Sorry, never had a problem with this. I can't relate. His wave clear seems fine.
A large benefit to Vlad was how quickly he could clear waves, then return to his team. That's gone now. If your inhibitor's down, Vlad is now a terrible option to have the one defending base, especially with more than one inhibitor down.
Instant healing wasn't very high until late game if you went AP, and low early game making much less of a difference. AP focused vlad builds relied on going in, REQ, hourglass, EQW, EQ. (Essential spamming your skills as fast as you could and praying you didn't get stunned before you could become untargetable) On top of that, WOTA was removed from the game and was, quite frankly, an antiquated item anyway. No other Legendary teir item gives JUST boring stats with nothing special about them. (For example: Abyssal, Ardent, Athene's, Banshee's, DMP, Death's Dance, Duskblade, etc all have unique things about them that seperate them from a pickaxe on steroids. The closest item to wota's stat-only status is ROA, which is a very viable option for any mage that's playing for the late game, whereas wota was built by pretty much just vlad to compensate for his bad sustain)
The instant-heal was extremely noticeable, as it was always higher than your Q's base heal. Also, the combo is R->E->Q->W->E->Q->Zhonya's->E->Q->W->E->Q. Nobody wastes Zhonya's that early unless they have to.
WotA wasn't just a boring stat-stick. It allowed you to heal based on your initial damage, rather than post-mitigation. That's a good trade-off if you compare it to something like bloodthirster. Its a parallel to Infinity Edge or Death Cap, though healing rather than damage, and comparable to many other AD items as well. To say its antiquated is entirely false. To say its better to remove it than keep it in the game, due to the limited members of the cast that can successfully utilize it, crutching, and abuse-cases, would be true.
"Sorry it took me so long to get to the teamfight, I had to go through the jungle so I wasn't missing a lot of hp when I got here.. Oh, and using my E breaks my walk cycle, which is only slightly more annoying that a .5 second, 20% slow."
Again, your health was never low enough for cases such as what you described to ever occur. Decent Vlad players were missing 70-90 HP at any given moment. No more.
Also, everything breaks Vlad's walk-cycle except his W. Even with the new rework. Q, E, and R.
If by animation delay you mean the spell breaking your walk cycle, new vlad has fewer than old vlad. Considering just his E alone, he self-slows for 20% for .5 seconds at all ranks, and the slow that it deals is 40/45/50/55/60% for .5 seconds (Not 1 second). In addition, swiftness boots work for both parties to reduce the slow, which is recommended since it is far easier to get 40% CDR after the mage rework. In addition to his E (which as you can see actually helps you stick to your enemy where as the old e relied on crystal scepter) you have your crimson rush. Crimson Rush obviously helps keep up with enemies and -greatly- increases his damage and healing.
New Vlad has just as many as old Vlad. Every ability except for W. Its called a cast animation.
Its not any easier to get 40% CDR after the mage rework. Anyone worth their salt was using CDR runes to hit 10, 20 or 30% depending on what they were planning on building towards. After the rework, you have to fill those runes with something else that gives much less effect than what that CDR did pre-rework.
The new .5 second slow doesn't really help you stick in realistic scenarios. It would be better if they removed it to put power somewhere else, since he near- universally buys Rylai's now.
Crimson Rush doesn't help keep up with enemies at all. 16 MS for its insanely short duration does nothing for you in cases where they aren't already in range anyway. It helps in very early laning, and that's it.
I'm not going to argue the point. Not because I don't respect your opinion, it's just that what gratification comes down to varies person to person and is hard to truly prove/disprove.
Fair.
