Vlad needs change for him to be viable, particularly to his passive and lack of CC
I used to main Vlad top, and have recently started playing him again, and now that i actually have a moderate grasp of the game, there are some obvious problems, namely his passive and his lack of CC. I think that his passive's HP scaling should be change from bonus to total, but decrease the scaling so that his early game isn't too strong. This should open up more paths for Vlad, and make bruiser Vlad actually viable, in contrast to straight AP with a Spirit Visage. As for his lack of CC, one could argue that Rylai's is already often built on Vlad, and that this solves his lack of CC. I, however disagree because on almost every AP mage carry, Rab, Zhonya's and Void are all hyper-essential items, and on top of this, Vlad really neds the spell Vamp from WoA, which leaves him with 1 free item slot (assuming you buy boots, for obvious reasons). So with this last item slot,Vlad can either choose to get Rylai's, and have CC, or to get Liandry's which goes very well with his kit, and is needed to shred tanks. One solution i can think of, without going overboard, would be to increase the HP cost of Tides of Blood, but once you have 4 stacks, make it so your other abilities are buffed, as in your Q slows, or your W gives a speed boost, or that your ult has a wider AOE. Of course for this to not be absolutley broken, the hp cost would have to be maybe even 40% higher, but it would bring more complexity to his kit, and might make him more fun/healthier. Also, on a sidenote, a tiiiiny range increase on Q would be nice.
rather early. It gives him a good bit of CC to stay up with most champions that he would lane against.