Vlad rework has made him completely unviable.
I've been a long time fan of Vladimir ever since he's been released. My summoner name is even Count Vladimir, if that gives you and indication of how many games I've played with him. I'm not the best player in the world, and have been hovering mid platinum for quite some time now. But I like to think I understand the finer points of this game.
Vladimir is unplayable in his current state. It truly surprises me that he is being banned and called OP after the most recent patch.
At first glance, some of the numbers might seem promising, but the new kit makes essentially every phase of the game a complete joke.
Let's take a look at his Q, "Transfusion". Reduced Dmg & Significantly Reduced Healing. This is offset by the fact that one in every three transfusions will be "empowered" dealing 100% extra dmg and increasing the heal. The problem with this is there is a big glowing bar over Vladimirs head telling people when they need to back off for 2s, and when they can abuse you however they want. For champions like Renekton, this isn't much of an issue since you have skills like slice and dice to close the distance. But Vlad already had issues with being kited, and if you use this intelligently, it's nearly impossible to take full advantage of Crimson Rush. I understand the desire for Counterplay, but a meter telling your opponent every time your Q ability is up really is just not fair. A visual indicator shortly before Vlad gets his rush would seem more appropriate.
His W, "Sanguine Pool" hasn't changed much, and I do like the fact they added additional damage to it. Though the purpose of pool was never really for damage, as much as it was for an escape/engage mechanism. It seems like removing damage from this and slightly buffing something else would be a good go for the future.
His E, "I hate this god damn ability", is the biggest problem I see with Vlad so far. And ironically, is the ability EVERYONE is complaining about. The current version of "Tide of Blood" is so inferior to previous version I don't even know where to start...The health cost alone, makes it impossible for Vlad to spam his e as he did previously without completely destroying his health. You start off now with a 9s cooldown ability down from the previous 4.5s, meaning between the health cost/cooldown, it's completely unlikely that you'll be able to use it in lane effectively unless you are going all-in or the person is an idiot.
Beyond the health-cost and cooldown, IT DOES LESS DAMAGE. Yes, the overall base damage of the current version is higher than your full stacked E previously. However, the previous e could be cast instantly without any charge time and it had an overall lower cooldown. If you are fighting someone now, you will be lucky to get off 1 fully charged e, where as before, you would easily be getting off 3 fully charged e's, doing significantly more damage and taking the same amount of health damage in return.
But the BIGGEST issue with the ability, is the fact that minions now block it. Before you could walk up, q/e, walk away for harass. Now you can't do that, your E won't hit them. Trying to push a wave? Have fun walking around to the weirdest angles of the creeps trying to find a sweet spot to use it. Trying to team fight? Have fun when your fully charged e gets block by a tank, forcing you to lose hp for nothing, when before it would just hit everyone within the radius. And god forbid you were to miss this ability in lane or the person were to step behind a minion, cause now you just did 10% of your health with no immediate way to sustain it.
Did I also mention the charge is can be interrupted? You take any hard cc in that charge, say goodbye to all of your dmg for a few seconds. Seriously, assassinating people is nearly impossible anymore..Truthfully, I'm kind of saddened by the change to this ability the most. It just makes the style of playing feel very.......Unvladimir.
Then there is the Ult, "Hemoplague", which had it's %dmg increase reduced but a heal added to it . Honestly, I feel like have a heal on his ult is kind of pointless. Plus the heal is kind of weak unless you are hitting a ton of enemies at once. In the games I've played so far with the rework, I can only think of this heal being useful to me once or twice.
All in all, a LOT of his problems stem from the removal of spell vamp and his Tides of Blood ability being blockable/costing too much health/charge up time.
I've tried my hardest to enjoy the rework so far, but even when I'm doing well, it just doesn't feel satisfying anymore. I know there is a hotfix underway, but given it's just some small number changes, I don't see it truly fixing any of the underlying problems. If you are a relatively intelligent person, there is no way you should be losing to Vladimirs current kit.
/Rant Over
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