As mentioned before, E is typically used in tandem with your crimson rush passive. Also, if the enemy is fighting you then gee, they're probably in range. No one said, "wow, I totally forgot vlad could use his e" and that hasn't changed between old vlad and new vlad. It could be argued that it's obvious when vlad will run up to EQ you based on his passive bar, however this creates well-defined moments of power and clarity that are key game-play philosophies that Riot Games hold. If you think it's better for a champion to have a mediocre level of power all the time than clear, easy-to-read high levels of power and low levels of power, than that's perfectly fine. But riot games doesn't hold that philosophy, and that is why it is how it is. Yes, you can argue that 4 stacks on tides is a clear indication of power, but as long as vlad remained in lane, that power was constant (It also ment sacrificing his sustain to keep that power) It proposed a strange ultimadum. "I should fight vlad when he's strong so he sacrifices his damage so that he can start healing back up. . . or. . . should I not fight vlad when he's strong because he'll out damage me? What if I keep forcing trades with him over and over. . . but he's supposed to be a sustain mage... isn't that what he wants??" After vlad got his wota, that ultimatum became "Vlad no longer sacrifices sustain to keep his strength.. which means he's always strong"
In realistic scenarios, you can't rely on crimson rush to be casting E. You're dead weight if you do that. The 'key game-play philosophies that Riot Games hold' is bull and you know it. The degree to which they went with Vlad is above and beyond the 'well-defined moments of power and clarity' displayed for any champion, and it absolutely gutted him. Not because they're displaying it. Because they made him less reliable, nerfed him, and telegraph every single way he can impact anything, not that he has any real impact now when he actually manages to do something.
Another thing is that Vlad was actually very weak prior to level 7. He couldn't manage all-ins until after level 12. Considering you have to wait half the game until you can reasonably function, it was fair. His laning was parallel to Nasus' laning, which many people don't complain about.
As I'm sure you are aware, vlad's play style isn't typically synonymous with full on commits until after he's poked down the enemy laner to a point where he's comfortable that he can kill them. If adding the 1.5 second delay on the full charged E can make or break a fight, you're were cutting it very close. Moreso when considering it has a much faster projectile speed and slightly higher range than the old tides of blood. Besides, he can instantly cast it, which means he will take less damage and deal less damage in exchange for making that damage immediate, much faster than the old e. This gives him options and versatility.
If I missed anything just let me know, preferably in a respectful, constructive tone.
No, he was never about full commits until he gets Rylai's. As far as that goes, both kits run the same pattern, due to the massive animation delays he has and lack of mobility. The problem is that team-fights cannot support this play pattern, making the new Vlad pretty useless.
The problem isn't that 1.5 second delay. Its that nothing you've said really applies post-laning.
Its that in teamfights, Vlad's impact within 5 seconds is extremely minimal considering all of the ways to 'out-play' him now, even during his best-case scenarios. And the amount of pay-out he gets for the next 5 seconds doesn't make that worth it. Nor do the next 5. Or the next 5. It takes over 5 rotations for Vlad to be able to kill anything that isn't glass cannon, and that's IF they choose to face-tank him. In such a scenario, he basically isn't casting E, or he's paying 50% of his health in true damage over that time. Delays stack up in situations like that.
The new E's snap cast does under 1/3 the damage of old E, and has a higher CD. It deals damage maybe .25 seconds quicker. If they're in melee range. It doesn't give him ANY options or versatility, in reality.
And finally, the range increase is pretty moot, considering most intelligent people will be moving away from you. Due to the missile speed of E, the effective range is about the same from Vlad's perspective.
is the perfect example of a champion who gets completely screwed by minions blocking her Q. You have to be in the perfect position on a particular side of the wave, and hit the Q on a particular part of a specific minion to get it to be AoE. It's much easier on the caster minions since they stay together, but melees are more difficult to deal with than the actual lane opponent. Even a SINGLE melee minion in front of the caster minions will completely block your Q (as in, if you have no minions to distract the melee minion) and it will walk straight towards you, completely blocking you off from being able to land a q on the casters. You literally have to walk completely around it, circle the minions around to get them to clump, then Q them. It's stupid.
, one being vlad and another being a different mage/ap using champ.
Vlad already will have higher ap and hp even without runes and masteries involved just because he gets more ap from the hp bonus and more hp from the ap from rylais AND has built-in sustain from Q, W, and ult and also his E has built-in slow. He's a tanky sustian mage, they have to cut his power somewhere or else he'll be doing the same thing other mages can do, except doing it tankier.
