Thematically, Vladimir should be a control mage of some sorts. Right now he's just... weird.
Vladimir was the very first 6300 champ I bought with IP when I started this game in season 2, so you can be sure that when it comes to our hemomancy master of blood related puns I know what I am talking about.
But his identity is kinda all over the place. He's a tank but lacks relevant cc. He's a mage but lacks both front-up burst or the cc of mages like Lissandra or Taliyah. And thematically he's not exactly there either - given how powerful hemomancy can be, it would make a lot more sense for him to be some sort of mage-duellist, who dominates in prolonged 1vs1 fights but is weak against multiple people ganging up on him -> as it is harder to control the blood of multiple people at once obviously.
At the same time his tankyness is just unfitting: Vladimir is SLIPPERY, hard to catch, impossible to truly corner, but not durable. He's not a Sion or a Galion who just soaks up tons of damage like it is nothing, but instead uses his skills to EVADE all damage that could come at him, or heals it up. Him being tanky is just plain weird and completly breaks with the intended "looks weak but is actually hard to kill"-aesthetic. Mostly because a 4k hp bar doesn't look exactly frail or weak.
And the most promising thematic of blood-magic, mostly body control, is completly ignored. If i see a mage controlling the blood of others, I would imagine him making an entire army kneel with the force of his magic, and not him running around and splahing weird red balloons into people's faces. You'd primarly imagine a CONTROL mage in the very sense of the word.
As of right now he's also in a weird spot in terms of balance, requiring to be a little undertuned or else he might make toplane hell for melee champions. The recent rework was supposed to fix this, but as they barely changed anything in the core principles the underlying problems remained.
But I'm not here to just complain, I made some thoughts about how to make him more in tune with his theme:
Passive: Infective Blood - Vladimir's basic attacks and Sanguine Pool infect enemies with stacks of infected blood that grow over time. These stacks have influence over the effect of his abilities. Also units with higher blood stacks suffer increased damage from Vladimir's attacks or abilities.
Q: Transfusion: Still single target, removes Blood Stacks from a target, target gets damaged and Vlad gets healed, depending on the amount of remoaved stacks. If this skill kills a target, cooldown is reset and Vlad gains a speed-boost. Leveling this abilitiy also increases the damage of basic attacks.
W: Sanguine Pool: Mostly unchanged. Applies passive in an AoE.
E: New Skill: KNEEL BEFORE VLAD - Small AoE, targeted: forces the blood in the area to the ground, damaging and slowing all units inside. Effect is stronger depending on the number of Blood Stacks. When X Blood Stacks have been reached, the unit is stunned instead, duration depending on the number of stacks.
R: Ultimate: Blood Puppet: Can only be cast on an enemy with maximal blood stacks. Vlad channels to take control over the target, gaining access to its movement and basic attacks, although both are slowed. Vladimir however cannot move, and the control range is limited. Also there is a time limit. Recasting ends the ability and automatically uses Transfusion to remove all blood stacks.
THIS is how a blood mage could function, not this weird AoE sustained damage dealer we have now. CC and powerful utility, on cost of AoE damage and tankyness as well as the hidden power element of his current ultimate. The intended weakness here is burst damage and constant aggression: if the Vlad constantly has to take back his stacks with Q, he cannot do much. Once he can build it up however, he has access to truly powerful cc.
But that's just my view on this, so... well, at least its an idea no? ^^
It is obvious that there needs to be something done with Vladimir, as his current iteration in the game is a miss from a thematic perspective, as well as a potential problem for balancing issues. Tbh I hate it when a champion is constantly undertuned just because the "best result" and the "worst result" are so much apart due to the AoE potential, but the "best result" must not be game breaking. Removing the AoE aspects and focussing him more on single-target or small areas might be the best way to go here.
Vlad, pool out, and then drain tank whoever's left, why build 
Vlad? You would do a fraction of the damage, need multiple ability rotations to kill anything, and rely on being tanky/healing enough (hello 
) to survive long enough to do more than one ability rotation. Oh, and you don't even heal as much, since you have less AP to fuel your heals.
19 bans, 16 picks
183 bans, 26 picks
160 bans, 13 picks,
138 bans, 78 picks,
and 
just so I could apply stacks of that passive. I am a Vladimir main so I am very biased, however the idea you have in your rework idea would be much more fitting of a new champion that focuses around puppets, kind of like the puppet ninjas from the Naruto anime.
