For those of you that play Vlad, stop focusing on health items.

WoonStruck··3 votes·419 views

AP helps you sustain better, have more presense, and gives you some HP.

You can survive much better off of item 3158 + item 3108 + item 1057 or item 3191 than you can off of item 3158 + item 3067 + item 3145.

Not only that, but SotA is being removed, and item 3152 is most likely getting gutted. That, and his E HP ratio was cut by 40% compared to before, while AP ratios on Q and E were buffed.

Stop running item 3158 item 3152 item 3065 item 3157 when running item 3158 item 3001 item 3157 item 3116 does so much more for you. You heal more, you're just about as tanky (you have more MR from abyssal and similar HP due to AP scaling), and you hurt way, way more. Not to mention having access to Rylai's earlier.

If you don't see that full AP is the optimal way to play Vlad now, you're going to have a really bad time with the removal of SotA and incoming heavy nerfs to Protobelt.

And seriously, stop running DFT and TLD too...Stormraider's Surge actually lets you teamfight/skirmish successfully much earlier, which is infinitely more valuable. TLD and DFT barely add to your overall damage.

summoner 4 summoner 6 every time.

HIS E HAS A 1.0 AP RATIO ON A 3 SECOND CD NOW, FFS. WHY WOULD YOU BUILD HIM TANKY WHEN IT BARELY AFFECTS HIS TANKINESS?

10 Comments

Doctor Jarvis1 votes

For the record though, against an AP opponent, Spirit Visage rush is still better. The enhanced healing combined with the health and resistances are better than the MR and AP from Abyssal. Everything else, sure, I'll buy it, but Spirit Visage is core for a reason.

WoonStruck1 votes

Spirit Visage is only a decent rush if you're against a hard lane bully.

Its bad now for the same reasons as before his rework. Delays damage too much, and that's a big no-no on someone who only offers damage.

If you aren't having trouble after you buy a null+CDR items, don't get spirit visage. The healing it provides is mathematically shown to be less than full AP at any point in the game. You're essentially just delaying your powerspikes with it.

Don't believe me? Do the math yourself. The healing it offers isn't significantly different from full AP, you barely have any more HP than full AP, your resistance is lower, and your damage is significantly less.

It. Is. An. Inferior. Build. Now.


It makes him easier to play, yes. Building tankier on anyone makes them easier to play. However, it also makes them far less effective, especially if all they offer is damage. Its not like he lives longer under focus when he has Spirit Visage. Nor does he heal more.

Jorencice1 votes

Awww they nerfed vlads health ratios?

I was enjoying building 6k life full tank and still 1 shotting people :(

9kPluzZ1 votes

Boi, why you lying

Jorencice1 votes

^-^

Weathered1 votes

Well, looking at the most used build (visage rush), the build used in pro play (visage rush), and the fact that I got an S on the day I bought Vlad (with visage rush) I think I'll go with my gut.

WoonStruck1 votes

Pros used SV for the early safety mid. They wanted to AFK farm because things work differently in professional play.

Pros basically don't run him top lane. Vlad's optimal lane in solo queue is once again top lane.

People are sheep when it comes to pros. Pros aren't using him now because he's not as safe while also being as effective as he was. Yet people are still doing the HP build that was essentially gutted on Vlad. His E does more than 33% less damage than it used to with that build, and his Q is practically useless outside of CR procs.

You're looking at most-used when the people that Champion.GG tracks playing him average ~45% win rate. Great logic there. "Let's go with the majority that obviously don't know how to win with him!"

Look at the people that play Vlad at a Diamond 1 or higher level and have a 60%+ win rate. The large majority are not doing Spirit Visage+Protobelt anymore. They've come to the same realizations.


Not only that, I get an S or S+ the large majority of the time that I play Vlad.

9kPluzZ1 votes

Runes?

WoonStruck1 votes

2 CDR/lvl quints, HP/lvl yellows, AP/level filling everything else. There's no fixing Vlad's early game with runes, so might as well push mid-late game further. That, and it allows you to have a decent amount of HP+AP when building mostly CDR+resist components, if required.

Saw one of the one-trick challenger players doing it, and I've been running it every time since I've tried it. Seems like his power curve is so much smoother and ramps up better with it.


You can run a standard mage page with 10% CDR in it if it suits you more, however.

9kPluzZ1 votes

Interesting, I'll try it

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