Help me with S6 Vladimir build?

ShadowBash·Nov 18, 2015·3 votes·7,870 views

Vladimir is my main. In season 5 I felt really good on him and I liked my build. With CDR Boots, WOTA, and my runes and masteries, I'd hit almost 40% CDR in just 2 items. I feel CDR is extremely important on Vladimir. However, with the nerf to CDR boots, the mastery changes, and the item changes in general, I'm finding that the same build path I used to use in S5 is barely even getting to 28% CDR let alone 40. In my recent games I've felt underwhelming and much weaker than in my S5 games. Can anyone else relate to this and help me out? I just feel that since S6 Vladimir (or maybe it's me) just does much less damage than he used to, and it's upsetting to see a champ you used to crush with suddenly feel left behind. I've tried 18/12 and 18/0/12 and have not liked the results. Deathfire Touch doesn't even feel good on him. I'm going to attempt to try 12/18 for the CDR mastery and the Thunder Keystone (yes I know it's currently bugged) to see if that helps. But do any Vladimir mains have any advice on runes, masteries, or new builds?

10 Comments

EndlessSorcererNov 18, 20154 votes

I think the biggest issue Vladimir is facing right now is how quickly games can snowball out-of-control. He's a champion who requires a significant amount of farm and items to perform efficiently and many games just aren't lasting long enough for him to reach that point.

Though, I think 18/0/12 will probably work the best on him. Though 18/12/0 is a good choice too.

If you need CDR, you can get near the cap with Will of the Ancients, Spirit Visage, and Scaling CDR Glyphs. It doesn't spike anywhere near as early as Ionian Boots and Will of the Ancients used to though.

ShadowBashNov 18, 20151 votes

I did think that perhaps it was because games are ending so soon. I also debated adding spirit visage but honestly that with cdr boots and wota just isn't enough damage to compete with these other champs. Hell, I even considered getting like morello second item, just for CDR. It's bothering me that one of the big CDR items for Vladimir got nerfed and the other CDR items aren't optimal for him. It's been a struggle, and I'm at a loss.

EndlessSorcererNov 18, 20151 votes

Sorry, I meant to say that you could take Spirit Visage instead of Ionian Boots for CDR. I didn't mean that you should purchase both (since, like you said, you lose a lot of damage).

Honestly, it shouldn't be that hard to get CDR if you take Scaling CDR Glyphs. Scaling CDR Glyphs, Will of the Ancients, and either Ionian Boots or Spirit Visage should bring you to an eventual 35% CDR.

KorilloNov 18, 20153 votes

Build doesn't really change. I had to add a 5% scaling CDR quint to my runes though along with my 10% scaling CDR blues.

Runes Quints - 2 Runespeed, 1 scaling CDR Blues - Scaling CDR Yellow - Scaling HP Red - Magic Pen

Masteries - 12/18/0 (Thunderlord keystone or w/e its called), although 0/18/12 is doable as well depends who your opponent is and whether or not you are going to build Spirit Visage (make sure you get the 5% increase to CDR)

item 3152 item 3158 item 3089 item 3116 item 3157 item 3135

You can get the Spirit Visage if you are against 2+ AP champions, or want to build a little tankier.

With the scaling CDR runes, 5% CDR Mastery, book & cdr boots you have 45% CDR. The book and boots are cheap. With those 2 items + your runes you should already be sitting at about 32% CDR (depends what level you are when you finish the items).

ShadowBashNov 18, 20151 votes

I like your CDR quint suggestion. I definitely would like to try that out. I haven't even thought of that.

KorilloNov 18, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I like your CDR quint suggestion. I definitely would like to try that out. I haven't even thought of that.

Ya 45% CDR at level 18 is really nice, and I'm pretty sure Riot will get things back into balance to the point where you're actually getting to level 18 most games.

When testing out Vlad early on after the 5.22 patch I was super disappointed because I also tried deathfire touch first. Less CDR and the keystone damage felt really weak.

But once I went into the cunning mastery and found that you could get him up to 45% CDR it felt much better playing him again. I think Vlad is more or less in the same spot he was last season, and if you enjoyed playing him previously you should still enjoy it.

Also, in yesterdays Q&A they said they will likely come out with more keystones options. Right now I'm still pretty disappointed in the keystone options for Vlad, so I'm hoping we get better options in the cunning tree for him.

ShadowBashNov 18, 20151 votes

Thank you. The cunning tree was what I was going to test in my next game and I'm glad that you also feel the ferocity tree has made him feel weak. I'm excited to get home and try this out!

BroddiccusNov 18, 20152 votes

i feel the issue with vlad is he doesn't add anything to the team, he has no CC as a tank which is a pretty big deficit, dooming him to have to be a dive tank and offering no peel, plus ap top laners often times throw off your team composition, i'd consider him a fringe pick at best.

The LovelessNov 18, 20151 votes

Yep. He's an old champ who hasn't been updated, but people still expect these old champs to keep up. They need tweaks or reworks if they're going to keep up.

Some can still be hyper viable (Morg) but not a lot, especially when some still have ridiculous mana cost.

More OT: I haven't played Vlad in preseason but I imagine he's good with some of the health and healing masteries. I would only pick him if your team will also have two threatening tanks. Why? To force the enemy adc into buying LDRegard instead of MReminder.

BroddiccusNov 18, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Loveless,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=N3XsZVxc,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2015-11-18T15:56:08.454+0000)

Yep. He's an old champ who hasn't been updated, but people still expect these old champs to keep up. They need tweaks or reworks if they're going to keep up.

Some can still be hyper viable (Morg) but not a lot, especially when some still have ridiculous mana cost.

More OT: I haven't played Vlad in preseason but I imagine he's good with some of the health and healing masteries. I would only pick him if your team will also have two threatening tanks. Why? To force the enemy adc into buying LDRegard instead of MReminder.

their viability relys almost entirely on their mobility and crowd control, morg is still viable cause she has enough crowd control to make up for her complete lack of movement abilities, but most old champs like Nunu , Fiddlesticks or in this case Vladimir their lack of mobility means they LITERALLY can't keep up with newer champs who've got dashes and cc built in that's easier to access.

on the other end of things you have old champs that are TOO easy, like Annie and Sona , because they're from a time when skillshots weren't a thing, so their kits rely on direct, instant, and easy to land damage, which is why sona mid can be so volitile and annie is a good ban pretty much no matter what, the issue is natural power creep in the game, newer champions are just better designed and always will be, they've got more history under their belt, we just have to wait patiently for the old champions to get reworked and catch up.