on because he is unburstable, but becomes fragile and high risk once the action starts (that also will be easier to balance if he can't Q while charging E). This would have made him far more distinct and interesting, at least in my opinion.
Do you guys think this would have been a better design direction to take our troublesome blood mage in? I'd love if someone with more design experience/a Rioter shares their thoughts and concerns on this idea.
Best wishes, a Vlad player
EDIT: what if the % HP cost on E scaled with HP?
